Liverpool v Wolves - Liam Keen and Nathan Judah match preview
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00:00Hello, Nathan Judah, I'm here with world supporter Mr. Liam Keane. Liam, it's Friday, that means
00:14pre-match press conference time, that means Mr. Vito Pereira time, as we head to the easy
00:19game at Anfield on Sunday, where they will host, or they will face, league leaders Liverpool.
00:26In terms of, we all know how good Liverpool are, but I like the way that Pereira talked,
00:31he said, look, they're a great side, but I'm not interested in Liverpool, I'm interested
00:35in Wolves. To me, he said, as the van goes by, to me, it's the loudest van in the world.
00:40It is, yeah, old as well. My team, my players, my players are the best players in the world
00:48and I like that, he backs his plays, he's more interested in the team that he's playing
00:51and the squad that he's taking to Liverpool than the Liverpool players themselves and
00:55I like that philosophy. Yeah, I mean, maybe we'll look back on it in... 6-0 defeat? Shouldn't
01:01it be Mark Staller? Maybe we'll look back on it in 48 hours time and think, you know,
01:07it's all well and good saying that, but you've got to find the balance between keeping...
01:09And I'm sure he is, but he was more messaged about his guys. And I think, yeah, the sort
01:14of public message that you put out there of backing your players, of being positive, saying
01:21yes, Liverpool are one of the best teams in Europe, but these players at Wolves are
01:24the best players in the world because they're my players and I want to do well, I want to
01:27go there. Back your players. And it's not just backing the players, it's backing his
01:31philosophy and backing his system. He says, I want to go there and play our game. I don't
01:35want to go there and defend and try and drag a point. I want to go there and try and have
01:39quality when Wolves do have possession. He knows Liverpool have a lot of possession.
01:42When Wolves do get the ball, what can they do with it that is going to hurt Liverpool?
01:45They have their own quality, they have their own threats that they can impose on the home
01:49team. So I do like that philosophy. I do like that approach because he's coming into
01:53it optimistic and not pessimistic. And I think that's the way you have to approach it. Wolves
01:57have got nothing to lose going to Anfield. Everyone expects them to lose the game. And
02:00you go there and you try and play your game and try and win it.
02:02He's giving the players confidence. He's giving them a store to set out for them to play their
02:07own game. And he actually talked in the press conference about, you know, I've taken a while
02:12for players to learn their positions, learn their roles in this side. And now they can
02:16almost enjoy their football. They can not relax, but you know, almost like the hard
02:19work's been done. Now they can express themselves. And he seemed quite excited about that.
02:23Yeah, I think so. He was in good spirits. He was on good form. He described himself
02:29at one point as a poet. A poet? Yes, I love that.
02:32That's a little bit of a laugh. Yeah, I think...
02:33The Portuguese Samuel Keats. Great, great.
02:37Any more poets that you've got? A-level English?
02:39Didn't do it, did you?
02:40Well, I am from Warwickshire, so of course he's got the Bard himself.
02:44Who?
02:45The Bard.
02:46Yes, William Shakespeare.
02:47Oh, okay.
02:48There you go, look.
02:49A-level stuff, mate.
02:50Anyway, moving on. Football.
02:52It's raining quickly.
02:53It's horrible, isn't it? Yeah, look, when Wolves win games, it starts to feel good.
03:00But it's about when Wolves are struggling and Wolves are down there, what the players
03:03can do. They're still in a fight. Liverpool, yes, a tough game, but it's an opportunity.
03:07You have to see it that way. Do we expect Wolves to get anything? No, but no-one expects
03:12Wolves to get anything.
03:13No.
03:14It's a good position to be in, because you exceed expectations if you get anything other
03:17than a loss. It's an opportunity, and if the players go out there and perform like they
03:21can, they are good enough to get something.
03:22Yeah, look, and Liverpool are in the back of that disappointing 98th-minute James Tarkovsky
03:27wonder goal, I guess, so they'll be frustrated and they'll be firing at the top of the table.
03:30But, like you say, Wolves do get one or two surprises a season, you never know. In terms
03:36of team news, Jürgen Strang, Larsson and Hwang Hee-chan with the injury doubts, how
03:40are they? Will they be available for Sunday?
03:42No, is the short answer, so a little bit more detail on those two. Larsson is expected to
03:46be back into training tomorrow, which will be Saturday, obviously before the game on
03:49Sunday, but they won't risk him, according to Pereira, for the Liverpool game, but they
03:53expect him to be in the squad. You can imagine on the bench for Bournemouth away in the league
03:58the following weekend. And with Hwang not serious, both of them are hand-strings by
04:02the way, with Hwang not serious but still significant enough where the next two or three
04:07games I expect him to be out. So that will be Liverpool, Bournemouth in the league, Fulham
04:11in the league mid-week. Because that's a mid-week game, Bournemouth in the cup might
04:15be a struggle for him as well. And hopefully, if he recovers well, and he has had history
04:21with hamstrings and other injuries, he'll be back for the game just after that, which
04:26will be Everton at home. Which obviously is a big game. So yeah, it's disappointing to
04:32lose two forwards, but hopefully Wolves will be full strength apart from that.
