Everton's player of the season: Idrissa Gueye – into autumn of his career and never better

New York Times

6 days ago

A couple of weeks ago, I was asked to pick Everton's player of the season.
At that stage, the answer seemed pretty straightforward. Despite the notable contributions of others, I felt midfielder Idrissa Gueye had done more than anyone else to hold the team together across the whole campaign.
But the Senegal midfielder's name formulated so quickly in my mind that I then started to have doubts. Others had their own compelling case to make.
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In his first season at Everton, forward Iliman Ndiaye hit double figures for goals.
The 25-year-old is a bona fide entertainer, eliciting a sense of excitement whenever he embarks on one of his characteristic surges forward with the ball, in a squad that has not had enough of them in recent years. Success-starved supporters have craved some joy, and Ndiaye has belatedly provided it.
Then there are the routinely excellent displays of goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, without whom Everton would have almost certainly suffered the ignominy of dropping into the Championship by now.
Shot stopping is not the only element of goalkeeping to consider, but the England No 1 has prevented a league-high six goals this season with his saves.
Pickford has developed into a remarkably consistent presence who has a pleasing habit of elevating his game to another level when the side needs him most.
After brief dalliances elsewhere though, I came back round to Gueye, or 'Gana' as he is affectionately known by team-mates, friends and fans.
At 35, we all keep expecting him to slow down. That is a sad inevitability at some point, but it has not happened yet — if anything, he is arguably playing as well as ever.
'He's getting better the older he gets,' his midfield colleague James Garner, 24, said after the 1-0 win at Nottingham Forest last month. 'He's a calm, assuring head alongside me. I'm still pretty young and still learning the game, and he's helped me massively.'
Gueye's influence on the Everton team is two-fold.
There's the experience and reassurance he brings, as well as the sense of cohesion. An elder statesman in the squad and a French speaker, he is a popular bridge between different groups in the dressing room — as close to Ndiaye and Abdoulaye Doucoure as he is to someone like long-time club captain Seamus Coleman.
On the pitch, he remains the team's engine; someone whose ball-winning prowess still ranks among the best in the league. In terms of the raw numbers, he is top of the league for tackles, joint-sixth for recoveries and also in the top 10 for interceptions.
Stats like these should always be placed into context. Everton have had the 18th lowest possession share in the league, so Gueye and his team-mates are being asked to defend more.
But even adjusting for opportunity (per 1,000 touches), the former Aston Villa and Paris Saint-Germain midfielder is more than holding his own, as the below graphic shows.
The 'true interceptions' metric considers blocked passes as well as interceptions. The formula for 'true tackles' is slightly more long-winded: tackles + challenges lost + fouls committed.
In simple terms, Gueye is a prominent presence off the ball, performing a large volume of actions, and doing so with a high success rate.
If there was a standout moment across the season as a whole, it was probably the 1-0 win away at Brighton & Hove Albion in January — a game in which Everton had spent the final five minutes plus stoppage time a player down due to Orel Mangala's injury. After withstanding wave after wave of pressure, it was telling that Gueye was the one team-mates and coaching staff first embraced on the full-time whistle.
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During that match and other more turbulent moments of the season, the temptation was to wonder where Everton would have been without him. It almost certainly would not have been pretty.
As he approaches the age of 36, and with his contract up this summer, the question at Everton has been how long he can keep going.
Wherever he is playing his football, there will be an increasing focus on managing his minutes and his body. Even now, there are few doubts over his ability.
'Idrissa has done fantastically and he's surprised me a lot,' Everton manager David Moyes said last month. 'He's not a spring chicken and we're mindful of that.
'We've tried to rest him here and there, but he's done so well and kept playing. He's very good at breaking the play up and his experience is good.
'There's a certain group of players here who he's very helpful to and they see him as a top player and a gentleman as well. They rely on him a lot, but for me, he's done so well.'
After a successful stint at PSG, Gueye rejoined Everton in the summer of 2022 keen to help steer the club through choppy waters.
He has done that and more.
He and his family have developed a deep-rooted connection to the club and the city. In a social media post from his wife Pauline after Goodison's final Premier League game, she spoke about their deep affection for the stadium and how they had 'built their family' on Merseyside.
A post shared by Pauline Gueye (@paulinegueye_)
As he approaches the twilight of his career, Gueye can rest assured that he has already cemented his legacy at Everton.