Wolves’ predicted XI to face Chelsea in the Premier League

by Matt Dawson share

2 minute read 15/12/2020 | 12:15pm

Wolves’ season has turned into a peculiar state of affairs.

For the first time in Nuno Santo’s tenure at Molineux, he switched from a three-back to a four-man defence a few weeks ago.

It initially paid off with Wolves drawing with Southampton and then beating Arsenal.

However, combined with the injury to Raul Jimenez, Nuno’s defence is suddenly being breached on a regular basis. They have conceded five goals in their last two matches so clearly some degree of change is required.

In fact, we’re tipping Nuno to make as many as three alterations to his starting XI to face Chelsea on Tuesday evening.

We think that with Wolves on a poor run of form that the manager will shift back to his tried and tested three-man defence.

As a result, Wily Boly comes back into the side and we’re also tipping Nuno to remove Marcal from the squad and bring in summer signing Rayan Ait-Nouri.

Fabio Silva

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Daniel Podence

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A notable change comes in midfield where Joao Moutinho is suspended. Consequently, Ruben Neves is back in the side after a run of one start in the last three games.

The final alteration is in attack where Fabio Silva drops out of the side. Despite being the club-record signing, he’s not enjoyed the greatest of starts to his career at Molineux and thus, Daniel Podence leads the line again as he did against Liverpool a few weeks ago.

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3-0 2-1 1-0 2-0

The Portuguese didn’t score on that occasion but has been lively in 2020/21, providing two goals and registering two assists.

With Jimenez out with a fractured skull, Nuno desperately needs to find a solution to his woes.

In other news, Forget Silva: Wolves can strike gold with swoop for “swashbuckling” 9-goal bully…