Manchester City: Confidence of youth

Tuesday night was a case of job done for Manchester City as they followed up progression in the Champions League, with securing top spot. The game itself was slow and frustrating and, despite the victory, Pep laid into the squad.

There were to be good points to the game though. Other than the victory, and clean sheet, Raheem showed composure in the box. Waiting for the keeper to go down before lifting the ball over is a sign our top scorer in the competition has progressed.

However, the biggest victory of the night came when local lad, Phil Foden came on for the Blues. Replacing Yaya Toure with fifteen minutes remaining, the 17½ year old didn’t look out-of-place. Having won the U-17 World Cup less than a month ago, it was this which was probably the biggest game of his career so far.

The World Cup winner was named player of the tournament on that occasion. Now, with his appearance Tuesday night, is also now City’s youngest Champions League debutant. With top spot secured, and with Manchester United following on shortly afterwards, we may see more young faces on Matchday six.

"“A big congratulations to our Academy. The Club should be so proud,” Guardiola said. “We had a 17 and 18-year-old making an appearance in Champions League and had the result been more comfortable, they would have played more minutes.”"

Of course, the 18-year-old he is referring to is Brahim Diaz, who also got some game time. It wasn’t as much as Pep would have wanted, but the short time he was on, he looked good. Diaz, unlike Foden, has played with the first team in a competitive game previously. It was in a League Cup tie away to Swansea when coming on as an 80th minute sub for Iheanacho. This, however, was his first foray onto the Etihad turf for the seniors.

As Pep said above, had the tie been wrapped up earlier both would have seen more playing time. I believe him, you can clearly see him shouting for Brahim after Sterling scored his goal. Unfortunately, our ball retention didn’t see the Spanish attacking midfielder come on for another three minutes.

City legend, Paul Dickov, commented on the pair afterwards. He tweeted that the Manchester City academy conveyor belt had started. If these two are anything to go by, it’s going to be an amazing next few years.