Pressure Builds On ‘fighter’ Pereira With Wolves Desperate For League Victory

It has been a while since Vítor Pereira ventured into The Moon Under Water, nan Wolverhampton city-centre Wetherspoons where past play he savoured victories pinch supporters. Now Wolves are astatine consequence of drowning successful nan Premier League, bottommost aft taking 2 points from their opening 9 games and without a triumph successful six months. Supporters person made their anger plain but nan Wolves caput coach insists he is au fait pinch nan pressure. “I retrieve successful Porto aft a tie it was intolerable to spell into a edifice to eat pinch my family,” Pereira says. “This is football.”

For Wolves supporters, this run has descended into 1 big, fat told-you-so. Wolves person been stuck successful a antagonistic rhythm and aft different slow commencement fans are worried this will beryllium nan play they neglect to flight and spiral into nan Championship. Pereira rescued them aft arriving past Christmas but overmuch of his in installments has evaporated. With each crippled comes accrued pressure. “I’m a fighter,” he says. “The unit is what I put connected myself. I don’t consciousness nan pressure, judge me. The unit is important to beryllium alert … if you don’t consciousness anything, you’re excessively relaxed. If you don’t judge nan disapproval aliases pressure, you must spell to different job.”

Wolves person seen this movie before. They waited until past December to dispense pinch Gary O’Neil and Julen Lopetegui near of his ain volition connected nan eve of nan erstwhile season. Before him, Bruno Lage made it until nan opening of October. Nuno Espírito Santo near by communal consent successful May 2021 aft 4 mostly aureate years and Fosun, Wolves’s Chinese owner, pines for stability. It will not get it if bad results continue, pinch Saturday’s travel to Fulham nan adjacent hurdle. The soul-destroying point for supporters is they saw this coming. It has been signposted for a while.

The determination to reward Pereira pinch a three-year statement successful September amid a mediocre commencement looks peculiar now but had agelong been mooted. Wolves prioritised nan summertime transportation model and believed this play could beryllium different. Matheus Cunha, Rayan Aït-Nouri and Nélson Semedo departed but they retained Jørgen Strand Larsen, rejecting a bid from Newcastle totalling £55m, which would person earned them handsome profit, and convinced him to motion a caller contract. It feels for illustration deja vu fixed O’Neil and his unit were fixed caller contracts nan erstwhile summer.

Wolves are haemorrhaging goals – only West Ham person conceded much successful nan apical formation – and person been punished for slow starts and sloppy finishes. They surrendered leads against Brighton and Tottenham and aft clawing backmost to 2-2 from 2 goals down astatine location to Burnley past Sunday they conceded a stoppage-time winner. They person fixed up 7 points crossed 3 of their past 4 convention games pinch goals conceded successful nan 86th infinitesimal aliases later. In nan Carabao Cup against Chelsea connected Wednesday, aft dragging themselves backmost into nan crippled from 3-0 down, they allowed 10-man opponents to re-establish a two-goal buffer.

Jørgen Strand Larsen holds his caput successful his hands aft missing a chance. The guardant has scored only 1 convention extremity this season. Photograph: Jacob King/PA

Strand Larsen’s 1 convention extremity has travel from a punishment against Burnley and only Nottingham Forest person scored less convention goals. Bart Verbruggen, whose ain extremity gave Wolves nan lead against Brighton past month, has arsenic galore convention goals for Wolves arsenic immoderate Wolves player. This clip past twelvemonth O’Neil could constituent to a wretched tally of fixtures. This play Wolves person been beaten by each 3 promoted teams.

Pereira has struggled to onshore connected his champion squad and flip-flopped pinch his selections, immoderate much funny than others. João Gomes and André, nan Brazil midfielders and astir apt Wolves’ astir talented players, person been dropped. He has not named nan aforesaid defence since an alarming conclusion astatine Bournemouth successful nan 2nd game. Since past Pereira has flitted betwixt systems and personnel, switching from his favoured 3-4-3 to a four-man defence. Sam Johnstone has replaced José Sá arsenic his first-choice goalkeeper. Toti Gomes, named nine skipper astatine nan commencement of nan season, has played 1 convention infinitesimal since being withdrawn astatine location to Leeds. The aforesaid goes for Emmanuel Agbadou, a January signing integral to their upturn past season.

There are besides questions astir leadership, pinch Toti 1 of six players to deterioration nan armband crossed 9 convention matches. Strand Larsen became nan latest, aft Hugo Bueno, João Gomes, Matt Doherty and Sá. In a play wherever knowledgeable performers specified Kyle Walker, arguably nan champion subordinate connected nan transportation astatine Molineux past weekend, Granit Xhaka and Jordan Henderson person driven awesome squad performances, it feels a salient point. Those kinds of signings alert successful nan look of Wolves’ argumentation to mostly enlistee younger players pinch resale value.

A batch of Wolves’ problems spell backmost to recruitment. There person been respective occurrence stories but location is not overmuch wriggle room. Jackson Tchatchoua, Ladislav Krejci, Jhon Arias, Fer López, David Møller Wolfe and Tolu Arokodare arrived without Premier League experience. Johnstone’s signing from Crystal Palace past August was nan past clip they did a woody pinch different Premier League club.

Wolves want to springiness Pereira clip to move things around. Despite results, it is difficult to reason nan players are not playing for nan Portuguese, fixed nan measurement they stirred against Burnley and salvaged immoderate in installments astatine location to Chelsea. Last play nether O’Neil Wolves felt location were much problems permeating nan squad, chiefly ill-discipline, disharmony and a deficiency of belief from players and staff. “It’s nan first clip successful my profession I americium facing this benignant of situation,” says Pereira, this his 14th club. “I americium resilient. I person assurance successful nan work, successful my players and that we person nan conditions to tackle nan situation.”

The lights concisely went disconnected arsenic Pereira fielded questions astir his early wrong a room astatine Wolves’ Compton training guidelines connected Friday. Has he been pleasantly amazed by nan soul support fixed nan support life of managers successful this era?

“You cognize why?” he says. “Because they activity each time pinch maine and my staff. They cognize nan measurement that we are working, fighting, trying to find solutions, to support nan spirit, to take sides nan club. And because we proved that past play successful a fewer months that we tin get results and play bully football. This play has been much difficult. Today is what we must unrecorded by. Tomorrow: beryllium focused to compete astatine our level and effort to get nan result. The future? I don’t cognize if I will beryllium location aliases not.”