The Belgian winger made his first appearance for the club following his summer move from French Ligue One side Stade Rennais in the 5-1 victory over Fulham.
Despite the final scoreline, Lillo believed the Blues struggled in the first half although we went in ahead at half-time thanks to goals from Julian Alvarez and Nathan Ake.
Doku started the game on the right hand side but switched wings with Phil Foden midway through the opening 45 minutes after discussions with boss Pep Guardiola who was in contact with the bench throughout the match.
The game eventually opened up in the second half with Erling Haaland scoring a hat-trick and Lillo hailed the hard work of our new signing.
“The reason he played is because he can play really well on the wing and we didn’t have Jack[Grealish] but that’s not the only reason why he played, he could’ve perfectly played even if Jack was available,” Lillo said.
“If you look at the way he played, we lacked that fluidity as a team and it was difficult to find him at times.
“In fact, that was one of the reasons we had him switch wings in the first half, we spoke with Pep about that and they changed.
WATCH: EMBARGO | Juanma Lillo press conference | Fulham (H)
“We had a lot of players playing balls through the centre which is something he can do as well but at times he couldn’t get as much of the ball as perhaps he could have.
“One thing I will say is he didn’t stop in the collective effort. He was always working for the team and he showed that it appeared as if he’d been playing for our team for a long time.”
