The people's choice at winger is our latest under the microscope
Dango Ouattara, the skillful striker that succeeds at Bournemouth - ELXIIDEAL
The people have spoken, and the people want to know more about Dango.
It’s no surprise, really. Dango (pronounced DAHN-go) has burst onto the scene this season for injury-riddled Bournemouth, for whom he’s got 7 goals and 4 assists in 16.6 Premier League 90s. He’s out heretaking penalties with no run-up, and generally pleasing the masses with his hard-running, fun-as-hell brand of football. The 23-year-old’s numbers currently put him third inmy winger ranking, though it should be noted he’s been filling in at striker for a good chunk of his minutes.
This is the third and (by far) most significant season at Bournemouth for Dango (I’m sticking with Dango as a reference because he wears “O. Dango” on the back of his shirt, which kicks ass), who joined the club in January 2023 in a roughly £20 million deal from sister club FC Lorient in France. To date, Dango has amassed 20 goal contributions in about 48.5 90s of playing time, most of which has come in the Premier League.
Prior to England, Dango shone in France,catching looks from certain sharp-eyed data enthusiasts en route to 14 goal contributions in about 26 90s in two Ligue 1 campaigns. Lorient had scooped him straight out of Burkina Faso, where he’d come up through a club called Majestic and made 11 appearances in the Burkinabe Premier League.
The stats
Dango’s campaign for the Cherries to date has been rich in output. He currently sits 17th in the Premier League in terms of goals (non-penalty) and assists per 90 minutes, ahead of names like Cole Palmer and Bryan Mbeumo. To show this isn’t a fluky thing where he’s massively overperforming what he should be doing, his xG+xA is even better, an amazing SEVENTH in the league. Here are the six ahead of him, for what it’s worth: Salah, Haaland, Jackson, Isak, Palmer, KDB. Wow.
Now, could there be some sort of purple element to all of this? Absolutely. Dango is operating about 20% above his career npxG+xAG per 90 performance so far this season. There’s a chance that a good portion of that lift is on the system itself, with Bournemouth averaging a solid 15% more output this season than previously. Dango himself could also be settling into a routine with both Andoni Iraola’s system and his teammates, many of whom he’s now played with for two years.
Another thing to watch will be finishing. Dango is not a good finisher historically, doing numbers in the Gabriel Jesus range. This season, he’s managed to lift himself up to more of an Ollie Watkins range, which is to say he’s about level with his xG. He’s still young and could be settling, or he could just be finishing better than he will in the long term.
The film