Bom Dia! and welcome back to Molineux for season 9 with Nick and his Portuguese pack of Wolves, who last week managed to salvage a 4th place finish at the end of what was a mostly miserable campaign, which almost cost Nick his job at one point. Will this season be any different? Here’s Nick…

Here’s how the pack is looking. Since adding ageing ballers Luis Figo and Rui Costa to the ranks halfway through last season, no more big names want to join us, so I’ve once again been forced to raid the summer regen bank.

The fixture computer hasn’t been kind, and has handed us Arsenal, Liverpool, Man Utd and European champions Sunderland among our last 7 games, so if we’re anywhere near competing for the title, it’ll be a tough run-in.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking about new tactics, as the good old 2-3-1-2-2 shipped far too many goals and cost us far too many points. So after much deliberation, I’ve settled on this. The front 5 setup brought me much success in Basque Boys, and 3 centre backs seems to generally be a winner on this game. We’ll see…

The immediate signs look good, as we open with a comfortable home win over Coventry. Of course Scholes scores and Hedman is man of the match yet again, but that’s standard…

The next starlet to leave on loan is Mozer, who heads to his homeland for some game time…

We’ve never won at Leeds, and our latest visit to Elland Road is heading for a stalemate, but Coelho strikes late to make it 2 goals and 2 wins in as many games. So far, so good…

I like to have 4 strikers, and with Hugo set to go out on loan and Coelho, Amaral and Fidalgo occupying the other 3 berths, this guy fills the quota for £400k from Atletico Madrid B…

We drop our first points at home in a Desmond with Middlesbrough, where Coelho continues his fine form with a brace, and Boro’s front man also shows that he’s by no means a Dud…

We quickly forget that disappointment though, and plough The Tractor Boys thoroughly into their own field. But at 3-0 up, we end up taking our foot off the gas, and it ends up being far closer than it perhaps should have been…

Switching to European matters briefly… Our reward for finishing 4th in the league last season is a date with Frenchmen, RC Lens.

Meanwhile, normal service is resumed domestically, as for once we make light work of Everton as Coelho scores for the 5th game in a row. I think I’m liking this new formation…

It’ll be Bolton up first in the League Cup…

But then, just as I’m getting carried away as usual, the sharp blades well and truly burst our bubble, courtesy of a Guilherme hat trick. I fear that my comments last match about how well Coelho is doing may have jinxed him…

Crespo is next to go out on loan. Hopefully he doesn’t turn out to be as shite as his namesake, Hernan normally is on this game…

I needn’t have worried about the Sheffield United loss, as we’re emphatically back on track against City, courtesy of a Rui Costa hat trick and Coelho showing that he’s not jinxed.

To Europe… And we’re in great form at the minute, so I go into the first leg with Lens full of confidence, which turns out to be very naive of me, and with no away goal, there’s a lot of work to be done in the second leg…

Back in the league, The Boa gives us a perfect start at Birmingham, but the hosts equalise on the hour to give us The St. Andrew’s Blues…

But we seem to respond well to setbacks, and follow that draw up with a win at Colchester, with Coelho back among the goals, and Rui Costa showing that age is just a number…

One setback we can’t recover from however, is the 1st leg defeat at Lens, as the 2nd leg brings yet more disappointment and sees this year’s European adventure come to a premature end.

Hugo heads out on loan to Basque Country, one of my most favourite parts of Spain…

Picão makes the most of a rare start against Leicester in the absence of Figo, and scores what could be an important goal to snatch a point. Not great, but better than a loss, I guess.

And then 2 days later, the poor bloke suffers a horrific injury in training, which will see him out of action until March. Get well soon, Pat.

The international break comes and goes, and I’m hoping for a response to the draw against Leicester, but I get the complete opposite, as a well below par performance at Bolton condemns us to our 2nd defeat of the season.

If there’s 2 men I can rely on to pull us out of a mini slump, it’s Coelho and Rui Costa, and once again the dynamic duo bring home the bacon against a not quite so Crazy Gang…

We end this week with some League Cup action, and a chance to get revenge on Bolton. Figo finds the net a little past the quarter of an hour mark, and his solitary strike is enough to see us through to face Villa in the next round…

Here’s how the league table is looking after the first 12 games. The new formation seems to be holding up, although the goals against column could still be better, but it would probably be worse if I was still using the 2-3-1-2-2. I’m happy with the start we’ve made though, but experience has taught me to definitely not get too excited at this early stage, so I won’t…

So, we’re off and running in season 9. Tune in next week as league games against table toppers Arsenal, Liverpool, Man Utd and European champions Sunderland will determine whether this formation really does have mileage, or whether it’s just temporarily papering over the cracks. Adeus!