Wolves v Nottingham Forest: Premier League – Live | Soccer

On January 7, 2025By Littum

Key events

13 min: Wolves react well and build up play nicely through midfield, but the move breaks down when Doyle decides not to shoot on the edge of the area, instead playing a heavy pass to Pedro Lima.

11 min: Some stats that don’t make for pretty reading for Wolves fans hoping to get back into this game. Forest have the joint-highest clean sheets in the Premier League, are second in goals conceded and have only lost one game this season when they have scored the first goal of the game.

Forest can now sit back, soak up the Wolves pressure that will inevitably come and try to repeat their first goal by scoring on the counter attack.

9 min: I should mention Gibbs-White’s celebration. He bowed his ear to the home fans who booed him just moments earlier.

GOAL! Wolves 0-1 Nottingham Forest (Gibbs-White 7)

It just had to be Gibbs-White! A classic 2024-24 Nottingham Forest goal as they hit Wolves on the counter attack. Wolves press high, but are undone with a pass into midfield. Gibbs-White finds a pocket of space behind Wolves’ midfield, runs at the defence, exchanges passes with Elanga on the edge of the hosts’ box and puts a neat one-touch finish inside José Sa’s near post!

Morgan Gibbs-White opens the scoring for Nottingham Forest. Photo: Andrew Boyers/Action Images/Reuters

4 min: Nuno may have received a decent reception on his return to Molineux, but Forest playmaker Gibbs-White, a Wolves academy graduate, is booed every time he touches the ball.

2 minutes: It looks like Wolves are lining up a back four. From left-right: Ait Nouri, Bueno, Doherty, Pedro Lima.

Peeeeeeeep! We are underway in the black country.

The teams are out! Nuno gets a warm welcome when he returns to Molineux. Wolves are in their old gold, Forest in a changed purple number. Oooooh.

If Forest keep this formit is not inconceivable that Hudson-Odoi could add to his three England caps. The left wing spot is definitely up for grabs. Anthony Gordon is probably the choice at the moment on form, with Phil Foden, Jadon Sancho, Jamie Gittens, Eberechi Eze, Jack Grealish also in the reckoning. Am I forgetting someone? I guess Bukayo Saka or Jarrod Bowen could play there, but not their natural position.

England manager Thomas Tuchel is also in the house. The only English footballers in both ranks are Tommy Doyle (Wolves), Elliot Anderson, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Morgan Gibbs-White (Forest).

Thomas Tuchel is here to take a look at a small selection of England players. Photo: Mike Egerton/PA

Will wind up

Will wind upour man at Molineux tonight, checking in:

Wolves have conceded 10 goals from corners this season, more than any other team, and that appears to be weighing on Vitor Pereira’s mind as he put his starting XI through extensive set-piece drills in the sweltering heat to ensure they are up to the bottom. Now we have to see if it works…

No Premier League team has had less possession this season than Forest, yet they can go on points with second-placed Arsenal tonight. Don’t expect Forest’s counter-attacking football to change tonight, especially with Hudson-Odoi’s pace back in the side.

The first email is from Peter Oh: “Happy 12th! Speaking of a partridge in a pear tree, did you know that the Portuguese word for pear tree is pereira? This bodes well for Wolves fans expecting a last Christmas present”.

Former Wolves manager Julen Lopetegui looks like he’s in trouble at west ham.

Wolves’ ‘defence’ tonight is certainly … different. There is only one natural centre-back: Santiago Bueno. Doherty, Ait Nouri and Pedro Lima are all backs or wing backs.

Wolves manager Vitor Pereira has spoken to the cameras about their form tonight:

Sometimes it is a hybrid system. Sometimes we play a back-four, and sometimes with three defenders. I don’t want to play with three centre-backs. I want to play with three defenders. It’s different. Sometimes we push higher with our wingers.

Let’s unpack those teams a bit.

Wolves have changed a lot! Pedro Lima makes his Premier League debut (he has played twice in the League Cup this season), while Rodrigo Gomes, Jorgen Strand Larsen, Goncalo Guedes and Tommy Doyle all return to the XI. Matheus Cunha is a big miss, he is suspended. It is not immediately clear who is the captain, nor have Wolves announced it on their social media channels.

Murillo and Callum Hudson-Odoi return for the visitors after missing the win at Everton through injury. A big plus for Nuno.

Keep news!

Wolves: José Sa, Doherty, Bueno, Ait Nouri, Pedro Lima, Doyle, Joao Gomes, Rodrigo Gomes, Goncalo Guedes, Hwang, Larsen.
Subs: Johnstone, Lemina, Sarabia, Forbs, Bellegarde, Meupiyou, Cundle, Pond, Okoduwa.

Nottingham Forest: Sels, Aina, Milenkovic, Murillo, Williams, Dominguez, Anderson, Elanga, Gibbs-White, Hudson-Odoi, Wood.
Subs: Carlos Miguel, Morato, Awoniyi, Ward-Prowse, Alex, Jota Silva, Yates, Sosa, Boly.

Judge: Peter Banks

Preamble

It is perhaps not a surprise to learn that there are more Portuguese managers (four) in the Premier League than English ones (three). Two of them – Vítor Pereira and Nuno Espírito Santo – meet today, with the latter returning to the club and the city he called home between 2017-2021.

Wolves under Nuno were brilliant: promoted from the Championship in his first season, he then secured back-to-back seventh-place finishes in his first two seasons in the top flight, before a mid-table campaign rounded off his time in the Midlands. Nuno bought well, mostly countrymen, including Diogo Jota, Rúben Neves, João Moutinho, Rui Patrício, as well as Raúl Jiménez (albeit from Portuguese giants Benfica), Adama Traoré (from Middlesbrough) and Max Kilman (from non-league Maidenhead United). . With that squad, plus academy graduate Morgan Gibbs-White, it’s easy to see why Wolves qualified for the Europa League.

Nuno and his Portuguese entourage created an identity and a legacy that survives today in the Wolves squad. The number of Portuguese speakers in the first-team squad is now in double figures (including four Brazilians), with new manager Pereira and six Portuguese staff adding to the tally. Wolverhampton has also changed, with Portuguese restaurants and cafes popping up all over the city (although I’m sad to report that the coffee shop, Aromas de Portugal, which featured heavily in our 2018 interview with Jota and Neves has now closed ).

Anyway, welcome home Nuno, sort of. It remains to be seen what kind of reception the top-four chasing manager will get at relegation-threatened Molineux, but this should be a lively and (very Portuguese) one.

Kick-off: 20:00 GMT.