Will Bruno Lage be a success at Wolverhampton Wanderers? Questions answered on Nuno's successor
Bruno Lage’s move to Wolverhampton Wanderers is edging closer, the former Benfica manager set to take the helm once held by popular compatriot Nuno Espirito Santo. It is, perhaps, a shockingly unshocking appointment, but the question everybody wants the answer to is whether this will be as fruitful a relationship as Nuno and Wolves proved to be.
But first… How did we get here?
After a successful promotion charge at the first attempt, back-to-back 7th place finishes in the English Premier League, and runs to the Europa League quarter final and FA Cup semis, Nuno’s hyper-successful reign came to an underwhelming end after one poor season saw them finish in mid-table mediocrity, below the likes of newly promoted Leeds United and arch-rivals Aston Villa.
Some would argue it's an indication of the very nature of modern-day football. You can provide the most exceptional success and lead a club to heights fans once only dreamt off, but one unspectacular campaign, even in the midst of the most unprecedented of global situations, can lead to trigger-happy owners quickly growing impatient. Nothing less than constant success is sufficient.
Others, however, will point to the stale football, and say that the writing has been on the wall for some time now. With Wolves not playing with the same energy and attacking endeavour they once were under Nuno, it wasn’t so much Wolves’ final league position that was cause for concern - but a lack of direction and optimism heading into the future. And for that, you could commend the owners for parting ways with one of the most popular managers seen in the sport’s recent history.
Nevertheless, if Nuno’s sacking proved divisive amongst a fanbase that has experienced their fair share of highs over the last few years, the chosen successor will perhaps only further the division. Bruno Lage, with just a couple of half seasons of top-level senior management to his name, is the man that will take the hotseat, and many will be wondering whether someone with such limited credentials is the correct choice to take the mantle.
Does Lage have the credentials for the job?
It is likely stating the obvious to point out that had Bruno Lage not been a Jorge Mendes client, it is very safe to assume that he would not have been the man selected to lead the club into their next chapter. With such minimal senior managerial experience, Lage is a good indication that sometimes who you know and who your connections are can be just as important as your CV. But that’s not to say that Lage is not inherently deserving of this opportunity, still boasting extensive coaching experience spanning over two decades, and nor is he the first manager to benefit from his sporting connections.
We have seen far more undeserving managerial appointments than this, after all. Frank Lampard to Chelsea is one perfect example; had Lampard not been a Chelsea legend, there is virtually a zero percent chance a manager who only had a brief stint in charge of second division Derby County to his name would have been selected as the person to take on the role as manager of one of the biggest clubs not only in England, but in Europe too.
Mikel Arteta, whose only non-playing experience in football comes as assistant manager of the acclaimed Pep Guardiola, also isn’t, on paper, deserving of the Arsenal gig, but as a former player for the club, which has no tangible impact on one’s managerial ability, he benefited significantly. Pirlo at Juventus is another, and even Ole Gunnar Solksjaer’s appointment at Manchester United is one that you can say with confidence wouldn’t have happened if he wasn’t living off the past glory of his playing days.
Zinedine Zidane, however, is perhaps the best example. Had he not been the legendary footballer he was, he would have likely never been given the opportunity to manage the Real Madrid B team, and he certainly wouldn’t have been promoted to lead the senior team - arguably the biggest job in all of football - after just two years of coaching in the lower echelons on the Spanish game. But despite his managerial credentials, he went on to win three Champions League trophies and two La Liga titles during his time as manager of the club, a scarcely believable record, even by Real Madrid’s standards, showing that sometimes managerial experience isn’t everything.
Indeed, while it is true that Bruno Lage had to go through an appeal process to be granted the opportunity to manage Wolves, Solskjaer, for example, would have also had to go through the same process at Manchester United had the rules been in place at the time, so it would be unfair to dismiss Lage’s credentials for the job based on his somewhat limited senior managerial career. After all, compared to the likes of Lampard, Pirlo and Arteta, Lage is something of the equivalent of Sir Alex Ferguson, with a coaching career spanning over twenty years, having served as assistant coach, youth manager and head coach of several clubs over the course of that time. Lampard, Arteta and Pirlo combined had just 5 years of managerial/coaching experience to their name before being appointed at Chelsea, Arsenal and Juventus respectively.
