Ruben Neves reacts to Wolves appointing Julen Lopetegui

Ruben Neves has given his thoughts about Wolves moving for Julen Lopetegui.

The club finally announced the Spaniard as Bruno Lage’s successor yesterday morning.

Wolves have got their man after a painstaking pursuit, and the 56-year-old will start work at Molineux a week tomorrow.

News of Lopetegui’s arrival wasn’t quite enough to spur the Wolves players on against Brighton though.

Although Wolves did actually play well against the Seagulls, poor defending resulted in a 3-2 defeat at Molineux.

Adam Lallana opened the scoring for the visitors. But Goncalo Guedes hit an equaliser moments later, which was his first goal for the club.

Ruben Neves then dispatched a penalty, but the lively Kaori Mitoma levelled.

Nelson Semedo then denied Mitoma a goalscoring opportunity to earn himself a red card. That meant an uphill battle in the second-half.

Wolves gave it their all, but Pascal Gross scored late on to deflate Wolves.

Lopetegui would surely have been watching, and it’s likely he would have been encouraged by the fight shown.

Speaking after the game, Neves about gave his reaction to the Lopetegui appointment.

He said (Wolves official): “I’m 100 percent sure he’s a great coach and he will help us a lot. He’s not here yet, so we need to focus on the two games in front of us. We play Wednesday in the Carabao Cup, and then we have Arsenal at home – two more games at home, we’ll try to get wins, try to go through in the cup, try to get points in the league, that’s our main target now.

“Of course, we know he’s a great manager, he did a lot of big things in football, he coached a lot of big teams – Porto, Real Madrid, Spain, he won the Europa League, so everyone knows him very well and I know he’ll help us. The next two games are the most important for us, the last games before the World Cup, and we need to make sure we get some results.”

Julen Lopetegui has a huge job on his hands at Wolves, as Ruben Neves reacts to his appointment

Lopetegui has a massive job on his hands at Molineux.

But there have been positive signs from the team in the last couple of games, despite only taking one point from them.

One thing he needs to address straight away is the defence.

Wanderers are shipping too many goals at the moment, and the backline needs to be watertight considering the difficulties in the final third.

But it’s a brilliant appointment by the club. And if officials can also ensure Neves stays, then there is a good chance Wolves can pull away from danger in 2023.