Vitor Pereira is calling on his Wolves side to produce a consistent performance when they travel to St Mary’s on Saturday to face Southampton.
The head coach was given a fitness boost ahead of the trip to the south coast after Marshall Munetsi recovered from a knock which kept him out of the second half draw with Everton last weekend after the Zimbabwean had opened his account in Old Gold earlier in the match.
But with a game against the team currently bottom of the Premier League standings, Pereira insists that his players understand they are facing another difficult test.
On Munetsi’s fitness
“We’re all good, and it’s very important because we have more solutions and we can do something from the bench, and this is important for us.
“He’s ok for the game, he’s training with the team and he’s ready to help. He deserved it because he tries a lot and he tried a lot before, but he’s a player who can score goals and can appear in the box because he has this quality and we need goals to win.”
The third ever Zimbabwean player to score in the @premierleague 🇿🇼 pic.twitter.com/ChoYaoKSIo
— Wolves (@Wolves) March 12, 2025
On facing Southampton
“Firstly, we must realise they are fighting for the same target as us, which is to be in the Premier League next season. They played very well in the first half against Liverpool and that shows they have a good team, good players, and if they are consistent, they are a very good team.
“The Premier League is about being consistent, and if we forget to play for five minutes – which happened for us against Fulham, in the first minutes in the first half and the first minutes in the second half – they will punish you with goals, and this is what the team must be in this league: Consistent from the first minute until the end, and you cannot play a good match today and a bad match tomorrow.
“We must increase our level, looking for our game, our game model, and increase every time, to not concede goals, to increase the set-pieces, trying to create more dynamics to score goals, appear on the box to score, creating moments in the space to score, finishing the plays – these are all things we need to improve every day.”
On recent concentration lapses
“This is something that we can work on. We can work the mentality, the ambition, the capacity to be focused, to be on the game every time, and anticipating the next move. This is football.
“If we have the ball, we need to anticipate the moment that we will lose the ball. It means that our balance must be a good balance, close to them to react, and when are defending, we need to anticipate the next move – how to do the transition.
“This is football and individually it is the same – we must anticipate the next step of the opponent.”
— Wolves (@Wolves) March 13, 2025
On developing as a coach in the Premier League
“I surprise myself every day with good things and bad things. The Premier League is a fantastic experience and I'm feeling happy inside.
“If you feel you have arrived in the position that you have tried all your life and this is the happiness that that I feel in this moment. Of course, I’d prefer if our position on the table was not this one, but I want to create something strong, step by step.
“If we get results, the step is bigger. But I believe to get results, if you play good football, consistent football, you can lose one game, but you cannot lose the team. You cannot lose your way of playing. You cannot lose your work.
“When the team lose a game because of the merit of the other team, I understand that because we compete against top players, top teams, and they can create, but we cannot lose a game without playing our game, with the work that we do every day.”
On Doherty settling into the centre-back role
“In the future, what I want for my team is to see my defenders creating a surprise from back offensively. I don't want defenders only to defend. I want defenders with the confidence and the qualities to move inside, to appear on the last third to cross, and this is something that we must create, step by step.
“Doherty is a right back playing now as a [central] defender, but sometimes I want him to play as a full-back, move as a full-back, and I ask Toti on the left side to do the same. Sometimes to pass and move, to create surprise, to create superiority, to give us something different from back in attack.
“These kinds of defenders, they must have the ability to play one against one defending, and this is important for us, and Doherty is doing very well.”
On taking calculated risks
“I don't believe in football without risks, because it's impossible. In football, you must have the confidence to risk, but to risk with the right risks, in the right position, in the right moment, in the right place.
“I don't want my defender playing one against one, dribbling the striker in my box. I don't want this risk. I'm not talking about this kind of risk, I'm talking about risks that the team can control because we are working to take this kind of risk.
“That's why the intelligence is very important – but intelligence to play football, not to learn maths, because that’s a different intelligence!”
