Brentford v Wolves - Liam Keen and Nathan Judah preview
Brentford v Wolves - Liam Keen and Nathan Judah preview
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00:00Hello, I'm Nathan Judah. I'm here again with Mr. Liam Keane at Compton Park. You just heard
00:14from Gary O'Neill, head of the big game. It's Brentford against Wolves. Look, with all the
00:19pictures I've had recently, Brentford is probably slightly easier on paper. You've got Manchester
00:25City to come, then you've got to go to Brighton. It doesn't get, you know, this strength of
00:29schedule is insane, Liam. At the same time, it's still a difficult game, but one that
00:34Wolves really need to pick up some points, don't they? Yeah, they do. I think it's important
00:39to note that Wolves aren't going to go there and just walk over Brentford. Brentford are
00:43a good side. They've got their injury issues of their own, but they're a good side. It's
00:48a tough place to go. Wolves obviously did well there last season, but historically it's
00:52been a tough game against Brentford. And there's no way that this is going to be an easy fixture
00:57for Wolves. What it is, though, is, as you say, easier based on what they have had to
01:02deal with so far. And it's a game that Gary O'Neill, speaking about it there, is not putting
01:06pressure on it as a must win and overhyping it, is the phrase he used, but it's a game
01:10that Wolves are confident that they can go there and perform and get a result. Do they
01:14need to win the game? Is it a must win? I think you've been probably dramatic after
01:18six games, but with the fan base frustrated, Wolves bottom of the table, one point from
01:23six, you need to start picking points up. This is a fantastic opportunity to do that.
01:28Yeah, look, they've had better periods in games. They absolutely have against superior
01:33opposition, you've got to say, but you wanted that to start counting. And I think people
01:38are maybe losing a bit of patience for them to not getting anything on that board. And
01:42you want them to start scoring goals and getting a positive result. And that positive result
01:46might be a really decent performance and a 1-1 draw. We're not saying desperately win,
01:51we'd all love a win. But at the same time, it is difficult. It is difficult to go there.
01:56And when the confidence isn't what it would be, if you're halfway up the table or whatever,
02:01it's going to take some big performances for some big players, isn't it? It is. And the
02:04first thing you have to do is get that performance right, which, as you say, Wolves have done
02:08in part in games so far this season. And they did again at the weekend, in part, albeit
02:14with maybe a bit of a lack of attacking threat. That's the first thing you have to do, look
02:18after your own performance, worry about yourself. Don't be worrying about Brentford and what
02:21they can do, albeit they're a good side. You have to worry about what you can do, how
02:25you can hurt them, and put a performance together. And if you do that, you give yourself the
02:30best possible opportunity of winning the game or getting a positive result. And Wolves are
02:34going to need that going into the international break, as you say. Man City at home after
02:37that, Brighton away, then on paper, you get easier games. But Palace at home is not an
02:43easy game. You don't want to be going into Southampton at home with it being a must win,
02:47if that's what you want to call it. You've got some, on paper, easy games, but they're
02:53not going to necessarily be that. Wolves have to start picking results up as well as putting
02:57performances in. Gary Neal's got plenty of options in attack, he's got plenty of options
03:02in midfield, it's defence that is the issue. How are we looking going into Brentford? He
03:08said that Santibaneau is fine, he came off with a glute problem. We've seen him in training
03:20pictures as well, so you'd imagine he'd be available. He said Dawson, and the way he
03:25phrased it is, has been back in training but not full training, i.e. every day, full sessions
03:31is how he's phrasing it. Now, this is what I'm going to say, I might be getting ahead
03:40of myself here, but I feel like it might be Gary being deliberately coy, particularly
03:45with Brentford and their team will be looking out for who will be available, and Craig Dawson
03:50is a very key player for Wolves. If you want me to put my money on the line, I think he
03:54starts and he plays. Particularly with it being an illness, not an injury, that was
03:58keeping him out against Liverpool. I would like to think that he's playing and Wolves
04:02are going to need him because he's a very important player. If that's the case, Santibaneau
04:05is probably on the bench. He spoke about centre-backs and other issues with the defence in general,
04:12he said we can play full-backs there if we need to, not ideal, but we can. I think Matt
04:16Doherty is probably one that springs to mind. He said Mario can drop in there, but if you
04:21do that you'll probably play an extra defender and play a back five, is how Gary phrased
04:25it. Options, but he wants square pegs and square holes and not the other way around.
04:34Jürgen Strand-Larsen is an interesting one, isn't he? He's had a couple of disappointing
04:38games recently. He's definitely looked promising, especially when Matthias Kuhn is a little
04:42bit more central and not out onto the right or the left. He looks dangerous, but at the
04:47same time, you look at Larsen, you look at the threat, you look at his frame. Would he
04:52benefit more from wingers and Carlos Forza, who's been pretty exciting when he's come
04:57on and may be pushing for a start tomorrow?
05:00I think so, yes. Whether he gets that start straight away tomorrow is maybe questionable.
