Wolves are in Carabao Cup action tonight against Championship side Preston North End.
Wanderers are yet to win a game so far in 2022/23, and will be hoping to taste victory tonight in their first cup match of the season.
Last term, Wolves failed to win any of their first three Premier League games, losing each one 1-0.
They then played against Nottingham Forest and ran out 4-0 winners at the City Ground, which was a result that kind of kickstarted things for the season.
Bruno Lage will be hoping for a similar kind of scenario tonight, and there’s a good chance of victory for Wolves.
Wanderers have looked decent in the three games so far – there has just been a lack of a cutting edge in the final third.
Lage will undoubtedly make changes to the team that started against Tottenham Hotspur. But he could still name a fairly strong side, as he has tended to do for cup matches since his arrival at the club.
Here’s an XI we could see tonight at Molineux.
Predicted Wolves XI to face Preston
There should be a first appearance of the season for Matija Sarkic, with Jose Sa to be rested ahead of the weekend game with Newcastle United.
Lage may wish to completely freshen things up in defence. With Jonny and Rayan Ait-Nouri having both played three games each, we could potentially see Hugo Bueno and Nelson Semedo operate on the left and right respectively.
Yerson Mosquera was used at right-back in pre-season and could be an option. But the Colombian did play for the U21s last night.
In the middle, Toti Gomes and Willy Boly could get the nod with Nathan Collins and Maximilian Kilman to rotate out.
In midfield, Leander Dendoncker will surely come in after starting on the bench against Spurs, and he could be joined by Ruben Neves and Matheus Nunes.
Nunes played 90 minutes on Saturday, but Lage may be keen to get his new signing up to speed with the way the team plays. He could always be replaced early in the second-half is needs be. Connor Ronan might get minutes, but like Mosquera, he played for the U21s last night so may not start.
In attack, we could see Adama Traore and Hwang Hee-chan playing on the right and left respectively.
Both players started on the bench against Tottenham and should be nice and fresh to come in and stretch Preston.
And then up top, Raul Jimenez might be handed his first start of the season.
The Mexican returned to action at the weekend, and made a good impact. Lage will be hoping his number nine can get on the scoresheet and into some good form, ahead of the club potentially bringing in a new centre-forward.
Tonight is a big game. A convincing win is very much needed after the first three results.
Fail to win, and things could start to get a little tetchy.
Wolves 4-3-3: Sarkic/Semedo, Boly, Gomes, Bueno/Neves, Dendoncker, Nunes/Traore, Hwang, Jimenez.