Puel Calls For Improvement After Wolves Defeat
- Leicester City must learn to maintain their quality throughout the full 90 minutes, according to manager Claude Puel
- City were defeated 4-3 in injury time by Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday
- Puel wants his side to address their inconsistency during games
Two early goals from Diogo Jota and Ryan Bennett handed the hosts a 2-0 advantage, but a brilliant start to the second period saw Demarai Gray halve the deficit before a deflected effort from Harvey Barnes made it 2-2.
After Jota had struck on 64 minutes, captain Wes Morgan levelled matters with just three minutes to play, but Wolves claimed all three points in injury time as Jota completed his hat-trick.
“We have had a difficult game, but interesting also,” said the manager. “We had a different feeling – positive and negative. Negative first, as we conceded two goals in the first 15 minutes. It’s crazy, and not the first time.
“We had to come back in the game and we had a good collective reaction after the second goal with good chances, good play, good quality in the game without maintaining the good quality all the time. With poor starts sometimes, without good moves at the end of the first half.”
Puel underlined an improvement in City’s performance after the interval, but he believes they should have seen the game out after twice coming from behind.
“It was a shame because we felt the pressure on this team,” he continued. “We came back in the second half with another spirit and quality. We found the draw and it was a fantastic feeling at the time. We had some difficulty in continuing the pressing, to maintain this physical level.
“We conceded a third goal that we could prevent. We had the happiness to come back three times in the game, and it was a fantastic feeling – positive attitude but we didn’t manage our game at the end.
“We had to keep our structure, our position, a good togetherness, to waste some time and finish this game with a draw for a fantastic feeling altogether. We were naïve, naïve to want to give intensity to the game and we conceded four goals away after all this emotion in counter-attacks. It’s not possible. We have to improve.”
With fixtures against Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur next up for the Foxes, Puel says his side must correct their inconsistency in games.
Puel added: “For the moment it’s a big disappointment and there is a negative emotion and big frustration. A lot of positive things to learn, correct and improve. We showed our quality – it’s encouraging about this.
“We need now to find the spirit and positive attitude in our play for all the game, with consistency game after game. We cannot play up and down in the same game like this.
“It’s a big frustration, big disappointment at the moment but success for the future because we showed a lot of quality. It’s a shame to finish with this disappointment at the end.”