Marcus Braddock looks ahead to the Emirates FA Cup game at home to
Games don't get much bigger for Shrewsbury Town fans. A proper Saturday afternoon cup-tie against our nearest Premier League team in January. Personally I'd prefer a crisp cold day rather than the forecast showers but at this stage I'll take it as an omen that we can rain on Wolves' parade. The Wanderers beat the top team in the country to get to the Emirates F.A. Cup 4th round as they proved they wanted it more than Liverpool in a 2-1 win at Molineux. Last weekend they beat Leicester City 4-3 in and exciting game that showed their ability going forward and also one or two defensive vulnerabilities. The win left them in eighth place in the Premier League.
Top Scorers
Raul Jimenez 6.
Diogo Joto 5.
Ivan Cavaleiro 3.
Matt Doherty 3.
Assists
Raul Jimenez 5.
João Moutinho 4
Matt Doherty 4
Clean Sheets
Seven in all competitions, four at home and three away.
Stats
Wolves have played in three-cup games so far this season, one in the F.A. Cup against Liverpool, and two in the League Cup beating Sheffield Wednesday 2-0 away and losing to Leicester on Penalties at home after a 0-0 draw.
Wolves score an average of one goal per away game and concede an average of 1.2.
Their strongest part of away games is the last fifteen minutes of the second half, during which they've scored five times this season. It's also one of their weaker parts of their game defensively with three conceded.
Both teams score in 51% of their away games.
Referee - Roger East from Wiltshire. Games this season: 15. Yellow cards: 52. Red cards: 0.
Assistant Referees: Simon Beck & James Mainwaring.
Fourth Official: Scott Duncan.
Squad News
David Edwards will be sitting this one out as announced a day or so ago. Shaun Whalley and Aaron Amadi-Holloway are both injured and Lenell John-Lewis is out for the rest of the season.
Summary
A quick look at their squad shows that Wolves manager Nuno Espirito Santo has used his wide knowledge of Portuguese football to bring in almost enough of his countrymen to field a fully Portuguese first team. In fact, if he added Brazilian Leo Bonatini he could field eleven Portuguese speakers although he'd need to play a six-man midfield, three strikers with just 19-year-old Ruben Vinagre at the back.
Obviously this is going to be one of our toughest games all season but I've seen a fair few Shrewsbury Town teams beat higher status teams in my time, so an upset wouldn't be a huge surprise. However, we need to play at our very best and hope that Wolves have a bad day if we're going to get anything!
COYB!!!