While there is no such thing as a guaranteed starting position in a Pep Guardiola side - unless your name is Ederson - Phil Foden will likely feel aggrieved not to have started Manchester City's Champions League tie on Tuesday.
The 21-year-old attacker had started 13 of City's 14 games in all competitions since January 15, yet when Atletico Madrid came to the Etihad for the first leg of a quarter-final tie he found himself on the bench.
With the game entering its final stages and City unable to find a way past a stubborn Atletico defence, Guardiola turned to Foden with just over 20 minutes to go. Within two minutes he set up Kevin de Bruyne's match-winning striker with a superb ball, handing the Blues the advantage going into the return fixture next week.
READ MORE: Pep Guardiola explains how Jack Grealish and Phil Foden changed Man City Champions League fortunes
Guardiola will be delighted with the impact his substitute made, but thanks to three moments of brilliance from Foden he will have a lot to think about ahead of the upcoming big games.
In the pocket
It took Foden less than two minutes to set up City's breakthrough goal, and what an assist it was. But before we get on to the quality of the pass, we need to admire Foden's positioning.
Foden replaced Riyad Mahrez on the right wing but, in this moment, with Joao Cancelo pushed high on the right flank, Foden moved further infield into the channel.
As shown below, Atletico were defending in two ridged lines comprised of five defenders with four midfielders in front of them. To bypass that, Foden intelligently took up a position in between the lines, finding a small pocket of space. Once he did that it caused panic in the Atletico defence.
As soon as Foden received the ball four Atletico players converged on him, including - crucially - Reinildo, the left-sided centre-back. The Atleti players obviously knew about the damage Foden could cause - Diego Simeone admitted after the game that he had expected the England star to start - and so they were alarmed to see him collect the ball in a pocket of space.
Reinildo stepping out of the back five created the room for De Bruyne to run into, latching onto Foden's brilliantly weighted pass to slot past Jan Oblak.
Twinkle toes
Playing largely as a false nine this season, Foden hasn't had many opportunities to show the incredible dribbling abilities that wowed City fans and neutral alike last season. On Tuesday though, out on the right wing, he decided to have a bit of fun.
Cutting in from the flank he darted past Geoffrey Kondogbia in the penalty area, but when he approaches the byline he faced a problem. Reinildo was blocking an option to cut the ball back to Bernardo Silva, meaning Foden could only continue to the byline.
No problem; Foden dragged the ball to his right - seemingly out of play - before dragging it back in at the last possible second with his right. The move - one often performed by Lionel Messi - exhibited his close control and sense of pausa, not something many players have.
Anything Joao can do...
City fans have become used to seeing Joao Cancelo pull off ridiculous outside of the foot passes from the left flank this season, but Phil wasn't going to let his Portuguese teammate have all the fun.
Out on the right and keen to progress the ball forward, Foden spotted De Bruyne making a darting run in between the central centre-back (Felipe) and the left centre-back (Reinildo).
The angle wasn't right for him to make a conventional pass with the inside of his left boot, so instead, he produced an arcing pass with the outside of his foot that evaded the defender before curving back into De Bruyne's path.
All three of the above examples involved tremendous pieces of skill and concentration and should serve to tell Guardiola that in the biggest games - three of which await City over the next 10 days, Foden has to be in the starting line-up.
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