I’m bitterly disappointed with Wrexham of late. I do think things have fizzled out a bit and Parkinson is in-fact out of his depth, but the owners are reluctant to part ways given their public ‘job for life’ comments.
They did get an excellent result against Middlesbrough in midweek which will have steadied the ship for now, or rather papered over cracks in my opinion.
Wolves are on a really nice run and are undefeated in their last five, winning four of those which included back-to-back away victories.
The metrics are strong for Wolves too. They average 1.70 xG but restrict opponents to just 1.21.
I do feel Lopez is still a touch lightweight and needs to toughen up for this division, but there’s no doubt about his ability and when he plays well, Wolves often get results.
He’s had at least one shot on target in three of his last five games and he’s also netted twice in that run.
His 11 shots on target this season is the most in the Wolves squad and that’s worked out to 0.98 per 90 minutes in the Championship this season.
Wrexham ship just shy of four shots on target per 90 minutes and given that I fancy Wolves for a result here, a Lopez shot on target should tie in nicely.
Now four foul involvements might look like a lot but Bellegarde’s numbers are absolutely off the scale in both fouls committed and fouls drawn.
Bellegarde has come into that number 10 position. He’s a busy bee, very industrious but also tidy on the ball with a sharp turn of pace.
Bellegarde draws an eye-watering average of 4.17 fouls per 90 minutes.
As for fouls committed, he averages 2.08 per 90 minutes. He tops the charts in both metrics for players who have a decent number of minutes.
He’s landed this selection in each of his last three starts.
An interesting element of Bellegarde’s place in the team is that it’s moved Fer Lopez out to the right-hand side.
Lopez is the most fouled player in the Wolves team, drawing 23 this season - an average of 2.05 times per 90 minutes.
Ekomie himself also has the stats to back it up. He’s averaged 1.15 fouls per 90 minutes in the Championship.
He can also play centrally, but on the left he has made five fouls in three starts.
I’d expect Wolves to have plenty of the game and as mentioned, for Lopez to see plenty of the ball, so it’ll be a tough task for Ekomie.
