Fifteen members of the first-team are away with their national teams for the next eight days, but the skipper says that rectifying Sunday’s defeat will still be in the minds of the players when they return to Compton Park ahead of the visit of Southampton to Molineux.
On a slow start against Leicester
“It was a real tough game. I thought the first 20 minutes killed us. We all listened to the manager all week in terms of how we wanted to start the game and we’ve not done that, which is disappointing from our point of view.
“We didn’t come out, we didn’t play how we wanted to, and Leicester pulled us around a little bit. We said before the game how good they were at that, and not to let that happen, but I think we did.
“Then the penalty gets given and it is what it is. But we stayed in the game, and at half-time we said that we’re still in the game and not concede anything else, which we did. We grew into it, and it was a close game.
There were two good teams, two teams who play very similar with the back fives. We kind of figured each other out, and it was always going to be a low scoring game, and I thought we could’ve nicked one as well. But we want to be better than that.”
On the penalty incident
“I think it’s tough. I don’t know what everyone else’s thoughts are, but I think the whole handball rule itself is hard to get your head round. I do think his arm was out a little bit, but at the same time, I don’t know what you do as a defender.
“But it’s football these days. I’m a defender myself, and it’s a natural position. He’s not put his arm out to try and stop the ball, that’s not what you do as a defender. When you lift your leg, your arm comes out. I don’t know what we’re supposed to do with our arms. He was only a yard away.
“I don’t know what we can do. I’ve not seen it back, to be honest. He [Anthony Taylor] came over, he checked, did all what they have to do to check it was a pen, and it was given, so we’re disappointed.”
On difficulty of defending under the handball rule
“I don’t think anyone thinks about just smashing the ball at someone’s arm to get a penalty so you can’t necessarily think strikers are going to do that.
“I don’t think that happens, but as defenders, we have to think about what we have to do because you can’t be putting your arms anywhere. I know there’s players who defend with their arms behind their backs, but I couldn’t do that – I need my arms for balance, and it’s something I can’t do.
“I’ve not watched it back, but I think it’s harsh, but from another point of view it’s a penalty, so we move on.”
The managers pay their respects ahead of kick-off. #RemembranceSunday pic.twitter.com/rPdQ1SnF2z
— Wolves (@Wolves) November 8, 2020
On improving in the second-half
“It’s a tough one to get our head round. It was different at Palace last week; we were fantastic for the first 20 minutes/half an hour, and that gave us a platform to build on.
“I can’t put my finger on it, but every week we wish we could score two, three or four in the first-half, but it doesn’t happen like that.
“We knew coming into this one how tough it was going to be, we had a plan going into it, and us as players, as 11 players on the pitch, it didn’t come across like that in the first 20 minutes, and that’s disappointing for us, so we need to look at it and improve.”
On learning from defeat
“We have to improve whether we win, lose or draw, we improve, we try to get better throughout the week. We go into the international break now, and that’s the disappointing thing; we’ve got to stew on a result like this for two weeks, and it’s absolutely horrible.
“Going away off the back of a defeat is horrible, but we need to stew on it, we need to look at it, we need to get better and we need to improve, but that’s no different to whether we win or lose, so it’s important we do that.”
