Maresca won his first seven Premier League games as Manchester City manager but has now lost the last three.

Defeat to Nottingham Forest marked just the second time City have lost three back-to-back-to-back Premier League games in the past ten years.

In the first half, it felt like Forest would score every time they went forward and consistently outnumbered City on the counterattack.

Maresca made some changes at half time and City seemed to get a better grip of the game, with Rayan Cherki scoring to make it 2-1 with a fantastic effort from just inside the Forest box.

Speaking to Sky Sports after the game, Doku admitted he doesn’t know why City were so poor in the first half.

"First half we were behind 2-0, playing away to a side like this and losing 2-0 is making things difficult for ourselves,” he said.

"We are used to playing every two days - that's not a reason. If you ask me for the reason for our first half I don't know. We go behind very early in the game and that changes a lot.

"We reacted too late. If we had started the game like this it would have been different. We played without brakes, were very offensive and tried to create things. We scored early but a team like this are very dangerous on counter attacks."

On international break: "We need to be fresh minds, start again and analyse what we can do better and move forward. International break comes at the right moment for us to analyse and come back refreshed."