Calm at Wolves despite five straight league defeats

There is calm beneath the chaos of results at Wolves, despite the worst start to a league season in their history.

Four straight defeats to open the campaign had raised the anxiety levels, supporters fearing the worst after recent battles against the drop.

A fifth, Saturday's 3-1 loss to Leeds, only exacerbated those concerns after Wolves lost an early lead to concede three times in 14 first-half minutes.

Bottom, pointless and winless, these are worrying times for Wolves fans. Only two teams have survived in the Premier League having lost their first five games.

But there remains a determination at the club after a busy week with new deals for boss Vitor Pereira and striker Jorgen Strand Larsen, showing the methodical approach behind the scenes.

Pereira's new three-year contract comes at a time of struggle, although talks had been ongoing throughout the summer.

Wolves recognise the optics may look strange coming off the back of a poor run but it would also look reactionary if it was announced once they got a win. There are few perfect times.

When he arrived in December, the Portuguese manager had 12 clubs on his CV. His longest spell was three years with Shanghai SIPG in China and he said that, in jumping from job to job, he had made some wrong decisions.

But they were all designed to get him to the Premier League and, in his first 10 months in charge, Pereira has proved he can handle it in a division he fought so hard to reach.

Wolves handed Gary O'Neil a new four-year deal on the eve of last season, only to sack him four months into the campaign, so while the contract does not necessarily protect Pereira from the same fate there is no desire for history to repeat itself.

The arrival of Domineco Teti as director of professional football in June after the departure of sporting director Matt Hobbs strengthened Pereira's position, the pair having worked together at Saudi side Al Shabab.

Teti prefers to be seen as a club appointment rather than having arrived purely because of his previous relationship with Pereira and is very visible, helping the communication between Pereira and the hierarchy.

It is not a traditional sporting directors' role, with the normal mechanisms at Wolves still working, executive chairman Jeff Shi held initial discussions for Strand Larsen's new deal before Teti took the reins to finalise the five-year contract.

Shi himself spoke of the need for stability this summer and there remains a synergy and structure off the pitch which now needs to be mirrored on it.

Wolves needed to be busy in the transfer market having sold Matheus Cunha and Rayan Ait-Nouri to Manchester United and Manchester City respectively.

The duo left for a combined total of just over £90m in June's early window, giving the club time and money to start a squad rebuild.

It was accepted by all that it was time for Cunha to leave and his £62.5m release clause rendered Wolves powerless but he has left an undeniable gap.

Cunha scored 17 of Wolves' 63 goals in all competitions last season - 26.98% - with Strand Larsen's 14 accounting for 22%.

Strand Larsen, whose new deal comes after Newcastle's summer bids, scored twice in the EFL Cup against West Ham but is yet to find the net in the league.

Hampered by an Achilles injury which has sidelined him for two games, he came on for the second half against Leeds.

"We are in a really tough spot right now," said the striker. "I am really disappointed in all of us. Nobody wants to be in this situation but nobody else can complain about it, only ourselves.

"It kills us, and it kills the people who want to come into the game, too. It's about the mentality of the players and we need to do better."

Without Strand Larsen, Wolves netted twice against Everton and in the first half against Leeds, but they have failed to score in their three of their five league matches.

Overall, Pereira has lost the source of just over half of last season's goals since the start of last season and it appears they are yet to be replaced.

Striker Tolu Arokodare arrived for £23m from Genk and attacker Fer Lopez joined from Celta Vigo for £20m but both need time.

Defenders David Moller Wolfe and Jackson Tchatchoua also joined in the summer while, although a collective decision, Pereira pushed for Jhon Arias having seen him extensively in Brazil, with the winger signing from Fluminense for an initial £15m.

The strategy focused on overseas players, it was not necessarily deliberate but it was felt the value is outside the Premier League, where fees are high.

The foreign market has been a well-trodden path for Wolves, with varying degrees of success, Pedro Neto, Ruben Neves, Ait-Nouri and Cunha being some of their biggest triumphs.

Internally, though, it is recognised there is a lot for the new recruits to prove and there is an acceptance some could have been brought in earlier to help them adapt to Pereira's methods.

They will be given time but sources have conceded the order in which they arrived could have been better, targeting priority positions sooner to help the settling-in process and therefore improving performances.

Character-wise, they have fitted in with the group, and only Arias needing to learn the language, but Wolves maxed out their overseas quota and there will be a focus on homegrown talent in the future.

The need for experience is key too as, of the five players with the most minutes last season, three - Ait-Nouri, Cunha and Nelson Semedo - have left with the latter the fourth captain the club has lost in successive summers.

Pereira did not get the extra midfielder he craved either. Ex-Burnley captain Josh Brownhill was mentioned before he joined Al Shabab on a free transfer but he was not the preferred profile for the Wolves manager, who wanted a number six.

Wolves are traditionally slow starters, they have been in the bottom five after five games in the past four seasons.

They have won just one league game in August since returning to the Premier League in 2018 across five managers: Nuno Espirito Santo, Bruno Lage, Julen Lopetegui, O'Neil and now Pereira.

Over those 23 matches they have lost 14 - with a solitary victory at Everton in 2023 - meaning they have always been playing catch-up, especially in the past two years.

It took until their 11th game last season to win - a crucial 2-0 win over Southampton - only for things to rapidly fall apart again with O'Neil sacked in December after a damaging defeat to Ipswich.

Pereira replaced him and guided Wolves to 16th, winning six straight games between March and April to end relegation fears early.

The problem now is the end of that run - a 3-0 win over Leicester on 29 April - was the last time they won in the league.

It is a worrying loss of form after Pereira blended them together so well last season, highlighted by centre-back Emmanuel Agbadou, a January signing who did much to keep Wolves up, being shaky and error prone so far.

Before the Leeds game, their expected goals (xG) was 2.63, lower than Aston Villa who had not scored in their opening four games.

Last season they sat 19th with one point from the opening five games - although each of their five opponents finished in the top seven, highlighting the difficulty of the task.

That was in contrast to their best start in 2020-21, winning three of their first five to sit sixth when they went on to finish 13th.

Despite the current form, and being bottom of the table without a point, there is no panic, rather a feeling Pereira's experience and calmness will guide them to safety.