Bruno Lage's Wolves hungry to get back in Euro hunt
Bruno Lage insists his Wolves side are ‘not satisfied’ and ‘want more’ as they look to get their European hopes back on track away at Tottenham.
The narrow loss to Arsenal on Thursday night dented, but did not end, their hopes of a top seven push this season.
But with a difficult run of fixtures this month Wolves will need to rectify their mistakes when they travel to Spurs tomorrow.
And Lage is adamant that no-one at Wolves is happy with what they have achieved so far, as they set ambitious targets for the rest of the campaign.
“We need to continue to work, that’s the only thing I can promise to supporters,” Lage said.
“We want to do better and we will do better. We are not satisfied, especially me, with what we did until now. I want more and the players want more.
“I will be the first guy after the game to come in the morning with more ambition to do more for this club, that is what I will promise.
“I want my team to be competitive and a hard team to play. They are doing very well and I am so proud of them but they know I want more and I will push them.”
Earlier in the season Wolves suffered a slim loss to Spurs in the league and then crashed out of the Carabao Cup to them on penalties – back when former Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo was in charge of the London club.
But with Antonio Conte now at the helm, Lage is anticipating a difficult test despite their poor 3-2 loss to Southampton in mid-week.
“They want to win and we want to win, so it will be a hard game but we also want it to be a hard game for them,” Lage added.
“Conte was a big player and the way he won the league with Chelsea as a manager, and the way they played with three defenders, it was amazing. It will be another good challenge. He was a top professional as a player and he is one of the best managers in the world.
“When you are working at top teams and everywhere you go you win titles, it will be a challenge for the players and also for me.
“We want to be consistent and we are working to be solid. We have missed Saiss, Hwang and Joao but we want to find that consistency.
“Conte has been working for a few months and a lot of things happen with injuries so maybe he hasn’t had the time he desires to put the team playing in his own way.”
Tomorrow’s game will be touch and go for Joao Moutinho and Hwang Hee-chan as they fight for fitness.
Midfielder Moutinho missed the game on Thursday with a calf strain and Lage was unsure whether he would be fit enough to return.
Hwang did make the bench against Arsenal, marking his return from a hamstring injury that kept him out since mid-December, but the forward was unable to play after arriving at Molineux with a back spasm before the game. It is hoped it would only take a day or two to heal.
