After being tracked by Liverpool this summer, Jérémy Doku decided to make the smarter move for his immediate career to Stade Rennais.
It is believed that Jürgen Klopp still sees the 18-year-old Belgian as Sadio Mané’s successor in Merseyside.
Doku will likely be brought in to replace Raphinha, who left for Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds United and will leave big boots to fill.
Moving from R.S.C. Anderlecht, his strong start to the domestic campaign left many to believe that the 5’6” forward had already outgrown the Jupiler Pro League at such a young age.
At the start of this term, Doku has been utilised as a left-winger, but he has plenty of experience as a right-winger in the first-team from last season.
We will distinguish what he does on both wings through an analysis of his performances.
Doku’s main strength is his dynamism in the final third, which he demonstrates through his direct style, running straight at defenders with pace while maintaining accuracy in his crosses at top speed.
He has excellent balance, coordination, and changes of pace, which often leads to him getting fouled.
This Jérémy Doku scout report will display how he plays on the left and right and how he will fit into Julien Stéphan’s tactics.
In this tactical analysis, we will cover Jérémy Doku’s style of play, his role both in and out of possession, and how well this approach would translate to Stéphan’s current tactics.
Jérémy Doku Style Of Play
When analysing Doku’s player profile, we will cover three main attributes of his game.
These join up to offer an insight into what kind of player Doku is and what he could become.
He is only 18 years old and already made five appearances for the Belgian senior squad.
Doku is already a very good player, and now we will examine how good he could become and, more importantly, how he plans to do so.
Now, what are his key strengths, and what is Jérémy Doku’s playing style?
He is a bold player on the ball, almost always looking to be direct and take on his man with his excellent dribbling ability.
The 18-year-old always aims to find the vertical option in the build-up, capable of carrying the ball and the team up the pitch into finishing positions.
He often employs feints and tricks to beat his opponents, which are mainly effective, but this can sometimes leave him vulnerable.
The teenager is at his best on the counterattack, as his pace and acceleration make him extremely dangerous on the break.
Doku is a right-footed winger who is a creative player with great technique on the ball and good short- to mid-range passing ability.
The Belgian essentially occupies the wide spaces on either side of the pitch, preferring not to occupy the half-spaces when in possession.
Instead, he stays wide and stretches the opposition defence.
From here, he can send in deliveries with either foot, opting for a couple of options: a low-driven cut-back near the byline at pace or a fizzed ball forward into the path of a fellow attacker, but his attempted crosses tend not to leave the ground.
Jérémy Doku Heat Maps
Doku’s heatmaps from the 2019/20 (left) & 2020/21 (right) seasons.
Jérémy Doku Role
Replacing Raphinha at Rennes will be a surmountable task; his importance to the French side should not be understated.
The 24-year-old’s xGChain value of 10.97 was the highest among Rennes’ squad members in the 2019/20 Ligue 1 season.
xGChain represents the total xG of every possession in which the player is involved.
This is just one indication of Raphinha’s importance in a creative sense to his side.
Raphinha, as a left-footed winger, drifted centrally from the right wing more regularly than Doku was asked to at Anderlecht.
Although the Brazilian spent most of his time out in the wide areas, these times when he occupied the #10 space gave Rennes a bit more unpredictability in their attacking approach.
From here, he was afforded a creative licence, with Benjamin Bourigeaud and Eduardo Camavinga also slightly assisting in this regard.
This season, Raphinha operated higher up the pitch due to a formation change from 4-4-2 to 4-3-3, which allowed him to position himself in the final third more often.
This allowed him to utilise his impressive balance and agility, attempting to take the ball past the opposition player in wide areas.
Doku would excel in this regard, thanks to his excellent low centre of gravity, body feints, and great technique, which enable the young Belgian to breeze past slower full-backs with ease.
Raphinha Heat Maps
Raphinha’s heatmaps from the 2019/20 (left) & 2020/21 (right) seasons.
Stéphan would instruct Raphinha to drop deeper to collect the ball and attempt to complete wing rotations with Adrien Hunou or M’Baye Niang as the centre-forwards and Hamari Traoré as the overlapping full-back.
