Everton have signed Lucas Digne from Barcelona on a five year deal for a fee believed to be around £18 million. The French International joins the Toffees as their second signing of the summer as they look to strengthen their defence ahead of the 2018/19 Premier League season.
Lucas Digne has 21 caps for France; however he did not make the squad for the 2018 World Cup, but was on standby. He did make the squad when France came runners up in the Euro’s however he did not feature. In addition to this he also has 72 caps for the various youth levels, winning the World Cup with the u20’s.
Here’s what Digne has had to say about his move:
“I want to show my best football here and discover the best league in the world. Everton is a big club with a great history. I want to play games, win games and excite the fans with the quality of our football.”
Fantasy Premier League Potential (5.0m)
Lucas Digne is predominantly a left back and will therefore be challenging Leighton Baines for that starting spot. The amount they have invested in Digne leads to think that he will be the starter, rather than the ageing Baines who is now 33.
Digne has played at some prestigious clubs, such as PSG, Roma and Barcelona. That said, whilst at Barcelona and PSG, Digne struggled to get a position in the starting XI, but made 51 league appearances across 4 seasons, scoring 1 and assisting 4 in that time. It was whilst on loan with Roma that he had his first full season in a starting position, with 33 league games during 2015/16 season, scoring 3 and assisting another 3.
At Everton it is likely that Digne will start over Baines, but he doesn’t quite have the offensive threat that Baines has had in the seasons gone by. What Digne will offer is better clean sheet potential and he will be picking up FPL points through potential clean sheets. Digne won 77.3% of his tackles (Baines – 52.0%) and also averaged a pass completion rate of 87.9% which should improve Everton’s back line.
Everton’s first five fixtures are as follows; Wolves (A), Southampton (H), Bournemouth (A), Huddersfield (H) and West Ham (H). All of these fixtures have the potential of a clean sheet, thus Digne or other Everton defenders could provide a good investment this season. That said, their pre-season form hasn’t been the best with just 1 clean sheet in 5, but Digne could be just what they need!
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[…] needed for a while now. Everton clearly chose the left side to strengthen with the addition of Digne too, and those two could have a good relationship when playing together. With talks of Bolasie […]