And it is quite the achievement for Lage to have already garnered in the region of 23 years of coaching experience despite still being just 45 years of age - the age a person ordinarily only just begins their venture into a career in professional football management. That in itself is testament to his character and drive, and it is clear that he is well ahead of the game in that regard.
Lage also has a well-rounded perspective of the game. Though his playing career was a short and underwhelming one, having operated in so many different coaching roles at so many different levels of the game in both Portugal and England, he likely has a view of football that few others will share, and that can lead to a refreshing, modern take in terms of style and approach.
His work in England as deputy to the impressive Carlos Carvalhal at both Sheffield Wednesday and Swansea City is also more than noteworthy, and arguably makes him even better prepared for this job than Nuno ever was.
How is he viewed in Portugal? Is he seen as a top-class manager?
You only need to hear what former players have to say about Bruno Lage to see that he is highly respected within the national game. Manchester City star Joao Cancelo reserved only the most flattering remarks for Bruno Lage, describing Lage as a crucial father figure in his life. Cancelo said: “He (Lage) was the coach that had the biggest impression on me in training. We had a father-son relationship. He was almost a father to me. He pulled my ears and got me in line. He was the only one I respected and that could keep me in line because it was often difficult to deal with my irreverence.”
Fabio Cardoso, Santa Clara centreback and captain and a major transfer target of Sergio Conceicao’s FC Porto after an excellent season with the Azores club, was equally impressed by Lage during his time at Benfica: “I have a very good relationship with former coaches. I’d say Bruno Lage was one that made the biggest impression on me. I was champion with him twice. He was a charismatic person and the way he conveyed messages to us was remarkable.”
Lage will also be bringing a strong backroom staff with him to Molineux, and many Wolves fans will be excited by what Fabio Silva had to say about Bruno Lage’s brother Luis Nascimento, who Lage plans on bringing with him to Wolves.
Back in 2020, months before Silva joined Wolverhampton Wanderers and while he was still on the books of FC Porto, the teenage striker said, of Nascimento: “In terms of learning, he was the coach that made me grow the most and acquire many of the skills that I have today. He always believed in me. I talk to him almost every day.” Incredibly strong words about a manager who Silva had, at the time, not worked with for three years. It is therefore an exciting prospect to see how much further Silva could develop with a man that has already given him so much, and there’s reason to be optimistic that he could explode under the leadership of someone he trusts and knows so well.
Just how good was his reign at Benfica?
It cannot be overstated just how impressive Lage’s first season at Benfica really was. Internally promoted from the Benfica B team following the sacking of Rui Vitoria, it is worth pointing out that Lage was not widely considered a long-term solution for Benfica; the expectation was more along the lines that he would come in as a temporary ‘stop-gap’ while Benfica sought to identify a potential permanent successor to Vitoria.
But that did not prove to be the case, and it is to the credit of Lage and the work that he did in a short space of time that he managed to impress and prove himself as a manager capable of taking Benfica to the next level.
When he took over at Benfica, the Lisbon giants were languishing in 4th in the table, 7 points off leaders Porto and looking destined to miss out on the title for a second year in a row. Lage, however, proved a remarkable motivator and man-manager, showing trust in youth and giving players who were once on the fringes a chance to return and impress, and led Benfica on a scintillating charge that saw them end the season as champions, something which looked so unlikely when he took over.
Indeed, while he is rightly praised for giving young players such as Joao Felix, Florentino Luis, Ferro and Gedson Fernandes the platform to play and impress, he deserves just as much credit for giving Adel Taarabt the chance to come into the first-team squad for pretty much the first time in three and a half years at the club, allowing the Moroccan to rejuvenate his career, something that looked impossible before Lage took charge. Two years on, Taarabt is still in and around the first-team of Benfica.
