Rob Edwards has called on his Wolves players to show no fear and replicate their improved away performances at Molineux against Brentford this weekend if they want to get the fans fully behind them.
Despite still searching for a first Premier League win, Wolves’ best two displays under Edwards have come in their two games away from the Black Country against title hopefuls Aston Villa and Arsenal.
But as Wolves return home on Saturday to face Edwards' former Old Gold teammate Keith Andrews and Brentford – in a game which will see a minute’s silence held ahead of kick-off in memory of former Academy graduate Ethan McLeod – the head coach wants his side to give the supporters something to cheer about in their final outing before the festive period.
On Ethan McLeod’s tragic passing at 21
“It’s desperately sad news. My heart goes out to his family, and to his brother, Conor, who’s in our under-21s. It’s such a huge loss.
“Words sort of fail me in these situations. We’re all thinking of Ethan’s friends and family at this time, and we’re here to support them in any way that we can. It’s desperately sad news and my heart goes out to his family.
“He was a young player here and I actually remember him. He was here from seven years old and like Conor, the club has been a big, big part of his life, but it’s just terribly sad news, and at this time now, I can’t imagine what his family are going through, and we’re all thinking of them.”
On preparing for Brentford
“Agba and Tawanda [Chirewa] are the two who have gone to AFCON, and we obviously wish them well, and then Yerson [Mosquera] is suspended. We’ve lost a few [Bellegarde, Munetsi and Rodrigo Gomes] and it’s too soon for Hugo [Bueno].
“He’s not going to be quite right for the weekend, but hopefully next week, so there will be a few young ones involved, which would be good for them and will give them really good experience.
“On the pitch, it’s been a good week. Obviously, it was another defeat, but the lads have responded really well throughout the week. There’s been a very good focus, good intensity to the training and it’s been a good week. We really want to try and take that into the game, and we want that to reflect in some points – of course we do, but the lads are going the right way about it.”
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On facing his former Wolves teammate at Molineux
“Keith’s a great guy, and it’s brilliant to see him doing so well. I’m really pleased for him. Whatever he does and whatever he did after football, he was always going to be successful. He’s already done really well with media stuff, and then his coaching career has been fantastic as well, and he’s doing a great job. That’s not a shock to see because he’s very intelligent and he had a really good playing career, so it’ll be nice to see Keith and I’m looking forwards to that.
“They’ve had a lot of change, so it’s understandable that they’re going to have highs and lows. That’s normal, especially in this league anyway, but especially after you’ve had quite a lot of change.
They’ve done a good job, but we’ve got to concentrate on ourselves, and try and take some of the things that we did very well last time out against Arsenal, and those have got to become our non-negotiables, and this is what we do, whoever we’re playing against. It doesn't matter if we’re home or away.
“But it’s going to be a different type of game as we’ll probably have a bit more of the ball than we had the other night, so we’ve got to make sure that we can take control of the right moments and try and create more. But there’s a lot there that we can take forward.
“I realise I said this before after Villa, so I want to see it now from the lads. But what we have seen is a really good training week, which makes me a little bit more positive.”
On playing better away than at home
“Our two best performances have been away, so now we’ve got to go and show that at home. It hasn’t got to be the world’s best performance at the moment, but we’ve got to see character, we’re going to have to show resilience at times, we have to do the basics well and better than we did last time out at Molineux, and hopefully then we can grow into a game of football. Who knows how it’s going to go, how it’s going to pan out, but it’s down to us to go and show that.
“Of course we need the fans, but I won’t change my tune, and we’ve got to make them get behind us. It’d be great if they could support the lads, but they’re really frustrated at the moment – not all of them, but some are more frustrated than others.
“We’ve got to concentrate on what we can do and what we can control because the fans want to get behind the lads. When they see those moments, when they see the goal against United before half time, the atmosphere was great, so we’ll concentrate on us, and then hopefully it’ll be a good performance, and the fans will want to get behind the team.
“I’d love to see the performance levels that we’ve had in the two away games against two of the best teams in the league, they’ve been really good, and we’ve been really competitive, so it’s on us now to go and show that at home. We’ve got to show some character, and we’ve got to try and show some belief and intensity, and the supporters will come with us. It doesn't matter how old you are – if you’re 18 or you’re 32, go out there, believe in yourself and perform.”
On Mane’s assist last weekend
“It was a nice moment for him. It’s always a learning curve, so there was really good things but there was also bits that he can still improve on, as there always will be. That will be the same for our more senior players as well, but it was a great moment for him.
“But then his overriding feeling will be that in the end, we didn’t get what we wanted from the game. So little bits to take from it from a learning point of view as well.
“But he’s brave, he’s direct, he’ll take risks and they’re all the things that we want in forward players, and it was a really nice moment for him, and a really good finish from Tolu.”
On Hwang’s recent performances
“I was really pleased with Channy. Maybe it’s been a bit of a difficult period for him, like it would have been for a lot of lads, but he has really impressed us. His training attitude has been top, but his game understanding and his tactical understanding is great.
“We were walking off at half-time at Arsenal and he’s almost giving me the half-time talk. All the stuff that’s in my head, that I’ve been speaking about with the staff, he’s seeing and he’s actually doing and executing it out on the pitch because he’s really intelligent. I was really pleased with him, how he’s seen stuff, areas and spaces that he needed to fill from a defensive point of view, and he’s showed real intelligence.
“I thought he also looked a real threat and his quality was very good, so I’m really pleased with him, because he found it difficult at first, not playing the first few games for us, so I thought he was a real plus. But he’s a really good player and I thought he showed that last time out. He’s training well this week, so hopefully now we can see that and get some real consistency from him.”
