Wolves legend Dave Edwards has backed Jorgen Strand Larsen to finish his debut season in the Premier League with his flurry, and highlights the striker’s movement as the reason he’s so confident about that.
Earlier this month Wolves’ number nine sat down with Edwards, who played 307 times for the club, and, while recording a detailed Wolves Unpacked podcast, the pair dissected the Norwegian’s maiden season at Molineux, with particular focus on his movement from crosses, which was rewarded last time out against Southampton.
At St Mary’s a fortnight ago the 25-year-old didn’t look like a man without a goal in his last nine matches. The movement which Edwards admires so greatly earned Strand Larsen the yard on his defender to head home the opener, while the striker’s confidently struck effort after the interval proved decisive. Both goals assisted by the in-form Jean-Ricner Bellegarde.
It was two attempts, two goals for the Norwegian at St Mary’s, adding to an intriguing statistic. No Premier League player has better percentage of shots hitting the target than the Wolves man. He’s hit the target with 24 of his 37 attempts this season, scoring with nine of those 24. In comparison, his fellow attacker Matheus Cunha has taken 86 attempts.
A combination of joy and relief flowed out of Strand Larsen during each of his celebrations on the south coast. In the absence of leading scorer Cunha, Wolves needed their number nine to step up, and he did that on an afternoon which could have a big bearing on the rest of the season, according to Edwards.
“This might just give him that confidence boost now to really push on,” Edwards said. “I was delighted for him because no one will see the hard work he puts in at training every single day. No one will see the pressure he puts on himself. He's desperate to get better. He loves playing for Wolves, he speaks about the club so highly.
“There's not a whole host of Wolves players who have scored 10 plus goals in the Premier League, and I'm sure that he'll go on and get into double figures and he's got a couple of assists as well. He occupies centre backs, and we spoke about that with him, how he helps Matheus Cunha because centre backs can't jump out to Cunha because Jorgen is occupying them with his runs, with his movement all the time, running into channels. So much unselfish work goes on which, to the naked eye, when you're just following the football when you watch a game, you won't see. He's a terrific team player.
“He had an injury going into that Everton game, which no one knew about beforehand, and he didn't speak about it after the game, which probably sums him up as a person. Scoring two goals in the Premier League is never easy.”
Wolves’ 4-2 defeat to Bournemouth back in November was an afternoon to forget for the Old Gold. But not entirely for Strand Larsen, who scored the type of header he put hours into practicing. The run, the leap, the connection all have to be perfect, never mind the result, but at St Mary’s everything came together.
Edwards himself was famed for his runs into the box, albeit from a deeper midfield role, so the sight of Strand Larsen getting the run on Southampton’s Armel Bella-Kotchap, before planting his header beyond the dive of Aaron Ramsdale, bouncing before the goalkeeper, caught the eye of the former midfielder most.
On Wolves Unpacked, Edwards said: “I feel like he wants to make similar runs to what I did, across defenders rather than trying to get up and above them. He likes to peel in between the centre backs and at the last moment dart across the front centre back and we've seen it for goals this season. We saw a great goal against Bournemouth where he did it, we saw the header against Arsenal which [David] Raya made an incredible save from, these little double movements.
“Although the double movement wasn't there against Southampton, the running intention was. He saw the Southampton defender was completely closed off on the front post. The early cross into the box really helped, another excellent delivery from Bellegarde, and he times his run to perfection.
“I've seen a lot of critics saying the defending wasn't good, the goalkeeping wasn't good, and whilst I agree with that slightly, what Strand Larsen did is excellent. He's a long way out, and the key thing is he heads it into the ground and that makes it difficult for Aaron Ramsdale. If it's in the air, he saves it, I've no doubt about that, but because it bounces just before him, it does make it difficult for the Southampton goalkeeper. So, terrific run, terrific header.”
💬"I can trick defenders to come with me, then open the space up for myself."
