Bakary Sako handed a licence to thrill at Wolves

The Molineux boss has been highly impressed with the French winger both in training and his first game in charge, last Friday's 1-1 draw against Blackburn.

Previous boss Stale Solbakken claimed Sako had "hit the wall" after struggling in his previous five games.

But the returned to form with a man-of-the-match display against Rovers and Saunders wants that to continue as they prepare to visit Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday.

Saunders said: "You have got to have a blend – you need players who will head the ball out of your box, tackle and chase and you've got to have players who can do what Sako did when he ran the length of the pitch with the ball.

"I would have paid for a ticket to watch that if I knew it was going to happen, some of the flashes of brilliance as he was carrying the ball up the pitch – I'm sure the fans enjoyed it.

"Sako caused them all sorts of problems, running the length of the pitch with the ball, he was class.

"We had them pinned in for long periods but we couldn't finish off one of those crosses or corners – Sako was flashing crosses across the goal and we didn't seem to be able to get on the end of any of them to get in front."

Saunders could retain Kevin Foley at right midfield at Hillsborough.

The manager said: "We had Sako on the other side and Foley made us a bit more solid. We strung some really good bits of football together."

But the Wolves boss believes Wolves will only improve as confidence returns.

He said: "When we got stuck down one side of the pitch, I don't think we had the confidence to turn and go back across the back four, go into midfield and then switch it across to the other side and get the cross in from there.

"If their team got spread out as we were going across the pitch, we could have chopped the ball in to Kevin Doyle and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake and play from there. But that will come.

"The main thing was I liked the effort and determination."