Adama Traore: Wolves must be more ruthless
Adama Traore insists he and Wolves must be ‘more clinical’ after they fell behind their Champions League-chasing rivals with a loss to Arsenal.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s side, although still sixth, lost ground on Manchester United, Chelsea and Leicester while the Gunners, in seventh, are not out of the running for a top-four finish.
Bukayo Saka and Alexandre Lacazette dealt Wolves their first defeat since the Premier League’s restart, and Traore, who spurned a huge chance to make it 1-1, said: “We fought until the end.
“We had a couple of chances, but we didn’t score them, me personally. It is what it is, so we have to keep working so that the next time we have the chances, we put them in.
“Arsenal had some chances, but we had ours as well.
“The difference is they scored, and we didn’t.
“We kept pushing but, like I say, they’ve had two clear chances and they’ve scored. This is the difference in the game.
“I had the chance against the keeper, and I didn’t score.
“We’ll try to be more clinical. We have to keep pushing, we have to keep working and we have to keep learning.
“This is the mentality.”
Traore chipped the ball over Arsenal keeper – and former Wolves loanee – Emi Martinez but also cleared the crossbar.
It was a disappointing defeat, especially considering the rest of the teams in the Champions League hunt won, and Nuno agreed with Traore as he said: “It’s up to us to become more clinical and better on our defensive process – like we have been doing things.
“It’s a game we need to work on. We have to analyse, see the things that we want to do and the things we were not able to do – why was that?
“Arsenal are a good team, but we need to be faster with our circulation in trying to unbalance teams.”
Meanwhile, Nuno also addressed £17million January signing Daniel Podence’s absence from the squad. He had returned to Portugal to deal with a personal issue and is now required to self-isolate for 14 days.
It is unclear exactly when the winger returned, but he is likely to miss the next couple of games, too.
“The moment he returned, we had to follow the guidelines of the government,” added Nuno.
“He’s tested already and tested negative, but he has to stay at home.”
