Bruno: Raul Jimenez can get back to his Wolves best
Raul Jimenez’s goals in pre-season will give him the confidence to get back to his best after returning from his horror injury, believes new Wolves boss Bruno Lage.
The new Molineux chief said confidence was key for the 30-year-old, who suffered a broken skull in a clash with Arsenal’s David Luiz, last November.
And Lage admitted his surprise at the progress already made by the star striker in training, stating: “He can do everything.”
The Wolves boss revealed he made a beeline for Jimenez, speaking to the centre-forward on his first day in training after taking over the Molineux hot-seat and says the striker is confident and ready to face Leicester City in Wolves’ opening fixture in eight days’ time.
Confidence
“I talked to Raul on the first day,” revealed Lage. “The first thing to do was to give him a lot of confidence.
“You know, strikers always need to score goals to feel comfortable. With goals, they start to believe they are coming back and, in his case, getting over what happened.
“But I said ‘don’t worry about the goals, because what you give the club when you are defending is so much, and the goals will come’.
“And they came, he scored two goals [in pre-season]. That’s good for him, it gives him confidence to return step by step. I see he is happy in training – he works for the team both in defence and offensive situations.”
Lage speaking in his first press conference since taking over from Nuno Espirito Santo earlier in the summer, revealed he wants Jimenez and skipper Conor Coady to act as mentors to the crop of young players at Molineux. And the boss recalled how he viewed Jimenez as the perfect template for the type of centre-forward he wants to spearhead his attacking line.
“I am happy to work with him,” added Lage. “I remember when I was at Benfica and we sold Joao Felix. I created a profile for a [replacement] striker.
“Rui Costa [Benfica director of football] said ‘the guy you want was here – but we sold him to Wolves’. One-and-half years later, I’m here working with Raul so I am very happy.
“He is a top player and a top person. With him and Coady, you can see two guys that the younger guys can look to as a good example and see that you can be a top player and also a top person. I’m very happy with what Raul is doing.”
And asked if Mexico striker Jimenez will be ready to face Leicester, Lage responded: “I think so. I feel he is ready. He is confident. What he did against Stoke was very good. So I hope he can help us to be a stronger team.”
And the boss added: “He can do everything. It was a big surprise. It’s been a long process for him, I’ve just come towards the end. The doctor was always phoning him.
“We started with 30 minutes against Crewe, then the plan was to play 45 minutes [against Betis] and I talked to him at half-time, he felt OK so we gave him another 15 minutes.
“Then he played 75 minutes, and he scored again. I’m just here to see the last phase of the process but I think he can do everything. And that’s also what I’m seeing in training every day.”
