Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has again heaped praise on winger Jeremy Doku after beating Tottenham Hotspur to his signature.
Pep Guardiola has admitted that he didn’t expect new signing Jeremy Doku to be such a clever decision-maker in the final third.
City faced Nottingham Forest on Saturday afternoon and secured another victory.
Phil Foden and Erling Haaland handed City a 2-0 win, even despite Rodri’s second-half red card.
That sending-off meant this wasn’t a vintage City performance but winger Doku still managed to impress Guardiola.
Pep Guardiola hails Jeremy Doku
A quick look at the stats suggests that Doku wasn’t all impressive.
Three successful dribbles, one tackle won, one key pass, no shots on target, no accurate crosses.
Those numbers are solid if unspectacular, even within the context of City having lost a man to a red card.
Stats don’t always show the full picture though; they can’t account for the speed at which Doku can attack defences, or the passes before the ‘key pass’.
Guardiola certainly loved what he saw from Doku, telling the Manchester Evening News that is ‘really impressed’ with the Belgian winger.
Guardiola added that he didn’t expect Doku to be so clever with his decisions in the final third, believing that he has great composure in attack.
“Jeremy, I’m really impressed with how good he is one-on-one. He sees an extra pass and he doesn’t overexaggerate his one-against-one or his two-against-one,” said Guardiola.
“He’s a really clever player with his decisions in the final third that I didn’t expect. To have the composure to make a decision in the final third,” he added.
City will be delighted to have beaten Tottenham to Doku signing
City decided to bring in Doku having sold Riyad Mahrez, going down the route of a raw yet exciting talent to replace a proven Premier League ace.
That was something of a gamble but City were far from alone in the race to sign Doku.
The Independent reported back in August that Tottenham were looking to bring Doku to North London.
Spurs were in the market for a speedy wide man to bolster Ange Postecoglou’s attack and seemingly wanted Doku.
City paid up £55million for Doku whilst Tottenham ended up signing Brennan Johnson, each getting the speed that they so desperately wanted.
The early signs are that Guardiola is absolutely loving Doku – and is grateful that he’s a City player rather than a Spurs one.
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