Bruno Lage manager
Bruno Lage has told Adama Traore to take his next chance after Hwang Hee-chan starred in Wolverhampton Wanderers’ latest win.
Bruno Lage said “This is football. This is our job, we don’t have easy decisions. It’s good for me to say, now you can understand better why I chose Joao (Moutinho) and Leander (Dendoncker) for the Southampton game and Ruben (Neves) and Joao for this game, why I choose Adama for some games and not other games. It’s not about Adama, it’s about all the players. I think, first of all, they need to understand my way to work, but also the man they have in front of them. I never lie to them, I’m here to help, to take the best from them and they need to continue to work. You can imagine one player stands on the bench and the other guy goes inside and scores two goals to help the team. When you have your chances, you need to go inside (and help the team). Leander did well in the last two games for us, today he’s on the bench and he comes on to help the team in the 10 minutes he played. This is football and everyone needs to understand that. Every time, from my point of view, I want to arrive at the game confident and comfortable to make the best decisions. That’s why I came to the game with confidence and without doubt. Imagine I take the same decisions and I don’t win these two games… this is football.”
Traore’s replacement, Hwang, is now Wolves’ top scorer with three Premier League goals this season following his summer switch from RB Leipzig.
Bruno Lage said “I think he’s adapted to the Premier League and he fits our way of playing. We need a player like him. We have four wingers and they can give us a lot of things, guys who play outside and guys who play inside.”
Hwang has replaced Traore in Wolves’ line-up for the wins over Southampton and Newcastle United, and the South Korean netted a brace in the 2-1 win over the Magpies on Saturday. Traore only stepped off the bench in stoppage time at Molineux and cut a glum figure as he made his way off the field at full-time. But Lage will continue to leave Traore – who remains in talks over a new contract – and his other star players out depending on the characteristics of the team Wolves are facing.
