Pep Guardiola has admitted Manchester City had an “exceptional player” in their ranks with Morgan Rogers as they prepare to face him in a six-pointer to qualify for the Champions League.
Rogers struck for Aston Villa when they beat his former club in December but was never given a first-team appearance by Guardiola as he was loaned out to Lincoln, Bournemouth and Blackpool before being sold to Middlesbrough.
But the winger has kicked on at Villa, becoming a full England international and scoring in the Champions League quarter-final against Paris Saint-Germain.
Now City run the risk of being punished for allowing him to leave and Guardiola looked back to his time at the Etihad Stadium, saying: “He was in the second team, and trained sometimes with us, and we could see something like could do it, but the impact he’s had in Villa, what a player, we had an exceptional player here, absolutely.”
City are a point ahead of Villa in a five-team battle for the last three Champions League places and Guardiola believes Tuesday’s match will be like a final.
He expects a tough game, adding: “It's a contender to qualify for the Champions League, and you see both games, they play against my friend Luis Enrique, at PSG, wow, I was really, really impressed.”
Guardiola also believes Josko Gvardiol’s form in the middle means it is less likely City will buy a centre-back in the summer.
The Croatia international has spent most of his City career at left-back but has partnered Ruben Dias in recent weeks and that, along with the January signings of Vitor Reis and Abdukodir Khusanov, means he has seven centre-back options in his squad.
“They are doing a really, really good partnership, so he's an option, we'll see if we buy, I don't think we're going to,” he said. “The club needs central defenders, because we have a lot, and we bought two young ones.”
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