Tactical Tweaks and Renewed Belief: Rui Pedro Silva’s Role in Wolves’ Improved Performances

Wolverhampton Wanderers have endured one of the worst starts to a Premier league campaign ever this season racking up a total of of 2 points in 18 games. With Vitor Pereria being sacked after 10 premier league games in charge with his only two points coming against Tottenham Hotspur in a 1-1 draw away in London with a stoppage time equaliser from Joao Palhinha giving the Wolves faithful an extremely bitter pill to swallow however they could leave with a feeling of pride for the first time in the 25/26 campaign after collecting a well earned point. The next point came against Brighton and Hove albion the following game week in another 1-1 draw at the Molineux and in similar fashion Wolves took the lead thanks to a Bart Verbruggen own goal in the 21st minute after Marshall Munetsi riffled a volley off the goalkeepers back into the net. However in the 86th minute another late equaliser from Van Hecke left the Wolves fans questioning decisions from Vitor Pereira in a decision to shift the team away from an impressive first half display in a 4 at the back formation back into a 5 at the back with the substitution of Emmanuel Agbadou on for Hwang Hee Chan in the 60th minute allowing Brighton to build momentum in the game. After this Wolves lost another 3 consecutive Premier league games on the bounce with the final game under Pererias reign being a humiliating 3-0 defeat away at the Craven cottage.

This extremely poor run of form led to change with Wolves appointing former Luton and at the time Middlesbrough boss Rob Edwards with a compensation package of £2 million pounds. Rob previously played for Wolves from 2004-2008 introducing a leader who knows what it takes to lift Wolves.

However, things didn’t exactly go to plan for Edwards who lost 8 out of his 8 first fixtures as the Wolves boss. This doesn’t exactly paint the full picture though as Wolves had promising performances like a 1-0 loss away from home at Villa Park where a wonder goal from Boubacar Kamara took all 3 points.

Things changed on December the 9th though as Wolves announced the return of familiar face Rui Pedro Silva after his departure from Nottingham Forest as assistant manager when boss Nuno Espirito Santo was sacked by the club. Silva and Nuno had worked together since 2012 when Silva joined Nunos coaching staff as an assistant manager at Rio Ave. This meant when Nuno joined Wolves in 2017 he was joined by Silva giving him the love for Wolverhampton after 4 hugely successful years for the club getting promoted from the championship and solidifying Wolves as a club in the Premier League even taking them to the Europa League quarter final after a narrow defeat against Sevilla. Silva even worked with Rob Edwards who was Wolves U23 manager in the 2018-2019 season

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As Wolves and Nuno parted ways so did Nuno and Silva with Silva believing in his abilities he stated his desire to become a first team manager. He was given the opportunity by Famalicão the Primeira Liga side who sat 16th place replacing Ivo Vieira on December the 19th. Silva took Famalicão to an 8th place league finish after an impressive start to his managerial career. However, things didn’t go to plan for Silva in the start of his second season leaving the club by mutual consent on the 20th of September 2022 just 10 months after joining after winning just 1 in 7 games and drawing 3 leaving the club on 4 points in the new season. He didn’t leave the club as a hero but he certainly proved to clubs he has the ability to make a team perform at a higher level than the players ability would make you believe.

He set up his side in a very similar manner to a Nuno squad deploying a 3-4-3 formation looking to absorb the pressure and hit teams on the counter attack with extremely quick transitions. Striker Simon Banza particularly thrived scoring 14 and getting 2 assists in the 21-22 season. With strikers such as Chris wood and Raul Jimenez both thriving in a style made up of Nuno’s and Silva’s tactical blue print, could it give Wolves fans the opportunity to get excited about Tolu Arokodare who has began to show his skillset since Silva was appointed.

This led to Silva rejoining Nuno at Forest and once again the pair saw success taking Forest into the conference league after finishing 7th. This was later changed to the Europa League due to an ongoing legal battle between Crystal Palace and UEFA with John Textor having owned both sides it meant the clubs couldn’t play in the same competition due to Multi club ownership rules.

Then Nuno left Forest after him and Evangelos Marinakis had repeated disagreements leaving the relationship unsalvageable. This left Rui Silva without work and it certainly didn’t take Wolves long to reacquire his services. Silva and Edwards saw an opportunity to reunite a strong bond they built whilst they were both at the club to help put Wolves back into a relegation fight.

Since rejoining Wolves on the 9th of December 2025 Wolves played against Arsenal in Silva’s first fixture back as assistant head coach which saw a well improved defensive performance from the squad. However, 2 own goals from Wolves left them on the end of a 94th minute heartbreaking 2-1 defeat at the Emirates in a premier league classic. A 2-0 defeat followed against Brentford in a poor performance but that didn’t break confidence as Wolves put in a hugely impressive display away at title holders Liverpool but once again losing narrowly 2-1. Then a display of hard work, trust and belief within the side gave Wolves their first point in 12 game weeks away at Old Trafford with a Krejci equaliser and a fantastic defensive display allowing Wolves to finally have a result to smile about. West Ham at home followed and so did the confidence picked up from the previous promising fixtures with a 3-0 demolition of the East London side. Goals came from John Arias in the 4th minute, Hwang Hee Chan calmly slotting away a penalty in the 31st minute and young talent Mateus Mane scoring his first ever senior Wolves goal in the 41st minute with an incredibly clever strike showcasing his clean ball striking. This result was Wolverhampton Wanderers first clean sheet in 23 premier league games.

Coincidence? I think not. And i certainly believe the Wolves fans have something to be excited about again with January being a fantastic opportunity to capitalise on a promising run of fixtures and give them the biggest chance of creating the best ever relegation campaign from a premier league team.

But what has really changed since Rui Silva has come in?

Silva seems to have given subtle tweaks to Rob Edwards for example leaving the double pivot of Andre and Joao Gomes and playing one alongside John Arias in a deeper role. Since his reintroduction you can also confidently say Wolves have looked massively defensively improved and this comes down to the a tighter deep block with less gaps enabling teams to play through their lines and a much improved rest defence.

The same formation but these subtle tweaks have made Wolves a completely different package and viewing experience and credit has to go towards Rui Silva.