The head coach has masterminded three wins out of three against the Eagles at Molineux in the past six months, including victories in both the Premier League and the FA Cup, but with more injuries being added to an already growing list, Nuno knows the difficulties that his players will face this time round.
On Wolves’ two wins again Palace this season
“Every match is different, and every competition is different. What we expect is a tough match, like all of the matches against Palace have been through time.
“It’s a very competitive team, it’s a good squad and I have huge admiration for their manager. Roy is someone who I really appreciate and we expect a tough match tomorrow.
“Palace is a very, very good team, full of very talented players, and if you focus on the results of the teams, you ignore what is the most important aspect which is how they do things, which players are going to be involved, their characteristics, how you should approach it, your game plan – this is what determines your approach on the game.”
On a clean sheet breeding confidence
“It was a good game and we competed very well against Chelsea. The clean sheet was truly important for us as a team. It’s one of the basics that we need to repeat and be consistent on that part.
“A clean sheet shows that we defend well, we were organised, so let’s try to keep it, to improve it in some aspects, but it was really important in terms of defensive consistency.
“When you do things well, you get confidence. But I truly don’t think I ever saw any lack of confidence or belief. There are many, many matches that happened to us where we made mistakes, but not due to lack of confidence, we made mistakes and they are over.
“We tried to change them in the training sessions to try to eradicate it from our game. But a clean sheet is everything and I believe that with the talented players that we have up front, we must be solid, we must be organised, because their talent and their abilities will give us something for the game.”
On Willian Jose joining the squad
“He’s one solution more and a good option for us to decide on. He’s a good player, he’s integrated well, he’s had a couple of training sessions, so he’s one more option and one more solution for us because we need as many as possible.
“We still have problems so we need as many solutions as we can to solve our own problems.
“What I want from him and what we focus on is tomorrow, and Willian is ready to go. Now, it’s up to us to decide and take advantage of the enormous talent that he has as a striker.”
Some friendly competition between the strikers 😆
— Wolves (@Wolves) January 29, 2021
⚽️ @willianjose19
⚽️ @Silva_Fabio pic.twitter.com/fIcsEA52fl
On injury worries ahead of Saturday
“We still have problems – big problems. Unfortunately, during the game against Chelsea we lost Rayan. He is out and unfortunately, he will not be available for the match. He still has to do a scan and an MRI, so he’s not available for the game.
“We still have some more problems, but I don’t want to give details because I want to keep it among us, so we can try to take advantage of some kind of surprise, but we have issues that we’ll try to solve with the squad.
“Morgan has re-joined us today after he was in quarantine due to the contraction of the virus. He tested positive two weeks ago, but he had his own individual sessions. Because he tested negative yesterday, he was available today and clear to join the group.”
On Cutrone’s future at Wolves
“We have to wait. The intention about recalling Patrick was mainly and basically because we needed him, and because he was not in a good position in Florence, so we decided to call him back.
“Now, I count on him, his work and his training, but anything can happen. Let’s wait and see.”
