Craig Burley has said that Jeremy Doku underwhelmed for Manchester City in their 1-1 draw against Liverpool on Saturday.
On ESPN FC, the pundit said that Doku’s decision-making was far from its best in what he believes was a rare off day for him.
Largely, the Belgian’s arrival at the Etihad Stadium has been met with admiration, with Glenn Murray claiming that entertaining players like him are the reason why he watches football in the first place.
Craig Burley says Manchester City winger Jeremy Doku was “pretty poor” against Liverpool
But it seems like the 21-year-old has been getting stick for his display against Jurgen Klopp and Co.
While some believe that the £55.5 million (Sky Sports) man was as electric as usual, others believe his decision-making and lack of end product made his performance a frustrating watch.
Craig Burley agrees with the latter as he believes Manchester City speedster Jeremy Doku flattered to deceive against Liverpool.
“One of the other things about Man City, talking about that side, we talked about it on Thursday we were on, the potential hazard for [Trent] Alexander-Arnold and we saw [Joel] Matip getting a one-on-one with Jeremy Doku and he sat him on his backside. He just didn’t do it enough”, he told ESPN FC.
Craig Burley also felt that the approach Jeremy Doku took against Liverpool was akin to playing a lower side after Manchester City dropped two points at home.
“And Frank’s [Leboeuf] right, they got a few players to help him but there’s two sides to that story and Doku in one of the games recently, it might be Burnley at home or I can’t remember who it was and he scored a couple and assisted a couple. Bournemouth, it was, he was involved in everything. It was like his ball”
“It almost felt like he took that onto this field today in the biggest game in England today and I was saying to you, he was trying to do too much, taking too many touches, there was an early pass on but he’s trying a stepover or a drop of the shoulder. And that’s something that he’ll learn as he goes along.”
He concluded, “These things are great when you’re beating a defender but if there’s a better ball on, an earlier ball, a quicker ball on the other side of a midfielder or a backline, you’ve got to play it. And today, he just seemed to want to beat everybody.”
“That end product, I’m not saying Liverpool played him well but he was pretty poor in his decision-making in the final third.”
That is harsh on Jeremy Doku
While Craig Burley is right to have pinpointed the lack of end product on offer from Jeremy Doku as his final ball was not the best against Liverpool, he was still one of the standouts for Manchester City.
The highly-rated talent’s dribbling was typically brilliant but at times, he was simply doubled up on.
However, Doku still managed to leave defenders for dead, whether it be on the left flank or deeper centrally.
The youngster even created a couple of chances that were not taken by the likes of Julian Alvarez and Erling Haaland.
Against one of the Sky Blues’ title rivals, Jeremy Doku stood tall, even if he was not flawless at all times, which is a very encouraging prospect.
