Having dislocated his shoulder early on in Wolves’ 1-0 defeat at Sheffield United in Gameweek 34, Adama Traoré (£5.6m) is only a substitute for today’s clash against Everton.
The rapid winger did manage 78 minutes at Bramall Lane but drops out in favour of the returning Pedro Neto (£5.0m).
On the other flank, Daniel Podence (£4.9m) replaces Diogo Jota (£6.0m) while Joao Moutinho (£5.4m) joins his countryman on the bench as Leander Dendoncker (£4.4m) starts the game.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s chosen widemen Podence and Neto play either side of Raul Jimenez (£8.1m), who is on a run of three consecutive blanks.
Mason Holgate (£4.4m) fails to make the Everton matchday squad due to injury, despite Carlo Ancelotti being hopeful that the defender could make a quick return to action after picking up a shin problem in GW33.
The Italian manager has also made three line-up changes, with Leighton Baines (£4.9m) earning a rare start in place of the benched Seamus Coleman (£5.3m).
Gylfi Sigurdsson (£7.3m) replaces Andre Gomes (£5.2m) – another player who is absent through injury – while Theo Walcott (£6.2m) earns his first post-restart minutes in place of fellow ex-Arsenal man Alex Iwobi (£5.6m).
Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£6.3m), who has yet to register an FPL return since the return of the Premier League, partners Richarlison (£8.2m) up top.
Ancelotti was not in the mood to give much away in his pre-match interview on Sky Sports but was pushed to reveal that Everton will use a wing-back system.
Eleven players that I would like to see defend well and attack well. It’s not a clear line-up for you.
For the players and for me, we didn’t have a lot of time to try but I hope it’s going to work.
Three at the back, I think so. Sometimes three, sometimes five, it depends. – Carlo Ancelotti
Nuno was slightly more insightful as to why he has changed around the Wolves line-up and on Traoré’s benching.
We created a lot of situations [v Sheffield United] that required finishing the action, shooting on goal. Bad positioning, bad passing, something that we have to improve.
[Traoré is] available. He’s been dealing with his shoulder problem. He’s been struggling with pain but he’s available. If we consider that we can use him, we will do so. – Nuno Espirito Santo
Wolves XI (3-4-3): Patricio; Saiss, Coady, Boly; Jonny, Neves, Dendoncker, Doherty; Podence, Jimenez, Neto.
Everton XI (3-5-2): Pickford; Baines, Keane, Mina; Digne, Gordon, Davies, Sigurdsson, Walcott; Calvert-Lewin, Richarlison.
3 years, 9 months agoPickford is very bad