The head coach is taking confidence from the showing on Saturday evening, in which Wolves took the lead through Daniel Podence before Leeds fought from behind to secure the three points, but with a more attacking brand of football clearly on display, Lage was left ruing the chances his players spurned in the final third.
On starting the season with defeat
“I don’t think it’s unlucky. I think we did a good game, I think we were the better team, we created a lot of chances, and we didn’t score. It’s not about luck. I’m happy with the performance, but not happy with the result.
“I said before the game that we came here with big confidence, and we’ll score goals because the pre-season was good and we have confidence to play in this system. I was right to feel that confidence, and we continued to play.
“We scored, we created a lot of chances, and had three or four good chances to score in the game – if you remember just before half-time the chance of Leander – but we started the first 25 minutes very good. High pressure, good defence, winning a lot of the balls, trying to score, and we didn’t score, but Leeds scored two goals and we got punished for that.
“From the way we play, we should win, but we don’t win. We come away from this game with that same confidence and now is to recover.”
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗪𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴. pic.twitter.com/69XCN7fwb6
— Wolves (@Wolves) August 6, 2022
On playing a positive style of football
“I’m proud of my players. I chose the best 11 from the players that we had to start the game and the boys did a fantastic job.
“The players who started, they fought for our game to get the three points, and I put Chem to play in the last minutes, he did well to try to run in behind to create spaces, so I’m proud of my players, they run and they fight and the play good football.
“That’s the football I like to see.”
On not taking chances
“It wasn’t just the way we started, but the way we played in the first-half and the second-half. They scored and it was hard to take that goal to be honest because we were in control of everything.
“When you come 1-1 in this environment and they come again in the second-half which was our best period. For 20/30 minutes we came with the quality that we did, we dominate the game completely and we expect more, but we didn’t score and Leeds scored. We got frustrated for that, but I'm confident we are in the right way.
“This is the one thing we are working hard since day one with our players to increase their CV of goals, and we need to continue to improve. I’m happy because of that, because we come from here with confidence because the things that we are doing, we are in the right way.”
On playing four at the back
“It’s not about the shape, the team played well. I don’t think that’s an important thing, but we go from here with confidence that my team can play in both systems. It’s not about the system, it’s about the way we want to play.
“We want to play with the ball and there were plenty of games in the previous season when we didn’t dominate the game in the same way, but that’s the culture we need to have, no matter what the system.
“We need to dominate with the ball and be aggressive in the final third to find chances. How many chances did we have today in front of the goalkeeper and didn’t score? We need to score.”
On run-in with Marsch
“In the first-half, there were things that we cannot say, especially in these days, and I heard that, so if someone wants to apologise to me, it should be in that moment, not in the end when you’ve won the game.
“There were plenty of moments between the first-half and then end of the game when we could have shaken hands and apologised, it didn’t happen and after in the end it’s more difficult to accept because there was a long time to do that.
“There’s nothing wrong between the managers, life goes on and now we look forward to play the next game against Fulham.”
