Wolves beat Manchester City yesterday in the Premier League Asia Trophy final thanks to gutsy performances from the pack.
Patricio cemented himself as a fan-favourite with his no-nonsense courage and Leander Dendoncker was an invisible rock in midfield. The link up play between Morgan Gibbs-White’s and Diogo Jota also showed promise.
But, on a downer, Adama Traore didn’t show any signs of improvement.
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Adama Traore is so fast he can’t keep up with himself
The former Middlesbrough winger was Wolves’ biggest disappointment during the 18/19 Premier League season. His record-breaking £18M transfer fee (BBC) wasn’t justified as he made very little impact.
Dendoncker made Traore and Helder Costa irrelevant as his rise to prominence resulted in Nuno Espirito Santo switching from a 5-2-3 formation to a 5-3-2. Nuno bolstered the midfield to better protect his defence, with Jonny and Matt Doherty used as the only wingers.
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Traore could still replace Doherty at RWB but only if he knew what to do with his godlike speed. He is unstoppable when he runs with the ball, but the climax of his dribbles is always frustratingly rubbish.
He’s always looking down at his feet rather than around him so he never makes a successful killer pass or cross. None of his shots ever threaten the goalkeeper and he never makes the right decision because he hasn’t got a footballing brain. Commentators always gush about him being too fast for the opposition, but he’s also too fast to keep up with himself.
Yet, despite these negatives, Traore would be a godsend if he did only one thing every match: dribble into the opposition’s box. This would result in a lot of penalties as defenders would make reckless and desperate challenges.
But Traore never does this. He always flirts with the enemy outside the box and whips in terrible crosses that are too high or too deep.
To stop him from being the most frustrating footballer in the world, Nuno must order Traore to always run into the opposition’s box when he gets the ball upfront.
If this doesn’t happen, then the speedy winger will eventually be sold and be remembered as a flop.