2021/22 Abdoulaye Doucouré

[TheBigIguana]

He definitely played like a support striker a lot because his hold up play and especially his chest control was unreal but I think when he was at peak he broke up loads of opposition play and was like a slow but dynamic box to box.
Truly an incredible player on his day, strange that he never really made a dent in football after leaving us, he put in some truly unplayable performances at times.

I just remember his last year here he was a beast in the penalty area and scored a fair bit but then Moyes brought him to United explicitly as a holding midfielder and he was terrible at it. I think the bit about breaking up play was not actually something he was that good at which was kind of the problem.

Weirdly Doucoure is kind of similar.

 

[BlueToff]

I thought he started well, looked a bit lost, and then came into his own when the game started opening up.

 

[The binman chronicles]

Absolute colossus today. He outlasted the opposition and came into his own, was everywhere.

 

[NathDogg]

In the blue
Playing the Everton way
Box to box
Never slowing all match
He’s the duke
Baby he’ll give you his all
He’s the duke
Opponents will never stop him

Abdoulaye Doucoureeeeeeeey

Yeah sorry lads bit happy after that one and getting on the cans for my birthday

Like this mate - no need to apologise.

Can the gwlady get this going please, we need some new and original player songs.

 

[atypicalusername]

Absolute colossus today. He outlasted the opposition and came into his own, was everywhere.

So different to the lead booted headless chicken from last year. I'm made up we may have a successor to Tommy G finally.

 

[SteStocksDJ]

Glad he took his chance but he slowed us down a lot today in attack for no real reason. His worst game this year but should be easy to fix.

Absolute colossus today. He outlasted the opposition and came into his own, was everywhere.

I’m so confused.

 

[The binman chronicles]

I’m so confused.

He was easily man of the match today so hopefully he keeps playing to his worst match standards!

Tbf the whole team were guilty of not moving the ball quickly enough today.

 

[TheBigIguana]

MOTD having a segment after the game highlighting how good Doucs was today, but according to you he was bad.

Yeah, stick to Golf.

Watched it. They've shown five passages of play. Three from the first half. I swear to God two of those were moments where I said that was good more of that. May have done in the match thread even but I can't remember. But that was it. Those were the only moments. We had too much of the ball, and he had too much of it, for him to make two useful runs forward and a switch of play in the whole first half. And then they've shown one other touch and the goal in the second half. It's not much of a breakdown.

I don't have access to the whole game so I'm not going to be able to do my own edit that cuts out all the things I didn't like, but just in the future watch for him picking up a ball off a change of possession in the middle third and going backward with it when he doesn't have to. He's not been doing it a lot this year and that's been really really good, but today he did and he needs to not again.

I think saying he was bad was harsh on reflection. But I really do think if I'm doing match ratings he's like a 5 or 6 without the goal. Just fine. Add it in and I guess 7? Maybe still 6. The only one who I'd really go higher with is Gray. It was a very meh performance all around.

 

[Goat]

Watched it. They've shown five passages of play. Three from the first half. I swear to God two of those were moments where I said that was good more of that. May have done in the match thread even but I can't remember. But that was it. Those were the only moments. We had too much of the ball, and he had too much of it, for him to make two useful runs forward and a switch of play in the whole first half. And then they've shown one other touch and the goal in the second half. It's not much of a breakdown.

I don't have access to the whole game so I'm not going to be able to do my own edit that cuts out all the things I didn't like, but just in the future watch for him picking up a ball off a change of possession in the middle third and going backward with it when he doesn't have to. He's not been doing it a lot this year and that's been really really good, but today he did and he needs to not again.

I think saying he was bad was harsh on reflection. But I really do think if I'm doing match ratings he's like a 5 or 6 without the goal. Just fine. Add it in and I guess 7? Maybe still 6. The only one who I'd really go higher with is Gray. It was a very meh performance all around.

You funny.

 

[TheBigIguana]

You funny.

Whatever.

