Gary O’Neil says his group are in a good place after four matches unbeaten in the Premier League but is aware the level of difficulty Saturday’s Newcastle United fixture poses.
The head coach welcomes back Nelson Semedo and Mario Lemina from suspension, after picking up three points without the duo last time out, and the array of quality performances at Bournemouth has left O’Neil with even more confidence in his group. Tommy Doyle came off the bench to impress and O’Neil revealed positive discussions he’s held with the midfielder, as he continues to cover every facet of his job as a Premier League manager.
On welcoming Semedo and Lemina back
“Obviously, it’s big. They’ve been very good this year, the pair of them, so it’s good to have them both back. The rest of the boys who went down to Bournemouth did incredibly well. The group’s in a good place. Really big test tomorrow, of course, Newcastle are one of the toughest tests in the league at the moment, arguably the toughest the way they’re going, with the energy they have and some of the results they’ve had. We’ll need to be at our very best.”
On injuries in the camp
“‘Hodgey’ has had surgery on his shoulder. It’s been ongoing for a while, he had an issue with it coming out too many times over the past few weeks in training, disrupting him, so we took the opportunity to get that fixed. Hopefully that’s him in a slightly better place. He’ll be missing for a while. Jean Bellegarde’s doing well, we’ll have to see how he is tomorrow morning, but hopefully he can be involved. He hasn’t had a full week’s training, so he’s unlikely to do all 90."
Heading towards another matchday.#WOLNEW 🔜 pic.twitter.com/n1xItr6nYH
— Wolves (@Wolves) October 27, 2023
On approaching the game
“It’s the same as most games really. We try to be aggressive when it suits us, try to have some good control of the ball when we can, try to carry a threat. Newcastle carry some real, key threats and one of the main ones is energy and mentality.
“They’ve got the boulder rolling at the moment and it’s tough to stop, as you’ve seen in recent games. It’s a good challenge for us, the boys are looking forward to it, I’m looking forward to it. It’s a big test and we’re looking forward to seeing how far we’ve come and how we go up against them tomorrow.”
On Sa being a big player
“He’s been very, very good for the group. He’s an interesting character and has a lot of character which is good – you need those, especially in goal. Sometimes you underestimate the impact a goalkeeper can have on the team. When the team starts to go under a bit and they're going through tough situations, good goalkeepers seem to grow and he’s got that definitely.
“You can see he grows in stature, down to ten men at Luton with balls coming in the box, he looks confident and able to handle stuff. He’s working very hard, as they all are. Neil Cutler’s done some fantastic work with him, trying to improve little bits, but he’s a fantastic goalkeeper who we’re pleased to have.”
On working with the players mentally
“I’ve done it since day one. I try to do all of the job, all of the time. That’s managing the mentality of the group, making sure ones who haven’t had as many minutes as they think they deserve are OK, making sure the ones playing all the time are OK, making sure the tactics are right, it’s always all of it and you try to have a real 360 view of where everybody is.
“Tommy [Doyle] was due a chat. Sometimes the ones who just work hard and crack on, they’re the ones that miss out on some of the chats. Sometimes a lot of your energy is focused on other ones, so it’s important ones like Tommy who give their all every day and work their socks off still get the recognition. I see him every day, I know exactly where he is, and he’s very close to playing. It coincided with him coming on at half-time and doing very well, but I’m sure he would have done that anyway, I don’t think the chat had any sort of impact on how well he performed.
“There’s a lot of this job that people don’t see. It takes a lot, especially the way I choose to do it. You try and cover everything always and I love every moment of it. Really enjoyed having a chat Friday evening with Matheus Cunha and Tommy Doyle, and both had a fantastic impact on the game. However tired I was at 9.10pm that night, sitting down for a cup of tea with them, whether it made one percent of difference or if I just believe it made a difference, it was worthwhile.”
On his MNF appearance
“Sky asked me if I’d mind going on and covering the game and it’s not something I find overly easy, I’ve done some stuff on TV in the past, but when you’re the manager of a football club, it’s not something people do all of the time. I thought I’d give it a go and the main reason was to show the general public a little bit about how we work and what we do. Everyone’s free to make their own choice, but I said I’d have a go and that was it.”