As such, it is safe to say almost everyone would agree that Lage had a resoundingly positive impact at Benfica. It was an exceptionally impressive reign for the vast majority of his tenure, and it is no surprise that Benfica fans grew such a connection with him.
It didn't get off to the best of starts, of course; 20 minutes into Lage's first game in charge against Rio Ave, Benfica were 2-0 down inside 20 minutes and it looked like Benfica would have to ramp up their efforts to find a successor to Rui Vitoria. But from there stemmed some attacking football; Benfica turned the game around to win 4-2 and went on a sensational run to win the league title.
Indeed, their attacking football was the like of which we haven’t seen at Benfica in decades. It was an extraordinary attacking showing week after week, with Benfica’s scoring fours, fives and sixes in games on a regular basis, even winning 10-0 versus Nacional, a scoreline not seen in Portuguese top flight football since the 1960s.
The chart below illustrates just how extraordinary Benfica’s goalscoring exploits were under the leadership of Bruno Lage:
What style and formation did Lage implement at Benfica?
Almost exclusively Lage would set up in a 4-4-2 formation, which at least on paper would come across as fairly traditional and unspectacular. There was, however, a bit of a modern twist on an old-fashioned system, with much emphasis on the full backs to get forward on the overlap to try and overload on the attack, while the role of his second striker was also instrumental to the success garnered with this setup. Indeed, it was through this unique role that Lage really instigated Joao Felix’s senior career, giving him the license to have a bit of a free role to find pockets of space and displace the opposition backline, roaming in the gap between the target man and midfield. He was critical in Lage’s system, and it takes a special player to serve that role with such success. Lage, however, was willing to give Felix the opportunity to impress and was well rewarded for it.
Lage also focused on having two more physical, perhaps more defensive central midfielders in the starting lineup - be it Florentino Luis and Taarabt, Gabriel and Samaris, Luis and Fejsa, or some other combination of these players - to ensure that his side wouldn’t get overrun in the middle of the park even if they did get happen to get outnumbered purely because of the nature of the 4-4-2 formation. The wide men were then able to cut inside and also help centrally, which then gave the fullbacks further impetus to attack with more regularity.
Lage therefore had a well thought-out system, and it worked very well at Benfica, where he had the right personnel to carry it out. It is, however, also worth pointing out that there is certainly no guarantee he will use the same approach at Wolves. Ultimately Nuno, for example, never really played with 3 centrebacks at Porto, but at Wolves, at least for the first couple of seasons, that was almost exclusively the formation and approach he chose to utilise. As such, there is always a chance that Lage could bring something completely different to the table at Molineux, potentially preparing to tweak, or perhaps even completely change, his style depending on who is available to him, which is very much the mark of a high-quality manager. After all, he’s had plenty of time to consider new ideas and prepare for a new job like this.
Where did it all go wrong at Benfica? What was his downfall?
It is somewhat tricky to put your finger on exactly what his downfall was, but it was quite evidently spectacular and historic. Lage, it is worth pointing out, wasn’t actually sacked, despite how horrendous the run of form was, but instead he chose to leave the club, maybe feeling he wasn’t getting full support from the club hierarchy, or perhaps not feeling that he was able to turn things around. And perhaps that’s one of the reasons for his downfall, that he just didn’t seem able to find the solution when things weren’t going as well. Ultimately he has proven that he can get his sides to generally play good, forward thinking football, but he seemed a little resistant to change, and when things went badly, he didn’t have the answers to stop the rot and turn things around.
At the very last stretch of Lage’s reign, Benfica went on a run of picking up 10 points from 10 league games. We’re talking about the most successful club in Portugal, a country that has only ever seen 5 champions in its over 60 years of history, and a club with a vastly greater budget than all but 2 or 3 other sides in the league, picking up on average a point a game over a significant 10-game period. It was relegation form from the giants of Lisbon, which is pretty much unheard of and unthinkable. It just shouldn’t even be possible for Benfica to be struggling domestically like that.
But they were, drawing against the likes of Moreirense, Tondela and Portimonense, losing to Santa Clara and Maritimo - in isolation, results that are plausible and forgivable, but when they are happening week after week for such a long period of time, it’s a bit of a disaster, and he ended up walking away.