04:36Yeah, I mean, you said that Strang and Larsson, like you say, will probably be back for Bournemouth,
04:39which is good news. At the same time, when you look at Anfield as a free hit, maybe it's
04:42not the worst game to miss, you'd have thought. If he can be back in the starting line for
04:47Bournemouth away, that's probably a game where Wolves will look to have a better chance of
04:51getting points, at least, although it's a difficult game. In terms of two of the new
04:54signings, we saw one of them, didn't we, in Marcel Monezzi. Brilliant cameo, half an hour,
04:59could have scored two or three goals. Do you feel like he could be involved and maybe from
05:03the start on Sunday, or will this be a bit too soon? He did talk potentially about a
05:07two and maybe a three.
05:08Yeah, he started to hint a little bit that he could see a change in terms of having a
05:12three in Anfield and Monezzi, he sees a sort of box-to-box, slightly more aggressive attacking
05:16option. I could see a world, particularly with his physicality and what he offers, where
05:21he does actually come into this team. I've still predicted he won't, I'm going to stick
05:24with my prediction, but speaking to Pereira there and getting a feel for what his thoughts
05:28are, that's certainly an option. I think with Ziga, I would suspect he's on the bench at
05:32Liverpool, but he's a player that's now providing competition for Matt Doherty, a player that
05:37brings that extra option.
05:41There's so many options now, it's great really, isn't it?
05:44Yeah, exactly, and that's only going to help, especially with the situation with Craig Dawson
05:47obviously not involved anymore. So, to have all those options, to have all those players
05:52available can only be a good thing for this team, because as I say, and I keep having
05:56to come back to it, it all feels great after two wins, but they're still in a scrap, they're
05:59still in a dogfight.
06:00Yeah, of course. In terms of Monezzi, do you see him being used as that box-to-box? Do
06:04you feel he's almost playing ahead of Andre and João Gomes, or very much in a central
06:08three, and it's just whoever goes forward, the other two hold back a little bit?
06:11Yeah, he can definitely play in the two obviously as well, but he will be that sort of box-to-box
06:15option. Andre's very much that six, isn't he? You look at the way that Andre and João
06:18Gomes play when they do play in a two, João Gomes has more of a licence to play, and that
06:22will be what Monezzi does, whether it's a two or whether it's a three. So, it brings
06:26great competition, that midfield is a strong, strong department at the moment.
06:29And Pereira said that, you know, we've got options, even though we're without two number
06:33nines in Huang Yichang and Jorgen Stranlarsson, he has got options there. I wonder if we'll
06:37see Guedes, whether we'll see Pablo Sarabia, who obviously missed the game against Blackburn,
06:41or didn't start, and Cunha up front, or he might go for three and maybe just play Cunha
06:47and Guedes? It's an interesting one, isn't it?
06:50Yeah, it's tough. My prediction is I've gone with Sarabia, Guedes, Cunha, Guedes, yeah.
06:56But I can see a world where you do play the netting in that midfield, you've probably
07:00dropped Sarabia, that's exactly what you said, of those three, and you play Guedes
07:04and Cunha in a two, that's got legs as well. The Monezzi situation is interesting, isn't
07:09it? Because I wonder if, because he's so unknown, like no one really knows about him,
07:13do they? Like apart from half an hour, whether it might spring a surprise and play him, because
07:17you can't do a lot of scouting on him going into the game.
07:19Equally as well, you can play Balagaz in that wide, or playing slightly more centrally in
07:25a three as well. So, he does have options to switch it up, considering it's Anfield,
07:29considering it's the league leaders, it feels like it's the kind of week that he probably
07:32would do that. Albeit, up until the last week or two, he hasn't really shown any signs of
07:37potentially switching, so it could easily just be mind games in there. He could be talking
07:40about switching to a three midfield, and it could easily be the two that we've expected
07:43all along, but either way...
07:44Can he end goal?
07:45I don't think so, no disrespect to him, I don't think so. But Wolves have got options,
07:49and that's a good thing. Yes, they're without Larssen, yes, they're without Kuang, but they've
07:52got quality and in-depth, albeit maybe that number nine slot is the only one where they
07:59don't have a lot of options. But otherwise, they've got quality players that are, at the
08:02moment, performing. And if you've got a defence that are performing so well like they are
08:05at the moment, they can keep Salah quiet. It's not going to be easy, but if I'm going
08:10to back anyone to do it, it's Agbidu, it's Totti, it's Doc.
08:12Agbidu's going through, Doc's going through, everyone's going through him, I love it.
08:16Yeah, it won't be my captain on Sunday, that's for certain, I'm fantastic.
08:20Give me the starting team.
08:22So, I'm going to go with what I've stuck with beforehand, but I'm not 100%, so let's go with
08:26Sarangol, Samedo, Doc, Agbidu, Totti, Ait Nouri, André Jaumez. I'm going to go for the three on
08:34top, Stradivari, Guedes, Kunya.
08:36Yes, yes, okay. I'm going to say there's a little bit of a Marchal performance.
08:41Bring it on.
08:42Love to see it. Scoreline?
08:45Well, you went 2-1, did you?
08:48Oh, wait, you do it.
08:49Oh no, you went 3-0. I went 3-1. Obviously, both dwarves.
08:54Obviously.
08:54Yeah, yeah, yeah.
08:55For the build-up of this one, make sure you log on to expressandstyle.com. We'll see you on Sunday.