Some breakthrough seasons come later than others. Adama Traore is in his fifth year in England and at his third club. If his raw pace was apparent from the off, his emergence as one of the Premier League’s most feared attackers came altogether later.
Traore's explosiveness was apparent when he became only the third player to score three league goals in a season against Pep Guardiola's Manchester City, after Eden Hazard and Jamie Vardy.
Yet while Jurgen Klopp has described the Wolves winger as “pretty much unplayable” and Guardiola had joked that a motorcycle was required to halt him, the Spaniard only has one other league goal.
But other figures show his impact. Traore can seem to be playing a game with different rules to everyone else. He feels the least likely graduate of Barcelona’s La Masia academy, a specialist in solo runs coming from a place that produces passers.
It is not merely that Traore tops the charts of Premier League dribblers. It is that no one else is near him. The Wolves man averages 11.72 successful dribbles per 90 minutes on the pitch. Only four others – Newcastle’s Allan Saint-Maximin, Crystal Palace’s Wilfried Zaha, Southampton’s Moussa Djenepo and Chelsea’s Callum Hudson-Odoi – have even half as many.
Saint-Maximin is the most distant of seconds, at 8.51. Traore runs with the ball 40 per cent more than anyone else in the league. He runs with it more than three times the generic right winger; the divisional average is 3.97 successful dribbles per game
Nor is he unique in England. Look across Europe’s top five leagues, using the Wyscout data on the Comparisonator website, and Saint-Maximin is still third for most dribbles per game. Neymar is second, at 9.94. Traore is far clear of him.
Like Saint-Maximin and Zaha, he is an outlet, a player willing to take on an entire defence. There can be a temptation to think of him as a roadrunner on a road to nowhere, sprinting up blind alleys. Yet only Kevin de Bruyne, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Riyad Mahrez have more Premier League assists.
And only Alexander-Arnold (7.09) averages more crosses per 90 minutes than Traore, with 6.36. It is a category that is dominated by full-backs, who are less likely to have a direct opponent. Among more advanced players, only De Bruyne (5.73) is near Traore. He completes 2.43 crosses on average, the most in the league. De Bruyne is the only midfielder above 1.50.
It marks a transformation after Traore only started eight league games in 2018-19. He was often chosen as a wing-back then. It highlighted the question of what he is and how to turn pace into an end product. Before this season, he had a solitary goal in 66 Premier League games, albeit often as a substitute.
At Middlesbrough, Tony Pulis used him on whichever wing was nearest the dugout so he could impart instructions. This season Traore has played largely on the right, whether or not it has been closest to Nuno Espirito Santo’s technical area. He is not being micromanaged as much as unleashed.
If defenders’ response involves the illegal – 28 opponents have been booked for fouling Traore this season – and spectators’ reaction shows the visceral excitement high-speed dribbling can produce, the praise of other managers highlights a deeper appreciation.
There are suggestions Traore is on the elite clubs’ radar and his agent, Rodri Baster, said last week he hoped there would be a market for him this summer. The numbers show why he would be wanted.
An enigma who never scored and rarely assisted has become one of the most threatening forwards around. But he has done it in an idiosyncratic way.