— Wolves (@Wolves) March 26, 2025
A Strand Larsen lesson in attacking movement on the Wolves Unpacked podcast 🎧 https://t.co/l8t94B7TyF pic.twitter.com/he9mlAlaUu
Since his arrival in December, Pereira’s been constantly evolving his tactics, learning about the group on the job. One area he can take credit for is the form of Bellegarde, who this week was nominated for the Premier League Player of the Month award.
Having already set up Marshall Munetsi against Everton, the Frenchman was even more generous to Strand Larsen at Southampton. The Saints had been the better team during the early stages, but the quick thinking, and actions, of Bellegarde, along with the aforementioned good work from the striker, were key to turning the tide the Old Gold’s way, says Edwards.
“There was a distinctive shift in how early Wolves were crossing the ball [against Southampton], and from a defensive point of view, it's not nice. If you're running back towards your own goal as a defender and the cross comes in early, it's so much harder to defend because even if you do get to the ball first, you're very rarely able to get any sort of decent clearance on it.
“Either you're heading it back out towards your own goal, so it's going to go out for a corner or you're heading out for a throw in. If you're deciding to head it back up the pitch, you can't get the purchase on it and that's when midfielders will come onto it, second bits and Wolves are usually in a good shape when they have the ball in terms of picking up those loose bits. They're very well organised.
“I look back to a game a few years ago when Wolves played West Ham at Molineux and Daniel Podence scored the winner in that game to win 1-0. A really important game. I think it was Matheus Nunes on the ball down the right-hand side. He takes on an early cross and it's a bit of a nothing ball really, we had players committed forward, but West Ham are running back towards their own goal, and they just have to flick a foot out. It just bounces five yards back and Podence comes in and scores a really important goal but that's because they weren't set and if you're taking more time to build up, and Wolves will do this, every team does this, you can't always cross the ball early, but it's lot easier for a defender once you're set and in shape.
“If you look up as an attacker, or someone on the same team as Jorgen Strand Larsen, if he's in the box with two defenders against him, you cross that ball because he's going to make a run and get across one of them. If the ball's in the right area, then he will hopefully get a chance.”
Job done🫶 +3 pic.twitter.com/QbLtBquqK8
— Jørgen Strand Larsen (@jorgenwester) March 16, 2025
Only four different players have ever hit double figures in a Premier League season for Wolves. Steven Fletcher twice, Raul Jimenez two times more, and both Hee Chan Hwang and Matheus Cunha last season. With nine, Strand Larsen is one goal in nine remaining matches away from joining that list.
Despite a barren patch across the winter months, still only 13 players have scored more Premier League goals than the Wolves man, and having met the Norwegian in person just weeks before, Edwards was delighted for the striker upon his return to form in Hampshire.
“I was so happy because he has come under a little bit of criticism in recent weeks. I was at the Everton game and there were frustrations around the stadium a few times, but I'm there watching a lad who is giving his absolute all for the football club. As a fan, that's all you can ever want.
“OK, every single player is going to have limitations, but he's a young lad playing in the Premier League for the very first time as a number nine, a physical number nine as well. So, he's going to learn to use his body better, it’s something he said he's working on, but he's going to score goals as well because he puts himself in the right positions.
“We've been frustrated as Wolves fans over the years that you have strikers who don't get chances, they're not in the right place at the right time, whereas Jorgen Strand Larsen is. He's in between the posts, when the ball's out wide, he makes sure he's in there, and he makes a movement. Nine times out of ten he's probably not going to get on the end of it because the ball's never perfect, but when it is in the right area, and he's committed to that run, he will get in front of his defender, and he will score goals. He hits the target more often than not as well which is great. He’s getting himself chances and his shot conversion is incredible.”
Strand Larsen sat out of international duty with Norway recently to recover from the wrist injury which has seen him wear a cast for Wolves’ past two games. Should he be back for West Ham United on Tuesday, double figures in his debut season in the Premier League will be the aim.
