Wolves blog: Set piece success

Wolves are scoring and producing goals from all over the pitch.

Top scorer Leo Bonatini has ten goals and five assists whilst Diogo Jota has eight goals and three assists.

Ivan Cavaleiro has almost reached last season’s total of five goals and five assists - only a goal short of that already.

Fifteen different goalscorers means Wolves have threats everywhere, which must be a nightmare for the opposition to plan for.

One man who has come into his own in recent games is wing-back Barry Douglas.

Against Norwich, he got an assist from a corner and took the free kick which led to Wolves’ second.

Against Fulham, another two assists – one from a corner, one from a free kick.

And against Leeds in midweek, a lovely free kick into the near top corner.

Wolves are really making set pieces their own, another effective tool in their devastating arsenal of goalscoring weapons.

Of the 39 goals Wolves have scored in league and cup, twelve have come from set pieces.

Remarkably, that’s six corners – 15 per cent of our goals scored, which is much higher than the Opta stat that just 3.2 per cent of all corners lead to a goal.

Another four have come from free kicks and two from penalties, meaning almost a third of Wolves’ goals came from a set piece.

This has increased in recent games – the last four games, a run of straight wins, have yielded six set piece goals out of the ten scored.

Early in the season, the only real criticism of Nuno’s team was a weakness at defending set pieces, highlighted by Bristol City, who scored from three.

Wolves, who have conceded 16 goals, have let in seven from set pieces.

Three free kicks, two corners and two penalties have been conceded – almost half of their total ‘goals against’ column.

But to only have conceded 16 in 22 games is a title-winning record and, other than away at QPR, Wolves haven’t conceded from a set piece goal in the last nine games.

When Wolves lost Bakary Sako, the menace from dead ball situations disappeared from Molineux, but Douglas offers Wolves a great delivery, whether shooting himself or putting the ball on a plate for one of Wolves’ many aerial threats to finish.

One area which has let them down somewhat is their penalty taking.

Neves missed the chance to equalise from the spot against Sheffield United, whilst Conor Coady and Alfred N’Diaye took poor penalties in the shootout at the Etihad.

In fairness, all of Man City’s penalties were elite and they were certainly the favourites to win a penalty shootout.

Leo Bonatini, who scored Wolves’ only goal in that shootout, also scored with his other attempt against Preston, opting for the nervy stuttered run-up.

But for Helder Costa to take - and score - the penalty against Leeds in mid-week is fantastic to see and will give him a great boost.