Manchester City fans were delighted to watch Rico Lewis enjoy a breakout for the first-team last season – and it’s possible we could be seeing a similar situation happen this term with Oscar Bobb.
Last term, Lewis was a surprise feature of City’s team.
The diminutive star made his debut against Bournemouth in City’s second Premier League game of 2022/23.
By the end of the season, he had made 23 appearances across all competitions.
It was so refreshing to see a young player feature so often.
He clearly really impressed Pep.
And now, it looks as though we could have a similar situation this season with the supremely talented Bobb…
Oscar Bobb is clearly rated highly by Pep Guardiola given involvement so far
When it became clear Bobb would be staying at City for 2023/24, a lot of fans were really happy.
By many accounts, he is one of the most talented youngsters at the club.
But would it be a case of Bobb just sitting on the sidelines and watching his more experienced teammates?
Well, so far that hasn’t really been the case.
Bobb has already been handed five appearances by Guardiola, which is very encouraging indeed.
Granted, a few of those have been short cameos.
But on Saturday, he was sent on at half-time against Wolves in the Premier League with City trailing 1-0 at Molineux.
Pep said after the game that he was looking for more dynamism.
It was a huge show of faith from the manager to take off an established player who cost £53 million and replace him with someone with as little experience as Bobb.
This, after Bobb got 90 minutes in the Carabao Cup defeat to Newcastle United, against whom he really impressed. Indeed, Micah Richards said that he had been ‘outstanding’.
Clearly, there is already a level of trust there already, which is amazing to see.
Bobb could be next Rico Lewis with Pep already handing him solid level of involvement
Bobb, 20, has actually gotten a higher level of involvement so far in 2023/24 than Lewis did at the same point last season.
Any notion that Bobb will be mostly watching from the bench is already out of the window.
He’s a first-team option now.
He’s definitely impressed when he’s taken to the field, and hopefully he’ll continue to have the trust of the manager.
There is no reason why he can’t become the next Rico Lewis at City.
