Thursday 29 September 2016 09:47, UK
Friday Night Football returns to the Premier League this week and the meeting of Everton and Crystal Palace promises to be a stirring one for one player in particular. Martin Laurence of WhoScored.com assesses Yannick Bolasie's start to life on Merseyside...
The game at Goodison will be the first time that Yannick Bolasie will face his former club after a move in the summer ended a run of four years at Selhurst Park.
The £30m transfer, making him Everton's record signing, was a move that the winger claimed was a "no brainer" yet one he was not ready to take last year. Having, as he conceded, removed some mistakes from his game, Bolasie finally felt he was ready to move on.
Although Everton fell to a shock first defeat of the season at Bournemouth last weekend, it's been a strong start to life under Ronald Koeman, and their big money signing has so far adjusted very well. Bolasie admitted, "The Dutch way of playing, the Dutch way of doing everything is totally different to what I've had (in the past)," but so far the signs are encouraging and suggest that the 27-year old's game is already developing under his new boss.
A player that has divided opinion since promotion to the Premier League with Palace, making the fee spent on his services all the more alarming, Bolasie has faced criticism in the past for lacking end product. It's criticism that has certainly been justified - he has never scored more than five or assisted more than six in a season - but few players in England's top-flight have the same ability to bring about both joy and bewilderment in equal measure.
Known for being a box of tricks, his skills have ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous. From the 'Bolasie flick' past Christian Eriksen at Spurs, which baffled fans until he explained how it was done in slow motion - like an illusionist revealing that it wasn't magic after all - to the moment he stopped to touch the ground with his hands, at times it's pointless, but it's always great fun.
However, when you spend the sort of money that Everton did to bring the DR Congo international to Merseyside, fun doesn't cut it. Bolasie has a big point to prove, and significant pressure to bear on his shoulders doing so.
While it will take some time for the trickster to prove all of his doubters wrong, he's made a strong start. In just five league outings, he has already registered two assists, both of which have been put on a plate for Romelu Lukaku to score. It's this already apparent understanding with the striker that is offering most cause for optimism to Toffees fans.
Indeed, the quality of chances that Bolasie has been creating for Everton has been notable, and his delivery into the box certainly seems to have improved already. In just 373 minutes of action - markedly fewer than Kevin De Bruyne, with whom he is tied - the former Palace man has created the most 'big chances' - as defined by Opta - of any player in the Premier League this season. His tally of five is already just two behind last season's figure, Bolasie tied for 30th in the 2015/16 leaderboard with seven.
Having registered just three assists from 26 appearances last season, his final ball certainly needed to improve and we are already seeing that, most recently with a superb cross to hand Enner Valencia a chance to level proceedings away at Bournemouth. His accurate crosses per game - two - is currently double that of any season in the Premier League with Palace, with his accuracy as a percentage up substantially from 18.1 per cent in his final season with the Eagles to 29.4 per cent this time around.
While he's yet to open his account for the Toffees, how often do we see players come back to haunt their former clubs? Bolasie's form, while encouraging for Koeman, will be a concern ahead of Friday night to his old boss Alan Pardew. His statistical rating of 7.31 from WhoScored.com for the Merseysiders thus far is the highest since Bolasie was promoted with Palace in 2013 after all. With that score having improved season-by-season - from a modest 6.94 in 2013/14 to 7.14 in his final season at Selhurst Park - it seems the timing was indeed right for the winger to make the next step in his development.
As far as Friday night's game is concerned, with both sides looking to provide service for their big Belgian front men in Lukaku and Christian Benteke respectively, Bolasie could yet again have an important role to play.
