Dave Edwards: Lethargic Wolves in need of summer signings

You never quite know how hard the lads are working in training. Under Nuno, when he first came to the club, we were going into pre-season games absolutely shattered. 

He didn't care about how we looked, he wanted to work us hard in training and he wanted us to be tired in games. It's all part of building up fitness, ready for that first game of the season.

So, at times, it can look a little bit lethargic and performances may lack a little bit of intensity.

All managers do it in different ways and all place different levels of importance on pre-season matches and Wolves won't be peaking until they get to the last friendly against Celta Vigo.

With that in mind, I don't want to read too much into the performances, but against Stoke it was a bit lacklustre.

The one worrying thing for me is that up until the last 10 minutes or so, we really lacked any sort of cutting edge in the final third. 

After losing Matheus Cunha and Rayan Ait-Nouri, Wolves fans will be worrying about where the creativity will come from. We've struggled previously when that pair were not in the team.

Fer Lopez had some good spells in the game, particularly in the first half. He had one chance on his left foot and in general the pockets of space he picks up are very clever. 

Ki-Jana Hoever also had another very good game and it looks like he will be at Wolves for at least the first half of the season, with the lack of right-wing-backs at the moment.

I definitely would like to see a starting right-wing-back come in, but I think Hoever offers a lot of versatility. I watched a lot of him when he was at Stoke, before he went to play in France, and I think he can be a very good squad player.

Overall, we looked a little bit too casual in possession as we were trying to lull Stoke on to us. We gave the ball away too often.

We also have to remember that Stoke are ahead of Wolves in pre-season and are closer to their season starting. They looked more at it than Wolves, although Vitor Pereira's subs made a difference.

The big plus for me was Hugo Bueno when he came on, because in the first half we really lacked balance with Bellegarde at left-wing-back.

Having a natural left footer on that side really helped in the second half. You can see what Bueno is all about going forward, he has real intent and he wants to cross the ball as quickly as possible.

Players like Jorgen Strand Larsen and Sasa Kalajdzic will love playing with him because of that delivery.

When Larsen came off you could see a bit of frustration because he had only just started playing with Bueno and he could see some chances coming, which he was starved of in the first half.

That could be a good weapon for Wolves next season, but overall, it was more of a training game from a Wolves perspective. 

They now have three friendlies left to try and get things right before the big opening game against Manchester City and they have a lot of work to do.

Pereira will be desperate for new signings. Lopez is looking good and I really like the signing of Jhon Arias, who I think will be excellent, but we do need more signings.

We are blessed that we have a squad that seems very together, with a good team ethos that has been built since Pereira was appointed.

We also have a very strong spine to the team, which is important as Wolves can be competitive in Premier League games, but they are not the finished product yet.

At the back end of last season I thought that the Wolves team that we were seeing was capable of finishing in the top half of the table, but I don't think this Wolves team in its current state is capable of that and it would be a battling season.

We definitely need another addition in midfield if Joao Gomes or Andre get an injury. We also need a right-wing-back, another forward and possibly another left-sided player as well.

Those signings need to have lots of quality, they have to be Premier League-ready to come and make a big impact.

If you are going to be signing players from South America or other leagues, it's not guaranteed that that will work straight away. They can take time to adapt. 

I was a bit gutted with the Marc Pubill situation, because he's someone that I watched playing for Spain under-21s this summer and I thought he was terrific. That move being hijacked by Atletico Madrid was a big blow.

There is a lot of work to be done to get Wolves to the point where Pereira will feel we can push ourselves to finish mid-table and above. I don't think we're quite there at the moment.