As vice-captain for the past four years, midfielder Neves will step up and take the place of the England defender as the team’s on-pitch leader for the time being, but the head coach is also looking at other members of his squad who he feels has the right skillset to become captain, and Lage has challenged Kilman to be that person to take what he learned from his close relationship with Coady and push on as one of the senior leaders.
As well as Kilman facing the club where he began his youth career in Fulham on Saturday, the game will see Wolves return to Molineux for their first outing of 2022/23, and there will also be new faces among the group to start the home campaign, with the signing of Portuguese international Goncalo Guedes – someone Lage knows very well from his time coaching him as a 16-year-old at Benfica.
On deciding his new captain
“It’s very hard to lose a man and a captain like him [Coady], but we also have good lads in our house and now we need to find the best way to replace his leadership because it was so good. But I think we have good men here who can replace him – not in the same way as him, but in a different way, because every person is different.
“Ruben [Neves] will be captain for now, and then we will have time to think about it. One of the guys I’m also thinking about is Max [Kilman]. After the season that he did, I think it’s the right decision to try to push him a little bit. He’s a little bit shy, but we can do good work with him to be more of a leader. I can see a brilliant captain in him in the future.
“What Coady did is impossible to do because it depends on the personality of each person. My leadership is different than Nuno, for sure, but I’m still the leader and what I want from Max is the same. Coady and him spent a lot of time together, so it will be important for him to understand what he learned with Coady and what he’s going to learn with Ruben.”
On Coady’s move to Everton
“We had a good talk after the Sporting game and I don’t change anything about what I said about him – he is one of the best men I’ve met in football. He was my captain, but more importantly, he was my player, a big friend and he helped me a lot.
“I understand the position of Coady. It’s not just about the World Cup, he wants to play every minute of every game, and that’s the type of players I like; ambition to continue to play. And in the end, we need to understand the position of the club, we need to understand the position of the player.
“There’s nothing wrong, it’s just Wolves go in one direction and Coady goes in the other. What I wish for him, is that I want the best for him and for his career, for his family and for his life.”
On bringing Guedes to Wolves
“I’m very happy. He can play as a striker, he can play as a winger, he can play as a second striker. He played in these positions when we were in Benfica, especially with me, he played on the right and on the left when we were working together in the under-17s. I saw him play as a striker at Valencia, so he can play in those four positions. But most important is the way, in time, he links with his teammates.
“At Benfica, I worked with him when I was the under-17 manager and he was 16. I push him to work with me, so I was with him for one year, but I’ve followed his career. The way he appeared in the Benfica first-team, the move to PSG, after the loan to Valencia and what he’s done in the last five years.
“I’m happy for his career and I’m so happy to have him here because he was one of the first names I said last year I wanted to come, and now we’ve created that chance to come. I’m so happy for that because I think he can give us solutions to play as a winger and to play as a striker.
“It’s very important [players are versatile], especially in these days. With five subs and when you have these kinds of players who can go in several positions and they can understand more than one system, it’s easier for us to change the game and change the dynamic of the game, so these players are so important for us.”
On the transfer window
“It will be one more time; patience and trust. Patience because we still have 20 days until the end of the transfer window and trust in us, in our work, and judge the work we are doing at the start of this season at the end of this transfer window. That’s what I’ll ask – patience and time.
“We need to evolve the players, some players go, some players are coming and I have big trust in the work we are doing to convince three or four players to come and to play for Wolves. After time, for players to get fit, for players like Raul [Jimenez] and Joao [Moutinho] to recover from injuries, and for Semedo and Adama [Traore] to improve their fitness because they didn’t do a pre-season and work this new dynamic and new system with these players.”
On strengthening his squad
“Every time, it’s an opportunity to make a deal. We know what is important, we know what we are doing, we know what positions we need to improve, we know what kind of players we want to bring – I don’t want to bring players just to make a squad, they have to come to improve and be competitive.
“I would have liked to have all the players before pre-season and before going to Spain and Portugal, but in these days, it doesn’t work like that. We have to be patient and we need to find the best targets, the best deals, and we are doing that.
“We’ve already brought two good players to help us, Collins and Guedes, and I hope we can convince other ones to come and join us.”
Preparing for life in the @premierleague 👊 pic.twitter.com/h0EVi3F0tt
— Wolves (@Wolves) August 12, 2022
On facing Fulham
“All the teams are strong. We can see by the results, we can see what happened week by week and we can see by that game, and what Fulham did last season, how strong they are. They have top players like Mitrovic who can score.
“He scored 43 goals in the Championship, he started the first game of the season at Liverpool, and sometimes there are no teams who can score two goals against Liverpool, and just one player scored two goals against Liverpool.
“We can see, not just the striker, but the dynamic of the team, and of course we are talking about the staff they have and the manager they have. I know a little bit of Marco’s work, what he did in Portugal and what he did here in England, in the Premier League and Championship, so it’s going to be one more time, every week, it’s a tough opponent, tough manager, tough players, but it’s also going to be a little bit to look for what we did in our game.”
