Bruno Lage has given a rousing speech to Wolverhampton Wanderers’ players ahead of their defining February fixtures. Across the next three weeks Wolves will face five games against the teams competing with them for a place in the Premier League’s top six, starting with Arsenal at Molineux on Thursday. At his press conference on Wednesday afternoon,
Bruno Lage said: “When you get to this position it’s ‘OK, I did enough’ or you come with character and take one more step. I want more – not just for me, but also for the players’ careers. You feel comfortable, ‘I’m here at Wolves, playing in the Premier League’, or you can put your career, your team, your club in the next level. It’s up to you to come every day with that mentality. That is my mentality.”
Wolves are in the midst of a five-game unbeaten run in the Premier League and recorded three successive wins prior to the break in fixtures. Three more points against Arsenal tomorrow 97.45pm kick-off) would lift Wolves above the Gunners in the table. Lage has previously batted away any discussion about Wolves’ position in the league – but he knows what’s at stake now that we’ve reached the business end of the season.
Bruno Lage revealed: “Before the FA Cup, when we came back to work on the first day, I put both scenarios on a big board. ‘Guys, now we have 34 points and we are doing well, now the decision we are going to make between (being) comfortable and coming to work every day with big ambition is going to define us. How are we going to see our career, our life, our work?’ The players decided to go and continue in this way. Now we are in that position we need to be aware of little behaviours and continue to focus in the same way. I haven’t changed anything in my behaviour. I don’t want anyone to feel relaxed. We have a lot of things to do between now and the end of the season. I can see what they did for this club in the last four months. Now it’s the second wave, I want to conquer more things. If you’re not on board – it’s very hard to change mentality, it’s more easy to change people.”
