Wolverhampton Wanderers were one of the most active teams in the transfer market, and they broke their all-time transfer record to sign former Middlesbrough winger Adama Traore. The fee was undisclosed, but it was reportedly believed to be around the £18m mark.
We are just three games into the season, and the West Midlands outfit has already sprung up a surprise by holding on to a hard-fought draw against Manchester City. Yes yes, we agree they got a lucky break when Willy Boly scored the first goal of the game, but the Championship winners held their own against the Premier League winners. They could have snatched the winner in the game later on when Adama Traore brilliantly setup Diogo Jota who wasn’t able to smash the ball home.
When Traore was signed, the announcement wasn’t met with unanimous joys by many sections of the fans, and many were sceptical of this move. Traore is stereotyped as a ‘pace merchant’. The former Barcelona man has often been criticised for not coming up with end product after getting into right positions, but his cameos against Leicester City and Manchester City proves that he is ready for the big stage.
Someone like Nuno Espirito Santo can bring the best out of him, and we believe it is time for the manager to give him a regular go in the playing eleven from the start. What was more impressive in his cameo against City was his willingness to help back defensively. Yes, he went in with some rash challenges here and there, but one cannot fault the attitude of the player. The ease with which he went past Benjamin Mendy to setup Jota was there for everyone to see and his speed and directness would be a significant threat down the right-hand side.
It’s true that the winger is far from a finished product but whenever he has been given starts, he has done well. Last season, he had played under Tony Pulis, who is known as an extremely pragmatic and defensive manager and even under him, he had managed five goals and ten assists in 24 starts.
The pace of the Spaniard is frightening, and there is not a defender in the world (with the exception of Bellerin perhaps) who can match him when he is at his best. With technicians like Joao Moutinho and Ruben Neves in midfield, both of them would be able to find him in good positions. He needs to work on his decision making in the final third, but from the glimpses in the two games he has appeared in, it seems clear that he has learned his lesson in the past few years.
It’s essential that Nuno Santo uses him in his preferred right wing position instead of the wingback role to get the best out of him. The manager has options like Helder Costa and Ivan Cavaleiro for the right wing position and so it could be a slight challenge for the player. The mistakes which Traore makes can only be resolved by getting playing minutes under his belt and we believe in the next few games, where they would be facing the likes of Sheffield Wednesday, West Ham United and Burnley, the Portuguese manager should entrust the 22-year-old with regular starts.
