Bruno Lage is weighing up whether to risk Diego Costa against West Ham after admitting Wolverhampton Wanderers can’t afford to lose their new centre-forward.
Bruno Lage said: “If we lose him, we have a big problem on our hands. We need to take the best decision for us, for the staff, for the players, and for the club. He can start the game or he can finish the game. After one week of training I was a little bit concerned about him, but after the last two weeks I am so happy with what he did.”
Costa scored 52 goals in 89 Premier League matches during his three seasons at Chelsea, two of which ended with the Spaniard wearing a winners’ medal. Now 33, Costa is no longer at the peak of his physical powers, but Lage is convinced he can make a difference to goal-shy Wolves.
Bruno Lage explained: “I cannot show you but I did a video of one minute and 30 seconds about the last four training sessions and we saw a lot of good stuff; movements, runs between the centre-backs, appearing at the first post, diagonals in the right goal, diagonals in the left goal, headers, a lot of good things. He is scoring goals and has pushed the other guys. He wants them to see his movements.”
Costa hasn’t been overly aggressive on the training ground with his new teammates. The striker is renowned for being fiery on the pitch and became a cult hero at each of his previous clubs.
Bruno Lage added: “The first thing he told me, ‘I’m a nice guy outside the pitch, but I’m very nasty inside the pitch. That is the kind of player that we want, a player with character and personality to help us win games. Inside the game there are no friends and you need to fight for your life. All the managers want players with that personality.”
