- Nationality: Senegal
- Age: 16
- Date of Birth: 06/05/2007
- Current club: Diambars FC
- Position: Left Back
- Secondary position: Centre Back
- Preferred foot: Left
- Height: 180 cm
- Contract: Unknown
Lassana Traoré is a Senegal U17 left back who currently plays for Diambars FC. He recently won the 2023 AFCON U17 with the Senegal U17 national team and reports suggest he recently had a trial with Stade Brestois 29 of Ligue 1. In this report we will look at his style of play and analyse his defensive and offensive qualities.
Traoré is a very attacking minded fullback who loves to get forward whenever possible. He possesses rapid acceleration which allows him to outrun his opponent with ease. Traoré frequently shows that he has a good first touch, although he does sometimes struggle to control the ball when collecting it at speed. Lassana will often look to link up with the winger playing in front of him, as we can see in the images blow. He plays a pass into his teammate, uses his acceleration to get away from his opponent and collects the ball as it is played back into his path.
He gets into some excellent crossing positions which will most likely be very fruitful for any team that he plays for. His crosses are mostly good quality, he has a good delivery and can put the ball into dangerous areas for teammates to attack. Additionally, Traoré has a good delivery when taking corners which is another useful attacking trait.
As we can see here, he loves to make overlapping runs beyond the winger in front of him. Traoré’s desire to get forward in the attacking phase means that he is a great outlet on the left wing. He will often stay wider and either look for crossing opportunities or to play the ball to a teammate in more central areas. He has good close control and uses his first touch to ensure his opponent cannot get to the ball.
When 1v1 with a defender, he will mostly opt to use his speed to create enough space to then play in a teammate. Traoré’s ability to cover the ground quickly proves to be useful when building an attack from the back as he is able to force the opponents back. Plus, during transition from defence to attack, he can quickly be on hand to progress the play as his team look to take advantage of ultra-quick transitions.
Despite his young age Traoré is very physically strong, he possesses an excellent amount of explosive power which provides him with a good jumping reach and ability to win the aerial duels. The Senegal U17 international also excels in the ground duels, displaying some good defensive intuition and is able to use his strength to prevent his opponent progressing the opposition attack. In some cases, he has shown some very smart play, drawing the opposition player into committing a foul so the attack is immediately halted.
Traoré has also been deployed as a centre back on occasion. By doing this it of course limits his ability to get forward and be an attacking outlet for his team, therefore he is much more suited to playing as a left back.
He displays good ability to read the game and is able to make interceptions to cut out the opposition attack. The left back doesn’t go to ground too often, although when he does it is often 50/50 as to whether he comes away with the ball. It is worth noting though, his tackles are often well considered and controlled.
However, sometimes Traoré is a little too keen to follow his man. This means he will step out of the defensive structure which leaves space for the opposition to exploit as we can see above. Traoré then relies on his speed to make important recovery runs in order to get back into the team’s defensive shape. Given that he is a young player, perhaps this can be put down to some over eagerness to regain possession.
To conclude, Lassana Traoré is an exciting left back and is one to watch to the future. He has already caught the eye of some Ligue 1 sides so it will be interesting to see where his career goes. Of course there are aspects of his game that need improvement but even at such a young age, he already displays some immense qualities that will only get better with time.
