11 | Jeremy Doku - 2023/24

[dronefromsector7G]

He got passed the defender lots of times yesterday….but then did nothing with it…… no end product.

How many times did he get PAST the defender exactly?

 

[Kippax Street 1880]

I thought he played quite well. Gusto is a top 1v1 defender and then you had Palmer helping, being very disciplined tactically as well as Disasi sliding over from the centre to double up on Doku. There just wasn’t always the space for him to operate, and he still manages to beat his man a couple of times and put a couple of dangerous balls in.

He was alright yesterday imo and I'm far from his biggest fan. Was doubled up on and tried really hard. Was dead on his feet last 20 minutes, so while he was frustrating the fuck out of me I'm not going to slate him for running himself into the ground. Why the manager couldn't see it I don't know.

Time for Oscar vs Brentford imo. They will play 5 at the back aswell and its going to be hard for Doku to get to the byline without a wall of defenders in front of him. Go for the more creative and versatile option.

 

[nellyonthewing]

How many times did he get PAST the defender exactly?

To be fair he put a few decent balls into their box but they always had 3 defenders waiting to cut out any ball to Haaland who never came to the near post. On our left we mainly leave the crossing to Walker who is pretty inept at that. The crossing yesterday was generally amateurish.

 

[nellyonthewing]

Seemed to be under instruction to not use his speed and go past his man , he kept passing it backwards instead , same as grealish does , on pep that he was largely wasted yesterday

Watch some replays - he was double marked as Grealish usually is. The only difference is Grealish runs back towards our half and either recycles the ball or gets hacked down. Doku tries to beat a defender but often loses the ball to the first or second defender. On the occasions he escapes the ball in is poor from him but there is no one moving for him anyway. Its bewildering tactically that Pep is repeating this .

 

[Belgian Flash]

For the first time in his life, Doku is realizing hes not the fastest player out there and he can't simply outpace defenders over and over again and scan around until he finds the right option. Unless he figures out how to think two steps ahead, anticipate defenders movements, increase his awareness where his teammates are and where they will be by the time he makes his move, he will be ineffective.

I am Doku's biggest fan but I honestly overestimated his quickness compared to top Premiership defenders just as he did probably. Now I am increasingly skeptical about his improvement because its incredibly difficult to change your instincts. IQ/feel for the flow of the game doesn't just grow like that. He doesn't read the game well enough, there is a reason why he hasn't built chemistry with his teammates, and there is a reason why he never developed his off ball game. Hopefully he's still young enough to become a bigger savant of the game.

He also needs to learn how to shoot the damn ball. He has the technique, but his mind is not focused in the moment he makes contact. He needs to practice a lot, in different situations, repeat movements until it becomes automatic. He doesn't get to buldoze his way close to goal anymore, he needs to learn how to shoot from around the box. I think he needs to watch a lot of videos of his game and where he makes these mistakes and how to improve.

 

[Norman kneejerk]

Watch some replays - he was double marked as Grealish usually is. The only difference is Grealish runs back towards our half and either recycles the ball or gets hacked down. Doku tries to beat a defender but often loses the ball to the first or second defender. On the occasions he escapes the ball in is poor from him but there is no one moving for him anyway. Its bewildering tactically that Pep is repeating this .

Agree needs someone playing closer to him he can work little angles with.

 

[ojeme]

So we are going to defend the guy that has consistently failed to deliver the killer ball (not one game) while attacking the guy that has averaged approx a goal a game since he’s been here?

I like Doku, he is exciting to watch and he offers something that very few of our other players do…but, there’s no getting away from the fact that once he he does what he does, there is very little at the end of it. That’s the crux of it. I can like watching him play but also think ‘well not much came of that’. We all hope and expect his end product will improve but right here, right now, it isn’t good enough. I don’t know how anyone can argue otherwise.

