In the early morning of April 21, a make-up match in the 30th round of the Premier League was played between Manchester City and Brighton, and the defending champions returned to the top of the table with a 3-0 defeat in the second half. The 21-year-old Foden scored one goal in his opening game and was one of the biggest contributors to City's victory. At the same time, he also surpassed Messi and Busquets to break the record of 50 games for Guardiola to coach a player in the first league game.
In this game, Foden started the game with Bernardo Silva and Mahrez forming Manchester City's forward trident. In the 25th minute of the first half, Foden and De Bruyne completed a wonderful collision with the wall and the latter fired a long-range shot, but unfortunately the ball was slightly offside. With Acker's cameo at left-back assists not being strong, Foden is somewhat lonely on the left.
However, after the start of the second half, Acker sprained his ankle, and Cancelo, who played on the right, returned to the left side, and the two complemented each other's tacit understanding, and Manchester City's left attack gradually showed its power. After Mahrez mistakenly hit the opening goal, Foden also received the former's tactical corner kick from outside the box in the 63rd minute, opening the goal to extend City's lead. In the 71st minute, Foden single-handedly entered the penalty area, but unfortunately the shot was blocked. After that, Zinchenko made a steal in front of the field, De Bruyne assisted Bernardo Silva to seal the victory, and Foden, who was in the box at the time, although he did not participate in the goal, also attracted the attention of the opponent's defense and belonged to the unsung hero.
In this campaign, Foden played the whole game, scoring 1 goal with 2 shots and 2 goals, and creating excellent scoring opportunities twice. In addition, he has 1 successful cross and 1 successful long pass, with a pass success rate of 92%. Including the goals scored in this game, Foden has scored a semi-double-double of 12 goals and 9 assists in all competitions this season, ranking third in Manchester City's 21 goals, behind Mahrez and De Bruyne. His outstanding performance also gradually gave de Bruyne the answer to the question of his successor.
De Bruyne remains City's number one star and the absolute core of the midfield, and it was he who carried Manchester City to victory in this game. But the Belgian midfield master is about to turn 31 after all, and it is imperative to find a qualified successor for him and extend his athletic life as much as possible. In fact, in Guardiola's plan, Tintin's successor has two candidates, the first being Glaliche, signed for £100 million last summer, and the other being the young Foden.
After joining, Glallish spent most of his time playing on the wing, occasionally making cameo appearances as pseudo-centre-forwards, with little chance of actually playing the role of midfielder organizer. But this is also guardiola's habit of employing people, in order to get real recognition under him, you must first become a frontcourt all-rounder, and now these midfielders of Manchester City, except for Mahrez, who has been playing as a right winger, other players have played in many positions, even full-back Cancello has not escaped the "claws" of Guardiola, and center-back Stones has almost been transformed into a back. As the core of the former Villa attack, There is no problem in terms of strength, but his style of play is still a bit in conflict with Manchester City's overall passing control, at least this season, his performance has not met expectations. Surprisingly, it was the youngster Foden.
In fact, In 2019/20, Foden has already begun to emerge, when he was considered david Silva's best successor, and Guardiola has spoken highly of the City academy's outstanding work, having publicly stated that Foden is the most talented player he has ever seen. For Guardi, who once coached Messi, such an evaluation is unprecedented. In order to make Foden better understand his tactical philosophy, in those years, Guardiola even rejected all requests for purchases and rents for Foden, allowing him to stay in the team, even if there were not many opportunities to play. In this case, the thick and thin Foden debuted in the main position of the blockbuster. Today, he is an absolute mainstay for Manchester City.
Foden is a pure midfielder with excellent foot skills, a good overall view and accurate passing, but under guardiola's tutelage, he is already a golden oil player who can play any position in the midfield, whether it is a breakthrough on the wing or an attack in the middle, and in several games of De Bruyne's injury, Foden has also been placed in the midfield position to take on the task of offensive organization, and the result is also quite satisfactory. So the question of De Bruyne's successor can now be brought to an end, because the strongest man is already in the squad.