Vitor Pereira highlights Wolves ‘worry’ ahead of Bournemouth FA Cup clash..
Vitor Pereira says he may be forced into changes against Bournemouth today due to fears over more Wolves injuries.
Hwang Hee-chan is now back from a hamstring strain, but Emmanuel Agbadou, Rodrigo Gomes, Goncalo Guedes and Carlos Forbs remain sidelined.
Wolves’ priority is to survive relegation this season and the head coach has one eye on the upcoming clash with Everton at Molineux.
“The worries I have are about injuries,” Pereira said when asked if he will field his strongest XI.
“I have three or four players at the limit and the next game will be very important for us.
Game-changers’: Wes Morgan thinks Wolves have two players capable of relegating Leicester..
Wolves have not been the best version of themselves this season. The Old Gold have won just six Premier League games.
Vitor Pereira has done a decent job since taking charge last year, but there is still work to be done if Wolves are to remain a Premier League team next season.
Wolves’ 2-1 defeat to Fulham last time out has kept them just five points above the relegation zone.
However, even though Wolves have been poor for large parts of the campaign, they’ve been helped by the fact the three sides below them have been even worse.
Wes Morgan thinks two Wolves stars will be the difference in relegation battle
Leicester City, in particular, have been woeful.
The pressure on Ruud van Nistelrooy is mounting following the side’s failure to score in their last four league matches.
And even Wes Morgan isn’t hopeful his former side will win more points than Wolves between now and May, and that is mainly due to Pereira having two top quality players.
“When you look at the Wolves team, you’ve got the likes of [Matheus] Cunha and [Rayan] Ait-Nouri, they’ve got some game-changers in the team,” he told talkSPORT. “When you compare that against Leicester, they do kind of stand out.
“I’ve watched a lot of Leicester this season and they’ll have spells in the game where you think ‘That looks good’ especially in the attacking phase, but I think we can all agree, defensively that has been a big, big issue for Leicester this season.”
Worryingly for Wolves, both Matheus Cunha and Rayan Ait-Nouri are two of the most heavily-linked players with leaving Molineux. Pereira can’t think about that at the moment though.
Must capitalise now but improve in summer
For Wolves to go down, not only would they have to suffer a lot more defeats, but Leicester City and Ipswich Town would both have to pull off several huge upsets. These two unlikely scenarios make Wolves clear favourites to stay up.
Pereira will know his side must improve in the summer before going again, though. Teams who frequently flirt with relegation eventually experience it, and the Championship is a notoriously tough league to bounce back from.
There is still a lot of football still to be played, but Wolves are in the best position out of all the teams at the bottom.
There is little room for error though, so Pereira will want to ensure the squad remain 100 per cent focused for their remaining 11 games — all of which must be played like cup finals.
