Wolves suffered a 4-2 defeat against Bournemouth at the weekend and fans are now expecting a response against Everton.
Gary O’Neil is back under big pressure after the shocking defeat at Molineux, which saw Wolves drop back into the relegation zone.
Some Wolves fans again want O’Neil sacked, but that was probably never a likely outcome with the Everton game coming up on Wednesday.
O’Neil will take the team to Goodison Park, and he could really do with three points on Merseyside.
It’s been a relatively quiet day on the news front, but the manager did speak to the media today ahead of that game with Everton, and Mario Lemina’s post-Bournemouth comments were also published.
Gary O’Neil comments on his Wolves future
O’Neil cut a pretty relaxed figure at his Wolves press conference today ahead of the game with Everton.
There’s a lot of noise right now, but the Wolves manager was certainly not showing any signs of feeling the pressure.
O’Neil said of his Wolves future earlier today: “I have zero concerns over my role and future as a coach.
“I know how hard I work and I’m comfortable with the work I do, but of course I want results to improve. I understand results will decide how long I stay at Wolves.”
Rayan Ait-Nouri criticised
There were a number of poor performers in the defeat to Bournemouth.
But former Premier League striker turned pundit Darren Bent was taken aback with how Rayan Ait-Nouri played against Bournemouth, questioning his body language at times.
He said of the £10 million man: “It wasn’t good to watch. I mean, Ait-Nouri, every single time he’s got the ball – and he’s a talented footballer – he’d take too long to pass it at times, he’d walk about, he’d throw his arms about. Teammates are looking at him to pass and he’d just turn his back on them.
“It almost felt, from minute one, that Wolves turned up thinking ‘We’ve won the last two games, brilliant at Fulham, we’ll run over Bournemouth’.”
Mario Lemina’s message after Bournemouth defeat
Saturday’s result against Bournemouth was very disappointing.
However, Mario Lemina – who struggled against the Cherries – was keen for people not to dwell on the 4-2 loss, with the Everton game looming.
Lemina reacted to the Bournemouth defeat by saying: “To be honest, we have to move on. We had been doing well since the Brighton game. We had four games unbeaten and Bournemouth did really well against us.
“They’re really intense, pressing us, and we made a lot of mistakes, and we should do better. It’s part of the football, we tried to play our game, they did well, they deserved the win because we made some mistakes. We have to move on right now and try to win against Everton.”