Manchester City overcame a stubborn Sheffield United side at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday to move to within a point of Leicester City. Sergio Aguero controversially opened the scoring shortly after the break and Kevin De Bruyne wrapped up the points for the home side late on.
Given how hectic the Christmas period is and the physical demands placed on the players who are asked to perform at the top level with such a quick turnaround, nobody would have been surprised to see Pep Guardiola make a number of changes.
Whilst the usual suspects saw City get over the line, one young fringe player, in particular, earned praise from the Man City faithful: Eric Garcia.
Is Garcia the future at centre-back for Manchester City?
Yes
No
Impressed with Eric Garcia…the lad is hungry
— marek gucciano 1??7?? ? (@LeRoiSan3) December 30, 2019
Not good enough, cancelo and Garcia should be starting from now on. Only positives
— Wille (@KDBMasterclass) December 30, 2019
Great game. Garcia was good and KDB performed as usual. Keep it up guys!
— Ewang Elias (@EliasEwang) December 30, 2019
overall underwhelming
KDB was the god as always
Eric also was quite good— ??????? ?????? (@snick78a) December 30, 2019
Foden should start. Sterling needs rest. GSharcia is future.
— vidhun soorya (@vidhunsoorya) December 30, 2019
KDB is the best player in the world, Garcia should start more often and Sterling’s form is worrying. Great way to end a decade.
— ??Phumi?? (@PhomelloMCFC) December 30, 2019
What do we think?
The 18-year-old certainly looks a fantastic prospect but the main difference between Man City and Liverpool this season has been at the back. City have struggled to cope with the injury to Aymeric Laporte whereas Liverpool have a far more settled and functional back four.
Garcia, who is valued at £6.3m by TransferMarkt, may well be the future but the fact he’s getting such exposure is due to their lack of competent alternatives rather than his own development having accelerated in the past few months.
To the youngsters credit, he grabbed the opportunity with both hands and with the Premier League title seemingly out of sight perhaps Pep Guardiola would be best off handing the Spaniard more game time in the hope it will help him to be ready for next season – rather than spending huge amounts of money on yet another defender.