WATCH OUR PREVIEW FOR WOLVES V BOURNEMOUTH
TEAM NEWS
Wolves are without suspended pair Mario Lemina and Nelson Semedo. Hugo Bueno is a doubt with a hamstring strain but Jean-Ricner Bellegarde is back after serving a three-match ban.
Bournemouth have been boosted by the return of Phillip Billing, Lloyd Kelly and Chris Mepham. Summer signing Alex Scott has also returned to training but is lacking match fitness, while Tyler Adams faces another lengthy spell on the sidelines after a second hamstring surgery.
GARY O'NEIL
Here are the key lines from his news conference:
O’Neil said this will be the “toughest weekend” he’s had in charge in terms of squad availability, but was reluctant to reveal who is missing.
He said the international break came at a bad time for his team: “I don’t like those breaks. We lose a lot of players for them. It’s difficult to do good work with the group. You can do bits with individuals and understanding their roles, but in terms of progressing our understanding, those breaks pause that for us.”
O’Neil insisted there is “lots of stuff” he has yet to implement at Wolves: “I still think we’re early, it takes a while. The lads need time to digest and understand it. We’re still at an early stage and we haven’t put too many layers in at the moment. It’s fairly straightforward at this moment to where it will hopefully be in a few weeks or months.”
Despite coming up against Bournemouth, the club that sacked him after he kept them in the top flight last season, O’Neil said there was “zero consideration” about it heading into the game: “It’s 0% about me and what it means to me. It’s a game we want to take three points from against a team we can compete against. Nothing extra for me. The players are ready for a tough Premier League game.”
O’Neil explained how he’s managed to drastically improve Wolves’ goal scoring record so far this season: “The attacking players have been very good. The quality of the players and trying to get them into areas – and explaining the importance of arriving in those areas – has probably played a apart in it. It’s a short window to look at whether it’s something that’s actually improved or something that’s just happened. The judgement will still be ongoing with that.”
On Hwang Hee-chan’s impressive goalscoring rate, O’Neil said: “It’s a really good return. It’s not like he’s scoring one in a million hits. He’s arriving in good areas and scoring goals. That you can see continuing. It’s not just [Hwang], it’s the work of the team. It would be an incredible rate to keep up, but let’s hope we can keep it as close to what it is.”
MATCH STATS & FACTS
Head-to-head
- Bournemouth’s only triumph in six Premier League meetings came under Gary O’Neil at Molineux in February last season.
- Wolves have registered just one away league victory against Bournemouth, drawing three and losing two of their previous six visits to the south coast.
Bournemouth
- The Cherries are one of just two Premier League sides without a win this season, along with Sheffield United.
- It’s Bournemouth’s joint-worst start a league campaign, emulating their eight-match winless run from the beginning of the 1994-95 season in the third tier.
- The south coast side are on a club record winless run of 12 Premier League games dating back to May.
- Bournemouth have scored five league goals this season, the fewest in the division, and unsurprisingly have the lowest shot conversion rate of 5.3%.
- Andoni Iraola’s team have conceded nine first-half goals in the top flight this season, the most in the division.
Wolverhampton Wanderers
- Wolves are unbeaten in three Premier League matches, winning one and drawing two.
- However, they’ve registered only four victories in their past 30 away league games, drawing seven and losing 19.
- Wolves have kept just one clean sheet in their previous 20 Premier League away fixtures.
- Head coach Gary O’Neil guided Bournemouth to a 15th-place finish last season despite them sitting bottom of the league in mid-March. His first game in charge of Bournemouth was a 0-0 home draw with Wolves in August 2022.
- Hwang Hee-chan has scored six goals in his past eight games in all competitions.
- The South Korean is attempting to score in three successive league appearances for the first time since August 2019, when he was playing for Red Bull Salzburg in Austria.
- Pedro Neto is set make his 100th Premier League appearance – he has been involved in six goals in his past six league games, with one goal and five assists.
MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: Paul Tierney. Assistants: Neil Davies, Scott Ledger. Fourth official: James Bell. VAR: Andy Madley. Assistant VAR: Constantine Hatzidakis.
MATCH INFO
The match kicks off at 3pm on Saturday 21st October at the Vitality Stadium, Bournemouth. The match is not shown live on UK television.