Peixoto | 'Feel the atmosphere and play with passion'

18th September 2026

Cesar Peixoto has stressed the importance of his players feeling the Black Country derby atmosphere while keeping a strong mentality, as Wolves and West Bromwich Albion go head-to-head on Sunday.

This weekend’s Championship battle will be the first time the local rivals have faced off at Molineux in front of supporters in 14 years and Peixoto admits he is relishing the match-up.

Having been involved in several derbies throughout his playing and managerial career, Peixoto says he and his players are well aware of what the game means to the Wolves supporters and will be embracing everything which comes with the day, while also ensuring they do not get caught up in the atmosphere.

On the importance of the Black Country derby

“I understand what this derby means. We’ve put videos around the club so all of the players can understand what this derby means to our supporters and to our club.

“I’ve seen and played in derbies around the world, so I know the feeling. It’s an important game for us and we’ll do everything we can to try to win and make our supporters happy.

“I also hope everything on the pitch and around the stadium stays safe and it is an amazing game, but I know it will be an amazing game because West Brom are a good team and they’ve started the Championship well, so it’ll be an amazing game and I hope we will win.”

On players keeping their heads

“That’s our task, and it’s a hard task, a difficult task. I want the players to feel the derby and it’s important that they feel the atmosphere and play with passion. But I also want them to have the right mental stability because that’s very important in this kind of game.

“We have to play with passion, but with our heads as well. We can’t lose our organisation or our capacity to play. I have to feel and I want the players to feel the supporters and the environment inside the stadium, but when the game starts, we also need the capacity that when we start to play, we play in our way.

“We have our collective behaviours and then we have individual behaviours. I know the players much better now and I can recognise when they’re in the right place mentally. During games, I can see when players are becoming too emotional or when they’re playing with their heads, and then I try to speak with them and put them back in the right place. In a derby, you need passion, but you need brains as well.”

On injuries among his squad

“We still have Mosquera and Rafiki unavailable, but we’ve started to bring other players back. Konan played his first game of the season this week, Bellegarde played his first game and Bertrand played his first game too. Sean [Neave] also played 90 minutes for the first time.

“We’ve put minutes into these players to give ourselves more options. They’re not all at 100 per cent fitness yet to play a lot of minutes, but we have more options now. Even without Raul, Mosquera and Rafiki, we’ll have a competitive team to play the game.”

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Peixoto | ‘We understand what this derby means to our supporters.'

On Jimenez’s chances of playing

“His injury is not as bad as we initially feared. I think it’s quite a straightforward injury and hopefully he’ll come back soon, so that’s good news for us. I hoped he could play [on Sunday], but it’s not possible. It’s not possible. I don’t lie and I don’t play mind games – 100 per cent, he won’t play.

“He’s an important player for us. He’s 35 and we’ve had three games close together this week. He probably can’t play all three games, but it’s also not possible for him to play no minutes and then expect him to be in the best condition for this game. You have to give him minutes and balance his workload to keep him fit.

“If Raul didn’t play at all in that game, he wouldn’t have enough match rhythm for Sunday. The plan was for him to play only 45 minutes to help put him in the best possible condition, but unfortunately, this injury happened. It could have happened in a training session too, but training doesn’t have the same rhythm as a match.

“Raul came back late from the World Cup and he still isn’t at 100 per cent fitness. We needed to give him minutes to push him towards his best level, but the injury happened. He’s a key player for us, but we’ve already played without Trippier, Mosquera, Bellegarde and Rafiki [Said] and remained competitive.

“We’ll remain competitive now, for and of course we’re stronger with Raul, but this is football and these things can happen. I wish they didn’t, but now we have to manage the situation and get Raul back as quickly as possible.”

On players stepping up in Jimenez’s absence

“We don’t change completely. We have our patterns and our identity and after that, of course, we have to adapt some things to the individual characteristics of the players. But we played the whole of pre-season with Adam because Raul was at the World Cup.

“The team knows how to play with Adam and it knows how to play with Raul, and we adapt some things, but it’s normal for us as Adam has played most of the games as a winger or a striker, and he did the whole pre-season with us, so it’s not a problem.”

“It’s important [to have versatile players]. When you have injuries to the wingers, for example, you can move Fer to the wing or Adam can play there. It gives us the opportunity to manage different situations, either with the starting 11 or with the options from the bench.

“It’s important to have clever players who understand our ideas and where they need to be with and without the ball. For us as coaches, having players like that is very important.”

On derby experiences during his career

“I’m a quiet guy. I think I only had two or three red cards in my whole career. I played with mental stability, but I don’t like to lose.

“I’m very, very competitive, and IU was lucky to play for very good teams that won a lot of trophies – maybe I didn’t play a lot but I was just lucky with the teams I played for!

“But I had the right mentality, a competitive mentality, and I played in a lot of derbies and never got saw a red card, but I think it’s important to feel the environment in these games.”

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