Festive fixtures with Watford and Arsenal were both postponed, as the Hornets and Wolves suffered a high level of Covid-19 cases, which meant insufficient players were available to fulfil the games. Although disappointed to have seen traditional games called off, captain Coady believes his side need to make the best of the situation and look ahead to 2022 with positivity.
On seeing Boxing Day fixture postponed
“It’s tough. We only found out after training on Thursday as it got announced while we were training.
“It’s something where we’ve prepared ourselves for the games, and as football players, you don’t really want to fall behind on games, where you need to be catching up on points and catching up the people in front of you.
“You want to be playing, you want to play as many games as you possibly can, so it’s frustrating, but we all understand the situation we are living in at the minute, in terms of these situations are going to happen. We’ve got to get our head around the situation we are in, to make sure we bounce back in the next game."
— Wolves (@Wolves) December 23, 2021
On being fresh moving forward
“It’s a way to look at it from our point of view. If you look at it and be disappointed that the game was called off – which we are, because we want to be playing games, especially on Boxing Day, because we all know how much of a tradition it is and how much we all want to be playing on that day in this country.
“But instead of being disappointed, we actually have to try and use it to our advantage, to make sure we’re a little bit fresher. We need to try and use it to our advantage as much as we can to make sure we’re ready for the next one.”
On his favourite Christmas meal
“A plate full of pigs in blankets! That would do me. I love a pig in blanket! We had Christmas dinner at the club on Wednesday and if the nutritionist would have seen my plate, it would’ve been murder. I went through about 50 of them – a whole bowl.
“But I love the usual. A little bit of turkey. I’m very traditional in terms of that, so a traditional Christmas dinner, but I go heavy on the desert as I’m a bit of a desert man.”
On Wolves’ season so far
“I think it’s been good. It’s been something we can build on, something we can improve on, because we’re always looking to improve and get better, but if we look at the first-half of the season, we’ve been happy with the way we’ve played.
“We’d obviously love to have loads more points, but every team would tell you the same thing, and there’s been the odd game here and there where we could have had more points and could have done things in a little bit of a different way, but we didn’t, and we’ve learned from those situations.
“We’re in a good place, but also a place where we can get better as a team and in ourselves every single day, and that’s what we’re trying to do now.”
On aims for the new year
“Not necessarily finishing in a European place – that’s not something we’ve spoke about. We never speak about those sorts of things inside the dressing room.
“But there’s a belief in the way that we play and the way we want to do things, and a belief in our manager and the way he wants to set us up. But in terms of looking at the table, where we are and how close we are to certain things.
“But we just enjoy going under the radar a little bit and just doing what we’re doing. We’re chalking games off, picking up results here and there, just knowing that we have to improve.
“In terms of looking at where we are in the table, it’s ok, but it doesn’t mean anything until the end of the season, so all we can do is just make sure we’re improving every single day.”
