Adama Traore is in a bit of a contract stand-off with Wolverhampton Wanderers at the moment. As things stand right now, his current deal is set to enter its final 12 months at the end of the season, and the club are keen to settle his future with a new one as soon as possible. However, Traore himself appears indecisive about how long he wants to stay at the club, and he is yet to agree to recommit.
Meanwhile, the 25-year-old winger started the last two matches on the bench. He sat out the 2-1 home win over Everton last week completely, and he was brought on as a substitute for the final 22 minutes of the 2-0 defeat away to Crystal Palace on Saturday. It’s not really surprising that the media in England have tried to make out a link between the two aspects of Traore’s position at the club.
However, manager Bruno Lage is adamant the two situations are completely unrelated.
“That is the question every time. When you look for the starting team we want, every time we have to take decisions,” Lage said when asked about it after the Palace match.
“We play with Adama also against Leeds and we don’t have the chances to go in the transition. OK, I understand your question and for sure we think about it.
“We try to understand the game and to find spaces to play with Rayan (Ait-Nouri) and Nelsen (Semedo) because they are in good positions. We try to see, especially from the back, if our midfielders come with the pressure or not and to also find Hwang Hee-chan and Francisco Trincao between the lines.
“After that, we go and attack the defensive line but for that, we need to have good decisions from the back and to find the spaces, so that is why when I look at the game, it wasn’t a good performance.”
Traore’s stats for the season seem to back up Lage’s stance that his decision to omit the Spaniard from the starting lineup – he is yet to score or produce an assist, despite making a total of 12 appearances in all competitions so far.
