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Abdoulaye Doucoure laughed out loud as he reflected on his return to the January transfer window and whether he felt he had left Everton. “Yeah, maybe. There are a lot of feelings!”
Out of the first team and reportedly training on his own, Doucoure has been exiled under former boss Frank Lampard and, with his contract up in the summer, the midfielder’s time on Merseyside appears to be over.
“I almost left,” he told Sky Sports. “But in the end I stayed and I’m very happy because I never wanted to leave. I’m happy to be here and play and keep this team.
“A lot of people saw me [leaving Everton] but I always love this club, I always want to fight for this club, play for this club. Unfortunately, I didn’t have this opportunity for almost six months but I know there will be a light at the end of the tunnel.
“I kept working hard and when Sean Dyche was appointed I was very happy and just thought, ‘I’ll have another chance and [will] show in training [what I can do]… and it’s worked well for me so far.
Sitting at Everton’s Finch Farm training complex, Doucoure is relaxed and happy to chat. The transformation in positions at the club since Dyche’s arrival at the end of January has been dramatic.
After being left out of every Premier League game since August by Lampard, Doucoure has started every five of Dyche’s Premier League games.
In his first week at the club, Dyche said he immediately saw Doucoure “ready” to break into the starting XI for the win over Arsenal at Goodison Park and the Mali midfielder has repaid his faith with some lung-busting performances.
In each of Dyche’s first four games, Doucoure outscored players – including the opposition.
Only a late substitution against Arsenal at the Emirates on Wednesday prevented them from taking top spot in that metric again.
His total of 12.10km in the return against Arsenal was the highest figure set by an Everton player this season. He beat him a week later against Liverpool, going 12.12km in the Merseyside derby.
This is the attitude Dyche demands from his players. In the first press conference, he talked about the players who have to work hard and get “sweat in their shirts”. Doucoure certainly fulfilled that request.
But the numbers also add to the intrigue of the story. He is not a statistic to register if he has spent the last month under Lampard roaming the training ground. This is a player who works hard and is ready to play and support his teammates in the battle for Premier League survival.
“I hear sometimes people say, ‘He’s not ready, he’s not fit’ but that’s not true,” Doucoure said. “I’m always fit, always ready to play.
“Maybe it’s a personal matter, but it’s not a problem now.
“I just came back and showed everyone that I was ready to open and ready to help the team. I just never gave up and I Sean Dyche appreciated that.
“I feel good, I feel ready. Maybe compared to other seasons, my season started only five games ago, so I am very fresh, I want to play as much as possible. Everyone knows that I have good legs, so I will try. to help the team mentioned.”
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Unsurprisingly given his own fortunes, Doucoure is a fan of the new manager. But he said positive feelings about Dyche and the direction of travel under his management were spreading throughout the squad.
“I think the main thing is that the immediate results have improved,” he said, when asked about Dyche’s influence. “You have two wins in five games. Obviously you want more wins but it’s very different to the previous manager because we didn’t win games.
“To stay in the league you have to win games. Sean Dyche came, we won more games. We need more games and more wins but you can see the mentality is better, the players believe more.
“Before, everyone thought we were going to go down, but now it’s different with Dyche coming in.
“The confidence is better. The games, you can see the stats are better. We feel ready to compete every week and this is very different.”
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Sean Dyche believes his Everton side need to be more clinical but is not too worried about the Toffees’ lack of goals
We speak after Everton suffered back-to-back defeats against Aston Villa and Arsenal, but, as Doucoure said, the statistics of the team’s general game have improved since Dyche took over.
Scoring remains a problem but the team’s passes and touches into the opposition box are increasing. He crosses the ball more, takes more shots and faces less.
But with a trip to fellow strugglers Nottingham Forest coming up on Sunday, Everton will need to turn those positive signs into points.
“Away games have been difficult for us in the last two seasons, so Forest will be a tough place to go. But we have to change that mentality and play like we did at Goodison,” said Doucoure.
“We know we need a result and we have to take it.”
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