Be interesting to see what his stats are like for success take ons if you had that available? He's good when there are big spaces to run in and you get defenders making reckless decisions, back him majority of times to get that little nick on the ball ahead of them to get by them, or he often appears to slow down and wait for them to get closer to buy a foul at times, but I don't feel he has anything like the same success when things get tighter and he's trying to get the better of a well positioned defender who's happy to just stand him up. Obviously Traore has it in his locker to make those situations look easy with his pace and both Neto and Podence have a few more tricks up their sleeves twisting and turning to try and shake off the attention of defenders but I don't see that in Jota personally.
https://www.footballslices.com/stats/235755
So he is in the 95th percentile for amount of successful dribbles, but he also attempts a lot and is in the middle for success rate. Adama has a higher success rate (no surprise) whereas Neto's is lower. Podence's much higher so far for us, but that's from about a 10th of the minutes. I do think Podence is probably going to be someone who completes more in general though as I agree technically he is very, very good.
Movement off the ball I'll give you, he has the most variation there as he'll both come short and try to run in behind, Podence so far only really shown the former, Traore still not much of anything at times but he's certainly better in this regard than when he signed and I think Neto is a bit of a loose cannon at times, seems to flit around all over the place and could potentially lead to problems with the defensive shape in some games.
I think he's inconsistent generally, not just his goal scoring, when things are clicking for him all manner of things go wrong for him rather than just not getting on the score sheet. He does, as you say, though get into goal scoring positions better than the other wide forwards, though he has spent a lot more time playing centrally than any of the rest of them, both at Wolves and before, so it's not surprising he's more au fait with that part of the role.
Don't disagree with this but think this is due to a range of factors including luck, and age! Think in the next couple of years will find out either way mind. Even in a front three, he is still the one who gets in most positions to score where he pops up in the box, often at the back post.
He's a good player to have around but I don't think he should be held up in any special regard as a guaranteed starter in every game or irreplaceable, I think he's best suited to the games against the better sides where his defensive discipline shines through compared to the alternatives and his direct running helps make the most of counter attacking situations. Against the more negative teams where there isn't that space to exploit I think he lacks a bit of guile to make the most of the smaller pockets of space that need to be taken advantage of and doesn't really do anything unpredictable to unsettle those organised defences.
I'd definitely be interested in Marc Roca as previously mentioned. Buendia too though he may suit our system/style slightly less?
