Bruno Lage is running out of chances to prove he is the right man for Wolves

Brendan Rodgers, Steve Cooper and Steven Gerrard might be dominating the conversation about the Premier League sack race as the domestic season swings back into action, but elsewhere in the Midlands a different manager is also starting to sweat.

Bruno Lage is facing a crucial month in his tenure at Wolverhampton Wanderers, and needs to deliver a response quickly to avoid his position coming under threat. It may surprise many outside of the Black Country that Lage’s results over the last 14 league games are worse than both Rodgers and Gerrard, who are under such intense scrutiny from their own supporters.

Since the win over Gerrard’s Aston Villa on April 2, Wolves have picked up only eight points from those 14 matches, winning just one and losing eight. That run has seen them collapse from seventh in the table, and within sight of the Champions League places, to the bottom four this campaign.

Fans are starting to turn and with justification: quite simply, Lage should be doing far better with the squad he now has at his disposal.

Fosun, the Wolves owners, backed the former Benfica manager with substantial funds this summer, spending more than £100 million on transfers; while Lage has insisted he cannot be properly judged until November, his employers will expect better returns long before then.

Matheus Nunes joined for a club record £38m fee from Sporting while Valencia forward Goncalo Guedes, a long-term target since Lage’s appointment, also moved to Molineux.

After another summer signing, Sasa Kalajdzic, sustained a cruciate ligament injury on his debut, Wolves moved swiftly to sign a former title winner in Diego Costa. The 33-year-old is expected to be available at West Ham, where David Moyes is also under pressure, this weekend.

There were no major sales, with midfielder Ruben Neves staying despite admitting after the final game of last season that he expected to leave. Arsenal did show interest in Pedro Neto but were never likely to pay Wolves’ asking price of more than £40m.

Conor Coady was surprisingly loaned out to Everton, with Lage making it clear the former captain was not in his plans this season as he looked to switch to a back four. Lage's treatment of Coady was ruthless, with such a big call also supported by the club hierarchy.

Wolves offset their big spend after allowing Morgan Gibbs-White (Nottingham Forest) and Leander Dendoncker (Aston Villa) to move on for a combined £38m, but those two players were never regarded as first-team regulars.

This is arguably the best squad Wolves have had since their promotion from the Championship four years ago. Ultimately, the club have done everything they can to back Lage, so the pressure is now on him to produce.

The main issue for Wolves under the Portugese manager has been their lack of goals. They have only scored three in the league this season, and registered just 38 across the entirety of last campaign (only the three relegated clubs fared worse).

This is not what Wolves were expecting when Lage was appointed. Indeed, they moved for him due to his achievements with Benfica, when he won the title in the 2018/19 season with his team equalling a club record of 103 goals scored.

The plan was to move away from the dour football which defined the final 18 months of Nuno Espirito Santo’s reign and become more entertaining. While there is an identifiable style of play under Lage, utilising wing-backs and pace on the flanks, there has been a glaring lack of chances created.

Raul Jimenez was previously the focal point of the attack, emerging as arguably one of the top three strikers in the Premier League before the life-changing incident in November 2020.

Sustaining a fractured skull in the victory at Arsenal, there were initial fears that Jimenez may never play again. He did, thanks to remarkable willpower, but he has scored only six goals in the Premier League since returning last August. He is now injured again and facing a race against time to be fully fit for the World Cup.

Lage needs players like Neto, Daniel Podence, Guedes, Hwang Hee-chan and now Costa to provide more goals, but the question is whether his team is set up to create loads of chances.

So is Lage’s position under threat? Wolves sources insist Lage is not currently in danger, arguing he deserves more time with so many new additions, and a run of games against West Ham, Nottingham Forest, Leicester and Brentford represent an opportunity to spark the season into life. Yet an upturn in results is clearly required and quickly.

One theory to dismiss is that agent Jorge Mendes, who has close links to Wolves, will have any say on the future of the management. Mendes oversaw much of Wolves’ transfer activity in the summer, working closely with Gestifute associate Valdir Cardoso. He was also involved in the appointment of Lage, who is one of his clients, but if results do not improve he will not be consulted.

Any decision on Lage will be made by Wolves chairman Jeff Shi, who played a pivotal role in the departure of Nuno last year, and possibly Fosun chairman Guo Guangchang, who has attended a number of games this season.

We are not at that point yet, but this is undoubtedly a vital period ahead for Lage. The next few weeks will tell us whether he really is the man to take an ambitious club forward, or if he is holding them back.