Wolverhampton Wanderers v Middlesbrough Betting Tips: Goals on the card at Molineux

These two teams have spent a lot of money over the summer and are both looking to play an attacking brand of football to take the Championship by storm. However, it is unlikely that both will have such brilliant seasons and this first match could be a good indicator.

Wolves’ connection with super agent Jorge Mendes has enabled them to sign a large number of highly talented players, particularly from Portugal. However, in addition to the questionable idea of having an agent dictate a club’s transfer policy, this same tactic last season failed to yield results as most of the players failed to adjust to the robustness of the Championship. It will be interesting to see if they can do so this time around.

New manager Nuno has primarily brought in defensive players for this campaign to add to a team who generally have good options in the final third with the likes of Helder Costa and Dave Edwards. The pressure is certainly on new £15m man Ruben Neves to dictate play from the midfield. When you look at the squad on paper, it looks like Wolves have a well balanced side, however, the point I made earlier about adjusting to the style of the Championship must be reinforced. I feel this campaign will either go spectacularly well or spectacularly badly for Wolves.

The Wanderers’ had a mixed bag at Molineux last season and only recorded back-to-back home victories once. Towards the end of the campaign, they really struggled in front of goal, finding the back of the net just once in their final four home outings.

As mentioned earlier, Middlesbrough have spent heavily this summer in order to try and secure immediate promotion back to the Premier League.

Boro were decent at the back in their top flight campaign last term with just 53 goals conceded in 38 matches – fewer than anybody else in the bottom ten. However, they were awful up front and were the league’s lowest scorers with just 27 goals scored. New manager Garry Monk has been given license to add to their forward department with £30m spent on strikers alone so far this summer.

The Teesiders’ away form was horrendous last season with their only win on the road coming in their first away game of the campaign – against Sunderland who eventually finished bottom of the league. Improvement is undoubtedly needed this time around if Boro have any hopes of finishing top of the league.

Despite the fact that Wolves have made a number of defensive signings this summer, both of these sides are likely to try and play attacking football this season and so we can probably expect some goals here. As this is the first match of the season for this duo, it is hard to predict a result so I have gone for the result-neutral option of Both Teams to Score at Evens.