Wolves sit bottom of the Premier League after four straight defeats, but manager Vitor Pereira may have stumbled upon a tactical change that could turn the club’s fortunes around.
The Old Gold have endured a miserable start to the new Premier League campaign, with their 1-0 defeat at Newcastle confirming that Wolves have made their worst start to a season in 127 years.
To make matters worse, Wolves have been without star striker Jorgen Strand Larsen, who has been sidelined with an achilles injury.
New signing Tolu Arokodare has impressed Pereira, however other signings have struggled to make a significant impact.
With the West Midlands outfit still looking for their first point this season, Pereira is looking to follow in the footsteps of former Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo with a tactical tweak, which could reverse the club’s fortunes.
Vitor Pereira aims to mirror Nuno Espirito Santo’s Wolves success with formation flexibility
When Pereira took over midway through last season, Wolves were in a relegation battle and he immediately reverted to a back-five to stabilse the team.
This season, his 3-4-2-1 system hasn’t been effective and fans have expressed their anger towards Pereira on social media.
However, last weekend the Portuguese manager switched to a 3-5-2, and while Wolves still couldn’t avoid defeat, the first-half performance offered some encouraging signs.
Nuno Espirito Santo was the last Old Gold boss to rotate between these formations, a strategy that helped him secure consecutive seventh-place finishes in the Premier League.
As reported by the Express & Star, Pereira has vowed to use both systems this season, aiming to give his team an edge over the opposition.
He said: “Of course, we need to do it.
“With the same basis, we can change the system. This is something I thought last season, but it was not the time because we didn’t have time to work on two systems.”
Nuno could face Wolves this season with West Ham now monitoring his situation.
Pereira’s Wolves record compared to Nuno
Both managers are known to favour a pragmatic, counter-attacking style, to allow the opposition to have the majority of possession and then hit them during transitions.
Nuno boasts a significantly better record during his time at Molineux, but also had stronger backing in the transfer market, with Fosun heavily investing in the early days and agent Jorge Mendes playing a key role in recruitment.
| Manager | Vitor Pereria | Nuno Espirito Santo |
| Matches | 30 | 199 |
| Wins | 13 | 96 |
| Draws | 3 | 46 |
| Losses | 14 | 57 |
The two Portuguese managers have publicly spoken about how they like to switch between different systems depending on the opposition, and many of their core philosophies are similar.
Periera is also keen on pushing his wing-backs high up the pitch, mirroring the tactical principles that brought Wolves success under Nuno.
The 57-year-old head coach knows that replicating Nuno’s early successes will require both defensive solidity and direct attacking play, which is something he is trying to instill in the current squad.