Jeremy Doku admitted he did not do enough with the ball in Manchester City’s defeat against Liverpool, but he insisted that his side were close to the side who will take their Premier League title off them this season.. Doku made a season-high eight take-ons against Trent Alexander-Arnold, all in the first half as City started brightly. That beat his previous record of six in the full game at Liverpool earlier in the campaign. But Doku’s end product was inconsistent.. “I had a lot of attacking situations but after the two goals that they scored they played very deep,” Doku said. “They then played on the counter attack so it was hard for us to find spaces. Some game are like that.. “I passed him [Alexander-Arnold] a lot of times but it was then the final pass or I don’t know. The most important thing after passing is to create something from it, and I played some good balls in front of the goal but we have to score. We have to analyse the game and see what I can do better and what we can do better as a team.”. That admission follows praise from Pep Guardiola that Doku and fellow winger Savinho were ‘incredible’, adding that they just ‘missed the magic’ with the final ball.. And with Guardiola also happy with City’s performance, Doku echoed his managed by insisting the defending champions were not too far away from the champions-elect.. “To be fair if I look at the game I don’t think that they were much better than us. Two goals, one set piece and the second goal was a long ball, so well done to them. We know their qualities and that they like to play in behind. They did well and after it is hard to come back against a team that defends well like that.. “We played well but the situations that we had we could have dealt better with them. Today we played better against them than we did away. Of course there is a gap in points but today you can’t say that they ran over us.”. For his part, Liverpool boss Arne Slot accepted that City were the better side in the first half, explaining how their work on set pieces on the training ground proved crucial in breaking down the City resolve.. “If you want to win a big game you need a neutral set-piece balance or to score one and not concede,” Slot said. “We kept them away from big chances because we made sure they didn’t create as much as they normally do.”. “Someone came up with a brilliant set piece plan and we knew that space could be there. The deflection was so helpful because it wasn’t as if we were dominating the game.. Article continues below. “Ideally, we have the ball more than the other team. But City when it comes to ball possession, they like it a lot and are so comfortable on the ball. The only chance you have to win here is to defend very well.”
