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Wolverhampton vs Leicester City
Live from the Molineux Stadium at 2:45 ET on ESPN +
The League Cup has played a huge part in Leicester’s history and I expect Claude Puel to respect that when they face Wolves away on Tuesday.
The Opposition
Wolves were away to Sheffield Wednesday their last time out in the Cup and were a highly rotated side that traveled that night. Lined up in a 3-4-3, the likes of Léo Bonatini and Adama Traoré spearheaded the attack. Wolverhampton controlled most of the possession, leading with 61%, and had a 90% success rate on 670 passes. It wasn’t until the 53rd minute Wolves got their goal from Bonatini. It was a blocked cross from Adama that fell to the feet of Léo who scuffed it home. Hélder Costa won his own penalty and put the match beyond doubt when he scored it in the 85th minute.
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Much like their last match, I expect a heavily rotated side come match day, preferring to keep their first team fresh for the upcoming game against Southampton. While a cup run is always fun for a newly promoted side, I would wager that the majority of fans would take safety over a deep cup run.
The Foxes
Leicester City had a high flying start to their tournament when they faced Fleetwood Town in the second round at the King Power. It took only 8 minutes for Christian Fuchs to sprinkle his magic on the game with a wunderbar of a strike. Vicente Iborra doubled the advantage in the 39th, then Kelechi Iheanacho and Rachid Ghezzal put the match in the history books in the 46th and 71st minutes respectively.
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With Puel’s strongest starting side yet to be found, I expect Shinji Okazaki to get the start against Wolves. Jamie Vardy and Iheanacho both played well on Saturday and I would like to see them start once again versus Newcastle, ergo Shinji getting the start. Unless Puel calls up a player from the U-23 team, very unlikely since they just played on Monday, he’s our only true striker option to start up front. The only other scenario is the false 9 with Demarai Gray, but that didn’t work so well last time out.
The Prediction
Leicester are a deeper squad and should prevail on Tuesday. With Adrien Silva and Iborra yet to play a massive part so far this season, I think there is just too much class in them to lose. A 2-0 Leicester victory would do well for the fringe players confidence.