Cheick Doucouré - A look at his Strengths, Weaknesses and Compared to Roméo Lavia

Cheick Doucouré is the latest on the list of defensive midfielders Liverpool could sign this summer to replace Fabinho and Jordan Henderson. Although the club are close to signing Roméo Lavia, it is clear that they need one more in that department before the crazy market closes.

Doucouré, who arrived at Crystal Palace from French side RC Lens last summer, was their standout midfield player during the 2022/23 campaign. He was one of the better defensive midfielders in the league when it came to disruption of opposition attacks, winning of duels and keeping things simple on the ball.

The Mali international started his career at Malian club JMG Bamako before moving to Real Bamako in February 2017. 12 months later, the 23-year-old moved to the B side of RC Lens before making his first-team debut there during the 2018/19 season.

Throughout his career so far, Doucouré has either played as a lone defensive midfielder, in a defensive midfield pivot or as a centre-back.

Let’s have a deep dive and understand the profile of the player with the help of the numbers. We will include comparison with Lavia and other defensive midfielders later on in the piece as well.

Player Profile - Cheick Doucouré

Doucouré is a slightly old-fashioned defensive midfielder whose defensive game outweighs the performance on the ball by some margin. The 23-year-old is excellent at tackling, snuffing out opposition attacks and winning duels of various nature. However, on the ball, there is simplicity to passing and not trying to be ultra-aggressive with it.

A player radar from Opta Analyst represents what is said above - 

This is against midfielders who have played a minimum of 1350 minutes.

As expected, the percentile values of defensive actions and aerial duels is more than decent. As a defensive midfielder, the first things to get judged on are probably these metrics. So, the player has passed the basic test of a number six!