Wolverhampton vs. Fulham Preview: Three questions with Wolves Blog

Cottagers Confidential: You currently sit closer to relegation than promotion, yet the advanced stats say you should be performing much better. Have you just been unlucky? Is there something wrong with the team? Or is your current position about where you'd expect to be?

Wolves Blog: I don't feel like we've been that unlucky. We've just got the basics wrong. We haven't had a settled team, we haven't defended well enough at crucial moments or scored enough goals to turn some of the draws into wins and some of the narrow losses into points. I don't think anyone expected us to do as badly as we have approaching the halfway point, but hopefully things will get better.

CC: Though it wasn't an exact swap, we got Kevin McDonald from you in return for Richard Stearman and Andy Lonergan. Fulham fans are really happy with the result, how are Wolves fans feeling about it?

WB: You totally mugged us. Like you say it wasn't really a swap but if we view it in those terms there is no comparison. Macca was, in my opinion, our best player and we let him go for peanuts. I have to believe there were non-football related reasons behind his exit as any other explanation defies logic. Stearman and Lonergan are decent 7/10 performers at this level but McDonald is a very good player. He'd still walk into our side.

CC: Are there any current Wolves players Fulham fans should watch out for on Saturday? Any that we might poach in the winter window?

WB: Helder Costa, the winger we have on loan from Benfica is a major threat down the right. Nouha Dicko is also getting his fitness back after a year out and he'll also be a handful if anything close to his best. There's no doubt we'll be shipping out players in January as Paul Lambert has already stated the squad is too big, so who knows? We've done a fair bit of business in recent times so maybe there will be more. But I doubt any of our better players will leave, given that we no longer need to sell in order to buy.

CC: Predicted lineup and result?

WB: I've been predicting a narrow home victory all week and I'll stick to my guns. I expect Fulham to be the better side for long spells, but hopefully we can finally put a home performance together after four straight defeats and edge over the line. 2-1.

Lonergan, Doherty, Batth, Hause, Iorfa, Costa, Coady, Edwards, Saiss, Cavaleiro, Dicko.