0 goals and nearly 25 but Adama Traore should still interest Liverpool

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Liverpool should still hold an interest in Adama Traore, despite his lack of goals this season. The Reds reportedly want the Spaniard.

Adama Traore has zero Premier League goals this season. In fact, he hasn’t got an assist, either, despite featuring in 18 games and starting 11.

So why’s that all relevant? Well, Liverpool reportedly want the winger.

Sport claimed on Tuesday that Liverpool were one of three Premier League clubs hoping to prize him away from Wolves. The others being Leeds United and Manchester City.

Most notable is the price – Wolves would want around £36m for the player.

It’s also worth noting that Sport put out largely the exact same report on the 13th. We’re not sure why.

Regardless, Traore is one of most interesting prospects in football right now. It’s no great surprise that Liverpool like him.

Traore is as rapid as it gets and he matches that pace with pure strength. No one catches him when he gets going, while he’s virtually impossible to shrug off the ball.

When he’s at his best, that is. Traore has not been at his best to the extent that even a £36m fee seems high.

Regression

A year ago, there was plenty of hype around Traore. The hope was that he’d finally discover a reliable final ball – it’s all well and good running with it, but you need to give it up eventually.

And per Whoscored, Traore is still around where he was in terms of key passes. He averaged 1.3 per game last year and is at 1.4 this term.

But for a player who fits the out-and-out winger style, his crossing has fallen off a cliff. He’s at just 0.7 per game this year, down from 1.2 last year.

That’s a big fall. It means that this season, he’s probably not going to complete a cross against you. That limits his ability to stretch the play and, overall, just makes him less of a threat.

Shooting has had the exact same drop-off, strangely – down from 1.2 shots per game to 0.7. While dribbling, too, isn’t the same. Traore completed five per game last year but is now at 3.7.

The biggest concern, though, is the zero Premier League goals and assists. No matter what he’s doing, it’s not coming off as a definitive impact.

It’s a clear regression this season and it comes as he’s about to turn 25. He’s no longer a young player – we should be seeing him gradually develop into the player he’s going to be.

Instead, he’s gone backwards.

And yet, we still think Liverpool should be interested here. Traore has such fantastic raw tools that we’d still love to see what Jurgen Klopp and co. could do with him.

He’s potentially the dream counter-attacking, heavy-pressing player. Wolves aren’t quite getting that out of him, though. Could Liverpool?

£36m might still be too high to take a chance on that and the Reds should be very cautious about this one. Still, it’s one they should definitely watch – the potential remains very high.