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England manager Thomas Tuchel is also in the house. The only English footballers in either line up are Tommy Doyle (Wolves), Elliot Anderson, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Morgan Gibbs-White (Forest).
Will Unwin
Will Unwin, our man at Molineux tonight, checks in:
Wolves have conceded 10 goals from corners this season, more than any other team and it seems to be weighing on Vitor Pereira’s mind as he made his starting XI undergo extensive set-piece exercises in the warm to ensure they are up to scratch. Now to see if it will work ...
No Premier League team has had less possession this season than Forest, yet they can go level on points with Arsenal in second place tonight. Don’t expect Forest’s counter-attacking football to change tonight, especially with the pace of Hudson-Odoi back in the side.
The first email is from Peter Oh: “Happy Twelfth Day of Christmas! 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 one last Christmas gift”.
Former Wolves manager Julen Lopetegui looks like he’s in trouble at West Ham.
Wolves’ ‘defence’ tonight is certainly … different. There are no natural centre backs at all. Doherty, Bueno, Ait Nouri, and Pedro Lima are all full backs or wing backs.
Wolves manager Vitor Pereira has been talking about their shape to the cameras 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 press higher with our wingers.
Let’s unpack those teams a bit.
Wolves are much changed! Pedro Lima gets 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 come back into the XI. Matheus Cunha is a big miss, he’s suspended. It’s not immediately clear who is captain, and Wolves have not announced that on their social media channels either.
Murillo and Callum Hudson-Odoi return for the visitors, having missed the win at Everton through injury. A big plus for Nuno.
Team 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.
Referee: Peter Bankes
Preamble
It may not be 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-placed 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, largely compatriots 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 is 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), while the new-ish manager, Pereira, and six Portuguese staff members adding to the tally. Wolverhampton has changed, too, with Portuguese restaurants and cafes springing up all over the city (although I’m sad to report that the coffee shop, Aromas de Portugal, that featured heavily in our 2018 interview with Jota and Neves is now closed).
Anyway, welcome home Nuno, sort of. It remains to be seen what kind of reception the top-four chasing manager gets at relegation-threatened Molineux but this should be a lively and (very Portuguese) one.
Kick-off: 8pm GMT.
