Liam Keen and Nathan Judah discuss in detail Wolves' chances of making European football this season. The boys look at form, fixtures, fitness and their rivals.
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00:00 [Music]
00:06 Well, hello everybody. Welcome to episode three.
00:09 It is the Keane and Judah show. I'm your host, Nathan Judah.
00:13 Opposite me, it is the Easter Bunny himself, Mr Liam Keane.
00:17 Liam, come hopping in to the chat room. How's it going, bebba?
00:21 Very well, very well. I'm feeling positive.
00:24 How about yourself? You all good?
00:26 I wouldn't say positive after two defeats, but I'm pretty good.
00:29 I had a little bit of chocolate last night, a little bit of a nibble.
00:32 And I've got a little bit of a sugar rush.
00:34 And some people might say we've both got a sugar rush with today's topic.
00:40 Yeah, that was interesting in the same way.
00:43 I know, it just came to me.
00:45 Hence why I'm so positive.
00:47 Well, especially with you enjoying, what have you just talked about?
00:51 What's your egg of choice? The sugary mess that is.
00:54 Oh, I know you don't like a cream egg, but they're top tier, mate.
00:58 Cream eggs up there. Amazing.
01:00 Absolutely horrific.
01:03 Just talking with Mark, our producer, both agree.
01:05 Cadbury's mini eggs, in whatever form it is,
01:08 probably the greatest invention of all time.
01:11 But you can have your cream egg. You can have your sugar rush.
01:14 I'll take a mini egg as well, top tier.
01:17 Sugar rush, head rush, Wolves lost two on the bounce,
01:21 two of course, Corinth City, and then Aston Villa.
01:25 Predictably, some might say on Saturday.
01:28 So what are we talking about today?
01:30 We're talking about how Wolverhampton Wanderers can qualify for Europe, baby.
01:33 Come on, come on.
01:35 Why not turn the negatives of two defeats into the hopeful scenario
01:39 of nine games to go and a European race.
01:42 Exactly. And by the way, I don't care what anyone says,
01:46 whether you're a half empty person,
01:50 they've still got a cracking chance of European football.
01:53 Yes, they need a lot to go their way.
01:55 Yes, they need to play better than what they did on Saturday,
01:57 but they still are right in this mix.
02:00 Liam Keane, first of all, we're going to take it today about Wolves.
02:05 If they finish eighth in the Premier League,
02:07 that will be good enough for a European spot.
02:11 Can you just explain to the peeps why eighth may probably,
02:15 hopefully, fingers crossed, be good enough?
02:17 Yeah, there's a couple of moving parts on this one,
02:20 but I'll keep it quite brief.
02:21 Thank you.
02:23 You're welcome.
02:24 There will be an additional Champions League spot going to two countries
02:28 based on European performance, and Italy and England are leading the race
02:33 for that extra spot.
02:34 So it will mean that fifth place in the Premier League
02:38 will become a Champions League spot, and then it trickles down.
02:41 And we're also bearing this on the assumption,
02:44 which is a fairly solid one, that the winner of the FA Cup
02:47 will be a team that is qualifying within Europe already.
02:50 So obviously City are going to be huge favourites for Liverpool,
02:53 still in there, United still in there.
02:55 Oh no, Liverpool aren't, United knocked them out, excuse me.
02:58 But yeah, you get what I mean.
03:00 So that's hopefully, and will be good news for Wolves,
03:05 and the several clubs that Wolves are chasing for a European spot
03:08 will mean that it drops down to eighth for the Conference League.
03:12 And it would be a magnificent achievement if Wolves were able to do it.
03:16 And as you say, they've got a very good chance.
03:18 Yeah, look, Wolves, despite their loss, are in 10th place on 41 points.
03:25 Eighth at this moment in time is Newcastle on 43.
03:30 Liam, if Newcastle are on 43 points and Wolves are on 41 points,
03:35 how many points away are Wolves to get to eighth?
03:40 Only two points.
