Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has warned his side that they need to be more ruthless in front of goal, something that they failed to do when Wolves came to Old Trafford last season.
A Joao Moutinho goal just eight minutes from time in January earlier this year saw United lose 1-0 to Wolves the last time the two sides met. The result was Ralf Rangnick's first defeat of his tenure, but the less said about that the better.
Ten Hag has undeniably overseen a significant improvement at the club since he took over this summer, yet there is still work to be done. One of the Dutchman's more consistent complaints about his squad is that they simply are not scoring enough goals.
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The victory over Nottingham Forest saw United find the back of the net three times on just the second occasion in the Premier League this season, the other coming in the 6-3 derby day defeat to Manchester City. Yet even though his side kept a clean sheet and showed their attacking prowess, Ten Hag still wanted his team to be more clinical in front of goal.
“We have to score more goals," Ten Hag told club media after the win against Forest. "I think we created so many chances, it takes us until just before the end to make the third goal. I think we have to finish the game in earlier moments.
"I think just after half-time, we created two really good chances and we have to finish the game. Many games are to come, you can then save more energy, which is better for everyone, but also for the progress of the team, you need that.
"I think our players can score, you can see that, [Anthony] Martial is a goalscorer, [Marcus] Rashford is a goalscorer, Bruno Fernandes scores goals, so we have a lot of players who can score goals but we have to be ruthless.”
During the defeat to Wolves last term, Fernandes himself missed a glorious chance to put United ahead after the hour mark - hitting the bar from twelve yards out when he really should have done better. A lack of goals specifically from the midfield is another one of Ten Hag's grumbles and it is something the Portugal international will be desperate to fix.
Julen Lopetegui's side have only managed to score 10 goals in 16 league matches so far this campaign, only keeping three clean sheets along the way. On paper, United should go into the game against Wolves as strong favourites, but as last season's result showed, they need to take their chances when they come.
Ten Hag knows that adding goals to his side's performances is one of the last pieces of the puzzle that he has left to fix. The game against Wolves will give his squad the perfect chance to show they can in fact be ruthless and mount a serious challenge for a finish in the Champions League places.
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