Wolves vs Aston Villa - Liam Keen and Nathan Judah preview
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00:00Hello, I'm Nathan Judah. I'm here with Wolves reporter Mr. Liam Keane, head of the big game
00:13against Arsenal in Villa. Huge derby, Wolves desperately need some points slash points.
00:18Just heard from Vitor Pereira. Let's go with the team news first. We saw Jorgen Struyne-Larsen
00:24limp off in the first half of the game against Arsenal. What's the latest on him? Keno?
00:29Yeah, I suppose kind of what we expected. He won't be playing tomorrow, first of all,
00:32which was pretty much expected. It's a hamstring injury, as we said on the podcast yesterday
00:37and in previous reports we've done. Vitor was, as he is with a lot of injuries, quite coy,
00:44really concerned about putting pressure on the medical department, really concerned about putting
00:48information out there that he thinks is correct and then turns out not to be correct. But he did,
00:53despite all that, he did then say it could be two or three weeks. So he has given us a timeline,
00:57but I think it's important to give the context of that timeline in that he was a little bit
01:01unsure about it. So he said two or three weeks, but that could easily become a month and I think
01:07we need to keep a watch in brief on Larsen. But as with a hamstring, it's never going to be,
01:12you know, you straight back in. I mean, Totti had what, five weeks or so was it?
01:16Samedo had at least three or so. So it's going to be a little bit of time without Jorgen.
01:21Yeah, I mean, if you keep to that time scale then obviously he misses tomorrow,
01:27you thought he 100% misses Blackburn, which I think is nailed on and then probably Liverpool.
01:32You'd expect so. You're probably looking at Bournemouth and maybe Fulham at home
01:36as the kind of time when he's going to be potentially back within the squad. But like you
01:39say, there's no guarantees. Hamstrings are tricky things and the last thing you want to do is bring
01:43someone back early and then you are looking at a serious tear and you're looking at six to eight
01:47to ten weeks. And how important he is to this team. Very, very important. In terms of midfield,
01:52obviously we know that Mario Lamina won't be available. He's talked about that previously.
01:57Bouba Kartraoui is a person who is back in training. What's the latest on him?
02:00Yeah, we were both sat there in the press conference speaking to our colleagues and
02:03thinking I could see Bouba making the bench here for considering the players available
02:09and which outgoers out and then the bombshell that he's out with flu.
02:13Makes two of us.
02:15Yeah, there you go. That was on well-timed actually. To Vitor, slightly in his defence, he didn't say
02:21that he's definitely out of the game tomorrow. But I think you read between the lines he's not
02:24going to be available by the sounds of it. And if he is, you'd be surprised to see him start
02:28considering he's only just played twice for the 21s. So yeah, we expect to see no Bouba either,
02:33unfortunately, which means you're left with a midfield decision of Andre and one other.
02:38It's a Tommy Doyle. It's a John Ritner Bellegarde.
02:40No signs of boobs. Narrow ball. Everyone hates that.
02:44You're poor.
02:44Poor. I'm not.
02:49Vitor's been obviously pretty publicly critical of the way that
02:54Pereira... You're still laughing at that, aren't you?
02:56Sorry.
02:56The way that Bellegarde or Doyle can play in a two doesn't exactly fill them with confidence.
03:01And he's without signing, without Lamina, without Bouba, you're going to have to
03:05play one of them in a two.
03:10Look, it's difficult though. Like you say, like, you know, by the way, it's Doyle for me,
03:14by the way, just saying, I need to put that out there quickly. Doyle is the one that comes in,
03:17in my opinion, but there's people we spoke to in there that think it might
03:19be Bellegarde out of nowhere. I mean, it's a really tough decision.
03:22What is interesting is, like you say, without João Gomes and you look at Aston Villa,
03:26and they've got massive injury problems themselves, by the way, the play Wednesday,
03:29we said on the podcast as well, for me, there's no excuses tomorrow, regardless of the players
03:33result. They've got to get in, you know, no João Gomes, I understand that, no Jorgen Strand-Larsen,
03:38but this is a fantastic opportunity. They let that opportunity slip by last Saturday.
03:43They can't do that again. But you think that maybe he'd be tempted to go into a three because
03:47of the lack of quality options up top with no Strand-Larsen. And like you say,
03:51Sarabia's been poor and Bellegarde's been poor and Hwang's been poor.
03:55Would you bring that third midfielder into that to just kind of just shore it up?
03:58But it seems like he's not going to do that.
04:00It seems that way. It seems like he's going to stick with what he knows, what he wants to play,
04:03the sort of identity and structure and style of this side. You are right, you could play
04:09Doyle next to Andre and have Bellegarde and have him come more narrow, become a three,
04:13go out wide when needed. I think it's still an option, but I find it unlikely.
