If issues had labored out in another way, Jérémy Doku might have been lining up for Liverpool on Sunday, not in opposition to them. Poor Conor Bradley can have wished he was. The Liverpool right-back had considered one of his finest video games in a purple shirt within the Champions League solely 5 days earlier, incomes the man-of-the-match award and a number of plaudits.
However the younger Northern Irishman was introduced right down to earth with a bump by Doku on a day when the Belgium winger spearheaded .
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The best tribute you can pay Doku was that by the beginning of the second half Liverpool had taken to doubling up on him, an acceptance that it was not a good combat in opposition to Bradley alone, however even then the Metropolis participant discovered a approach of evading the eye of two markers.
Within the fifty fifth minute, Bradley was flanked by team-mate Ryan Gravenberch like two bouncers steeling themselves for a combat with an unruly reveller.
Arne Slot gave Bradley a minder, Ryan Gravenberch, within the second half, however they might not include the irrepressible Doku – Getty Photos/Michael Regan
There was barely a yard between the pair, however Doku nonetheless danced previous them earlier than capturing at Giorgi Mamardashvili. That has been the Doku paradox: irresistible and, on events similar to these, largely unplayable one-on-one, however a lot much less convincing in entrance of objective.
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So there was one thing very deserving concerning the sight of Doku darting to his proper after which bending an outstanding end into the nook just below 10 minutes later to cap a splendid 3-0 win for Metropolis in .
“I believe he won’t ever be a high, high scorer to be sincere, however he’s demanding himself to be higher,” the Metropolis supervisor stated very candidly of Doku. “He listens and has a particular attribute – he dribbles.
“So Conor, the right-back from Liverpool I’m actually, actually impressed by. Pep Lijnders [the City and former Liverpool assistant manager] has instructed me a thousand unimaginable good issues about that man.
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“He can do every thing and I do know that sport in opposition to Madrid how good he was in opposition to Vinicius – who’s ‘wow!’ – however Jérémy dealt with it. He was aggressive, with and with out the ball, and we tried to assist him. He performed an impressive sport.”
Again when Doku was 15, Liverpool made a large gross sales pitch to the participant and his household. It concerned a tour of Anfield and the coaching floor, conversations with Jürgen Klopp, Steven Gerrard, Sadio Mané and Mohamed Salah, and reportedly the supply of a home and automotive for his household and even a job for his father, David.
Steven Gerrard was considered one of Liverpool’s heavy hitters who tried to influence Doku to hitch the membership on the age of 15, however he needed to remain at dwelling in Belgium – Liverpool FC by way of Getty Photos/Nick Taylor
However Doku needed to remain at Anderlecht and proceed his growth there, along with his dad telling Het Laatste Nieuws that his son “didn’t need to transfer to Liverpool or England” and “solely brightened up once we stated we had been going dwelling”.
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Metropolis shall be happy he did. He has but to hit the extent of consistency of a few of his team-mates since his £55m transfer from Rennes in 2023, however his ceiling is extraordinarily excessive and, nonetheless solely 23, it appears like there may be much more to come back.
Definitely if he can begin to replicate this sort of type on a extra common foundation, the instruments are there to grow to be one of many Premier League’s most fearsome huge forwards, even when it stays to be seen if he can add that ruthlessness in entrance of objective to his sport.
In opposition to Liverpool, he was the primary participant to attain, win no less than 10 duels, full no less than seven dribbles, create three or extra probabilities and muster no less than three pictures on the right track in a single Premier League sport since Eden Hazard for Chelsea in opposition to West Ham in April 2019.
Doku led the charts for Metropolis in nearly each attacking division in what was his second-best efficiency of the season statistically on the ball, albeit the energy of opposition right here made the displaying all of the extra impactful than the one in opposition to Burnley in September.
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Liverpool couldn’t deal with Doku or Nico O’Reilly in tandem down Metropolis’s left. The latter excelled once more at left-back and saved Salah on the tightest of leashes whereas providing an actual risk going ahead, and may have gotten his identify on the team-sheet. No surprise Thomas Tuchel has included the 20-year-old in his England squad. “Doku and O’Reilly gave us a whole lot of issues, the 2 of them,” Arne Slot, the Liverpool supervisor, conceded.
Doku might simply as simply have been again on that playground within the shadow of Noordersingel bridge in Borgerhout, Antwerp, because the Etihad Stadium. He’s a avenue footballer who embodies this re-energised, extra unpredictable Metropolis facet, one which in the event that they proceed to collect momentum and preserve enjoying like this are going to offer Arsenal a run for his or her cash.