It’s like last summer we thought, let’s buy the exact opposite of Connor Gallagher in the midfield department. Douc does what he does really well, we just need that Connor Gallagher type in there with him now and we’d have a brilliant midfield

Sorry to keep mentioning Connor Gallagher, because I know it winds some people up that some can’t let go

In defence of his poor shooting skills...

I was listening to a game when a pundit said that, when the ball is cleared out of defence from a set piece and it lands outside the box, players are encouraged to shoot.

Even if they clear row Z, it is preferable to the player being caught in possession and a rapid counter attack while your defence are still in the box.

Looking at the highlight reel of Jefferson Lamar couple of days ago ( it was posted on here) I was impressed by how many goals were on it from corner knock downs around the penalty spot -

On Doucoure - Yes some of his are wayward but he has also had a bunch where he clearly tried hard to do better with them being solid on target shots that got blocked by defenders & falling bodies.

An indispensible player doing the ugly work as a defensive midfielder, and doing a fantastic job of it. I went to 6 games this season (I'm a lucky charm, 5 wins and a draw !) and I thought his understated contribution was essential to our performance. He has room for plenty of improvement when he goes forward (yes his shooting was not great), but he's very young, and still performed so well. In my view we have 6 players who should be in a team at least challenging for Europe (Andersen, Guehi, Doucoure, Eze, Olise, Zaha). and Doucoure is one of them.