In these scenarios, he was often the facilitator in progressing the ball into the final third rather than the player who whipped in the final cross into the penalty area.
The French coach could alter these tactics somewhat with Doku’s arrival.
The youngster’s blistering pace means that balls down the line or diagonals from the opposite side of the pitch would be possible, potentially exploiting a dangerous attacking avenue.
Especially as a right-winger, Doku could find space in behind and produce one of his cutbacks from the byline into the box for a goalscoring opportunity.
In the graphic above, we can see Doku’s options in the final third.
Martin Terrier and Traoré can provide the balls in behind for the nimble forward to latch onto.
He also has short passing options in the form of the right-back and Camavinga, who has been played further forward this season, operating in the right half-space to link up with the right-winger.
Of course, Doku could well end up playing on the left wing, and in this tactical analysis, we will discuss how he would be a great option on this flank.
However, considering he was brought in after Raphinha’s departure and from his appearances for Rennes so far, it is wise to judge that he will be utilised as a right-sided forward.
Jérémy Doku Ball Progression Via Dribbling
Doku’s prized asset is his dribbling ability.
The nimble forward has been very useful for his team in wide areas.
He drags defenders out of position and then dribbles past them to create chances for his teammates.
The Belgian does not just dribble into cul-de-sacs and retain possession, either; he is an ambitious dribbler, jovial in carrying the ball into dangerous positions to carve out an opportunity to cross.
At the start of the 2020/21 season, Doku was dropping deeper than ever before to collect the ball and run at the opposition defence to spark attacking transitions.
The 18-year-old would often take it past the wide midfielder before looking to use tricks and flicks to glide past the full-back at pace.
This saw an increase in his progressive runs, which went from 3.71 last season to 4.63 so far this season.
It is clear that Doku’s efforts have far more purpose this term, which has been reflected in his statistics. 
Scatter plot of Jupiler Pro League wingers’ dribbles per 90 compared with progressive runs per 90 from the 2019/20 campaign.
With 13.22 dribbles per 90 (at a 60.2% success rate) and 3.71 progressive runs per 90 last season, Doku was one of the most proficient dribblers in the Belgian league over the previous year.
However, the quality of Belgian league full-backs is likely to be lower than that of Ligue 1 full-backs, which should be taken into consideration.
During Stade Rennais’s build-up play, the French side often relied upon Raphinha’s dribbling ability in 1v1 situations versus opposition defenders to progress the ball up the pitch and instigate attacking transitions.
Doku’s agility and ability to quickly change direction while maintaining speed enable him to perform this role effectively.
This would assist Raphinha in progressing the ball into the final-third from deeper positions, and from here would be asked to create something in an advanced zone.
In the above analysis, we see Traoré passing the ball forward into Raphinha’s path, who is moving deeper to collect it, as he does regularly.
Raphinha manages to outmanoeuvre both defenders, creating a lot of space to run into and progress the ball into the final third.
These instances are not an anomaly at Rennes because this is a common theme within Stephan’s tactical concepts.
He likes his widemen to drag defenders towards their location, take the ball past them, and then drive into the open space they created.
At just 5’6”, Doku can use his low centre of gravity and quick feet to glide past defenders, meaning he should fit seamlessly into Stephan’s tactics.
Inside his half, Doku is utilising his body well to jostle with his opponent, with a teammate in the proper position to make the run forward to facilitate Anderlecht’s build-up play.
Facing forwards, Doku is agile enough to take it past two opposing defenders and drive into open space, progressing the ball into the final third.
Jérémy Doku Promising Creative Fundamentals
Another strong asset in Doku’s skill set is his presence in and around the box.
Based on this season’s performances, the 18-year-old has been stronger in his goal and assists output than Raphinha.
Based on early-season form, Doku appears to have outgrown the Belgian league, a remarkable statement for such a young player.
In wide areas, stretching the opposition’s defences, the Belgian is good at creating space for teammates in the box and sending in low, driven, and effective deliveries into the penalty area for a teammate to latch onto.
He can also provide high crosses to aim for a fellow attacker’s head, but this is certainly not his preferred method of chance creation.
Scatter plot of Jupiler Pro League wingers’ xA per 90 compared to crosses per 90 from the 2019/20 campaign.
