Wolves and West Ham United s dilemma breakout, who can rise first in adversity

On August 26, a focus showdown in the second round of the British League Cup is about to start at the Molyneux Stadium, and Wolves will face the challenge of West Ham United at home. Both teams have encountered a goal-breaking opening in the new season of the Premier League. When they meet in the Cup, they are eager to use a victory to reverse the decline and boost morale. The Wolves' start of the new season is a nightmare. In the first round of the Premier League, they lost to Manchester City with a huge gap of 0-4 at home. They were completely suppressed by their opponents in the whole game, made no achievements on the offensive end, and had many loopholes on the defensive end. In the second round of away challenge to Bournemouth, the Wolves still failed to find the feeling of winning. The 0-1 loss caused them to suffer two consecutive losses, and they did not score a goal in these two games, currently ranked second to last in the Premier League. The team's consecutive defeats in various competitions have expanded to 5 games, and the number of unwinding games has reached as many as 10 games, and the morale of the players has been extremely low. The weak offensive team is the biggest problem facing Wolves at present. During the offseason, the team's offensive core Cunha transferred to Manchester United for a high price of 74.2 million euros, main full-back Ait Nuri also transferred to Manchester City for 36.8 million euros, and winger Guedes joined Real Sociedad for 4 million euros. The departure of many main players greatly reduced the Wolves' offensive strength. They averaged 1.42 goals per game last season, but they lost no results in the first two league games in the new season. In addition, Wolves' defense is not stable, with averaging 1.82 goals conceded, and the defense line seems to be useless.

However, Wolves still have certain advantages in playing at home. They have won 3 win, 2 draws and 1 loss in their last 6 home games against West Ham United. With the cheers of home fans, players can often inspire stronger fighting spirit. From a tactical style perspective, the Wolves usually adopt a strategy of steady defense and quick counterattack. When the ball possession rate is not superior, they rely on a tight defensive organization and once they obtain the ball, they quickly launch a counterattack and use the player's speed to attack the opponent's defense line. However, the current team's lack of offense and lack of sufficient firepower support for counterattacks, which undoubtedly brings great difficulties to their tactical execution. The situation at West Ham United is also not optimistic. In the Premier League last season, their performance was only at the downstream level, with 11 wins, 10 draws and 17 losses in 38 rounds, and 43 points, only 17 points higher than the relegation zone. Throughout the season, the team has been weak in offense and defense, with 46 goals and 62 goals conceded, averaging 1.21 goals and 1.63 goals conceded.

West Ham United suffered a heavy blow at the beginning of the new season. The first round of the league was defeated 0-3 by the newly promoted Sunderland, which was beyond the expectations of many people. After returning to home, they were reversed by Chelsea with a big score of 1-5, conceding 8 goals in two games, and their poor performance on the defensive end was shocking. Moreover, West Ham United's away results have always been unstable, with only 3 wins, 2 draws and 5 losses in the last three leagues away games, with a winning rate of only 30%, and suffered a big defeat in its first away game in the new season.

Judging from the data on both offense and defense, West Ham United's problems are also prominent. On the offensive end, they have only scored 14 goals in their last 10 main games, with an average of 1.4 goals per game, which is not very efficient. They have handed in 3 games in the period and have only scored 1 goal in two rounds of the league in the new season. The defensive end was even worse, conceding 20 goals in 10 games, conceded 2 goals per game, completing only 1 clean sheet, and was 8 goals by the opponent in two rounds of the new season. In the last Premier League match against Chelsea, West Ham United scored 3 goals through set pieces by their opponents. You should know that defensive set pieces were once their strength, but now they have become a major weakness of the team, which has a huge blow to the team's morale.

personnel, according to official news from West Ham United, main midfielder Edson Alvarez has joined Turkish club Fenerbahce on loan in the 2025/26 season, and will be able to choose a permanent transfer next summer. As the team's main midfielder last season, Alvarez's departure caused great losses to the team's midfield defense. The weakening of midfield defense has made the defense more pressure faced, which is also an important reason for West Ham's current poor defense.

Judging from the historical confrontation data, in the last 6 matches, Wolves have 3 wins, 0 draws and 3 losses, scored 7 goals, conceded 8 goals, 4 big goals and 2 small goals, and the two teams have similar strengths. And in the last 10 matches, Wolves' record against West Ham United is 4-6, but all the games were tied and there was no draw. Considering the recent sluggish state of the two teams, this game is very likely to become a stalemate battle. The Wolves have the advantage of home court and will definitely hope to show their tenacious fighting spirit in front of home fans and strive to win the first victory of the new season; although West Ham United plays away, they are also eager to regain confidence through this game and get rid of the current dilemma. Who can laugh to the end in this game? Let's wait and see.