The Wolves manager, Nuno Espírito Santo, says the “grieving” his team did in the aftermath of their FA Cup semi‑final defeat against Watford in May has made them better able to face this season’s competition.
On Saturday Wolves host Manchester United, whom they eliminated in the quarter-final last season before losing a two-goal lead in the semi‑final against Watford, who won 3-2 in extra time. Nuno admits that elimination hit him and the players hard and they had to grieve in order to come back stronger.
“It was very sad,” said Nuno. “You need to make grief. When you lose someone the best way is to grieve. Not only me, I think everybody involved felt that sadness.”
Nuno said that feeling lingered and affected their Premier League form until the team took a short break in Spain. “After the defeat we played at Southampton and didn’t perform well [and lost 3-1]. Clearly we were in that situation, we were sad, we weren’t able to raise ourselves again. But then we went away for a couple of days, we made our grief and we came back stronger. One thing that happens in life is you go low and then you stand up and fight again. This is us.”
On Saturday Nuno will be looking to embellish his fine record against United, with the last four meetings between the sides yielding two victories and two draws for Wolves. But this time they will have to cope without their forward Diogo Jota, who scored in both of those wins. Nuno revealed the player will be out for some time as a result of the thigh injury he sustained in the tackle that led to Christian Kabasele being sent off when Watford beat Wolves on New Year’s Day. The seriousness of the injury is not yet known. “It’s not good,” said Nuno. “He’s being assessed, he’s already done the MRI. We have to wait for all the blood that the impact caused to go down so the doctor can evaluate him better. After that we will have a proper diagnosis.”
Nuno indicated Jota’s absence heightens the need to use this month’s transfer window to reinforce. “We have a small squad and every time a player is not an option it causes you problems. But to problems we must find solutions and that’s what we are looking for now. We need players. Now I think is the right moment to start working on that. The transfer window gives you the chance to bring things that can improve you.” Nuno confirmed there will also be outgoings from Molineux this month, identifying Jesús Vallejo as one likely departure. The 22-year-old defender arrived on loan from Real Madrid with a glowing reputation last summer but has failed to convince the club that he can make a lasting contribution in central defence, where Nuno has preferred to turn to the likes of Romain Saïss and Leander Dendoncker since the loss to injury of Wily Boly.
“Jesús Vallejo is probably going because he wants to play,” Nuno said. “He’s a young and talented player who we brought here with high expectations but it didn’t work out. So it’s time for him to go and find a club so he can keep on progressing because the talent is there. We don’t have much time so we have to move forward ... The reality is he had moments that he played, moments that he performed well and some moments that he didn’t perform so well. That’s the case of Vallejo. Clearly it didn’t work out.”
