Rennes (AFP)

Stuck in a bad patch, Stade Rennes is betting on its expensive recruit Jérémy Doku, a great Belgian hope of barely 18 years old expected to revive a numb attack, and if possible from Saturday in Ligue 1 against Brest (5:00 p.m.).

After a thunderous start to the championship, Rennes has just chained five games without a win between L1 and the Champions League, and must absolutely be full of confidence before two more than perilous trips next week on the grounds of Chelsea and Paris SG.

All without his star Eduardo Camavinga, injured and probably unavailable all next week.

All eyes are therefore on Doku, five months his senior, who became the biggest transfer in the history of the Breton club in early October (more than 26 million euros).

It must be said that with three goals scored in the last four matches, the Rennes attack needs to regain momentum.

Born in a reputedly difficult outskirts of Antwerp, Doku was recruited at the age of 10 by Anderlecht (1st Belgian div.), Who managed to make him turn professional in the summer of 2018, when major European clubs as Liverpool were already giving him soft eyes.

Almost as precocious as Camavinga, he too made his professional debut at 16 years and a few months, although it took him more than a season to establish himself as a starter.

And like Camavinga with the Blues, Doku made his debut for the Belgian team at the start of the school year, with him also a first goal on the evening of his first start.

- "Really need to play" -

For him, Rennes is a springboard.

"At my age, I really need to play, and I felt that I could level up (...) but I didn't want to go too high either. Rennes is the club where I can play, where the other clubs see me ... ", he declared Friday at a press conference.

But if Rennes sporting director Florian Maurice had been eyeing him for a while, Doku only began to be interested in Rennes at the end of September, a week before the end of the transfer window.

Immediately returned to the selection, he returned the day before the match against Dijon (1-1), where he entered for the last minutes without yet knowing the names of all his teammates.

Launched at the end of the match against Krasnodar (1-1) then established for the defeats against Angers (2-1) then Sevilla FC (1-0), he nevertheless showed his speed and his percussion force.

- Patience -

But he who had managed two goals and four assists in seven matches at the start of the season in Belgium knows that more is expected of him: "I have to be more efficient, finish my actions, make good choices (...). I came here to score goals and make + assists + "(assists, editor's note), he explained.

Coach Julien Stéphan calls for "a little patience", repeating that Doku has arrived at a time when the sequence of matches does not leave him time to take his bearings in training with his partners.

"He entered the meetings and the team without shyness, without distorting his style of play. It is important that he can express his qualities of explosiveness, dribbling, elimination. right choices, being able to read when to pass and when to dribble, ”he explained.

And the Breton coach refused to set deadlines for this adaptation process, assuring that his new colt needs confidence above all.

"In any case, we are delighted that he is here and we will support him in the best possible way."

© 2020 AFP