Bruno Lage is certain Raul Jimenez will bounce back from the goal drought which cost him his place in Wolverhampton Wanderers’ starting line-up. Jimenez was omitted from Lage’s XI for the 2-0 defeat to Crystal Palace at the weekend in favour of Pedro Neto, Hwang Hee-chan and Daniel Podence.
Bruno Lage said: “A guy who comes (back) from what happened to him, if he can pass this moment, he will pass this moment without scoring goals. We were talking about this before the Tottenham game and he scored. Tell me about one team in the world where we are not talking about strikers when they go two or three games without scoring goals. Two or three weeks ago, the news was all about (Romelu) Lukaku and I think he has five goals like Raul. These guys have a lot of experience. The only thing is to remain calm, continue the things you are doing, and after that the goals will come. I put a lot of pressure on them in training. In training I want to see the actions, the goals, with the right speed, technique, movement and tempo. That’s the pressure I want on them and when they are not doing that, they can see my bad face at that moment.”
Heading the ball has always been a strength of Jimenez’s. In fact, no player in the Premier League scored more headed goals than Jimenez in the 2019/20 season. He hasn’t found the net with his head whilst wearing his protective headband though, despite being presented with some golden chances to do so. Lage thinks the headband Jimenez is currently using is having a detrimental effect. A late miss against Brentford in September, created by a trademark run and cross from Adama Traore, planted that seed in Lage’s mind.
Bruno Lage said: “I remember that day against Brentford, an easy ball and when he headed it (it) changed direction and after that he took the band off. I have had that idea since that day. Even today, I saw him and he did a big header and it was a fantastic goal. It’s just an opinion. We need to find Raul in the box. And we need to find him in the best way, because we cannot just talk about Raul or Fabio if they are scoring or not, we need to find a way to find them to score goals. It’s amazing what happened with him and in defensive set pieces or aerial duels, he is afraid of nothing. It’s impressive, (given) what he lived, that he continues in the same way. After it’s about us finding him in the box to give him chances.”
