Huddersfield v Wolves preview: Tough Molineux loss was turning point

Aaron Mooy struck twice in what was a deserved victory for the Terriers – and their last win.

Since then, Huddersfield have had David Wagner leave and Jan Siewert come in as boss as they have been cut adrift in the top flight.

Wolves, meanwhile, have gone from strength to strength, rising to eighth – on the cusp of setting a record Premier League points tally.

The defeat to the Terriers – part of a winless November – was ‘one of the worst performances’ Nuno had seen during his time at the club.

And reflecting on that day and the development over the past few months, he said: “It was a tough moment during the season, and we know this can happen. But we bounced back and reacted.

“How we did it was by keeping our belief – the boys worked harder than ever.

“Since then, the idea has been to maintain our high standards and keep improving.

“It’s important to realise the moment you’re in.

“When you have bad moments, you have to react.

“When you’re doing OK, you have to keep going. You cannot relax or get complacent.

“But we don’t look at that game as the analysis.

“The teams have changed and their manager has changed. They’re playing a different way.

“But I remember they were aggressive and we were not able to play.

“Since then, we have improved. The most relevant are the (recent) games and performances.”

Huddersfield have only scored four goals in their last 12 league games, and are winless in 14.

But Nuno knows underestimating them ‘would be the biggest mistake’ Wolves could make.

“Of course it’s a tough job, trying to remotivate the team, to know there are still games to be played,” said Nuno on the job Siewert has on his hands.

“We’ve analysed and looked at them, and clearly they have new ideas and are trying to improve.

“It’s a very competitive team. You can see improvement, so we have to be alert and switched on.

“They are aggressive and try to press, try to play.

“Sometimes things don’t happen, but we don’t underestimate them at all.

“We don’t think like that at all. That would be the biggest mistake.”

He added: “We know it’s going to be a tough game.

“Huddersfield are a good team in a bad moment, so we respect that and know they have quality there which is going to make our task very hard.”

Wolves are going into the game with a clean bill of health. Joao Moutinho was elbowed in the face by Jefferson Lerma in Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Bournemouth but he carried on and has trained since.

Nuno says

"We have to recover well and we go again. We have a short squad of 16 players, so you cannot lose focus. Every day is important in our work."

Memory lane

Wolves won 4-1 at Huddersfield in February 2015. Conor Coady, Wolves’ current skipper, played for the Terriers back then and scored an own goal.

Key man

Raul Jimenez scored his 10th Premier League goal of the season at Bournemouth and would love another against the division’s basement boys.

Likely line-ups

Wolves (3-5-2): Patricio; Bennett, Coady, Boly; Doherty, Neves, Dendoncker, Moutinho, Otto; Jimenez, Jota

Subs: Ruddy (gk), Vinagre, Saiss, Gibbs-White, Costa, Cavaleiro, Traore

Huddersfield (4-2-3-1): Lossl; Hadergjonaj, Lowe, Schindler, Kongolo; Mooy, Hogg; Kachunga, Pritchard, Diakhaby; Grant