Wolverhampton Wanderers confirmed that Conor Coady has signed a five-year deal with the club. The 27-year-old joined from Huddersfield Town for £2.5m in 2015 and has gone on to make 239 appearances in all competitions, scoring two goals with seven assists.
Coady’s market value with CIES Football Observatory has since risen to €15m-€20m while Transfermarkt value him at £16.2m. He’s now an England international and has been called up repeatedly, but where does Coady rank among the best Premier League centre-backs?
How good is Coady?
The 27-year-old amassed 3420 minutes in the Premier League last season, won 33/57 aerial duels (58%), completed 85% of his 1849 passes, had 4/5 successful dribbles (80%), blocked 26 shots/crosses/passes, made 117 clearances, gave away only one foul (17) every 201 minutes (2.2 games) on average, made 28 interceptions, was dribbled past (15) only once every 228 minutes (2.5 games) on average and made 36 tackles.
Of the players who made 30 league appearances in 2019/20, only Virgil van Dijk (213.8 minutes per foul) and Adam Webster (205.4) gave away fewer free-kicks than Coady. Our centre-back was dribbled past less than Toby Alderweireld (227.5 minutes per missed tackle) and Harry Maguire (213.8) too. His call-up to the national team is more than deserved, as Coady is among the best in the top-flight.
Could we sign a new partner for Coady?
In addition to Coady, Nuno has Romain Saiss, Willy Boly and Max Kilman to choose from at centre-back, but we’ve already conceded seven league goals in three games. No clean sheet in our last three games across the board isn’t the best either.
Sky Sports say we’re still on the hunt for another defender too, having been linked with Kristoffer Ajer, Gabriel Magalhaes, Christian Luyindama, Ousseynou Ba, Tosin Adarabioyo, Ruben Dias, Diego Llorente, Nicolas N’Koulou and Robin Koch over the summer to no avail, but we may be running out of time to land another player.
With Nuno opting for a back-three of Coady, Boly and Saiss, while freezing out Ryan Bennett, we probably need better cover at centre-back than Kilman. Time isn’t on our side.
