Is Jérémy Doku’s trademark shimmy the most unstoppable move in the Premier League today? With the Kevin De Bruyne Cutback now beheading daisies in Serie A, I’m hard-pressed to even come up with a local challenger to the Doku Wiggle. Doku’s move was for me the star of the weekend, as the Belgian winger executed one of his most memorable, merciless, and effective shimmies to utterly flabbergast Luke Shaw and set up Phil Foden for the opening goal in Sunday’s Manchester Derby. The match ended in a 3-0 City win, and stands as solid evidence both that United still has not yet hit rock bottom, and that Doku has not yet hit his talent’s ceiling.
You will hopefully forgive me including a link to Twitter here, as I cannot resist showing you the following video, which allows you to really savor Doku’s exquisite piece of skill in slo-mo glory:
The wiggle itself—even if, as mentioned above, it was a particularly delectable example of one—is nothing new. Doku is famous for his explosive dribbling, and anyone who knows anything about him knows that that little leg-and-hip wag, followed by a flick of the outside of his right foot and a warp-speed lunge rightward, is his favorite weapon in his limited but no less effective armory. But it was where the move started (right-of-center in midfield) and what happened after (an assist) that made it so powerful and portentous.
As in most of his games as a Man City player, Doku’s starting position on Sunday was out on the left wing. Usually his role on that side is to stand out by the touchline, await a booming cross-field pass, and, with the ball at his feet, try to zip his way into the penalty area. Doku is one of the best in the world in 1-v-1 or 1-v-2 attacking scenarios, so he very often beats a man or three and accomplishes his objective to get the ball into the box. However, it’s pretty thankless work. There tend to be something like 10 teammates and opponents in between him on the touchline and the heart of the box, and even when he does wriggle his way through the thicket, he isn’t usually presented with the best angles or situations to then tee up a teammate for a shot or take one of his own. The result is a whole lot of dribbling but not as much end product as you’d like.
The not-totally-unfair (but still kind of unfair) reputation Doku has earned as a one-trick pony is owed partially to himself and partially to his role in the team. Doku is blessed with magnificent technical ability when it comes to touching the ball and convincing it to go exactly where he would like when he’s running with it, but that talent doesn’t translate as well to the game’s more decisive actions. The relentless, effortless immediacy with which he takes on defenders hits the brakes once it comes time to figure out what to do when he’s gotten past them. In those telling moments he sometimes dawdles, thinking up his next option and taking an extra touch or two lining up the shot or pass he eventually settles on. These windows of opportunity do not stay open long, and with each additional second or touch the chances of him contributing to a goal shrink greatly. This effect is only exacerbated by Doku’s reliance on his outside-the-boot rightward wiggle, which, from his wide left starting place, usually leads him on diagonal runs that point away from rather than toward the goal. As is always the case, the matter of Doku’s so-called “bad” decision-making is as much about his technical abilities and movement preferences as it is a purely mental thing.
The other big part that doesn’t always do Doku many favors is manager Pep Guardiola’s tactical set-up. Guardiola generally likes his wingers to stay very high and very wide, often more as pins to set and stretch the opponent’s defensive shape than as sources of direct attacking influence in themselves. This does feed Doku a steady diet of 1-v-1s, where he’s a killer, but, outside the width of the penalty box and with so many bodies to bypass, it also create those thankless scenarios that make it harder for Doku to produce goals in a way he might otherwise. Doku is a legitimately special talent. Surely there are better ways to maximize those gifts than using him as a violently, hopelessly spinning figure stuck on either end of a foosball rod.
One such strategy would be to let Doku drift from his wide starting position, allowing him to pick up the ball closer to the middle of the field. It’s no coincidence that his ruthless jink on Shaw, which led directly to an assist, saw Doku first drift all the way across the pitch over to the center-right channel. Doku has a brilliant understanding of how to position himself in open space. You can see that intelligence at work in the lead-up to the Foden goal, with Doku scanning his surroundings, circling around into Manuel Ugarte’s blind spot, sitting inside the interval between Ugarte and Amad Diallo, offering an irresistible passing option. Letting the Belgian use that sense for spacing in more central positions would put his world-class dribbling where its effects are most damaging. I also believe that putting Doku on the right rather than on the left could also help simplify his decision-making, but he also showed what he can do from the center-left channel by smartly assisting Erling Haaland’s first goal against United:
Any criticism of Doku that casts him as an upmarket Adama Traoré, all empty dribbles and no meat, must acknowledge Doku’s superior, broader skill set and the tactical limitations that don’t set him up for the most individual success. Any criticism of Guardiola that paints him as a talent-killer, and Doku as the new Jack Grealish, a formerly fun player who’s seen his soul vacuumed out by Guardiola’s rigidity, must confront the fact that Doku really does have certain skill set limitations that would make it ill-advised to build an entire team around him. Maybe the best thing you can say about both Doku and Guardiola is that the Spaniard has in the past turned more quickly against players who’ve performed even better than the Belgian, and yet the former still sees enough in the latter to continue investing time and effort into the idea that Doku could eventually develop into something truly formidable. And the best thing you can say about Sunday’s performance is that the pair seem to be getting closer to figuring it out.