Manchester City are safely through to the fourth round of the Carabao Cup after beating 2-1 Watford at the Etihad Stadium.
Manchester City got back to winning ways after drawing with Inter in the Champions League and then Arsenal in the Premier League at the weekend.
Pep Guardiola made several changes to the side that started against the Gunners.
Only Jeremy Doku kept his place from the game against Arsenal, with Pep handing first starts of the season to the likes of Nico O’Reilly, James McAtee and Matheus Nunes.
Pep also sprung a surprise, by handing a debut to 16-year-old Kaden Braithwaite.
Braithwaite had trained with the first-team in the lead-up to the game, but his inclusion in the starting XI still caught fans rather off guard.
He became City’s third-youngest full debutant, operating on the left side of the defence with John Stones and Kyle Walker making up a three.
In the first-half, Braithwaite showed real comfort on the ball as he felt his way into the game.
The starlet looked very at home in possession, and often got forward just as City fans see Josko Gvardiol do on a regular basis.
Watford did not have a great deal of attacking threat, but there was one moment when Kwadwo Baah burst forward and barged Braithwaite to the ground.
He fired in at the far post, but was deemed to have fouled Braithwaite, who will have been relieved.
Watford did try to attack down his side when they couldn’t, but the youngster equipped himself well.
It was a quieter second-half for Braithwaite, and he wasn’t troubled too much, keeping a good position in the City backline. He made way towards the end after suffering a bit of cramp, before Watford got their goal through Tom Ince.
As per Sofascore, he completed 62/65 (95%) passes which will surely please Pep. He also won 3/5 duels.
Man City fans react to Kaden Braithwaite debut against Watford
Braithwaite only had one training session yesterday before being thrown into tonight’s game against Watford.
The youngster had apparently left people impressed, and Pep opted to start him over the likes of Gvardiol, Manuel Akanji and Ruben Dias.
With Nathan Ake still out injured, this was a big opportunity for Braithwaite.
It remains to be seen if more chances will come his way, but fans were generally left fairly impressed by the teenager considering his tender years.
Braithwaite can hold his head high
- Who is Kaden Braithwaite? All there is to know about the centre-back starlet and Man City’s 3rd youngest player ever
So Braithwaite has become one of the youngest players ever to play for Manchester City, and he can be proud of his debut.
There were a couple of shaky moments in the first-half, but that was to be expected.
On the whole, he did well and grew into the contest as it went on. His use of the ball was great.
It remains to be seen if he will get to make any more first-team appearances this term. But if anything, this will light a fire in him moving forward.
He’s made his debut for the first-team at such a young age, and the motivation will be there for him to work hard to make more appearances in the future.
