11 | Jeremy Doku - 2023/24

[SouthernPlastic]

Deserves far more assists than his already impressive tally.

Think there’s been a good few to Haaland which he would have put away last season.

 

[vanchi]

The lack of affection this kid got this season from Man City fans in inexplicable to me. While someone like Bobb gets nothing but constant praise for every touch he makes, Doku is always questioned and criticized. The majority of people seem to think that disliking him makes them seem knowledgeable or cool. It must have been hard for him. But he deserves much love and support because he simply makes this team more dangerous. Pep knows that and trusts him, hopefully the detractors remember that.

i guess you haven’t been reading stuff about other newbies

 

[Dialog]

Just needs to improve his final decision making, does some brilliant things and then fluffs his lines at the end.
That'll come with experience & then we'll have a right player on our hands.

That has greatly improved. He could have had 10 more assists this season, if it wasn't for those that received his final ball and fluffed it. Look how beautiful was his assist in the West Ham game, it took out 4 players, passed right through them. If that is not an improved decision making, matter of fact, brilliant decision making, then I do not know what it is. In that game alone, he could have had 2-3more assists. Haaland missing easy chances has not helped. kdB could have been top of the assist list if it was not for that. Nonetheless, its bygones and we are still CHAMPIONS. We start again in the upcoming season. I hope everyone comes back fit, sharp and more determined to retain their trophy and win more. We have a brilliant squad and a brilliant manager. Coming from the back of the treble and achieving the 4-peat, is astonishing.

 

[SebastianBlue]

Deserves far more assists than his already impressive tally.

He is 4th in the league for Assists Per 90, 4th for Shot Creating Actions Per 90, 7th for Goal Creating Actions Per 90, and 21st for xAG Per 90.

Imagine where he will rank next season.

 

[shemnel]

started brilliantly, dropped away a bit, looked a bit marginalised for a while and then came roaring back to finish the season strongly. If that's the learning curve, he could be unstoppable!! looking forward to next season.

 

[Nethermoor]

He's such an exciting player. Loved watching him this season.

 

[Damanino]

Lot to improve, but great start for a debut season in PL after the French league as it was a big step up for him. he does look level headed, good mentality, wont get carried away. lucky to be coached by Pep, he will really value that later on in his career.

 

[NorCalBlue]

Or his team-mates waste the chances he creates, like vs Liverpool at home or the other day.

Deserves far more assists than his already impressive tally.

Think there’s been a good few to Haaland which he would have put away last season.

He's certainly set up lots of great opportunities that weren't taken, but don't forget that you can get an assist due to a great finish as well - xA takes that into account and his xA for the CL and PL (couldn't find FA Cup) is almost the same as his actual assist total, so good finishing has helped his assists total as much as bad finishing has hurt it.

Don't consider this a negative post, though - I rate Doku very highly and most players with a lot of assists have a much lower relative xA than Doku. Ollie Watkins, for example, led the PL with 13 assists, but his xA was only 4.16, KdB with 10 PL assists had an xA of 7.13, and Cole Palmer had an xA of 8.75 and 11 assists (note: in the PL alone, Doku had an xA of 5.86 for 8 assists - this xA is in the range of 70-80% of assists, like Palmer and KdB, though Watkins xA was only 32% of his assists total).

 

[SebastianBlue]

He's certainly set up lots of great opportunities that weren't taken, but don't forget that you can get an assist due to a great finish as well - xA takes that into account and his xA for the CL and PL (couldn't find FA Cup) is almost the same as his actual assist total, so good finishing has helped his assists total as much as bad finishing has hurt it.

Don't consider this a negative post, though - I rate Doku very highly and most players with a lot of assists have a much lower relative xA than Doku. Ollie Watkins, for example, led the PL with 13 assists, but his xA was only 4.16, KdB with 10 PL assists had an xA of 7.13, and Cole Palmer had an xA of 8.75 and 11 assists (note: in the PL alone, Doku had an xA of 5.86 for 8 assists - this xA is in the range of 70-80% of assists, like Palmer and KdB, though Watkins xA was only 32% of his assists total).

I think xAG is a better measure of Doku’s (and most creative players’) productivity, as it helps factor in the quality of the chance created. And further than that, Per 90 stats are almost always a better measure than totals, as they help normalise stats for fairer comparison of players with significantly different minutes played.

With that in mind, here is the league ranking for xAG Per 90 (along with other x Per 90 stats) — Doku is level with Foden and essentially level with Bernardo and Martin Odegaard.

I wrote about this at length in several other threads, including Kev’s performance thread, but notice that Kev is in first with twice the xAG Per 90 than second placed Salah, who played twice the minutes.

