Leicester interested in former-Chelsea man
Leicester City’s transfer business has been relatively quiet so far this summer. But could they secure their first signing soon, in Bertrand Traore?
Leicester City have been linked with Bertrand Traore from Champions League side Lyon. Where he has scored 33 times in 126 outings for the French side since his arrival in 2017 from Ajax.
Traore, who came through the Chelsea academy before moving to Ajax, is also rumoured to have interest from Newcastle United, Everton and Crystal Palace.
Lyon already possesses Memphis Depay, Maxwell Cornet and Rayan Cherki who can play out wide, with Traore being an unnamed substitute in Lyon’s advancement to the Champions League quarter-final.
Sky Sports expert, Kaveh Solhekol, claimed that the Burkinabe international will be allowed to leave France if the right offer comes in. They paid £8.8m for his services three years ago.
If Leicester can tempt Traore to King Power Stadium, they will need to get the best out of the winger. In his opening season with Lyon, he scored 18 goals in 43 games.
However, last season he only found the net four times. This statistics will not be appealing to Brendan Rodgers, with the desperation of an efficient winger apparent after lacklustre performances from his current crop.
Often played on the right, Traore’s left-foot is predominantly his strongest foot and he possesses flair that matches Riyad Mahrez. Majority of his goals (10 out of 18) in his opening season at Parc Olympique Lyonnais were left-footed strikes.
According to FBref.com, Traore was the highest in Ligue 1 for Goal-creating actions (a pass, dribble or drawing fouls) in the 2018/19 season with 0.64 per game. Last season for the French side, he touched the ball 816 times, with 401 being inside the attacking third.
This means the winger is often deployed further up the field, with his pace utilised to damage teams on the counter, suiting how Rodgers has the Foxes playing.
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In this season’s Champions League Traore appeared in five games, starting only two. And scoring in the 3-1 victory over Benfica in November.