Exclusive: Kevin Campbell insists Everton will struggle after ‘massive blow’ to Doucoure
We’re delighted to welcome former Everton striker Kevin Campbell as our exclusive columnist. Each week the former Toffees captain will be giving his views on the biggest talking points at Goodison Park…
Kevin Campbell has reiterated how much Everton are going to miss Abdoulaye Doucoure with the midfielder set to miss the rest of the season.
Carlo Ancelotti confirmed that Doucoure will miss the rest of the season with his most recent knock proving to be worse than first thought.
Campbell claims that in the two games Everton have played without Doucoure it is easy to see how much his old side have missed the former Watford man.
“It’s a massive blow, you could see in the last few games that they miss him desperately,” Campbell exclusively told Goodison News.
“He’s someone who can put his foot in, someone who can go box to box all day. I think they missed that, they missed his size too.
“This is the really important part of the season and someone else has to step up because Doucoure has proven he’s a mainstay in that team. They are really going to miss him.”
Tom Davies is the natural Doucoure replacement but he can’t replicate the sheer presence Doucoure commands with his size.
Unfortunately, there is very little Davies can do to rectify this and that leaves Ancelotti with a big problem as he looks to guide us to Europe.
The Professor spent the summer trying to overhaul the midfield which means when his signings are injured, as Allan had been for a number of weeks, we have to use the midfield that convinced Ancelotti that this area of the pitch needed urgent attention.
This is a huge problem even though Gylfi Sigurdsson and Davies have stepped up in recent months.
While there are players who can fill in for Doucoure, there are none who can replicate what he brings to the side which means Ancelotti may have to change his system.
Whatever he does, he needs to find a solution before we blow all hopes of securing European football for next season.
In other Everton news, France manager Didier Deschamps believes that Lucas Digne is often overlooked because he plays for Everton.