Bit-part Bournemouth player, sometime centre-forward – and the new Bryan Mbeumo (£8.0m)?

We assess the Fantasy appeal of Dango Ouattara (£6.0m) following his move to Brentford.

The Move in Quotes

“I want to play. I can play any position in the front of the pitch.” – Dango Ouattara

“We’re really happy to get Dango in. He’s someone that we were aware [of] and surprised could be available and, once we knew that signing him might be a possibility, we really focused on trying to get him.

“We liked his Premier League experience, even at his young age, and he just hasn’t found the rhythm yet because of a lack of consistent game time.” – Keith Andrews

Dango Ouattara: A Brief History

After coming through the youth ranks at Burkinabè club Majestic, Ouattara joined the reserves at FC Lorient in 2020 before signing his first professional contract with the Ligue 1 side in May 2021. He made his senior debut in August that year.

In the 2022/23 season, and after a stop-start first year, Ouattara became much more established in Lorient’s squad. He started each of the 18 league matches in which he played, with slightly more appearances on the right wing than the left. 

Eight of his 12 attacking returns (four goals, four assists) came from the left wing in a blistering five-match run before the team’s overall form took a turn for the worse.

That was all just in the first half of the campaign, too, as it was in that season’s winter transfer window that Ouattara moved to Bournemouth for a fee of €22.5m.

After his January 2023 arrival, Ouattara was instantly thrust into first-team action under then-manager Gary O’Neil and registered an assist on his debut against Nottingham Forest. He grabbed another assist two games later, but ended the season with only two more attacking returns.

The next season under Andoni Iraola, Ouattara struggled to nail down a regular starting spot ahead of the likes of Marcus Tavernier (£5.5m) and Antoine Semenyo (£7.1m) on the wings. He made 30 Premier League appearances but only 12 from the starting XI – and half of those were as a makeshift left-back.

As for last season, he made Iraola’s Premier League starting XI on 21 occasions, with 17 of those coming from mid-December onwards. Ouattara ended the campaign with seven league goals – plus another two in the FA Cup – and four assists. Three of those goals made up his first-ever hat-trick in the Cherries’ shock 5-0 win over Forest in January, one of seven matches in which he started as a central striker.

All in all, that proved enough for Brentford – in need of an attacking rebuild this summer following some high-profile departures – to shell out a club record £42.5m to bring the 23-year-old in on a five-year deal, with the option of a further year.

Playing Style and Stats

As hinted at above, Ouattara has proved to be an incredibly versatile footballer so far in his relatively young career. Here’s a map of his positions played and his record from each, courtesy of transfermarkt.com: 

He did well when filling in up front for Bournemouth when Evanilson (£7.0m) missed time through injury midway through last season, and otherwise featured on either the left or right wing as he had done during his time at Lorient.

Ouattara is quick, direct and an increasingly capable dribbler of the ball. His experience playing across a frontline and comfort using both feet also helps make him more unpredictable to defences, as he’s happy staying wide to stretch an opposition’s backline as well as cutting inside to use some of his know-how nearer the goal mouth as a centre forward.

Despite being afforded the least amount of game time, Ouattara doesn’t pale too much in comparison to the star trios of his former and new clubs when considering some of last season’s attacking stats, such as big chances…

minutes per shot…

(big) chances created…

and percentage of successful take-ons:

He historically has not been the world’s greatest finisher, as evidenced by a shot accuracy rate of 41.7% and goal conversion rate of 11.3%.

But he did still manage to end last season level with his (non-penalty) expected goal involvement figure – which was better than that of players including Dominic Solanke (£7.4m), Morgan Gibbs-White (£7.5m), Anthony Elanga (£7.0m) and Mohammed Kudus (£6.5m).

He has never taken an in-game spot-kick in his senior career, but did score a cheeky one in a shoot-out to help knock Wolves out of the FA Cup last season.

And while his passing accuracy hasn’t been anything to write home about, Ouattara’s defensive workrate and off-the-ball energy – frequently touted as a strength when the then-20-year-old signed from Lorient – should replace some of what Brentford lost in that respect when Mbeumo left, and help endear him to his new boss.

Here are some more quotes from Brentford’s manager when Ouattara’s signing was announced:

“He suits the way we want to play – he has something that we were lacking in the forward line, and he will complement what we already have in the building. The fans will love him – he’s the type of player that they will get off their seat for.” – Keith Andrews

Where does Ouattara fit in at Brentford?

This is the big question.

We expected Andrews to stick with former boss Thomas Frank’s preferred 4-2-3-1 formation after taking over at the Gtech Community Stadium, and he did that in the Gameweek 1 loss to Forest, even with limited personnel.

Bryan Mbeumo (£8.0m) is now long gone, meaning Keane Lewis-Potter (£5.0m) started out of position on the right wing last weekend. Fabio Carvalho (£5.0m) was on the left and young newcomer Antoni Milambo (£5.5m) was a No.10 behind apparent first-choice penalty taker Igor Thiago (£6.0m).

We’ll almost certainly see some tweaks to Brentford’s starting line-up for the Gameweek 2 visit of Aston Villa, primarily to facilitate the inclusion of creative force and new dad Mikkel Damsgaard (£6.0m) as the 10, as well as the return of Kevin Schade (£7.0m). 

The latter has largely featured as a left winger for Brentford, scoring 10 of his 11 league goals from there last season, although he did feature on the right for former club SC Freiburg.

But it has been widely reported that Ouattara is viewed internally as the Bees’ replacement for former star Mbeumo, so the right wing spot occupied by Lewis-Potter last weekend is probably the most likely place for the new arrival moving forward.

Ouattara does also, of course, have a good record when lining up as a centre-forward, having delivered seven goals and an assist from 10 such appearances. But even with Yoane Wissa (£7.5m) still trying to force his way into a move to Newcastle, it’s likelier that Thiago is the man turned to up top as he was to begin the season. The 24-year-old Brazilian is, after all, more of a typical striker, and was Brentford’s most expensive signing in history when he arrived last summer.

Still, any injury to Thiago a la Evanilson at Bournemouth last season, or new formations possibly being tested by Andrews, could lead to Ouattara being presented as a cut-price, out-of-position FPL gem.

Is Ouattara worth buying in FPL?

Given the significant fee, Ouattara surely becomes a regular feature for the Bees as soon as he has settled in west London, possibly from as early as Gameweek 2.

More game time than he has been afforded to date should, in theory, help him to improve on what was already a decent – if slightly streaky – 2024/25 FPL season, with 111 points and 11 attacking returns from 21 starts. 

That those returns came from an expected goal involvement (xGI) figure of 11.66 should also offer encouragement to Brentford fans and potential investors that he can now kick on in his more significant role, rather than potentially regress in the spotlight.

The admittedly depleted Bees were fairly comfortably beaten by Forest in Andrews’ first game in charge, which will have further put off many already wary FPL managers from picking up their assets.

Brentford do still have among the better early-season fixture runs, though, including an Ezri Konsa (£4.5m)-less Villa up next followed by newly-promoted Sunderland.

With that in mind, plus the fact that Damsgaard and Schade returning should strengthen the side going forward, Ouattara does warrant some consideration in the low-to-mid-priced midfielders bracket. If the usual price predictor sites are anywhere near correct, there’s a decent chance he may even have dipped below his starting price by the Gameweek 2 deadline.

Sunderland (A) in Gameweek 3 could be a better entry point: that gives us a good look at him in Gameweek 2 before deciding on whether to punt on him.