Wolves have a lot of things to improve when they return to the pitch on Saturday according to Vitor Pereira, but the head coach is confident of a response.
The Old Gold return to Bournemouth one week after their Premier League success this weekend, this time in the Emirates FA Cup, but a loss to Fulham between the two Cherries clashes has given the head coach a point of focus.
On Tuesday Pereira was disappointed by the concentration levels of his side, who conceded at the start of each half on their way to defeat, and now he’s called on his players to up the standards when back at the Vitality Stadium once more.
On reacting to Fulham
“We need to be different, we cannot start a game with a goal and start the second half with a goal. We cannot, it’s impossible, because here they punish you with goals. This is the league where you cannot make this kind of mistake. You cannot go there sleeping, but the team knows that we can play better football.
“We can play with more aggressiveness. We can play with better quality, doing movements, attacking the space, not losing our position, doing the pressure in the proper way. A lot of things to correct to be better than the last game and each game for us must be a lesson. We must learn something, even when we win games.”
On the differences to last week
“They have a game model. They have a game model, very clear. They are a difficult team because they play in their way. We are trying to create an identity to play in our way. We must face them trying to play in our way, not trying to play in their way, because if we play in the way that they play, it’s difficult for us because we will not recognise our work on the pitch.
“We'll face a strong team for sure, very aggressive team on the ball and we must play with our qualities and my focus is not on Bournemouth, it's about our team. It's about what we must correct from the last game.”
Back-to-back Saturdays in Bournemouth 🍒 pic.twitter.com/uTHYkbkstP
— Wolves (@Wolves) February 27, 2025
On Wolves’ FA Cup past
“Football has changed a lot, but tomorrow we have chance. It’s an opportunity for us to move forward. In my mind, in our mind, we must go there with the intention to win the game and to move forward.
“I cannot speak about dreams. If you have a lot of dreams and you do nothing to achieve them, they’re only dreams. But if you start and you know the target, we must give this step to achieve this target. The step is to win the game tomorrow. It’s difficult, of course, but it's something that we can do it.”
On facing the same team again
“I'm not worried about one player or another player. I'm not worried about this. When I look at the game, I try to understand the moments that they create as problems, and how we can create problems to them. Each game is a lesson, and we must learn something from the game. Of course, I learned something from the last game against them.
“I understand why they are in their position in the table, because it's a very aggressive team, with and without the ball. If you lose the ball in the moment that you have possession, they can score a goal in a second. They can score a goal in the long ball and second ball because they are strong on second balls.
“They are strong attacking the space. At set pieces, also a strong team. We want to build, we want to be strong and to build our identity to compete. I believe that they have a squad where if they change one player, it doesn’t affect them because they have quality.”
