Vitor Pereira’s work at Wolves is becoming clear as pundits Michael Owen and Glenn Hoddle spotted one improvement against Liverpool.
Despite the contest looking one-sided on paper, Wolves took the game to Liverpool and were unfortunate to leave Merseyside with nothing.
Matheus Cunha netted his 12th Premier League goal of the season however, the Brazilian’s superbly finished strike was not enough to hand the Old Gold a result.
Pereira’s side suffered their 16th defeat of the campaign in a 2-1 loss to Arne Slot’s league leaders however, there were certainly positives to take from the contest.
Glenn Hoddle and Michael Owen applaud Wolves’ defending
Boasting one of the worst defensive records in the Premier League, Pereira arrived knowing that he had to drastically improve at the back.
Against Liverpool, it was clear that the Portuguese’s influence had positively impacted the back line, as Wolves’ approach was dubbed ‘solid’ by two pundits.
Michael Owen was one former icon of the game to praise how Wolves defended but, had some reservations about how the Old Gold looked going forward.
“Wolves are in danger more when they’re attacking. When they’re defending, they look quite solid but as soon as they have the ball, they look like they can be hit on the counter-attack,” Owen said to Premier League Productions.
The former England international’s opinion was one echoed by Glenn Hoddle, who commended how ‘difficult’ Pereira’s back five were to ‘break down’.
“In the first 20 minutes, Wolves looked quite solid – with that bank of five at the back, they’ve been quite difficult to break down.”
Hoddle did share some concern about how the defence deteriorated when the ball was in transition but, it’s clear that improvement is there since Pereira took the reins.
Wolves’ record under Pereira vs Gary O’Neil
Wolves fans were desperate to see Gary O’Neil depart, which eventually happened after the Old Gold’s defeat to Ipswich Town in December.
| Manager | Matches | Win | Draw | Loss | GA | Points | Points per match |
| Gary O’Neil | 18 | 3 | 3 | 12 | 43 | 12 | 0.67 |
| Vitor Pereira | 11 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 15 | 16 | 1.43 |
Since the Englishman’s departure, great change has been seen, as highlighted above, with Pereira already earning more points than O’Neil did despite overseeing seven games fewer.
Taking on board the comments from Hoddle and Owen, it’s refreshing to see Wolves look stable at the back and despite there being more work to be done, there’s certainly a foundation to build upon.