Manchester City winger Jeremy Doku has admitted that he could have made more of his dominance over Liverpool right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold in Sunday's Premier League clash.
City were comfortably beaten by Liverpool thanks to goals from Mohamed Salah and Dominik Szoboszlai in the first half, falling a full 20 points behind the Premier League leaders as a result.
But Pep Guardiola saw plenty of positives in the performance from a young City being rebuilt on the go, even if their dreams of an unprecedented fifth successive league title are well and truly dead.
Liverpool executed the game perfectly from a tactical point of view, but City dominated the ball for large parts and were far from played off the pitch. Doku had Alexander-Arnold on metaphorical toast, constantly beating his marker with speedy dribbles.
The Belgian completed 15 dribbles and won 16 duels, per Fotmob, the most in both categories. Alexander-Arnold lost 12 duels, the most of any player on the pitch, and was dribbled past 12 times, putting additional strain on the rest of his Liverpool teammates.
But Doku regrets not being able to take advantage of that, often following up those successful dribbles with the wrong choice final ball, or one that was sub-par.
"As an attacker its also very important to pass your player and then find the right pass - the amount of times I got past, I could have done better with the final pass to look for my teammate," he said.
On one occasion in particular, Doku had dribbled his way into open space but then didn't see the dangerous run being made by Omar Marmoush and the attack fizzled out.
"I need to analyse the game and see what I could have done better," Doku continued. "[Liverpool] score two goals early and then it's difficult to find the spaces when they play very deep. Those goals make the difference and its frustrating."
Doku's output has often been a source of frustration for City. In 46 Premier League appearances, he has scored just six goals a relatively meagre return considering he's started 28 of those matches and has chalked up 12 assists. Just four of those have come during the 2024/25 season.
The 22-year-old has recently been linked with a move to Barcelona, but it's unlikely the Cityzens have the desire to sell less than two years into a five-year contract, nor do the Catalan giants have the financial capacity to make a deal a reality.
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