Wolverhampton Wanderers boss Vitor Pereira felt half-time tactical changes were key to his side coming from a goal down to beat the Blues 2-1 at Portman Road.

Liam Delap gave Town the lead on 16, but goals from sub Pablo Sarabia on 72 and Jorgen Strand Larsen 12 minutes later saw the visitors to a win which moved them 12 points ahead of their opponents with seven games to play, almost certainly securing their Premier League status at the expense of the Blues, who now seem certain to be playing Championship football next season.

“I’m very happy for the players, for the club, and especially for the supporters,” the Portuguese, who watched the game from the stands due to a touchline ban. “First half was not the way that we prepared. We prepared to try to win. We created two or three chances to score, but the pace and the pressing was not what I asked.

“Half-time we changed tactically and we started to create problems, to control what we did, and had better quality in possession, better movements, a little bit higher to press, and we created chances to score two goals, and I think we deserved to win the game.

“We have very good players, and we are proving that we have the true spirit of a team, playing as a team. As I said in the beginning, when we started our work, firstly, create that identity, and after be consistent, better and better and better. And I think, this is my opinion, we deserved this result.”

Regarding the impact of Spanish international Sarabia, who assisted Strand Larsen’s goal as well as scoring the equaliser, Pereira added: “That's what I asked in conversations with them [the subs]. Today, we needed to show how committed we are, everybody.

“We needed to show that we are a team, and the players on the bench, if they came on for five minutes, they must show the spirit and they did.

“In that time of the game we needed someone with the last pass, the quality to assist, to create, to receive the ball in the right position, to move into the right position, to make the crosses inside, because this is another thing that is difficult to control.

“In the end he did very well. Rodrigo also. The players from the bench, I think they played very well.”

On Strand Larsen, he said: “If you look at the game, Larsen is getting better because he’s more adapted to the Premier League because of his work.

“Now [Marshall] Munetsi is playing close to him, creating spaces, attacking spaces every time, supporting the first ball. What we felt before was that when Larsen receives the first ball, the man close to him to support this ball was not there.

“Now they have a physical player that runs a lot, creating spaces every time in the box with him. It means that when the cross comes, the markers a lot of time go with Munetsi and Larsen is free to finish, and this is teamwork.”

Pereira also had praise for his two Brazilian international midfielders: “Very good again, Joao Gomes and Andre in the middle. They are playing a lot with different qualities.

“Joao, you must give him freedom to play, to go in between the lines of the box. Andre is more a six, a play-maker that can connect the sections, can connect the defenders with midfielders, with attack. And I'm very happy with them.”

TWTD

algy added 21:45 - Apr 5 Disgraceful. Changing tactics at half time at Portman Road is not allowed! Very underhand behaviour.
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ArnieM added 08:29 - Apr 6 As every opposition manager has done against us this season. "Changed their tactics", and Mckenna has failed to respond. Changing tactics is NOT replacing tired legs with fresh legs across the frontline on 80 minutes. Mckenna is / has displaced a lack tactical awareness all season.
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atty added 10:10 - Apr 6 ….and we had no answe. How much time were thier players allowed on the ball especially Gomes and Felix. That number 3 had the freedom of that left wing.
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TimmyH added 12:30 - Apr 6 Have to agree with ArnieM on this one...not sure if McK has been up to it tactically either, continually playing a 4-2-3-1 at home, we've had very little success on the wings and substitutions have made very little impact...of course there are other reasons as well being the mixed recruitment (at best).
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Gforce added 15:12 - Apr 6 I thought Wolves looked a very good side yesterday, very skilled in certain areas. Just goes to show what a poor manager O'Neil was,when he said he'd taken the side as far as he could.
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Town1Inter0 added 06:12 - Apr 7 I told a mate of mine that we’d be vulnerable to their tactical changes and substitutions. It was obvious what was going to happen. What was also obvious was that Davis as a sub wasn’t going to be as regimented with the rest of the back 4 as Townsend, nor was he going to stay as alert to the threat in his LB position.
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