Micah Richards has hailed Manchester City defender Josko Gvardiol for his performance against Everton in midweek.
After being crowned as world champions last week by beating Fluminense in the final of the FIFA Club World Cup, the Citizens picked up a 3-1 win at Goodison Park on Wednesday as they got back to Premier League action.
One negative that came from the match is that John Stones was forced off in the first half after picking up an injury and was replaced by Gvardiol, who spent the rest of the game playing in the left-back position.
After the game, one pundit and former City player shared his thoughts on the Croatian’s efforts and what he gave the team on the pitch.
Richards praises Gvardiol performance
Speaking in a recent episode of The Rest Is Football, Richards had this to say about Gvardiol’s appearance against Everton.
He said: “I really like the move of Gvardiol at left-back. He’s a centre-half but I just thought he gave so much energy to the team when he came on as well.”
With 47 minutes under his belt in midweek, the 21-year-old ended up having 57 touches of the ball in total, making one key pass, having one shot at goal blocked and successfully completing the one dribble he attempted.
Then from a defensive point of view, Gvardiol made two tackles and won five of the six duels he was involved in.
This shows that the defender had an impact at both ends of the pitch, predominantly during what ended up being a very impressive and important second half for Pep Guardiola’s side.
His performance earned the Croatia international an overall match rating of 7.1/10 from SofaScore, which is a higher rating than Stones, Nathan Ake, Manuel Akanji and Matheus Nunes picked up.
With all of that in mind, it’s easy to see why Richards was so complimentary about Gvardiol and his latest performance for City and how he was able to deliver for them when he was called upon unexpectedly.
