Abdoulaye Doucoure, a divisive figure amongst the Everton support base, was last week, subject of a fascinating tell-all interview with the overlap Podcast.
Following a changing room bust up towards the end of Frank Lampard’s Everton tenure, Doucoure was sent to train alone. Stating he felt ‘disrespected’ by his manager’s lack of communication and refusal to trust him the Mali international came ‘very close’ to signing elsewhere following talks with ‘a couple of clubs in the Premier League.
Two years later Doucoure remains a Toffee and an integral part of the everton squad. Repaying Sean Dyche’s unwavering faith in his ability, Doucoure has written his name into the history books, providing numerous huge moments. So why does the Goodison park faithful remain split on him and why will history be kind to the midfielder?
Doucoure’s technical deficiencies
When assessing the criticism of Doucoure, it is important to concede his technical deficiencies. Though signed as a box-to-box midfielder, Doucoure lacks the defensive discipline as well as the technical ability to play in a midfield pivot. This has therefore led to his utilisation as the most advanced of a midfield three and more regularly, under Dyche, where he arguably thrived most, as a second striker.
Attacking midfielders are widely renowned as the most capable players in possession, the creative hub from whom moments of genius and innovation can spark. Doucoure is far from that. His technical limitations, clumsiness and ineffectiveness in settled possession has meant people have often misunderstood his necessity in the role.
In a side which has languished towards the foot of the table, much of Doucoure’s good work at Everton over the past few years has been off the ball and more pertinently, in transition. A really adept presser, with bags of energy, Doucoure ran 12.1 km, breaking the record for the most distance covered in a single game by an Everton player in Dyche’s first game at the helm, a 1-0 win over arsenal, whilst also covering the third largest distance of all premier league players in the first half of this season.
Doucoure’s ability to pick up second balls alongside his knack, ironically much like Frank Lampard, to arrive late in the box in clinical style, transports Everton up the pitch and reduces the burden on Everton’s struggling strikers in a style less synonymous with number 10s. His nineteen goal involvements in the two years since Dyche’s appointment are comfortably the most of any everton player, and no mean feat when considering Everton’s attacking woes from open play.
Everton’s record without Doucoure
Prior to Saturday's win at Selhurst Park, Everton had not won a game of football Doucoure has not started in since a 3-0 home win against Crystal Palace in October 2022, a time period encompassing Dyche’s whole tenure. Though he succeeded most evidently under the former Burnley boss, Everton’s record with him contrasts greatly to when he is unavailable or not selected across his whole spell at the toffees. Under Carlo Ancelotti the 1.7 points per game with him in the 11, dropped to 1.1. His absence saw a fall from 1.2 points per game, to a dismal 0.25 during Rafael Benitez’s tenure, and even fell from 1.08 to 0.64 in a Frank Lampard system that oftentimes refused to accommodate the former Watford man.
The moments that defined him
If the statistic led argument is not enough for you, then the moments Doucoure provided Everton should be. The Merseyside Derby antics, the fastest ever goal at Goodison Park goal in a 4-0 win against Leicester, two brilliantly taken goals in a freakish 5-1 away win at Brighton, when relegation seemed a near certainty and most poignantly the goal that have saved the clubs perennial premier league status. But for Doucoure’s exceptional half-volley against Bournemouth on the final day of the 2022/2023 season, Leicester would have survived in place of the toffees on goal difference.
This article is not to say Doucoure is not upgradable. He is slowing down and is not likely to take Everton to the next level, due to his age and ineffectiveness in games where Everton have more control of the ball. With his contract with the club coming to an end in the summer, a potential renewal will likely see a slight wage decrease, however, the statistics do not lie. Doucoure has been imperative in securing the Toffees’ top flight status and is without doubt one of the most successful transfers of the Moshiri era. Easy on the eye? No. However, in the same vein Doucoure said history will remember what Sean Dyche did for Everton fondly, Doucoure will be revered by the Everton faithful in years to come, as a key figurehead of the restabilization, prior to the transition to Bramley Moore Dock.
