Express & Star

Wolves boss Nuno takes inspiration from Liverpool greats

As a youngster he was inspired by the all-conquering Liverpool team of the 1980s.

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And now Nuno Espirito Santo wants to inspire his Wolves team to beat one of the finest Liverpool teams seen since those heady days.

Nuno was shown videos of classic Liverpool goals during the Scottish FA-led coaching course he underwent a few years ago.

He will still occasionally share those videos with his squad now.

"Everybody that was in football remembers that team – Rush, Barnes and the others," he said.

"The first introduction I had with English football was in the FA Cup in the early-80s.

"When you are in Scotland and the instructors and Jim Fleeting and Donald Park, who are over 60, what images are they going to show you? What do you expect.

"Sometimes, occasionally (I'll still use the videos), if we think it will inspire our players we will do it.

"That moment was clearly an inspiration for a love of the game.

"The Scottish FA used it to try to shape our minds on our love of the game.

"When you see beautiful things like that you coach better.

"When you use a video it’s always with the same purpose - to try to motivate and inspire some of the things you expect."

Wolves didn't beat Liverpool too often back then although they achieved the odd notable success, like when Steve Mardenborough headed the winner at Anfield in 1984.

Nuno wants another Wolves win tomorrow.

"I don’t expect my players to recall Barnes and Rush, I expect them to be focused on who they face tomorrow," Nuno added.

"They know Salah, Mane, Firmino, Keita, Wijnaldum, Milner, Henderson, Van Dijk, Robertson, Allison. Everybody knows the team and the players see a lot of football.

"They know the team of Liverpool for sure. And (Liverpool) know us."

Three consecutive wins have propelled Wolves to seventh in the table and a point tomorrow will see them overtake Liverpool in sixth.

However Nuno isn't interested in talking about Wolves' targets for the season, or any talk of Europe.

"We don’t have to ignore it because that talk doesn’t exist in our minds," he said.

"We only focus on the game against Liverpool – the next game and the next training session and the tight schedule that we have in front of us.

"We cannot look ahead. If you ignore the present then you make a mistake and we will not do it.

"I think we are growing and getting better. Trying to take things step by step. We don’t look too much ahead.

"We had a goal last season that was game by game and in the end it got us promoted. This is where we will go now. Again we will go game by game."