Craig Dawson has highlighted the importance of the Molineux supporters as Wolves return to the stadium for their opening home match of the 2023/24 season against Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday.
Wolves’ home record was crucial to the side securing a sixth successive term in the top flight last season, and the defender understands that the team needs to respond in front of their own fans having fallen to defeat as their campaign got underway against Manchester United. But despite Monday evening’s result, Dawson feels the squad showed they were on the right track under new head coach Gary O’Neil if they are to achieve their aims come May.
On the VAR fallout from Old Trafford
“It was obviously disappointing to come away with a defeat, but there were lots of positives in the performance. Everyone put in a real shift and I’m sure the manager was happy about it as well.
“It was obviously a tough one to take and unfortunately [the penalty decision] didn’t go our way, but hopefully we can get those decisions in the future.
“[The apology from Jon Moss] doesn’t help us and probably hurts a little bit more that it should have been a penalty, but unfortunately that’s football – sometimes it goes your way and sometimes it doesn’t, so we’ve just got to try and take the positives from the game and take that into the next match.”
On facing Brighton at Molineux
“The fans have been excellent, and if you go back to last season, our home form was very important and the support they gave us was massive and we’re going to need that again this season, for sure, and this weekend because Brighton is going to be a difficult game.
“They’re a brilliant side with lots of quality all over the pitch and a top manager as well, so it’s going to be a very difficult game for us. They play a different style to a lot of teams and we suffered a heavy defeat against them last season, so we need to be better than we were last season, and we will be, for sure. It’s going to be a good week on the training pitch to prepare.
“It’s about having a clear plan as a team. If you go as individuals trying to chase them then you’ll get picked off, so I’m sure the boss will have a good plan getting ready for them, because it’s going to be a tough game against a top side who will do well this year.”
On working with Gary O’Neil
“We’ve obviously only worked together a week, but you can see his qualities straight away. You can see in his training sessions how he’s not long finished as a player himself, so he knows what the players need, he knows what the players want, and the quality of the sessions is very high and very detailed, so I’m looking forward to getting back on the pitch and working with him.
“[Before Man United] we had four days together, so we had to take a lot of information on board and try to change the style of play, but you could see in the performance that the lads took everything on board and it was great to see.
“The lads put a great shift in and now it’ll be more of the same for the next game. We’ve got a little bit longer to prepare, which will hopefully help, but the lads have worked ever so hard, including the new manager and his staff, so hopefully we can prepare well with a full week and see where it takes us.”
Taking the team for the first time.
— Wolves (@Wolves) August 14, 2023
🐺 pic.twitter.com/SQ14fgZH3S
On putting chances away
“It’s one of those things, but the goals will come. We’re creating the chances so it’s just a matter of time before the goals come, and it’s a case of turning the performances into wins and everyone will be happy.
“Hopefully we can show our attacking side a little bit more, but we just need to find that end product and that goal, but I’m sure we’ll see some soon and hopefully that will bring out more confidence in the forward players as well.
“Scoring goals is the toughest part of the game, but hopefully we can get more players on the scoresheet, defenders included. I think I only popped up with one last year and it’s something we’re working hard on this year. We’ll work hard this week to prepare well and I’m sure finishing drills will be on the list, as always!”
On aims for the season
“We want to improve on last season. We’ve got a great squad, as you saw away to Manchester United, we created so many chances and put in a good performance, but we just need to turn those performances into results.
“But it’s the Premier League, it’s the toughest league and if you lose a couple of games in a row you get dragged down to that bottom end. We obviously don’t want to be down there this season, but it’s a tough league and we will prepare well for every game and give our all.
“Every game is going to be tough this season, but as you saw on Monday night, we have a good squad and there were lots of positives to take, even if the result wasn’t quite what we wanted, and we can build on it.”
— Wolves (@Wolves) August 14, 2023
On leading a tight-knit squad
“People [externally] can say what they want about this group of players but, within the group, it’s a very tight group. Probably one of the biggest changes from last season is that the group is very close and we’re going to need to stay close throughout the whole season and continue to work hard for each other, which you saw at United.
“The lads have settled in well and everyone is welcomed in. Everyone is included in everything we do, in all conversations, and everyone feels comfortable. I think there’s a definite togetherness this year.
“We’ve also got a leadership group which manage the day-to-day things, but the lads are part of a really good group and everyone’s professionalism is right up there, so it takes care of itself really.”
