Speaking on his tenure as Wolves’ manager, Bruno Lage revealed what he considers to be one of his biggest errors.
In his first full season in command at Molineux, the Portuguese tactician managed a 10th-place result in just over a season.
At one point, Bruno Lage was a strong advocate for Europe, but to the dismay of his fans, he eventually gave up.
After his debut season, Lage worked for Fosun until October 2022–2023, at which point he was fired due to subpar performance.
Following Steve Davis’s short tenure as interim manager, Julen Lopetegui would be appointed by Wolves. Many people have thought Lage’s time at Wolves was rather unimpressive.
However, his recent chat with The Coaches Voice might make some people think differently of him. And he said some intriguing things that seemed to point to the reason of his failure.
Former Wolves manager Bruno Lage suggests he wasn’t forceful enough with his squad concerns
After being appointed, Lage lost his first three Premier League games at Wolves, where he first struggled.
But in spite of those three 1-0 losses, Wanderers appeared to be playing extremely well. There were indications that Wolves may succeed under Lage, and sure enough, the outcomes began to roll in.
Wolves were competitive for European football by February thanks to Lage. Yet in their last 14 Premier League games, Wolves only managed three victories, nine losses, and two draws.
Lage has now discussed why his team’s performance suffered after Wolves finished in tenth place. He apologises for not raising a bigger issue with his superiors and blames it on having a poorly prepared squad.
“We lost important players like Fernando Marçal, Romain Saïss, and Willy Boly, Conor Coady, and Leander Dendoncker early in the new season,” he said to The Coaches Voice.
“Some players were coming to the end of their contracts, though.” Regretfully, during preseason, the team had not brought in enough replacements. We only signed Nathan Collins, a center-back from Burnley.
“And that was our major error.” Even if I made a lot of noise, warned of possible issues and demanding the new players for the preseason, I still hold myself accountable. Perhaps I didn’t make the point that it was critical to have the squad prepared as soon as possible strongly enough.
Additionally, Lage stated that “my idea of what the squad should look like was very far from the reality” heading into 2023–2024.
Lage made mistakes, but he had it tough
Many Wolves supporters insisted that Lage had to be fired at the moment he was, and ultimately, it was probably the right call.
However, this extremely candid interview he had with The Coaches Voice does indicate that it was not an easy place for him to work. In the end, he ran into the same issues as Gary O’Neil and Lopetegui.
The implication here is that Lage was not helped by Fosun in getting the team ready, and a manager cannot perform to the best of their abilities if they are not supported appropriately by their superiors.
To be sure, Lage did some strange things toward the conclusion of his career.
For example, he once started playing center back for Ruben Neves, who was reportedly consulted when Lage was fired.
However, he wasn’t as awful as many people made him out to be, and if he had received the right support, he very well may have performed better.
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