11 | Jeremy Doku - 2023/24

[Cassandra]

For longer standing fans, I think he had a Sambrook day today - let’s hope he doesn’t have as many as he had!

 

[southamptonblue]

Not sure why everyone's debating Doku/Grealish.....Grealish has his own thread........bottom line today is, Doku was as poor as he was good against B/mouth.

 

[city warrior]

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.

When Grealish got in, we were winning 3-2, which is when you need the most control. I still don't get it. The rivals also play, and Chelsea played well. This narrative of: we control games with Grealish, and we don't with Doku is crazy. Sure, Grealish is more helpful to that, but whoever thinks the game would've been that different if he started is fooling themselves.

 

[greek citizen]

With the absence of kdb and gundogan leaving we need players to make something happen, otherwise we just pass it around without any intend. He will have bad games, all players do especially with opponents like james. See vini and mbappe vs walker last year. The difference is he is more of a vini, mbappe or even haaland where when they have a bad game creating something they don't have anything else to offer like control or defensive hunger. Jack is a very good player, does not create anything at the levels doku does but does the things doku doesn't. I think pep will most likely play them together in the near future either with both of them in the wings or jack as an 8 where i believe he will be even better, especially with Bernardo most likely leaving in the summer and kdb aging.

 

[Bluewars]

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

This notion that Grealish offers more control than Doku is lame. Jeremy is equally adept at retaining, the difference is when there's a chance to take on a player Doku does it, Jack will slow the game down to the extent where the opposition defenders are able to get back in shape and organised.

The only thing Grealish has over Doku is that hes better defensively, tracking back for his fullback and more robust in defensive duels.

 

[applejuice]

Jack is a very good player, does not create anything at the levels doku does but does the things doku doesn't.

Really? Weird thing to say after watching the derby and midweek game isn't it? 7 chances but Rico and co could not finish it. Grealish also created the winner last season when we played Chelsea away BTW. He created most chances in CL last season.

 

[applejuice]

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

Grealish played on the left. He got everything under control from his side. He could not control the game on the right hand side when Walker decided to kicking everything everywhere unless Pep played him in the middle. That right hand control was Bernado's job last season.

 

[applejuice]

Jack will slow the game down to the extent where the opposition defenders are able to get back in shape and organised.

At the same time our defense gain enough time to move up the pitch and occupy the desired spots. Thus even if the ball is lost in the next steps, the opposition can hardly break though easily.

Our big defenders are not the quickest. It is crucial to allow them push up comfortably. Otherwise you will see today's version of Dias and etc.

 

[Craig]

Really? Weird thing to say after watching the derby and midweek game isn't it? 7 chances but Rico and co could not finish it. Grealish also created the winner last season when we played Chelsea away BTW. He created most chances in CL last season.

Gonna drag on a lot this season whenever one of them starts and doesn’t rip it up people will say the other should’ve started. Yesterday i’d have liked to see Grealish come on for Alvarez with Foden moved inside to give us a bit more balance and control. Seemed like a great opportunity to get Doku running at curly one on one whilst he was on a booking.

James played Doku well but we didn’t get him on it that much. People always say the hardest thing in football is scoring goals but really it’s consistently dribbling past people. Every winger struggles to do it every week apart from the greatest player ever in his prime at Barca.

 

[applejuice]

Gonna drag on a lot this season whenever one of them starts and doesn’t rip it up people will say the other should’ve started. Yesterday i’d have liked to see Grealish come on for Alvarez with Foden moved inside to give us a bit more balance and control. Seemed like a great opportunity to get Doku running at curly one on one whilst he was on a booking.

James played Doku well but we didn’t get him on it that much. People always say the hardest thing in football is scoring goals but really it’s consistently dribbling past people. Every winger struggles to do it every week apart from the greatest player ever in his prime at Barca.

You cannot play Foden and Doku on the same side of the pitch especially when Walker is not in his best form. It will be too easy for the opposite to cut through. But I agree with subbing Alvarez with an 8 (Kova or Rico IMO).

 

[Blue Maverick]

Always seems to want to do that extra thing, he put someone on there arse yesterday but then decided to go back outside and Palmer got a tackle in for a corner when he should’ve just crossed it.

 

[Craig]

You cannot play Foden and Doku on the same side of the pitch especially when Walker is not in his best form. It will be too easy for the opposite to cut through. But I agree with subbing Alvarez with an 8 (Kova or Rico IMO).

