Wolves v AFC Bournemouth - Wednesday 7.45 pm

billythekid

UTC Legend
On Recent Form A Draw Could Be The Likely Result

AFCB came away from Villa Park beaten 3-1 and the next game is also away. Our club will be up against our old manager Gary O’Neil’s Wolves side at the Molineux Stadium on Wednesday at 7.45 pm. The last time we met his side was in October at Dean Court, Wolves won 1-2 against 10 man AFCB who had Lewis Cook sent off in the 54th minute with the score 1-1. The table after this the 9th game of the season, had AFCB in 19th place with 3 points. Wolves were in 11th place with 12 points. Going into this game Wolves are in 11th place with 43 points, two places and one point above AFCB.

Since then Wolves at home have beaten Spurs 2-1, Burnley 1-0. During a three game winning run, their best of the season, they beat Chelsea 2-1 and Everton 3-0. They have further wins against Sheffield United 1-0 and Fulham 2-1. They have drawn with Newcastle United 2-2 and Nottingham Forest 1-1. They have suffered defeats against Manchester United 3-4, Brentford 0-2 and West Ham 1-2. Plus in their most recent game against Arsenal 0-2. Amongst those at the game was AFCB manager Andoni Iraola. Away from Molineux, Wolves have W 3, D 3, L6. Wolves have lost their last two league games at home and the Cherries have lost their last two away, a draw could be a likely result.

Our last visit to play Wolves at the Molineux Stadium was in February 2023 when their manager was Julen Lopetegui and our manager was Gary O’Neil and he saw the Cherries win 0-1, with Marcus Tavernier being the scorer early into the second half, it was AFCB’s first win at Molineux in the Premier League.

In our away games against Wolves, AFCB have W 3, D 0, L 3.
All competitions, AFCB have W 7, D 4, L 6.

Wolves Team News
On their injury front, Pedro Neto, Nelson Semedo, Craig Dawson, Jean-Ricner Bellegarde and Leon Chiwone, are unlikely to be available. There is also a doubt about leading scorer Mateus Cunha who received a knock against Nottingham Forest.

Wolves Player To Watch
If Matheus Cunha isn’t fit, he has been on form recently scoring 5 goals in five games, including a hat-trick, then Hwang Hee-Chan second leading scorer with 10 goals.

AFCB Team News
Romain Faive was not among the squad at Villa Park due to injury.

AFCB Player To Watch
Antoine Semenyo back from injury at Villa Park and came off the bench in the second half. Our second leading scorer with 7 goals and looked in good form before his injury.

The Referee
Stuart Atwell is in charge of this game, it will be the first time in charge of an AFCB game this season. Last season he was in charge of our home game against Newcastle United. Also two away games, both Merseyside clubs, first ‘that game’ against Liverpool and then the game against Everton.
 
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Tough test and a good indicator as to whether we're good enough for a top 10 finish this season. Looking forward to it.

On a side note - didn't expect the away following to be so small. I get the reschedule and midweek game but this is proper league 1 stuff...
 
Tough test and a good indicator as to whether we're good enough for a top 10 finish this season. Looking forward to it.

On a side note - didn't expect the away following to be so small. I get the reschedule and midweek game but this is proper league 1 stuff...
Are you going?
 
I’ve looked at the last 4 league games for Wolves. These were home games against West Ham and Arsenal and away games at Burnley and N Forest. Wolves gained 2 points although they only had the higher xGs in the West Ham game. Wolves have scored 4 goals and conceded 7 with xG estimating 3.63 goals with 5.61 conceded.


Goals xG.png

The average positions of the starting line-ups are below. In all games Wolves are trying to have men behind the ball and then counter. The tactics seem to be working though as they have only scored 2 less goals than AFCB, but conceded 7 less over the season so far.


Av pos.png

The following graph compares summary stats of Wolves and AFCB over the last 4 games. The underlying stats all favour AFCB which is promising.

Comparison.png

Wolves have had more possession, and both create and concede more from set plays than Bournemouth.

Percentages.png
 
I’ve looked at the last 4 league games for Wolves. These were home games against West Ham and Arsenal and away games at Burnley and N Forest. Wolves gained 2 points although they only had the higher xGs in the West Ham game. Wolves have scored 4 goals and conceded 7 with xG estimating 3.63 goals with 5.61 conceded.


View attachment 13928

The average positions of the starting line-ups are below. In all games Wolves are trying to have men behind the ball and then counter. The tactics seem to be working though as they have only scored 2 less goals than AFCB, but conceded 7 less over the season so far.


View attachment 13929

The following graph compares summary stats of Wolves and AFCB over the last 4 games. The underlying stats all favour AFCB which is promising.

View attachment 13930

Wolves have had more possession, and both create and concede more from set plays than Bournemouth.

View attachment 13931

Out of morbid curiosity how do they compare for goals conceded by corners in comparison to AFCB last season and this season?
 
Out of morbid curiosity how do they compare for goals conceded by corners in comparison to AFCB last season and this season?
From set pieces (I can't get corners easily) it is fairly similar for % of chances. Last season, we weren't particularly bad at defending them, it was that we gave so many away.

In 22/23 Wolves were conceding 28.3% of attempts from set pieces, in 23/24 it is 29.4%
In 22/23 AFCB were conceding 30.4% of attempts from set pieces, in 23/24 it is 27.5%
 
Out of morbid curiosity how do they compare for goals conceded by corners in comparison to AFCB last season and this season?
I looked into something similar when TopFarrier mentioned Neto conceding the most from corners.

Last season we conceded the most corners in the league, this season we've conceded just under the average. Working out the percentage from corners I wasn't able to work out, just set pieces like Matt.

It does feel like something you can just google these days but I had a hard job just finding that much.
 
From set pieces (I can't get corners easily) it is fairly similar for % of chances. Last season, we weren't particularly bad at defending them, it was that we gave so many away.

In 22/23 Wolves were conceding 28.3% of attempts from set pieces, in 23/24 it is 29.4%
In 22/23 AFCB were conceding 30.4% of attempts from set pieces, in 23/24 it is 27.5%

Shame it’s all set pieces, but still a clear statistic there. Wolves now concede 1% more goals from set plays with O’Neil in charge.

AFCB concede 3% fewer goals from set plays since O’Neil left.
 
If we want to continue to look at 10th place, this is a must win imo. A draw might cut it, on the consideration that Brighton has two games in hand but their remaining schedule has AFCB (six-pointer), ManCity, Villa, Newcastle, Chelsea and ManU (ouch!!).

3 points catapults us in 10th, from 34 games for Wolves, Fulham and AFCB.
 
The Referee
Stuart Atwell is in charge of this game, it will be the first time in charge of an AFCB game this season. Last season he was in charge of our home game against Newcastle United. Also two away games, both Merseyside clubs, first ‘that game’ against Liverpool and then the game against Everton.
Appreciate it's a mid table dead rubber kind of a game but do we think Atwell will be centre stage for this one. Pressure on him will be huge wherever and whenever he next officiates. Tough one to call as it's natural that he will be affected by what's happened.
 
is 'burgery' what I think it is?
Don't go there Rich, you really wont want to know. I expect being a Rocketeer is somewhat akin to freemasonry or some other secret society and definitely by invitation only. It could be burgery or it could be buggery. Or you could be buggered whilst eating a Big Mac. Either way, It's probably best not to ask, or you could end up as the meat in the sandwich of Table/Trent Double Whopper.
 

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