Gary O’Neil says it would have been a “waste” for Wolves not to take the FA Cup seriously this season and says he’ll approach Saturday’s quarter-final in the same way as the previous rounds.
Coventry City stand between Wolves and the semi-finals on Saturday and, given their strong Championship campaign to date, O’Neil is expecting a tough contest. The head coach spoke about the fitness of Matheus Cunha and development of Nathan Fraser in Friday’s press conference, and how he doesn’t want this exciting FA Cup journey to end at this stage.
On Cunha being back in training
“He’s done really well, incredibly well. He’s in a great mood, obviously. The lads are pleased to have him back in and around them. An unbelievable effort from him to get back in full training with the lads as quickly as he has. It’s now on us to manage him the best way we can and when we think we can get the best out of him. We were expecting to be without him a lot longer than we have been, so delighted to have him back in training and it’s given the group a good lift.”
On the build up to Coventry
“It’s exactly the same. It’s obviously a big game, but they all are. I sat here last week and said the same about Fulham. They’re all very big games for us. A place at Wembley would be fantastic for the club, so the prize maybe makes it feel slightly different, but I can assure you even when it’s three points in the Premier League, when you get them it’s a big achievement, and tomorrow will be the same.
“The lads will approach it exactly the same as they always do. Of course, in cup games it feels a bit more final, because if you lose there’s no coming back. When we went to Newcastle, we were going to do our best to try and win, but if we lost, we had a chance to bounce back the next week against Fulham. In cup games it’s very different to that, but the lads are ready, we’ve had a really good week and I’m sure they’ll give their best tomorrow.”
On an enjoyable cup run
“The ability that I saw in the group made me believe that wasting the cup would be a waste. Of course, we could have easily lost in that first game at Brentford when we went down to ten men, and it would have been over very quickly, but the fact that we set our stall out very early and we spoke to the players about the amount of talent we had in the room. Why would we not go full tilt?
“We’ve still been able to rotate a little bit, but always with the main thing being let’s pick the best team to win the game. We’ve done really well, the boys have done incredibly well to get us as far in the cup as they have and have us on 41 points. We’re probably a long way ahead of where people expected us to be, but I don’t ever feel comfortable.
“The fact we’re in the quarter-final and on 41 points won’t make me feel any better about losing a game. The next loss will still hurt equally as much. I’m working very hard to try and make sure we keep the level up, as difficult as that is with some of the injuries we’ve had. For the boys to produce what they did against Fulham shows we can still fight, and we can still compete.”
The last eight of the @EmiratesFACup. This weekend. 🎞️ pic.twitter.com/UWJOvjAzzT
— Wolves (@Wolves) March 13, 2024
On a tough test Coventry will pose
“He’s done a very good job. I don’t know Mark overly well, but I’m very impressed with his team. They’ve had some tough times there recently as a club, and they’ve managed to put together a very good Championship campaign again this year, knocking on the door of the play-offs and looking at the numbers, they could maybe be higher in the league than they are – very highly ranked in certain aspects of the game.
“It will be a tough test, of course, they seem to be in a really good moment and don’t have too many key players missing, and they have a good understanding of what they’re trying to do. I can’t imagine it feeling like a Premier League team versus lower league opposition, it’ll be a really good game and a hard contest. My players are well aware it gets treated the same as if Man City were coming tomorrow, equally as focused, and we pay Coventry and Mark Robbins massive respect for what they’ve done and the team they’ve managed to put together.”
On Fraser impressing him
“He’s incredibly hard working and honest, unbelievably so. Sometimes we have to stop him for the good of himself. He works so hard and there’s always extras available with the coaching staff, and senior players are good at picking their moments where they need a bit more and where they need to rest. Nathan’s always there, in the gym on his days off, always doing extras on the grass, so we’re trying to help him with his understanding.
“When he hurt his hip, he set himself back shortly after from coming back too quickly and doing too much. I’ve been there and done that – you feel like you need more to be better – and sometimes it isn’t that. We’re trying to help him with that. The way he’s come back from his injury has meant we’ve had to bide our time with him a little bit, he hasn’t played a lot of football, I think his last significant amount of minutes were back in October, so it took us a while to get to a point where we felt he could last a decent amount of a Premier League game.
“He started to tire towards the end of the last one, of course, so let’s see if it’s best to use him from the start or from the bench. I haven’t named the team yet, so the lads don’t know the starting 11. Let's see how everyone is in the morning. I loved what I saw from him last week, which was giving everything until he literally had nothing left and he couldn’t move his legs, and we had to take him off. I love that about him, that he’s unbelievably willing to do whatever it takes.”
