{"id":634657,"date":"2024-01-26T07:30:55","date_gmt":"2024-01-26T12:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=634657"},"modified":"2024-01-25T13:04:34","modified_gmt":"2024-01-25T18:04:34","slug":"wolves-predicted-lineup-west-brom-fa-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2024\/01\/26\/wolves-predicted-lineup-west-brom-fa-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"Defender &#8216;Itching to Get Back&#8217; for Derby: Wolves Predicted Lineup vs West Brom FA Cup 4th Round"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This is the Wolves predicted lineup for the Black County Derby against West Bromwich Albion on January 28 in the Fourth Round of the FA Cup at The Hawthorns. Wolves&#8217; General Manager for Football Operations, Matt Wild, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wolves.co.uk\/news\/club\/20240124-wolves-express-ait-nouris-potential-derby-return\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">confirmed the availability<\/a> of sensational left-back, Rayan Ait-Nouri, who returns from the African Cup of Nations after his Algerian team were knocked out in the group stage.<\/p>\n<h2>Wolves Predicted Lineup vs West Bromwich Albion<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Watch:\u00a0<\/strong>Football fans are being lied to<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Football Fans Are Being Lied To\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hEQkQsNQGzo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>How Wolves Have Lined-up Recently<\/h3>\n<p>Rotation is uncommon in Gary O&#8217;Neil&#8217;s team and tends to be forced rather than tactical.<\/p>\n<p>Absentees Mario Lemina and Pedro Neto have returned to the starting eleven and both started in the team&#8217;s last outing, a disciplined and professional 0-0 draw at the Amex against an in-form Brighton side.<\/p>\n<p>Craig Dawson has also returned from a knee injury and started at the Amex, so despite Santiago Bueno&#8217;s assured performances, the veteran English centre-back is likely to resume his duties at the heart of the defence.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2024\/01\/17\/wolves-target-armando-broja\/\" target=\"_self\">Wolves Striker Search Leads Them to Young Chelsea Attacker\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Tommy Doyle has cemented a starting spot for the club in the centre of the park, impressing Molineux crowds with his smart, progressive passing and mobility in transitions.<\/p>\n<p>Matt Doherty has kept Ait-Nouri&#8217;s place at left back for a number of matches, with the experienced Irishman making a laudable habit of cutting inside on transitions and popping up in unlikely spots to contribute to attacking movements.<\/p>\n<p>Wild confirmed: &#8220;Rayan will be back with us the latter part of this week to be involved on Sunday &#8230; I think he&#8217;ll be itching to get back.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>Wolves Recent Form and Tactics<\/h3>\n<p>The West Midlands club have had patchy away form with three losses in their last five trips. However, their last away loss (3-0 against West Ham) came on December 17, and a steely draw at the Amex last week suggests that The Wanderers might have turned a corner. Home form has been far more impressive, so the club are clearly not in a rut. Big wins against Brentford in the league and the cup, and a 3-0 drubbing of Everton show that this side has goals in them.<\/p>\n<p>The manager gave a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skysports.com\/football\/news\/11661\/12991494\/wolves-manager-gary-oneil-explains-how-his-tactics-helped-beat-man-city-and-bournemouth\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sky Sports News masterclass in October<\/a> saying: &#8220;Systems are not so relevant anymore,&#8221; and that &#8220;formations are just a starting point.&#8221; Although <a href=\"https:\/\/theathletic.com\/5150240\/2023\/12\/21\/gary-oneil-wolves-formationless\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Athletic ran an article calling the team &#8216;formationless&#8217;<\/a> that might be an oversimplification of how the South London born coach sets up his side.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2024\/01\/19\/goncalo-guedes-loan-cancelled\/\" target=\"_self\">Wolves Flop Has Loan Cancelled Amidst Uncertainty Over Future <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Wolves normally play with five defenders without the ball, pushing the full-backs up and inside as supporting central midfielders when they do have the ball, and stretching the three centre-backs across the width of the pitch. On the break, full-backs stay wide and operate like wingers, as the wide forwards cut inside and attack centrally.<\/p>\n<p>It is not a team with much natural width, with Neto as the only real wide player, so attempts to stretch have to be cobbled together with in a fairly &#8216;square pegs in round holes&#8217; fashion, but it often pays dividends.<\/p>\n<p>Given the enormity of this fixture to locals, expect the side to field a strong starting eleven and adopt similar tactics to the Premier League.<\/p>\n<h3>Notable Absences<\/h3>\n<p>Hee-Chan Hwang remains at the Asian Cup, although he is yet to play for his national side of South Korea due to an injury. Boubacar Traore&#8217;s Mali have topped their African Cup of Nations (AFCON) Group, so the young midfielder will remain in Cote d&#8217;Ivoire for the time being. Brazilian midfielder, Joao Gomes remains suspended due to a straight red picked up in the first leg of an FA Cup Third Round tie against Brentford, but will be available for the next league game.<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately for the Black Country club, there are no outstanding injuries, and Ait-Nouri&#8217;s return from the AFCON will add to O&#8217;Neil&#8217;s options.<\/p>\n<h3>Predicted Lineup<\/h3>\n<p>Jose Sa &#8211; GK<\/p>\n<p>Rayan Ait-Nouri &#8211; LB<\/p>\n<p>Toti Gomes &#8211; CB<\/p>\n<p>Max Kilman &#8211; CB<\/p>\n<p>Craig Dawson &#8211; CB<\/p>\n<p>Nelson Semedo &#8211; RB<\/p>\n<p>Tommy Doyle &#8211; CM<\/p>\n<p>Mario Lemina &#8211; CM<\/p>\n<p>Pablo Sarabia &#8211; CAM<\/p>\n<p>Pedro Neto &#8211; FW<\/p>\n<p>Matheus Cunha &#8211; FW<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is the Wolves predicted lineup for the Black County Derby against West Bromwich Albion on January 28 in the Fourth Round of the FA Cup at The Hawthorns. Wolves&#8217; General Manager for Football Operations, Matt Wild, confirmed the availability of sensational left-back, Rayan Ait-Nouri, who returns from the African Cup of Nations after his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5022,"featured_media":634718,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2510,8432,26],"tags":[31721],"class_list":["post-634657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wolves","category-fa-cup","category-west-brom","tag-wolves-predicted-lineup"],"modified_by":"Alex Richards, LWOF Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5022"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}