On the day that Julen Lopetegui was announced as Wolves’ new head coach, the interim boss felt his side should have claimed all three points at Molineux, and although they had to play the entire second-half with 10 men following Nelson Semedo’s dismissal, he believes there are still positives to be found for the incoming manager.
On defeat to Brighton
“I’m delighted we scored two goals, but I’m really disappointed with the three we conceded. They could all have been avoided, so that was the disappointment. We spoke about that after, because we were soft and really easy to score against.
“We showed a lot of resilience at times, but then at moments around the box, we just didn’t defend well or make good decisions. I’ve shown that frustration to them today because I’m frustrated. We should have won that game today.
“But in the last three or four games, there has been lots of positives that we have to lean on, take with us, and take forwards when he [Lopetegui] takes on his new job.”
On Semedo’s sending off
I’ll have another look at it, because I looked at half-time, but if there is a case to appeal it, we will. He’s a long way from the goal, he’s not central, is a goalscoring opportunity?
“I guess it is if he dribbles from that angle, and inside and scores, but he’s not directly in front of the goal. It depends on the interpretation of that rule. He was very wide, so I was disappointed when I saw it. He still has a lot to do, so I’m not sure it was a red.”
On going into the break with 10-men
“I wasn’t expecting to have to say that at half-time. It was a different conversation so I had to think quickly about how we were going to play. We had a discussion at half-time and decided to go with the two blocks of four and see if we could get something from Chan [Hwang] and then Adama [Traore] to see if they could get us up the pitch and create some problems and I thought they did it really well.
“It was whether we could keep our full concentration for the whole second-half and when you see the goal, we got pulled around too easily and committed ourselves too much. We needed a little bit of composure at the key times.
“We defended well and astutely at times, but we get a bit panicky when people get in the box and that’s the time when you need to be composed, so it was very disappointing to concede that third.”
The perfect reply from Goncalo 👌 pic.twitter.com/In1M6cEZVl
— Wolves (@Wolves) November 5, 2022
On Guedes’ improved showing
“He’s been training well and we spoke to him this week, we had him in the office and we had to find a different way of playing, with Daniel [Podence] playing inside the pitch more.
“That enabled the full-backs to get a little bit more. We know his qualities and he’s not produced it yet, but I thought today he showed signs of it and, as an individual, he can build on it now.”
On Adama starting on the bench
“His fatigue last week at Brentford was very evident. He ran very little in the game, so we bared that in mind this week and his load in training was quite low, and we saw signs of fatigue in his body. I was very cautious today about playing him in that situation because the last time we did it, he got injured.
“The last thing we need right now is to lose Adama, not just for this week, but going forward. We can’t afford to be without any player, especially with three games in seven days.”
