GARY O’NEIL: EVERTON V WOLVES PRESS CONFERENCE

Quick team news update if possible. Is everyone okay after the weekend?

Yeah, everyone’s fine, no issues. That’s good, especially going into a busy week. We’ve got till Monday for the following game, but it’s a free game week. It’s important that we keep the squad as strong as possible. At the moment, everyone’s fine, everyone trained today and is looking forward to tomorrow’s challenge. It was a difficult weekend, as we know.

What’s the attitude of your players been like the last couple of days, and how have they responded to any critique of their performance?

It’s been the same as always. We learned from the review and the debrief that we always do. The process we go through helps us learn a lot, and they’re ready to respond, as they always are. We understand that we will have tough games in the Premier League.

We didn’t expect Saturday to go how it did. We played a big part in our own downfall early in the game. When I watched it back, there were some good moments, but the score was already 3-1, and the game got away from us. But they have responded very well, and they’re ready to go to Everton.

It’s a completely different type of test, and one that we’re looking forward to.

You’ve heard some supporters are angry with the current situation; some of that has been aimed at you. What’s your message for anyone doubting your position?

I don’t have a message. I have 90 minutes each week to deliver our message, so no message to the supporters. The players love the relationship they’ve built with them over the last year, and they need their support, of course. We understand there will be tough moments, and we’re trying to limit them for the fans.

We do our best to ensure they can enjoy every game we play. But given where we are in the table and how the game went at the weekend, of course there’s disappointment from the supporters, which we accept and understand. From my point of view, that’s just part of what we’re trying to do, and we’re always ready to move on to the next game.

Everton tomorrow, of course—a big one. They’re not far above you in the table. Sean Dyche has received backing from the board today. I wonder if you’ve had any reassurances from your own bosses?

I don’t need any. I’m not interested in reassurances; I focus on the next game and will do until someone tells me not to. That next game is Everton.

It’s early in the season to say it’s massive, but it does feel like a big game tomorrow. What do you think of them and the challenge they pose?

Every game we go into feels big at this moment. There will be reasons around it, noise about me, the team, relegation, and the direction of the club for every game we play. Tomorrow is no different. It’s a game we need to approach and try to get something from. Our current league position isn’t where we want to be, but we’re still in touching distance of many teams above us.

We come off the back of a four-game unbeaten run, two wins on the bounce that could change our outlook. There’s no reason we can’t start another run tomorrow night.

You won’t have Nelson Semedo tomorrow due to that yellow card at the weekend. He feels hard done by. What are your thoughts on that situation?

Nelson was not clapping the referee’s decision, but it was interpreted that way. There’s not much we can do about it.

Of course, you can’t win them all with yellow cards. Nelson insists he wasn’t clapping sarcastically at any decision made. He received a yellow card, so he misses this game. We’ve had a few players walking that four-yellow-card tightrope for a while. Nelson misses this one, but the lads are ready to step in. We have a strong enough group prepared to go to Everton tomorrow and put on a display that earns us points.

You and Sean Dyche have been doing this long enough. Do you think the people least worried about all the talk and pressure are you and him?

I don’t know. Sean’s been doing it a lot longer than me. But I can only speak for myself. I don’t know if you believe me because I get asked this every press conference, but I have zero concerns about my role and future as a coach.

I understand the journey I’m on. I know how hard I work. I know every detail of the situation at the Football Club, which I’ve been dealing with for the last 15 months. I’m comfortable with the work I do. Do I need results to improve? Of course. But there are many factors at play. I’m very comfortable with my situation, and I don’t need it to be discussed. I understand how the game works; results will decide how long I stay at Wolverhampton Wanderers.

I accept the consequences of every decision I make. I accept responsibility for everything that happens at the Football Club. At this moment, we haven’t managed to reach the level we want. We’re probably not too far away from it. If we could add some good results quickly, like we did recently, the table would look very different. The situation would change too. Inside the playing group, we don’t overreact to results.

I bumped into a few people after Fulham who started talking to me about the European charge again. Then I met a few after Bournemouth, and it was like a huge setback. We lost that game against a good side. We didn’t want to lose it, but now we have to respond to Everton. So we try to keep it level. We know we need to improve our position in the table.

You’re quite analytical. When you look back at that game after back-to-back wins, can you pinpoint what went wrong on Saturday?

