Paul Lambert: Wolves boss says German mentality can help relegation fight

The high point of Paul Lambert's four months at Molineux was Wolves' FA Cup fourth-round win over Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool

Wolves head coach Paul Lambert says that the strong mindset he still possesses from his time in Germany can help to inspire the Championship club in their bid to escape relegation.

Saturday's loss at Reading left Wolves one point above the relegation zone.

But Lambert told BBC WM: "I won't let this place feel negative or down.

"The players are in the same mindset," said Lambert, 47, who won the European Cup with Borussia Dortmund in 1997 then did his coaching badges in Germany.

"I played in Germany. I know to handle different things. And I tend to fall back on that mentality.

"My mindset's different from most," admits the ex-Livingston, Wycombe, Colchester, Norwich, Aston Villa and Blackburn boss. "My whole outlook changed when I went over to Germany. And I don't intend to let it go.

"There's a time to laugh and a time to be serious and a time to be level headed.

"The big moments in games have gone against us. But you just concentrate on getting to the end of the season with as many points as you can."

McCarthy's men next for Wolves

Wolves go into Tuesday's trip to former Wolves boss Mick McCarthy's Ipswich Town on the back of a six-game losing run.

Since winning at Barnsley on 31 January, just three days after their FA Cup fourth-round win over Liverpool at Anfield, Wolves have lost five successive Championship games.

But the wily McCarthy is not fooled, admitting that the reports he has had on Wolves are that the luckless Molineux men are not getting the points their performances deserve.

"It looked like Paul had them going and that they were going to be a force," McCarthy told BBC Radio Suffolk. "But I think they've actually been playing better than their results will testify to.

"I know they played very well on Saturday at Reading and were unfortunate to lose. But it doesn't really matter you how you play. It's about results and the same applies to us too."

Mick McCarthy was Wolves manager when he first encountered Paul Lambert, then boss of Ipswich's rivals Norwich City, in the Premier League, in December 2011

Molineux history now for McCarthy

Now into his fifth year as Ipswich Town manager, McCarthy has just passed the fifth anniversary of his exit as Wolves manager.

Although he has generally happy memories of his time at Molineux, capped by leading Wolves to the Premier League in 2009, he still wonders about what might have been.

"It's all history now but I loved my time there," the 58-year-old added. "I have no resentment at the way it all ended. If you get the sack, it never ends up as you wish. But I still don't think we'd have gone down. We'd been in that position before in the bottom three and stayed up. We'd got enough games to get out of it.

"It wasn't like the dressing room was against me. It wasn't like Leicester. They sacked the manager, then suddenly win two games and look brilliant.

"Poor TC (Terry Connor - now McCarthy's coach again at Ipswich) was left on his own. And I'm sure we were better together than we were individually."