4 Stunning Similarities That Show Why Foden Is Destined To Be David Silva’s Successor At City

Manchester City midfielder Phil Foden showed his potential in the Carabao Cup final against Aston Villa on Sunday, and his performance has once again stirred up the debate about whether he will be David Silva’s true successor.

Manager Pep Guardiola was full of praise for the teenager at the weekend, but his reluctance to start him regularly has led to doubts over whether the City boss trusts him enough to be a first-team starter.

Purely based on statistics, though, Foden’s suitability to replace Silva as City’s playmaker should not be in question.

Press the “next page” as we look at four stats from the past 18 months that show how similar the two players are.

Key Passing

Since the start of last season, Foden has actually averaged more key passes (0.9) per 90 minutes than Silva (0.84)

Although it must be said that Foden has played 3470 fewer minutes than the Spanish magician, he has still played 51 times, which is a large enough sample size to provide a good comparison.

Assists

Silva has averaged 0.28 assists per game since the beginning of the 2018/19 campaign, while Foden’s average is only slightly lower at 0.24.

Again, we must take into account that the City captain has played 26 more games during the same period, but that can’t be held against Foden who simply needs to be used more by Guardiola to show what he can do.

Forward Pass Accuracy

Any player can rack up high pass completion percentages if they consistently play passes backwards and sideways. Forward passes show how good a player is in picking out a teammate when they have opponents around them.

Since the start of last season, Foden’s forward passing accuracy is 77.15% compared with David Silva’s 79.69%, a 2.5% difference.

Successful Attacking Actions

While Foden lags slightly behind Silva in forward passes, the teenager is actually slightly ahead of his veteran teammate in terms of attacking contributions.

He has averaged 5.49 successful attacking actions per 90 minutes over the past 18 months, compared to Silva’s 4.61, meaning he is more involved in the game. With an age difference of 15 years, that may not be surprising but it does show Guardiola that he has someone waiting in the wings who can make a positive impact when called upon.

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