Since the old gold’s last league outing, Julen Lopetegui has taken over the reins, overseeing a tough training camp in Marbella and Tuesday’s Carabao Cup win over Gillingham. However, now is the time for Wolves to lift themselves off the bottom of the table, according to skipper Neves, who is focused on a much improved second half of the season, which begins at Goodison Park on Monday.
On celebrating Christmas with the family
“We are able to celebrate, we always find a way to do it. I’m used to it already, so it’s not a problem at all for me or my family, we always find a way to have our Christmas as normal as possible.”
On a mission to recover
“Since pre-season things didn’t work well for us, as a club, as players. I think we struggled a bit to find our way this season, it’s the first time it’s happened since I’ve been here, but it’s normal. Every club goes up and down and the most important thing is to come up again.
“This break was really good for us, we had a mini pre-season again, so we could start working again on every single aspect we needed to work on. We are only focused on our future now, we’ll forget the past, because we still have a lot of games to play. We haven’t finished the first round of the Premier League, so we are focused on the future and improving as much as we can.”
On how things can change quickly
“The same happens every season, teams that are struggling, in the second phase of the season come up because the Premier League is so hard. Every game is a big fight, no one is favourites to win, anything can happen in every single match. That’s the special thing about the Premier League, we are in the middle of the season and bottom, but nine points from ninth.
“Two or three games can change everything, we know that, but our main focus is thinking game by game, we know it’s important for us to give our best on the pitch, don’t think about the table anymore, we’ll think about performances, playing our football, because if we do that, we’ll be closer to winning games.”
On working under Lopetegui again
“It’s been really good. I’ve been back for less than two weeks, but I was always in contact with everyone here while at the World Cup to see how things were going. Everyone is enjoying the new way to work. He’s a really experienced manager, so he knows what he needs to do to get the best from the players, and that’s the most important thing. Everyone is at their best, ready to play, and everyone is really motivated to start playing again.”
Highlights from our @Carabao_Cup victory against Gillingham.
— Wolves (@Wolves) December 21, 2022
🎬🍿 pic.twitter.com/gjWZ4Yvi8x
On Jimenez returning to the group
“Our main focus is to have everyone at their best and Raul is one of us. He’s trying to be at his best, he’s improving a lot, we are seeing him come back to his best in the training sessions, so that’s good for us. The break was good for players who had injuries or problems in the past, because they are coming back to their best form, and we want every single player to be on their best because everyone is needed in a moment like this.”
On returning from the World Cup
“It was amazing. The best experience of my career at the moment. A big competition, it’s a dream for every player to participate in a World Cup, and fortunately I could do it with the national team. Now, I’m 100 per cent focused on here because we have a lot of work to do and we have big moments coming up for us, so I’m really focused on here at the moment.
“Me and all my teammates are ready to go, 100 per cent mentally and physically. It was a good break for us as a club, to restart again and build new things around our football. I think we are really looking forward to the games now because we’ve been working so hard this month. We want to play, we want games to come, to show everyone our motivation. It’s really important for us to get some results now and I think the break for the World Cup, from a Wolves point of view, was really good.”
