Despite controlling much of the contest against Spurs, Harry Kane’s header was enough for the hosts to keep all three points, but after a first-half display from his side which showed plenty of promise, Lage is keeping the faith as he believes the goals will come once his new signings and players returning from injury get more minutes on the training pitch together.
On a narrow loss in north London
“The strategy was there and since the first minute we come with a big personality to play our game and I think we surprised Tottenham a little bit. I think first-half, it was amazing what we did. The way we pressed, the way we controlled the game with the ball and without the ball. It was very good for our side.
“We created some chances and I think the result is unfair at half-time. We came out with the same energy to do the same, and maybe it was a little more balanced. When you look in the end what we did all game, the chances we created, the way we controlled this big team, it becomes frustrating because of the result and the way they scored the goal.
“They scored a goal from a corner, so when you look for the performance, we should be proud of the performance, but it wasn’t the result that we wanted.”
On one point from first three games
“It looks like the beginning of last season! Three good games, three good performances, the players are coming and we know exactly where we want to go. It’s the same situation, but what’s more important is the direction that we want and continue to work.
“When you come here with new players coming during the week, and you play a game like we played today, I’m an optimist for the performances in the future, but we need to add goals to our game.”
On Guedes and Nunes’ first starts
“They were level with the performance of the team. Goncalo is here one week, Matheus is coming two days, and now it’s continuing to work.
“They did what I asked of them to do, Matheus was there controlling the ball, Goncalo did what he usually do, he had one or two chances to score goals, and now it’s time to see what we did here and to continue. That’s the goal.
“We know how we want to play and I think the fans should be proud of the work that we did outside against Tottenham, and now we need to continue to work to go in our direction.”
Matheus in the building.
— Wolves (@Wolves) August 20, 2022
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On injured players returning
“Not only are the [new] players coming, but it’s also Joao [Moutinho], Nelson [Semedo], Raul [Jimenez] all coming from injuries and now they need to prepare well because it’s a long period without doing anything.
“In the perfect world, we need two weeks to get themselves ready for this game and do a new pre-season, but I’m confident because my players like to learn, my players like to improve and what we did today gives us the confidence for the future.”
On areas to improve
“It’s time to work, it’s time for them to get to know each other, the combinations that we want, the ideas that we want to build with the new system, so it’s time for that. But we know how to do it. The perfect world was to be in the pre-season with all the players that we want, to be working with us, but that’s not realistic.
“Now what’s important is this. We did a good game with personality, we played our game, the first-half was very good, and now I want more first-halves like that, more performances like that, and more goals.”
