Gary Lineker feels Manchester City have a player who is superior to Jamal Musiala.
Jamal Musiala is one of football’s biggest talents and despite being just 21, he is already one of the best players in the world.
Since breaking into Bayern Munich’s first-team in 2019, Musiala has emerged as one of the most important players for both club and country.
Gary Lineker says Man City attacker is better than Jamal Musiala
At Euro 2024, the former Chelsea attacker will be heavily relied upon by Julian Nagelsmann if Germany hope to go deep into the tournament.
However, on BBC’s Match of the Day: Top 10, Gary Lineker claimed that Phil Foden is a superior player to Jamal Musiala.
“I’ll take [Phil] Foden. I’ve seen a lot of [Jamal] Musiala and I really, really like him and there’s not much to choose between them.”
Lineker added: “I just think the way Foden takes the ball on the half-turn, how quick he is, how he sees things and scores, I just think he’s a little bit more effective. And that might prove wrong in the Euros and that also depends on how they play but overall, as footballers, I’ve got Foden slightly ahead of Musiala.”
“And I watched a lot of Bayern Munich this season as well. And I think it’s a slightly tougher league to perform in, the Premier League.”
In terms of their respective goal and assist statistics, Phil Foden certainly has the upper hand on Jamal Musiala, proving how “effective” the former is, as Gary Lineker stated.
During the 2023/2024 season, Manchester City’s number 47 registered 27 goals and 12 assists in all competitions.
In comparison, Musiala, who missed games through injury recorded 12 goals and eight assists.
Phil Foden is a polished version of Jamal Musiala
Last month, the Englishman revealed that before the start of last season, Pep Guardiola gave him a key piece of advice: “Don’t try and be Phil Foden in every action.”
It seems like Guardiola’s suggestion allowed Foden to understand how to mix his game up.
In this respect, we also side with Gary Lineker in backing Phil Foden as the superior player to Jamal Musiala — with the latter constantly playing the game at a 100 miles per hour.
Foden, on the other hand is also capable of being dynamic, creating and scoring goals but his understanding of when to slow and quicken the game up is better than that of Musiala.
In the final third as well, Phil Foden is far more efficient, as Gary Lineker implied in comparison to Jamal Musiala.
During the 2022/2023 campaign, the German registered an impressive 16 goals and 16 assists in all competitions.
While Musiala is capable of being productive, his game is still far too reliant on his standout trait: dribbling.
The same cannot be said about Foden, who has emerged as a remarkable goalscorer, creator, passer and controller across different zones.
Phil Foden is simply a much more complete player than Jamal Musiala, as things stand at least.