Express & Star

Steve Bull: Bruno Lage needs more time to make it work at Wolves

Bruno Lage needs more time to make it work at Wolves but he needs to get his side playing as a team.

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Nobody likes this unrest among the fan base and the club will be aware of the situation we’re in.

Bruno needs to have a re-shuffle and get that team playing as a team, rather than a group of individuals.

We have the players there – some world class players – and he needs to get them playing as a team.

Bruno needs more time to make that happen, too. I know Wolves’ run has been poor but we do have a good set of fixtures coming up so Bruno deserves a chance.

Give him the next five or six games and take it from there, after a difficult start to the season.

The whole team is letting Bruno down a bit and from the first whistle against Manchester City we weren’t on our toes and we got caught sleeping.

For me, that summed up the whole of the first 45 minutes – it was men against boys.

They had a well-structured side and Wolves were like 11 individuals. We didn’t play as a team and players didn’t know their roles.

It took us 45 minutes to wake up. We came out in the second half and for 20 minutes we gave it a good go with 10 men and went toe-to-toe with them.

They looked a little vulnerable during that spell and would should have got a goal back, but we didn’t. They scored the third and the game was over.

We have to lick our wounds and move on.

I’m glad there’s a break because when you’re losing it’s good to have that rest and re-shuffle, so it’s come at a good time for Wolves.

West Ham will be a very, very big game for everyone involved.

They’re in the same boat as us and only just below us in the league. We have to beat the teams down there and around us, otherwise we’ll be in the bottom three if they overtake us and that’s where Wolves cannot afford to be.

It’s all looking a bit gloomy at the moment, which I don’t like to see.

There’s an argument to give Hwang Hee-chan a chance as a striker against West Ham, but I really don’t know!

I’m banging my head against a brick wall trying to figure out the best option. Daniel Podence is 5ft 4ins, so that isn’t going to work playing him up front. You won’t win a game without a striker on the field.

Bruno must be banging his head against the wall too, because you need a striker on the pitch who can score goals, and we don’t have that at the minute.

We’re hoping Raul Jimenez gets fit quick or Diego Costa gets up to speed sooner rather than later.

It would be nice to see Costa come off the bench against West Ham and do something, but we can’t rush him.

We have to keep these strikers fit. We’re desperate for an impact but we can’t afford to lose them to any more injuries.