The first stage of Wolves’ pre-season is over, and Marshall Munetsi has been speaking about it to the club’s official website.
Wolves have enjoyed a productive stint out in Portugal, having lots of intense training sessions and playing two training games.
Wolves lost to Santa Clara 2-1 last Tuesday, and then drew with Burnley on Saturday.
But results are not so important at the moment – it’s all about Vitor Pereira working on new things and crucially, determining who is going to be a part of his squad for 2025/26.
Pereira feels a mid-table finish is realistic for Wolves, but the Wolves manager has also expressed his concerns about how the summer is going.
But the noise coming from inside the camp has been positive, and Marshall Munetsi has now given an interview about the pre-season trip to Portugal.
Marshall Munetsi shares what Wolves have worked on the most in pre-season so far
Last season, Pereira came in midway through the campaign and immediately set about making Wolves harder to beat.
Wolves were whipping goals left, right and centre under Gary O’Neil, and it was a completely unsustainable way of playing.
The additions of Emmanuel Agbadou and Munetsi were key, but Pereira just implemented a much more effective way of playing.
There was far less chaos, with everyone knowing their jobs.
And team structure is the main thing that Munetsi says has been worked on so far in pre-season, suggesting Wolves fans can expect to see an organised outfit in 2025/26.
He told the club’s official website: “It was more about the structure. To have a good identity of the team.
“Obviously last year we didn’t start really well, we conceded a lot of goals so he’s trying to really implement how we defend.
“Also to try and keep what we’re doing going forward, trying to score a couple of goals. But the main important thing is to have the proper structure of the team. To have the identity of how we want to play and also to be very solid defensively.”
Munetsi comments are refreshing to hear
Pereira has bemoaned not having more recruits in by this point, but the comments from Munetsi here are refreshing.
It sounds very much as though Pereira wants to build on what he was doing last season.
And that is really important, because before he came in Wolves were an embarrassment in terms of their shape and defensive structure in particularly, having conceded 40 Premier League goals by the time of O’Neil’s sacking.
If Wolves can start the season with a relatively solid backline and collective shape when not in possession, it will make life much easier and help to stave off early pressure.
This Wolves squad, with the quality it has, should not be looking over its shoulder and should instead be trying to push up the table.
And key to doing that will be to keep things tight at the back.
And of course, the manager being backed with the right players, Pereira is concerned about Wolves’ summer at the moment, but hopefully fresh faces are imminent.