Pace, aggression and quicksilver trickery: Jérémy Doku is the nightmare for opposition defences who breaks games open for Manchester City. In Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final at Wembley, Southampton’s task will be to try to contain the Belgium winger who has raised his game this season.
The Liverpool head coach, Arne Slot, believes that Doku can be “unstoppable” and Arsenal’s Cristhian Mosquera discovered precisely this in City’s seismic 2-1 win in the Premier League on Sunday, the right-back booked for persistently fouling him at the Etihad Stadium. Yet the 23-year-old is not content. The ambition is to add goals to the sparkling skill set he believes will elevate him above Vinícius Júnior as the world’s best wide forward.
Four strikes in 40 City appearances this term is an under-par return for a footballer of his talent, with Vinícius’s count 18 in 48 games for Real Madrid. Can he reach the Brazilian’s level? “Of course,” Doku says. “I feel like if I have goals we are talking about a different conversation. Assists – I’m fine.
“I have to be more in the areas where you can score easy goals, tap-ins. When I look at my goals, even this season, every time they are with dribbles. I want to score even five tap-ins a-season – that would make a big difference. A winger needs to score. If I have those goals then I believe that I can get there to be the world’s best winger, for sure, 100%.”
So far Doku has 11 assists in all competitions, compared to nine in each of his first two seasons at City, scoring six times in his debut 2023-24 campaign, and eight last season, including two at the Club World Cup. He began as a No 9.
“I was a striker when I was nine, 10 years old,” he says. “Then I became a winger from about 12. I liked to watch Neymar, [Lionel] Messi, [Franck] Ribéry, [Eden]Hazard, [Arjen] Robben, Ronaldinho. Then I created my own thing. I can’t do what they do and they don’t do what I do – I try to do my own thing with what my qualities are.”
His desire to score more shows Doku’s clarity about his game. Of his pace, he says: “I’ve always been fast. My brother was fast, my dad, so it’s been in the family. I think [Abdukodir] Khusanov and I are the fastest in the squad. Over 15 metres, I back myself. But over maybe 40, he will win.”
Slot’s verdict on Doku came after he tore Liverpool apart in City’s 4-0 FA Cup victory this month, his break down the left instrumental in Erling Haaland’s hat-trick goal at the Etihad.
Another compliment came when Trent Alexander-Arnold appeared to mime Doku’s snake-hipped dribbling style as Real Madrid knocked City out of the Champions League in March. “I saw that video. It was a good battle against him,” he says.
“When I play now, most of the time there are two defenders on me, which is not a problem because that means another player is free. But I know one versus one, that’s my biggest quality.”
On Saturday he will hope to demonstrate that and propel City to a fourth consecutive FA Cup final. Should Pep Guardiola’s Premier League leaders knock out the Championship side, Doku wants a different outcome to the defeats by Crystal Palace and Manchester United in their past two finals.
“They stay on your mind, but I try to not shift my attention to the things I don’t have. I’m grateful for what I’ve won already. So being in the semi-final, I want to go back to the final and win that trophy. Because I won a Carabao Cup, I won the Premier League, so I want to win the FA Cup as well.”
Does it make him more motivated to claim the Cup? “A bit yes, no. Even if we won those finals, I would be motivated. Like I’m motivated right now to win the Premier League. Although I already won a Prem, I’m still motivated because you always want to win. It’s never enough, I would say.”
The Carabao Cup triumph – the 2-0 defeat of Arsenal – came in March. On Wednesday, City ended the Gunners’ 200 consecutive days as the Premier League leaders with a 1-0 win at Burnley.
“We’ve already won a trophy and there’s still two trophies where we have everything in our hands. OK, we are out of the Champions League, but imagine we win those two trophies and have a domestic treble. So we’re happy. Nothing to complain about.”