Rob Edwards has challenged his Wolves players to not go down without a fight after being condemned to a 12th defeat in 14 Premier League games this season by Nottingham Forest.
The Old Gold’s search for a first win of the campaign continues after Forest walked away from Molineux with all three points on Wednesday night with a lacklustre showing from Edwards’ players.
Although Premier League survival is looking more and more unlikely with each passing defeat, the head coach is urging his players to at least show some passion, grit and endeavour during the rest of the campaign.
On defeat under the Molineux lights
“I’m really disappointed with tonight. Compared to the levels that we set on Sunday, it was almost the opposite tonight. I asked the players at half time if they were scared. They said they weren’t. I looked into each of their eyes and let it linger for about 30 seconds and asked again, ‘Are you?’ No was the answer.
“But it was very passive and looked in the first half like we were afraid to make a mistake. I don’t know if that was based on the reaction of the crowd, but maybe that’s human nature. I know we conceded in the second half, but I felt the game was lost in the first half with the lack of intensity and we didn’t show any of the things I want from my team, and that hurts.
“But we’re in the position we’re in now. It looked bleak when I arrived and we can’t affect what goes on elsewhere. But we can affect what we can do, but we didn’t do our job tonight. We don’t want to die like that. That’s going to be the message now going forward – we don’t want to go out with a whimper.”
On a lack of cutting edge
“We kept playing back and sideways too much. There was no real risk-taking there. We sort of waited and it was too slow. There was nothing in the first-half that I really liked about us. The fact that we were nil-nil was probably the only positive. We kept going back, back, back, or sideways, sideways, and not taking a risk, not playing through, and the one moment we did, we got Jhon Arias to turn and he played Jackson in but then it fizzled into nothing.
“There weren’t many moments in that first-half at all. Jhon Arias had a good chance, one that flashed across, whether Jorgen [Strand Larsen] could have come closer with that one, or whether Mateus [Mane] could have had a shot at the end. We often puffed, and got Marshall [Munetsi] in behind late on as well, but there wasn’t enough.
“We had to try and show something, try and change somehow, show a bit of a fresh impetus, and try and change what we’re doing because it wasn’t working. We built a little bit of a head of steam, but weren’t able to find that moment. It’s the name of the game to keep it out of the net at one end and score in the other, and we’re finding it really hard to do that at the moment.
“But it wasn’t a good game at all. It wasn’t a good game and I don’t think either team were great, if I’m being honest. But we haven’t won for a long, long time and maybe those games when we’re not great like that, we’ve got to try and find a way to win, even when we’re poor.”
On the VAR check
“It was a long, long wait. I know we all want the right decision off the back of that, and tonight it's gone our way, so I’m going to sit here and say, ‘Well, look, at least we got the right decision at the end of it’, but it’s a long wait and it’s not very entertaining, especially when the game was how it was as well.
“It’s not great for the fans. I don’t know how obvious it was, because I haven’t watched it back, but we don’t want the long wait. We want to try and make the game as intense as possible, and we didn’t do that from my team’s perspective tonight, but that slowed things down even more.”
On Mane’s promising display
“He’ll take a risk. I probably wanted him to shoot when he had that opportunity later on. He said he could have, so I said, ‘You’re on the pitch, you’ve got to believe in yourself’.
“Maybe these younger ones are a little bit more risk averse and not being burnt by making a mistake and then hearing one or two grumbles or something like that. But he’s done well, we like him, and we had to try and change things up a little bit.”
On Wolves fans showing their frustrations
“I understand. I don’t know when the last time was they saw the team win, so I get it. I’d be really angry if I was one of our fans as well. I don’t feel it’s a criticism on me right now, I feel like they’ve been really supportive of me, but I’d be angry if I was a Wolves supporter at the moment, because they want the team to win.
“They’ll get behind us. They saw a really good performance on the weekend, and did you see them at the end? I went up to show my appreciation and they were all with us. Even though they just lost to a Midlands rival, and we’ve not won for so long, they will forgive mistakes.
“Our fans have got their heads screwed on. They want to see effort, and they want to see passion, and fight and determination and grit and endeavour, but we didn’t show any of that tonight.”
