Pre-season key for Julen Lopetegui's ideas says Wolves' Matheus Nunes

Wolves are in Portugal for a pre-season training - in what is Lopetegui's first summer with his Wolves squad.

The Spaniard arrived at the club in November - and masterminded their rise from the foot of the table to Premier League safety with a handful of games to go.

Now, despite Wolves enduring a difficult summer in the transfer market to comply with Financial Fair Play regulations, Lopetegui is working to avoid a repeat of last season.

And Nunes, who arrived at the club last August, believes their pre-season preparations are key for the Spaniard to fully get his ideas across.

He said: "It’s always good. Pre-season is very hard in the beginning, but it’s always good to get to know new teammates and the players that come in from the youth, to help them to settle in.

“Specifically, this time, the coach arrived later in the season so he’s now starting from the beginning and it’s quite different than when he arrived because we had to get results straight away.

“Now he has more time to pass through his ideas more clearly than before, so I think it’s been very nice for us.

"Of course, we just want to play the games. If you asked me before the pre-season if I wanted to do the pre-season I’d say no because we just want to get straight into the games.

“But we have to get through this to get fit, to get the ideas of the coach and to help the new teammates that are arriving.

“We are looking forward to it, but now we have to focus on pre-season so we can start really strong.”

Wolves stepped up their pre-season preparations in Portugal with a 2-1 win over Vitoria de Guimaraes, thanks to goals from Owen Farmer and Matheus Cunha.