Jeremy Doku excelled for Manchester City in the top match against Liverpool. Coach Pep Guardiola agreed—and immediately classified Doku’s abilities.
The man must know: Pep Guardiola has watched 1,000 games from the sidelines as a coach, and this Sunday he broke the barrier. The result was an almost unbelievable 716 victories. And when someone with such a record is asked to evaluate the player of the game that just ended, he can afford to swim against the tide for a few seconds.
That’s what Guardiola did when he was asked about Jeremy Doku after the 3-0 win over Liverpool FC. “To be honest, I don’t think he’ll ever be a top-top scorer,” said the Catalan with a smile on his lips. Doku scored three Premier League goals in each of the past two seasons, and this season it was his first.
Then his coach switched to praise: “But he demands more of himself, he listens and has special dribbling skills.” Guardiola attested that the Belgian had played an “outstanding game.”
City fans mock Wirtz
And he was undoubtedly right. In the opening quarter of an hour, every single Manchester City attack went through Doku. He was officially playing on the left wing, but that didn’t stop him from drawing two opponents to him on the right side of the box in the first minute.
Even if he hadn’t scored the fantastic 3-0 goal, he would probably still have won the player of the match award. Incidentally, one of the two opponents in the first minute was Florian Wirtz. The former Leverkusen player tried his best, but his lack of confidence after his failures in his first few months at Liverpool was evident. When he was substituted for Federico Chiesa shortly before the end, the City fans jeered.
“What a waste of money,” they chanted.
If you have no patience but a pinch of cynicism, the same could be said about other parts of the Liverpool squad, which has been in 8th place since Sunday evening. “We shouldn’t be thinking about the title race right now,” coach Arne Slot made clear, “but rather focus on getting one result after another.” Liverpool’s defeat was the champions’ fifth in their last six league games. It was also due in part to Virgil van Dijk’s supposed equalizer in the 39th minute not counting. “It’s obvious and clear that the wrong decision was made here,” Slot complained, adding with regard to left-back Andy Robertson:
“He did not obstruct the goalkeeper in any way.” Robertson had been passively offside, not directly in the line of sight of Manchester goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma. Whether the Italian was actually irritated by the crouching Scot could not be clearly determined afterwards.
