While nowhere as bizarre and long-winded as Tottenham Hotspur’s drawn-out managerial search last year, Wolves’ pursuit of a new head coach is threatening to turn into a saga.
It is nearly three weeks since Bruno Lage was sacked following a lifeless 2-0 defeat to West Ham United. Since then, Julen Lopetegui rebuffed their advances for personal reasons. Ruben Amorim committed his future to Sporting Lisbon. Interest in ex-Olympiakos boss Pedro Martins was according to some, very serious indeed and, according to others, not serious at all.
Then came 39-year-old Rob Edwards, and links with a 76-year-old working in Egypt. Even Nuno Espirito Santo didn’t seem keen to return. And, to top it all off, Mick Beale opted to stay at Championship table-toppers QPR just 24 hours after emerging as Wolverhampton Wanderers’ top target.
Where do they go from here, then? Well, back to Peter Bosz, perhaps. According to The Guardian, the 58-year-old Dutchman has already held talks with the Molineux outfit, interviewed before Beale replaced him as the club’s priority option. Unless another name appears like a bolt from the proverbial blue, the former Lyon, Borussia Dortmund, Ajax and Bayer Leverkusen boss currently feels like the most likely candidate to take over a Wolves side who slipped into the relegation zone following Tuesday’s collapse at Crystal Palace.
What would a Peter Bosz Wolves team look like?
Bosz, by his own admission, is a coach who ‘wants to win and to do so in style’. Success and swagger; two things Wolves have been lacking for a number of months.
“I have a philosophy of offensive play, of attractive football,” adds Bosz, who led an Ajax side with an average age of just 22 to the 2017 Europa League final. “Because we play for the fans and not for ourselves. It is not easy, but it is possible to play beautiful attacking football and win titles.”
Such comments will, of course, be music to the ears of Wolves supporters sick of a side to the back teeth of a side with about as much cutting edge as a poundshop butter knife. No team has scored fewer than their five goals in 11 games this term.
End product is not usually a problem for Bosz’s teams, however. In over 20 years, he has seen his sides score over 1,200 goals, with an overall goal-difference of plus-341. Bosz tends to prefer a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 formation. Expect to see Max Kilman and Nathan Collins remain as the club’s first-choice defensive partnership; their technical ability and passing range integral to Bosz’s possession-heavy style. only PSG averaged more than Lyon in Ligue 1 prior to Bosz’s recent sacking.
A return to the three-man backline popularised by Nuno and continued, for the most part, by Lage is highly unlikely. Whoever plays in defence have a very different role under Bosz too. Expect to see Wolves press higher and employ a high line bordering on the kamikaze.
A new look structure
Bosz also likes a midfield high on energy but also guile. The stylish but hard-working Lucas Paqueta and Bruno Guimaraes blossomed under him at Lyon. Ditto Lasse Schone, Davy Klaassen and Hakim Ziyech at Ajax. Ruben Neves will, obviously, keep his place, and Matheus Nunes looks well-suited to ‘Bosz-ball’ too.
The youthful exuberance of Boubacar Traore, meanwhile, could give him the edge over the veteran Joao Moutinho. Jet-heeled wingers Pedro Neto, Adama Traore and Goncalo Guedes, meanwhile, should also thrive in a more attacking, free-form gameplan. So should Raul Jimenez, when fully fit.
Moussa Dembele, Karl Toko Ekambi, Kai Havertz and Kasper Dolberg all scored 18 or more goals under Bosz, enjoying the best and most prolific seasons of their careers.
Bosz’s Ajax and Lyon teams tended to use inverted widemen, cutting inside onto their strongest foot. Expect to see the left-footed Neto on the right, and the right-footed Guedes on the left.
Bosz is no stranger to employing a designated ‘number ten’ either. Paqueta and Havertz shone in those roles at Lyon and Leverkusen. The stylish Daniel Podence is perhaps the most likely candidate to fill that role at Wolves.
In short, Bosz’s Wolves would be far more exciting and attacking than we are used too. Expect a lot more goals, albeit at either end.
