Jeremy Doku: Pep Guardiola’s latest magic-piece at Man City
Pep Guardiola is known to unleash a magic-piece or more in every season at Manchester City, for the 2023/2024 season, Jeremy Doku has been that pick.
The 21-year old joined Manchester City from Rennes in August 2023 for €65 million and has been fantastic for the Citizens, the latest a goal and four assists in the 6-1 bashing of Bournemouth on Saturday, November 4.
A WONDERFUL PEFORMANCE! Against Bournemouth in the Premier League, Doku provided the spark City needed to unlock a stubborn defence, playing a neat one-two with Rodri to get into the penalty area and smash in the opening goal.
Three minutes after his goal, the Belgian winger found himself on the right wing and cut in to dazzle the Bournemouth defence before finding Bernardo Silva with a perfectly weighted pass to score the second goal.
Doku then fired a shot that struck Manuel Akanji’s back and deflected beyond the goalkeeper for City to lead 3-0 at the break.
In the second half, Pep Guardiola’s latest magic piece set-up Englishman Phil Foden to score City’s fourth, before another smashing pass for Bernardo Silva to chip in the fifth just after Luis Sinisterra had pulled one back for Bournemouth.
Only the sixth Manchester City goal missed Doku’s signature, this time substitute Oscar Bobb sent in a great cross for Nathan Ake to head home the final goal.
A REMARKABLE SIGNING: Doku has settled remarkably quickly at the Etihad since his summer move and more than lived up to his billing as one of the most exciting young dribblers in the world.
City fans were thrilled by his performance against Brighton in our last home game where he terrorised James Milner into being replaced at half-time.
And it was the same again as his ability to go in either direction caused Bournemouth problems all afternoon, not just the five goals he was involved in.
It’s been an exciting opening few months from the 21-year-old who says he can get even better.
PEP GUADIOLA’S REACTION: “In his first game against Fulham, [Jeremey] was so shy, but at West Ham he started to show his incredible skills. He played really good there and all the games here at home he played fantastic.
“But he’s not just one against one and one against two. He surprised all of us – he’s a great footballer. He reads every action for exactly what he has to do.
“His quality is close to the box. Always we talk about that. Go, dribble and go because its difficult to find a player today with the ability to play in small spaces and he is one of the fastest players over five metres. It’s incredible how he changes the rhythm in five metres.
“After that when he’s not able to dribble, he takes good decisions and I’m impressed by that. That’s why for me he’s a great, great footballer.”
