Wolverhampton Wanderers bounced back from their 4-0 defeat against West Ham United last weekend with a 1-0 victory over newly-promoted Fulham at Molineux.
Wolves survived a late onslaught from the away side to pick up their second win of the season thanks to a goal from Pedro Neto.
Wanderers boss Nuno Espirito Santo gave his thoughts on the game in his post-match press conference.
On the result:
Wolves claimed their second win of the season and returned to winnings ways after an embarrassing loss to West Ham last week. Espirito Santo was keen to praise his players for the result and for fighting until the end.
He said: “It [the result] was one of the positive aspects, we were able to bounce back in terms of result, but not quite in terms of performance.
“I’m proud of the boys because they stuck until the end, defended, players struggling, getting to their limits, but we have to pass this barrier so we can be sharper.”
On whether he was happy with the performance:
Despite the win, Espirito Santo was not too positive about the performance and believes that his team should be improving. If it wasn’t for some last-ditch defending and poor finishing from Fulham in the final ten minutes then the result may have been different.
He said: "Not quite [the performance I wanted]. Not so compact in defence and not quite creative in attack, I think we should improve. There are things that we have to improve, clearly things that we did before, that we were clearly not doing so well.”
On the attacking football his side produced:
Wolves were able to get the three points but it will raise a concern that they were only able to score one against the worst defence in the league.
The final ball would regularly go astray or build-up play wouldn’t flow, leaving Espirito Santo wanting better performances in the final third.
"I want to see what's missing - we need to be sharper, we need to pass the ball faster, we need to control the ball, combine, turn faster, win duels,” Nuno said. “There are a lot of things to improve. We're honest.”
On the change at half time:
After a goalless first half which had limited chances, Nuno would have been concerned about his side's chances of scoring. But he was happy with the way they returned after the break.
He said: “We needed to be patient, but at the same moment it was important to not unbalance ourselves, staying in the game, knowing that first we have to be organised, so we can produce in our attack.
“We did that in the second half, I think in the second-half we had more combinations. We had a clear chance and put Fulham against the ropes, and we achieved the goal.”
On transfer news:
Ruben Vinagre was left out of the squad for the game, adding more fuel to the fire with rumours of his departure increasing. Nuno confirmed that he will be leaving and also revealed who his replacement will be.
Espirito Santo said: “I can confirm Vinagre is going to join Olympiakos. If it's not done it's almost done, that's why he wasn't in the squad. (Rayan Ait-Nouri)...you'll get the official decision. Rayan is going to join us."