Julien Laurens has said that Pep Guardiola has already managed to change how Jeremy Doku plays.
The French journalist-cum-pundit was quizzed by Mark Schwarzer on The Optus Sport Football Podcast (27/11/2023) about his thoughts on Doku, considering he had seen plenty of him for Rennes in Ligue 1.
Over two weeks ago, Ian Wright had said that the youngster, alongside Josko Gvardiol and Mateo Kovacic were still finding their feet as a trio on Manchester City’s left-hand side.
Julien Laurens says Pep Guardiola has already “changed” Jeremy Doku
Interestingly, Rio Ferdinand also claimed that Pep Guardiola could well drop the £55.5 million (The Athletic) man in favour of Jack Grealish during the business end of the season.
However, Julien Laurens feels that Pep Guardiola has already managed to transform Jeremy Doku as a player from a defensive point of view.
“There was a chat in the UK, here about does Pep need to change him a little bit to make him more Pep-ready, kind of City-ready. And I think he’s already changed because he had six recoveries of the ball in the game on Saturday”, Laurens said on The Optus Sport Football Podcast.
He continued, “Trust me, I’ve watched him at Rennes, in France, he never really worked defensively. That’s not what they asked him to do anyway. So, he was about making differences with the ball, creating chances, scoring etc. But he didn’t have to work defensively.”
“Now, he plays Liverpool and he recovers the ball six times. Only Rodri in the City team recovered the ball more than Jeremy Doku in the game on Saturday, so for me, Pep has changed him already, made him aware of what to do in possession but also out of possession.”
A green flag about Jeremy Doku is that he seems willing to learn
Julien Laurens is bang on the money as Jeremy Doku looked the best he perhaps ever has in a Manchester City shirt defensively against Liverpool and that is down to both him as well as Pep Guardiola.
The Spaniard is known to demand his wingers to put in the hard yards, as one especially saw from the likes of Bernardo Silva and Jack Grealish last season.
But it seems like Jeremy Doku has taken all the advice from his manager on board.
For instance, despite being an outstanding dribbler, Doku has improved game-by-game when it comes to simply keeping possession of the ball.
The same can be said for the highly-rated winger’s decision-making in the final third and now for his defensive work.
As long as Jeremy Doku is receptive to key tactical instructions, he will continue to notice a marked improvement in all sides of his game.
