Wolverhampton Wanderers appointed Bruno Lage as the new Wolves head coach on June 9, replacing fellow Portuguese manager Nuno Espirito Santo. Lage has placed a particular emphasis on competitiveness between his players, something he was praised for at former club Benfica.
Bruno Lage said “The most important thing is to be competitive. I speak with our chairman one or two times a week, I speak with our sporting director every day, and they know I believe players should be competitive. That’s why I believe we need to create a competitive squad. I want the best, I want two good players in each position. For the players, it’s good for them because when they are competing, they can improve better, and also for the fans, because if we have a strong and competitive team, for sure we can win more games and they will be more happy.”
Lage also highlighted the first ‘very good’ impressions of the squad over the last month and a half.
Bruno Lage said “The environment, the friendships between them. People always talk about the big spirit of the team and now I can see that. But the first message I said to them, because I believe that in football, it’s about that – we cannot live from the past. I was here when they started this cycle of four years, because I was at Sheffield Wednesday, and I could see what the previous staff and all the players did for the club. From the Championship, they won the league, they got to the UEFA Cup [Europa League], it was brilliant, fantastic, I was watching.”
Despite being well familiar with the club’s principles and history, he emphasised the importance of living in the present and working towards the future.
Bruno Lage explained: “We need to understand that no-one lives in the past, and no-one lives for the future. I was a good player, or I will be a good football player – it’s not important. What is important is day by day. Now is important to feel, to see, and continue with the bigger picture to bring success for our club.”
So the Lage era begins here. Known for putting his time and trust into youngsters from his Benfica days, Lage has called up some of the under-23 players to train with the first-team. Christian Marques, Nigel Lonwijk, Luke Cundle, Taylor Perry, Chem Campbell, Ryan Giles, Austin Samuels and Renat Dadashov were the players included.
Bruno Lage added: “The youngsters have impressed me a lot. All the boys I’m happy with. One good example is what they did in the second-half against Las Palmas. So, they have had the chance to work with me for three weeks and they did very well. I was very happy for them. If after three weeks of work we can do that, now we’re going to have the whole squad with us, we’re going to have the ambition to play like we did in the second-half. I also saw good things in the game against Al Shabab.”
Translating his philosophy across to the gold and black squad isn’t something that is expected to happen overnight, albeit changes are slowly but surely becoming visible.
Bruno Lage said: “Now is the best time to do this. Before training we will have a little meeting, we can watch videos, this is my idea for working this situation, they can see, we can discuss and then after we go practice. In that process we go step by step, we’re creating my ideas, and start to link my ideas with the capacity and the abilities of our players. When you see they are starting to think and starting to play with your own ideas, it’s a big pleasure for me.”
Some may say that Lage resembles Nuno in some aspects behind his strategic thinking.
Bruno Lage said “I’m preparing myself. I cannot live in the past, I need to live what I’m doing now – to win the next game,”
The Wanderers’ first Premier League outing of the 2021/22 campaign will be at the King Power Stadium against Leicester City on August 14.
