Brighton v Wolves - Liam Keen and Nathan Judah preview
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00:00Hello, I'm Nathan Dewdale and I'm here with Wolves reporter, it is Mr. Liam Keane. Liam
00:13behind me is the team bus because the Wolverhampton Wondrous players are going to leave for Brighton
00:17this evening. We've just heard from Gary O'Neill, big game. Let's get off that one point mark
00:21please. All the talk, of course, with regards to team news is about one position and one
00:27position only and that is the number one. Gary O'Neill has said today and I quote, I'm
00:32very, I'm very clear on who is the best goalkeeper for us to start tomorrow. So, Tom King, Premier
00:43League debut, you've heard it first here, happy days. No, look, obviously Johnston and
00:49Sar, Sar was man of the match against Manchester City, a lot of people, a lot of people probably
00:54haven't listened to the podcast yet. Why haven't you? I haven't read my tweet earlier
00:59on today about what we're talking about the podcast and I've read between the lines and
01:03I think the majority are thinking that he's going to bring Sam Johnston in. Do you believe
01:08that will be the case? I don't. As you say, we said on the podcast. I need to lower this
01:12down for you. I keep forgetting, I forget how small you actually are. I've been away
01:17too long. Sorry. Yeah, we said on the podcast that we, as it stands, yesterday as a recording
01:22expecting Jose Sar to come in. Obviously, Gary O'Neill was very coy on giving an actual
01:27name. He says you will find out at 1.45 tomorrow. He did. But it's still the case. We're expecting
01:33Sar to be rewarded for his performance. Sam Johnston, having been declared fit, having
01:40trained most of the week, it was described, but quite a lot this week. We would expect
01:44him to be involved, albeit it would be a convenient and easy way to describe it by him not being
01:49involved and not travelling. So we will wait and see for that as well. But reading between
01:53the lines, it seemed to me like Jose Sar will start and we're correct. As I say, lots can
01:58happen before the start of a game. We'll see how the next 24 hours or so go, but we expect
02:03Jose Sar to be playing and I think it's the right decision. If that is the decision, Gary
02:06O'Neill makes. We've talked a lot in the podcast about Jose Sar and deserving that opportunity
02:11to play again. Look, things can change very, very quickly in this game. But if you're Sam
02:14Johnston, if you get back in, if you've been signed for £10 million, if you're the number
02:17one, if you've had the shirt and, you know, you've got to say, lost it, not just the injury,
02:22but because of performance at this moment in time, how does he come back? Do you think
02:25that he will be ready to fight for the spot? Because it'll be a blow for him as well. I
02:29mean, he lost his number one shirt at Crystal Palace as well, didn't he? So it's almost
02:36like deja vu for him at this moment in time. Yeah, well, he's arrived at this football club
02:39to play games, to be number one. If Jose Sar, as we hope and expect, because I think we
02:45both think he deserves it, plays after that performance, Sam Johnston will be frustrated.
02:50But what he should do is light a fire under him. He's experienced enough. He's been around
02:57the block enough. He should be able to deal with that. And I think he will be good in
03:02the dressing room and come back and earn his spot back. He's still a good goalkeeper. Yes,
03:06it's not been maybe the dream start, his move towards, but I think he's more than capable
03:12of winning that spot back. And if you're going to have two good goalkeepers pushing
03:15each other and both performing well, it can only be a good thing for Wolves. And it probably
03:19means that Wolves are doing well and winning games again. So I welcome a bit of competition.
03:23I welcome a bit of a bit of fights. Why not? Yeah. And look, in terms of team news, any
03:27other injuries, any other players coming back on the horizon? Yeah. So aside from Johnston,
03:32we got a bit of a timeline on Hwang Hee Chan, obviously injured an ankle ligament playing
03:38for South Korea in the international break. Missed the City game. We're looking at roughly
03:42about two weeks. So Gary did say that we could see him back in time for the Palace
03:45game, which would be huge for Wolves, I think. A player that's been out of form, but a player
03:49that I think we both... He'll have a run this season. Yeah, I think so. I think he's a very
03:53important player for us and a very good player once he's back up and running again. So yeah,
03:58good news. Hopefully he won't be too far off. But do we feel it could be the unchanged side
04:03from the Manchester City game? And of course, that back five as well that we went back to?
04:07Yeah. I mean, obviously the decisions on formation are does he stick with the five and does he
04:11stick with the three in midfield? Around that, personnel should be relatively straightforward
04:17because obviously the goalkeeper situation, the defence should pick itself. The midfielder
04:21if it's a three will probably pick itself, albeit Tommy Dawes put his hat in the ring.
04:26And then it's whether if he just doesn't play a midfield three, plays two, whether he plays
04:29Forbes on that right-hand side. Does Sarabia come out of nowhere? Does Rodrigo Gomez, who
04:34was given a little bit of a challenge in that press conference by Gary Neal to say, come
04:37on, we need a bit more. Does he get an opportunity? Guedes obviously is someone knocking on the
04:41door. So they've got options. But I do think it would be the same system and the same XI.
