6 days ago
10
Manchester City winger Jeremy Doku has spoken about what he has taken from being coached by Pep Guardiola.
Jeremy Doku says the biggest thing he has learned at Manchester City is when to calm down in matches.
The Belgium international arrived at the Etihad in 2023 and he was tasked with filling the void that Riyad Mahrez left as he departed for a new challenge. City knew that Doku was young and raw, but believed he had the potential to develop into a world-class winger.
It has taken Doku time to adapt to life under Pep Guardiola, not helped by the fact that the team form disappeared last season. He has also been hampered by persistent injuries, including in February when he ran a Premier League game at Ipswich only to then be sidelined for weeks.
This campaign has started encouragingly for Doku, with the 23-year-old giving a statement performance in the Manchester derby and carrying that form through. No teammate has more than his three assists in all competitions and he has also chipped in with a goal.
Doku has been baptised and got married in the last six weeks, and as well as those big changes in his personal life he says he has also learned with Guardiola that the fastest approach isn't always the best.
“There are a lot of things I learn daily but the biggest thing is when I arrived, I was younger and had a lot of energy and always wanted to go forward but what I’ve learned is that sometimes you need to know the moments in the game to be more mature and calm down," he said.
"It’s something I’ve improved on. We keep improving because we know everyone has the quality to play - if you want to play you need to be on point every time. We push each other in a healthy way and that makes us improve every day.”
Doku came off the bench at Aston Villa and made the team look better after Savinho and Oscar Bobb had struggled in the wide positions on Sunday. The youngster has been the standout winger for Guardiola this season and is also developing a healthier partnership with City goal machine Erling Haaland after a few years where they failed to find each other regularly enough.
“He’s a machine. He likes to score goals, and he always scores goals - he’s always hungry. It’s his quality too - he’s always had that. I’m not surprised by how he’s been doing," he said.
"Every player wants to win the biggest trophies and wants to be up there - we all strive to win trophies and to compete. I enjoy the game when most of the time we have the ball - we are a team that dominate and for us as wingers it’s fun when we have the ball and we can attack a lot.
"Everyone in this team has a goal and an ambition - everyone is motivated to be the best version of themselves."
---
Here at the Manchester Evening News, we’re dedicated to bringing you the best Manchester City coverage and analysis.
Make sure you don’t miss out on the latest City news by joining our free WhatsApp group. You can get all the breaking news and best analysis sent straight to your phone by clicking here to subscribe.
You can also subscribe to our free newsletter service. Click here to be sent all the day’s biggest stories.
And finally, if you’d rather listen to our expert analysis then make sure to check out our Talking City podcast. Our shows are available on all podcast platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and you can also watch along on YouTube.
English (US) ·