With Romain Saiss moving to left wing-back, Kilman filled the void on the left side of the back three and put in an impressive showing on just his third top-flight appearance to help his team to a clean sheet.
Having the highest pass success rate and most touches, clearances and interceptions of anyone in a Wolves shirt against Fulham, Kilman received plaudits from the captain, who was pleased but not surprised with the display of his defensive teammate.
On the change in the defence
“It was not that different at all, to be honest. I think we went back to the basics; being closer to each other, being more in line with each other and making sure we were stepping out with each other, because it’s important when you play against top strikers like Mitrovic and the forward boys that they’ve got.
“But it was no different. Max has been with us for years, he trains with us every single day, he knows the role inside out, he’s a fantastic lad and a brilliant professional as well. But it’s something we still want to build on and get better with.”
On Kilman’s impressive performance.
“I thought he was outstanding, but I would expect nothing else from him. He’s brilliant to have around and is a brilliant professional – he listens to the manager, he learns off the lads who’ve been playing there the last couple of years and I think you could see that today.
“But also in the games he played last season, so he’s got that experience now of playing a couple of games and you’ve seen that tonight, so I was absolutely over the moon for him.”
Well played, @maxkilman.
— Wolves (@Wolves) October 4, 2020
🔢👏 pic.twitter.com/n7EFv0HRFO
On getting back to winning ways against Fulham
“It was something that we needed. We looked at last week and it wasn’t good enough from our point of view, and we thought about it every day.
“We’ve tried to improve different aspects and a clean sheet was just as big as the win today. It was good, something that we needed, and now we can move on and improve again.”
On the timing of Pedro Neto’s winner
“It was huge, because we managed it well after. When you’re 1-0 up against a team like that, with big strikers, they’re always going to put a bit of pressure on you at the end, but we dealt with it, we dealt with the crosses that were coming in and stuck in there.
“It was an important goal, but I felt like we could’ve had a couple more, but we won’t talk about that, we’ll talk about the win because it’s massive for us moving forward.”
