Vitor Pereira was left lamenting Wolves’ missed chances at crucial moments after seeing his team fall to defeat in the opening away game of the Premier League season against Bournemouth.
The Old Gold spurned a glorious opportunity to open the scoring moments before the hosts took the lead, before having another chance just minutes before Toti was dismissed in the second period, leaving his side down to 10-men.
But Pereira insists he has belief in his players to turn their form around following successive defeats to start the campaign, but knows they need a positive result sooner rather than later to help increase confidence in the group.
On a loss against the Cherries
“Looking at the game, we started the first half creating a big chance to score, but we didn’t, and after we concede a goal which was out of our plan, because the plan was not to build the play inside, but to go to the sides, because we know that this is a team playing here who are very aggressive in the middle.
“We worked it in the plan to play outside, and after inside or in the space, but we concede a goal and we tried to compete with a strong team. Half time came, we did some changes and we started the half with a big chance to score and we missed it.
“After, the red card. Playing against this team is not easy when it’s 11 against 11, let alone 10 against 11, but we tried to keep our organisation. We tries to arrive on the box, creating something, we tried and I think we have been united, organised and we didn’t concede any goal [when down to 10] but in the end, it’s difficult to score, and they win the game.”
On conceding early
“We know very well the way that this team plays. This is a team who are very aggressive in their pressing and it means that we need, strategically, to know the spaces that we can explore or not. But football is football and it’s also about mistakes, and we need to correct, working.
“The only way that I know how to correct mistakes is we need to work. We need to give time for the new players to adapt in this league, because it’s different when you come from different leagues, and you arrive here and you feel the intensity and the pressing, and we need some time to create and to build strong behaviours and to build the team.
“But I believe in this group, they work very hard and we’ll see in the end of the market, what is our position, but we are in beginning of the season with two defeats. They are not what we are expecting, but this is the way, we’ll keep our work, we know what we want and we will try to improve our game.”
On Toti’s red card
“I don’t like to talk about decisions or referees. Sometimes the criteria is different, but I respect the decision and it was a pity, because I think we started the second half creating.
“We did some changes, and we created some problems, so it was a pity because in the end, with 10, it was difficult.”
On making changes at half-time
“We tried to refresh the team, especially the wing-backs, because the wing-backs in our team, they must run a lot. It means that we need to have players with fresh legs to run in the sides, to go and come back, to have this power.
“I think we changed something in the middle, and, in my opinion, if we kept going like this, maybe we would have had our chance to play better football and to create our chance.
“But after a few minutes, red card, and against this kind of team, if you lose your organisation, you know what happens. It could be one, two, three or four goals and in the end, the damage will be a mental damage.”
On not taking chances
“We need to improve because in every game we’ve had our chances. We need to improve the confidence, but the results bring confidence to you. It brings the confidence when you have a chance to score.
“Now, as I said before, the only way is to work and work and work and try to improve the players, to give confidence to them, to correct the mistakes and keep going.”
