In Josh Wilson-Esbrand, Manchester City could have a left-back for 'many years', Pep Guardiola has predicted.
Wilson-Esbrand, who had only made one senior appearance before being called into the pre-season tour squad, impressed in the second half of the friendly win over Club America in Houston on Wednesday and took his opportunity on the left against Bayern Munich in Green Bay on Saturday.
Aleks Zinchenko was sold midway through City's spell in Houston, leaving Kyle Walker and Joao Cancelo the only options at full-back. That allowed Wilson-Esbrand and Rico Lewis to get game time as the academy back-up options, and both got a namecheck from Guardiola after City beat Bayern 1-0 in a fixture interrupted by a lighting storm.
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"I was impressed with Josh and Rico when he played some minutes," Guardiola said. "They were so intelligent, the biggest quality with the ball."
Asked about Wilson-Esbrand, who looked particularly comfortable against Bayern's attack including Kingsley Coman, Guardiola urged caution with expecting too much too soon from the left-back, despite predicting a potential long-term impact from the youngster.
He explained: "The problem with Josh is the last two years he was injured most of the time in the muscular and we believe he has the potential. He's so aggressive to win the duels and with the ball is so so clever.
"The guy has a good one-v-one, doesn't feel the pressure in the ball. How much our back four will press, he didn't lose many balls. He did a really good game. If we can control him and avoid injuries we can have a full-back for many years."
After a week in the US, Guardiola branded the tour a success, and said the squad is in a good place ahead of next weekend's Community Shield clash with Liverpool at Leicester's King Power Stadium.
He said: "The result is the less important thing, most important is we finish the tour with no injuries, minutes are important for all of us.
"In one week we have the Community Shield, against a so demanding opponent with the pace, they play man to man, it's not easy to make a proper build up. It's a good tour and we go back home."
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