The 18-year-old made just his third start for the Club in the 3-2 fourth round Carabao Cup victory over the Reds and our boss was impressed with what he described as a man of the match performance.
Fellow former Academy player Cole Palmer also started and Guardiola says the pair have a huge future at the Club after showing their quality against one of the best sides in the Premier League.
“I had the feeling that without [Lewis] we could not play the way we played,“ the City boss told a news conference. “I’m absolutely really impressed for his young age and today he played against a really senior team.
“Its not about how intelligent he is with the ball, but without the ball. Today Cole and him, especially the first half, were incredible with and without the ball.
“Today we had the privilege to almost announce that this guy will have a big decade and will be an absolutely incredible player for Manchester City for the next years because he’s so intelligent, so humble, understands everything in one second and applies everything – he’s so so clever.
“We have an incredible right full-back with us for the next years. He always good but not against [a team like] Liverpool. He had Salah, Thiago and Robertson on his side. He is 18-years-old and the way he played was outstanding, he was the man of the match.”
Despite the game coming just four days after the World Cup final, Guardiola was able to name a strong side as we reached the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup where we will face Southampton away.
City’s England and Portugal stars, who reached the last-eight in Qatar were on the bench with John Stones, Phil Foden, Jack Grealish and Bernardo Silva coming off the bench in the second half.
But Guardiola said that both Ruben Dias and Kalvin Phillips were unavailable after returning from the World Cup.
“Ruben Dias is injured and Kalvin Phillips is not fit,” he said. “[Kalvin] is not ready and Ruben has had hamstring injury from the last game of the World Cup and is out.”
