Tony Cascarino believes Ollie Watkins has had a superior season to Phil Foden.
Recently, Rio Ferdinand claimed that the 23-year-old has been the best player in the Premier League this campaign.
Fulham captain Tom Cairney shared the same opinion while claiming that he is the most naturally gifted English player “by a mile.”
Tony Cascarino says Ollie Watkins has had a better season than Phil Foden
After losing his place in City’s starting XI during the business end of last season, it seemed like all eyes were on Foden to regain his spot in the side and have the world-class campaign the world expected him to have.
Fortunately for Pep Guardiola, the £225,000-a-week (Sport Rac) man has delivered and looks set to start in their biggest game of the season against Liverpool so far.
While Tony Cascarino was full of praise for Phil Foden, he thinks Ollie Watkins has outperformed him in the 2023/2024 season.
“I think there are others in front of him, but he has grown and now he’s got an absolutely certain position in that Man City team.”
“Phil’s got the lot, and I’m always amazed by how he takes the ball down, how he controls it out of the air, his feet are like arms at times with the way he controls the ball.”
“And his energy, if you watch Phil Foden, he nearly covers every blade of grass when he’s playing. He’s everywhere, he’s chasing, relentlessly getting back to help out players, he does that brilliantly, and that’s without all the brilliant stuff he does technically throughout the game”, he said on talkSPORT.
“But Ollie Watkins, I think he’s so far been the most outstanding player in the Premier League so far this season.”
“He’s contributed so much to Aston Villa this year with goals and assists, and Villa are fourth at this moment in time because he’s played such a pivotal role.”
However, Tony Cascarino has stated that while Ollie Watkins has been the best of the best in his opinion, Phil Foden has been up there with some of the league’s finest performers.
“There are other candidates, of course. Virgil van Dijk is back to his very best at Liverpool, he’s been outstanding for them, obviously, Foden is another one and you can certainly make a case for two or three of the Arsenal players as well – William Saliba has been absolutely sensational.
“But I’d still put Ollie at the top because Villa were not even close to being a top four team just over a year ago and his contribution has been enormous.”
Phil Foden has been better than the Aston Villa striker
While Tony Cascarino is correct about how exceptional Ollie Watkins has been this season, Phil Foden has outperformed him, in our view.
Just like how Watkins is doing sublime things for a Villa side, Foden has done so in the absence of various big-hitters while leading his boyhood club’s title charge, which is arguably a more pressuring task.
Even when judging their all-round displays, the five-time Premier League winner runs games in a way that the former Brentford goalscorer simply cannot due to being a striker.
While there can be a debate about who out of Foden and Watkins has performed better, even rival managers like Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp agree that the former is “the best English player” at the moment [via HaytersTV].
