Conor Coady: Wolves will improve against defensive sides

Sunderland frustrated Nuno Espirito Santo’s team on Saturday, becoming the first team to stop Wolves scoring at Molineux this season, in a 0-0 stalemate.

Wolves had 23 shots to Sunderland’s one and Nuno took a swipe at the Black Cats for not trying to play football or win the game.

Coady says Wolves have learned from their different encounters already this season – and will do so again. “We said that in the changing room – if teams come and do that we need to get better at it,” he said.

“We’ve got the players to do that.

“You learn from every single game and that’s what the boys have done well this season.

“It was very frustrating but it shows where we’re at – we’re frustrated with a draw and a clean sheet.

“We look at the positives – it’s a clean sheet and a point in the right direction of where we want to go.

“I wouldn’t say we were below our best – they got bodies behind the ball, they came to get what they wanted and they got it.

“The message at half time was ‘intensity’, to take the game to them and step it up.

“I felt we did that at times. It’s always tough to break down 10 men behind the ball.

“We’ll move on pretty quickly.

“You’re disappointed, particularly with the standards we’ve set, but we want to move forward to Friday (at Sheffield Wednesday) and keep on learning on the training pitch this week.”

Wolves – and Diogo Jota in particular – were again on the end of some tough tackling, with a player sent off for fouling Jota for the second game in succession.

Coady said referees were getting wise to it.

“We know what we’re going to come up against. I thought the one on Monday (at Blues) was crazy,” he added.

“Referees are actually doing something about it, we’ve seen a red card in the past two games. Jota’s a fantastic player, we all know how good he is and he gets on with it.

“He’s dealing with it really well and the boys are on to the referees about it.

“I do feel like it’s improved a little bit. I feel like we needed it more at the start of the season. But these boys can play – as long as they keep getting up and doing the business we don’t mind.”