Phil Foden may not be Andres Iniesta but Pep Guardiola knows how special he is
The 18-year-old scored his first senior goal in a hugely impressive display on Tuesday night
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Your support makes all the difference.“Andres is a big, big word,” said Pep Guardiola. “I am not going to say he can become Andres Iniesta because it puts a lot of pressure on him. And Andres Iniesta is by far one of the best players I ever saw in my life.”
Guardiola would know. He inherited a 24-year-old Iniesta in 2008 and made him one of the best players of his generation. He was indispensable to Barcelona’s 2009 and 2011 Champions League wins, the three Spanish titles and two Club World Cups all won under Guardiola’s coaching.
But last night in Oxford, in small room overlooking the Kassam Stadium, Guardiola was being asked to compare Iniesta to Phil Foden, the little 18-year-old with a similar build who had just scored his first senior goal for Manchester City. Guardiola did not want to overdo it, knowing the pressure that would come from comparing a novice player to one of the greatest ever in that position. “We cannot put that pressure on Phil,” Guardiola said. “But he has the quality to be 10 years here.”
Karl Robinson, sat in the same seat minutes before, could barely contain his excitement about Foden. Robinson sees himself as an expert in developing young English talent, and with some reason. He coached Dele Alli at MK Dons and Ademola Lookman at Charlton Athletic, after all. And he was full of praise for Foden, how he skipped through Oxford’s press in the blink of an eye.
“His feet are to die for,” Robinson explained. “He takes the ball off the line. That’s the secret of top players: they never take the ball back down the line that they receive it off, they take it off the line, and have an ability to go back beyond the lines. His orientation of himself on the football pitch is genius. These are things that when you’re working with young players, only very few coaching sessions can bring that out. There’s a naturalness to that. It’s something I haven’t seen for a long time.”
This was when Robinson made the comparison that could stick with Foden for years. “I remember seeing Barcelona live, and seeing Iniesta playing in those sort of positions,” he said. “[Foden] is almost like that.”
But it did feel like the night for superlatives. Especially given all the clamour for Guardiola to give Foden a start, and how the teenager rewarded him here. Foden was City’s most dangerous player, setting up the first with a raking diagonal pass, making the second with a through ball and then popping up in the box to score the third – his first for City – at the very end.
It was telling how up to speed Foden was with Guardiola’s style of play, something that some players never crack. That is a vindication of the decision not to loan him out for the sake of senior experience. But to keep him working patiently with Guardiola and his coaching staff in Manchester. “Phil is a special guy,” Guardiola explained. “He arrived last season, showed us he was special, and that is why we didn’t buy any attacking midfielders in that position, because we have Phil. He belongs in our team.”
What is even more impressive with Foden, beyond the technical quality, is that he holds his own physically. He is a skinny, slight teenager, with no experience of men’s football, and yet he coped with the physicality of a League One team on Tuesday night. If he can cope with this, he should be able to handle any of the less physical games that City play. “He is guy who is so physical and strong,” Guardiola said. “He grew up a lot the last year. He still needs to grow but I think after more than one year with us, the rhythm and pace we play with, he has got it and that is why he is ready to play with us home and away. My dream is for him to stay for 10 years.”
For England to produce a player like Foden is unusual and Robinson urged other academies, if they are listening, not to let other gifted youngsters go just because they are not the most powerful. There may be more Fodens out there if only we are open to them. “So please academies, don’t release small, talented players,” Robinson begged. “There’s a home for them in our country. We can grow them, we can develop them, we can aid them. And I’ve worked with young players my whole career. It’s been a real bug-bear of mine, that if you’re 6 foot 3, you’re not going to play at the highest level. You’ve just seen today that if you’re talented, you’ve got an orientation about yourself, and ability to cope with the demands of the game, size has no impact.”
Guardiola has built much of his success on the technical skills of small players, not least Iniesta, Xavi and Lionel Messi at Barcelona. But for England to make the most of their players, Guardiola wants a new improved youth competition to truly test them out. “Please organise a good tournament for the young players,” Guardiola said. “The guys 16, 17 years old, playing good games, not in front of 10 people. That is why it is more difficult. I am delighted to play with English players, but it depends on their quality.”
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