Pep Guardiola believes Rico Lewis will be an "incredible player" for Manchester City for the next decade after hailing his performance in the Carabao Cup win against Liverpool.
The 18-year-old started the biggest game of his career at the Etihad and produced a performance that Guardiola described as "outstanding".
It was only Lewis' third start for City but he looked ready for the big stage and Guardiola felt he was man of the match in the game and integral to the way the Blues wanted to play.
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"I had the feeling that without him we could not play the way we played. Absolutely really impressed for a young age, today he played against a really senior team," said Guardiola.
"It is not about with-the-ball intelligence, it is about without-the-ball. We had the privilege to almost announce that this guy will take a big decade, will be an absolutely incredible player for Manchester City in the next years because he is so intelligent, so humble, he understands everything in just one second and applies everything. We have an incredible right full-back with us for the next few years.
"He always plays good, but against Liverpool especially, Nunez, Salah, Thiago and Robertson on his side. He is 18 years old. The way he plays was outstanding. He was man of the match."
Guardiola was happy with City's performance in winning the game, feeling they created many more chances than Liverpool despite the narrow scoreline.
"Liverpool and City respect what they have done in the last years. The last games between us was not successful for us," he said.
"It is not easy to keep the ball against them. They have the most difficult structure I have faced in my career. I have a feeling we were really good in everything. They don’t need anything to score and create chances. When they are much better they destroy you. It is impossible to be 90 minutes better than you. Today I think we made a really good game."
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