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During Nuno Espirito Santo’s time at Molineux, Wolverhampton Wanderers were one of the most difficult teams to play against. In fact, Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City picked up merely three wins from six outings against the Midlands club throughout Nuno’s tenure and lost back-to-back games against Wolves during the 2019/20 campaign by a 5-2 aggregate scoreline.
The Portuguese coach guided Wolves to the Europa League in his first season and had a strong core of players, with the team built on defensive solidity and rapid transitions.
However, the majority of this side have moved on, including the likes of Ruben Neves, Joao Moutinho, Leander Dendoncker, Diogo Jota, Raul Jimenez and Rui Patricio, who all went to new pastures.
Nevertheless, there is one other player who was part of Nuno’s side who has had a horrendous time of it since leaving during the summer.
Adama Traore’s time at Wolves
After achieving promotion to the Premier League in 2018, Wolves broke the club’s transfer record by matching Middlesbrough’s £18m release clause for winger Adama Traore. The Spaniard had made 37 appearances in England’s top flight with Boro and Aston Villa prior to his arrival at Molineux but had failed to score a single goal in the league, registering merely three assists in the process.
Paying such a hefty fee was a risk for a newly-promoted club but one which paid off. Traore went on to play 194 times for the Old Gold, scoring 14 goals and recording 20 assists in all competitions, including 25 goal contributions in the Premier League.
At one point under Nuno, the Spain international was even linked with a move to Liverpool and the Reds’ head coach Jurgen Klopp even called Traore “undefendable” after his side scraped a 1-0 victory at Molineux back in March 2021.
Traore’s minutes for Wolves significantly dipped after Nuno left at the end of the 2020/21 season to take up the vacant position at Tottenham Hotspur and the player had lost his importance in the side.
Minutes Per Season |
Adama Traore at Wolves |
---|---|
2018/19 |
1,255 |
2019/20 |
3,834 |
2020/21 |
2,850 |
2021/22 |
1,182 |
2022/23 |
1,852 |
Stats via FBref |
Traore was even sent out on loan to Barcelona midway through the 2021/22 campaign before eventually leaving Wolves on a free transfer at the end of last season, joining ex-teammate and Wolves legend Jimenez at Fulham.
Adama Traore’s stats at Fulham
Upon moving to Craven Cottage in the summer, club chief Tony Khan admitted he was delighted to add the 27-year-old to the squad, labelling Traore as “explosive”. Traore also revealed that Jimenez was one of the driving forces behind his decision to play for Fulham. However, the attacker’s time in London hasn’t gone as well as he’d hoped.
Since joining the Cottagers, the winger has made just four Premier League appearances and featured once in the EFL Cup, playing merely 101 minutes of football in total. Furthermore, Traore has yet to start for the club in England’s top tier this term.
Having picked up a hamstring injury during the September international break, Traore has missed the last nine matches but returned in Fulham’s recent outing in a 3-1 defeat to Aston Villa, coming off the bench for nine minutes.
Jimenez’s spell at Craven Cottage has been quite disastrous this season too but the Mexican has still managed to outperform his former teammate at Molineux.
Per 90 Metrics |
Adama Traore |
Raul Jimenez |
---|---|---|
Goals |
0 |
0.13 |
Expected Goals |
0.42 |
0.23 |
Assists |
0 |
0 |
Expected Assists |
0 |
0.05 |
Successful Take-Ons % |
66.7 |
50 |
Key Passes |
0 |
0.79 |
Stats via FBref |
Despite sitting on £63k-per-week at Fulham, the forward has contributed little to nothing since moving to the club during the summer and has been a disastrous signing thus far with one-third of the season gone.
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