"I can see he's a fighter" - Wolves midfielder backed for first team impact

The 23-year-old has been injured since August with a serious blow to his knee and in recent weeks finally made his return with two under-21 appearances.

It remained to be seen what, if any, impact Traore would have on the Wolves first team under Pereira, but the head coach now admits he has been shocked by the qualities Traore possesses and he is now scrapping for Premier League minutes.

"Bouba is surprising me because now I can see he's a fighter," Pereira said.

"Now I can see, before it was not possible because of the injury in his knee.

"People said to me' Bouba is a fighter, he's aggressive', but because of the injury I didn't see it.

"Now he is starting to compete for a position.

"Before I had problems in the middle, but now to select the players to play I need to think a lot and try to be fair.

"But I'm a happy coach because I have solutions in the middle."

One of those solutions should be Tommy Doyle, who has made his mark as a central midfielder at Wolves.

However, Pereira has been publicly critical of Doyle's physicality and has now revealed the player is no longer training as a midfielder, but now as part of Wolves' front three.

Under Pereira the team play narrow number 10s either side of the striker, where Doyle played when he came on against Liverpool at the weekend.

"I spoke with Tommy, in my opinion and his opinion too, he is more an offensive midfielder," Pereira said.

"To play in the positions that are a little bit more higher on the pitch, in the middle of the lines, and we've started to work with him in this position.

"He can give us different things. The last pass, he has a strong shot. He can switch play with quality.

"Now, I'm not working with him in the two positions in the middle, but in the positions a little bit higher on the pitch, in between the lines and I'm liking it.

"I think in this position he can give us something.

"He can give us some different things.

"He doesn't have the physicality to play in the middle, fighting for all the balls, running a lot, but he has the quality to help us in the last pass, in the last decision because he has this quality."

Pereira has been loyal to his 5-2-3 system since coming to Wolves, but with a plethora of midfield options at his disposal, he is now open to mixing it up.

He added: "Now we are in conditions to change the system a little bit.

"Sometimes playing with three midfielders and other times playing with two midfielders.

"Before, it was too early to add something different in the system, now, I think it's time to create some different dynamics."