The summer transfer window is where all teams do their major rebuilding, spending forks of money to improve their squad. However, every team always ponders one question when signing a certain player: how much time will he take to fully integrate into the squad, even if he is the perfect one? Will he start to hit the ground running from the start and perform at his best? If the player is Jeremy Doku, then the answer is an emphatic yes.
Signed over the summer for a fee of £55.5 million from Ligue 1 club Rennes, Doku was expected to be the adequate replacement for the departing Riyad Mahrez. However, no one could have predicted that he would become their best-performing player from the start of the season.
The injury to Kevin de Bruyne also played its role as it meant that players in midfield and attack had to take extra responsibility to negate the impact of the Belgian’s absence. And Doku has undoubtedly shown the biggest improvement bamboozling the opposition’s defence with his brilliant footwork and dribbling.
So, what do the stats say about Jeremy Doku and how he became so good in such a short period?
Jeremy Doku: Stats in the 2023-24 season
Jeremy Doku’s signing differed from most summer transfers because he joined the week after the Premier League had begun. His signing was only confirmed on August 24, and after sitting on the bench for the first game, he made his debut against Fulham.
Since then, he has featured in every game in the league, with five appearances in the UEFA Champions League. In just 17 appearances, he has scored three goals and provided six assists. This is astonishing for a player in his first season at a club already stacked to the brim with attacking talent.
In the 11 games, he has only played 697 minutes but still tops the chart in terms of Expected Threat (xT) with a rating of 2,92, ahead of Liverpool’s Mohammed Salah who has played 447 minutes more. In fact, after Doku, the next four players have all played more than 1000 minutes.
Another interesting aspect of his xT rating is that Doku might be brilliant at dribbling with an xT rating of 1.64, second only to Raheem Sterling. His xT from passing is also 1.28, among the league’s top ten.
This means that he is as dangerous with his passing as his dribbling, making it difficult for the opponent to stop him.
When watching City’s game, it becomes clear that Pep Guardiola has given a specific role to Doku: to receive the ball and use his brilliant skills to create chances for the team. And he is good at it, which is why he has the most successful dribbles in the league.
His game against Liverpool is a perfect example of that. In the game, Doku was explicitly tasked with receiving and moving the ball forward. Data from Soccerment show that he had a total xT rating of 0.51 (0.2 from passing and 0.31 from dribbling). Doku also attempted 15 dribbles, completing 12 of them, and was a constant menace for Trent Alexander Arnold.
Even Opta data showed that City had a clear plan to feed Doku the ball and move the play forward from the left wing.
Operation feed Jeremy Doku was in full effect on Saturday: pic.twitter.com/Duci6LFIWu
— Opta Analyst (@OptaAnalyst) November 27, 2023
Jeremy Doku analysis
Doku’s heatmap from the current season shows a very clear picture of how the attacker operates. The youngster spends most of his team in the opposition’s half. However, as soon as he gets near the goal, he swiftly moves into the inside channel and enters the box. In fact, his heatmap is eerily similar to Mohammed Salah, who also loves to drift inside to either shoot or pass the ball.
Doku is also a player who always looks to move the ball forward. For this, he is even taking huge risks. This is because he has an enormous belief in his skills, such that if he tries it continuously, he can get past his opponent more often than not.
His game against Bournemouth showed how devastating he can be if his teammates rise to his level. Doku provided four assists in that game. Three goals had an Expected Goal (xG) of 0.12, 0.12, and 0.14, which were pretty low on the metric. Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden, and Manuel Akanji scored these goals. Since two of them are world-class attackers, they managed to take those chances.
It is still early days for Doku, and under the tutelage of Pep Guardiola, he will only get better. Throughout his time at Manchester City, the Spaniard has been obsessed with improving an already world-class squad. Last season, Kevin de Bruyne and Erling Haaland were the top creators and goal scorers, respectively. However, Guardiola doesn’t like the idea of depending on a single player, however good he might be. This season, Julian Alvarez and Jeremy Doku have been given roles where they can be reliable backups, and with de Bruyne injured, Doku has taken the role. And with the Belgian set to return later in the season, we might still be able to see the best of Jeremy Doku.
This article is sponsored by Vitamin Angels