Abdoulaye Doucoure has told the Liverpool Echo that his assist to set Demarai Gray up to score against Burnley in Everton’s win in September was among his career-high moments.
The Frenchman created two goals as the Toffees came from behind to win 3-1 after a six-minute turnaround. Ben Mee had put the Clarets ahead in the early-season encounter at Goodison Park, before Michael Keane, Andros Townsend and Gray flipped the scoreline.
Doucoure threaded a ball through to Townsend and Gray to pull the strings on Merseyside. The 29-year-old’s pass for the Gray’s hit carved through the visitors’ backline with piercing precision. And he almost scored himself for Everton’s fourth, but for the offside flag.
Doucoure sets out Everton mission for rest of season
Doucoure had offered one assist before feeding Townsend and Gray to help Everton beat Burnley in September. But he has only offered one more assist in his following 10 Premier League outings. The midfielder has also not scored since netting a second in September.
Nonetheless, his four assists is a personal-best return for the Toffees and his second-best top-flight haul in England. He offered six in 35 games for Watford in the 2018/19 season.
Now, Doucoure aims to continue improving his goal involvements tally over the second half of the season. He also tips his assist for Gray as a personal-high moment so far in his career.
“I want to put this number a little bit higher, especially in terms of goals,” Doucoure said. “I want to score more goals. Yeah, I’m very happy with the assists so far, I’ve already broken my record from last season. So, I’m happy with that.
“It means I’ve improved on something already. But of course, I want to improve that further for the second half of the season. My favourite assist was the one against Burnley, that pass to Demarai. It was one of my favourite in my career!”
Benitez will hope for a better run to the end of the season, too
Doucoure has played the full 90-minutes in all 14 of his Premier League appearances for Everton so far this season. He also played 46-minutes against Hull City in the FA Cup last weekend, but failed to improve his goal contributions.
Rafa Benitez will hope the Toffees’ £20m signing from Watford in 2020 can rediscover the output he showed early on. The Blues have only won twice in the Premier League when he has not influenced the scoring this term. Only one of those wins have come since August.
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