Friday Football Tips: Coady a clear and present danger

Fulham v Wolves
Friday 9 April, 20:00
Live on BT Sport 1

Friday night's props play is one of those where the layers don't seem to have caught up with a change to a team's set-up.

Wolves defender Conor Coady never used to go up for corners or free-kicks so having him as the rank outsider in shots markets made perfect sense.

However, perhaps encouraged by his goal for England against Wales earlier this season, Nuno Espirito Santo has deployed him on set-plays regularly of late and the 6ft 1in star comes into this match having had a shot in his last four Premier League games.

Speaking after the recent game against Villa, when Coady had two efforts on goal, Nuno said: "Surprise, the teams don't look for him. He had good chances, he reads the line of the ball well and we keep insisting (on him going forward)."

All four of those matches have featured Coady headers at goal (he also had another effort off the ground in one of them) and, in a team not blessed with great height, he is sure to be a target from set-pieces in this contest.

Encouragingly, only four teams have scored more goals from set-plays than Wolves so they are clearly doing something right in those situations.

It helps that they earn an above-average number of corners, helped by the tricky wide play of Adama Traore and Pedro Neto.

And in this match they come up against the team who commit the most fouls in the league, so Coady can expect to be going forward for a few free-kicks too.

It's therefore a little surprising to see 11/5 on offer about Coady having a shot of any sort in this match and I'm happy to back it.

The bold among you may instead want to back 9/1 about Coady hitting a shot on target, something he's managed in two of those four recent games, albeit those are the only two he's had for Wolves all season.

Click here for Mark O'Haire's in-depth preview of Fulham v Wolves