17-year-old Taylor Harwood-Bellis was named in Manchester City’s starting eleven at the Kassam Stadium as they overcame a spirited Oxford United.
The young central defender turned in a confident display and the clubs supporters were waxing lyrical about his performance with some claiming he reminds them of club legend Vincent Kompany.
Can Taylor Harwood-Bellis go on to be a regular in City's first team?
Yes
No
Solid performance, you legit remind me of Vinnie. Incredible ??
— R. (@argalmada) December 18, 2019
You look better than John Stones
— ?nicky (@nicky49951274) December 19, 2019
Keep it up lad, first team is calling. ??
— Higgy (@Piztup) December 19, 2019
Top lad well played son
— Simon Lawson (@SimonLa56219610) December 19, 2019
Bossed tonight ?
— Amir? (@MCFCWORLD1) December 18, 2019
Legend in the making!!! Top class performance????
— mark glynn (@glynni94) December 18, 2019
What do we think?
Centre-back has been a problematic area for Pep Guardiola’s side this season particularly since the injury to Aymeric Laporte. John Stones and Nicolas Otamendi have been unable to play the role with the degree of consistency required and as a result, Fernandinho has been forced to vacate his usual position in defensive midfield in order to try and solve a problem for his boss.
Guardiola has repeatedly stated the club have no intention of signing a central defender in January and its no wonder with the likes of Taylor Harwood-Bellis and Eric Garcia knocking on the door of the first team.
The two appear to be developing nicely and are understandably seen as the future of Manchester City by those within the club but Harwood-Bellis is yet to make a Premier League appearance – when that day comes, we will learn a lot more about the right-footed central-defender and his credentials.