Jérémy Doku Return: Man City's Premier League Boost

Why Greenwood is ‘one of the best players in Europe’

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He didn’t score, he didn’t give an assist, and yet it was he who burst the screen. Facing Real Madrid on Wednesday evening in the Champions League, Jérémy Doku was “the best player of the match“selon Pep Guardiola.”Without him it would have been much more complicated.he praised after a convincing victory at the Bernabéu (2-1). He gave us breaks, released us through the pass.“

He didn’t score, he didn’t give an assist, but on the two goals scored by Manchester City, Jérémy Doku was indeed the source of the danger. It is on his side that the ball is lying around when Erling Haaland is hooked by Antonio Rüdiger in the area, which allows him to obtain and transform the successful penalty (43rd). A few moments earlier, it was also he who caused the corner from which the Skyblues equalized (35th) – after having put Rodrygo on the buttocks on a dribble, which was not within the reach of the first winger to come along.

His first five meters, I’ve never seen anything so fast

“What a dribbler, right?Guardiola still marveled after the meeting. His first five meters, I’ve never seen anything so fast in my life. And now he’s making a lot of progress in his decision-making around the box. If we have to make a lot of effort, starting from 40 meters, it’s difficult for him. Savinho is better, Sané was better, Sterling was better. Vinicius is better. But if we manage to take him through the play in the final zone, he sinks you.“

Pep Guardiola’s weakness for the talent of the former Rennais is not new. From his first Mancunian steps in the fall of 2023, Doku already received praise from the Catalan. His return to the highest level, however, coincides with the overall revival of form of the Skyblues, who have the opportunity to lock their place on the Premier League podium this Sunday against Crystal Palace, surprising fourth before this sixteenth day (3 p.m.).

Jérémy Doku scores with City against Liverpool, November 9, 2025.

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Last season, like all his friends, Doku once again became an electric threat. The 23-year-old Belgian “sank” Liverpool almost single-handedly in November and he doesn’t even seem decisive enough in relation to the risk he brings to the opposing goal since the start of the season (3 goals and 6 assists in 22 games). Advanced statistics (chances created, shots following a pass, number of players dribbled per match) place him among the most creative players and those most capable of unlocking an offensive situation.

One of the architects of the new City

In his thoughts to reshape a playing system which showed its limits last year, Guardiola wanted to find compactness. His team is not yet impeccable defensively but up front, it has renewed itself. It is not for nothing that Rayan Cherki and Phil Foden also shine in the center, at the start of the season, behind the inevitable Erling Haaland. The performances of some also give freedoms to others, as Oliver Glasner, Palace coach, pointed out before the meeting. “If you close the middle, they have excellent one-on-one wingers and then they have people in the box, with good calls. If you control the wide players a little more, they will find the small spaces with Foden, Cherki, Silva…“

Jérémy Doku against Crystal Palace in the FA Cup final in May 2025.

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Capable of “dribbling someone in a phone booth” according to his former coach at Anderlecht Craig Bellamy, Doku is one of the players who helped turn around Manchester City in 2025. Pep Guardiola’s team always concedes goals, but it has managed to rekindle uncertainty when it approaches the opposing surface, and this uncertainty has been raining down goals since September (35 in the league, best attack). The Crystal Palace Eagles muzzled Doku and City in the FA final Cup, last May (1-0); will they manage to do the same at Selhurst Park?