MatchThe opposition lowdown: Wolverhampton Wanderers
Get the lowdown on Wolverhampton Wanderers ahead of Liverpool’s final Premier League game of the season at Anfield on Sunday afternoon.
Recent form
Gary O’Neil’s side arrive on Merseyside 13th in the Premier League table, but on a run of only one win in their last 10 games in all competitions.
That victory came against Luton Town at Molineux on April 27, with Wolves losing both of their two matches since, 5-1 at Manchester City and 3-1 at home to Crystal Palace last time out.
Ones to watch
Wolves carry with them plenty of attacking threat, with leading scorers Matheus Cunha (14 goals in all competitions) and Hwang Hee-chan (13) both looking to add to their respective tallies.
Pedro Neto is likely to be available too, the Portugal international having recorded 10 assists this season despite missing large parts due to injury.
Wing-back Rayan Ait-Nouri and captain Max Kilman are other key players for O’Neil’s side.
Squad news
Wolves expect Neto to be part of the squad for Sunday’s game, having returned to training this week, but fellow wideman Pablo Sarabia is a doubt due to a minor injury.
Centre-back Craig Dawson will miss out with a groin issue.
Previous meetings
Liverpool were victorious when the sides met at Molineux back in September, with second-half goals from Cody Gakpo and Andy Robertson, plus a Hugo Bueno own goal, giving the Reds a 3-1 win.
There were four meetings last season in total, with Jürgen Klopp’s side winning two. Goals from Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah secured a 2-0 win at Anfield in March 2023, while Harvey Elliott’s stunning strike sealed an Emirates FA Cup third-round triumph a couple of months earlier.
In the Premier League Liverpool have won 15, drawn two and lost two of 19 encounters, and they have won seven of the eight clashes at Anfield, including each of the last six.
Two of those six came on the final day of the season, Liverpool winning 2-0 in May 2019 and 3-1 in May 2022.
Pre-match stats
The Reds are seeking to record their sixth league double over Wolves in the last seven seasons.
Of the last 42 league goals scored in the fixture Liverpool have scored 33.
Liverpool have not been awarded a league penalty against Wolves since December 1977 when Phil Neal scored the game’s only goal from the spot.
This will be Salah’s 250th league game for Liverpool - he has scored 155 goals.
This will be the 1,080th match of Klopp’s managerial career, and he could become the first Liverpool manager to win his final game in charge of the club since Matt McQueen in February 1928.
The Reds are four goals short of recording 400 in all Anfield league games under Klopp.
Since losing 6-1 at Stoke in 2015, the Reds are unbeaten in eight final day of the league season fixtures, winning six and drawing two.
What they said…
Wolves boss O’Neil
“There’s still a chance we can finish in the top 10 mathematically, and if you’d have said that to me at the start of the season, that we could win the last game and potentially finish top 10, I’d have definitely signed up to it. We go there with that as our real focus. We’re desperate to win another game. We’ve worked really hard to keep ourselves in a position where we still have an opportunity to finish in the top 10.
“It’s a tough test, so we’ll need everyone available to us. Anfield’s a tough place to go at the best of times, so the atmosphere and emotion around Sunday will be extremely tough. We’re going to need everybody to put in one hell of a performance to give us a chance.”