Wolves in USA Day 3 - Mario Lemina's proud day and West Ham preview
Wolves in USA Day 3 - Mario Lemina's proud day and West Ham preview
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00:00Hello, I'm Nathan Judah, this is Wolverhampton Wonders Reporter, it is Mr. Liam Keen. Liam,
00:14we are in Jacksonville, beautiful Jacksonville, San Marco Lake to be exact, in Florida. Early
00:21flight for us this morning. Very early. What time are we up? About 4ish? 3.40, well some
00:26of us didn't go off. Yeah, I woke up 50 minutes later than my alarm was set for, I don't know
00:31how I slept through it. A minor disaster avoided, I got up in time and I was all good. Scary
00:38though, but I made it, I'm here. And look, we're very smooth, we're here, we've checked
00:41into the hotel, West Ham United are in the hotel actually. They are, yeah, and we'll
00:44bump into Max and Julian in the lobby on the way. That'll be lovely, can't wait for that.
00:49I've taken you for your first biscuits and gravy breakfast. And we've walked probably
00:53what 5 minutes since having that and I'm struggling to walk. Yeah. Don't feel great,
00:58as much as the food was delicious, I'm stuffed. You'll need a widescreen soon for you, I think.
01:05That's bang out of order. Look, we're here, we've got a meet and greet tonight, or I have
01:10with Mr. Steve Bull, amongst others, representing Wolverhampton Wanderers. Like I say, you're
01:14going to Jaguar Stadium tonight to see Mr. Julian Lopatighi, so it's all starting to
01:21ramp up a bit ahead of tomorrow night's game. It's Wolves against West Ham and this is where
01:27things, slowly, will start to get a little bit more serious, don't they, in preparation?
01:32Yeah, definitely. I think for tomorrow's game in particular, Gary and I will be keen to
01:36sort of mix the teams up, give certain players more minutes than others, I'm sure, but with
01:41it being, what, the third friendlier pre-season, the first one in front of fans, as much as
01:47they want to be competitive, I think they're more focused on what they can do and what
01:50Wolves can do well and what they can improve on and how they can hurt West Ham. The performance
01:55and result is probably neither here nor there, really, for this first game. You want to see
01:59that progress, really, over the next few games, heading into the first game of the Premier
02:03League season. But yeah, it starts to sort of incrementally ramp up and this is the first
02:07test against Premier League opposition.
02:09Yeah, but look, it's been beamed back across into the UK, you've got some fantastic fanbaiters
02:15out here from all the different clubs, but we're looking forward to meeting the Wolves
02:18fans and, yeah, the result doesn't matter at all, of course it doesn't, but at the same
02:22time, you come up against Lopetegui, you come up against Max Killman, it'd be nice to get
02:27a little win, wouldn't it?
02:28Oh, of course it would, yeah. Look, the players would be happy to see Max, I'm sure, he only
02:32left, what, three and a half, four weeks ago, whatever it was, during Lopetegui, I'm sure
02:36there'll be plenty that'll be happy to see him, some maybe not. I'm not speaking for
02:40anyone, just saying. And at the same time, they'll want to get well over on them, get
02:45the better of them, especially the forwards going up directly against Max Killman, he's
02:49a good player, so they'll be looking for little weaknesses, things that they've noticed having
02:53played with him, especially players that have played with him for a few years, and seeing
02:57what damage they might be able to cause. Yeah, it's going to be an interesting battle.
03:02In terms of Gary O'Neill, what's he starting to look for from his players and do you think
03:06we might get any early insights from what we've seen in training and also today of where
03:12he wants to go, what he wants this team to play, whether it's a four, whether it's a
03:16three, even the things that they've been working on the training ground, he'll want to see
03:20those, I think, in a game situation. Yeah, I think, obviously we've been looking, we've
03:24been seeing quite a lot of back four work starting to form, with small nuanced changes
03:31with in-possession, out-of-possession. Don't fall in, you're going to be a bit nervous
03:36there, there's gators down there. We are quite close to the edge, to be fair. I'll be a great
03:40blooper. Absolutely superb. And yeah, I think he'll just want to start to see some of the
03:46evolution of this Wolves team, because it's not going to be revolution, because they did
03:49a lot of good things last season, it's going to be evolution of what they're doing, small
03:52things that they're tweaking, start to see that take shape in individuals as well as
03:55team shape. But that's probably going to be the most interesting thing, how they set up
04:00the partnerships, we talk about Kuno and Larsen up top, these little partnerships that start
04:05to form across the pitch and how Wolves are going to play and the different formations
04:08and different positions the players are going to be starting to adopt. But I think it's
04:14going to be more tallying by Leipzig, probably, for example on this trip, and obviously Ray
04:19Vallecano the week before the league starts. And they'll be let out, hopefully if he starts,
04:24by a new club captain. Yes, they certainly will. I'm expecting he probably will start,
04:27I think that probably makes sense. Mario Lamina. Super Mario. Super Mario. We expected it,
04:32I think he was both our choices as well for captain. Last season as well. Well, last season
04:39you said Dawson and I said Lamina from the very beginning. Oh my god, don't believe him.
