Pep Guardiola believes Phil Foden could become the long-term replacement for Kevin De Bruyne in the future.
While it does not seem like De Bruyne is approaching the end of his spell at Manchester City, as exemplified by his recent heroic return from injury, it would be wise for the club to earmark the heir to the 32-year-old’s throne.
As a result, the treble-winners have unsurprisingly been linked with several attacking midfielders, such as Jamal Musiala and Florian Wirtz.
Pep Guardiola thinks Phil Foden could replace Kevin De Bruyne in the future
However, Phil Foden showcased why he may be the answer against Brentford, scoring a brilliant hat-trick in the Sky Blues’ 3-1 victory on Monday.
With eight goals and seven assists (15), the Manchester City attacker is only behind Son Heung-min (17), Erling Haaland (19), Ollie Watkins (21) and Mohamed Salah (22) in terms of goal contributions in the Premier League this campaign (via Sky Sports Premier League on X, formerly known as Twitter].
Now, Pep Guardiola believes Phil Foden has the potential to emerge as the long-term heir to Kevin De Bruyne.
“You have a feeling with Phil [Foden]…’Oh’. It’s difficult to find. He’s like a knife. I’ve only seen [a] few [like that]. There is space to take over from Bernardo [Silva] or Kevin [De Bruyne] in the future. He will lead the other ones”, he said [via Daily Mail journalist Jack Gaughan on X].
Phil Foden is a protagonist from midfield like the Manchester City maestro
It is hard to argue with Pep Guardiola as not a single other midfielder at Manchester City could have a similar impact to Kevin De Bruyne in the long run than Phil Foden.
Despite Foden and De Bruyne being different in terms of their approaches, the former is also a match-winner in the same vein as the latter.
Whether it be in terms of getting goals and assists or simply bossing a game from start to finish, the 23-year-old is one of the only midfielders who can accomplish both like the Belgian has for years.
As a result, Phil Foden is perhaps more suited to replacing him than Bernardo Silva, as Pep Guardiola suggested as well.
