Stale Solbakken has faith in Wolves fringe players
Stale Solbakken today urged his Wolves fringe players to show no fear at Chelsea and prove they can gatecrash his Championship team.
The Norwegian took the unusual step yesterday of naming his 18-man squad for tonight's third-round tie at Stamford Bridge, which includes 18-year-old Zeli Ismail for the first time.
And the Molineux chief has told the players not to be daunted against the Premier League leaders.
"It's more about the players trusting themselves, especially those that haven't played much," said Solbakken.
"It's important they don't have any fear and they trust their ability and their team mates and try to make a good game of it.
"It's important we play without being naive and that we stick to our tactics and play in a disciplined way without fear for 90 minutes."
Solbakken defended making multiple changes after three games in six days, with tonight's fixture kicking off a spell of four matches in the next 12.
"This is a crazy league – I think they try to beat the world record for the number of games," he said.
"Normally if we'd have three games, they'd come in eight days, not six, and we only had a two-day break between the last two matches with two long journeys.
"We want to go through, but there's also a very good chance for some players against the League leaders in England.
"Even if the team isn't 100 per cent in the game against Chelsea, some individuals can show me 'here I am, I'm better than the ones who have played so far'.
"The team I'm putting out can do the same job because they're hungry and fresh."
