NUNO IS MY HERO
TRAORE HAILS ‘MASSIVE’ IMPACT OF WOLVES BOSS
LEWIS GRABBAN says he will play through the pain to lift Nottingham Forest’s promotion bid.
Top scorer Grabban, 32, is out to add to his 17-goal tally against Millwall tonight.
He has suffered knee pain for some time but with the Premier League dream in sight for fourth-placed Forest, Grabban will not be sitting it out.
The much-travelled striker said: “I feel OK, so I’ll just keep going for these last 10 games and see what happens.
“It’s slightly painful. Obviously I’ve got a little problem, but it’s nothing to worry about.
“The majority of the squad are playing with niggles or pain – it’s just part and parcel of it.
“At this stage of the season, you can’t really lose much fitness unless you take long periods out.
“It’s just about rest and recovery between games, especially for senior players like myself.We need to be fresh for the games.” Gary Rowett insists Millwall can play without fear with safety assured.
The Lions will be two points off the top six with a win tonight. Boss Rowett, below, who took over five months ago, said: “I felt within two or three years we could challenge for the top six.The initial aim was to stabilise, the main objective to make sure we weren’t battling down the bottom. “To be in the mix with 10 games to go, credit goes to the players.”
Adama Traore Premier League 2019-20 Games played 27 Games started 22 Minutes played 2,046 Goals 4 Assists 7 Total shots 34 Shots on target 9 Chances created (including assists) 37 Dribbles completed 139 lot has changed for me but the football ability has always been there.
“It’s just a little bit of adjusting, the coach, food, my team-mates helping me out a lot, and also the attitude to keep working because when you continue working hard everything eventually falls into place.”
Most footballers have pictures of their wives and kids as the screensaver on their phone, but for Traore it is the picture of a player he grew up watching at Barcelona.
“My idol was Ronaldinho,” said the 24-year-old Spaniard. “He was at a different level to anyone. There will always only be one Ronaldinho.
“Before him, Real Madrid used to win everything. They had the Galacticos where they
Dribbles success rate Touches
Touches in opposition box Premier League 2019-20 DRIBBLES COMPLETED Adama Traore (Wolves) Wilfried Zaha (Crystal Palace) Emiliano Buendía (Norwich) Allan Saint-Maximin (Newcastle) Mateo Kovacic (Chelsea) had all those top players but he came in and changed that and said, ‘We can beat these people’.
“I was at Barcelona and I didn’t get to train with him but I remember I used to go in just to watch him train.
“Ronaldinho was the definition of magic. Every moment he touched the ball you knew he was going to cause havoc.”
This season, Traore’s mother, Fatoumata, has been everpresent at Molineux.
A 100metres runner during her youth in Mali before moving to Spain, she has instilled confidence and hard work in her boy.
“One thing she taught me was belief and that I should never lose it,” added Traore.
“She said opportunities will be limited but if I focused and 69.5% 1,274 95
139 130 89 73 69
worked hard and if my mind was clear, then I would get everything I wanted.
“In life, you have to focus on your work and don’t think about the end before you get there. Before you know it, everything will come.”
With 10 games to go this season, Wolves are sixth in the table on the same points as Manchester United and still in the Europa League.
But Traore is adamant there is no need to set targets, the most important thing is to take every match as it comes.
“The mindset is not like we have to qualify for the Champions League, but I think it is that we have to take every game seriously and adapt to the changing phases of the game,” he said.
“Every game is tough, so you can’t just be thinking of qualification. We are in Europe and it’s so hard to tell what might happen, so the mindset is to be ready to fight and get something from every game.”