Two young English midfielders, Phil Foden and Mason Mount will battle for the midfield supremacy at Porto on Saturday.
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Manchester City will take on Chelsea in the Champions League final on Saturday at Porto. Two English sides will see two Englishmen battle in the middle of the park. Two young English midfielders, Phil Foden and Mason Mount, will lead the battle for midfield supremacy. The 21-year-old Foden has been in scintillating form for Manchester City this season. Meanwhile Mount has become and undroppable player for Chelsea this season.
Foden joined Manchester City under the age of nine and has come up through their age group football . The midfielder came to lime light when he won the Golden Ball at the FIFA U-17 World Cup held in India in 2017. Since then has been compared to Barcelona legend Andres Iniesta. Both of them have some similarities as they have a similar kind of physique and use their body very well. They also both posses excellent ball control and composure.
Foden is having the best top flight season of his career as he has scored 16 goals and registered 8 assists in all competitions for City so far.
Going into the final on May 29 he has scored a goal in the previous two matches. Foden has been a pivotal part of Guardiola’s plans this season.
The Spanish coach is known to produce world class attacking midfielders as he has done at Barcelona. Xavi, Iniesta, Thiago Alcantara and Sergio Busquets stand proof of that.
Manchester City have played many of their matches this season without a proper striker, and they depend on attacking midfielders to find the back of the net. Which is perfectly suited for Foden and the left-footed youngster has delivered.
On the other side, Mount also joined Chelsea at a very young age and came up through the ranks. The 22-year-old has transformed himself from a box-to-box midfielder to an attacker under Thomas Tuchel.
Mount has scored 9 goals and provided 6 assists in all competitions for the Blues this season. He is a tactically and technically sound player who can also drop deep and pull the strings if needed.
Both Phil Foden and Mason Mount are very impressive when they don’t have the ball, off the ball pressing is a testament to their strong mentality.
Foden mostly operates on the left but also can fit in at different attacking positions according to the situation. His solo goal against Brighton last week showed his strength and composure with the ball.
Unlike the traditional English midfielders they are not the quickest and don’t have a big physical figure but are very effective on the field.
While they are well suited in an attack minded team their ability to get back and defend are still questionable. But given their young age and commitment they will surely develop going into the future.
The new generation midfielders of English footballers are likely to be in the starting-XI when the two English teams fight to claim European Club football’s biggest trophy at Estadio do Dragao.
