Wolves have had an excellent season so far, although their recent slide has put a major dent in their top four hopes.
Having lost their last two fixtures, they would have hoped that they could arrest that slide against Crystal Palace this afternoon. However, Bruno Lage's side would fall to a disappointing 2-0 defeat at Molineux.
It was a poor performance from the home side, who were forced into a change early in the game when defender Ki-Jana Hoever had to come off after picking up a hamstring injury.
The 20-year old has been limited to eight appearances in the Premier League this season, with many of those coming as a late substitute off the bench.
While many managers would be sympathetic with a young player after suffering an injury, Bruno Lage went in the other direction. Speaking after the game, the Wolves boss was critical of Hoever and suggested the injury was largely down to the player not working hard enough in training while he was out of the side.
"I don't waste time with guys who don't work hard!"
Wolves boss Bruno Lage didn't hold back when speaking about the young players in his team 👇 pic.twitter.com/HZVXH5RTjE— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) March 5, 2022
This is a good example of the young players, they want everything to happen at that time. When you are out and your opponents or teammates are playing, you're not putting the intensity into training, you're not preparing yourself, then when you get a chance these kinds of things happen.
This is general in football. I have too many kids in my team that sometimes don't work the way they should work, they don't prepare the way they should prepare.
Then when they come inside, these kinds of things happen. When they are in training they are thinking 'I'm not playing'.
I said to them on the first day when I started working with them 'we are here, you need to work, the first target is to work and improve'.
When they get the chances, these kinds of things happen because they go to the limit and they are not ready or prepared. They get injured and it can happen, but this one happened because he was not prepared. Sometimes Ki does not work with the same intensity.
This warning is not just for Ki, it is for the other kids we have in our team. They need to understand that I don't waste time with guys who don't work hard every day to improve.
Ki-Jana Hoever joined Wolves from Liverpool for an initial fee of around £9million in the summer of 2020, going in the opposite direction as Diogo Jota moved to Anfield.
He is seen as a player with massive potential, although these comments would suggest that he has not impressed his manager with his work ethic as of yet.
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