Wolves take a slender one-goal advantage into to tomorrow night’s play-off round second leg, following a 3-2 away win in Turin last week, and the head coach is happy with how his players have embraced not only their maiden European campaign in gold and black, but also the Premier League matches, to remain unbeaten so far in the 2019/20 season.
On embracing the Europa League
“It’s true, we are really embracing all the games, not only the competitions, but all the games we have in front of us.
“It’s been good, I think for all the club it’s a new experience, but I think we’ve prepared well and the way we’ve dealt with the travelling has been fantastic, so I’m very pleased for the club and for the players.
“We just embrace the games and then we want to compete. They want to play, they want to compete, to raise their game, improve, play. This is what football is all about – to play games.”
On tough test of Torino
“We saw in the game there against them how difficult it was. They are a very good team, with very good players and a good manager.
“We saw in the game against us, we analyse them, once again, the qualities are there, we can see the difficulties are they, we can see the quality of the squad, the quality of the players, so we are aware of everything and we want to play.
“We analysed the game (against Sassoulo) and we passed on the details to the players. We get the details of all the teams, all the players, all the things that they can do, then pass on the right information to the players to perform.”
On being 90 minutes from the group stages
“We want to compete tomorrow, we prepare the game, we know we’re going to play at home, and we want to perform. We want to play good against a very tough team in Torino – a very tough opponent.
“Our preparation is always game by game. The players look at the game of tomorrow, they don’t look further ahead, just think about tomorrow.
“It started in the Asia Trophy with big games against tough teams and we started against Crusaders, Pyunik, home, away, it’s game by game. Tomorrow is another one and then Sunday we’ll have another one and we’ll see what the future is ahead of us.”
On approaching the tie
“It’s a new game, a new game. The result that we did before doesn’t mean anything; it’s a new game. We start from zero. This is the way we approach it, like we approach all the games.
“The players don’t think about that (sitting back and protecting the lead). It’s the way we compete in all the games, the way we want to do things, how we want to play, recognising that we have a tough opponent in front of us, taking all the care that we need, knowing there will be weaknesses, advantage of them, but we play, play the game.
“We don’t take anything that happened before. It’s a new game.
“It’s the philosophy that we try to embrace since day one. Knowing that every day is important, how we prepare for the competition is the most important thing. Then, what they want is to play and put all these things that we train here onto the pitch, in front of a full house at Molineux.
“What else could be better? It’s the best thing there is, to play at home, a full house, enjoy it and play.”
On supporters’ influence on team
“(The fans’ support in Torino) was amazing. We listened to them. It’s important for us, the help that they give us, the way that they push the team, the way they enjoy going alongside with the team and with us.
“The intimidating aspect of it, I don’t know, but what we know is what we like. We enjoy playing at Molineux in front of our fans.”
