Vítor Pereira cites confidence and a game model as key to success at Wolves | OneFootball

Wolverhampton Wanderers boss Vítor Pereira took charge of his 600th match as a manager on Saturday, celebrating the occasion with a victory over Ipswich to almost guarantee safety in the Premier League.

The win means Wolves are now 12 points clear of the drop zone with seven matches remaining, marking a stark turnaround under Pereira since he took charge at Molineux with the team in trouble back in December.

When Pereira was appointed, Wolves were 5 points adrift in the relegation places. After starting with back-to-back victories after taking charge, the former Porto coach has taken 23 points from his 15 Premier League matches in charge – far more than Wolves’ relegation rivals Leicester City, Ipswich and Southampton, who have mustered a mere 16 points between them.

Goals from former Sporting man Pablo Sarabia and Norwegian striker Strand Larsen saw Wolves come from behind at half time to defeat Ipswich away from home on Saturday. Speaking after the game Wolves coach Pereira, who had José Sá, Nélson Semedo and Toti Gomes in his line-up and used Rodrigo Gomes from the bench, refused to get carried away by the win.

“Safe now? No!” Pereira told BBC. “I’ll tell you why I don’t want these conversations in my dressing room. Because I want to see my players’ ambition. I want to prepare the next game to win. And I want this spirit in my team. I’m very happy for the players, very happy for the club and the supporters, but I will finish at the end.

“What did I do [to change the game] at half time? Tactically I changed some dynamics. I will not explain because I will want to do it [again] next time and surprise them,” he laughed. “But we prepared different dynamics in the system. In the end the most important thing is I said to them ‘okay we can lose 1-0, 2-0 or 3-0 but I need to see the ambition of my team.

“I need to see increasing the pace of the ball, increase the pressing, higher pressing, don’t let them have time to think about the game, to create problems…is our life. It’s our chance to get three points. And they did it.”

Influential Brazilian forward Matheus Cunha missed the last four matches through suspension, but Wolves have managed to pick up three victories and one draw without their talisman, something which promoted Pereira to praise the adaptation to his implemented system.

“He [Cunha] is one of our important players because he has skill, he has quality. But we have a team. We are consistent now. We have an idea of how to play. We created an identity and now we are in condition to compete with every team.

“What have I changed here? Firstly, the confidence. You know a confident player is a different player. And a clear idea of how to play: a game model. Very clear since the first day, starting to create this identity. Now the players are comfortable, they are enjoying. We can change some tactical things and the team has the confidence and very good players to finish the season.”

“I hope to stay”

Finally, BBC host Gary Lineker asked Pereira if, given his positive impact on the team and popularity with supporters, he intended to make his stay in the West Midlands a more long-term project despite being in the early stages of an 18-month contract.

“I hope, because I like the club and the passion of the supporters,” Pereira said. “If we have this connection and I feel good, I hope that we can get the results to be here for a long time. But in football you never know, you don’t know what happens.

“One day in my life, I was thinking that I was coming to the Premier League, but one day after I travelled to China [and was there] for three years. Imagine. This is football.”