Maguire to Lead Man United against Wolves

Daniel Podence is a major doubt after the Wolves forward was forced off in the win at Everton with a leg issue. Boubacar Toure and Jonny could both make their returns from injury.

Manchester United captain. Harry Maguire. is in contention to start after making his comeback from illness as a substitute in the win against Nottingham Forest.

Fellow centre-back Lisandro Martinez returned to training on Wednesday following Argentina’s World Cup win. Wolves will be full of confidence after their last-gasp win over Everton in Julen Lopetegui’s first game in charge.

United were dominant in their win over Nottingham Forest and are starting to play the way Ten Hag wants them to.

Head-to-head, Wolves won their most recent Premier League meeting with Manchester United 1-0 at Old Trafford in January. They last won consecutive league games against them between September 1979 and August 1980. United could win on three consecutive league visits to Molineux for the first time.

The Red Devils scored nine goals across two Premier League encounters in 2011-12 but they have netted just nine in total in the 11 matches between the sides since.

Wolves are looking to secure consecutive Premier League wins for the first time since March, a sequence which also included an away win against Everton. However, they have lost their last three home league games by an aggregate score of 9-2.

They begin this game 18th in the Premier League table. Their three league victories so far in this campaign were against the teams currently 17th, 19th and 20th in the table (prior to the latest round of fixtures).

Wolves can become the first club to reach double figures in Premier League home defeats in consecutive years, having lost 10 times in 2021.

Since their return to the Premier League in 2018, Wolves have scored eight 90th-minute winning goals in the competition, including one against Everton last time out. Only Liverpool (10) and Tottenham (nine) have netted more in this period.

Wolves have lost just one of their last nine league games played on New Year’s Eve (W4, D4), though it was in their last such match, at home to QPR in 2016.

Julen Lopetegui is the first Wolves manager to win his opening top-flight game since John Barnwell in November 1978. He could become only the third manager to win his first two top-flight fixtures in charge of the club after Andy Beattie in 1964 and Sammy Chung in 1977.

Lopetegui was Sevilla manager when they won the 2020 Europa League, beating Manchester United 2-1 in the semi-finals.
Culled from BBCSports