Wouldn’t really be on the same side though as Foden would be central. Not having that Foden couldn’t get on the ball and give us more control than Alvarez. Curly wouldn’t be getting forward too much with Doku to contend with. The way we set up without Stones was open as it gets and Grealish coming on did nothing to change that.

 

[Craig]

Always seems to want to do that extra thing, he put someone on there arse yesterday but then decided to go back outside and Palmer got a tackle in for a corner when he should’ve just crossed it.

He messed up there but don’t think that’s been very evident over all. Simple solution for the kid is stop taking on fullbacks. Stop wait for more defenders to get back then play sideways or backwards

 

[Bluewars]

At the same time our defense gain enough time to move up the pitch and occupy the desired spots. Thus even if the ball is lost in the next steps, the opposition can hardly break though easily.

Our big defenders are not the quickest. It is crucial to allow them push up comfortably. Otherwise you will see today's version of Dias and etc.

As a winger the onus is on creating not allowing the defense to 'move up the pitch' (whatever that means???).

Listen, if we're going to spend 70 million on Gvardiol and have the best DM in the world and Stones as two holding midfielders in front of Dias/Akanji/Walker then i want my f*****g winger to take risks, if he loses the ball, which Doku rarely does in midfield he has world class players as protection.

 

[iTyler]

Bit knee jerk on your part?
Palmer is a talented player, that's why he was in and around our first team for three years.
Doku is a different type of player. He wasn't at his best today but still looked dangerous. I wouldn't swap him for Palmer.

Well like you mentioned, they are completely different types of players, and so could play in the same team and certainly be part of the same squad.

Doku has loads to work on but that's to be expected. But regardless of my thoughts on him, I think it was a poor decision to let Palmer go which I'm entitled to.

 

[youngbob]

Don't think he needs much analysis at the moment. He's doing alright. He's a young, exciting player who's basically the antithesis of what we're used to under Pep. Sometimes it'll produce games like Bournemouth, other times it'll produce games like Chelsea.

He'll be a mixed bag this season and I think, when it comes to crunch time, he will probably play less and less in the second half of the season as Pep prioritises control over speed. But then next season he'll have learned that bit more and will be ready to go.

 

[shevtheblue]

Well like you mentioned, they are completely different types of players, and so could play in the same team and certainly be part of the same squad.

Doku has loads to work on but that's to be expected. But regardless of my thoughts on him, I think it was a poor decision to let Palmer go which I'm entitled to.

He wanted to go, we couldn't guarantee him a spot. Pep said himself that he told Palmer he had a chance to make the spot his own when Mahrez left but he wanted to leave. If it was Foden and we knew what we were getting from him, we'd have probably moved heaven and earth to convince him. As it was, Palmer was injured a lot & when he got a chance he didn't really take it so it is what it is. He's stepped up, we knew he was a good player and he's getting a chance to show it so fair play. Not exactly the same situation but something similar happened with Sancho, we will never push as hard for these guys to stay as we do with someone like Bernardo for instance - we know his level but we didn't know Palmers or he'd have been playing.

 

[shevtheblue]

Don't think he needs much analysis at the moment. He's doing alright. He's a young, exciting player who's basically the antithesis of what we're used to under Pep. Sometimes it'll produce games like Bournemouth, other times it'll produce games like Chelsea.

He'll be a mixed bag this season and I think, when it comes to crunch time, he will probably play less and less in the second half of the season as Pep prioritises control over speed. But then next season he'll have learned that bit more and will be ready to go.

Yep and this is one of the reasons i personally don't go over the top when he has a class game. He's going to have a lot of these types of games, but then he will also have Bournemouth games where he's unplayable. We just need to let him develop.

 

[Gumzy97]

Palmer is a good player , but Doku has the potential to be one of the best wingers in Europe/world , he’s got all the qualities to do that he’s just young at the moment plus his development has been stop start due to injuries which looks like he’s finally over , He really reminds me of Vini jr. Vini was dreadful in his first seasons all skill no end product at Madrid but put the work and improved and now he’s one of the best wingers in the world.

Doku from his interviews and videos has the exact same mentality , like he’s said he’s learning each day at City , he wants to get better. He’s the best 1v1 winger in football at 21 years of age. He had better stats in that department than Mbappe in ligue un last season.

He’s got natural athletic ability and skills which you can’t teach , when it clicks he will be unplayable.

 

[mancityscot]

i'm generally of the feeling now that against the 'lesser' sides, we go with Doku, and against the better sides and especially away from home, we go Grealish, bringing on Doku with 20-30 mins to go. This based on what i've seen so far this season.