Update: ‘I’ve been so unfair with him’ – Pep Guardiola sorry for Man City star News

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said Jeremy Doku could do little about being left out of the team in recent weeks.

Pep Guardiola apologised to Jeremy Doku after seeing what the Manchester City winger contributed from the bench at Everton. Doku came on for the final minutes of the game with the score at 0-0 and helped his side to earn a 2-0 win.

That was the third consecutive game that the Belgian winger has been used off the bench by Guardiola, with his only start in the last five matches coming in the home win over Leicester. Savinho started at Goodison Park but he and Doku have largely been moved out of the team because the manager has tried a different style.

Packing his midfield with defensive solidity and players who can keep the ball and play the short passes again and again that help City to control the games has been a move that Guardiola has turned to since the March international break, and it has been at the expense of his wingers.

City’s coach accepts that there is nothing that they can do, although he was more impressed with Doku’s performance off the bench at Goodison than he was at Old Trafford a few weeks ago.

“I’ve been so unfair with him in the last games, because I remember the games against Spurs away and Brighton, for example,” he said on Saturday.

“Without him it would not be possible, but the only reason that they have not played lately is because we didn’t attack in the last games, with wingers – we were more full-backs wide, and more players in the middle like Bournemouth.

“But it’s only my reason. I feel sorry for him and for other ones.

“But today the impact has been much, much better than Old Trafford. Old Trafford was not good, and here the impact was, you know, how the ball dropped the team, and his threat, arriving to the byline.

“Jeremy in the final third is unstoppable, he’s an incredible, incredible football player, and I’m really pleased that today he played really good.”

Doku will hope to start in Tuesday’s game against Aston Villa, where victory will give the Blues a huge boost in their bid to qualify for next season’s Champions League.

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