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Adama Traore

Is there much point in him winning possession when he is incapable of playing a killer ball?

He'd be another blunt tool in our veritable handbag of blunt tools.

I think what he can do well for us is stop the ball relentlessly coming back at us.
Moura and SB seem to lose it with ease.

he doesn’t
 
I guess the plus side of this possible transfer would be that he is seemingly capable of staying fit and applying himself. Those things don’t always seem to fall our way!

I know he’s injured but I’d rather spend the money on Neto.
 
How much of that is playing style for Wolves vs. what Traore is capable of?

I'd think he'd be more likely to come out of a fight for possession following a longer ball than Son, Moura or Bergwijn.

He's really hard to disposess. Where he would previously mostly just turn and run into a crowd of players he now seems more than capable of holding on to possession and finding a teammate.
Yes it is Wolves style of play and that's all we can judge him on.
The way you suggest he 'could' play, and probably would have to given our current approach, is pure conjecture. It could be easier to defend against him as those situations are 'looser'. I think he's better when given the ball short and is in control. It's from that controlled/easy to setup situation he becomes unplayable.

What he definitely can become is a mighty distraction to the defending team, and when Son and Kane are your other forwards is a massive problem for any defence.
 
Yes it is Wolves style of play and that's all we can judge him on.
The way you suggest he 'could' play, and probably would have to given our current approach, is pure conjecture. It could be easier to defend against him as those situations are 'looser'. I think he's better when given the ball short and is in control. It's from that controlled/easy to setup situation he becomes unplayable.

What he definitely can become is a mighty distraction to the defending team, and when Son and Kane are your other forwards is a massive problem for any defence.
He still has to pass the ball to them, something he isn't particularly good at.
 
I think what he can do well for us is stop the ball relentlessly coming back at us.
Moura and SB seem to lose it with ease.

he doesn’t
That was one of my takes from Sunday, we were crying out for an out ball and it wasn't until Kane came on that we had one, which isn't or shouldn't be Harry's job.
As Tanganga found out the guy is really fudging hard to get the ball off.
 
For what it's worth, here's his xG over the last 3 seasons (i.e. 19/20, 20/21, and the two games from 21/22). I've removed games where he played full-back, striker, or came on as a sub.

View attachment 12579

Based on that his end product in terms of assists isn't actually too bad. And it's not his finishing that's the issue, but rather getting goalscoring chances in the first place.

Also, in terms of dribbling vs losing possession, here are his stats from the last 3 seasons (taken from Whoscored), vs Saha and Son for the sake of comparison:

View attachment 12581

So as well as successfully dribbling much more than both of them, he only loses the ball as much as he successfully dribbles (whereas Zaha and Son lose the ball more than twice as often as they successfully dribble).
Cheers. I think those are some interesting numbers for sure, and would be rather curious about how that would impact our team and how him playing for us would impact us.
 
Yes it is Wolves style of play and that's all we can judge him on.
The way you suggest he 'could' play, and probably would have to given our current approach, is pure conjecture. It could be easier to defend against him as those situations are 'looser'. I think he's better when given the ball short and is in control. It's from that controlled/easy to setup situation he becomes unplayable.

What he definitely can become is a mighty distraction to the defending team, and when Son and Kane are your other forwards is a massive problem for any defence.
I don't think it's pure conjecture. He seems more than capable of coming out on top in a close fought physical duel more often than not. He can lay the ball of, he can find the simple pass to keep possession higher up the pitch and build from there.

Just looking at our game on Sunday Tanganga tried to make it a close fought physical duel when Traore received the ball and more often than not Traore came out on top. And Tanganga is really bloody good in those situations himself.

Just to be clear, the point of comparison here for me is all of our attacking players other than Harry Kane.

Some player pings a hopeful ball forward towards one of our forwards. Who in our team would you back to keep possession more often than Traore in that kind of situation?
 
I'd like him yo be honest. He is unique and I enjoy watching the freak show players that can do things that others can't, whether that's skill, strength or speed, like Dembele, Damat, Tarrabt, Bale etc. His pace frightens opposition players and will definitely create space for others.
However:
- at £40 million you would want a bit more end product, although if he did have that too then he'd probably be closer to £100m.
- do we have that sort of passers that can play the measured passes in front of him like Mourinho did on Sunday?
- do we have enough baby oil?
- would we have any money left for a ball playing midfielder?
 
I'd like him yo be honest. He is unique and I enjoy watching the freak show players that can do things that others can't, whether that's skill, strength or speed, like Dembele, Damat, Tarrabt, Bale etc. His pace frightens opposition players and will definitely create space for others.
However:
- at £40 million you would want a bit more end product, although if he did have that too then he'd probably be closer to £100m.
- do we have that sort of passers that can play the measured passes in front of him like Mourinho did on Sunday?
- do we have enough baby oil?
- would we have any money left for a ball playing midfielder?
Assume you mean Moutinho rather then Mourinho tho would be intriguing to watch.

I agree with the sentiment though, he offers something different even if it is to scare opponents defence to push them back
 
I'd like him yo be honest. He is unique and I enjoy watching the freak show players that can do things that others can't, whether that's skill, strength or speed, like Dembele, Damat, Tarrabt, Bale etc. His pace frightens opposition players and will definitely create space for others.
However:
- at £40 million you would want a bit more end product, although if he did have that too then he'd probably be closer to £100m.
- do we have that sort of passers that can play the measured passes in front of him like Mourinho did on Sunday?
- do we have enough baby oil?
- would we have any money left for a ball playing midfielder?

He put in at least three dangerous balls into our box at the weekend and Wolves should really have done more with them. That's on his teammates not Traore.
If we are really interested in Aouar, that could be the sort of player you reference in the second point.
 
Have you read his follow-up tweets about how he thinks Traore could be used?

Seems to match at least somewhat with our current narrow front three lineup.

Not sure a keep running at people centrally and shoot with power strategy will work quite as well as Harry Brooks claims. But I would be interested in how he would work in this system and with players of a higher calibre than what he's had next to him at Wolves. Certainly after they lost Jota to Liverpool and Jimenez to injury last season.
 
Seems to match at least somewhat with our current narrow front three lineup.

Not sure a keep running at people centrally and shoot with power strategy will work quite as well as Harry Brooks claims. But I would be interested in how he would work in this system and with players of a higher calibre than what he's had next to him at Wolves. Certainly after they lost Jota to Liverpool and Jimenez to injury last season.

It is silly to say - don't use the wing, play centrally. He can go where the space is. I think Hazard at chel$ea would be a good role model for him to emulate. His dribbling is actually better than Hazard's which is no mean feat. He can play off the wing. And either get to the by line and offer pullback crosses for the forwards to be ready to convert; or cut into space in the middle and shoot/pass, which is what Hazard would do so well - leave the wing a few meters in front of the box, cut in to the box, and fire off a shot. Traore is faster than Hazard and less controlled - and that is the issue. Hazard kept his speed in reserve for when he needed it, Traore explodes into a sprint making it harder to pass or shoot.

I would try and get him to perfect his ability running in off the left wing to shoot, and when that is closed down, use the wing to get in behind. His close control is second to...? Only a handful of others can carry the ball as well at speed.
 
This Traore link is actually an interesting insight into Spurs fan psychology.

I regularly hear on here people scream about Levy, splash the cash, open your wallet, back the manager. So should he back the manager?
 
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