Joleon Lescott believes Manchester City currently have a player who is a bit like former Etihad dynamo Yaya Toure.
The Ivorian, now 40, spent eight seasons at the club and stunned fans with his ability to completely and utterly dominate matches.
Toure was an incredible player in his prime, and arguably there have been very few better midfielders in the Premier League.
One of the most impressive things about Toure’s game was his ability to make an impact from central midfield positions.
In the eyes of former City defender Joleon Lescott, there is actually a player now emerging at the Etihad Stadium who can change games just like Toure…
Joleon Lescott says Phil Foden is a Manchester City gamechanger like Yaya Toure
Lescott appeared on Matchday Live yesterday to cover City’s game with Tottenham Hotspur, which finished 3-3.
Phil Foden scored City’s second goal of the game, which took his own tally for the season to seven.
It was a lovely goal, with Jeremy Doku threading a ball through to Julian Alvarez, who then passed across to Foden who had ghosted into the box.
Lescott really enjoys seeing Foden in central areas, and said of the 23-year-old (via mancity.com): “Yes if he’s a winger he can go past players, but in the middle it’s an overload against the back four.
“He’s exceptional wherever he plays. His debut for the first team was left-back. He loves it, and because he will play anywhere, if he plays in the middle, because he can go past people, like [former Spurs midfielder] Moussa Dembele, when he beat someone the game changed.
“Yaya Toure was the same, if you face your midfielder up and go past them, it changes the game.”
Foden is so good centrally
It is a pleasure to watch Foden play football and especially so when he takes up those central positions.
He’s great out wide and has the speed and agility to thrive out there. But his brilliant technical ability and positional awareness make him so well-suited to playing in the middle and in between the lines.
City fans used to watch Toure make huge impacts for City from central positions. When he carried the ball and got up to full speed, no one could get near him.
Foden is, obviously, nowhere near as physical as Toure. But he does have a fantastic burst and his agility and balance mean that he is also very difficult to stop when he’s up to full speed.
Hopefully, Foden can just keep playing regularly at City and keep improving his game. He said recently that he wants to improve his defending, which is great to hear from an attack-minded player.
Perhaps he’ll become even more like Toure if he can manage to do that.
Who knows, when the time comes for him to hang up his boots, we might be talking about him as being even better than Toure and potentially even one of the best players the Premier League has ever seen.
