Bruno Lage has revealed the reasoning behind his Wolverhampton Wanderers team selection prior to the defeat against West Ham United this evening. Speaking on the defeat for his side at the London Stadium, Lage outlined how ‘hard to take’ the performance away from home was for his side and outlined why he opted to use Ruben Neves as a centre back for the fixture.
Bruno Lage said: “I think it’s hard to take, especially when the plan was to have the ball and to control the game with the ball. We started Ruben [Neves] in that position because we know we will have more time on the ball, we tried to put him between the two defenders to control the game with the ball. I think we did it, the first 30 minutes we controlled the game. We had three good chances, with Matheus [Nunes] and another with Rayan [Ait-Nouri]. The first time West Ham conquer the ball, they score. That’s why we play like we play, we try to play with Max, Ruben and Jonny with Semedo and Rayan open to build up and find the spaces. It was 30 minutes that we control everything and then the first time they shoot, they score. Second half we tried to bring more energy to find the way to the goal but it was a defeat. Zero points and zero goals but it is clear we are a different team when we have a striker and that’s the big difference from the game today.”
