Vitor Pereira says he won’t change his system following Jorgen Strand Larsen’s injury and has called on other players to step up and take their opportunity against Aston Villa.
The Norwegian has started all but one Premier League match for the Old Gold this season, but after he picked up an injury against Arsenal last time out, Pereira must now look into his squad for replacements ahead of Saturday evening’s clash.
The head coach knows different players will bring different qualities and connections to the team, and now he’s hoping the change can inspire a positive performance against Villa under the lights.
On Strand Larsen’s status
“He [Strand Larsen] got an injury, a muscle injury. He will be out of the next game, and for the next one I don’t know. 'Bouba' came from injury, but this week he got flu. Another problem. This is what we are facing now.
“I cannot change my system [based on injuries]. If we build a system, or if we build a style of play or a game model around one player, it will be a disaster for us. We must improve our qualities, our dynamic, our game model, the way that we started to work since the first day. This is something that we need to look for in our game and to improve every day, working on it. When we have an injury, we can play with another striker, different qualities, different connections with the other players, different movements, but still trying to do the same.”
On his experience of derbies
“In my career I’ve been in a lot of derbies, big derbies. Every time I go to a country, they say to me that it is the most incredible derby in the world. It's important for us to play for our supporters, this is important. For sure, it will be a good game because we'll try to play, they will try to play, and in the end it will be a good game. I hope we get a good result. I hope that we can make our supporters proud.”
On making a quick start
“We should look at us, what we can improve from the last game to this game. This is the way to create something consistent, an identity that we know, and this is our base and we must improve. If I look at the last games, in every game we tried to play our game if you take off the game at Chelsea, because against Chelsea, in my opinion, we didn't play at our best level. We didn't play with our work on the training pitch every day. If you take out this game, every time we compete.
“Against Newcastle was difficult, 3-0, but we had chances to score, more than two or three chances to score. Against Nottingham Forest, we had four or five chance to score, and we competed. Against Arsenal, 1-0, but if you look at the game in detail, we didn’t create the situation to score and they scored. They got the chance, and they scored. This is something that we need to increase, to improve, the small detail. I respect Aston Villa a lot. They have a very good team, but if I look at the other teams, I cannot do my work. I need to build something strong, and to build something strong is important. The most important is at look for us, not the other teams.”
Taking on Villa at home on Saturday. ⏳ pic.twitter.com/eSSZg9afKl
— Wolves (@Wolves) January 29, 2025
On managing emotions Saturday
“In my experience of derbies, the emotion will be there, for sure. My speech cannot be an emotional speech, because the emotion is there. My speech must be about intelligence, how to be organised tactically in the game, because this kind of game, a lot of time they are decided in a second, in a detail, because we go on the emotional side, and we forget to detail. This is my experience. We need to do our work, be focused, be confident and calm to do our work, because the emotion will be there for sure, and we need to be intelligent to manage the different moments of the game.
“I know that we will face a strong team, but I tell you honestly, I'm looking for my team. I want to see the best version of my team, taking everything I can from my players.”
