04 February 2022

Bruno Lage admits winning the FA Cup with Wolves would be ‘hard’

04 February 2022

Bruno Lage believes ending Wolves’ FA Cup drought is easier said than done.

They host Norwich in the fourth round on Saturday having not won the competition since 1960.

Wanderers blew a 2-0 lead with 11 minutes to go to lose 3-2 in extra time to Watford in their 2019 semi-final.

It is the closest Wolves have come in the last 62 years and, with just three winners coming from outside the traditional top six in the last 20 years, Lage recognises the challenge.

Wolves boss Lage said: “It is football, history and the process of clubs. With Nuno they had four amazing years and now it’s about us to do our best. We can do that day by day, we cannot see three months ahead.

“To win competitions with Wolves, especially here when you have the best teams in the world, it’s hard. The only thing we can control is our work.

“The players have been working (well) since the first day. We had two or three good performance against Leicester, United and Tottenham and we didn’t win any points but I was confident.

“I was confident I would see the team grow up. That is the only thing we control in this job, the way we work. After that good things will come because we need time to work.

“The team has the consistency and personality to play the way we want.”

Romain Saiss has returned from international duty with Morocco but will be given the weekend off while Raul Jimenez is expected to be available after Mexico duty and shrugging off a calf injury.

Yerson Mosquera (hamstring), Pedro Neto (knee), Jonny (knee) and Hwang Hee-chan (hamstring) remain out.

Lage won manager of the month for January after three wins in the Premier League, including a 1-0 victory at Manchester United.

He added: “I’m proud to receive the award, it comes from January but also what we did in December. We were consistent and I asked them to do it again and January was very good.

“We came with the personality I want, we started the year very well with the win at Old Trafford. What is more important is, in the end, I’m not just the manager of the month but the manager of every day and the right man for the players.

“I want to be the manager of the day for my chairman, the players, the staff and the fans. The work is like that. I am very proud but we need the character to continue to work hard.”

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