Premier League: Stuttering Liverpool Must Regain Their Bearings Against Wolves

Liverpool vs Wolverhampton Wanderers

Liverpool plan to bounce back from last night’s debacle when they host Wolves at Anfield on Saturday evening for their next Premier League match.

The Reds were torn to shreds by Napoli with a scoreline of 4-1 and that was easily one of their worst Champions League losses in recent memory.

Yesterday was their best chance of building up some momentum after an underwhelming start to their campaign, but now they’re back to the drawing board. With their lacklustre Premier League 2022 results thus far, Liverpool are currently seventh at the table with nine points.

Wolves, meanwhile, are fresh from their first league victory this season. They are smelling blood from a wounded Liverpool side and they’re ready to pounce even if the pre-match SBOTOP betting odds are stacked against them.

Talking Points

Liverpool’s stars are low in confidence

Jurgen Klopp was in utter disbelief after their defeat against Napoli, stating that Wolves will be “laughing” at his team’s performance and he’s right.

Under the German coach, Liverpool have established themselves as an energetic group on both sides of the pitch, but the players’ body language on Wednesday showed the complete opposite.

Liverpool’s pressing defence was punished time and time again by the hosts and it feels like the 4-1 scoreline could’ve been far worse. There are holes at centre-back and at midfield that Klopp must fix quickly.

The form of both Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez is discouraging. Gomez was taken off by Klopp at the half-time break because of his bad defending, while van Dijk was shockingly outplayed by Victor Osimhen.

Mohamed Salah, on the other hand, is misfiring in front of goal. The once Ballon d’Or candidate has only scored twice in the league so far as he’s struggling to influence games like he has done countless times before.

Injuries haven’t helped them either as Thiago, Ibrahima Konate, Naby Keita, Jordan Henderson, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, and Diogo Jota all spent time on the sidelines, while summer signing Darwin Nunez is still shaking off rust.

Once the favourites in Group A, suddenly they’re trailing behind Ajax and Napoli. The same is the case here in the Premier League with Arsenal, Manchester City, and Tottenham occupying the top three berths.

Wolverhampton Wanderers are short up front

Bruno Lage’s side should’ve been in a much better position now if only they were more clinical in the final third. After six games, they have only scored three goals – which is the lowest league-wide.

Unfortunately for Wolves, they’ve been bit by the injury bug as Raul Jimenez is dealing with a groin issue, while summer signing Sasa Kalajdzic tore his ACL in Saturday’s victory over Southampton and he’s out indefinitely.

With the two of them out, Wolves added Diego Costa on a free transfer hoping he would pan out. He’ll link up with Hwang Hee-Chan, Daniel Podence, and Goncalo Guedes up front.

Costa, 33, has already played for a Premier League side before – scoring 52 goals in 89 appearances for Chelsea. 

History

Regardless of what happens this Saturday, Liverpool still have the edge over Wolves in their recent head-to-heads since the Reds have won each of their last 11 league games prior to this fixture.

Should Liverpool win another one, it would match their longest league winning streak against any other side. They last had this against West Bromwich Albion when they were on a 12-game win streak over them from1985 to 2010.

Wolves have lost 18 of their last 20 away league matches against Liverpool, with their last road victory dating back to December 2010. Liverpool are undefeated in their last 26 home league matches (W20, D6), with 15 of them being clean sheets.

These two sides last met in May where the Reds pummeled the Wolves as Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah, and Andy Robertson all scored to flip their deficit created by Pedro Neto’s third minute goal.

Betting Tip 

Despite their poor form, Liverpool are backed by the Premier League 2022 odds. The hosts are installed at 1.30, while Wolves are pegged at 9.00 to win and chances for a draw are at 5.20 in the 1X2 market.

The Reds’ at 1.30 to win is such a high value which is probably because of their superb record against Wolves, and I think that their overall quality should be enough to give themselves three valuable points. 

While a victory over Wolves seems like a foregone conclusion, it’s clear that Liverpool are far from what they were in recent years.

 

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