Wolverhampton Wanderers V Liverpool Betting: Tuesday, 26th January

Wolverhampton Wanderers V Liverpool

Tuesday, 26^th January – 19:45 GMT

Wolverhampton Wanderers

League Position: 17th

Recent Form: LWLLL

Wolves will be hoping to bounce back from their disappointing draw in the FA Cup with Crystal Palace by snatching some points away from Liverpool. Molineux will be the setting, an ideal setting for Wolves fans, but Mick McCarthy’s side have struggled to make home their own this season and, with Wolves already losing more than half of their home fixtures thus far, surely there can’t be too many fancying their chances in this contest.

Mick McCarthy rang the changes on Saturday as Wolves took on Crystal Palace in the fourth round of the FA Cup. McCarthy made seven changes in all, almost a completely different side to the one that lost 2-0 in their last league outing at home to Wigan Athletic. A lack of chemistry between the players did tell as Wolves had to come from behind, TWICE, to salvage a draw and keep their FA Cup dreams alive. However, it does now mean that Wolves have an extra fixtures, a replay at Palace, just over the horizon and that could be a distraction for the players and leave McCarthy having to field a stronger side for the replay. 

The biggest problem we’ve noticed, at least from a far, is that Wolves haven’t been scoring enough goals, and freely. This is especially the case at home in games they should be asserting themselves in. With eleven home games completed, Wolves have only managed nine goals at Molineux and the fact they’ve failed to score in five of those eleven is a major concern. The strikers they have at the club haven’t made the cut in the Premiership, with Kevin Doyle & Ebanks-Blake being their main strikers but yet both seemingly appear out of their depth, with Doyle having 5 league goals to his name and Blake just the one.

Another negative, and there does seem to be a few too many, has been the results and overall peformances from Wolves against the ‘elite teams’ shall we say. Man City (1-0), Arsenal (1-4), Chelsea (4-0), Man Utd (3-0) & Man City (0-3). All were defeats, while some included some extremely poor displays from Wolves. There were, however, occasions where Wolves did play OK; their game with Man City being one of them, but they’ve ended up losing games even though they performed to a satisifactory level, and that’s a sign of a club destined for trouble. Moreover, against the so called ‘Big Four’ this season, Wolves have conceded thirteen goals in four games and that’s alarming as a rejuvenated Liverpool come to town to pay the Wolves a visit.

Liverpool

League Position: 6th

Recent Form: LWWDW

Liverpool gave their Champions League aspirations a big boost when they recorded a 2-0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur, one of their main top four contenders, at Anfield. Rafael Benitez, who has been under fire throughout most of the campaign, has now guided his side to a four match unbeaten run and he will surely be expecting to extend that run to five on Tuesday night, although a draw simply won’t do as the Reds’ are still playing catch up in sixth position. A million miles away from where they expected to be at the start of the season. 

Because Liverpool were knocked out of the FA Cup by Reading a fortnight ago, Rafa & Co had the weekend off, whereas Wolves were in action against Crystal Palace. Mick McCarthy did rest a whole host of first team players but will that be enough to bridge the gulf in class between the two sides. Well, Wolves performed extremely well when the pair met in December at Anfield, although their efforts were in vein come the end as Liverpool won 2-0. However, Wolves were far from disgraced in that meeting, meaning Liverpool didn’t play well. They did, however, do just enough to earn all three points but they were fortunate on two levels. The first being their home advantage while the second was the sending off of Stephen Ward midway through the second period. Although the second part was out of their hands, Liverpool will have to do without a large home support and that could be a huge factor.

To be perfectly honest, anything other than a comfortable win would be a poor showing. They are expected to win this at a canter and they should do just that considering they have plenty of good form behind them. At least in the league. Their exit in the FA Cup would have hurt the players but they bounced back with a tremendous win over one of their main rivals for the season in Tottenham, beating Harry Redknapp’s side 2-0 on the night in a game where Liverpool’s players put in one of their biggest shifts of the season. It was the first time in a long while where the players actually worked as a team and battle hard even without their talismanic duo of Steven Gerrard & Fernando Torres. However, the boost for Liverpool fans is that the former, Gerrard, could play some part in Tuesday nights affair as the England international has made a return to training.

There is no excuse for Liverpool for not winning this encounter. They are superior in quality and have by far the better form heading into Molineux’s clash. A four match unbeaten run consisting of three wins and a draw may not seem a lot for a club like Liverpool but they’ve been short of confidence for the best part of the season and this recent vein of form should be the momentum they need to kick on and push the likes of Tottenham & Aston Villa for a top four finish. The possible return of captain Steven Gerrard will be a welcome boost but will it be enough to shake off their poor away record this season? In their last outing they could only manage a 1-1 draw at Stoke City, albeit suffering a late equaliser, but the alarming statistic is that Liverpool have won just two of their last eight away games, even falling to defeat at Portsmouth last month.

Some may say it’s Liverpool who have it all to do…

Match Verdict: Liverpool to WIN – 1.73 PaddyPower

We have two side who can create plenty of decent goalscoring chances but neither have been particularly good in front of the sticks. Wolves are seriously short of quality in attack and that has resulted in them not scoring nearly enough goals, while Liverpool do have some form of talent up top but prefer to pass up the easy chances, Dirk Kuyt being the main culprit. However, give Liverpool enough chances and they will usually take one of them and that could be enough to see of Wolves in a game which could be tighter than some anticipate.

Match Odds:

Wolverhampton Wanderers – 5.50 Bet365

Draw – 3.75 VCbet

Liverpool – 1.73 PaddyPower

SoccerBetting Value Pick: Dirk Kuyt FGS – 6.50 PaddyPower