Football Season Guide

After romping through the Championship last season on their way to the title of the division and the desired return to the top flight Wolverhampton look much more than the average newly promoted team already. The highly-rated Portuguese coach Nuno Espirito Santo is using modern 3-4-3 formation, Wolves never veered from it in the lower division, and with many Portuguese and Spanish players in the squad Orange and Blacks have the technical abilities to match even the best in the country. This summer four of the most impressive players from last season (Jota, Bonatini, Boly and Vinagre) made their loans permanent moves, but the gaffer didn’t stop there and he added four new very strong names to the squad. Patricio, Portugal’s national keeper, comes with the promise to be the new number one, while the vastly experienced Moutinho will be playing an anchor role in midfield, which should give freedom to Ruben Neves to charge forward more often. The other two notable signings are loans, with the left wing-back Castro likely to be a regular starter, while Jimenez should give Bonatini and Cavaleiro fierce competition for the right to lead the attack. In fact the experience of the Mexican might make him the main centre forward of the team this season. Wolves didn’t stop there though and on deadline day they added two more high-profile singings to increase the choices of the coach even more. Dendoncker is young, but vastly experienced holding midfielder that can also play as part of the back three, while winger Traore was signed for a club-record fee and just this suggests that he will be getting plenty of playing time. Using lots of overlapping runs, 21 goal assists came from the wing-backs in the Championship, and countless pass exchanges in the final third of the pitch Wolverhampton were a joy to watch last season and more of the same can be expected from the progressive and very modern-looking team. With at least six of the starters expected to be Portuguese, plus at least two more Latin speakers, Wolves asked all of their British and other foreign players to learn basic Portuguese this summer. This suggests that the communication on the pitch will be happening in this language, which might be puzzling and confusing for some of their opponents.