Wolves kick off their FA Cup campaign on January 5, with Brentford the club’s opponents in the third round – and there will be a chance for Gary O’Neil to field some players who have yet to start this season.
Wanderers will be hoping for a good run this year, after being dumped out of the competition by Liverpool last season.
There was a real sense of bitterness about Wolves’ exit from the competition last term. That was because Toti Gomes saw a goal chalked off, after an offside was given against Matheus Nunes on-field.
VAR could then not determine Nunes’ position because cameras could not pick up his exact position, so the decision had to stand, and Wolves were forced to play a replay, which Liverpool – of course – won.
So hopefully Wolves can at least go one round better this year, and here are three players Molineux News believes could get their first starts of the season…
Enso Gonzalez
After raiding the South American market in January for Joao Gomes, Wolves picked up Enso Gonzalez from Paraguayan outfit Libertad in the summer.
The club have very high hopes for the youngster, but he has not been ready to get first-team minutes since his arrival.
He’s been finding his feet with the U21s and getting to grips with English football.
O’Neil will want a good cup run, but the game against Brentford feels like a potential opportunity for Gonzalez to show what he can do.
It might be a bit unlikely that he’ll start with the game being at the Gtech Community Stadium, but it would be great to finally get a look at the 18-year-old in first-team action.
Nathan Fraser
Unlike Gonzalez, Fraser has had a taste of the first-team this season, getting substitute appearances against Blackpool – against whom he scored and assisted – and Ipswich in the Carabao Cup.
The youngster has been O’Neil’s fourth-choice striker this season, after the club failed to land a new one in the summer.
He has been splitting his time between the first-team and the U21s, and the game with Brentford could be a chance for him to make his first start.
There has been some talk about Fabio Silva and Sasa Kalajdzic both potentially leaving in January and so, it might be that the club don’t want to jeopardise them ahead of moves away.
It would be really good to see Fraser start, with the powerful youngster no doubt itching to make an impression.
Yerson Mosquera
Mosquera has now finished his loan spell with FC Cincinnati and by several accounts it went really well for him. Pathways manager Steve Davis said recently that he has been ‘outstanding’.
O’Neil will be taking a look at him upon his return and maybe the game with Brentford is a chance to see if he can be of use to the first-team for the second half of the season.
Toti Gomes returned from a loan spell with Grasshoppers in January 2022 and went on to become a trusted squad player, so perhaps the same could happen for Mosquera.
The club do see their £4.5 million signing as a future first-teamer, so O’Neil might want to see where he’s up to by throwing him in against the Bees.