I do think the thing about Doucoure is his good moments are spectacular, they stick in your head even when they aren't goals or assists and his bad stuff is much more subtle, things like misreading and being out of position, making the wrong pass or being conservative when something is on. He doesn't do bad giveaways or terrible miscontrols so it just kind of gets swept under. He's probably the leading example of looks great but maybe isn't.

I don't want to say he hasn't been good this year though as he has. But small sample and all that. That last bit was very true last year when people also thought he was great.

 

[Goat]

Whatever.

I do think the thing about Doucoure is his good moments are spectacular, they stick in your head even when they aren't goals or assists and his bad stuff is much more subtle, things like misreading and being out of position, making the wrong pass or being conservative when something is on. He doesn't do bad giveaways or terrible miscontrols so it just kind of gets swept under. He's probably the leading example of looks great but maybe isn't.

I don't want to say he hasn't been good this year though as he has. But small sample and all that. That last bit was very true last year when people also thought he was great.

Oh mate, you want perfection, a noble cause, but a cause that will never let you enjoy the little imperfections that life has to offer.

Hes a decent player with moments of great play, he wins games, hes far from perfect, he makes mistakes, he passes backwards, he makes wrong decisions and you know what, the best players in the world do all that, cos you know, humans.

Now granted the better players do it less.

He was good today, he drove the ball, he won possession and he scored a very well-worked goal and instead you are highlighting the wrong things he did.

Personally, I ignore everything bad when Everton win, cos quite frankly, thats all I care about, I ignore that 1 of the worst teams in the league actually gave us a bit of a roasting for a large period of that 2nd half. Take the W and move on to the next game bruh.

 

[USABlue]

I like him

 

[TheBigIguana]

Oh mate, you want perfection, a noble cause, but a cause that will never let you enjoy the little imperfections that life has to offer.

Hes a decent player with moments of great play, he wins games, hes far from perfect, he makes mistakes, he passes backwards, he makes wrong decisions and you know what, the best players in the world do all that, cos you know, humans.

Now granted the better players do it less.

He was good today, he drove the ball, he won possession and he scored a very well-worked goal and instead you are highlighting the wrong things he did.

Personally, I ignore everything bad when Everton win, cos quite frankly, thats all I care about, I ignore that 1 of the worst teams in the league actually gave us a bit of a roasting for a large period of that 2nd half. Take the W and move on to the next game bruh.

I don't want perfection. I want a player who played well for 6 weeks to not return to the bad habits that made him not play well last season for long stretches. He drove us forward like twice which is a a step down for him this year. The goal is masking that his level slipped today. He's better than this. We've seen it.

I'm happy we won but we're talking about what happened and I'll never be one to simply say we won so everything is great. I'd actually say on the whole I feel fine about that showing. We played with a striker who is currently not even championship level and still created enough to win the game. I'll take that. But it was also a terrible team so we need to improve on it.

 

[BlueInNZ]

Watched it. They've shown five passages of play. Three from the first half. I swear to God two of those were moments where I said that was good more of that. May have done in the match thread even but I can't remember. But that was it. Those were the only moments. We had too much of the ball, and he had too much of it, for him to make two useful runs forward and a switch of play in the whole first half. And then they've shown one other touch and the goal in the second half. It's not much of a breakdown.

I don't have access to the whole game so I'm not going to be able to do my own edit that cuts out all the things I didn't like, but just in the future watch for him picking up a ball off a change of possession in the middle third and going backward with it when he doesn't have to. He's not been doing it a lot this year and that's been really really good, but today he did and he needs to not again.

I think saying he was bad was harsh on reflection. But I really do think if I'm doing match ratings he's like a 5 or 6 without the goal. Just fine. Add it in and I guess 7? Maybe still 6. The only one who I'd really go higher with is Gray. It was a very meh performance all around.

What absolute dribble.

 

[roy vernon]

Every time I watch Doucoure I am amazed by his fitness levels. Perhaps he could become Rondon’s personal fitness trainer.