Keeping Adama Traore in January is more important to Bruno Lage than adding new players to his Wolverhampton Wanderers squad. Spain international Traore’s future at Molineux is in doubt as we head towards the January transfer window.
Bruno Lage said: “January is almost here but the most important thing is that our main players stay with us. Afterwards we can create more solutions for the team we want. More important than bringing players to our club is to keep our main players with us. Also, for the board to offer them a project. What we have in mind is to create a stronger team than we have to compete for different positions.”
Traore started Wolves’ opening five Premier League games, but he’s only started two of the last five with Lage playing tinker man to successfully improve results. South Korean forward Hwang Hee-chan has taken Traore’s place on the left side of Wolves’ attack and boasts an impressive record of four goals from his first seven league games. Traore was an unused substitute in Wolves’ 2-1 win over Everton on Monday – the team’s fourth victory in five matches.
Bruno Lage continued: “You talk about Adama… they need to understand that for me and the club they are very important. They don’t need to play every game. Adama didn’t play the last game, but he is very important for me because the team is not just 11 players. It’s more than that, it’s a squad.”
Lage is always happy to explain his selection choices and identified Francisco Trincao’s ability to find space between the lines as justification for dropping Traore against Everton. Asked whether players are willing to accept his decisions,
Bruno Lage said: “I don’t care if they understand or not, it’s my way to work. If you are comfortable, sometimes you go the easy way. If you feel threatened by a teammate, you come every day with a big ambition. What I want for tomorrow is for the team I choose to go there, do a good performance, and the guys who have a chance to go inside (the pitch, from the bench) must also do well.”
Traore will be hoping to reclaim his spot in Wolves’ attack for Saturday’s clash with Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park. The Spaniard didn’t start either of the Premier League fixtures against the Eagles last season, but he did settle an FA Cup tie between the two in January with a superb solo effort. Lage tailors his tactics to suit different opponents though, so there are no guarantees Traore will start. In his pre-match press conference Lage went into detail about the area of Traore’s game which must be improved.
Bruno Lage said: “In the beginning we were talking about where Adama can play, more on the right side or on the left. Because he’s right-footed, when he plays on the right he gives us more things when he’s open, when he’s wide. That’s what we call the ‘outside’ game. And on the left he’s ‘inside’, when you look at what he did in the first three games when he came inside to try and link with Raul (Jimenez). You can see with Hwang, when he scored the goals he’s more near to Raul, sometimes Trincao, sometimes Daniel (Podence). Adama is a guy who wants to play more wide, to have one against one with the right or the left-back. We are working with him. In the same way he can improve his inside game, the other three guys can improve their outside game. In the outside game Adama is better than these three players.”