However, with all that being said, what you can guarantee is that he is a far better manager now than he was when everything was going sensationally well and he’d overseen an extraordinary 36 wins in his first 38 league games. You learn much more from defeat than you do victory, and so after a year out of the game, he’s had plenty of time to reflect and prepare for a new position, and that is why he should benefit much more from the disastrous spell than when Benfica were winning with ease every week.
It is also worth bearing in mind that he is not the first Benfica manager to have difficult spells in charge. His predecessor and his successor have both had difficulties in getting the best out of their players at times, so Benfica’s problems likely stretched much further than him. A manager does not go from being extraordinarily good to extraordinarily bad overnight, and the players deserve much of the criticism, perhaps for their attitude and mentality.
Why has he been out of work for so long?
It is understood that Lage did have the opportunity to return sooner, but for one reason or another, it did not happen. It is believed that there was the prospect of moving to Vitoria Guimaraes at the start of the season, for example, which would have been an interesting project at a club with big ambitions, but that never transpired.
There was also that incredibly unexpected news that he’d been offered the Aston Villa job just a day or two after they survived relegation from the Premier League. That was a very strange development, but most major news outlet in Portugal were reporting on it, so there must have been something in that story.
Ultimately, though, it is more likely that Lage has perhaps just been waiting for the perfect opportunity to come around. When your agent is Jorge Mendes, you always have a good chance of landing on your feet, and it is not farfetched to assume that he was always lined up to replace Nuno should Wolves ever be looking for a new manager and a change of direction, as they are now. So he was in no particular rush to get back into management and could wait for the ideal job offer to arrive at his door.
Will Lage be a success?
It is a complicated question to answer, as there are so many factors to consider. It does appear that Wolves are a good fit, they have obviously got the core of Portuguese players as well as some talented young players and good attacking talents too, so there is a lot for Lage to work with even if the squad is relatively small, more so than when he was at Benfica, while it is also likely to undergo a bit of an overhaul this summer. But it’s a team that is well designed to play attacking football, which will have been one of the essential criteria that Lage would have signed up for.
One cannot have quite the same level of confidence as when Nuno joined the club, though. That just always felt right, the perfect fit at the perfect time. And Nuno wasn’t universally liked at Porto, that’s for sure. A lot of fans were actually quite frustrated with the side during his tenure, but there was reason to be quietly impressed; he was managing a Porto side that were very unfancied before the season started, most fully expecting Benfica to win the league relatively comfortably, and that he got Porto into a commanding position was in itself impressive, so there were positives to Nuno. He also had a tremendous stint with Rio Ave and had garnered experience at Valencia, where he actually had a very strong season in his first campaign.
With Lage, it’s a little more unpredictable; he doesn’t have quite the same level of experience and although his end at Benfica shouldn’t overshadow his remarkable work, it has left an impression on some people.
But with that being said, there are plenty of reasons to be excited about his imminent arrival: he has experience of coaching in England, which should serve him very well, he worked under a very good manager in Carlos Carvalhal who he will have learned a lot from, he has proven capable of breathing new life into a team that is struggling and underperforming - which is very much pertinent to Wolves currently - he plays good, attacking football, which will be appealing to fans, and is generally a rational, calm presence, sharing much of the same personality traits that made Nuno so endearing to the Wolves faithful. Having heard what a couple of his former players have also said about him, it seems he is an excellent man-manager too, and knows how to get the best out of his players, as he proved at Benfica, revitalising the performances of the likes of Pizzi, Gabriel, Rafa Silva, Samaris and Taarabt. There are therefore a lot of very positive attributes and plenty of reason to be optimistic about the future.
It could prove a masterstroke, it could prove a gamble that doesn’t pay off, but under Lage Wolves should be more expansive and have a greater chance to move to the next level and take another step up towards their lofty ambitions. A refresh this summer was perhaps needed, and Wolves have reason to be optimistic that Lage will be the right man to revitalise a talented side.
