Rob Edwards says his Wolves side will face a “better and quicker” Liverpool in Friday night’s FA Cup fifth-round showdown at Molineux
Wolves boss Rob Edwards shakes hands with his Liverpool counterpart Arne Slot after Tuesday’s Premier League match at Molineux (Image: Catherine Ivill – AMA/Getty Images)
Wolves boss Rob Edwards believes his side have to be ready for a “better and quicker” Liverpool when the teams face off for the second time in three days at Molineux in the FA Cup tonight (Friday, 8pm kick-off).
Defending champions Liverpool became only the third team to lose to Wolves when they went down to a miserable 2-1 Premier League defeat on Tuesday night.
The basement boys are much improved under Edwards, who took over the reins in November, and went into the game on the back of a morale-boosting 2-0 derby win at home to Aston Villa.
But that could not excuse a lacklustre display from the Reds, who did not really get going until Rodrigo Gomes opened the scoring in the 78th minute.
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Mohamed Salah ended his 10-game wait for a Premier League goal when he equalised five minutes later and Liverpool piled on the pressure in search of a winner. Instead they were hit by a 94th-minute sucker-punch when their former transfer target Andre saw his shot deflect off Joe Gomez and fly over the stranded Alisson Becker into the net.
And on facing the Reds for the second time in quick succession, Edwards said: “It’s the same team, but we will redo it because we always go through it. We’ll all always look at areas that we didn’t get right the other night, areas we need to improve, areas where we think they’ll try and exploit, so there’s always bits that we can brush up on.
“We need to be better than we were the other night to try and get something from the game because we expect them to be better.
“Reflecting and watching the game back and what we’ve been able to say with the boys, they’re a brilliant team and they’ve got great players. They might make one or two changes, but I don’t anticipate loads of change tactically, because it could still cause us problems what they do.
“But I think they’ll look to try and do things better and quicker, and we’ve got to be ready for that. There was actually a lot of good stuff in the first half without us then carrying enough threat, and we were actually pretty good without the ball and there was some really good moments with it as well.
“But once we actually broke a line or got behind their midfield, we needed to be a bit better.
“The game then started opening up a little bit more in the latter stages and we looked a bit of a threat, but I thought the impact of the lads coming on was really good.”
Despite their back-to-back wins, it will still need a miracle for Wolves to beat the drop given they are 12 points behind fourth-from-bottom Nottingham Forest with nine matches of the Premier League campaign to play.
But with their supporters dreaming of a run to Wembley in the FA Cup, Edwards said: “Of course, they are. We’re going into the game with all intent and purpose to try and win it. Our aim is to go through and to progress as far as possible in the cup.
“We know the scale of the challenge, we know how good Liverpool are, and we’re always trying to be very respectful of the opposition, but especially this opposition.
“They’ve got an amazing manager who’s won things and their players are all used to winning the biggest of titles, but we have to go into the game believing, and I want the fans to as well.”