Gary O’Neil was remaining levelled headed after Wolves’ loss to Brighton & Hove Albion, believing that if the group continue to create chances, they’ll come good in front of goal.
Wolves were punished for missed chances, like against Manchester United, while Brighton were clinical in front of goal, hitting four to ensure a losing start for the head coach at Molineux. However, O’Neil saw plenty of positives in his side’s performance, despite the result, and is hopeful in time things will turn around for the better.
On comparing to Monday’s showing
“38 shots in two games. I feel the emotion in the stadium like everybody does, when you’re four down it feels incredibly one-sided, but when you’re in the office and start to go through things, our XG was exactly the same, two on the XG like it was at United, and we have to find a way.
“We were trying to be aggressive today and we won the ball high a few times, but there’s risk attached. Brighton managed to maximise their opportunities from us taking a risk, but when we got ours from taking a risk, we missed them.
“We’ve created equally as many chances as they have. That’s not going to help us though, we need to make sure we convert them so keep creating our chances and see if we can stick some away.”
On missing big chances
“We’ve only converted one of very many chances. Disappointment, but also an understanding that it’s early in the process and we knew there’d be lots of stuff to fix, obviously.
“Unfortunately for us at the moment, we are not clinical enough and we are suffering those misses and suffering from the fact that we are on the wrong side of a lot of the fine margins, but they are in our control. No hard luck stories, no excuses, it’s something we have to improve.
“It’s a massive number of chances. It’s been two tough games. It’s a group that’s new to me and I’m new to them. We’re eight or nine days in. Did I know there were going to be things that needed to be fixed here? Of course. Whenever there is a change there’s things that need to be fixed.”
On conceding soon after the break
“There is obviously a few bits involved in every goal, for goals you concede there’s things you’d like to do differently. We caused them equal problems as well and they were just very clinical and we weren’t, we were wasteful with our opportunities. Everyone in the stadium feels the effects of the goals, of course, and the emotion of the scoreline, and when I came in and looked at the stuff we look at, we created equally as many chances as them.
“It was a bad start to the second half, but 4-0 down at home, it would have very easy for the lads to quit and stop, and nobody did. The togetherness in the group remained, we still created chances for that, hit the bar, scored a goal, Rayan had a really good chance. We need to pick ourselves up and make sure we’re better next time, definitely in front of their goal.”
On losing Nunes to suspension
“I’ve spoken to Matheus and given him my clear thoughts on the situation. He’s obviously disappointed, he knows how big he is to us. His performance was excellent, so we need him available.
“I thought his performance today again was excellent. We need him available so getting booked at the end when you are 4-1 down and you are already on a yellow card is not what the group needs. He understands and hopefully we make sure it doesn't happen again.”
On the project ahead
“What I have seen today I can see all the issues. Unfortunately for everybody there is time attached to it. That Brighton team have been playing that way and doing the same things with the same coach for a very long time. The players fully understand what I ask and today was probably different for them in the way we went about things and how aggressive we were.
“I don’t want them to need time to adapt, we are putting a lot into them and we are trying to get them ready for every game but they will improve, they understand what I am asking, they just need to repeat, repeat and repeat and we will improve from today no doubt.
“I’m disappointed for the lads today because of the work they put in and how committed they were to what we asked them to do. They didn’t deserve to suffer a 4-1 defeat but it’s a good lesson that if you are clinical like Brighton were then you can put teams to bed and if you are wasteful like us then it can be a difficult afternoon.”
