Phil Foden proved Manchester City can do without the indispensable, if only for one match.
Thanks to Foden, Pep Guardiola was able to leave Kevin De Bruyne unused behind the emergency class against Leeds. The closest the world’s best playmaker got to the action was warming up the sidelines and he had a breather ahead of Wednesday’s massive Champions League showdown with Real Madrid.
Foden was superb and he mesmerised Leeds with his fleet feet and equally-quick brain. He set up two goals and had a hand in another as the champions overpowered Leeds to return to the top of the Premier League.
The 21-year-old, who now has 13 goals and nine assists for City, took over set-piece duties in the absence of De Bruyne and Guardiola claimed he relishes this responsibility. He said: “Responsibility for him is not a problem and going on bigger stages in bigger scenarios in bigger games, he has not a problem. He loves to play. It’s good for Phil. He’s so young, hopefully he can be here for the rest of his life.”
Guardiola will unleash Foden in tandem with De Bruyne against Real and says accommodating the England star in his attack is easy because he can play anywhere. He deployed him in the No.10 role at Elland Road and feels this will become his best position when he has fully matured.
Guardiola said: “I think he can play in all five positions up front - wingers both sides, striker and attacking midfielder in the pockets - he can play all of them. With time he will be more capable of playing in the positions in the middle. He still does all actions at high speed and sometimes you have to pause. Now he has the energy of youth and maybe the wing suits him better.
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“But I’m pretty sure because when I started to see him in the academy at 15-16 he played the position of Kevin and he played really good. All the actions are so, so quick. I always talk about David Silva, sometimes he slowed the rhythm to increase the rhythm and Phil’s rhythm is always high. That’s only a question of time because he can do it without a problem.”
Foden laid on City’s first when Rodri headed home his delicious cross and he fed Gabriel Jesus for the third. Ruben Dias nodded his corner forward for Nathan Ake to score the second and Fernandinho completed the rout in stoppage time. Although Leeds, who lost for the first time in six games, were competitive, City were always in control. Leeds’ injury curse struck again and they lost skipper Liam Cooper, their best header of a ball, in the warm-up with a knee issue before Stuart Dallas suffered his serious knee ligaments injury.
City took full advantage of Cooper’s loss to score two set-piece goals and Leeds have conceded a league high 18 times from corners and free-kicks. Guardiola was pleased with City’s four goals because he believes they will have to score in Madrid to reach the Champions League Final. “It’s definitely better to travel there after winning here,” he said. “We have scored a lot of goals since our FA Cup defeat to Liverpool - three goals, five goals, four goals, four goals again. It’s a lot and it’s the only chance we have to go through. We have to score goals in the Bernabeu.”
