Lucas Digne Needs To Make Everton Move And Finally Prove Himself
I remember Lucas Digne breaking into the Lille squad and looking a real prospect.
He would also shine for the French Under-20 side alongside Samuel Umtiti, Alphonse Areola, Florian Thauvin and Paul Poga as the young Les Bleus side won the Under-20 World Cup.
Yet unlike those compatriots, Digne wasn’t in Russia winning the World Cup this summer with Didier Deschamps’ senior side.
He was seen as the long term replacement for Patrice Era and he has a decent CV to his name.
He left Lille in 2013 and ended up at the mega rich PSG revolution but he couldn’t really shift Brazilian full-back Maxwell out of the starting line-up. He played in fifteen Ligue 1 games in his debut season with Les Parisiens and then in fourteen games the season after that.
To put that into some context as a teenager in his first season with Lille he made sixteen top flight appearances and followed that up with thirty-three the next.
The lack of game time for the PSG first team stalled his development.
The Frenchman would then spend a year out on loan at AS Roma, where he’d play regular again under former Lille coach Rudi Garcia before signing for FC Barcelona in a £14m deal in the summer of 2016.
At the Camp Nou, Digne was once again seen as a back-up and his game time was again restricted.
Now when you look at the left-backs CV; you’ll see he’s played for Lille, PSG, Roma and Barca and you will also notice that he’s got Ligue 1 and La Liga championship winning medals to go alongside his Under-20s world title. You will also notice that he has accumulated twenty-one international caps for France.
Yet the truth of the matter is that he hasn’t made it at PSG or Barcelona, those top notch clubs and their coaches haven’t really trusted Lucas’ qualities.
Digne is decent going forward and he likes a pass, his passing success rate usually averages above 85% in a season.
Yet he seems a bit suspect with his positioning. I remember watching him live during his Roma days and he was caught out numerous times with a ball over the top.
Plus you always go back to the question ‘why couldn’t he make the grade at PSG or Barca?’
After being snubbed for World Cup, it seems that Digne is now ready to depart the Catalan giants and reports suggest that Goodison Park will be his next destination.
Everton are believed to be ready to spend around €20m on the full-back as new boss Marco Silva looks to find a long term replacement for Leighton Baines.
The situation with Kirkby native Leighton could be key to what happens with Digne at Everton.
Baines was second only to Dominic Calvert-Lewin when it came to Premier League assists last term for The Toffees. Leighton’s crossing quality and his ability to take well crafted set-pieces has seen the left-back become a stalwart with the blue half of Merseyside.
We already know that Lucas couldn’t squeeze out regular incumbent Maxwell at PSG nor could he take Jordi Alba’s place at Barcelona. So there’s that history of him struggling to establish himself at clubs who have already got a recognised left-sided fullback.
Now Baines missed eighteen games last term due to a calf injury and he’s not the same player he was a few seasons back. That should give Digne some encouragement but the French internationalist needs to arrive in England and take Baines place and produce the goods for Everton. He should know by now that a place won’t just be given to him, he needs to earn it and then keep it!
At twenty-five years of age, this move for Lucas Digne is vital and he needs to finally show that he can make good on his potential. He simply can’t afford to arrive in Merseyside and sit on the bench again.
Posted on July 30th, 2018 by scott
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