The reasoning behind Tottenham's move for Adama Traore

 

There are no prizes for successfully guessing Europe's top dribbler this season despite the infancy of 2021/22. Across his two Wolves outings, Adama Traore has completed a whopping 20 dribbles, with nine of those coming against Tottenham on Sunday. For context, Spurs, as a team, completed nine. 

 

The ability to ease past an opponent hasn't helped Wolves to a positive result this season - they have lost to Leicester and Spurs and are yet to score a league goal in 2021/22 - yet the dribble machine has been named the WhoScored man of the match in both games. The performance in the latter defeat has evidently convinced Spurs to make a move for Adama ahead of next week's transfer deadline. 

 

The Spain international has two years left to run on his current deal with Wolves and despite ongoing talks over a contract extension, there has been no positive movement from either party that suggests a breakthrough is close. As such, Spurs are considering a loan move for Adama with a view to a £40m switch next summer. 

 

On the face of it, £40m is a lot for an attacking winger who has had a direct hand in just four goals since the start of the 2020/21 Premier League season, and has scored just seven goals in his Premier League career. Yet a move to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium would see Adama link up with Nuno Espirito Santo, under whom he enjoyed his most prolific Premier League campaign. 

 

 

Back in 2019/20, Adama scored four and provided nine assists for Wolves and part of the latter figure being so high was his impressive partnership with striker Raul Jimenez. Indeed, all but two of Adama's assists that season were for Jimenez to score, that the best assist-to-goalscorer combination that campaign. 

 

Unfortunately for Wolves, Jimenez sustained a skull fracture back in November, which robbed the duo of the opportunity to build upon their blossoming partnership and the Mexican's absence also heavily impacted the Wolves offensive. Coupled with the departure of Diogo Jota and it was no wonder that the Midlands outfit scored the fifth fewest goals (36) in England's top tier last term. 

 

Yet it's been reported that Spurs will either sign Adama or a new striker this summer, with the former scenario the priority. As such, there seems to be a growing confidence that Harry Kane will remain a Spurs player beyond the close of the transfer window despite ongoing reports of a big money summer switch to defending champions Manchester City and the aim would be to have Adama link up with Kane in the same way he did with Jimenez back in 2019/20. 

 

Nuno is believed to have been keen on using a system with two strikers this season, but due to the ongoing issues with Kane and a lack of depth in the role, Son Heung-Min has filled the void in a 4-3-3 system. However, a lack of movement in the market - Spurs have been linked with moves for Dusan Vlahovic and Lautaro Martinez to no avail - the north London side elected to instead make a move for another winger in Adama that would allow Son to operate closer to Kane. 

 

Given the success of the duo's partnership last season - they did combine to score 14 league goals in 2020/21, a record in a Premier League campaign - having the pair play closer together is a logical move to make. And while Adama's end product has come under criticism in the past, the Spanish winger is a player who gets bums off seats and, crucially, strikes fear into the hearts of opponents. 

 

If he can breeze past markers on a whim as he so willingly does with the likes of Kane and Son alongside him in the final third, then question marks over his end product will quickly be put to rest. Adama drags defenders towards him once he does beat a marker, so the Spurs attacking stars would benefit from the extra space afforded to them once he does utilise that WhoScored strength of 'dribbling'. Issues that couldn't be helped impacted Adama's numbers, but he still mustered a respectable 1.9 key passes per 90 in the Premier League last season.  

 

Crucially, too, is that he is a player Nuno trusts. "I think Wolves have a very good team and created us enormous problems, big big problems. One of those was Adama. Everyone knows Adama is unique and he's very hard to stop," Nuno said of the winger after Sunday's hard fought 1-0 victory. On top of that, Spurs sporting director Fabio Paratici is a huge fan of Adama's having supposedly tried to sign him for Juventus during his time with the Old Lady. 

 

While Nuno does have an abundance of wingers to call upon - Bryan Gil joined Lucas Moura and Steven Bergwijn this summer - Adama is a unique talent that would benefit Spurs as they seek to return to the Champions League this season.

The reasoning behind Tottenham's move for Adama Traore