Jérémy Doku is increasingly becoming a driving force at Manchester City this season and also demonstrated his great value to The Citizens in Saturday's top match against Liverpool. Virgil van Dijk expressed his admiration for the Belgian.
Doku, after seventeen official matches, has scored four goals and provided six assists for City and was praised earlier this month after a stellar performance against Bournemouth. Against Liverpool, the Red Devil again showed why manager Pep Guardiola values him.
According to Opta, on Saturday afternoon, Doku was the best player on the field in eleven aspects at Etihad Stadium. Of all the players, Doku covered the most distance with the ball at his feet (forward), sent the most passes towards the area around the opponent's goal (29), had the most ball contacts in the opposition penalty area (nineteen), won the most tackles (three), created the most chances (four), and initiated the most dribbles (sixteen). Out of these, eleven were successful.
With that number, Doku is the player with the most successful dribbles in a Premier League match this season. The last time a player in the top English division achieved eleven successful dribbles in one game was in September 2021: Adama Traoré for Wolverhampton Wanderers against Brentford. Despite Doku's strong performance, City did not win against Liverpool. After Erling Haaland opened the score, Trent Alexander-Arnold was responsible for the equalizer ten minutes before time.
Liverpool captain Van Dijk was wary of Doku's dribbling skills. 'Indeed, he is very fast and very dangerous, but I think we ultimately played him well. Doku really has the qualities to make it difficult for any opponent,' said the captain of the Dutch national team to PlaySports.
