Manchester City have welcomed a third summer signing to their ranks in recent days. After the departure of Riyad Mahrez, winger Jérémy Doku came to reinforce the right side of midfield, for whom the English club sent a reported €60 million (£51.5 million) to Rennes.
The first option in Pep Guardiola's team to replace the steady offensive contribution of long-time mainstay Mahrez was to use his own resources. This would consist of moving Phil Foden into the vacant spot and gradually incorporating the Cole Palmer offspring into the team in games against weaker opponents, but this would also bring with it a number of disadvantages. Not only would Guardiola lose to some extent the tactical flexibility that this versatile offensive player offers him by anchoring Foden on the right wing, but the depth of the squad would also suffer greatly in the event of an injury.
Probably the least realistic scenario was the arrival of a direct replacement. Left-footed right-wingers of ideal footballing age, moreover, immediately capable of offering a similar final product to Mahrez, are a scarce commodity in the current transfer market. Barcelona's Raphinha or former City player Leroy Sané, for example, would fit the required profile, otherwise the options were severely limited.
Perhaps that is why the third alternative won out in the end. Namely, the arrival of a young player with high potential, to whom the coaching team will offer the necessary space for full adaptation. There was a lot of talk about bringing in Michael Olise from Crystal Palace or young guns from Lyon, but the choice eventually fell on another player from Ligue 1.
In her last season, Doku stood out above the other wingers mainly with her dribbling. While a few seconds of any YouTube edit is enough to get an immediate sense of his strengths, it is only the hard numbers that show the true extent of his skills. Doku attempts an average of 13 tackles during a game, the most of any winger in Ligue 1. Edon Zhegrova is the second most active dribbler with 11.7, while third-placed Rayan Cherki and Adam Ounas have already averaged two less.
Moreover, Doku maintains a near 80 per cent success rate in one-on-one dribbles, a unique result with such a high volume. Combined with his speed, it's probably not surprising that this was one of the most fouled players of the past season. He was stopped in his tracks more often than 92 per cent of other wingers.
His runs and dribbling are also a huge asset to the Belgian team. In the advanced data metric, which tracks the extent to which a player's movement moves the ball into better positions to increase a team's chances of scoring, Doku has achieved the best result among all wingers. He also has an excellent final pass. Only two entries in the assist column last season were due to bad luck and a high number of missed chances by teammates.
Because his runs are extremely difficult to intercept, he often gets the ball on the ball to the space inside the hexagon, where he can pass it to find an even better firing position for others. In the metric of expected assists, he was among the top 10 per cent of players at his position. Once he goes through the necessary adaptation period, which in his case will probably be more of a gradual process, he should become a great asset in one of the best teams in the world.