Doku points to positives from Liverpool defeat | OneFootball

Jeremy Doku believes there was plenty to be positive about despite losing 2-0 against league-leaders Liverpool in the Premier League at the Etihad Stadium.

First-half goals from Mohamed Salah and Dominik Szoboszlai did the damage for the visitors in the driving Manchester rain.

However, Pep Guardiola's side imposed themselves on the game, having 66% of the ball, as well as five shots on target, compared to Liverpool's four.

The Blues also forced seven corners and had a disallowed goal through Omar Marmoush, who was in an offside position before firing beyond Alisson on the half-hour mark.

MATCH REPORT: CITY 0-2 LIVERPOOL

Doku believes that the overall display from the team provides reason to be optimistic going forward.

"We tried. I had a lot of attacking situations but after the two goals that they scored they played very deep," he reflected in an interview after the game.

"They defended very well and then played on the counter attack so it was hard for us to find spaces. Some games are like that. We just have to keep on going and take the good things from the game.

"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."

The winger was a constant threat on the left flank up against Trent Alexander-Arnold and became the fifth player to complete eight successful dribbles in a Premier League game in the first-half alone.

Despite this, Doku admitted that the final action needed to be better and declared that he will look to improve, along with the rest of the team.

"It is a good question because I passed him 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."