Wolves proved once again that they thrive in matches against the top Premier League sides.
Those who showed faith in Nuno Espirito Santo’s side for Double Gameweek 32, despite a fixture with Manchester United that looked hard on paper, were rewarded on Tuesday night.
There were attacking returns for Wolves key attacking players, which served only to further boost their credentials for more Double Gameweek action on the horizon.
Wolves 2-1 Manchester United
Goals: Diogo Jota (£6.1m) | Scott McTominay (£4.2m)
Own goal: Chris Smalling (£5.6m)
Assists: Raúl Jiménez x2 (£6.8m) | Fred (£5.4m)
Raúl Jiménez (£6.8m) is well on his way to earning a place in the Fantasy Football Scout team of the year after yet another decent score against high-quality opponents. The Mexican had more shots in the box than any other player at Molineux on Tuesday night and created more chances than any of his colleagues too. From yet another match with impressive statistics, Jiménez claimed two assists, the first for setting up Diogo Jota (£6.1m), the second for having the last touch before Chris Smalling (£5.6m) put the ball into his own net.
It is against the big opponents that Jiménez has done well, which means that Fantasy managers must remember to flip the Fixture Difficulty Rankings when considering him. Arguably those that are harder on paper are the ones in which the Mexican is likely to deliver. Jiménez’s latest display means that he has now been involved in nine goals in 10 league appearances against the top six this season, scoring four of his own and assisting a further five.
The link-up of the two forward players Jiménez and Jota has also proved pivotal in recent times. The latter has now scored six goals in as many matches at Molineux in all competitions. The last two he has netted in the Premier League have both been assisted by Jiménez too. That does suggest viability to the idea of owning both of them for Double Gameweek 35 when Wolves host Brighton and Arsenal, as they have the potential to be the two players involved in their side’s goals. A good way of turning Jiménez from a shield into a “sword”: combine him with Jota.
“It’s very good (the relationship between Jiménez and Jota). It’s what I call society, the two players, the more time they spend together, every training session and in the competition, things come out. Mutual knowledge is important but knowing each other’s tasks and moments to go is important and I’m pleased for them.” – Nuno Espirito Santo
On Tuesday night, we also got some insight into how Nuno likes to enact his rotation policy ahead of big FA Cup matches, for future reference. With two games in Double Gameweek 32, one away at favourable opposition and the other a much sterner test at home, he opted to play the stronger line-up for the second one rather than concentrate on the theoretical “easier” fixture. It also seems likely that the former goalkeeper felt his first XI would be able to take more momentum into the FA Cup semi-final against Watford if they played the closest fixture to it, rather than were rested for it.
That’s probably why Jiménez started this game instead of the trip to Burnley, and the same for Matt Doherty (£5.4m) who came back into the side to face Manchester United in the place of Adama Traoré (£5.1m). The only other change saw Ruben Vinagre (£4.3m) come in for Jonny (£4.3m) at left-back.
It was a disappointing evening for owners of Manchester United attacking assets. Firstly, Marcus Rashford (£7.6m) missed the game with an ankle problem sustained in the win over Watford on Saturday. That meant he was another high-profile Fantasy asset condemned to just one fixture in the Double Gameweek, and a score of just seven for the round.
“Marcus (Rashford) got a knock again, it’s a different ankle, it’s not the same ankle luckily. He’ll be sorely missed today. Hopeful Rom(elu Lukaku) can do the job though.” – Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
That meant Romelu Lukaku (£10.8m) came back into the starting line-up after missing out against Watford and he led an experimental attack. The Belgian was deployed as the only member of the front line in a 3-5-1-1 formation with Jesse Lingard (£6.7m) behind him as a number 10. Unfortunately for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, four players registered more shots than Lukaku at Molineux, including one defender and a holding midfielder.
The width was provided by Luke Shaw (£5.1m) and Diogo Dalot (£5.3m) who sat either side of a five-man midfield, which featured Paul Pogba (£8.9m), Fred (£5.4m) and Scott McTominay (£4.2m) at its heart. Shaw, deployed on the left, picked up his 10th yellow card of the season and is now banned for the next two Premier League matches. The former Southampton man will return for the second match of Double Gameweek 35, which sees Manchester City come to Old Trafford.
It was another match in which Pogba felt too far away from the action to justify his inclusion in Fantasy squads. With Nemanja Matic (£5.0m) on the bench and Ander Herrera (£5.0m) out with an injury, the Frenchman had to drop into a deeper role alongside Fred and McTominay in midfield. As a result, eight players completed more successful passes in the opponents half than Pogba, who had just one shot and none in the box. Ironically, he actually had the joint-highest number of touches inside the box and created more chances for Manchester United than any other player but crucially had an expected goal involvement (xGI) score of just 0.18.
Manchester United’s biggest problems stemmed from playing Ashley Young (£5.7m) as the third centre-back in their back-three. He was deployed there alongside Smalling and the returning Victor Lindelöf (£5.1m).
It was a tactic that initially worked, as it seemed to negate Wolves’ formational advantage, by matching up to it. However, Young eventually exposed himself as the weak link in the chain and once the hosts realised they could exploit him the momentum of the match shifted.
Wolves were able to equalise in the 25th minute and looked the more likely to score after that. In the end, Young paid the ultimate price for his struggles with his position, collecting two yellow cards for cynical late tackles and was sent off. He now misses the Gameweek 34 match against West Ham and will return against Everton in Double Gameweek 35. In the end, it continued a worrying statistic about Manchester United’s ability to play with a back-three. In the 2018/19 season, they have used that set-up in defence on six occasions in the Premier League, according to the Manchester Evening News, and have no wins from those matches.
“Ashley’s (played in that position) before against PSG away. He did okay, I felt. I thought Ash gave us the outlet of when you have three centre-backs to go forward, created some moments down that side but… I thought he did what he was asked to do. When you’re on a yellow before you’re always in danger if you go down, hit the ball first and follow through, it’s a yellow card again. Probably a bad decision [by Young] but in the heat of the moment he reached the ball but it was just a little bit too high.” – Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
Wolverhampton Wanderers XI (3-5-2): Patrício; Boly, Coady, Bennett; Vinagre (Jonny 76′), Moutinho, Neves (Saïss 84′), Dendoncker, Doherty; Jota (Cavaleiro 73′), Jiménez.
Manchester United XI (3-5-1-1): De Gea; Lindelöf, Smalling, Young; Shaw, Pogba, Fred (Jones 65′), McTominay, Dalot (A Pereira 84′); Lingard, Lukaku (Martial 73′).
