Bruno Lage impressed with Raul Jimenez’s return from fractured skull

The striker has played the full 90 minutes in Wolves’ opening defeats to Leicester and Tottenham.

Nick Mashiter
Saturday 28 August 2021 14:06 BST
Wolves’ Raul Jimenez has made his return from a fractured skull (David Davies/PA)
Wolves’ Raul Jimenez has made his return from a fractured skull (David Davies/PA) (PA Wire)

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Raul Jimenez has already proved he will return to his best, according to Wolves boss Bruno Lage.

The striker has made his Premier League comeback after fracturing his skull against Arsenal in November.

He has played the full 90 minutes in Wolves’ opening defeats to Leicester and Tottenham.

The Mexico international has made a successful return from his life-threatening injury and, ahead of Sunday’s visit of Manchester United Lage believes Jimenez has shown he will hit the heights again.

“For me, it’s been very good. The way he worked for the team, the chances he created for us,” he said, with the 30-year-old having scored 21 goals in 50 top-flight appearances.

“We saw two or three good chances against Tottenham, and I see the way he works in training, the chances he creates, the goals he scored in the training – Raul is already there.

“He did a long pathway. First the recovery, then to start training and after to arrive with the right mentality. I just worked with him in the last phase, when he was ready to play and he did very well in these first games.”

Wolves have had 42 shots in their opening two Premier League games but slipped to successive 1-0 defeats to the Foxes and Spurs.

Only nine have been on target but Lage, who saw his side beat Nottingham Forest 4-0 in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday, expects the goals to come.

He said: “Every game is an opportunity to do that. After these two games against two good opponents, Leicester and Tottenham, we are confident about the way we play, but we are unhappy because we created a lot of chances and we didn’t score and there were no points for us.

“But this is how we work. We need to continue to play like that, to create a lot of chances, because the way we create chances, we will score more goals. My way to play, my way to work, my philosophy is to do that.

“We need to create chances. We have our idea of how we want to play, see what happened in the last game, try to improve every day. Every day is training to grow up as a player and also as a team.

“Every day, that’s what I say to my players. We are an attacking team, we need to create chances and I’m sure the goals will come.”

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