Jeremy Doku has revealed the importance of staying calm and keeping the ball is the biggest thing he’s learned at Manchester City so far.
There was an element of surprise around Manchester City at the level of this performance, just a second appearance since a £55million move from Rennes.
Driving in from the left, the Belgian showed immense pace and skill to have defenders reeling before slotting into the far corner. The goal was just as good as his fantastic performance, which had Pep Guardiola purring afterwards.
The manager admitted he didn’t expect Doku to play at such a high level already but the 21-year-old has explained what he’s already learned in his few weeks in Manchester. “I keep on learning – every training session and game,” he said.
“From the last game [Fulham] I learned that you have to be calm. The massive thing is to not lose the ball – I can still improve on that. It’s about being calm on the ball and having confidence and I want to keep improving on that but today was a success.
“It’s a pleasure [playing with new teammates]. I like to play with them of course. On TV they are very good but in real life they are even better.”
Doku was also asked to talk through his fine strike and wanted to make it clear it was not an easy one to pull off. He said: “We start from the back and build up and look for the free man – [Julian] Alvarez and he looks for me. I try to keep the ball moving, accelerate and go one v one and I decided to shoot. I’m telling it like it’s easy but it’s not. It was a nice goal.”
