#1 The squad is set
At 11pm on Thursday evening the transfer window slammed shut and brought an end to a record spell of spending from Premier League clubs. During the summer, an incredible £1.9bn was paid by top-flight teams – more than La Liga, Serie A and the Bundesliga combined – while nine of the 20 teams in the Premier League spent in excess of £100m. For Wolves, their summer expenditure included six incomings. Hee Chan Hwang’s loan from RB Salzburg was turned permanent on 1st July, followed by Nathan Collins’ arrival from Burnley, Goncalo Guedes swapped Valencia for Wolverhampton and Matheus Nunes added another Portuguese member to the squad for Sporting.
In the last few days, two further new faces have arrived at Compton Park; 6ft 7in striker Sasa Kalajdzic will bring a new dimension to the Wolves attack, and in the final hours of deadline day, midfielder Boubacar Traore signed on the dotted line as the final piece to Bruno Lage’s jigsaw. Together with a number of players who have also left the club this summer, Lage has been left with a 22-man first-team squad which he must now utilise for the coming months before any new players can be added when the January window opens on New Year’s Day.
Our new man from Mali 🇲🇱 pic.twitter.com/WhaZmyqRP4
— Wolves (@Wolves) September 1, 2022
#2 A new era dawns
Saturday is the start of a new era for Wolves. With Willy Boly heading out to Nottingham Forest on deadline day, it left Ruben Neves as the last man standing from the Championship winning team of 2018. The group has been completely revitalised over the last four years, but especially this transfer window, offering Lage a first opportunity to have the players he needs to imprint his own style of football on Molineux.
We’ve already seen shoots of what can be achieved with this group, but with new faces such as Kalajdzic – it offers something different to what they’ve had before. When Southampton arrive at Molineux on Saturday afternoon, it could be the first time supporters get the chance to see the Austrian striker in the flesh. With 15 caps for his country and 23 goals from 51 Bundesliga outings, many of those with his head, it will be interesting to see if he can transfer his form from Germany into the Premier League.
#3 Turning chances into goals
With his squad now locked in for the next four months, Lage can get to work on turning the positive performances on the pitch into positive results. Against Newcastle and Bournemouth, Wolves were more than a match for their opponents as they dominated for large spells of the games. But as has so often been the case this season, it’s the killer touch in front of goal which has been missing from their game. Lage’s men had 10 shots against the Magpies, but only one found its way into the back of the net, while on Wednesday night on the south coast, not one of the 17 shots Wolves were turned to goals.
The arrival of Kalajdzic could go a way to solving the goalscoring woes, but goalscoring is not just down to strikers, it’s a responsibility of the whole team, and Lage is confident in the way the team is playing, but is calling for patience and time. Following full-time on Wednesday, the head coach said: “How many chances did we create? It's a question of patience and time. I believe a lot in our work. Now we have another striker and maybe we'll have him for the next game. Matheus [Nunes] and Guedes are here, Pedro [Neto] also. We are playing in a different system and players are coming at the last minute. Now it's a question of time for the players and also for me to work with them. Now we don't have that time as we are playing and still playing, so the fans should be confident.”
#4 Stopping the Saints’ march
If Wolves are searching for a side who they have matched up well against since their return to the Premier League in 2018 as they look for a confidence building victory, then Southampton would be high on their list. The old gold are currently on a run of six top-flight games unbeaten against the side from the south coast, including a three-match winning streak. In fact, Wolves have only lost twice to Southampton since Fosun took charge of the club, with the last of those coming in the FA Cup two seasons ago.
However, the Saints are no pushovers. They have made a positive start to the new season, with seven points from their opening fixtures. They have showed character and resilience to fight from behind to pick up all seven of those points, including an impressive showing against Chelsea in midweek. Despite the Blues taking the lead through Raheem Sterling, Saints struck back to secure all three points.
