Vitor Pereira says now is the time to help and support his players, as he looks to turn Wolves’ fortunes around after a disappointing afternoon at the Stadium of Light.
The Old Gold’s winless run in the Premier League continued after a 2-0 loss at Sunderland, and taking chances once again proved the problem, which frustrated the head coach, particularly after a dominant second half performance.
Wolves carved out a number of good opportunities to draw level when 1-0 down, but failed to take any, and Pereira knows only hard work and support for his players can turn fortunes around in front of goal.
On the performance and result
“For my point of view, a poor first half from both teams. To talk about the first half, I need to talk about throw ins, free-kicks, and the time that we wasted. I didn’t see any game. The game was very poor in my opinion. Second half, 30 minutes, we changed completely the way to played, we played in the way that we work every day, doing the movements, creating chances, playing with possession, keeping the ball, not allowing them to play in our defensive midfield, because they could create problems with the throw ins and free-kicks, this is part of the game.
“30 minutes with quality, three or four chance to score the goal, but we missed the chances. This is our problem, because in the Premier League we cannot miss these kinds of chances. The last 15 minutes we stopped playing, we started to play long balls for the strikers. It means that the game was again a poor game, in my opinion, and they scored the second goal.”
On not taking chances
“I see a team mentally connected with good spirits, with character, trying their best to change the situation. In football sometimes we have a moment – one shot, one goal, two shots, two goals. We had two chance to score the second goal against Brighton, and we didn't, and after we concede the goal.
“Today was very important for us, but we need to improve the way that we are attacking the box, the way that we are crossing, the way that we are assisting in the box, and when we assist well, we need to score.”
On being frustrated for the players
“I feel that they are frustrated because they know the work that we do every day and we lost a chance to get points again, but this is a moment that I need to help them, the moment that I'm worried about them, about my team, and about the club, about the supporters, because I want to help the club to win games.
“I understand the supporters are worried, they are angry. I understand, but I must look at the effort of the team, the players. They are our players, they are our team, and this is a moment to help them. This is a moment to support, this is a moment to have faith and believe in the team, to believe in the players and to support them.”
On Strand Larsen playing through injury
“The problem of your Jorgen is he’s not working every day, in the last weeks he worked one or two times in the week, and it is difficult to get at his best level, because he cannot have two, three training sessions in a row, because he needs to control the pain on the tendon.
“But, this is a moment to forget the pain and he's trying to help. He's not in Jorgen I saw last season, pressing everybody, now he is struggling in the pressing, struggling to do he wants to do, to attack the space, but he's trying. I need to defend him because he's working not at the 100 per cent.”
