At 2-0 down, a third away win on the spin seemed a distant hope for Wolves, but after a number of tactical tweaks and an impressive team goal finished off by Romain Saiss, the old gold started to believe. Conor Coady and Ruben Neves flipped the game on its head in the dying moments, and while Lage remained calm amidst the drama, he was ecstatic inside, as the away end celebrated a sensational day at Villa Park.
On a crazy game
“I think it was a good game. When you come to play against Aston Villa, these are the kind of games we want to play, because when one team has the ball, they create a lot of problems for the other. I think we created a lot of problems for Aston Villa, we had two good chances from Adama and Hwang in the first-half, Aston Villa created a lot of problems to us.
“It was that kind of game everyone wants to see, but in the same way, Aston Villa had some luck for the second goal, we had that luck in the third goal. We deserved the three points.”
A big day out and a 3-2 win.
— Wolves (@Wolves) October 16, 2021
😎 pic.twitter.com/6hzOYNCTxO
On coming from two down
“The second goal was around 68 minutes, it’s not too much time, especially in the Premier League, and my question was to change a little bit the dynamic. First, we put a fake nine in Hwang, I didn’t want to put players near the central defenders because players like Mings want body contact and I don’t want that.
“I put Leander and Adama to try to run at defenders. At 2-0 I changed, I tried to put Fabio and Daniel more in that space to create problems and we did it. After that, we continued to have the ball and it’s very hard to play against Aston Villa, the way they press, the way the two strikers run, the way the midfielders run, but we tried to find space behind the midfielders.
“After that comes corners, free-kicks and we created the chances to give us the goals. Credit to the players because we have one, two or three plans, but the way they worked and the way they came inside to change the game was a credit to them.”
On another big win
“With the way we started the season, three good performances and we don’t have this kind of luck. I remember one opportunity, Saiss against Man United, he didn’t score, but today we had that luck with the chances. For what we’ve done from the first day to here, we deserve the three points because the boys are working hard to try to understand better our ideas.”
Iconic. pic.twitter.com/SqIyxw5VOt
— Wolves (@Wolves) October 16, 2021
On keeping calm in the drama
“I never celebrate too much. I try to every time be calm, to take the best decisions, but after I’m happier than if we lose the game. Now our mind is to recover the players, we’ll see the things we need to improve and try to prepare ourselves for Leeds because they’re a strong opponent.
“I think the most important thing for me after the game is to realise it’s the days we want to live as a manager. That kind of thing can happen here, the Premier League, 2-0 down, 20 minutes, there’s time to play, for the players to believe.”
On Traore’s performance
“That’s the game he has and we want to improve him to play better between the lines. Adama is working hard to improve his game. The way he played toady, he played in three positions, an inside left, then as a striker and then a false left-back. He worked hard, everyone has to work hard, and what I want as manager is everyone to be ready when they have their chance to play.”