04:47So inevitably, as I say on these videos every week, I'll be wrong. But I'm sure. But let's
04:51see. I would expect it to be that. Look, he didn't, by the way, close the door on having
04:55a four eventually. He did say that five just suits against Manchester City. But I think
05:00he's not like completely sold on a five for every single game. And you know, you might
05:04see him going back to a four potentially as quick as maybe a Crystal Palace or a Southampton,
05:11depending on styles and shape. But I think you're right. We do expect to see a five,
05:15especially away at Brighton. Yeah, I think with it being away is the important bit. You
05:18said on the podcast, if it was at home to Brian, maybe he plays an extra attacking player
05:22away from home. I think that's the that's the route to success. You have players to
05:26bring on later in the game. And then, yeah, I think he said this quite a lot, actually,
05:29leading up to the City game and after the City game, that he's open to both formations.
05:33He's open to both systems. He's open to to go in between the two and particularly
05:37Palace and Southampton, but probably particularly Southampton. No disrespect to them, who are
05:41probably the weaker of those two sides. It's going to be a game that we're expected to win
05:46and we'll probably need to win. And you probably do want to play an extra attacking player in
05:49that game. So or an extra couple of attacking players. He plays a four and two midfield. So
05:54yeah, I do expect we'll serve to change a bit. But for tomorrow, if it's not a five,
05:58I'll be surprised. Gowaniel was asked by the FA to give his observations after his
06:03post-match comments against Manchester City in that defeat. What's the latest on that?
06:07Yeah, he said that he still hasn't heard back from them. He gave his reasonings,
06:10his observations to them for his post-match comments. Had a little dig at the media.
06:14Little dig, little dig. Yeah. Which, as I understand it, was not me and you. You weren't
06:21there. I get the blame for everything. Maybe it wasn't. But no, I think there was there was a
06:27couple of outlets that had sort of clipped the press comments up a little bit in terms of video.
06:34He wasn't out of context. Yeah, out of context. Exactly. Which I don't think he was too pleased
06:38with. So with that, he had a small little dig to say, look, you know, you guys have a responsibility
06:44to reflect it accurately. More of a generalisation he was talking about rather than in the moment.
06:50He was talking more of the general VAR view in terms of subconscious bias rather than the
06:54John Stones incident in particular. But yeah, look, I think he sort of sticks by what he says,
07:00by the sounds of it, and also says that people have to understand why Wolves fans in particular
07:06have got such a sort of frustration with VAR because Wolves on that league table of decisions
07:11against the minus 20 points. And he did point out that Brighton are top of that league table.
07:16Plus nine. Plus nine. Plus nine. So 29 points. Yeah, a little 29 points makes not a big deal,
07:21does it? You know, some teams get 29 points in the season, so it's not a big deal. Maybe they'll get
07:25that all back on Saturday, you never know. Exactly. And I did ask in the embargo section, but I can
07:32say it here because I don't think anyone's going to be using it. We did have a chat with the people
07:35in there. I did ask, he said, look, Wolves are the only team to vote to get rid of VAR. Could that be,
07:42you know, playing into this stuff? You can understand why fans would think that. It's going
07:45to be a long answer, this. It's going to be a very long answer. He had a good laugh. We had a little
07:49bit of a chuckle about it. He said, Liam, you're trying to get me in trouble again. And then gave
07:54his full answer as, no, I don't think so. No. It was basically no. And we laughed and I said,
08:00it's probably the right decision to answer it that way. Obviously, I'm not trying to...
08:03He says in what he thinks might be a completely different situation.
08:06Obviously not, you know, in the business of trying to catch him out. Genuinely interested
08:09in what he had to say about that. And as I say, I'm sure behind closed doors, there'll be some
08:14few opinions, but not publicly. Look, three points would be great. Of course, you know,
08:17Wolves yet to win this season. They need to get this, this campaign started going very,
08:21very quickly. At the same time, I think we both, I think the majority of fans with those two home
08:25games to come, crucial home games for Gary O'Neill, would take a point tomorrow. Your
08:30prediction? I'm going to sit with my podcast prediction, 1-1. I'm going to say nil-nil. I'm
08:36going to say Wolves get a point on the board and we'll be off the bottom come Saturday evening.
08:39I hope so. Well, it depends how Saturdays are going. Well, they're going to get beat. They're
08:42at Man City. They're going to get smashed to pieces. This is going to get clipped if they win
08:47now. Oh yeah, I don't mind that. Get it on the dressing room wall. Get the video going. There
08:50they are. Five, six, seven. Gwynharlan, triple captain. Oh mate, it's unbelievable. Oh god.
08:56I obviously don't want them to win because it's going to impact Wolves,
08:59but it would be hilarious if they go and win now after you've said that. That would be great
09:02because then they'll enter the club, but we'll talk about that next week. Me and Liam will be
09:05at the Amex tomorrow. I've got to drive apparently for all the build-up on this one. Make sure you
09:09log on to expressandstart.com.