‘Very influential’ – Palace boss Hodgson on Cheick Doucoure’s impact

BY ANDREW MCSTEEN

Cheick Doucoure has been praised by Crystal Palace boss Roy Hodgson as his debut season in English football comes to an end this month.

With just Nottingham Forest at home on Sunday – the player is likely to add to his 32 Premier League appearances this season after he signed from French side Lens in July under previous boss Patrick Vieira.

And his impact in creating opportunities for the dangerous attacking Eagles trio of Wilfried Zaha, Michael Olise and Ebere Eze – who have propelled the South London side to safety under Hodgson – has not gone unnoticed.

“He has been very influential,” said the Croydon-born Hodgson. “He’s one of those players that plays in a position which is a bit of a fulcrum of the attacking midfield play and defending midfield play.

“His positional sense, his ability to read the game, his technical ability, and the fact that he gets around the field so well [makes him influential]. I noticed he’s up there amongst people who’ve made the most interceptions, which is nice to see.”

Doucoure currently sits in second place in the Premier League interceptions statistics, with 54 so far, eight behind leader Declan Rice, who has made 62 but played four more games.

And the 23-year-old has also made the successful translation to English football off the pitch too.

Earlier this season Hodgson said he utilised his vast language knowledge to speak French to Doucoure in some training sessions to get his message across but admitted now that is in the past.

“I don’t do it anymore,” said the former Switzerland national team manager, who took over from Vieira in March.

“Right at the beginning [I did, but] then I suddenly realised ‘you understand everything anyway, and you do speak English’. [Now] it’s almost patronising for me to speak French to him. It’s more for my good than his, so I don’t. Most of our conversations that we have [now] are in English.”

PICTURE: KEITH GILLARD