Cesar Peixoto wants his Wolves players to learn from the team’s mistakes in recent games to ensure they are at their best when travelling to face Sheffield United at Bramall Lane on Sunday afternoon.
After an unbeaten August, which saw the head coach nominated for the Championship Manager of the Month award, Wolves have taken just one point from their last two outings against West Ham United and Birmingham City - while also conceding six times.
But Peixoto, who revealed Kieran Trippier could be involved for the first time since the opening game of the season, insists his players are aware of what they need to improve and have been hard at work on the training pitch so they can get back to winning ways this weekend.
On team news ahead of Sunday
“Kieran Trippier has started training, but he’s not ready to start the game. We want to see if he’s able to come with us and maybe take some minutes. Bertrand [Traore] also needs time to get fit because he’s been working alone, which is very different to training with the team.
“JJ Bellegarde is now into his second week with us and is getting better. He can be an option for the game, but only for a few minutes because we have to be careful and make sure he doesn’t go backwards with the injury. Yerson Mosquera and Rafiki [Said] are still out but they are progressing.
“Said is closer and I think next week he’ll start to do some things with us, but Yerson needs more time. He’s further behind in his recovery and isn’t training with the team yet.”
Welcome back 🙌 pic.twitter.com/i6iH4Tm2DX
— Wolves (@Wolves) September 10, 2026
On giving injured players time to recover
“I want to rush them, but the medical department won’t let me! Of course, if we have everybody together, we’re stronger. We have more options and more quality for the games.
“But it’s better to be calm and make sure they don’t suffer another setback. I want to go faster, but sometimes, even though I’m the boss, I have to respect the other departments too.”
On bouncing back from last weekend
“I didn’t like the second half. In the first half, I think we managed the game well, we created chances and scored one goal, and Rodrigo also had a chance when he went through one-on-one with the goalkeeper. After we conceded the second goal, the team became a little more unstable.
“At half-time, we tried to speak to the players and put them in the right mentality for the second half, but Birmingham are a difficult team because of the way they play. They have free-kicks from deep positions, they kick the ball long, they’re tall and physically very strong, but we have to learn how to manage games like that differently.
“When the opposition plays long, we have to close the block much quicker and be ready to compete for the first and second balls, we also have to be stronger in the duels and sometimes make more fouls, because there were moments when it was too easy for them to push us backwards.
“Those are three things we need to improve, and the players understand that. We’ve shown them the images, worked on it during the week, and I’m sure we’ll be stronger in the next game.”
Putting the work in for Sunday 💪 pic.twitter.com/yiqXZQKqYE
— Wolves (@Wolves) September 11, 2026
On shoring up the defence
“We have to attack while thinking about defending at the same time. If you look at some of the goals we’ve conceded, there have been a lot of very good strikes from around the edge of the box. Against Preston there was one, against Stoke there was one, and against West Ham there were two situations like that.
“We can defend some of those moments better, we have to close the ball down faster around the edge of the box, but it isn’t always because the team is disorganised or doesn’t know what to do. Some of the goals have just been amazing goals. West Ham’s first goal was very difficult to defend and their third had some luck because the ball took a deflection and changed direction.
“We’ve also conceded a penalty and Jackson made an individual mistake, but those things can happen in football. We’ve conceded ten goals and we need to improve, but it doesn’t mean the team is always unbalanced or that our defensive organisation isn’t good.
“We need to improve the little details; when the opposition kicks long, we have to close the block more quickly, keep the lines closer together and be more compact, but some of the goals we’ve conceded have also been very difficult to defend because they were great goals.”
On learning from Birmingham draw
“It’s a game we can learn from. It was the same after Blackburn, I said then that we had to learn from that game, and we improved. Now it’s the same with Birmingham. Our goalkeeper can help us manage those moments better too, when he gets the ball, sometimes we don’t need to play quickly, we can slow the game down, wait, and try to bring the game back into our way instead of playing at the rhythm the opposition wants.
“Sometimes, if the space is there, we can play quickly, at other moments, we have to understand that we need to compete for the second ball and keep the team compact. We have to learn, but the second goal wasn’t good for us mentally.
“In the second half, I don’t think we understood well enough how to manage the game – when to slow it down, when to build from the back and when to find the space. Birmingham went man-to-man with a lot of intensity and aggression. They were also a very tall, physical team and we’re going to face more games like this in the Championship, so we have to learn and be ready.”