04:19Yeah, I don't think he's going to play that.
04:20You say he's going to go with a two, and I would say Doyle as well, by the way. Could you see a
04:27situation where he plays Bellegarde in a front three, but really he's coming back inside, so
04:31he is helping that midfielder out a little bit?
04:34I mean, that's exactly what I just said, so yeah. I mean, I can repeat that same sentence again,
04:40if you like.
04:42So you're playing a three, basically. He's playing a three,
04:45even though he says he's not going to play a three.
04:47If he chooses to do that, but I don't think he will choose to do that, even if Bellegarde starts.
04:51You think he's just going to be out on the right?
04:52Yeah, yeah. I think it's an option. I think it's something you can select.
04:56The way he speaks in there, the way that he talks about the system and the style,
04:59and not wanting to flip-flop and change, it seems to me like he's going to stick with
05:03what he knows and what he wants to play. And then in my opinion, that would be probably Acuna
05:09and Guedes, and then I mean, I think he'll go with Hwang, but...
05:12You've gone with Hwang, he'd stand in your position.
05:14Yeah, considering the form that he's in.
05:15People would be shocked by that.
05:16You could go Rodrigo. I'll play Rodrigo. But I do feel he's going to want someone who plays as a
05:22Yeah.
05:22And Hwang is your next option. So it seems like it's the obvious choice.
05:26In terms of incomings and outgoings, where are we with 72 hours left?
05:31Yeah, not a lot of time. Wolves have obviously been trying to get signings over the line.
05:37We know a few of the names, Danso, Brasco, the midfielder in Ukraine.
05:42We don't know him.
05:43No, we don't know him personally, no. There are other clubs in for Danso,
05:46which have been well-reported. Wolves have got a big task between now and 11pm on Monday
05:53to bring players in and quality players in, because they've left it late.
05:58They had one signing in Emmanuel Agudelo and this team needs help.
06:01So talking to Vitor in there, he has been pretty bullish in previous press
06:06conferences to suggest that I'm very confident they're going to get players in.
06:11He still used the phrase, I feel confident,
06:14but I think the way that he discussed the situation seemed to me like a person who
06:20isn't being guaranteed anything. There's no promises here.
06:22They're expected to get one in by now, won't they? Another one?
06:24Yeah, yeah, I think so. And I don't think he'll be a very happy man come 11.01 on Monday if Wolves
06:31have not made any more additions. It could be an interesting press conference next week.
06:34And look, he said, you know, he was asked the question about will you be pleased with the squad
06:38or do you think the squad's got enough in it if there's no additions between now and Monday?
06:43And he was like, you know, we'll fight, we'll do our very best.
06:46It was a little bit less bullish, wasn't it?
06:48It was, it was. It seems it's a manager who's not quite sure that he's going to get what he
06:52needs and what he wants. And it becomes, even with this...
06:56Or that he's got the quality within the camp at this moment in time to survive.
06:58Exactly. And it becomes, whether they get two or three signings in between now and Monday,
07:03regardless, it's a tough task to stay in this Premier League. They're going to have to really
07:07scrap and get some good results. But it becomes a harder task without those signings. And
07:11this team are going to have to pull out some results out of somewhere. And tomorrow,
07:17regardless of signings, it's a massive opportunity, as you say, Villa,
07:21for the quality they've got. They played on Wednesday. They've got players out, unavailable.
07:25This is a big chance.
07:26It's a massive chance. Give me Pereira's side tomorrow, please.
07:31OK.
07:31You get one punch per person you get wrong.
07:34OK, OK. Saringal, surely it's not a punch there.
07:38Smedo.
07:40Dock.
07:41Agbedu.
07:42Totti.
07:44I'm nervous. I don't like this. You're just setting the thumbnail up. I know what you're doing.
07:49I used to do that. You can't punch like that, by the way. Don't punch like that, I break your back.
07:52Aignori. I think it'll be Doyle and Andre.
07:57You can't just call it Andre, come on.
07:59I think it'll be Guedes.
08:01Kunya.
08:02And Hwang.
08:05I could be wrong, but I just think that he's not going to want Kunya out of position.
08:09Rodrigo would be a good choice to bring in, in my opinion, but I don't think he'll want that.
08:12And I think he wants someone who can play as a nine and your next option,
08:15aside from Larsen, regardless of form, is Hwang.
08:17Whether it's the right decision or not is questionable, but that's what I think he'll do.
08:20For more details and for more discussion, listen to the podcast this week. It's a good one.
08:24Normally the garbage, but this is a good one.
08:26Keenum, give me the final score.
08:28Well, we've both been very positive.
08:29Go on.
08:30It's a derby day to remember.
08:31It is.
08:32Wolves back on track.
08:332-1 win.
08:35I'm going 2-1 as well.