Pep Guardiola was seen being very animated towards one Manchester City player today in the dramatic 2-1 win over Wolves.
Manchester City got off to a poor start today against Wanderers at Molineux, conceding within just seven minutes.
Jorgen Strand Larsen converted after a great cross from the right side from Nelson Semedo.
But City applied lots of pressure, and the pressure told on 33 minutes when Josko Gvardiol fired into the top corner.
Wolves’ game plan was clear throughout. After going to a back three for this game, they sat deep and looked to hit City on the counter.
City had real trouble breaking Wolves down, and one man who had a bit of a frustrating afternoon was Jeremy Doku.
In the end though, City came through right at the death through John Stones, as he did against Arsenal.
Jeremy Doku frustrates Pep Guardiola during Wolves vs Man City
It was always going to take a lot of creativity to break Wolves down today.
The game was very similar to the one last season, when City lost 2-1.
Wolves defended well in their reverted formation and both Doku and Savinho had trouble creating.
Doku saw a lot of the ball. But he only got beyond Semedo a couple of times.
In the second-half, he swapped with Savinho so that he could try his luck against Rayan Ait-Nouri.
He often looked to come inside, and this led to some frustrations from Guardiola on the touchline. Former Premier League striker Clinton Morrison was on punditry duty for BBC Sport, and observed the Spaniard early on in the second-half.
He said: “Even Pep’s frustrated because he is coming onto his weaker left foot. Maybe just keep the ball in that situation.
“I am not going to tell Doku how to play football, but you can see even his manager is frustrated, throwing his hands in the air.”
City look poor without Foden and De Bruyne
We know that City have not yet hit top gear this season, and this was another pretty poor performance, despite the late victory.
Credit must go to Wolves for the way they set up and really restricted City. They will perhaps feel unlucky about conceding that brilliant goal to Gvardiol.
Guardiola is certainly missing his key creator Kevin De Bruyne, and the team also arguably missed Foden today.
He did come off the bench, but the England international could have had more influence from the start.
Foden and De Bruyne are two of City’s most direct players and when neither of them are involved, City do feel it.
Doku needs to find consistency. Paul Dickov recently said Doku could be a game-changer for Man City, but he also still has the potential to frustrate.
