Matt Doherty was left unsure as to why Wolves were unable to build on the momentum they built before half time after the break as they capitulated to defeat against Chelsea on Monday night.
The Irishman’s close-range finish in first-half added time appeared to have handed the Old Gold a new lease of life going into half time, but after an underwhelming second 45 performance which saw the visitors concede a 19th set-piece goal of the season to hand Chelsea the three points, Doherty feels the players need to show a new kind of attitude when defending dead-balls if Wolves are to end their winless Premier League streak.
On defeat at Stamford Bridge
“Everybody knows about Chelsea's quality, but I just didn't feel like we were at the races, right from the start. There were periods in the game where we were pressing well, and we looked like we might do something, but not for long enough.
“Against teams like Chelsea, but against every team in the Premier League really, you have to be on it for 90 minutes, and I thought there were just too many times during the game where we just weren’t on it.”
On another set-piece goal conceded
“We're obviously working hard during the week and a couple of set pieces tonight, and a couple of second phases, just basic stuff where we need to stay switched on. I think it's more a concentration thing when the ball comes in the box.
“Set pieces can also be about matching them up, but also, you have to want the ball to come to you and you have to want to attack the ball and want to put your head in where it hurts, and we just need to start doing that.
“We need to start putting our head in where it hurts and defend these set pieces with an ‘over my dead body’ attitude.”
On not maintaining confidence after half time
“It kind of doesn't matter how the ball goes in – if they score, they score. We shouldn't be letting one goal or two goals affect our confidence. We got ourselves back in the game, so we felt the second half was there for the taking.
“But like I said, you have to be on it for the whole game, and in the second half, you would think we’d have come out with a lot of momentum from the end of the first half, but we didn't really seem to have gone on, we didn’t really seem to create too much, so, we're disappointed with that performance.”
On still developing under Pereira
“When he first came in, we got some good results and got ourselves through the cup and into the next round, but we've got a tough run of fixtures now, but you have to play everybody. We're not going to use that as an excuse.
“We're looking at games like this, games like Newcastle in the last game, where we think we can pick up points. We've got Arsenal next and it's another one at home, and all your home games, you have to look at and try and pick up points.
“He's come in, he's brought a new lease of life to a lot of the players, myself included, and I think a lot of the Portuguese-speaking Brazilian players, and maybe he's able to get his message across a lot better to them, so they seem to have taken to him also. He's come in, and he's done really well, we like his ideas, but we just need to be better on the day.”
