Wolverhampton Wanderers should use the free agent market to sign a new centre-back, according to Bruno Lage. Nathan Collins saw red in the 3-0 defeat to Manchester City and now faces a three-game ban. Collins will miss games against West Ham, Chelsea and Nottingham Forest after the international break. Lage has previously admitted he believes there is a ‘gap’ in quality between his first choice central defenders and his two back-up options. With Collins set for a spell in the stands, Lage will have to play one of Toti Gomes or Yerson Mosquera alongside Max Kilman unless Wolves sign a new defender.
Bruno lage said: “I think I have already answered this. When you miss (Willy) Boly, I think we should have the opportunity to find a good centre-back to support these two. Ruben (Neves) was the solution for this game because we know the way they play, and it was important for us. We gave him five minutes to see if he could play in that position and he did very well. He is a solution for this game, but we cannot play him as a centre-back because we need him in his position. Let’s see what can happen in the next days. Fifteen days ago I was talking about how it was so important to bring a striker to the team.”
On Collins’ red card, Lage added: “I don’t believe that Collins wanted to do that. He tried to play the ball, but when you see that you need to admit that it can be yellow, it can be red.
Yesterday I saw a similar situation in the other game and nothing happened, it was just a foul. Sometimes it depends on the referee.”
