Huddersfield defeat earlier this season will not affect Wolves – Nuno
Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo insists their defeat to Huddersfield earlier this season will have no bearing on the return fixture.
Wanderers were surprisingly beaten 2-0 at Molineux in November by the Terriers, who were then managed by David Wagner.
Jan Siewert is now in charge of Huddersfield and Nuno believes too much has changed to be able to use that game in his analysis and preparation for the match in west Yorkshire on Tuesday night.
He told the club’s official website: “It’s a game that is very far away, we don’t take that game as our analysis for tomorrow. Teams have changed, their manager has changed, and they are playing in a different way.
“I remember at that moment they were really aggressive and we were not able to play. Since then I think we’ve improved on our building, the way we try to go out, but it’s not a reference for tomorrow.
“The most relevant are the previous games and the previous performance. Then you can see the new ideas, the new movements, and you have to try and find solutions based on the last performance of Huddersfield, which is not so far away.”
Aaron Mooy scored both Huddersfield goals in their victory at Wolves – just one of only two Premier League games the Terriers have won this season.
Get FourFourTwo Newsletter
The best features, fun and footballing quizzes, straight to your inbox every week.
They have been unable to build on that success, though, and remain rooted to the bottom of the table and head into Tuesday’s game 14 points adrift of safety.
However, Nuno has seen some improvement in Huddersfield since Siewert took over. He said: “Of course, it’s a tough job to try and re-motivate a team, trying to know there’s still games to be played.
“We analyse and look at them, clearly there are new ideas, they are trying to improve. It’s a very competitive team, not in a good moment in terms of results, but you can see improvements there. We respect them and have to be alert and switched on.
“We don’t underestimate Huddersfield at all. What we know is it’s going to be a very tough game. We know Huddersfield is a good team in a bad moment.”
Wolves have no new injury concerns. Joao Moutinho is fit despite needing stitches after being caught in the face by an elbow from Bournemouth’s Jefferson Lerma on Saturday. The Portugal midfielder’s availability means Nuno could pick an unchanged team.
FourFourTwo was launched in 1994 on the back of a World Cup that England hadn’t even qualified for. It was an act of madness… but it somehow worked out. Our mission is to offer our intelligent, international audience access to the game’s biggest names, insightful analysis... and a bit of a giggle. We unashamedly love this game and we hope that our coverage reflects that.