Mayowa, Esq.

7 League goals in 4 years is honestly so embarrassing.

Let’s talk about two of City’s wingers, Jeremy Doku and Savinho. The future of this pair is a topic we feel needs to be discussed. First of all, both of these players were signed at a very young age and are very much project players - not the finished article. Having signed Semenyo, a player who is much closer to the finished article, we can see the difference it makes to the team. That level of consistency that he offers has made a tremendous difference and it’s not something we see from either Doku or Savinho. Both are both really talented in their own ways, but as project signings, are they REALLY what we need? If we’re going to buy players to develop we can’t keep them all nor play them all as a top club. Semenyo is the bare minimum for what we need as a winger at City with that level of consistent output. Savinho has got an excellent delivery, decent dribbling, great ball carrying, hit and miss decision making, inability to score from the right and potential ability to score from the left but still not consistently. But he can beat a man quickly and put a ball in for Haaland, which is arguably more important than goals from a City winger. Doku can’t consistently find Haaland and that becomes an issue when he can’t score either. Fine, if he can’t find Haaland consistently it’s okay if he can score himself, but he can’t. World class at beating a man, but not up to scratch with everything else. When there’s space, Doku is great because he can find a pass. but as we saw at the weekend against Liverpool, every pass was rushed and unplanned and didn’t find its target - and that’s the issue… he puts the ball to where he thinks someone should be, not where someone is. And it’s why Haaland benefits from Nunes so much because Nunes puts the ball in on Haaland’s head… not in an area, or the likes of Cherki who see his runs and play it into him then. People made the argument that Haaland is lazy and doesn’t make the back post run for Doku, but what about all the times Doku cuts back… if Haaland’s standing at the back post there’s complaints that he’s not there for the cut back. Problem is, Doku doesn’t decide whether he’s cutting back or playing it to the back post until the moment he hits it. Impossible to read - it’s why he’s a nightmare for defenders but it hurts our attack too. A lot of the time he doesn’t hit it to pick out a man he just hits it randomly and sometimes it pays off. Only time he finds a man is when the defenders step off him and he has time to look up and see Haaland stood on the penalty spot so he fizzes it across. But once he enters the ball 18 yard box he doesn’t look up enough because otherwise he will lose the ball due to his acceleration and excellent dribbling. Savinho has provided plenty of assists and definitely has creativity in abundance which is fantastic for us but there’s games he goes missing and we struggle to create from his side at all. There’s many admirable qualities there but for both of them, it always comes down to one word that’s been repeated a hundred times in this tweet - CONSISTENCY. Overall, by all means, have your project players… but as projects they won’t be consistent and at a top club you need consistency, so it feels as though we need another winger whilst this pair develop or we can cash in and let them develop elsewhere. It’s tricky as there’s clearly talent in abundance with both of them.