Squad respect and positivity key to Wolves' success

The head coach has proved he is not afraid to make big decisions and will take off influential players such as Matheus Cunha in an effort to win a game.

He expects those players to be unhappy, but believes the respect his players have for each other has avoided any issues over his decisions.

"I don't know a player that likes to leave the pitch when they feel the team is playing," Pereira said.

"But sometimes it's important to think about the team.

"When I do the subs, believe me, I don't care about the names. 

"I will try to balance my team in the way I'm analysing the game and in the end, sometimes they can be a little bit upset with me.

"But after one minute (they are fine), because this is the relationship we created between us.

"Be honest and say to them that they played a fantastic game, but now it's the moment for another one and you must respect it.

"We have a team at this moment where everyone respects each other."

Despite losing back-to-back matches, Wolves went on a six game winning run and Pereira believes the positive mindset among his group has also been essential.

“It is important, sometimes you need to manage the minds of the players," Pereira added.

"Sometimes you need confidence as a player, sometimes, when the confidence is (high), you need to go back and to take some of this confidence away because imagine if we are in a moment that we think the things will be easier, this is the first step to losing.

“Sometimes we can use the image from the other team to connect the players, to give them confidence from our games, other times to put them connected with the next opponent, trying to show that they have quality and we need to be in our best. It means we can manage the image during the week.

“I’ve said this before – football is not only about tactical things and technical things, it’s about people, it’s about players, about connecting people, connecting the players together, connecting the players with the staff, connecting the players with the supporters, connecting supporters to the club, connecting the club with the city.

“This makes part of my job to connect everybody. Of course, we go step by step, not forcing too much, but by being ourselves and creating something that we feel proud about, and what we represent.

“This is the power that we have in a small city. We don’t have a lot of things, but we have football and we have culture – and the culture of a small city is powerful, because I go in the pub, I go in the streets, I go in the city centre, and everybody is connected."