Paul Dickov has praised Josko Gvardiol for what he’s done at Manchester City so far.
After spending some weeks on the sidelines through injury, the defender continued his return to action in the Manchester club’s FA Cup game against Newcastle United.
Before the game, one pundit and former City player shared his assessment of the Croatian and what he’s done at the club so far this season.
Dickov hails Gvardiol
Speaking in a livestream on the club’s YouTube channel ahead of the Newcastle game, Dickov had this to say about Gvardiol.
He said: “He’s been fantastic, I think people forget how young he is and how, historically, it can take players time to settle at Man City, especially playing the full-back positions because we play it completely differently to how everybody else does and he’s a centre-half by trade.
“The injury came at an unfortunate time, I felt, because I thought he was just finding his feet and he was getting better and better all the time.
“From now on until the end of the season, 10 league games, a few more cup games, Champions League games as well, everybody is going to need to be fighting fit and that could well be the difference, not just the size of the squad but the quality of the squad.”
City paid £77m to sign the 22-year-old from RB Leipzig during the previous summer transfer window.
Since then, the defender has made 28 appearances for Pep Guardiola’s side across all competitions prior to the Newcastle clash.
With 18 Premier League appearances under his belt, the Croatia international has made the second-highest number of successful tackles (21) in the City squad, as well as racking up the joint-second-highest number of blocks (20) and the joint-second-highest combined total of tackles and interceptions (50).
This shows how much of an effective defensive figure he is and why City paid such a significant amount of money to sign him.
Now that Dickov has expressed how impressed he has been with Gvardiol since his arrival, the hope now will be that he can avoid picking up any more injuries and keep delivering on the pitch.
