Pep Guardiola was left impressed by Jeremy Doku after Manchester City’s new signing scored his first goal for the club during Saturday’s 3-1 win over West Ham United.
The Premier League champions went behind in the first half after James Ward-Prowse headed home Vladimir Coufal’s cross. But the Belgian winger pegged the hosts back within a minute of the second half starting.
Goals from Bernardo Silva and Erling Haaland secured all three points for Man City, which sees them remain at the top of the table with a 100 percent record after five games.
Doku was a menace on the left wing, and Guardiola was bowled over by the 21-year-old’s willingness to take players on in his second appearance since joining City from Rennes for £55.4m.
“I would say that the first game he was shy and today he was not, it was an unbelievable game,” he told BBC Sport.
“He was a proper winger, have the ball, have the ability to go one-v-one. Not just that, he has the quality to read when to make the pass for the next player. I was very happy, it was a very good performance from Jeremy.”
Speaking to Premier League productions, Doku said his first goal for the club meant “a lot, especially after their goal because it came of me. I wanted to do something back, something good, and I helped the team which I’m glad about.”
Doku also revealed that Guardiola told him to take on opposition players in order to create space for the team in attack. “I enjoyed it, I had a lot of one-v-ones,” he said.
“The manager said to try this to bring a lot of players to me and it worked. I enjoyed the game against him of course.
“[Guardiola] said the first game I was a little bit shy but now, no. As he said, I was a little bit less shy today.”
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