An Everton fan's view on Nottingham Forest's new loan signing
On top of the three big signings that Forest have already made, Kieran Dowell has just signed for Nottingham Forest on a season-long loan deal. Like most other Evertonians, I'm a little bit disappointed as we were all hoping that this would be the season that he made a breakthrough in the Everton first team but he should prove to be a brilliant addition at Forest. A lot of Forest fans might have seen Dowell playing for England's side in their recent successful campaign in the U20 World Cup but he's been at Everton since he was 7. He's only made one start for Everton to go with two substitute appearances but was a key player as Everton Reserves won the Premier League 2 title.
So, what kind of player are Forest getting? The 19 year old has some seriously silky skills, good vision and has scored some outrageous goals for Everton's youth and reserve teams. He's an attacking midfielder that can play as a number 10 or a bit wider. So, the obvious comparison would probably be Ross Barkley but while Dowell doesn't have the physicality of Barkley, he has shown better decision making, albeit at a lower level of football. He needs to work on his play off the ball and he obviously doesn’t have much first team experience yet.
He's a young, exciting player who should hopefully get a few assists and hit the odd 25-yard screamer. In fact I wouldn't be totally surprised if he doesn't have a better season for Forest than Wayne Rooney has for Everton.
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