The Portuguese has managed in one final before, in Portugal with Benfica, and had a taste for the FA Cup as an assistant, so knows the important of the competition to the Wolves supporters. Lage has also welcomed both Ryan Giles and Dion Sanderson back into his group this week and hasn’t ruled out giving opportunities to either, having done so successfully to Maximilian Kilman earlier this season.
On any Covid or injury issues
“For now, everything’s the same. No news for now. We did the tests today, let’s see what happens tomorrow.”
On his selection intentions
“It’s not about injured players. In the beginning of the season, I came here to start a new cycle, to try to continue the work that Nuno did, but I came with a big ambition to win titles for Wolves. That’s my target, so on Sunday I will try to put our best team to try to win the game.
“I want to win titles, I won titles before, and I came here with that ambition, so for Sunday it’s the best team to play against a strong opponent. I know Sheffield United very well, I know the team, I know the manager, I know the fans, I know how the people of the city love the club because I was there for two-and-a-half years in the same city.
“On Sunday we need to be prepared, we’re going to play against a strong opponent, and we’re going to put our best team to play and continue in the competition.”
On the FA Cup
“When I look back to my youth, when you start to play on old Spectrum computers, there was a game called the FA Cup, so maybe my first trophy was in that period, when I played with my friends, and won the FA Cup on the computer.
“In the past I had one final to play. I want to play a final, to be at Wembley, so I came here to win titles. We’re going to do everything in our hands to start in the right foot in this competition.”
On welcoming Sanderson and Giles back
“Opportunities come. At the beginning of the season the opportunity came to Max, and he’s doing very well, he knows he needs to continue to work hard to continue to improve. We usually play with three centre backs and at the moment we just have two in the squad.
“There were opportunities to watch Dion because he’d doing well and we took the decision in that Christmas period when the Covid came again, and we took the decision together, the chairman, me and Scott, to bring more players, to have a bigger squad. We need to have players here with us because something could happen with Covid and we don’t have enough players.
“We called these two because they’re doing very well. Giles can play as an outside winger, as he played at Cardiff and was doing very well, and he did one very good week with us. The same with Dion, he’s a strong guy, at Birmingham he played with a line of five, three centre backs, so they adapt, they know the system and did a good week with us.”
Old and new faces at Compton.
— Wolves (@Wolves) January 6, 2022
🐺👋 pic.twitter.com/P47mV55Hrd
On finding the right loan clubs
“Credit to Scott, because he started the season doing that job. In that period, my intention was to know better our players. In my opinion, the best thing is to wait for clubs to ask for our players. Don’t try to put players in other clubs, wait for the right moment, so they go because the teams need them to play. We can see the work by Scott was very good, because everyone is playing.”
On Gibbs-White’s progress
“I talked with Morgan, and I said I’m very happy because he’s doing well, and I can see in his face he’s very happy because he’s doing well. In that period, he didn’t have too many chances to play, so it’s better to go and play and he can see he’s playing, he’s doing well, in the same system we play, he’s scoring goals, creating a lot of chances, he has the dynamic I appreciate.”
