Wolves v Manchester United: Bruno Lage’s first aim is to win over Molineux faithful
Bruno Lage wants to see Wolves ‘conquer’ the Molineux faithful with their swashbuckling style – but knows the goals must flow.
Lage’s men have impressed onlookers despite falling to narrow 1-0 defeats in their opening two Premier League games and welcome a fancied Manchester United side tomorrow.
The goals did come in midweek at Nottingham Forest and took Wolves to 70 shots at goal from three games this season.
The new head coach acknowledged that the ‘first step’ for his side is to ‘conquer’ the returning Wolves fans, with the side evolving from a more pragmatic style under Nuno Espirito Santo into Lage’s high-octane model.
But, with points the only statistic that truly matters, the boss acknowledged there is work to do. He said: “The first step is that – to conquer the fans first of all.
“It’s important to feel that energy from the fans and the players feel it also. I believe in it, if you create and take chances, you watch our game improve and we want to control the openings.
“The reward will come from the way we go about going to work and not just from the points (in the table).
“From my point of view the way they’re working is very good, in the pitch they are doing good performances, now all of us know we need to have some points.
“After two games against Leicester and Tottenham we are happy with how we played, we created a lot of chances and didn’t score, no points for us.
“But this is our work, we need to continue to play like that, create a lot of chances, because I believe the way we create chances we will score more goals.
“My way to play, way to work, my philosophy is to do that. Every day I say to my players we are an attacking team, we need to create chances, for sure the goals will come.”
Lage added: “The players know it is about the points, everyone knows we need points, it’s not about performance, but the best way to win points is to play well.
“If you want to win points you have to score goals, we need to create more chances to score goals.
“The confidence will come with the work we do every day.”
Wolves could be boosted for the visit of United with the return of influential defender Willy Boly, who is back in full team training.
Boly, 30, is yet to feature this season after picking up a hamstring injury more than a month ago. But both he and new central defensive colleague Yerson Mosquera are back in training and could be ready for tomorrow if they come through today’s session unscathed.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who was yesterday pursuing a sensational move to bring Cristiano Ronaldo back to Old Trafford, brings his United team to Molineux on the cusp of a Premier League record.
Last weekend’s 1-1 draw at Southampton was a record-equalling 27th match unbeaten on the road.
Asked about the Red Devil’s secret formula for avoiding defeat away, Lage said: “They are a strong team, every time they are compact, when they attack they go together and when they defend they are compact.
“They always stay together, with no spaces, that’s why they are strong, that’s why the main teams are, to play together and not as individuals, to play as a team.”
