Bruno Lage: Max Kilman realising his potential at Wolves

The 24-year-old has been arguably Wolves’ player of the season so far and has been linked with a potential England call-up.

With Gareth Southgate watching on at Molineux on Monday, the centre-back’s first goal for the club got them off the mark in the 2-1 win over Everton and Lage is continuing to be impressed by Kilman – and also highlighted the performance of Ruben Neves.

“He deserved (that goal), but most importantly he deserved to stay in the team,” Lage said. “Max is giving this, not just for me but for the team, good performances. Solid.

“The way he’s defending and playing with the ball and now with a goal, so I am happy with him.

“He needs to continue to work. We cannot sleep on the performance or the result, we need to go (again). That’s what I want for my players.

“A good example for what I said for the players having ambition to win more and put Wolves at a different standard, and go to the national team and play there, it’s what Ruben Neves did.

“What he did in the first half – he controlled everything. I know the players can do it and I want more for the guys.

“I say to him every time ‘you can do more because you deserve more, but you need to do it game by game during 90 minutes’.”

Meanwhile, Lage has hailed ‘amazing’ Raul Jimenez for his vintage performance on Monday night.

The striker was a nuisance for the Everton defence and brilliantly took his goal to make him Wolves’ best ever Premier League goalscorer.

And Lage has praised his hard work at both ends of the pitch, which helps Wolves employ their pressing tactics.

“Every time we talk about Raul I say, look at the way he presses and runs,” Lage said.

“He pressed the central defender, believed he can win the ball and he scored a goal. Credit to him.

“That’s why he’s so important for us and why I appreciate his work. As a striker you need to work with and without the ball.

“Raul is amazing without the ball and also with it. Raul gives us this every time.

“We played three games, good performances but no points and no goals and I gave the players confidence to keep going and keep believing it will come.

“I want the players to come every time with the ambition to work hard and be better every day. The guys are doing that.

“They come with that motivation and come to learn. We spend a lot of time learning, not just on the pitch, but in the meeting room to understand what we are doing, how we can grow up as a team and prepare for the games.

“It’s not just Raul, every player is there to work hard every day to be better.”