Nuno understands Wolves' final-day defeat
Nuno Espirito Santo says he was surprised Wolves didn’t lose earlier after winning promotion – as he reiterated that he’ll continue his ‘game by game’ mantra next season.
Wolves ended the season with a surprising 3-0 defeat at League One-bound Sunderland.
It was only their seventh defeat of the campaign.
But Nuno said he could perfectly understand the rather limp nature of Wolves’ display, seen as apart from reaching 100 points they had little motivation having already secured promotion some weeks earlier.
“I can understand it perfectly because I was surprised that we didn’t lose before,” the Wolves head coach said.
“After you achieve something after pushing the players and they keep on going, there was a moment you put them to train hard.
“It didn’t seem like we are champions but at the end of the day we had a very good lesson, the only way to play football in England is when you play on your maximum intensity.
“If you are not on your maximum on every action the game changes. It is like that. On this type of games no-one looks at their self. I was surprised it didn’t happen before”
“I am happy fortunately we didn’t go to Sunderland and have to play because it would be very very tough.”
Wolves are as high as joint-seventh favourites at 66/1 with some bookies to win the Premier League next season.
For Nuno though any talk of a top half finish is far too fanciful and he wants to temper expectations ahead of the new campaign.
His mantra throughout 2017/18, even when Wolves were several points clear at the top with promotion in sight, was to avoid looking at the league table and take it ‘game by game’.
And it looks like he’ll be repeating the same messages in 2018/19.
When asked about keeping a lid on expectations for the season, Nuno said: “I only think game by game.
“The first step is June 27, having the boys ready to start working then August 11 begins the first game.
“Our expectations are as simple as that – we have to bounce back from the last game.
“We lost the last game of he competition, let’s bounce back in the first game of competition in the Premier League.
“Things are changing. You saw what we are doing behind, things are changing, the owners are trying their best to give us the best facilities to work and this is what is more important.
“We as a team must go in the same rhythm. June 27 is the first day we start working and getting better.
“We go back on the 27th, that is seven weeks.
“We start the competition on August, that is another six weeks.
“If you have more holidays than work you have to work harder than your holidays, when it is the other way around you don’t have to worry so much.”
