While Lage was positive going into the 2022-2023 season, losing key players hurt his squad.
Fernando Marcal and Romain Saiss departed, while they had only added Nathan Collins to the squad.
The club also lost Willy Boly, Conor Coady, Leander Dendoncker and Morgan Gibbs-White that summer.
Lage said via the Coaches' Voice website: In the following pre-season, my first objective was to convince the management that the good results we had enjoyed could be repeated in the future.
We had to foresee it. Some players were coming to the end of their contracts, though, and we lost important players like Fernando Marcal, Romain Saiss and, early in the new season, Willy Boly, Conor Coady and Leander Dendoncker.
Unfortunately, the club had failed to bring in enough replacements during pre-season. We only brought in a center-back, Nathan Collins, from Burnley.
That was a big mistake we made. I was very vocal, warning of the potential problems and insisting on having the new players for pre-season but I still hold myself responsible.
Maybe I wasn't persuasive enough about the importance of having the squad ready as soon as possible."