Abdoulaye Doucouré

[Aidan]

18 minutes ago, Hafnia said:

He's not just arrived mate, he's been here a good while now.  I'm not being negative but this "played bad cos of midfield partners or injury' is bollocks.

He's played well after injury, played well with good and bad partners.... We know how good he can be but he needs to find it from himself.  He just struggled with getting his head right at times, dimple as that. 

 

Yeah ive mentioned it before but i think his dip in form at times is due to a weak mentality. Fingers crossed for improvement this season. 

[Hafnia]

46 minutes ago, Aidan said:

Yeah ive mentioned it before but i think his dip in form at times is due to a weak mentality. Fingers crossed for improvement this season. 

"If" he can be that player we see run games, gliding past players, pinging passes then we are in business. He will have the perfect partners. 

[duncanmckenzieismagic]

21 minutes ago, Hafnia said:

"If" he can be that player we see run games, gliding past players, pinging passes then we are in business. He will have the perfect partners. 

The big difference now is that if he is not that player he won’t get in to the side

[Hafnia]

58 minutes ago, duncanmckenzieismagic said:

The big difference now is that if he is not that player he won’t get in to the side

Yep.  It's up to him to prove himself rather than just accepting that he will get picked regardless. 

[barryj]

22 hours ago, Hafnia said:

Final note on this:-

OUR MIDFIELD WAS A CROCK OF SHIT AND IS STILL 2 INJURIES AWAY FROM RELEGATION QUALITY.

So you are including Davies as a crock? I’m confused with your opinion. 
 

edit. Don’t respond Haf just finished work and just seen you’ve posted in the Davies thread (obviously going to check rumourama section first!) 

[Cornish Steve]

In the meantime, I think Doucoure is a good player, and we'll benefit from his presence on the team.

[SpartyBlue]

5 minutes ago, Cornish Steve said:

In the meantime, I think Doucoure is a good player, and we'll benefit from his presence on the team.

At worst he should be a solid all-arounder and a physical presence. 

[chicagoblue]

In the end he was brought in because the other two are totally unproven in the Prem and may well take a while to settle.  He's a known entity, at least to an extent.  His first two years in England he looked very decent.  Last year he really fell off.  Was that because "his head was turned" or something deeper.  We're gambling that he still has the tools to get back to his best.  The fact that the purported price (20 M) is so much lower than it was last year (45M - we offered 37.5 and that was rejected) gives me a bit of pause.  Are we all of sudden in that strong of a negotiating position, or do Watford think they know something we don't?

I expect he'll play a lot of minutes, alongside Allan against the top teams, and alongside Gomes if we're looking for more attacking intent through the middle.

 

[Tonsta]

Why in the strange world of EFC does 48 hours last for 3 weeks?

[duncanmckenzieismagic]

 

[London Blue]

Another fucking 24 hours, forget Fergie time this is Everton time 

[Drs1972]

I think / hope they want to / are going to announce all 3 signings together, and I suspect they will use De La Souls -The Magic Number over the funky transfer announcement video... We shall wait and see!!!???

[Aidan]

8 minutes ago, Drs1972 said:

I think / hope they want to / are going to announce all 3 signings together, and I suspect they will use De La Souls -The Magic Number over the funky transfer announcement video... We shall wait and see!!!???

Welcome to the forum mate

[Btay]

Going to be huge triple announcement. Hopefully on the back of that we can maybe swing a couple more deals through with that momentum. Loving this window though, Doucoure & James hopefully to add some much needed goals. Expect James to finally be that player to go 10+ goals & 10+ assists. Doucoure should get about 5-10. Getting excited.

[barryj]

I really wanted them announced one at a time and take over the media channels all day! 

[Matt]

9 hours ago, barryj said:

I really wanted them announced one at a time and take over the media channels all day! 

Not just that though. It’s a power statement. 

[Romey 1878]

10 hours ago, barryj said:

I really wanted them announced one at a time and take over the media channels all day! 

This. I think it'll be a major opportunity lost if we announce them all at once.

[Romey 1878]

 

[duncanmckenzieismagic]

6 minutes ago, Romey 1878 said:

 

And Allan sweeping up behind them!

 

[Romey 1878]

 

[Vranny]

I’ll be interested to see how we squeeze all the new signings into midfield. In an ideal world Allan and Doucoure would be playing as box-to-box mids next to a holding midfielder and I’d imagine James playing as a no. 10 or attacking 8.

I wonder if we’ll move to the diamond midfield of Ancelotti’s old AC Milan side. It might be the better option over playing the likes of Walcott, Bolassie, etc. 

[StevO]

Nice to see he’s been liking Everton tweets for the last few days. 

[Btay]

1 hour ago, Vranny said:

I’ll be interested to see how we squeeze all the new signings into midfield. In an ideal world Allan and Doucoure would be playing as box-to-box mids next to a holding midfielder and I’d imagine James playing as a no. 10 or attacking 8.

I wonder if we’ll move to the diamond midfield of Ancelotti’s old AC Milan side. It might be the better option over playing the likes of Walcott, Bolassie, etc. 

absolutely agree. Would love to see us playing this 2 attacking mids and one holding. Nice change from the 4-2-3-1 we’ve seen a lot of in the last few years.

[Makis]

6 hours ago, Vranny said:

I’ll be interested to see how we squeeze all the new signings into midfield. In an ideal world Allan and Doucoure would be playing as box-to-box mids next to a holding midfielder and I’d imagine James playing as a no. 10 or attacking 8.

I wonder if we’ll move to the diamond midfield of Ancelotti’s old AC Milan side. It might be the better option over playing the likes of Walcott, Bolassie, etc. 

James has also played in either wing / midfield. He has the work rate and is not bad at defending.

[badaids]

I’ve come round to us signing Doucoure.

I didn’t realise he’s a bit of a box to box player, good engine, can tackle, good at dribbling and can hammer a finish.

Also, he’s the type of player you hope doesn’t play against you. He always worried me when we played against Watford. So hopefully he can have that effect on other players.

[Romey 1878]

 

[SpartyBlue]

7 hours ago, Makis said:

James has also played in either wing / midfield. He has the work rate and is not bad at defending.

The book on James is that you don’t really want him defending. You want him in an attacking role in the center of the pitch where he’s free to roam a bit and to try things without having to worry about getting back to defend. That’s how he’s been used under Ancelotti in the past and under Ancelotti is where he’s been the most successful. He has played winger under Zidane (when he’s played at all) and he can get away with it a bit because he has a tremendous left foot and is a great crosser of the ball but that isn’t where he’s best as he lacks a winger’s pace. 

[Makis]

He played deeper at Bayern and excelled there as well. And AFAIK Ancelotti also played him as RW.

[Bailey]

Fourth Official also confirms the Doucoure signing. He has been ahead of everyone else so far.

I must admit I am very impressed by how we have gone about this window in the end. It might have been a bit slow but we needed a new midfield and we have one. 

[SpartyBlue]

3 minutes ago, Bailey said:

Fourth Official also confirms the Doucoure signing. He has been ahead of everyone else so far.

I must admit I am very impressed by how we have gone about this window in the end. It might have been a bit slow but we needed a new midfield and we have one. 

When you think of how much of the window we have left, I think these players have actually come quite fast. It just seems slow because of the shortened offseason. We have a month left. Ideally we’d keep players like Walcott and Bolassie around until the end to see who has what and then make a decision. Also you never know when injuries will pop up.