Sky Sports pundits Gary Neville and Jamie Redknapp both praised Ilkay Gundogan today ahead of Manchester City’s win over Fulham.
City have gone top of the Premier League, beating the Cottagers 2-1.
Erling Haaland opened the scoring within minutes after Tim Ream brought down Julian Alvarez for a penalty.
Fulham hit back through Carlos Vinicius, who scored with their first chance of the game.
But Alvarez then produced a moment of magic, scoring with a wonderful curling effort from the edge of the area.
It was a brilliant performance from Alvarez, who was in the side today as a replacement for Kevin De Bruyne.
The Belgian missed out due to injury, and there is currently no word on when he may return.
City’s midfield therefore consisted of Rodri, John Stones, Gundogan and Alvarez as a 10.
Gundogan was making his 28th Premier League appearance of the season, and he was a subject of discussion ahead of today’s game. He had given an interview with Sky, and Neville and Redknapp both waxed lyrical about him.
Neville said: “If you ask the question ‘who’s the most underrated player in the league then he’d be one that you’d mention. He is absolutely fantastic for City.
“Gundogan knits front to back, he’s a brilliant player, great character and respected enormously by his teammates. Since Pep Guardiola stopped rotating, he becomes one of the first names on the team sheet.”
Redknapp then stated that Gundogan was something of a ‘manager’ on the pitch for City.
Ilkay Gundogan has been a tremendous signing for Manchester City
Gundogan came in as Pep Guardiola’s first signing for City for a reported £20 million – and he has been an incredible servant.
He is someone that doesn’t always get the recognition, at least from opposition fans.
But he has been crucial to City’s period of dominance in English football under Guardiola.
The German is just a wonderful professional and highly intelligent player.
If he moves on in the summer, he deserves the biggest and best of send offs.