03:41 Oh, look at that. I absolutely love this guy.
03:46 And look, you look at the weekend and yes,
03:48 it didn't work out on the pitch at Villa Park,
03:50 but also games kind of went for Wolves a little bit.
03:54 I know that Newcastle came back to beat West Ham,
03:57 but a draw might have been the better result, of course.
04:01 But at the same time, if any team was going to win,
04:04 you'd probably rather it be Newcastle than West Ham.
04:06 West Ham, of course, were above Wolves in the table anyway.
04:10 So it kind of closes that gap a little bit.
04:13 Newcastle got some horrendous injury worries themselves.
04:16 So, you know, you're going to have to finish above Newcastle probably
04:19 to get European football.
04:21 But it wasn't a terrible result.
04:23 You look at Chelsea and Burnley, you think Chelsea nailed on win at home
04:27 and then they draw 2-2 against a 10-man Burnley.
04:30 Again, Chelsea with a game in hand, but at the same time have faltered again.
04:34 So these are the kind of teams that are going to be in the mix for Wolves
04:38 in the fight for seventh and eighth.
04:40 Because it is those two spots you think really,
04:43 when you're looking at the Premier League table, Lee,
04:45 and when you're looking at Manchester United,
04:47 are probably going to have enough to finish sixth.
04:50 And then, of course, Liverpool, Arsenal, Man City, Villa, Tottenham
04:54 ahead of them.
04:55 So it is that seventh and eighth spot where you've got quite a few teams vying for it.
04:59 And I will go into a little bit more detail later on in the show.
05:03 But let's concentrate on Wolverhampton Wanderers first
05:05 before we go to break in about five or six minutes.
05:08 And first of all, they've got to concentrate on themselves, don't they?
05:12 Because we can talk till we're blue in the face about other teams around them
05:16 and scenarios here, scenarios there.
05:18 At the end of the day, Wolverhampton Wanderers have got to win some games
05:22 between now and the end of the season.
05:23 They've got to win some big games between now and the end of the season.
05:27 But they've got to do it.
05:28 They've got to start scoring goals.
05:29 They need players back, don't they?
05:31 What do you think Wolves need to do so they can start turning
05:34 some of these defeats around and start getting back on that bandwagon
05:37 and winning some games and hopefully some back-to-back games as well
05:40 and putting a run together?
05:41 Yeah, well, you hit the nail on the head first of all there
05:44 by saying having some players back.
05:46 And Wolves are fortunate enough that it seems Mattias Kuhn will be in the squad
05:52 for Tuesday's game against Burnley, according to Gary O'Neill.
05:56 Very close to being involved against Villa and the decision was taken
05:59 to hold him back.
06:01 Of course, the club and Gary O'Neill won't say this publicly,
06:03 but I imagine it was with an idea of being very cautious with him
06:08 and looking ahead to games that Wolves have got a better chance of winning,
06:13 particularly Burnley, albeit a great result for them is a good opportunity
06:17 for Wolves.
06:18 And that will be really key, getting Mattias Kuhn back and fit
06:21 and firing again because not just the fact that he's such a supremely
06:25 talented player, but it's the hybrid role he plays on that left No. 10 position
06:31 that is the glue or one of several glues that holds his Wolves team together.
06:38 And it's mainly on that left side where you've got Totti, Ait Nouri, Kuhn.
06:41 I always felt that those three and the role they played in the Wolves system
06:45 was really integral to how they played.
06:47 So that would be really, really important.
06:49 And then following that, a little bit of good news with other players
06:53 coming back.
06:54 Dawson is a potential for Burnley, albeit maybe slightly more unlikely,
07:00 but regardless of that, hopefully won't be too far away.
07:04 Kwanghee Chan is roughly three weeks from now, based on the prediction
07:10 for his return, hoping that with him being back on the grass and looking
07:14 and feeling good that he'll be back a bit sooner than that as well.
07:17 If they can shave a bit of that time off, that's going to be invaluable to them.
