Gary O'Neil: Wolves have loads of leaders
Gary O'Neil admits he is still working to 'get the most out of' his young Wolves side, but is adamant the team has enough leaders to thrive.
After losing a number of experienced players in the summer, including captain Ruben Neves, Wolves recruited some younger faces with a view of transforming their squad.
A new leadership group was formed, including new skipper Max Kilman, and although O'Neil admits football has changed since his playing days, he says he has no concerns over leadership in the group.
"There's leaders within the group, definitely," O'Neil said.
"Some are vocal, some lead by example. The shouting and screaming has died down a lot from when I played and there's a slightly different feel around society in general, not just football.
"It's slightly different but there's leadership in there. I see it in training and on the pitch.
"When you don't have enough of them on there, things can start to get away from you and you feel you need to get them in the dressing room to help, but when we have key ones on there I'm really confident we can get the boys to a good understanding of situations to manage things themselves.
"The experience we lost, it's a very different group to what it was. Moutinho, Neves, Nunes, Jimenez, Diego Costa, Adama Traore – all lads that know their way around the Premier League and are experienced.
"This is a very different group. Joao Gomes is a fantastic talent, I love him to bits, but he's getting used to it.
"Fabio Silva is young and getting used to it too.
"I'm trying to move these lads along. They have fantastic ability and it's my job to make sure we get the most out of every single one of them and bring the whole thing together.
"The group are absolutely fine. We understand when we come up short of our standards and understand when we hit them.
"We know we need to be hitting them as often as we can, but they're fine and ready to go.
"There's absolutely no problem in the group. It's a fantastic group, who are fully committed and positive around where we're trying to get to."
A key part of O'Neil improving his team will come from harnessing the Molineux atmosphere, which was back to its best against Manchester City.
Midfielder Mario Lemina could not understate the importance of the fans, as Wolves look to build on that win.
He said: “They are amazing, to be honest. They could give up on us but they’re supporting us, not matter what’s going to happen. Since I came in January, they’ve been amazing, I want to make them proud of us every time we play at home and that’s what we’ve done, and I hope they’re happy.”
