This article is part of Football FanCast’s In Numbers series, which takes a statistical look at performances, season-long form and reported transfer targets…
Only this week Kevin Thelwell confirmed that he didn’t expect there to be much movement in terms of transfers at Wolves this summer.
That is unlikely to make rumours of possible deals go away, however, and one player who may well still arrive is striker Stephan Bahoken.
Wolves mainly used just two forwards last term, opting for the mercurial Diogo Jota and ever reliable Raul Jimenez up top.
They scored a total of 22 Premier League goals between them as they had to shoulder the responsibility when it came to finding the net.
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Helder Costa and Ivan Cavaleiro rarely provided much quality, scoring just four as a collective in the league.
The addition of another forward, therefore, could be extremely beneficial.
However if they are to do a deal for Bahoken, who has attracted their interest per L’Equipe, they’d be going wrong.
Why? Because he’d hinder their style of play significantly.
Nuno Santo has coached Wolves into becoming a fabulous counter-attacking side, using wing-backs and well-disciplined midfielders as a method of going forward.
The two strikers, Jota and Jimenez, have also been crucial to this but Bahoken has a prominent statistic that could end up proving detrimental for the Midlands outfit if they arrived.
In Ligue 1 last season the 27-year-old averaged 3.2 unsuccessful touches of the ball per game. In comparison, Jota’s stood at 2.3 whilst Jimenez’s was 2.5 on average.
Therefore, adding the Angers forward to their frontline could slow their counter-attacks down significantly.
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If he’s losing the ball as much as his statistics prove, their play in possession of the ball would get worse.
In one game last campaign, he was unsuccessful with eight touches of the ball whilst there was another occasion where it happened seven times.
Bearing this in mind, he could prove to be hugely frustrating if he joins Wolves this summer.
The Cameroon international found the net 11 times in Ligue 1 in 2018/19, but it’s clear he has work to do in order to improve.
