The Athletic journalist Tim Spiers has revealed why Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Spanish winger Adama Traore could be considered a “problem”.
This season, the attacker has been in imperious form for the Old Gold as he has been their best-performing player in the Premier League with a stellar 7.55/10 average rating (per WhoScored).
To earn the rating, Traore has directly had a hand in 13 goals over 32 league appearances, having scored four goals and bagged nine assists for teammates.
In the latest episode of The Athletic’s The Molineux View podcast, though, Spiers revealed why the 24-year-old star could be considered a “problem”.
He said: “I think the formation is definitely a talking point going forward.
“Nuno [Espirito Santo] prefers 3-5-2, and I really believe that it gives you that extra protection and Traore is the problem really, in a very good way, because you’ve got to try and accommodate him in this team.
“When he’s contributing to almost every goal that you score, I don’t know how you don’t have him on the pitch, because you look at the shots that they’ve had in the past few games, they’ve had five shots on target in three matches.
“So, Traore is the man that’s going to rectify that if anybody, because he’s so explosive. Either he’s setting up goals or he’ll score the odd one, or he’ll attract four or five players out the way and become the ultimate distraction tactic.
“I’d probably go back to 3-5-2 with aiming to bring Traore on from an hour to have an impact in the second half. That’s worked well for them recently.”
TIF Thoughts…
As can be seen in what Spiers had to say, it seems that he believes that Traore perhaps causes a “problem” because he does not perfectly fit into Wolves’ best formation in the eyes of the journalist, which is 3-5-2.
For you, in Wolves' best team, in their best formation, does Adama Traore start?
No, he's better off the bench
Yes, he's got to start
As suggested by the reporter, Traore played 90 minutes against Arsenal and picked up a weak 6.59/10, however, when he was an impact sub and played 26 minutes against West Ham United, he delivered a superb 7.65/10 average rating (per WhoScored).
So, it could be argued that bringing Traore on as a substitute is the way forward for Wolves.