Although Gary O’Neil admits he and his players would love to have ‘miles more than two points’ going into Saturday’s visit of Crystal Palace, he says the squad full believes they have the ability to turn their season around.
With no fresh injury worries ahead of the visit of the Eagles, and with Sam Johnstone fit again to potentially return to the team to face his former club, the head coach insists his side will be doing everything possible to ease some of the pressure from the stands by getting their first three points of the season on the board.
On the fightback at Brighton
“A moment like that in the season obviously puts some energy into the squad. They didn't lack belief, but you need something to grab on to, and it was a big response to a tough situation.
“It was a big point for us, of course, and now we know we have a big home game this weekend that will be difficult, for sure. Everyone's seen Crystal Palace in their last few – or most of their performances recently – but their last couple of results have been excellent and they will be a real stern test. But we do take some energy and some real faith and belief into the game.”
On Johnstone possibly facing his former club
“Him and Jose have both benefited from the situation. Sam hadn't played for a while at Crystal Palace and had a significant injury as well during that spell, but he's come in and he's had a small niggle, but he's trained well.
“Jose, since Sam has come in, has shown that he's not giving up his spot easily. Every day in training, you can see a real steely determination in him and his performances. It’s really good for the group that we have both of them pushing.
“Bents was excellent again today in some of the stuff that he did, so that department is in a really good spot. We need them to keep pushing each other and then it’s down to me to make the right call.”
On facing pressure from the fans
“I think the lads know the job of a coach and the job of a player involves pressure. If you're not under any pressure, it means you're not performing at a very high level. The fact that we're under pressure every day, every week, it’s just what it is.
“Ten games in means nothing to me. We'll know where we are after 38. Why would 10 be any different to eight or 12 or 14? There are no lines drawn at any point. We always have an opportunity to change where we are and we all know that the fixture list has been difficult for us, a very tough start, but my main concern is always points on the board.
“But secondary to that was how the group came through the tough run of fixtures. The response at Brighton shows where they are now. The performance against Manchester City shows where they are, and we need to maintain that and turn it into some points, as well as faith and belief.”
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On keeping the faith
“I'm keen to make sure that our group know that we have enough in this building to push ourselves and to make sure that we're competitive. Our group is ready to go tomorrow, and we understand that we've had a tough start to the season.
“We'd love to have miles more than two points, but what we do show is that our faith and belief is intact. Any team that can come from 2-0 down away from home at a team fifth or sixth in the league with five minutes left shows that it still has a lot of fight and togetherness in it.
“That’s a real positive sign and we need to make the most of that again and take it into tomorrow.”
On having four players close to suspension
“As always, I tell the players not to get any soft yellow cards, but legitimate ones that you can't avoid in the modern game we have to accept. That is where we are and there's nothing we can do about it.
“But I’ll just give them a reminder on not giving any cheap ones away and keep the boys available for as long as possible.”
On Palace’s start to the season
“They lost two really good players in Anderson and Olise and that has played a massive part in their start. We played that Palace side at the end of last season, when they were flying, and I thought Anderson was excellent that day against us and Olise is obviously a top player, so to lose them has had an impact.
“They've had some tough fixtures, but I think they’re only behind Liverpool in restricting the opposition to chances from open play, so they’re a really difficult shape to create against. When you play them at home, it can start to get frustrating because they are tough to break down, and you need to be really good with the ball, and you need to be very clinical when you get your moments.
“But we know what to expect from them because they're always the same, a back five, they try and be aggressive from it, they don't spend too much time in build-up, they play long a lot and are one of the more direct teams in the league, so they will test us.
“We need to bring our own style and our own personality, and the energy that Molineux can produce, especially with an evening kick-off, and I'm sure it will be dark by 5.30, and there always feels like there’s a little bit more energy in the stadium by then, so I’m looking forward to it, because it’s an opportunity for us.”
On playing under the lights at Molineux
“Myself, the players, the staff, we all want the fans to join us in this. We're just going to attack it full throttle. It won't be easy and there'll be moments in it that won't always look pretty because of the style of the team that we're playing against and how difficult they can be to create chances against.
“I'm sure moments in it will feel frustrating, but from the moment we get there until the moment the final whistle goes, we're going to give everything to make sure that we come out on top. I'm sure that if we're able to look after everything that we've spoken about in the last week, we have a real good chance of doing so.”
