Despite another game passing without his side finding the back of the net, the head coach felt his side were more than deserving of taking all three points at Molineux, with chances falling to the feet of his forwards and Adama Traore came closest when he struck the crossbar. But thanks to a third clean sheet on the bounce, Lage knows that if just one of those efforts finds its way into the goal, then the one point could easily turn to three.
On a goalless draw with the Clarets
“It’s better to start with the good things we did. I think we dominated all of the game, and when you play against a team like Burnley, you have to win the duels, and today the boys were fantastic. We won all the duels, and that’s a good thing and that’s a good point.
“We created good chances, we understood the game well, found the right spaces, created some good chances, but we didn’t score. This is the Premier League and every time is a big chance to have some opportunities to win points. We just have one point tonight and now we recover and try to do our best against Liverpool and come with the same mentality.
“The opponents know now if they give us the ball, we can create chances, and if they come also with that attitude and motivation like Burnley did, because they are strong when they defending, solid and compact, they are aggressive, and also we can do the same things and play in that style.
“In a way I’m happy, but frustrated because we deserved more than we got, but this is the Premier League.”
Knocking on the door! #COYW pic.twitter.com/YKKt9EjDGD
— Wolves (@Wolves) December 1, 2021
On deserving more from the game
“When you look at the way we played and the chances we created, we deserved at least one goal, but this is the Premier League and we played against a hard team to play.
“We know how they play and the good points were when we play, we played our game, and when we didn’t have the ball, we were better than them in their game.
“We did a good performance, we won the duels and created enough chances to win the game, as we deserved at least one goal.
“I’m not disappointed with the players, I’m happy because they did everything we planned, they did everything I asked them to do, and it’s one more point.”
On lack of goals
“It’s like the way we started the season. Sometimes we play four or five games without scoring and then three or four with scoring a lot of goals, and now we’re in the same way.
“But That’s football. The goals will come. The points will come. We continue with our work, and today was very important to understand the teamwork. Don’t forget, the last couple of times Wolves played against Burnley, we didn’t get points, but today we got points because the players did everything I asked.
“We had two good situations with Raul and Adama, but we cannot be worried. We have the quality and we need to continue to work.
“I didn’t put pressure on my players after the first three games when we didn’t score, so they know the responsibility they have, they know the quality they have, and for sure, we have to continue to believe, continue to be ambitious and the goals will come.”
On Traore’s input
“When look for the game, we try to look for the opponent and try to understand how they play, create a plan and choose who plays. Today, I’m happy because I choose Adama and he did a good game. He missed the chance, but he did a good game.
“In my idea, I was asking for that [him to shoot]. It’s one against one and when he touches, he needs to shoot, and after he took the defender away, and he did everything to score the goal. If he would have scored, it would’ve been a great goal.
“When you look for the performance, what he did, he played very well outside, but he played very well inside. That’s what we’re working on with him. He creates chances, he runs, he’s defending – that’s the Adama we and the fans want.
“I’m happy because we have Adama back and like he said last week, ‘The best is yet to come’, and I believe in that.”
On a third clean sheet in a row
“It’s a long journey, were 14 games in and every game is very hard to play. The most important thing is that we tried to play our game, and when they have the ball, because they are a hard team to play, we won most of the duels.
“The three centre-backs were amazing to control Cornet and Wood, and when they changed for Vydra and Rodriguez. I’m very happy with Max, Coady and Saiss because they controlled in 90 minutes four top strikers.
“Every time we are playing against a strong opponent and we didn’t score, but one more game with no goals against us, one more clean sheet and teamwork, that’s the way.”
