Mistakes Cost Us

Wolves Head Coach Nuno Espirito Santo believes it was mistakes which led to his side losing their first game of the season against Cardiff City at Molineux.

Cardiff took the lead in the 54th minute when Joe Ralls found a yard of space inside the Wolves box and finished past John Ruddy.

 

Wolves got themselves back in the game in the 67th minute through Leo Bonatini but it wasn’t to be as Nathaniel Mendez-Laing scored the winner in the 77th to send all three points back to South Wales.

 

On his first competitive defeat, Nuno said he was happy with his side’s effort but that they must learn from errors to avoid conceding in future. 

 

“Cardiff are a tough team to play - they're very aggressive, they take away the spaces you want but we took too long to get into the game,” he said. 

 

“I think the result is about the mistakes, the mistakes that we concede. 

 

“Today is a lesson for us, there are too many things that we have to deal better with. 

 

“When I speak about mistakes, it is about the team not about individuals. 

 

“We took too much time to get our game going where we keep possession and get high up the pitch. 

 

“We have to analyse the mistakes - we realise that the second goal starts from a goal kick, there’s a long time to see that. 

 

“We have to approach that situation much better but this is how we will improve and avoid these errors next time. 

 

“The work was there, the effort from the players was there and when we were drawing, we were close to winning it. 

 

“This is how the competition works - we’ve got nine points before today and we have to keep going. 

 

“It's about the way you come back again from a big punch like we’ve taken today. 

 

“The next game is more important than anything else. 

 

“I have nothing bad to say about the effort or the work ethic of the team - in that sense it was fantastic. 

 

“We are all disappointed today, today’s a sad day but we are going to get up again.

 

Nuno believes that Cardiff City’s plan was to stop his side from playing, a tactic which didn't sit too well with the Wolves Head Coach.

 

He says that coming up against a team like Cardiff has been a lesson for his team, and admits that it will be something they have to deal with throughout the season.

 

“The gameplan of Cardiff was clear - people come to the stadiums to see teams trying to see who is the best team," added Nuno.

 

“I think their idea was to stop our game and our creative players, this is a lesson for us that we have to deal with. 

 

“At the same time I though we showed character but next game we must improve. 

 

“I think the referee could have protected us a little bit better and protect teams that want to play football. 

 

“If you're allowed to take players out of the game, I don’t think that is what the Championship deserves.”