Rodrigo Gomes is confident Wolves will be able to end their winless Premier League run when Aston Villa make the journey across the West Midlands to Molineux on Saturday evening.
Despite a difficult start to 2025 which has seen the Old Gold struggle for points in the top flight, the Portuguese – who found the net earlier this month in the FA Cup against Bristol City to secure a spot in the fourth round – fully believes the team will be able to get back to winning ways sooner rather than later.
On confidence going into the weekend
“We’re in a tough position, but I'm confident that we are going to stay in the Premier League because we have a very good team, a very good coach, and now the things are going to go up, for sure. I feel that.
“We started very well with Vitor Pereira, two big wins against Leicester and Man United and we got a good draw for us in Tottenham. We have had tough games against Nottingham, Newcastle, Chelsea and Arsenal, but we are confident going into this game against Aston Villa.
“We are going to always give our best and try to win every game, but we are confident to win the next game.”
On working under Pereira
“It's different now. He’s maybe more passionate, more aggression, a lot is different. He’s a different coach with different ideas, and I think for our team, the ideas from Vitor have been very good for us, because when he arrived, we won and we played better.
“I think we could still play better with more quality but the team have enjoyed the games more. Things changed a little bit, but that is normal when a new coach comes, and I think the team received the changes well, but we still need to be doing better.”
On playing alongside Cunha
“Matheus Cunha is unbelievable. He’s a very creative player, and sometimes he has the ball with a lot of players around him, and he can go and create a chance – make an assist, make a goal – and he is very good for us.
“t’s good to have a player like this because in every minute, he could score a goal if he had a chance. He has very good shooting, very good passing, he is very intelligent with the ball, so it's very good to have players like this.”
On being a wing-back
“Last year at Estoril, I played in a back five on both wings, but more on the right, I think that position in a five on the wing is maybe the position where I can put my qualities more on the game. I like to run, I like to defend well.
“I started to play in that position with [Carlos] Carvalhal [at Braga] and I’d never defend before like I did in that position. But I enjoy defending, I like to defend, I like to attack, and I think that [wing-back] position is good for my characteristics.
“I can run, I can shoot, I can cross, I can make goals, assists and I can help to defend, so I think it's a very good position for me, either on the left or right – I like both. I like to defend and I enjoy defending because it's very important to help the team to not concede goals.”
On watching Wolves before he joined
“I’ve always liked to watch Premier League games. We have a lot of Portuguese players playing in the Premier League, like at Wolves, we have a lot.
“When I was 15/16, I watched almost every Wolves game. I watched a lot of Wolves then because they had a lot of Portuguese players, but I also watched Man United, I watched the big games – Arsenal, Man City.
“I don't watch a lot of football, but I would watch English football with my brother and my father.”
On his girlfriend Clara coming to every game
“I live with my girlfriend, but my family comes to visit us a lot and we always have people at our home, but she comes to every game because she loves to support me.
“Before, when I was in Braga, she has always supported me like this and she went to every game. Even in Portugal, where we have some games on the islands, she was always there.
“I was on loan in Estoril last season and she got to every game. This year she’s tried to be there to support me and I love it.”
