The Rise of Traore

Adama Traore has dazzled in the Premier League this season with his pace and skill, proving himself to one of the most dangerous players in the league.

On Saturday, the tally of players booked for a foul on Traore went up to 25. The culprit was Norwich’s Sam Byram, after the Tottenham trio of Toby Alderweireld, Eric Dier and Harry Kane the previous weekend.

With such a devastating combination of pace, power and trickery, Premier League defences seem to be at a loss as to how to deal with the Spaniard other than fouling him.

Traore has the joint most successful dribbles per game in the Premier League at 4.6, a figure shared unsurprisingly with Wilfred Zaha. The Wolves man, however, has a greater success rate of 72%, compared with Zaha’s 65%.

It’s been a few years since Traore first came onto the scene in the Premier League with Aston Villa in 2015. A spell in the top flight with Middlesbrough followed, in which Traore aptly demonstrated his blistering skill and pace.

But up until this season, it has never quite felt like he could really make the difference consistently in matches. So what’s changed?

The simple answer is end product. And it would be a correct one too. Before this season, Traore had a total of three Premier League assists and just one goal. In 2019/20 alone, he already has three assists and three goals.

His strike against Tottenham the other week was testament to that, a fine and controlled strike rifled into the top corner.

Dig a little deeper, and the stats continue to back this up. He has been averaging 1.2 key passes per game, more than all of his three previous top flight seasons.

There is one statistic that goes against the grain, though. His bad controls per game currently stands at 2.4, compared with last seasons average of 1.3. He has also been dispossessed slightly more times per game this season, 1.8 times on average compared with 1.6 in 2018/19.

But is this necessarily a bad thing? There may be a few more ‘errors’, but ultimately the effectiveness of Traore has increased dramatically.

It is an argument for giving talented players a license to express their abilities. Even if it does result in a few mistakes, the net positive effect cannot be denied.

In 2017/18, Traore enjoyed a blistering season in the Championship with Middlesbrough. He completed 7.5 dribbles per game, assisted 10 goals and score five himself.

Like this current season, he had a relatively high number of bad controls per game with 3.1, as well as being dispossessed 2.5 times per game. But the overall positive effect of him being trusted to still produce, even after making mistakes, saw him shine.

He wasn’t quite able to replicate that form last season in the Premier League with Wolves, but this season he seems to have found his legs. Traore has been scintillating this season, and has established himself as one of the most dangerous players in the league.