05:05Belagard's recent performance maybe does help that a little bit. I thought he was quite
05:10quiet against Liverpool. But you are right in terms of style, because you've got a big
05:14striker here that's making intelligent runs in the box, that can hold his own physically.
05:20The players probably don't have quite the penetration on the wings. They haven't got
05:26the speed, they haven't got the power necessarily that they did with Pedro Neto. Fantastic players
05:32in Cunha, for example, but slightly different in the way that he will cause problems for
05:37the opposition. Carlos Forza is very similar to Pedro Neto in terms of style, in terms
05:42of age and experience and quality, because of his lack of experience at the moment, he's
05:49still got a bit of work to do. But he does bring that exciting 1v1, direct, aggressive
05:53play, that Wolves can get a lot out of. Whether it's from the start, whether it's from the
05:57bench, I would like to think they'll have an important part to play tomorrow, because
06:02he can be a threat, he really can. We saw that against Liverpool.
06:04So team news, what are we thinking? Predict the line-up?
06:06Well, and I'm going to stick to what I said on the podcast.
06:09If I go, we can't predict a 5 anymore?
06:11No, no, no, not going to happen. And it inevitably will be wrong once we watch it, as soon as
06:15we say that. So I think it will be Johnston Goal, Simeone Dawson, Totti, Ait Nouri, Andrzej
06:22Al-Gomez, Mario Lamina, Kunja Larsson. And this last position is the big one. I think
06:29Baraka keeps his place. He's started every Premier League game so far. I did think he
06:33was quiet in his last few games, but he brings a structure and a shape that I think Gary
06:37Neal likes, and away from home, that will be more important. If this was a home game,
06:42maybe he wouldn't start. But with it being away from home, I do feel he keeps his place.
06:46Inevitably, I'll be wrong. But, yeah, that's what I think.
06:50What I will say, I think I probably just about agree with you. I think I'll probably just
06:54give Belagard the nod. However, I think that if it's not working, it could be an early
06:59pull.
07:00Yeah, I think so. I think so. You've got options, haven't you?
07:01Yeah, you've got options.
07:02Gomez, Forbes, Scrabby's not played a lot, Wang, Geddes.
07:05And O'Neill made sure that he mentioned Hwang Hee-chan as that first number 9 replacement,
07:10I think, for Larssen. Before, maybe like a Gedges, and I think that maybe, and I know
07:14obviously he's struggled this season, and that's one of those players who you need a
07:18little bit more from. And I think maybe he might have seen this week at Compton, maybe
07:22he might have seen a bit more from Hwang Hee-chan, because that's a senior player who they need
07:25playing and starting to fire.
07:27I like that you're doing the Portuguese pronunciation for...
07:29You like it, don't you?
07:30Yeah, yeah, yeah. You didn't do that with Ruben Neves, did you? You switched it up now.
07:34Neves.
07:35There you go.
07:36It's all good.
07:37You can't say that, can you? Because it sounds ridiculous.
07:41Shush.
07:42Yeah, I know there's a lot of criticism for Hwang Hee-chan at the moment, and understandably
07:46so, because he has been poor, he's been off it. But we're both big fans of what he can
07:50bring. I think he's a fantastic footballer. He's the kind of player, to me, I've interviewed
07:56him a few times and sort of been around him, and I obviously don't know him as well as
08:00Gary Neal would know him, but my sort of analysis of it is I think he's a bit of a confidence
08:05player, I think he's someone who just needs a little bit of an arm around the shoulder.
08:08And I think if he scores tomorrow, for example, you'll probably see him go on a run and do
08:12really well. So, he will be an important player towards this season. Whether he's first off
08:17the bench at the moment on form is questionable, but yeah, he played as a striker, replacing
08:22Larsson against Liverpool, had four touches in 20-odd minutes, which is nowhere near good
08:26enough, and Geddes obviously was an unused sub. But he clearly, having had so much joy
08:31with Hwang as a No. 9 last season, he's clearly considering using him there more often than
08:36not going forward. They're going to have a bit of competition for places there, it
08:39would be interesting if Geddes does end up coming on and playing out wide as well. But
08:43Wolves have got the options, there is options there on the bench. They just need to find
08:47the right time to introduce them, and when those players do come on, they have to have
08:50an impact. There's been too many of them that have been far too quiet off the bench. Players
08:53that have started cup games and done well, then come on in the next Premier League game
08:57and have been very quiet, so you need a bit more impact.
08:59Right, let's do predictions then. I'll start. 1-0 Brentford, Nathan Cullens.
09:06If you don't laugh, you cry.
09:08No, I'm going to go 1-1.
09:10So you're sticking with your potty prediction, I'm going to stick with mine as well. Wolves
09:14win 1-0. Let's go for it.
09:16I'd love to see it. Myself and Liam Keane shall be at the GTEC tomorrow. For all the
09:19build-up on this one, make sure you log on to express.ha.com.