BRUNO’S ANGER
Wolves boss questions desire after Brighton rout
WOLVES head coach Bruno Lage seemed to question the commitment of his players after they crashed to the heaviest defeat of his reign to leave their hopes of qualifying for Europe dangling by the flimsiest thread.
Brighton were utterly dominant against Lage’s side, who have now lost three in a row without scoring, and have been beaten in four of their last five games.
‘I need to understand who wants to go to war and continue to put the club at a different level because it’s not enough for anyone else to relax,’ Lage said. ‘I need to smell it if the guys want to continue to put the club at a different level.
‘We’re in eighth position and we try to do better. To improve we need to have a plan and we need to convince the right players with the right personality to increase the level of the team.
‘We didn’t learn anything, we just watched Brighton play.’
Nine months into the season, Lage appeared to suggest he needs the players to buy into his way of playing.
‘It’s the need to see the players want to play my game — no one is here to play by himself, or just for himself,’ he insisted.
Brighton manager Graham Potter is looking to better his club’s highest points tally in the top flight.
‘It’s 44 points which is our record then we have nine points to play for so I’m really proud of the players,’ he said. ‘Now we need to finish as strongly as we can and get as close to nine as we can.’ Potter also thought it might have been Brighton’s most complete performance this season.
‘In some ways yes, just out of respect for Wolves and how hard it is to score against them. We were dominant, which isn’t easy.’
All the pre-match talk surrounded the return of Wolves’ main man Ruben Neves — but another midfielder, Brighton’s Alexis Mac Allister, helped settle this game in the battle for the ‘best of the rest’. Mac Allister kept his nerve to open the scoring from the spot in the 42nd minute, after his first penalty nine minutes earlier had hit a post.
Leandro Trossard and Yves Bissouma gave Graham Potter’s far superior side the extra goals they deserved after Wolves goalkeeper Jose Sa had made several saves to keep his team in contention.
Such an emphatic victory was no more than the Seagulls deserved. Wolves failed to produce an effort on target until the 85th minute.
Sa denied Enock Mwepu twice and Danny Welbeck before
Brighton won their first penalty, awarded after referee Simon Hooper was invited to view the pitchside monitor by VAR when Solly March’s cross caught the left forearm of Romain Saiss. But Mac Allister’s kick struck Sa’s post and bounced harmlessly away.
Nine minutes after winning their first penalty, Brighton won a second spot-kick when Willy Boly tripped and caught Welbeck.
Bissouma wanted to take it, but Mac Allister insisted it was his and despatched his kick to the same side, this time the ball flying inside the post and the Argentinian mid
fielder celebrated lustily. Raul Jimenez and Pedro Neto came on at half-time for Wolves but it made little difference as Brighton continued to threaten more goals in the second half.
Moises Caicedo’s close-range effort forced Sa to save low down to his right, before Mac Allister’s deflected drive was held by the goalkeeper.
Trossard made it 2-0 when Jimenez lost the ball upfield and Brighton broke, the forward cutting inside after turning Conor Coady before firing home.
Willy Boly had Wolves’ only effort on target with a weak header straight at Robert Sanchez after Neto’s shot had been blocked.
Bissouma rubbed salt into Wolves’ wounds in the 86th minute with a low drive from 22 yards that evaded Sa after Coady dived to head away Marc Cucurella’s cross.
Pedro Neto hit the post with just about the last kick but a consolation would have been generous for sorry Wolves.