2024/25 Abdoulaye Doucoure


SuperKev91 said:
I can see why he keeps being picked, there’s serious issues in this side that he masks at times. If we’d had Gana/Iroegbunam as a two in there yesterday from the start I think they’d have played through us. Doucoure basically lets you have 3 in the middle whilst also being athletic enough still to support the striker in pressing at the top end of the pitch to stop them playing out easily.

It’s pretty conservative stuff and obviously you’d prefer we were going out to hurt teams ourself but I don’t think he’s a baffling selection or anything. We know how lacking in quality he is on the ball but he did what he usually does yesterday, dirty work at both ends of the pitch from an attacking position. It hides problems we’ve got up front, in the middle and in defence.

He’s basically just there to compliment our press in both an attacking and defensive sense. Noticed it was really only him, Gana and Beto who would initiate a press (the rest followed that). Need better in that position but I think we will do once we’ve sorted out other positions.
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Does any of this explain why we won our last football match that he didn’t play and then immediately stopped winning as soon as he came back into the team?
 
MikeH72 said:
Does any of this explain why we won our last football match that he didn’t play and then immediately stopped winning as soon as he came back into the team?
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Doesn’t really mean anything that does it?

Alcaraz did well against Palace in moments to be fair. I’m not advocating for Doucoure starting just playing devils advocate to why he often does.

Think once we sign a proper centre mid, right winger, striker in the summer then the 10 could absolutely go to an Alcaraz as we’d be more functional elsewhere.

Doucoure is a conservative choice for sure but there is obvious logic behind it it’s not a ridiculous choice when our team lacks in a lot of areas.
 
SuperKev91 said:
Doesn’t really mean anything that does it?

Alcaraz did well against Palace in moments to be fair. I’m not advocating for Doucoure starting just playing devils advocate to why he often does.

Think once we sign a proper centre mid, right winger, striker in the summer then the 10 could absolutely go to an Alcaraz as we’d be more functional elsewhere.

Doucoure is a conservative choice for sure but there is obvious logic behind it it’s not a ridiculous choice when our team lacks in a lot of areas.
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Yes.
 
MikeH72 said:
Yes.
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We won a game when he didn’t play? We’ve won lots when he has as well?

Our ratio is clearly better when he does play. That’s not an indication of his quality either IMO more an indictment of how bad our squad has been. But you can’t use one game as a sample.

We’ll hopefully move away from him near the team in the summer but I can see why he plays. Look how much Tim struggled yesterday.
 

SuperKev91 said:
We won a game when he didn’t play? We’ve won lots when he has as well?

Our ratio is clearly better when he does play. That’s not an indication of his quality either IMO more an indictment of how bad our squad has been. But you can’t use one game as a sample.

We’ll hopefully move away from him near the team in the summer but I can see why he plays. Look how much Tim struggled yesterday.
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Well we haven’t really have we? He’s been a fixture in the team for the last 3 seasons, how many have we won?

Maybe there’s a common denominator in how consistently poor our attacking unit has been throughout that entire time. We played our best football at any point under Dyche against Bournemouth at home for the 86 minutes he wasn’t on the pitch. I’d like to see how we are over a prolonged period when he’s out of the team.
 
MikeH72 said:
Well we haven’t really have we? He’s been a fixture in the team for the last 3 seasons, how many have we won?

Maybe there’s a common denominator in how consistently poor our attacking unit has been throughout that entire time. We played our best football at any point under Dyche against Bournemouth at home for the 86 minutes he wasn’t on the pitch. I’d like to see how we are over a prolonged period when he’s out of the team.
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We’ve struggled when he hasn’t played as well.

Nobody is saying he’s Pele but there’s clear pros/cons to when he does play. Footballs not black and white. For specific games and scenarios I absolutely see why he plays is all I’m saying. Without him the middle two will struggle against a lot of the league. Once we’ve strengthened I don’t think he’ll get anywhere near the side.
 

Crazy that he keeps starting every game...its like playing with 10 players. Even harrison looks like messi compare to doucs today. Pass his sell by date this season. I would give one of the u21s a chance as clearly moyes has no intention of giving alcaraz too many starts.
 
gianthogweed said:
Moyes must be hoping he will pop up with a goal because other than that why is he playing
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Doucore hasn't been a goalscorer for months. He isn't a creator. He is only in here to press and provide defensive help but he isn't even effective at that role at this point in his career. I like Doucore but he is clearly not at the same level as years past and hasn't been for a while. It's frustrating when managers can't let go.
 

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