Compared to other wingers of all ages in the Jupiler Pro League, Doku ranks highly in both regards.
Only Jean-Luc Dompé of Zulte Waregem outperforms his 5.4 crosses per 90, which helped him produce a relatively high 0.18 xA per 90 in the league last term.
By watching the young winger, it is clear that there are some fantastic foundations to build upon in terms of creativity, and his statistics largely support this statement.
Currently, however, Doku is not as much of a creative threat as Raphinha has been for Rennes.
Still, as we have highlighted numerous times, the Belgian is incredibly young and has a very high ceiling.
While Raphinha is, in a sense, relatively limited in his attacking endeavours (his technique can be questioned on occasion), Doku naturally has a skill set that allows him to become a much more proficient winger than the Brazilian.
Comparison radar using Raphinha and Doku’s percentile ranks from the 2019/20 seasons of Ligue 1 and Jupiler Pro League, respectively.
Above, we can see the statistical differences between the two players.
Some of these disparities are due to Rennes and Anderlecht’s style of play.
For example, Doku has a higher cross-to-pass ratio than Raphinha because Anderlecht’s chance creation relies on targeting players centrally with wide deliveries.
Based on their statistical profiles, Raphinha is the more well-rounded attacking threat, with higher shots per 90 and xA per 90, but Jérémy Doku is more agile and mobile.
The Belgian has laid the foundations for becoming an excellent creative player; now, he just needs to add other elements to his well-established repertoire.
Doku would be expected to enter the half-space more regularly at Rennes, where he can draw defenders to one side and burst into a wide channel with the space he creates, or look to play the through pass towards one of Rennes’ forwards.
If this is to be the case, it would be more suitable for the 18-year-old to play as a left-winger, where he can cut inside with his preferred right foot and play finessed through balls, which would angle more favourably into open space than it would on the other flank.
Here, we can see Doku on the ball in a central zone.
His superb vision has allowed him to locate an Anderlecht runner, whom he finds with precision with a through ball thanks to the curve he places on the pass.
A typical scenario for Doku involved him being out wide, high up the pitch, with the ball at his feet.
From here, the opposition needs at least two men marking his movements, which drags at least one defender out of position.
Last season, the 18-year-old often used his ingenuity to create something out of nothing with a brilliant pass.
While he would often rush his deliveries into the box, these moments of genius suggest a brighter future for the prodigal talent. 
Here, we can see what looks to be a crowded penalty area with little room to manoeuvre.
Doku disguises a clever pass as a feint, leaving the opposition defence flat-footed, and as such, he can find his target ably.
Jérémy Doku Weaknesses
Although Doku is a supremely talented player, he has flaws.
He adds much more value to his side than he subtracts from it, but there are certainly areas for improvement.
Naturally, at 5’6”, Doku’s aerial presence is non-existent, even against smaller full-backs, where he may stand a better chance than he would in a more central role.
Jérémy Doku Lost Possessions Map
Thankfully, most of these losses are higher up the pitch and are less fatal than if he were to lose the ball in his half.
These inaccurate passes are part and parcel of a young creative forward.
Jérémy Doku is an ambitious passer who constantly looks to play the ball forward while running with it at pace, and as such, he can rush his placements.
The Belgian could also improve in his link-up play, although his small frame contributes to many of his drawbacks in this regard.
He does well in his off-the-ball movements, often utilising his pace to good effect on the counter-attack to create chances of really high value.
It causes trouble for the opposition, resulting in Doku being a dual threat on and off the ball simultaneously.
However, whenever the 18-year-old drops deeper to collect the ball, he is often followed and hassled by an opposing player, which regularly puts the young Belgian off balance and forces him into an error.
Here, we see Doku collect a pass from his teammate. He receives pressure from the opponent, which puts him off balance, and as a result, he loses possession of the ball.
Conclusion
At just 18 years old, Doku is among the brightest young players in Europe’s top five leagues.
At that age, few can claim to have made a handful of appearances for their highly competitive national senior squad and performed well in those games.
He does not look out of place in senior football, and Doku should be allowed an adaptation period in France.
Still, once he finds his feet, it is not unrealistic to imagine Liverpool (or any other top European club) again circling for his signature.
