Wolves struggled against Man City at the weekend, and Vitor Pereira has explained his thought process around leaving new signings Fer Lopez and Jhon Arias out of the starting XI.
The first game of the Premier League season was a tough home loss during which Wolves were picked apart by a new-look Man City side.
The attacking play was uninspired for the majority of the match, with City’s high line causing serious problems.
Vitor Pereira received criticism for his tactical approach, but he has now come out and said why he made certain decisions with the starting lineup.
Vitor Pereira wanted physicality and running against Man City
As reported by E&S, Pereira was well aware of the expectation for at least one of Wolves’ two new attackers to get the nod, but he had a different objective in mind.
He explains: “Do you know why I left them (Arias and Lopez) out? Because of this opponent, this was my decision. It was a game that we knew City would have more possession and we needed to run without the ball.”
Wolves did have some joy in the first half with their intense press, but as the game wore on City found answers. But Pereira was adamant that this was the right decision.
“I spoke with him and I spoke to Arias trying to explain, to say you are both important for us, but this is a match that we needed to run.”
For that purpose, Marshall Munetsi and Jean-Ricner Bellegarde fit the bill, but it did cost Wolves in the creativity department.
Vitor Pereira needs to learn from mistakes against Man City
Munetsi and Bellegarde are physical midfielders with great engines, but deploying them either side of Jorgen Strand Larsen made Wolves’ forward play somewhat toothless.
Munetsi was having plenty of trouble staying onside against the City defence, and Bellegarde is better utilised in the middle of the park.
When Lopez and Arias were brought on, there seemed to be more options in the final third and better movement, although by this time the result was decided.
Pereira has displayed his tactical prowess time and time again since arriving at Wolves, but even he can get things wrong. Of course, City deserve plenty of respect, but his decisions on who to play up front made the game an uphill battle from the very start.