Premier League's best dribbler? Doku joins exclusive assists club as Grealish struggles

Manchester City news: Jérémy Doku joins exclusive assists club as Grealish struggles

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“I want Jack angry and I want him to play well,” said Pep Guardiola in response to his €117.5m man Jack Grealish being on the bench on Saturday. It was yet another emphatic performance from Manchester City, as they hammered Bournemouth 6-1 at the Etihad, but the star of the show was new man Jérémy Doku - valued at €60 million in the latest Premier League market value update.

The Belgian 21-year-old broke into a very exclusive club of players who have assisted four goals in one Premier League match. Doku joined Paul Pogba, Harry Kane, Santi Cazorla, Emmanuel Adebayor, Cesc Fàbregas, Antonio Reyes and Dennis Bergkamp as just the eighth player to achieve this, and scored a goal too for good measure.

How Jérémy Doku is being utilised by Pep Guardiola

Breaking into this Man City team is no mean feat; most players take a while to adjust to Guardiola’s high demands, but already Doku is getting regular football and is taking his chance. Since making his debut against Fulham at the start of September, he’s played 655 minutes of football, compared to Grealish’s 367. Although Grealish did miss three of those games through injury, the Englishman has been a substitute in four of City’s last five Premier League games, and was unused in two of those. Doku has his manager's trust.

Full Player Comparison

Guardiola’s teams have become renowned for their ability to manipulate the pitch and get their wingers one-on-one against the full-back, and in Doku they may have the very best at beating a man. He has completed the most dribbles in the Premier League with 81 - Marcus Rashford is second with 74, and when it comes to per 90 minutes, Doku is miles ahead, with 13.25 dribbles per 90 minutes, ahead of Burnley’s Luca Koleosho in second with 8.39. He also has a 67.9% success rate from those dribbles, which can only be bettered by Dominik Szoboszlai, Moussa Diaby and Michail Antonio, who have all completed significantly less dribbles.

Doku is also showing end-product - he already has three goals, and after his masterclass on Saturday, it means no player in the league has more assists per 90 minutes. Worryingly for the rest of the Premier League and the rest of Europe, the treble winners may have a new trick up their sleeve.

The journey before Manchester City

Doku broke through the famous Anderlecht academy in Brussels in 2018, and it was immediately clear he had something special. In the 2019/20 season he began playing regularly, and at just 17 years old he was already attempting 13.22 dribbles per 90 minutes in the Belgian Pro League, and completing 60% - full-backs were terrified of the fearless winger. His market value had already hit €9m.

Doku was quickly outgrowing the Belgian league, and his raw talent had grabbed the attention of Stade Rennais, who brought him to Ligue 1 for €26m. It took some time to adjust, and his output in terms of goals and assists wasn’t phenomenal in France (12 goals and 10 assists in 92 games) but in his debut season only Kylian Mbappé completed more dribbles, and in the 2022/23 campaign, he completed the most dribbles per 90 minutes in the league (13.07) with a 66.83% success rate.

Speaking about the talented Belgian, Ronan Caroff, Transfermarkt Area Manager for France, said, “Jérémy Doku has held the status of a really promising prospect for a number of years now. Some French observers still boldly label him as a "straight ahead" winger or just a "runner", but that only proves they haven’t watched him closely. He of course still has his speed and ability to beat defenders in one-on-one situations, but his decision making has gotten a lot better. He is surely one of the most efficient players in Europe’s top leagues.” Guardiola had seen enough.