Wolves news: Gary O’Neil plans to be flexible between formations

Wolves boss Gary O’Neil has said he will be flexible between playing with four or five defenders, after an improved defensive performance against city ​​of manchester on Sunday.

Having conceded 21 goals in their first seven Premier League games, Wolves lost 2-1 to the champions, who needed an injury-time winner at Molineux to deny the Wanderers a point.

Ahead of Saturday’s trip to Brighton, O’Neil said: “Being five backs in the Premier League every week is really difficult. Against certain systems it’s difficult to be five backs; you can be five backs but you’ll end up not playing.” Leave one of your centre-backs out of play for a long time, which basically means you are a back four with a centre-back further up the pitch.

“There are still opportunities to be among five defensemen in the league, and we will take advantage of both because of the situation we are in and what we have in the building. Santi (Bueno) did very well in what was a tough test (against Ciudad ).

“Last year, we were pretty much a back four, with Toti (Gomes) at left back and Rayan (Ait-Nouri) up front, which people would definitely have taken as a back five.

“(The formation) does matter, but in certain games it is really difficult to be a back five. We will see what fits best (on Saturday).

“(Against) Manchester City, a back five I think is really good. It adapts very well to what they do. There will be certain teams against which I don’t think it adapts very well. That doesn’t mean we can.” Don’t do it, it just means it will cause its own problems as well as solve some.

“We just have to make decisions about what we think is best each week and I’m very clear about what I think will help us best this weekend.”