Adama Traoré - The season to deliver

Adama Traoré - The season to deliver. A blog article by @sjakef

With the new season now less than a week away, it’s still a little unclear in what sort of system Garry Monk is planning on setting out his troops when Middlesbrough’s first year back in the Championship gets underway.

Saturday’s friendly with Augsburg gave us some clues, and saw Patrick Bamford deployed on the right – a position he has played in the Boro red before with some success, and probably not too dissimilar a role to that which Cristhian Stuani played to such stellar effect in the first half of the promotion season.

A look at the current squad suggests that Bamford is in a straight shoot-out with Adama Traoré for that right-sided role. Whatever this says about the lack of obvious creative options behind the striker – though more incomings are apparently expected – this should be a challenge which Traoré is relishing.

Continue reading and discuss...

Watching our game against Augsburg compared to our game against Rochdale, one thing stood out, the passing combinations in the opponents half. At Rochdale Traore was standing still and waiting for the ball, and as soon as he picked up the ball made far too many touches allowing their defence to set up.

The article mentions that his dribbling is equivalent if not better than Messi, Hazard and Neymar. But the difference being is that these players use their ability to beat opposition as one facet of their game. combine this with their intelligent runs in behind opponents, one touch passing and precise finishing. Making an intelligent run behind the opposition and beating a fullback at speed when their entire defence is scrambling to get back is much more dangerous than receiving the ball standing still and giving the opposition more than enough time to recover their position.

Our first goal against Augsburg came from some neat one/two touch passing down the right hand side that left Christie with enough time to put a cross into the box, I don't think we would have seen that sort of play if Traore had been in that position. I'd prefer Bamford in this position who can be more involved in this neat play and offers a serious goal threat given the opportunity. It remains to be seen if Traore can be coached into a top quality player, the raw talent is certainly there!

Certainly a very important season for Traore. If he isn't sold he simply has to be able to break into a championship team if he wants to progress into the bigger stage again. He should be given plenty of chances this season even if Bamford starts as first choice. He has the attributes to be very dangerous game changer for us and hopefully he will now be ready to learn the trades such as pass n move and finishing. Get him into the box and he is a penalty waiting to happen with those quick feet.

The fact he didn't get off the bench on sat says a lot I'd say

The fact he didn't get off the bench on sat says a lot I'd say

This time last year there was a thread about the role of Rhodes in the team, i would suggest that Taore's position is similar.

If we are indeed asking around 15 mil for him that suggests to me that we are having high thoughts about him. If not we could probably have sold him this summer without a loss. At least that indicates that we are ready to let him show himself and not just waste away on the bench. He certainly offers something we don't have. Could be a decent weapon against wolves' new 3-4-3 system that pushes their wing back further up the pitch. After 60 mins of pushing forward I'm sure a full back would loathe seeing Traore getting ready to come on.

Unfortunately I have to disagree with the article and the Traore fans, I just don't see him improving as a player.

He's a great athlete and the quickest player I've ever seen over 5 yards but he just doesn't look like a footballer. He's positional sense is atrocious and his final ball is dreadful. He became very one dimensional as the season went on last season and I think teams figured him out.

I know players can improve with age but other players like Rooney peak in their early 20's and never get better as their physical abilities decline. I think the things he lacks are things that you learn as a teenager and if his positioning and decision making isn't there now it never will be.

Whatever we decide do with Traore is a massive gamble. I believe if we turn down an offer now we'll regret it in a year's time when he's failed in the Championship. I can also see the other side to the argument that if he can develop his deficiencies we may end up selling a future superstar.

It depends which side of the fence you sit on, I know some people think he'll end up at one of the biggest clubs in the world, I think he'll end up in something like the Greek 3rd division.

I can see both sides of it Duvel. If he doesn't make it, I can still see us getting £4-5m for him, around £10m loss on what we are supposedly asking for right now (if anyone is even willing to match anything close to that).

On the other hand, if he does do it at this level, you can see sides coming in and paying top dollar for him, either in January or in the Summer. If we go up, we've got a better player on board and with a season more of the PL under his belt he could really fetch 10 times as much as a failed Traore does in this current market.

It's a risk I'm personally willing us to take. I'm not so sure there is light at the end of the tunnel but we shall see.

Maybe the solution is to keep him until January and then try and find a buyer if he's had no impact.

We'll obviously lose money on him but at least he'll have had a chance at Championship level.