Nuno Espirito Santo knows Wolves need to plan better next season

Nuno Espirito Santo admits he needs to up his game to avoid further problems at Wolves.

The Portuguese conceded this season has taught him he needs to plan better.

Raul Jimenez and Jonny have suffered serious long-term injuries while Pedro Neto, Daniel Podence and Joao Moutinho have all spent time on the sidelines.

Nuno has previously wanted to work with a small squad, with Wolves’ past injury record exceptional, but knows he needs to change his approach.

He said: “We have learned a lot but what happened this season is not our reality. It’s something we have faced. As a learning process it’s been useful as we need to prepare and plan better.

“There are circumstances you can’t control but what we wanted from our initial plan we couldn’t make it. We have to reflect and plan better.

“Our initial plan was A, it didn’t work out, we have to plan a different way. We felt when we have problems with big players the solutions were not so ready. All these things are on the top of the table for us.”

Mid-table Wolves go to West Brom for the Black Country derby on Monday after last weekend’s 4-0 Premier League home loss to Burnley.

Nuno remains without Jonny (knee), Neto (knee), Moutinho (ankle), Marcal (groin) and Jimenez (fractured skull) but believes his stretched squad can recover from the heavy defeat to the Clarets.

“It’s something we didn’t expect to happen – such a bad performance,” he said. “When you play so badly we have to reflect and analyse and know we have to change, especially the way we play.

“We have to be more focused and not make so many mistakes because it was terrible.

“The next game gives you the chance to improve, it means a lot to us and our fans. We are going to compete.

“It’s a derby, a different game, West Brom have a good squad and manager and will put a lot of questions to us.”