Dave Edwards: A solid pre-season but Wolves need attacking depth

Read the latest Wolves column from Dave Edwards.

Wolves fans have now had a real chance to look at what Cesar Peixoto’s team will look like.

With friendlies against Maidenhead and Real Sociedad in front of supporters, it has given them a glimpse into his style of play, with two more friendlies to come before the start of the season.

It's hard to take too much from a friendly game because there's a lot of work in progress going on, but I think Wolves looked competitive against last season’s Spanish club winners Real Sociedad.

They looked like they had an identity, especially out of possession and they were very specific in the way they were playing their shape, playing a mid-block when Real Sociedad had comfortable possession.

But off any restarts - from the goalkeeper in particular - they were super aggressive in pressing high up the pitch with a real intensity and waiting for those moments.

When the moments do come along they are going to fully commit, which will be exciting for Wolves fans watching their players go and get after teams.

That’s where they got the opening goal from and when you do have pace in those wide positions, like we expect Wolves to have this season, you've got a good chance of winning the ball back and that's where Rodrigo Gomes got that goal.

Wolves controlled a lot of the possession in the game, but lacked a little bit in the forward areas, but as a whole it's been a decent starting point.

Although some fans are feeling a little bit underwhelmed at the moment in terms of recruitment and the performance, it's so difficult to read too much into these games.

I always look back at Nuno's first pre-season and that was very underwhelming from a performance point of view.

We lost at Shrewsbury, we had a very poor performance against Peterborough even though we won that game, but in those matches we were going in very, very tired. It was all part of the process and part of the strategy to build fitness.

We were training in the morning, playing games in the afternoon, it was very tough physically and that showed in the games, but then it all came together for that final pre-season game against Leicester where we were excellent, and that led us into the first game against Middlesbrough.

Fans should take any small positives they can and hopefully, with the Port Vale game coming up very soon, we can see a Wolves team that is competitive and ready to go.

There isn’t a lot of time left and the World Cup players are now returning, but the squad definitely needs reinforcements and it is the forward areas which really need to be looked at.

We don’t know if Hwang Hee-chan will stay, Raul Jimenez has just come back, while Adam Armstrong has just returned from an injury, meaning we’ve had Tom Edozie and Tawanda Chirewa playing as strikers in games.

Sasa Kalajdzic is another option and it will be interesting to see what happens with him, but we do look light in that area at the moment.

We need a solution and final decision on some of these players and any signings will ideally come sooner rather than later.

The wide areas are also going to be so important for Wolves because we lacked a lot of creativity in the Real Sociedad game.

Mane is probably our most creative player and we’re a little bit over-reliant on him at times. He’s still very, very young and will make wrong decisions at times as well.

With Rafiki Said being injured, that is another area that we will need to strengthen as well, although R.Gomes fits the bill well with the way Peixoto wants his team to press and have pace and I can see him being very important.

Hopefully Fer Lopez can get back fit as soon as possible because I do see him being very important too, whether it's operating in a number 10 role or out wide. I think he can add some real quality, especially in the Championship.

He'll have a little bit more control in games, he'll have more of the ball and when he has got the ball at his feet, we've seen some stellar moments from him already.

It's the physicality side which deserted him a little bit in the Premier League, but when you have more of the ball, you are less reliant on that physicality. He has a point to prove in a Wolves shirt.

The top end of the pitch is the area Wolves really need to get locked down, whether that's players coming in from other clubs or getting players back fit, ready and available, if the team wants to push on for the start of the season.

Subscribe now for HALF PRICE and catch every minute of our Wolves coverage this season - from pre-season to the final whistle: https://www.expressandstar.com/subscriptions

Related topics:

Comment Guidelines

Iconic Media encourages reader discussion on our stories. User feedback, insights and back-and-forth exchanges add a rich layer of context to reporting. Please review our Community Guidelines before commenting.

Local news you can trust
Follow us
© 2026 Iconic Media Group Ltd. All rights reserved.Cookie SettingsTerms and ConditionsPrivacy notice