Football fans rarely share exactly the same opinion about a player, but one man who seems to have defied that logic is Adama Traore.
It is almost universally accepted that the wolves are basically just an athlete without a football brain, and in some ways it is quite nice that the football world has put its differences aside to finally agree on something.
The only problem is that they are wrong. What is the chance?
Adama Traore won a superb winner against Fulham on Friday night | Pool / Getty Images
It would be completely naive of us to try to convince you that without his ridiculous ability to go from a standstill to a 0.7-second sprint, he would still have the same quality, but that’s almost as stupid as when people claim that some teams do not would be just as good if you took their best players from the side – having good players is kind of a point, right?
At the risk of sounding cliché, Traore is about pace, power and athleticism, but there is so much more to his game than just being a flat bully.
The Spaniard recently produced without a doubt the best assistance we have seen in the Premier League this season in Wolves’ narrow defeat against West Ham. After picking up the ball in his own half, the jet-heeled wing jumped out of a challenge before applying the afterburners and advancing into the Hammers half.
After showing off his ability to run at a brisk pace while maintaining control of the ball – something he has rarely been credited with, you know, for ‘he just runs fast’ – he showed the noise to put on the brakes with the opposition defender prominent, before jumping away from the highly acclaimed Vladimir Coufal with a weak sponge of his weaker foot.
Then came the part he obviously can not do, the only problem is – he can.
The former Middlesbrough man showed the composure to pick up his head and constantly himself before whipping a brilliant ball in the middle and placing it on a plate for Leander Dendoncker to go home.
Very little was done by the assistant considering its quality. Was it because the resulting goal turned out to be just a consolation, or was it because Traore who proved that he has a football brain does not quite fit the story created that he was just a sprinter?
It’s not for us to say, but we all know as football fans that we do not like that our opinions about players turn out to be wrong.
After producing an assist that deserved a Ballon d’Or nomination alone, Traore’s supreme winner at Fulham four days later secured all three points for Nuno Espirito Santos’ side at Craven Cottage, but that should probably not come as much of a surprise. that the Spaniard’s first Premier League goal in 16 months came as soon as after his moment of Molineux magic.
Adama Traore was incredible at Middlesbrough | Clive Mason / Getty Images
The 25-year-old is the symbol of a self-confident player and Nuno’s decision to try to shoehorn him into various positions as a right-back in recent times has obviously had a huge detrimental effect on his self-confidence.
Spain’s international is the type of player who needs an assurance from a coach that he is the team’s biggest threat of attack, and the decision to shoot him to a position he did not know – and in which he ultimately could not perform – seems to have taken its toll.
Traore’s fragile self – confidence has held him back since he moved to England in 2015 and his two-year spell with Boro highlighted that fact.
Despite some fleeting quality outbursts under Aitor Karanka, Traore struggled to cement his place in Middlesbrough starting XI and Garry Monks’ service threatened to completely trace his time on Teesside.
However, the arrival of Tony Pulis breathed life into his Boro career and within a few months he had transformed from someone who could not even get a game at the club into the best player in the championship.
Adama Traore is a brilliant talent Malcolm Couzens / Getty Images
A run with five goals and eight assists on 17 league trips saw him courted by top teams across the country, and after proving what he could do at Wolves, it was talk of the Premier League champions that shot him £ 70 million.
You do not just lose that kind of ability overnight. Confidence is a very delicate matter – especially for Premier League footballers who scrutinize every move. It just seems strange that players like Jesse Lingard are accepted to be confident players who will eventually bounce back, but Traore is ‘just a sprinter’ because he is fast.
Traore is much, much more than that – he can be an absolute world hit, he just needs to handle it right.
