Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-0 Leicester City
- Goals: None
- Assists: None
- Bonus: Rui Patricio (£5.1m), Jonny Evans (£5.2m) x3, Caglar Soyuncu (£5.1m) x1
Premier League football resumed at Molineux on Friday evening, with Wolverhampton Wanderers and Leicester City serving up a match that was as fragmented as Gameweek 26 itself.
This was no bore-draw by any means, with passages of end-to-end play, a red card for Hamza Choudhury (£4.3m) and a disallowed goal keeping us engrossed in patches.
Defences were on top for large chunks of the match, however, and those of us who owned the likes of Jamie Vardy (£9.8m) and Raul Jimenez (£7.7m) endured a frustrating evening.
These sides had drawn 0-0 on the opening weekend of the season but the form book had perhaps pointed to a more goal-filled evening, with the two clubs having recorded only one clean sheet apiece in the preceding ten Gameweeks – although Wolves had prevented Manchester United from scoring as recently as a fortnight ago.
As towering as Caglar Soyuncu (£5.1m) and Jonny Evans (£5.2m) were at the back, Leicester’s clean sheet owed a significant debt to good fortune, with Jimenez wasting three excellent headed chances and Willy Boly (£4.7m) only denied a goal thanks to a marginal (but correct) offside call in the build-up to his disallowed header.
Wolves, on the other hand, were altogether more resolute, barely allowing Vardy a sniff and restricting the Foxes to half-chances at best.
It’s not unusual for the out-of-form premium striker (who hasn’t scored since before Christmas) to be anonymous in a match, as he has made a habit of being peripheral before popping up with a goal.
Vardy never looked likely to penetrate the Wolves backline, however, with the hosts doing an excellent job of depriving him of service in the first place and negating the influence of James Maddison (£7.5m) and Youri Tielemans (£6.2m).
Boly’s return from injury is perhaps a significant one regarding Wolves’ clean sheet prospects.
The French defender has played only ten Premier League matches this season but Wolves have kept clean sheets in half of them. Without their colossus of a centre-back, Nuno Espirito Santo’s troops have registered one solitary shut-out in 16 games.
Contrarians will point to his regular involvement in 2018/19 when Wolves recorded only nine clean sheets all season but there was a sense that the West Midlands side grossly underachieved on that front, given how otherwise impressive their underlying defensive stats were and how often they conceded exactly one goal in a game (16 occasions).
Wolves certainly have the fixtures to attract investment in the coming months, although the recommencement of the UEFA Europa League has to be acknowledged, with Santo’s troops set to be in European action on most Thursday nights to come (so long as they stay in the competition, of course).
The league games ahead (Norwich, Brighton, West Ham, Bournemouth and Aston Villa to come between now and Gameweek 32) should safeguard Jimenez as a popular FPL pick.
This match was another reminder that the Mexican simply isn’t a clinical striker (his goal conversion rate since the start of 2018/19 is a poor 12.2%) but the sheer volume of chances he gets ought to ensure attacking returns over that upcoming run, even if minute management might be an issue thanks to Wolves’ European exploits.
Santo said of his star striker after full-time:
He was there. The next game. Raul is amazing, it’s amazing the work that he’s done, the work that he does, and today he played well. He didn’t put it inside of the net but it’s amazing how he works, how he creates for the team, how he helps the team and the talent that he has. For sure, he will go again Thursday.
Involvement on the continent led to some uncharacteristic mass-rotation from Santo in the early weeks of the season but Wolves had settled into a stable starting XI between Gameweeks 10-19, with only one single change to the line-up being made in that time.
The hope for owners is that the Wolves boss will again favour consistency when the Europa League gets back underway, although the sight of Adama Traore (£5.8m) and Joao Moutinho (£5.4m) on the substitute’s bench on Friday will have unnerved a few Fantasy bosses.
The two midfielders were thrown on in the second half for “one-pointers”, with both substitutes setting up Jimenez for two of his more presentable, off-target headers.
Asked why Traore and Moutinho – who reportedly hadn’t trained as much in the lead-up to this match – were named on the bench, Santo said:
Very close [to starting]. They had [injuries] in the previous game against Manchester United but they recover. Listen, when a player is on the bench he is in the game, he’s playing. It’s not so important who starts, it’s what we want to do in the game. Adama came in, helped the team, Joao came in, helped the team. Small squad, everybody involved.
There were no such surprises in the Leicester starting XI, with Wilfred Ndidi‘s (£5.0m) ongoing absence meaning that the Foxes were unchanged.
Ben Chilwell (£5.6m) again started at left-back but served up yet another hit-and-miss display, with his patchy form in contrast to the full-back on the opposite side of the pitch.
Ricardo Pereira (£6.3m) was again impressive on the ball, with one slaloming run through the Wolves defence resulting in an off-target shot from the Portuguese defender.
The Foxes flattered to deceive offensively, with only a Soyuncu header and two long-range efforts from Tielemans troubling Rui Patricio (£5.1m) in the home goal.
Vardy and Maddison’s shortage of attacking returns of late are obviously a concern but the positive news for Rodgers’ side is that, after the Gameweek 27 visit of Manchester City, their own fixtures improve significantly.
Aside from the clash with Pep Guardiola’s reigning champions, the trip to Molineux may, indeed, have been their toughest test at both ends of the pitch until April.
Reflecting on the game in his post-match presser, Rodgers highlighted the display of his back four in particular:
I thought over the course of the first half we were the better side and looked a greater threat. In the second half, as you’d expect, they came out and looked to impose their way a little bit more. Then, obviously, we went down to ten men with 20 minutes to go.
I thought we showed a great courage tonight and that was the determination that I think hasn’t quite been there in the team over these last number of weeks. It’s a different courage.
I thought all across, the two centre-halves were incredible this evening, with and without the ball – calmness, the reading of the game and heading it.
Across the back four, and Kasper [Schmeichel], he made a couple of saves, important saves, one in particular in the first half.
On Vardy’s form, Rodgers added:
It’s the responsibility of everyone to create and score, not just Jamie’s. He worked very hard in the game, his experience in particular when we went to ten men was very important for us. So long as he’s working and grafting for the team, showing that determination, it will come for him again. He’s a top-class striker, he didn’t have so many opportunities.
Rodgers also revealed that he was “hopeful” of having Ndidi ready for Gameweek 27, with Choudhury now set to miss that game through suspension.
Wolverhampton Wanderers XI (3-4-3): Rui Patricio; Boly, Coady, Saiss; Doherty, Dendoncker, Neves (Moutinho 82′), Jonny; Neto (Traore 64′), Jimenez, Jota (Podence 78′).
Leicester City XI (4-1-4-1): Schmeichel; Pereira, Evans, Soyuncu, Chilwell; Choudhury; Perez (Albrighton 68′), Tielemans (Praet 75′), Maddison, Barnes (Morgan 90′); Vardy.
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