Pep Guardiola must start Jeremy Doku in Manchester City’s upcoming FA Cup clash against Newcastle United.
After seeing Luton Town off with a 6-2 scoreline, the Citizens were drawn with a quarter-final clash against Newcastle at the Etihad Stadium.
In terms of what Guardiola’s starting XI could look like for tomorrow’s match, one player that we feel should be in it is Doku.
Doku must start against Newcastle
During the previous summer transfer window, the Manchester club paid £55m to sign the attacker from Rennes.
Since then, Doku has gone on to make 30 appearances for City across all competitions, scoring four goals and delivering six assists along the way.
The winger was unavailable for City’s 3-1 win over Copenhagen last week but came on as a second-half substitute in their 1-1 draw against Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday.
In 21 minutes against the Reds, the Belgian had 18 touches of the ball and caused some trouble for the Liverpool defence as he managed to hit the woodwork with one of his goal attempts.
Throughout the entire league campaign, the 21-year-old has made more carries into the penalty area (110) than any other player in the division and racked up the second-highest number of successful take-ons (64).
This shows how much of a danger he could be for Newcastle’s defence to deal with.
In fact, with the Toon conceding 20 more goals in the league this season than City (28 vs 48), this could be a game where Doku’s attacking power could really flourish and terrify Eddie Howe’s side.
With all of that in mind and the fact that the winger hasn’t scored a goal or provided an assist since January, if he were to start on Saturday and get his name on the scoresheet, this would undoubtedly give him a big confidence boost heading into the final months of the campaign.