Wolves head coach set to take charge of crunch fixture

The head coach has been under serious threat of losing his job and after Monday's defeat to West Ham made it three losses in a row, many expected O'Neil to be sacked.

But it is understood O'Neil, who retains the trust of the dressing room, will take charge of the team at Molineux on Saturday, unless chairman Jeff Shi has a late change of heart.

The club's hierarchy believe the issues at Wolves are not down to O'Neil. Instead, they are focusing on making changes to the squad in January and get Wolves out of trouble under O'Neil.

Despite the uncertainty over his future, O'Neil believes his Wolves side will still find a way out of trouble this season.

"I'm confident that we're going to give absolutely everything to get out of it and I'm confident that the lads are going to find a way," O'Neil said.

"There needs to be some more real, honest chats this week around the set-piece goal, for starters, because the instruction given to them is really, really clear around marking Soucek and somehow we've managed to get it wrong again.

"Somewhere there, there's a breakdown, which basically turns the game because West Ham were not causing us any problems and the crowd were starting to turn.

"I think we can really show something in the game and like we did at Everton, we give away a really, really soft goal that changes the whole thing. We have to improve that.

"But while I've got this group and while we have the togetherness and the fight that we have, I'm always confident that we can find a way here."

When asked if he deserves the chance to turn it around, O'Neil added: "That's not my decision.

"I know that I'm a much better coach than I was last year. I know I've learned an awful lot in that time.

"I know that it takes a lot of work to get a team ready that's in a tough moment to perform."