Bruno Lage: Wolves can't be 'nice guys'
Bruno Lage does not want a team of ‘nice guys’ as he bids to make Wolves harder to beat.
The club has gone through a substantial change in recent months, as Lage has changed the playing style and added a more analytical approach to his preparation for Premier League games.
Although Wolves have only picked up one win in four so far, they have been fairly solid defensively having lost the first three games by a single goal.
A big part of the new regime is an aggressive, high-octane press and although Lage is a mild-mannered character, he wants his Wolves side to have some bite.
He said: “There’s a good environment here. I have only good things to say about these guys. Competitive, good guys.
“But I said to them ‘boys, when you play the other teams, they need to feel we are not nice guys. They need to feel you are a hard team to beat.’ They need to feel it.
“When you have the ball, try to find the way to score goals. When you lose the ball, the other guys need to feel you are a hard team to play against.”
In order to get his ideas across, Lage has needed the support of the strong characters and most experienced players in the squad.
To date, every player has spoke glowingly of the head coach’s approach in what has been a summer of transition for Wolves after Nuno Espirito Santo left the club.
When asked how important it is to have big personalities and experienced professionals in the team, Lage added: “These kind of players are important. They have a lot of experience, also for the other guys. It’s the moment when you lose the ball.
“If you start to work on these kind of things, with one or two or three players, we need to recover and win the ball.
“The other guys see one, two, three guys running and know they need to run all together. That’s the main point of that.
“The same thing in the room if there’s an important guy, to motivate everyone, to be alert to everyone, also for the kids as we have a lot of kids.
“They can see these guys as a good example – Coady, Marcal, Saiss, Raul, Boly. Experienced guys who want to continue to bring success for the club and the kids need to follow this good example.”
