He had a lot of success in dribbling but at the same time Klopp managed to neutralize his effort quite well.I agree with most of that in terms of teams are much more wise to him. However, he was actually very good against Liverpool
That last sentence sums up our problems right now.He had a lot of success in dribbling but at the same time Klopp managed to neutralize his effort quite well.
Klopp put TAA into midfield marking Bernado and left a lot of space (and sometimes some dummy midfielder as a bait) for Doku to dribble into knowing his weakness in passing. Masterclasses. There was one or two cases doku made a good pass but as long as Halaand being marked it meant nothing.
HmmmThe problem isn't Doku, problem is that people lost the sense of hierarchy..
We have 100m treble-winner winger in Grealish, who earns 300K per week and has proven himself as a stable player throughout the entire 2022 / 2023 season. He is pro and should always be regarded as a regular starter...
Doku is 21 years old young player, who has proven nothing and who needs time to learn & become stable deliver of results.. Therefore he should be regarded as a valuable squad player, who is used during rotations or injury situations..
We have a lot of players like that.
Haaland, KDB, Foden, Bernardo & Grealish are our regular starters..
Julian, Doku, Bobb, Kovacic, Matheus are our bench / reserve players..
Same applies to
Ederson, Walker, Stones, Ruben, Ake, Rodri
and
Akanji, Guardiol, Rico, Gomez and Ortega
if we look from that perspective, Doku is a great addition, young & talented player, who can be rotated with regular starters whenever needed..
He's had a fairly standard start for an exciting young winger. Amazing for a while, then everyone realises how dangerous he is and gives him extra attention, so he's less effective for a while. It's now up to him to be able to adapt his game to show that he's genuinely class and can deal with the extra attention he gets. If he can do that, he'll probably become a world class player. If he can't, he'll end up being a bit-part player.Christ, some of the comments about him here are laughable.
It’s his first season, only 21 and instead of being gradually put into the team, he made himself undroppable early on and has been fairly consistent ever since. He’s been fantastic and has more than enough credit in the bank for a few bad moments.
Oddly the comments started after Chelsea (especially the daft **** who sits behind me at games who treated him like a make a wish kid when he came on against Brentford), but he was actually brilliant in that game and created more than enough openings that we just didn’t finish. He’s that relentless he has countless runs at his defender every game so not every single one will work - unless you’re Messi or prime Neymar.
Lower expectations a bit (for now) and just enjoy seeing a proper winger legging it as his man and having fun.
Score a couple and he'll be back in everybody's good books.After a promising start he has faded badly. Needs to do much more.
A couple of simple passes wouldn’t go amiss imo . Needs to release the ball hopefully it will all click into place early days for him yet .Score a couple and he'll be back in everybody's good books.
He's just learning its a really hard league and a huge step up from where he was. He'll learn and improve.After a promising start he has faded badly. Needs to do much more.
Rating players means looking for strengths and weaknesses.
I'd say his main strength is his pace over the first few yards/metres. To use that advantage he always has to get defenders to hold - with the disadvantage that it's breaking any speedy movement.
His pace sadly is limited to those first yards, he is nothing special over a longer sprint, his short legs just don't help.
His finish is'nt great, his crosses not special, his defensive behaviour is worse compared to Jack, Bobb and Nunes.
His dribblings towards midfield are sometimes uncontrolled and useless when a simple crisp pass would be best. Losing the ball with our insane high line is a problem.
And often being doubled for his explosive pace he logically seems to have no clue what he should do next to get behind those 2.
All that doesn't read too well but indeed that's how I currently see him. And sorry, all of that has nothing to do with "first City season", it's his football ability.
Some say he'd be stronger on RW and that would be my next idea too to develop his contributions to team success. I give him more time but yeah I have doubts if we can develop him to the top level we need.
We should put him on VVD. His not being dribbled past stat would disappear sharpish.Very fair analysis.
I have to admit I was shocked when I first saw him run over a longer distance, how slow he was.
I also do think you have missed it can be very good at threading short balls on the edge of the box into players runs.
He has something (that explosiveness over a few yards) that is virtually impossible to defend against 1 v 1.
It’s up to Pep to make that weapon useful and to supplement his all round game.
Think that was Pep’s plan first half at Newcastle. Didn’t really work on the day but wouldn’t be surprised to see him try it again in the futureWe should put him on VVD. His not being dribbled past stat would disappear sharpish.
Seriously, he might be better a little bit further infield. It’s harder to double up on him when its centre backs doing it, unless you leave Haaland free.
True. Think the issue there was more Gvardiol and Walker being too high at times, along with Walker’s decision making in the day!Think that was Pep’s plan first half at Newcastle. Didn’t really work on the day but wouldn’t be surprised to see him try it again in the future
If he plays at Anfield ...... gonna need more medication.We should put him on VVD. His not being dribbled past stat would disappear sharpish.
Seriously, he might be better a little bit further infield. It’s harder to double up on him when its centre backs doing it, unless you leave Haaland free.
I think a lot of that is to temper down the over the top plaudits that he was getting after his first few games.I think some are being too critical and expectant of the lad. One for the future for sure.
You're not.I think a lot of that is to temper down the over the top plaudits that he was getting after his first few games.
My personal view is that I've not seen enough from him yet to believe that he can go up another notch and become a huge asset for us over the course of the season.
Clearly I hope I'm wrong, which is normally the case.