LOPETEGUI’S CLEAN-SHEET TREAT IS FOOD FOR THOUGHT

JULEN LOPETEGUI has revealed he treats his players to a special slap-up lunch after every clean sheet. The Wolves coach, appointed in November, has shelled out twice this year after shut-outs against West Ham and Liverpool.

It was a tactic Claudio Ranieri (right) employed when he offered his Leicester players a pizza for their first clean sheet en-route to their 2016 Premier League triumph. But Lopetegui (left), who owns a restaurant back home in Spain, insists his incentive is much more expensive.

It has helped Wolves climb to 15th after he again dug deep this week ahead of today’s trip to bottom club Southampton.

He said: “It’s a good investment, the best I’ve made ever. It was good food of course, we had a lunch with a team environment to be close to one another. It was more expensive than pizza.

“In one match we play one line-up and important players are out but in the next match they could be the main actors, which is why it’s important to highlight the team environment.

“We’re going to need a lot of this spirit inside the dressing room. I believe a lot in this situation and in the intangibles in football. Of course it can help the new signings to be involved as soon as possible too.”

Wolves have seven points from last four league games, their only loss in that run coming at champions Manchester City.

They put Liverpool to the sword last weekend in an emphatic 3-0 win.

New boys Craig Dawson, Matheus Cunha, Mario Lemina and Pablo Sarabia started the game. But Lopetegui insists that counts for nothing today. He said: “We finished the Liverpool match thinking about Southampton. The Liverpool match is history.”