'This will be an intense week for Pereira'published at 14:17 BST 17 September
Mike Taylor
BBC Radio WM reporter
Image source, Getty Images"I don't believe in words," said Vitor Pereira, looking for the right ones to explain how he would pull Wolves up from their bad start.
"In football, you increase the level if you work on the pitch with the players."
Perhaps the most important week of the season for Wolves will be one in which we don't see the players until the end of it.
After four games without a point, there is a great deal of work to be done. Whatever other problems his team has, the evidence of those games is that Pereira's players have the appetite to do it. They are, by common consent, doing their best.
On Saturday night, Pereira was eager to get on with that work.
"Next week will be the first week that we work together as a squad to prepare for a match. It's the first week that I will have chance to go on the pitch, to show them, to work, repetition after repetition, on the pitch and not in videos or with words. I believe football is not about words, it's about work."
Quite - although such problems are not unique to Wolves.
Just as clubs have been building up their analysis teams to examine every step they and their opponents take, the time available to act on the findings - at least in the traditional, boots-on-the-training-ground way - seems more limited than ever.
Some 15 members of Pereira's squad were away with national teams during the break, a club record number, and many travelled long distances.
He explained: "In the end, we prepared this game against Newcastle with eight players and academy players."
He did nevertheless try some new things. Ladislav Krejci started his first game in midfield, marking a change of shape, and later moved into the back three, looking adept in both roles.
Most eye-catching was the switch of the wing-backs – Hugo Bueno and Rodrigo Gomes having been two of the eight at home – and both were among the brighter Wolves performers. "Tactically and strategically, we worked the last two weeks with Hugo and Rodrigo, to play with opposite foot… and I think that was a good decision," said Pereira.
Pereira, a former teacher, will have confidence that his instruction will help his team to improve. By his own account, this will be an intense week.
If his efforts have not resulted in Wolves moving off zero after they play Leeds, the belief among the supporters that the team is good enough to at least stay in the Premier League will be under even greater strain.
And tune into The West Midlands Football Phone-In from 18:00 on weeknights
