Bruno Lage is still irritated by the manner of Wolves’ 2-0 home defeat against Crystal Palace as he insisted his side “cannot be afraid to play” ahead of the visit of Watford.

Jean-Philippe Mateta opened the scoring for Palace on Saturday while Wilfried Zaha added a penalty before half-time as Wolves crashed to a third successive loss since reaching the 40-point barrier in the Premier League.

Lage believes Wolves were much improved after the interval at Molineux but he remains disappointed at their first-half performance levels and demanded a response against the Hornets on Thursday evening.

“It’s not about the defeat, it’s about the way we play our game,” the Portuguese said. “We need to find our style to play which works for our players.

“We didn’t play the first 45 minutes, we tried long balls against Crystal Palace, in three or four touches we lose the ball.

“We didn’t dominate with the ball or without the ball, we gave them 45 minutes without being aggressive.

“In the second half we created at least six good chances to score a goal and change the game, we were more aggressive.

“We cannot be afraid to play. I don’t want anyone comfortable with 40 points. But I want us to have confidence to continue to play our game with the ball with no fear.”

Watford are currently 19th in the standings and six weeks ago appointed Roy Hodgson to lead their bid for safety, with the former England boss taking five points from his first seven games at the helm, including three clean sheets.

Hodgson will be given a warm welcome in the midlands by Lage, who will nevertheless attempt to add to Watford’s troubles.

“Not Roy, Sir Roy!” Lage said. “What a pleasure I will have to meet him. For sure it will be a big pleasure to meet Sir Roy but after that it will be 90 minutes when we need to be the team that we are being to win the game.”

Lage will be without right-backs Nelson Semedo and Ki-Jana Hoever but winger Pedro Neto could be involved again after making his first start this season against Palace last weekend.

The Portuguese, who had 10 months on the sidelines because of knee injury, celebrated his 22nd birthday on Wednesday by putting pen to paper on a long-term contract that runs until 2027.

“We want to keep our best players to build a strong team,” Lage added. “Pedro is one of our best players and I’m happy because it is his birthday, he has recovered, he has some minutes and he’s renewed his contract.”

Neto joined Wolves in August 2019 from Portuguese outfit Braga and has gone on to score 10 times in 83 games in all competitions for the midlands club.

He was named Wolves’ player of the season in 2020-21 and, while his campaign was curtailed last April because of a broken kneecap and he spent several months on the sidelines, he is now back among the first-team ranks.

Neto said on the club’s website: “I want to work a lot to conquer things with this club because we have the potential to do this kind of stuff. We are working better and better, and I hope to conquer things.”