11 | Jeremy Doku - 2023/24

[Brad mcfc]

Let’s be honest he’s no better than Palmer, but like Pep said he’d already made his mind up.

Lol

 

[Bluesince1979]

Did Garrincha ever get 4 PL assists in one game?!

Well no. Has doku won a world cup? ;)

Ps presume it was a joke you saying that.

 

[balotellishaircut]

It’s against the better sides you prove your worth. Palmer demonstrated that today.

You’ll catch a few with those anecdotes..

 

[toffee balls]

Palmer was levels above him today. His composure throughout was everything that Doku lacked.

Absolute bomb scare of a decision to sell him, even more so for the price we did.

ifuckoffski

 

[Stelea]

Mistake to play him today.
Probably him over Grealish that we had no control of the game

 

[ninjamonkey]

Pep got it the wrong way around.
Should have started with Jack and brought Doku on later on. Even the best don't get every decision spot on.

Don't believe he did, doku was a threat when we got it to him we just didn't get it to him very often first half because of peps weird decisions deeper in midfield and defence that left us unable to impose ourselves as normal.

The 5 minutes before he came off, aside from the pathetic dive were the best minutes of his match, he was looking very dangerous was completely the wrong decision to bring him off. The only sub pep should have been considering at that point was bringing alvarez off probably for kovacic rather than grealish

 

[Stelea]

I thought he was alright. The Grealish sub made sense at the time but certainly didn't have the impact we all thought it would.

Grealish is never gonna be an impact player. He is the control that we were missing for 60 mins which helped to turn the game into chaos for no reward from Doku

 

[IrishBlueSince92]

Just remembered that dive
Embarrassing

 

[applejuice]

Don't believe he did, doku was a threat when we got it to him we just didn't get it to him very often first half because of peps weird decisions deeper in midfield and defence that left us unable to impose ourselves as normal.

The 5 minutes before he came off, aside from the pathetic dive were the best minutes of his match, he was looking very dangerous was completely the wrong decision to bring him off. The only sub pep should have been considering at that point was bringing alvarez off probably for kovacic rather than grealish

LOL

 

[TrentGrisham]

Grealish is never gonna be an impact player. He is the control that we were missing for 60 mins which helped to turn the game into chaos for no reward from Doku

I agree but my point is he really didn't bring that control we thought.

 

[balotellishaircut]

Grealish is never gonna be an impact player. He is the control that we were missing for 60 mins which helped to turn the game into chaos for no reward from Doku

So you blaming Doku for the defensive chaos ?

 

[PragueBlue]

Not great today but all players have off days. As I said in the pre-match thread, I wouldn't have started hm today but he isn't the reason we failed to win.

 

[ninjamonkey]

Mistake to play him today.
Probably him over Grealish that we had no control of the game

What do you think would have allowed us to control the game better if grealish had started over doku?

My reading of that game and our inability to control the game inside their half as usual was peps instructions to Bernardo and rodri to split and vacate the midfield at every opportunity leaving akanji in there alone which stifled our ability to build through the lines and left a huge hole when we lost it coupled with our defence giving the ball away far too often.

None of that changes if grealish is stood out on the left wing in the first half barely getting the ball just like doku was. If we were supplying doku constantly and he kept losing it resulting in us being exposed on transition then that's a valid point but that wasn't the case. The complete imbalance in central midfield and distribution of our defenders were the reasons we couldn't control the game and ultimately win, not who played left wing.

 

[city warrior]

I am impressed by people saying that Grealish starting would have changed the game. Grealish was on the pitch for more than 40 minutes today. That is enough time to see that we weren't in control either at that moment. Today was more about the tactics of the midfield than whether Grealish started or not.

 

[Stelea]

What do you think would have allowed us to control the game better if grealish had started over doku?

My reading of that game and our inability to control the game inside their half as usual was peps instructions to Bernardo and rodri to split and vacate the midfield at every opportunity leaving akanji in there alone which stifled our ability to build through the lines and left a huge hole when we lost it coupled with our defence giving the ball away far too often.

None of that changes if grealish is stood out on the left wing in the first half barely getting the ball just like doku was. If we were supplying doku constantly and he kept losing it resulting in us being exposed on transition then that's a valid point but that wasn't the case. The complete imbalance in central midfield and distribution of our defenders were the reasons we couldn't control the game and ultimately win, not who played left wing.

Good points well made mate.
I thought as expected Doku would be limited in his contribution, we would lack Grealish’s patience and the ability to win free kicks plus James had the run of Gavdiol and no protection from Doku

 

[samuelyeboah]

we really should have started grealish and brought doku on. Doku got dealt with by reece james, then grealish came on and and james came off. Grealish was very poor whereas i think doku could have had more success against Gusto

 

[ninjamonkey]

Good points well made mate.
I thought as expected Doku would be limited in his contribution, we would lack Grealish’s patience and the ability to win free kicks plus James had the run of Gavdiol and no protection from Doku

Its no reflection on either player. Our deficiencies lay elsewhere deep rooted in our tactical approach, it really didn't matter who was played on the left when that was our gameplan. Could have had a prime Messi out there and made zero difference.

Doku didn't cover James' attacking threat overly well I agree with that but James wasn't really a big influence on the game so i think Doku did an acceptable job defensively even though he can and needs to improve with that. Grealish who I'd generally consider to be better at that side of the game was arguably less effective at covering Gusto when the subs were made who went clean through and should have scored all day and was left in a few dangerous positions.

 

[Stelea]

Its no reflection on either player. Our deficiencies lay elsewhere deep rooted in our tactical approach, it really didn't matter who was played on the left when that was our gameplan. Could have had a prime Messi out there and made zero difference.

Doku didn't cover James' attacking threat overly well I agree with that but James wasn't really a big influence on the game so i think Doku did an acceptable job defensively even though he can and needs to improve with that. Grealish who I'd generally consider to be better at that side of the game was arguably less effective at covering Gusto when the subs were made who went clean through and should have scored all day and was left in a few dangerous positions.

One thing is for sure, Pep has 2 weeks reflection now how to sort things before we come up against a Liverpool team who will be even more dangerous than Chelsea

 

[JTFactsPlz]

I agree but my point is [Grealish ]really didn't bring that control we thought.

The game had already gone to shit. Grealish isn't a miracle worker. If he'd started we wouldn't have gotten into that pickle in the first place.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

I am impressed by people saying that Grealish starting would have changed the game. Grealish was on the pitch for more than 40 minutes today. That is enough time to see that we weren't in control either at that moment. Today was more about the tactics of the midfield than whether Grealish started or not.

It’s because we had less control of a game than I can recall for years.

The biggest hole was the lack of Kovacic/Lewis in midfield, but you can see Grealish’s worth in these types of game. Just because he didn’t for a while wasn’t totally his fault, just like it wasn’t totally Doku’s fault today.

Had Alvarez not started, Doku might have won us the game. we’ll never know.