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.
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.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.”