Express & Star

Dave Edwards: We’ve all been waiting for glimpse of Julen Lopetegui era

Wolves fans have waited a long time for the Julen Lopetegui era to begin, and games against Gillingham and Everton will give us an indication of what is to come.

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It has almost been the perfect start for Lopetegui, he has had all that time to watch his new players and then he has been able to work with them on the training pitch.

He has had the luxury of a few friendlies too, as he tries to implement his ideas onto his team.

And then he gets a Carabao Cup game before his first Premier League fixture to see what it is all about.

The game would usually not get too many fans in attendance, but with it being his first game at Molineux you would imagine there will be a few extra in there.

It is the perfect build-up for them going into the Boxing Day fixture against Everton.

The personnel he plays will be interesting – the Portuguese boys have only just come back from the World Cup, so how much of a part they play is yet to be seen.

It would be nice to see Ruben Neves in the team, as you know he will play against Everton.

What formation he plays is another dilemma – he has already played a four at the back, but he has also switched to a back five in the friendlies.

He has the decision to make on who is going to play in those forward positions, with Raul Jimenez and Diego Costa available.

And then the players with that array of talent who can play behind them – he has lots of options there too.

I really liked the way Adama Traore and Daniel Podence worked together against Cadiz.

Traore played really high and wide trying to stretch the pitch out that way, with Costa playing on the last man, it gave Podence that space and the amount of the ball he picks up in there is great.

I like him, he tries that hard pass which will score you a goal or create you a chance, but he will give it away at times, he never plays safe, and he is always looking to affect the game.

I feel like they are in a good place, and there are likely to be players added in January, with them being linked with a lot of players in different positions.

Will he go full out with his best team against Gillingham?

Or will it be more of a mix-and-match with the Everton game in mind? These are the questions we are waiting to see the answers to.

What you can do, is see the patterns already emerging, with the way he wants to play, and they are getting into better areas to score goals. They have tried to still keep the ball as they did under Bruno Lage, but they seem to be a little more dynamic in the way they attack so far.

The opposition in friendlies has been quite good. They have played a Serie A team and a La Liga team, so it is not like they have been playing lower league teams, they have had to play everything at a tempo.

I feel like they are in a good place, and there are always likely to be players added to that in January, with them being linked with lots in different positions.

They need a centre-back, I think they are going to need one with real quality as well, a shame because they let go of two in the summer.

Everyone will know more about their prospects of survival after these two matches.