Hi, Wolves fan in peace.
I've seen a few posts that Traore has been dropped by Wolves in recent months due to his contract situation so I thought I would shed light on this.
Although it is fairly clear Traore doesn't want to sign a new contract with Wolves with the terms offered, the main reason he has been dropped is due to his goals and assists output. He's played 17/19 league games this season and has failed to register a goal or assist. For context, our goalkeeper has more goal contributions this season.
This season, we've tried to adopt a more possession style football playing slightly higher up the pitch than under Nuno. Although our attacking play in general hasn't been good this season, it's particularly hard to play a possession style approach when you have Adama playing who is constantly looking to get the ball to feet, offering no dynamic movements and taking 8-10 touches every time. One of the biggest frustrations from Wolves fans in recent years is that he seems to have the inability to make runs off the ball, in behind defenders where his pace really could be used to great effect. Instead, he will often hug the touchline and try to beat the 2/3 defenders down the byline.
As eluded to previously, the biggest problem with Traore is his goal contributions. In 121 league appearances, he has only registered 7 goals and 13 assists. When you consider that 4 goals and 9 assists of these were during the 2019/20 season during a hot phase with Jimenez, he has only scored or assisted a total of 7 goals in 2 and a half Premier league seasons outside of that.
Although I personally believe Traore is vastly overrated due to his amazing speed and dribbling ability, I do believe he could still be used effectively as an impact player or against certain opposition. For Wolves, he has often looked his best when playing against top sides who offer the space to counter attack. For context, 5 of his 7 premier league goals have come against the 'big 6' sides including a brace at the etihad 2 years ago. These games particularly benefit the team as he often finds himself deeper with a lot more space to run into. Due to this, teams often revert to tactically fouling him which often results in yellow cards and drawing fouls higher up the pitch. Being fair, these moments don't necessarily get reflected in the statistics but are very useful for getting a team like Wolves up the pitch in these games.
Alternatively to using Traore against the bigger teams, I would ever only use him as an impact sub personally when 'Plan A' isn't particularly working.