Gary O’Neil is confident Wolves have the options inside the squad to cope with replacing the influential Pedro Neto when the side head to face Sheffield United on Saturday afternoon.
The head coach confirmed the winger – who currently leads the 2023/24 Premier League in assists – will miss ‘a few weeks’ after being stretchered off the field following a hamstring injury in the 2-2 draw against Newcastle United last weekend.
But with a confident squad, and all-but the injured academy graduate pair of Hugo Bueno and Joe Hodge available for tomorrow afternoon’s fixture at Bramall Lane, O’Neil believes his players will step up to the mark during what he expects will be a difficult game against a team who will be going all out in search of their first win this season.
On replacing Pedro Neto
“A few weeks is probably about where we are with it at the moment, so he won’t be available this weekend or next weekend, then we go into an international break and we’ll see how he’s healing at that point, but nothing definitive. It depends how long the ‘few’ becomes. We’re hopeful that we can get him back quickly.
“It's hard to have a direct replacement for Pedro, because there’s no-one who can carry the ball in the same way that he does. To put everything on us needing to change because we’ve got no Pedro would be a bit of an extreme reaction to losing one player who has played one part in the team being good so far.
“There are other players who have played a huge part in getting the team to where we are. We’ll stick to where we are and we will try to play to people’s strengths and I’m confident the group will cope with the players we have available.
“Lots of players are in a really good place, so we need to ensure we can keep pushing, keep the momentum and when Pedro comes back, we’re still in a good place.”
On the threat of Sheffield United
“They are very hard to predict, so for me it’s been a very tough one. They’ve had some injury issues, they’ve played different systems, so the players will need to be adaptable on the day.
“Apart from the Newcastle game, they’ve been well in their games – especially the home ones – Manchester United found it very difficult there, Manchester City only won 2-1, so they’ve given everyone, apart from Newcastle, a really tough game. Every time I’ve been to Sheffield United as a player or as a coach it’s always been a tough place to go. They have a chance in every one of their games, but especially at home, so it will be a test for us tomorrow.
“They’ve been in every single match and it will be a tough game tomorrow. They will be up for it and they will want to make it very difficult. The fact they’ve not won makes no difference whatsoever. People will think Wolves are in a good spot, Sheffield United are struggling, that will be a comfortable one – but it won’t be like that, I can guarantee it. We have to prepare for another tough game.”
On improving individuals
“It isn’t me that’s corrected anything, the lads have worked extremely hard at what we’re asking of them. We know how hard scoring goals is in the Premier League, it’s the hardest part of the game, which is why strikers move for the most money. Especially in England, it’s very hard to score goals, and we’ve created some good chances, we’ve arrived in areas with good numbers, but the boys are showing the quality I knew they had.
“I don’t think I’ve been disappointed with anybody. Even when you watch the level in training, the boys who haven’t played as much as they’d like, I understand they’ll be frustrated, and I know what it feels like because I’ve been there.
“But the ability they show, how hard they work and how important they are to me, it’s important they keep their level up. As you’ve seen with Tommy Doyle and the impact he’s had when he’s come in, Bouba [Traore] when he’s come on as a sub, Sasa [Kalajdzic] when he’s come on, you can still have important impacts on football matches.
“Everybody in the group is really important to us and we can’t do this with 11 or 12, we need everybody, so we need to keep pushing everyone as much as we can and hopefully we can keep increasing our level.”
Three beauties against the Blades 🙌#SHUWOL | @MNEGlobal pic.twitter.com/P91BcdnULu
— Wolves (@Wolves) November 3, 2023
On Doyle returning to Bramall Lane
“He brings something different to the midfield. His passing range, his ability on the ball, his delivery from set plays, his personality and his energy, so he’s done really well because he’s had to suffer a tricky summer.
“He hurt his knee twice and didn’t do too much training before he arrived here and had to get up to speed, but he’s knuckled down every day and although he’s had little knocks, he’s cracked on with his work and has managed to get himself in a spot now where he’s in real contention for a starting spot, which is a credit to the work he’s done.”
On his midfield options
“The four of them are all in a good spot, form-wise. I know Joao [Gomes] started a lot of the early ones and has come out recently and we’ve switched between him, Bouba and Tommy. Mario [Lemina] is still on four yellows as well, so having all four of them working hard and in a good space is pleasing tactically because at Bournemouth the key change of getting Tommy in the game to give us some control.
“Even against Newcastle where I felt the game would be quite frantic and we’d struggle to get control, but when we did, it enabled us to put Tommy on and helped us. Being able to use different people for different situations is important and the midfield illustrates that as the four of them give us a really nice blend.”
