Bruno Lage tells ‘amazing’ fans to keep faith in Wolves

Wolves may have started the season with a 1-0 loss to Leicester, but a dominant second half in which they should have scored offered some hope.

Lage’s all-action, aggressive style allowed his side to create several opportunities that they failed to convert.

Throughout the game they were roared on by a loud away end and when asked about the terrific support, Lage said: “Amazing. The best thing today was that our supporters returned to the stadium and the way they supported our team.

“Even in the end with the result, they saw the hard work we did on the pitch.

“They see what we did to Leicester. Putting on defenders to play against us and just last week they won 1-0 against Man City.

“They need to be proud of the players and confident with the process.

“The mentality is to be disappointed with the result but confident with the process.”

Nelson Semedo returned to the team on Saturday but only made the bench after isolating following contact with someone who tested positive for Covid-19.

The defender should be ready for the Spurs game on Sunday, with his omission being down to a lack of training – as Ki-Jana Hoever took his place.

Lage added: “We have plenty of time to train with him. He was out of the team for 10 days and just came to the team in the morning.

“I am happy with what Ki did in this game. What we have in this position at right-back is what I want in the whole squad. A top player like Nelson and a top young player like Ki to be competitive.

“I don’t want to talk about the positions, but the most important thing is that we already know the profile for the players we want.

“Now I have three weeks to create that competitive squad.”

Fransisco Trincao impressed against Leicester and was heavily involved in several of Wolves’ goalscoring opportunities.

It was a marked improvement from the player who struggled in pre-season and Lage believes he can be dangerous in old gold.

He said: “Everything is new for him. A new town, a new rhythm. A new team. Also a new system.

“If you give time to him, I think he can do good things for us.”

Regarding the loss on Saturday, although the head coach was disappointed with the final result, he was pleased to see his side take on board his philosophy. Lage said: “We followed the plan. First of all to be aggressive.

“In the first half we didn’t find the space between the lines to play. Our plan was to bring our midfielders near our centre-backs, have the other midfielders come and find the space between lines and then create our chances.

“In a defensive way, in the first 25 minutes, we controlled everything and after we found that space two or three times. In the transition we have a good situation for Adama (Traore). They scored but at the break I said to my players ‘the way we are watching the game, if we have the passes between the lines we will create a lot of problems for them’. They came with the pressure, we put the ball between the lines, and it’s very hard to defend. We did well in that situation.

“We created a lot of chances and we deserved more. We played well.

“It’s my first game and it’s the way I wanted to play the game. We followed the plan.

“I am confident with the process because I think this team can grow up and our game can improve, but I’m disappointed with the result.”