As he prepares to face his former club, Gary O’Neil is confident Wolves’ visit to West Ham United provides his team with a good opportunity to keep adding points to the board.
The Hammers have been in inconsistent form this season, and in the space of just four days last week beat Tottenham Hotspur before being trounced 5-0 by Fulham, but O’Neil – who spent three seasons in east London as a player where he helped West Ham claim promotion back into the Premier League – has acknowledged the difficult test that awaits his players who were able to grind out four points from their two home fixtures last week.
On adding points to the board
“It's strange really because I know the two home games were obviously not exhilarating by any stretch, but four points from two Premier League games at home is a good return. If you take four points from every two home games, you’re in a good spot.
“It was a good return, the lads did well to ensure they took points from them because they were tight games, they were different tests from what we’d encountered so far, especially at home, so I’m really pleased we were able to come out of it with points, and then hopefully looking to improve the performance level at West Ham, which I’m sure we will, although it will be a tough test.
“They’re going well, fairly high up the league, always good at home, so it will be a real stern test for us that we’re going to have to perform well to give ourselves a chance to win us points.”
On facing his former club
“I loved my time there. As a Millwall fan growing up, my dad and my grandad both supporting Millwall, when I went down there when I was young, there was a small bit made of me playing for West Ham, but it’s very different from being a 12-year-old fan to being a professional footballer.
“It was quite a way apart, but I loved my time there, a great club, a big club as well, and I didn’t realise how big it was really until I arrived there, and it has a massive following, a massive support. I had a really serious injury that the club really helped me get through, so fond memories from my time there.
“I know how big it is and know how well they’ve been able to progress over the last few years, with the new stadium and obviously winning in Europe last season, a high finish in the league the season before, they’re managing to progress, the club’s in a good place, and it’s a game we’re really looking forward to.
“It’s a game where we can try and go there and give the best version of ourselves and that gives us a real good chance to win the game.”
On raising the intensity
“The lads have been very good with their effort levels and intensity levels, and they’ve done the best they can to maintain them. Of course there’s been natural dips in seasons when you suffer injuries and suspensions and games come in quick succession, but if you look at last week, we lose 2-1 at Arsenal and don’t get anything from it, but it was a good effort to run them as close as we did, then we had two homes games where we took four points, so with three games in quick succession last week, the lads were able to keep things going.
“Do we want to improve the performance again? Of course. West Ham had an illness within their group which could have contributed to the 5-0 loss, but the Premier League is tough. I’ve said it a lot now, if you drop your level just a small amount, you get severely punished.
“But it’s a game that we can go there and see if we can really put our best performance in where we look like us, there’s a good intensity to us, we’re good with the ball and then go up against another good team and hope that the find margins go in our favour.
On improving fitness levels
“It's definitely better. We were having to take a lot of players off for non-tactical reasons initially, and I know Mario [Lemina] had to come off at the weekend with his tight hamstring, but Rayan [Ait-Nouri] has been in a better place, before he picked up his injury which means we may need to build him up again.
“But the lads have seemed to be getting better through the games, which is important, especially with a small squad because you’re not able to change everything all the time, so it’s important the lads can get through as much as possible. We’re still looking to progress that and we’re still working hard each day to make sure the lads are in the best condition possible.”
West Ham (a) 🔜#WHUWOL | @MNEGlobal pic.twitter.com/MBnsMvanJ9
— Wolves (@Wolves) December 14, 2023
On January transfer plans
“We’ve had a few real brief conversations around January, and we will be looking to add, but how much, when and where, there’s nothing to tell you at the moment, but we’re looking to add to the group if we can in January.
“I would expect a few of our lads to be away through January, possibly Bouba [Traore], Rayan and Channy [Hwang]. The plan will be to do as well as we can when they’re gone and then when they’re back, welcome them back and do as well as we can again.
“It’s five or six weeks they’re away for, so you can’t just sign a load of players to make up for others being away for five or six weeks, so we will do the business that we already plan to do in January, whatever that may be, and other teams will have players away as well, so we’ll deal with the fact that we may be without a few for a short period of time.
“I know our scouting department will be working across everywhere to find players we think will be suitable for what we need within the price structure we can make work.”
On games without VAR controversy
“It's important that as a head coach, I do try to be really balanced on it. According to the checks, the Ollie Watkins one against Aston Villa did go our way, so we have had some where the powers that be said we were fortunate to get.
“They’ve not all gone against us, we have had some tough ones that a lot has been made of, but in the last few games I think the officials have been good and I’ve had no real complaints from either of the last two home games, and even at Arsenal I thought the officials were very good, so no complaints from me at the moment.”