Crazy errors at key stages of the match. The first goal was something we’d worked on. I even mentioned it in my press conference about Marcos Senesi and what he does with the ball. To be punished like that early on gave us a setback. We managed to bounce back but then gave away two penalties—one by passing to their forward and another by passing to our goalkeeper who got tackled.

That can’t happen in Premier League games. Bournemouth didn’t do much else. We gave them those chances, and the game was done. With the emotion inside the stadium and within the group at that stage, all the good phases we produced are forgotten because everything needs to be perfect from that moment. Once you’re 3-0 down, everything needs to be perfect to give you a chance. It’s disappointing we gave them those early chances.

But we understand how and why we did it. We’re trying to improve both the individuals involved and the group’s understanding to make sure it happens less frequently.

You said you back José Sá after everything that happened on Saturday, particularly with the crowd. But as a manager, is it in his best interests? Is it just his job?

Yes, it is our job. José Sá is a good human being. He won’t jump into the crowd for nothing. Of course, I’d rather he stayed on the pitch, and he knows that too.

Sometimes, in the heat of the moment, decisions are made. José needs our support in those situations. It’s not nice for him or the people in the crowd. José understands my thoughts about it on a personal level. But I stand by the fact that he has my full support in any difficult situation. Just one more thing from me:

Strand-Larsen’s goals and the way he played were a huge positive. What have you said to him going into this game? Just more of the same?

I think it was one of his best performances for us. He looked like a handful in the Newcastle game at home and in the Bournemouth game too. We’re still pushing him to be consistently strong. That was a big improvement from him performance-wise. His numbers are excellent for a new striker in this league. Coming from Spain and hitting the ground running with his goals and assists is a big plus for us and him. It’s not easy to do.

I saw an improvement in his all-round game, which is important. His relationship with Matheus is developing, and we’re trying to utilise his strengths better. Sometimes, when we’ve gone into him directly, he’s found it tough against certain centre-backs. But he was much better against Bournemouth when we used longer balls. He did well against their centre-backs, getting hold of it and running into channels. So that was a good performance, and we’re going to need him. He’s a very important player for us.

On Jorgen, that’s two games in a row where he’s managed to get through 90 minutes and was still running hard at the end. You’ve got two more games quite close together. Can he manage that now?

He’s in a much better spot physically, which helps him show what he can do. It’s no coincidence that this was one of his best performances for us. He was able to last the game. I’m pleased for him because he’s working hard at it.

It’s a step up in level. He’s doing more high-speed running and overall distance than he did at his former club. That’s the demand of the Premier League. The fantastic thing for him is that even when he wasn’t at top speed, he produced big moments for the team. If we can get both aspects going at the same time, he can really help us.

You’ve had a few games this season where early mistakes snowballed. If a mistake is a bad challenge, what can you do about that? That would be maddening, really.

None of those errors in the first half were what we worked on that week? No, but they are my responsibility. I’d never sit here and call out individual players for their errors. I’m responsible for all of them. Of course, they understand there’s an expectation to do better, but my role in how they got there is important. It’s how we went from the week’s work to losing the game within 17 minutes when Bournemouth delivered exactly what we expected.

We found a way to self-destruct within it. Players will make errors, but we’re making too many in key areas right now. Over the season, we had a better spell against Southampton and Fulham but still made two big errors at Brighton that led to goals. A cheap giveaway on the second goal and a poor kick for the first goal. We’re costing ourselves too many goals with errors, and that has to improve. It’s no coincidence that the teams making the most errors are down at the bottom, while those making the least are at the top.

Those errors significantly impact what you can achieve. I push the players every day to improve, and they buy into everything we ask. We just need to see the results of our work in the Premier League on the big stage.

Is this about controlling emotions? Players can make mistakes, but it needs to stop there and not snowball into more. It felt like that at times.

With the areas where mistakes happen, we can all make errors, but we can’t pass to their centre-forward twice. That’s not just a mistake; it’s catastrophic. If you pass to their centre-forward twice in the penalty area in a Premier League game, you have basically a 0% chance of winning. Mistakes are fine, but we can’t make such catastrophic errors in those areas because it makes it impossible for us to win.

We show quality and have fantastic phases of play. The quality we have should make a difference. At the moment, we’re having to use our quality just to fight back. Recently, against Southampton, we were solid. There were no catastrophic errors, and our quality made the difference. Against Bournemouth, we had to fight with every bit of quality just to give ourselves a chance of getting back in the game. We need a more solid base and far fewer errors in crucial areas of the pitch. That will allow our quality and style of play to influence the result.