Pep Guardiola may want to avoid putting too much pressure on Phil Foden’s shoulders but his Oxford counterpart was not so shy.
Foden was involved in all three of City’s goals at the Kassam Stadium on Tuesday night and U’s boss Karl Robinson was so impressed he hailed aspects of the 18-year-old game as “genius”, and said he would “almost put him in the same bracket as Andres Iniesta.”
It is not the first time Foden has been likened to the Barca great; a couple of years ago one quick-witted fan dubbed him the “Stockport Iniesta”
His talent has been obvious to those around City for years – he joined them when he was six – and over the past 12 months he has showcased his abilities to an increasingly wider audience.
Guardiola, speaking after Robinson, did not want to bring Iniesta into the equation but insisted Foden can be a part of City’s biggest moments for the next decade.
These are big words but Foden is backing it up on the pitch. At the end of last year he was the best player in the tournament as England’s Under-17s won the World Cup, and the latest demonstration came on Tuesday night.
For City’s first goal of the night he played a delightful ball out to the left and over the top of the home defence. For the second, as his side repelled a late flurry of set-pieces, he broke away and played an inch-perfect pass through for Riyad Mahrez to kill the game off. For the third he latched on to Raheem Sterling’s pass and fired low into the far corner.
He took off towards the away fans in celebration, pulling off a passion-filled knee slide to cap a memorable moment. As Guardiola put it, he celebrated like it was the World Cup final. Presumably the senior one, as he’s already scored twice in the U17 version.
This was his first goal for the club, and it had come after he had been moved out to the left wing to accommodate another youngster, Adrian Bernabe, who took up the inside left midfield role. City may well have been 2-0 up by that point but Foden is certainly trusted enough by Guardiola to contribute from an unusual position – he has played left-wing-back in the Champions League, after all.
That head-scratching appearance came in his first senior start for his boyhood club, and while he may not have understood his task at the time he certainly did not complain – unlike some of his youth team colleagues who have been less than impressed with what Guardiola has asked of them at times in recent months.
His talent is one thing but he has impressed just as many people around City with his attitude, not least since he has been promoted to the senior set-up by Guardiola.
Many clubs have asked City if they can take Foden on loan in the past two years but the answer has always been a firm ‘no’. Guardiola does not want to loan the youngster out and neither does anybody else at the club.