Manchester City winger Jeremy Doku has revealed that two of the most important things he has learned since joining the club is staying “calm” and “not losing the ball”.
With Riyad Mahrez sold to Al Ahli in July, Doku arrived just shy of a month later after completing a £55.5m transfer from Rennes. The 21-year-old Belgian was an unused substitute for the late win over Sheffield United just three days after he arrived, but has started back-to-back games since.
From the right, Doku played the full 90 minutes as City cruised past Fulham in a 5-1 win, while he played on the left and scored his first goal for the club in Saturday’s in over West Ham.
Playing under Pep Guardiola, which Erling Haaland recently admitted can be “brutal” and not always pleasant, has already been a learning curve and two key principles have been drilled into Doku.
“From the [Fulham] game, I learned that you have to be calm. The massive thing is to not lose the ball…I can still improve on that,” Doku explained, via Manchester Evening News.
“It’s about being calm on the ball and having confidence and I want to keep improving on that but [against West Ham] 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.”
Next up for City and Doku is the start of the 2023/24 Champions League group stage, with Red Star Belgrade making the trip to Manchester for Tuesday night’s opener.
Doku already has Champions League from his time with Rennes. He was just 18 at the time but started four times in what proved to be a disastrous group stage for the French club that saw them finish in last place with only one point from the six games.
