Scoring a pressing issue but who would complain at 0-0 this weekend?

Mike Taylor, BBC Radio WM

After last week’s valiant attempt to restrain Liverpool almost succeeded, Bruno Lage is now preparing his squad – or those still standing – for another of the Premier League’s tallest tasks.

The primary concern is still player fitness. The list of those already ruled out until 2022 is long, but hopefully Marcal is available again after his Covid absence.  If Rayan Ait-Nouri is fit, his recent performances would fully justify inclusion, but he limped off near the end of the Liverpool game – his absence a key factor in the goal that decided it.

Conor Coady needed running repairs last weekend, though it would have needed a team of mules to drag him from the field in that match above all others – but it later emerged he has been managing an ankle injury for the past month. Wolves can't afford to lose him as a defender or a leader.

And there's the problem of how to start scoring. After blanks in four of their past five games – the second such run this season – it is a pressing issue, although maybe less so for a fixture like this.

Who would complain if Wolves came back from Manchester City with another 0-0. Bruno Lage wouldn’t, but he has has talked boldly of wanting to play attacking, attractive football.

He may be cheered by the fact that not only were City turned over at home recently by Crystal Palace, but many of his squad were involved in Wolves’ astonishing double over Pep Guardiola's side in 2019-20.