View: Digne shines in left-wing role as Everton grab three points at Wolves
Lucas Digne made his first Premier League appearance in almost two months as Everton beat Wolves 2-1 away at Molineux on Tuesday night.
The 27-year-old had missed the Blues’ last seven matches before he was handed a 66-minute-long run-out against Rotherham in the FA Cup at the weekend.
He was once again in the starting line-up on the left-wing on Tuesday as Carlo Ancelotti’s men earned all three points in the West Midlands with the French flyer supplying an assist in the process.
Digne made the most of James Rodriguez and Gylfi Sigurdsson’s roles as false-nines in a strikerless Everton formation at Wolves.
As you can see in the image below, in the build-up to the goal, Digne was patrolling the left-wing with acres of space ahead of him.
As soon as Digne sees Rodriguez pick up the ball, he starts to attack the space in behind the Wolves defence, inside the penalty area.
Digne knows that a player of Rodriguez’s technical ability can pick out a pass to him if he can get the jump on the home side’s defence – which he does.
Just before the ball drops to Digne inside the penalty area, he spots Alex Iwobi running into the penalty area.
In most cases, a winger would either take a touch or instantly cross the ball in towards the penalty spot in the hope a striker can get on the end of it.
However, the calculated Digne spots Iwobi with space in front of him and instead picks out a pass to the former Arsenal man.
Iwobi then gets the ball onto his right foot and shoots at goal, handing Everton the lead at Molineux and set them on their way towards a huge three points as they bid to qualify for Europe this season.
According to stats by Wyscout, Digne attempted three dribbles, six crosses, had two touches inside the penalty area and was involved in five offensive duels against Wolves.
Per 90 minutes of Premier League football this season, Digne has attempted 1.89 dribbles, 6.32 crosses, 1.26 touches inside the box and been involved in 4.11 offensive duels.
Looking at the stats, you can see how much more attack-minded Digne was against Wolves and that is backed up when you look at the Frenchman’s heatmap at Molineux and in the Premier League as a whole this term.
Digne still managed to chip in defensively despite his advanced role by making three recoveries and five interceptions, as well as winning two of his six defensive duels.
We won’t go as far to say it was a Digne masterclass away at Wolves but the fact that the left-back performed so well, slightly outside his positional comfort zone, is very encouraging after a lengthy spell on the sidelines with an injury.
Everton don’t play again until Sunday when they take on Aston Villa at Villa Park before waiting a week until their FA Cup clash with Sheffield Wednesday.
Digne’s recovery from injury is almost complete and once Dominic Calvert-Lewin is back up front, we’re bound to see the former Barcelona ace shining as he did before his setback.
In other Everton news, here are our player ratings for the 2-1 win at Molineux.