Express & Star reporter Liam Keen was encouraged by Adama Traore’s recent display for Wolves – but insisted that his ‘final ball’ is still lacking.
Traore made his second successive start in the Old Gold’s 1-0 win in the Premier League on Saturday.
The Spaniard had found himself out of favour under Bruno Lage, playing just over 50 minutes in the first seven games of the season.
However, after being brought into the starting XI to take on Chelsea, he kept his place on the right-hand side for the victory at Molineux.
As posted on the Express & Star YouTube channel, Keen said: “Adama Traore, we talk about him, he takes risks and he makes mistakes, but he tries to make things happen.
“He was getting into great positions and the final ball at times was not great. But he wasn’t the only one that was guilty of that, there were other players.”
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Despite spending the second half of last season on loan at Barcelona, the Catalan giants chose not to exercise their £29m option to buy.
He made just four La Liga starts and was often kept for Europa League matches, and after a fast start with four assists in his first five appearances, his form tailed off.
The eight-cap international has thus found himself back in the Black Country, where end product has long been an issue.
He has scored just eight goals and provided 16 assists in 167 Premier League matches, but was called a ‘very special‘ player by former coach Nuno Espirito Santo, and it appears that the 26-year-old could be coming back into his own – though whether his output improves remains to be seen.
While Keen’s evaluation of Traore’s weekend performance was not entirely negative, there are clearly elements still missing from his game that suggests he should perhaps be offering more.