I’m all for constructive criticism. This was a game where every City player suffered due to the tactics we decided to adopt. To be mild towards a striker that got fed again and again (when it was super hard to deliver a good ball because if you tried to go past the bank of 2 opposing players, two or three more would put their bodies on the line when you try to shoot - such that even the greatest player in Europe could only get little joy) but didn’t deliver but pour all the blame on an easy target - that will surely warrant a reaction from me.

I’m grateful for all the things Haaland and Foden and others have done for this great club but putting all the blame for the below par performance IN THIS MATCH on an easy target whilst excusing the shortcomings of others because they have done so well in the past doesn’t strike me as an objective take.

Julian seems to be surviving his "less than par" run pretty well.

Look what it caused yesterday. Would you be happy for him to start another match as an attacking midfielder?

As demonstrated by your numerous posts just on the recent few pages of this thread your opinion on Grealish is biased against to the point of being worthless.

I will praise Grealish when I have to and for the record I think he is the more established player than Doku. Or maybe you should see my posts about Haaland or Foden after yesterday’s match. I slated them because they were ineffectual but Bluemoon decided to pour her fury on Doku who I thought did better than other attacking players, poor as he was.

And when you're being dishonest?

No I am not. Care to point out my dishonesty? I have said that whenever Doku has a poor showing, we tend to automatically assume that Grealish would have had a MOTM performance if he was involved. It can be very difficult to break down all these disciplined defense lines. Because we are the most feared side in the league, teams would normally up their defensive block to frustrate us.

It’s never easy for anybody. Even last season we had Haaland score a record breaking number of goals and even the likes of Gundo helping out with scoring duties when Haaland was not on it. This is a different season. Let us support all our players and give them a chance to succeed.

 

[ojeme]

To be fair he put a few decent balls into their box but they always had 3 defenders waiting to cut out any ball to Haaland who never came to the near post. On our left we mainly leave the crossing to Walker who is pretty inept at that. The crossing yesterday was generally amateurish.

If Lord Kevin De Bruyne could only create little, Foden was not so involved (I get the argument of him being better in the middle but he has done more than enough for us in that position before so it’s not a strange position for him), Alvarez wasn’t on it (he is not an AM but he has scored and assisted quite well this season regardless) and finally in the rare occasion that either Doku or KDB put it on a plate for the target man, he wasn’t on it on the day, wouldn’t that suggest that the problem was greater than one single player that fans were willing to latch on?

For one, we were playing Chelsea not Southampton, therefore there was enough quality for them to punish us and really do us dirty if not that Moraes was alert yesterday. That huge gap in midfield meant that it was easy to cut through us like knife through bread and that would normally create panic everywhere on the pitch not allowing us to play our game. Also, our fullbacks who should normally provide an outlet so that the wide men, when double marked could manage to get some joy - they aren’t attacking full backs so that strategy was already dead on arrival. The whole team suffered and it showed so singling out a player that some people haven’t warmed up to and criticizing him as if he was the cause of most of our problems yesterday was really unfair. And if we say that other players have got credit in their account for past deeds, scapegoating Doku still wouldn’t be fair seeing that he hasn’t had the opportunity to play for city for 5 years so that we can do a proper judgement. Even many of our favorites like Rodri were far from great on their first seasons.

 

[alexmcity]

Let Doku defend himself by contributing key assists/goals. He can do it. I think he will do it in the run in.

 

[Pelegrinni]

So we are going to defend the guy that has consistently failed to deliver the killer ball (not one game) while attacking the guy that has averaged approx a goal a game since he’s been here?

I like Doku, he is exciting to watch and he offers something that very few of our other players do…but, there’s no getting away from the fact that once he he does what he does, there is very little at the end of it. That’s the crux of it. I can like watching him play but also think ‘well not much came of that’. We all hope and expect his end product will improve but right here, right now, it isn’t good enough. I don’t know how anyone can argue otherwise.

How many killer balls did Foden deliver from the right side on Saturday?
How many killer balls has Grealish delivered since last season?
I think some fans should give Doku a break.
All these over the top criticism is not necessary.