Vitor Pereira believes his Wolves players need to show more fight when it comes to defending set pieces after conceding from two more in Monday night’s defeat to Chelsea.
The head coach – who revealed he will not select former captain Mario Lemina in a matchday squad until after the transfer window has closed – has called for his team to be more aggressive when trying to win the ball inside their own box, after conceding 19 set piece goals this season.
However, Pereira also admitted it’s not the only improvement his side must make if they want to put a stop to their winless run in the Premier League, which was extended to four matches after a 3-1 loss at Stamford Bridge.
On defeat to Chelsea
“We need to be consistent for 90 minutes, 95 minutes, and today, I think the team tried to fight, the players, they tried to do their best, but not in the way that we should do.
“We cannot defend in last 30 metres for a long time, because this is not the game that we want to play.”
On tactics not going to plan
“Sometimes it’s because the opposing team forced us to go there. But when we have moments with the ball, and we know we’re trying to find the right spaces, we’re trying to play with the ball, we start to create problems for the opponents.
“When we go higher to press, and we get two or three balls in the end of the last 15 minutes. I saw my team in the last 15 minutes of the first half playing in the way that I like to play.
“Because if we play a lot of time close to our box, this is a problem for us, because they start to create problems, crosses on the box, second balls, set pieces. We need to improve our set piece defending, and this is what we should improve in our team.”
On conceding two more set-piece goals
“We need more physicality. We need to be more aggressive on the duals because here, each duel the opponent are strong. They are strong in the air and on the ground.
“We need to be more aggressive in the in the area of duels, because we are conceding too many, and we need to be committed to win the second ball. In between the games, we have two trainings just about set pieces to try to fix this problem.
“But sometimes it's not the position, sometimes it’s because the duel is one against one and they must want to win the duel. They must think, ‘I must win the duel’, and this is the problem in this moment.”
"We need to be consistent for 95 minutes. We cannot defend in the last 30 metres for a long time, because this is not the game that we want to play."
— Wolves (@Wolves) January 20, 2025
🗣️ pic.twitter.com/Z2Nx4fBiAa
On areas to improve
“It's not easy to come here, to go to Newcastle, to play against Nottingham at home – the most important thing is that we need to look at our game to understand what we must improve as soon as possible.
“We need to improve the set pieces, for sure, defensive set pieces, we need to improve the moments that we must have confidence to switch the play, to keep the ball, to slow down the game, because we conceded a goal when we had the ball and we went in the transition and we suffered a counter-transition.
“That was the goal that, for me, was a killer. It killed our mentality and our spirit on the game, and this is something that we need – tactical maturity. We need to improve our tactical maturity.”
On Lemina’s future
“Until the end of the month, Mario will not play in the team. We'll see what happens at the end of the month, and when the market finishes.
“If he stays off or if he goes, and in that moment, I will decide what I will do. I cannot play with a player that has doubts in his mind. For me, I want players committed with the project.”