04:43You hate it when I remind you of that. It's interesting how you've changed tact now. Rewind,
04:48rewind. But yes, I think it's the smart decision. Speaking to Gary about it, obviously the story
04:54came out this morning, or this afternoon for UK fans, is that he's in the right position
05:00in his career. He's 30 years old now, he's matured, he's performing brilliantly for Wolves,
05:05which I think is a major part of it as well. And he's now at that stage of his career to
05:09take that extra leap, that extra jump, that extra responsibility. And he's a big lead
05:14in the dressing room. He'll be helped as well by Dawson, Samedo, Sarabia, Dan Bentley's
05:19a big part of the dressing room. So yes, there'll be players that certainly add to that. Yes,
05:23big lead in the dressing room, but he's got that confidence in his own ability and his
05:27own aspirations and what he can achieve here as a captain. I think that's important because
05:33outwardly as well as inwardly, you need to be a leader, don't you, I think? Especially
05:36on that pitch.
05:37I mean, you read his quotes from the story, he's definitely not lacking in confidence.
05:42But I don't mind that. I don't mind that at all. In some ways it's warranted, in many
05:46ways it's warranted, because of how well he's played in the Wolves shirt. He supported his
05:50player of the season last year and he carried the club through plenty of games, scored some
05:55important goals. Not just the timing of the goals, but the fact that they go on to win
06:00points from those games as well. And obviously Spurs at home is a big one. So yes, he should
06:06have confidence, but you also want your leader to have confidence as well. You want them
06:08just to be, in my opinion, that big character, that sort of stereotypical leader and he's
06:13definitely that.
06:14Yes, West Ham, decent opposition as well. They've spent a lot of money and they've got
06:18some quality players.
06:19Absolutely. We were talking about it on the way over to Jacksonville, weren't we? Just
06:24listing some of the attacking players they've got. And then you add Kilman to that, who
06:27I think is an excellent player. So West Ham are going to be good this season. I think
06:32Lopetegui is an excellent manager. I think they've got a really good squad. I would hedge
06:37my bets. And Gary sort of hinted at this to say that he wants Wolves to show in this running
06:41that we can compete with the likes of West Ham. But I would hedge my bets to say they'll
06:45do really well this season. So come back to this when they're in trouble. So it will be
06:52a tough game, absolutely. But it's an opportunity for Wolves to measure themselves against the
06:55Premier League side, see where they're at in their preparations. And then you work on
06:58more things going into the Palace game. Then you learn more things again about the team
07:02going into the Leipzig game. And it works like that as you creep closer to away at Arsenal.
07:07And we will be bringing you full coverage of that game, it is Wolves against West Ham
07:10United. Live blogs, post-match reaction, pre-match analysis, match report, fans videos. If I
07:21was going to see all that, if I was going to watch all that, if I was going to read
07:23all that, what would you do? It's quite easy actually. Go on. Hit me. You go to expressonstar.com.
07:31You find the subscription page. Oh yes. And there is a £2 offer. What? £2. Wow. Six
07:37pence a day. Wow. For 31 days? For 31 days, yeah. That's right, isn't it? I think so.
07:44Might be closer to that. Who knows. To cover the whole of the rest of this tour going into
07:48as well August when the season starts. And we've hinted a couple of times, we won't say
07:52what it is, but there's a couple of things coming as well which will be important to
07:56keep an eye out for. So yeah, definitely jump on that offer. £2, six pence a day. We'll
08:02see you at the stadium. Everbank Stadium. Tomorrow night baby. We'll see you there.