Vitor Pereira says he has a clear idea how Wolves can improve and says the early signs during his opening two training sessions were positive.
The Portuguese, who was unveiled as Wolves’ new head coach this week, took training on Thursday and Friday, allowing him to gauge an idea on his new squad ahead of a first Premier League test at Leicester City on Sunday.
Pereira has presented his tactical ideas to the group and, having spent 14 years of his coaching career building towards a first opportunity in the Premier League, he isn’t prepared to leave a single stone unturned as Wolves head coach.
On Wolves being the right move
“It's the Premier League, the best league in the world, that was my target, it means that I'm in the right place, with top level players, with elite level managers, elite level organisation, and I'm very happy to be here. I had some approaches from clubs in England, but Wolves stepped forward to finish. With this opportunity I couldn’t think twice.
“I spent the last 14 years of my career with my focus every time to come to England, to be in the best league, to fight and to compete with the best coaches. This is the seat that I wanted to be in. I want to be in this league, to compete, to challenge myself, and I'm ready.
“Of course, it is a responsibility, but it’s a good responsibility. Now it's time to give confidence to them, to guide them. It’s very important to connect them and to face with confidence, to play with courage. This is what I want, tactical quality, technical quality, because I like that my teams play good football, with tactical organisation and courage to play our game.”
On how he’ll approach matches
“I'm a very strategic coach, tactical. I like to see good football with good tactical ideas, but every time giving freedom to the players to express themselves. The tactics cannot be something that doesn't give you the freedom to express yourself. If you want to express yourself, you must express yourself for the team.
“Not to do individual things, fantastic things, but do it to help the team, or do it in our tactical idea, because it's not my game. It’s something that we need to consume together, because it's not the game of Vitor, it’s the game of Wolves, and we started this work yesterday.”
Straight to work. pic.twitter.com/uQ95AO5HwX
— Wolves (@Wolves) December 19, 2024
On current players fitting his model
“You must understand what you have and it’s important to make them comfortable in the positions, in the roles. If you ask me something that I'm not available for, it is a problem for me. I'm trying to understand what they can do, that's why communication is important. The next step will be to increase the squad with players to play in the way that I want to play. We need results to force this kind of game.
“The two training sessions that we did until now, yesterday and today, they were very open to understanding. They were focused because everybody knows that we have the responsibility to do better, to try our best, to work in the limit to do better. It's not easy to change a lot of things in a short time. After some time, you will see Wolves playing the game of Wolves. You will see a style of play, intentional play.”
On looking for results quickly
“Every game in the Premier League is very important. A good result brings confidence, and this is important for us in this moment, to believe in what we start to do. It means that we came with an idea, with the model game, with the style to play, and results will bring us the confidence that we need to make them believe in the idea.
“When the results don't come it’s a problem, because you start to lose some connection. This is the right moment to connect them. This is the moment to give confidence, to be responsible, it's not about the coach, one player, it’s about everybody in the club. We need to be humble, to work hard, to know that we need to win games. We'll be close to winning games if we play good football. If we play with organisation, if we play with our hearts, this is the most important for me.”
On how Wolves can improve
“I'm very happy. Of course, every team can improve, and we will improve, for sure. It's important to get confidence again and results will bring confidence and give them motivation, give them clear ideas on what we want from them.
“I studied [Wolves] before I accepted the job. We studied, me and my staff, the team, and of course, we need to improve some aspects of the game, but we have good players. A player with confidence can do a lot of things, it can change everything, and in this moment my idea is to create a tactical identity. We started to work on this identity, the way we play. With a very clear communication, we go on the pitch, and we start to do the steps to increase this idea, and try to put the players comfortable in the positions in the roles. This is what I'm trying to do in this moment.”
On the January window
“I think the club is open to do it. But in this moment it’s important to understand the answer of the players on the pitch. It's important that I have at least one week to understand what I can do with our players, study the personality, to study how they will understand what we need. After this, we will decide.”