Rk	Player	Squad	Min	xG	xAG	xG+xAG	npxG	npxG+xAG
1	Kevin De Bruyne	Manchester City	1,221	0.18	0.85	1.03	0.18	1.03
2	Mohamed Salah	Liverpool	2,534	0.75	0.42	1.17	0.55	0.97
3	Michael Olise	Crystal Palace	1,275	0.39	0.41	0.8	0.33	0.74
4	Leon Bailey	Aston Villa	2,068	0.27	0.4	0.67	0.27	0.67
5	Cole Palmer	Chelsea	2,607	0.63	0.38	1.01	0.38	0.76
6	Jacob Murphy	Newcastle Utd	1,189	0.16	0.37	0.54	0.16	0.54
7	Son Heung-min	Tottenham	2,934	0.37	0.36	0.73	0.32	0.68
8	Brennan Johnson	Tottenham	2,085	0.44	0.35	0.79	0.44	0.79
9	Bruno Fernandes	Manchester Utd	3,118	0.29	0.34	0.63	0.17	0.51
10	Bukayo Saka	Arsenal	2,919	0.48	0.32	0.8	0.33	0.65
11	Trent Alexander-Arnold	Liverpool	2,155	0.11	0.3	0.41	0.1	0.4
12	Pablo Sarabia	Wolves	1,745	0.28	0.3	0.59	0.2	0.5
13	Kieran Trippier	Newcastle Utd	2,236	0.03	0.3	0.33	0.03	0.33
14	Andrew Robertson	Liverpool	1,693	0.1	0.29	0.39	0.1	0.39
15	Martin Odegaard	Arsenal	3,091	0.22	0.28	0.5	0.17	0.45
16	Moussa Diaby	Aston Villa	2,174	0.29	0.27	0.56	0.29	0.56
17	Gabriel Martinelli	Arsenal	2,019	0.31	0.27	0.58	0.31	0.58
18	Dwight McNeil	Everton	2,892	0.11	0.27	0.38	0.11	0.38
19	Darwin Nunez	Liverpool	2,047	0.72	0.27	0.98	0.68	0.95
20	Bernardo Silva	Manchester City	2,578	0.13	0.27	0.4	0.13	0.4
21	Jeremy Doku	Manchester City	1,595	0.14	0.26	0.4	0.14	0.4
22	Phil Foden	Manchester City	2,857	0.33	0.26	0.59	0.33	0.59
23	Diogo Jota	Liverpool	1,145	0.42	0.26	0.68	0.42	0.68
24	Pedro Neto	Wolves	1,516	0.21	0.26	0.47	0.21	0.47
25	Anthony Elanga	Nott'ham Forest	2,433	0.24	0.25	0.49	0.24	0.49

 

[NorCalBlue]

I think xAG is a better measure of Doku’s (and most creative players’) productivity, as it helps factor in the quality of the chance created. And further than that, Per 90 stats are almost always a better measure than totals, as they help normalise stats for fairer comparison of players with significantly different minutes played.

With that in mind, here is the league ranking for xAG Per 90 (along with other x Per 90 stats) — Doku is level with Foden and essentially level with Bernardo and Martin Odegaard.

I wrote about this at length in several other threads, including Kev’s performance thread, but notice that Kev is in first with twice the xAG Per 90 than second placed Salah, who played twice the minutes.

Rk	Player	Squad	Min	xG	xAG	xG+xAG	npxG	npxG+xAG
1	Kevin De Bruyne	Manchester City	1,221	0.18	0.85	1.03	0.18	1.03
2	Mohamed Salah	Liverpool	2,534	0.75	0.42	1.17	0.55	0.97
3	Michael Olise	Crystal Palace	1,275	0.39	0.41	0.8	0.33	0.74
4	Leon Bailey	Aston Villa	2,068	0.27	0.4	0.67	0.27	0.67
5	Cole Palmer	Chelsea	2,607	0.63	0.38	1.01	0.38	0.76
6	Jacob Murphy	Newcastle Utd	1,189	0.16	0.37	0.54	0.16	0.54
7	Son Heung-min	Tottenham	2,934	0.37	0.36	0.73	0.32	0.68
8	Brennan Johnson	Tottenham	2,085	0.44	0.35	0.79	0.44	0.79
9	Bruno Fernandes	Manchester Utd	3,118	0.29	0.34	0.63	0.17	0.51
10	Bukayo Saka	Arsenal	2,919	0.48	0.32	0.8	0.33	0.65
11	Trent Alexander-Arnold	Liverpool	2,155	0.11	0.3	0.41	0.1	0.4
12	Pablo Sarabia	Wolves	1,745	0.28	0.3	0.59	0.2	0.5
13	Kieran Trippier	Newcastle Utd	2,236	0.03	0.3	0.33	0.03	0.33
14	Andrew Robertson	Liverpool	1,693	0.1	0.29	0.39	0.1	0.39
15	Martin Odegaard	Arsenal	3,091	0.22	0.28	0.5	0.17	0.45
16	Moussa Diaby	Aston Villa	2,174	0.29	0.27	0.56	0.29	0.56
17	Gabriel Martinelli	Arsenal	2,019	0.31	0.27	0.58	0.31	0.58
18	Dwight McNeil	Everton	2,892	0.11	0.27	0.38	0.11	0.38
19	Darwin Nunez	Liverpool	2,047	0.72	0.27	0.98	0.68	0.95
20	Bernardo Silva	Manchester City	2,578	0.13	0.27	0.4	0.13	0.4
21	Jeremy Doku	Manchester City	1,595	0.14	0.26	0.4	0.14	0.4
22	Phil Foden	Manchester City	2,857	0.33	0.26	0.59	0.33	0.59
23	Diogo Jota	Liverpool	1,145	0.42	0.26	0.68	0.42	0.68
24	Pedro Neto	Wolves	1,516	0.21	0.26	0.47	0.21	0.47
25	Anthony Elanga	Nott'ham Forest	2,433	0.24	0.25	0.49	0.24	0.49

Your xAG numbers are a little different from mine (I used SofaScore, but they don't say where they get their data from, whereas the site you quote uses Opta, which is almost certainly more accurate), but it's clear that xAG is a better measure than just assists. And xAG per 90 mins is better still.

I still don't get the resistance to xAG and xG in some quarters. They're definitely not perfect, but they're a far better guide than assists and goals.