Pedro Neto: Wolves must improve in both boxes

Neto’s two assists and impressive performance was not matched by his team-mates as Wolves fell to a 3-2 defeat at Crystal Palace.

A lack of creativity in the final third and some soft defending saw the hosts cruise to victory and Neto has warned Wolves must get better at both ends of the field.

He said: “It was a tough game. To play here is always difficult, but I think we are performing well and we had control of the game.

“But then we have to be more clinical. When it comes to defending as well, they were better than us at that part of the game.

“I think we have the confidence to get the chances.

“Today we could have scored more than two goals, but to come to an away game and score two goals and not taking the win is really difficult.

“In the end they were clinical as well. We have to be more aggressive in our defending as well, but we controlled the middle of the pitch.

“They didn’t control the game but in the important parts, they were better than us.”

Despite Neto’s criticism of the defence, he also conceded that the forward players must do more to help.

He added: “The forwards are the first defenders and we have to take care of that.

“It happened in the first half. We gave them time to keep the ball away from us, but in the second half we were more tired and that’s when we have to be more aggressive.

“Everything needs time, but we worked much better today than the games before in terms of shape and controlling the ball. But they were more clinical than us and that made the difference.”

Of the late new signings, only youngster Enso Gonzalez was involved in the squad.

Santi Bueno travelled but was not involved, while Tommy Doyle has a knock and Jean-Ricner Bellegarde signed too late.

Gary O’Neil said: “Tommy Doyle has a slight issue with his knee, hoping he’ll be available after the international break, Santi is fine, we just need to get him used to what we’re doing and where we are.

“Bellegarde wasn’t available today, it was done late, but will good to get him into the group for the next two weeks before Liverpool

“Hodge had a scan and we expect him to be three to four weeks, from the days of injury – hopefully the good side of the time frame.”