The hosts had 16 shots against their West Midlands rivals but found either Villa goalkeeper and former old gold stopper Emi Martinez or the woodwork in their way, with the latter stopping Fabio Silva from opening the scoring on his first Premier League start. But Nuno acknowledges that improvements need to be made if his side are to find solutions in attack.
On dropping points at home
“It’s always disappointing after a good game to lose when we played well. I think in the first-half, it was a very intense game with a lot of fouls. The game didn’t flow and there was a lot of stoppages, but it’s a derby and it means a lot for everybody.
“It was two good teams competing, questions and answers, attack, defend, it was a good game of football.”
“Today we played good, we defended well against a tough team and created situations in attack. The response and the attitude were good.
“Both teams were very tight, and I think in the second-half we controlled the game, we created a lot of chances, a lot of good chances, and this is what we try to do; keep on growing on these aspects, being more clinical is what we need to do.”
Still looking for that opener! #COYW pic.twitter.com/TpYKPdyGej
— Wolves (@Wolves) December 12, 2020
On taking chances
“In the final moments, we had chances, we played good, but the chances that we had, we have to do better. We have to find solutions. This is what we are working on.
“Of course, not having Raul is a big loss for us, but we have other players and this is what we have to look at; help them grow, support them, like we did today with Fabio.
“He’s a young boy who started his first game and he did well. We must improve and this is what it’s all about.”
On a first Premier League start for Silva
“I think he worked good, he worked well, he was linking with his teammates and he had good chances. He worked very hard and that’s the point and the idea to make a player grow is to try to help him and support him in the competition.
“It requires this physicality in the game. Today he faced two strong centre-halves, playing with your back and trying to link under the pressure, I felt he managed himself well.
“He was inside of the tasks, inside the shape of the team, linking, combining and had chances. Now it’s to improve and make him better.”
On finding solutions to score
“It’s something that we have to do as a team, find solutions, but now let’s work and improve on the final touch so we can put the ball inside of the goal.
“But sometimes the goalkeeper makes good saves, like the Villa goalkeeper did today. I think he was one of the best players on the pitch today, but that says a lot about the situations and what we have to improve.
“There’s a lot of things that we have to improve, but the most difficult thing is the goal. Sometimes it has to be perfect to achieve, but you have to keep on insisting and believing, and this is what we’re going to do.”
On another game in three days
“It’s all about that, the bounce back. We need to work hard, recover because we’re facing a tough opponent. Let’s compete.”
