A brief thread on Lassina Traoré and his hold-up play:

The 19-year-old (almost 20) gets some criticism which is not deserved in my opinion. He has played in Europe for 2 years now and developed very well at Jong Ajax before playing regular football in the first team.

With the arrival of Sébastien Haller, he will get less time in the first team, but I think that this is a good thing as Haller can learn Traoré plenty of things.

I'm sharing some clips of him in the match against Midtjylland, to address that he is quite good in holding up play.

He missed a few (big) chances in this match and SHOULD have scored, but he didn't. However, he created a few chances and won nearly every duel against his opponent.

Obviously, Midtjylland were not near the level of Ajax, but Traoré has done this against other opponents as well.

The composure on the ball that he usually has is remarkable and I think that he has a lot of potential to be the future Ajax striker.

The current Ajax strikers are all somewhat good at holding-up play, which also is the biggest reason that Brenner does not really suit us.

Concluding, Lassina Traoré is still quite raw but I think that he has the potential to be the future first-team striker, but it all depends on how he develops and if his potential gets reached.

What also needs to be taken into account is that Brian Brobbey is a more complete striker, but that it is not certain that he will extend his contract. Regarding Danilo, he NEEDS to improve his strength on the ball if he wants to become an Ajax striker, but he also has potential.