07:21 No offence to John Riddick and Belagar, but he's not been as influential
07:24 this season, and albeit they haven't had good news on his injury,
07:27 to have good news on the others is far more beneficial for Wolves.
07:31 So yeah, they're in a better place than they were before the Villa game,
07:35 which seems a bizarre thing to say after a 2-0 loss,
07:38 but to get those players back will be absolutely integral to Wolves doing well.
07:42 Yeah, look, it's been horrendous for Wolves' injury wise.
07:47 They really have, and you add that to the frustration of missing out
07:51 on strikers towards the end of the window, and Fabio and Sascha
07:56 being allowed to go on alone. It's frustrating because you look at that team
08:00 and you look at Aston Villa, and actually they played pretty well
08:03 in those first 20 or 30 minutes on Saturday, Liam.
08:06 And no disrespect to Chiuumi and Sarabia and Mario Lamina,
08:14 who had to play out of position on the left-hand side,
08:16 but that's probably the most anemic front line that Wolves have had to
08:20 wander apart in a Premier League game for probably the last five years.
08:23 I can't really argue against it, unfortunately.
08:27 Sarabia, I thought, very quiet. Yeah, just not as influential
08:34 with other players around him that I think he needs to help flourish.
08:38 Chiuumi, I think, did well enough in the circumstances,
08:41 but very isolated. And Lamina's not a forward.
08:43 It's an experiment that Wolves are having to push on with
08:47 because of limited other options elsewhere.
08:50 And that's why having Matthias Kuhnja back is going to be so integral.
08:54 Of all of those players unavailable, it's probably between him and Neto
08:59 that are the most integral to get back into this Wolves side
09:02 for different reasons, really. So to have Kuhnja back
09:05 and way ahead of schedule is going to be incredibly important.
09:10 And then with the games Wolves have got, they've got a decent enough
09:13 running that they have opportunities to pick up points.
09:17 And if you do that and you focus, as you said previously,
09:20 I think it's a good point, focus on yourself and the nine games you've got,
09:23 regardless of games in hand or how many teams other teams have got,
09:27 how many games rather, how many players they've got available,
09:29 what points they're on. If you focus on yourself,
09:33 maybe some of the home games are going to be really vital in that as well.
09:37 And Wolves have got a really good opportunity still.
09:39 Yeah, they have. And like I said at the top of the show,
09:42 they're going to have to concentrate on getting some wins,
09:44 but also they're probably going to have to upset a big team
09:48 along the way as well. You're going to have to have that
09:50 because you can't just guarantee your home wins and we'll discuss them
09:53 and the games in the second half. But you've got to probably beat
09:58 or have a big upset, I think, in there. And also with these players
10:02 coming back, Liam, you've got to, the likes of Mateus Kuhnja,
10:05 they've got to find a new way as well of producing on the pitch
10:08 and scoring goals without maybe some of their other allies,
10:12 i.e. Pedro Neto, in that side.
10:15 I tell you what, if you can get goals from all over the pitch,
10:18 it's going to help this Wolves side. And to be fair, and to Wolves' credit,
10:21 they've actually been quite good at that this season.
10:24 Mario Lamina's on a handful. You've got a couple of the defenders
10:28 that have chipped in here and there and they've needed that,
10:31 particularly in previous seasons when Wolves' top goal scorers
10:34 have been five or six goals a season. Wolves were a lot different
10:38 this year with the numbers that Hwang and Kuhnja have thrown in.
10:43 But then we've got a couple of other players that just ease that burden
10:46 slightly, whether it's going away to Brentford and Lamina
10:51 getting the opening goal there that puts Wolves in a really strong position
10:55 before that 4-1 win. These kind of moments that are going to
11:00 impact the final points. Wolves have done so well to get to where they are
11:04 right now and they're so close to having that extra push forward
11:10 onto what would be a remarkable achievement.
11:13 Yes, it will be a remarkable achievement and we will see exactly what that
11:16 points total may be straight after this break.
11:19 [MUSIC]