Surprisingly second in the Premier League, 4 points behind leader Arsenal, Bournemouth have had a great start to the season. The Cherries, however, had a turbulent summer with four major departures with Ilya Zabarnyi (Paris Saint-Germain), Dean Huijsen (Real Madrid), Milos Kerkez (Liverpool) and Dango Ouattara (Brentford) for 238 million euros in sales. Active this summer to strengthen itself, the club offered good talents to Andoni Iraola with Bafodé Diakité (Lille), Djordje Petrovic (Chelsea), Ben Doak (Liverpool), Amine Adli (Bayer Leverkusen), Veljko Milosavljevic (Red Star), Adrien Truffert (Stade Rennais) and Alex Jiménez (AC Milan). Another reinforcement, Eli Junior Kroupi had already been recruited a year ago before being loaned to Lorient. And he arrived full of promises.
Crowned best player in Ligue 2 last season with the Merlus, the versatile attacker capable of playing center forward, left winger and attacking midfielder finished with 23 goals and 3 assists in 32 matches with the Lorientais. However, he had to find his place in an ambitious Bournemouth team that wanted to continue to establish itself in the top half of the Premier League table. Having to fight in a sector where we find Antoine Semenyo, Marcus Tavernier, Amine Adli, Evanilson, Justin Kluivert and David Brooks, Eli Junior Kroupi had strong competition to negotiate. And the beginnings weren’t so easy since he couldn’t really show himself for two months.
Eli Junior Kroupi walks on water
Initially replacing him, he only started one League Cup match lost on August 26 against Brentford (2-0) and only played 21 minutes in the first seven days of the Premier League. With a small goal scored against Leeds United (2-2), he was promoted to the starting position on October 18 against Crystal Palace, during a top-of-the-table shock. Double scorer with the French U21s against Estonia 5 days before, Eli Junior Kroupi rode on this confidence to see a double against the Eagles in a 3-3 success. Enough to receive the compliments of his coach Andoni Iraola: “ I’m happy for him, because it’s not easy to replace someone as important as Evanilson. He is a 19-year-old player, starting for the first time. I think he has a good relationship with the goal. These two goals, he reads the ball well, he rebounds well and he should be happy. »
However, Eli Junior Kroupi still needs to improve on what he brings to his team’s game, as the Spanish coach noted: “ I think we’re trying to add more to him because the goal is something he’s always had in different divisions, obviously not in the Premier League, but he’s someone who scores goals. But we need him to do a lot of the things that Eva does for us during matches. We demand a big jump from him, because he comes from France, from the second division, he scored a lot of goals there. He’s a good finisher. But he still has a lot to improve: physique, rhythm, a lot of things to learn, as usual, because he is 19 years old. » This Sunday against Nottingham Forest, he started the match again since Evanilson was still injured in the calf.
This time again, he burst the screen. Second scorer of the game following a nice number where he started from midfield, he allowed Bournemouth to win 2-0 and climb to 2nd place in the Premier League. Already the author of 4 goals, he has climbed to sixth place among the top scorers in the championship. As for Bournemouth, only winger Antoine Semenyo (6 goals) does better. Better still, since the start of last season, he has scored 27 league goals. In Europe, no young person under 20 does better and even Lamine Yamal has 21 goals. A sense of goal which is already a hit in England and which allows Eli Junior Kroupi to take care of his adaptation to English football. With 4 goals scored in 165 minutes played, he is decisive every 41.25 minutes played. Crazy figures for a debut in England which are just as crazy for the young French nugget.
Sports director of Lorient, Laurent Koscielny, who knew him well, did not fail to highlight his debut in the English elite in an interview for footballogue : “today he reached another level with the Premier League because it was the dream championship for him to grow. I had him at times during this period, he is a competitor so the frustration of not having a lot of playing time meant that he was champing at the bit. I told him that each player’s adaptation is different, some play straight away and others need more time. I told him that the day they make you a starter is the moment they will feel that you are ready to challenge and perform on the pitch. I was happy last time when he scored and on his first start where he scored twice on his father’s birthday. It’s perfect, you’re giving dad a wonderful gift. He knows what awaits him in England, he knows what he must put in place to sustain the longevity of this demanding championship in terms of intensity and mentality.» Now it’s up to him to continue his momentum with the next shock being this Sunday’s match against Manchester City.
