Fabulous Phil Foden is fortunate to be working with a genius in Pep Guardiola

I heard that one bookmaker had paid out on Manchester City winning the title before the game at Anfield last week and I reckon the others may as well follow suit now because the Premier League race is over.

Liverpool were the only other team capable of keeping pace with City anyway and after that 4-1 demolition job last week they are too far behind.

Manchester United are not ready to genuinely threaten on a consistent basis and Leicester are as likely to go backwards as they are maintain a top-four push, never mind get close to Pep Guardiola's side.

Phil Foden was absolutely fabulous in the game last weekend and I think we are now talking about not only a City regular, but currently one of their best players, even if the comparisons with Gazza are a little bit wide of the mark for the time being.

Foden is massively talented and he is fortunate to have a coach like Guardiola plotting his path. Much like the late Steve Jobs, Guardiola is a genius in his line of work, and despite being a very good footballer, Pep is going to be remembered in history for his ability as a coach. He is a generational talent.

Guardiola micro-manages all of his players and it's interesting that he sees Foden at his best as a wide player for the time being. Foden is so good technically that he can play right, left or centrally and we must wait to see whether the long-term aim is to make him a false nine.

The spine of any team is key and that is why Guardiola moved Lionel Messi from the right to a more central role at Barcelona

Foden isn't Messi but the best thing is to not pigeon-hole him into any position and just let him play with a freedom.

To be an attacker in Guardiola's system you have to be able to play in a variety of roles anyway. It's very much the Ajax and Barcelona philosophy and another thing Guardiola got right was to keep Foden at the Etihad rather than sending him out on loan.

I think some players need to go out and particularly if they are still kicking around the Under-23s in their early twenties. However, Foden will have picked up so much more learning from Guardiola and the world-class players around him.

It's not only how they play, but how they train and act. It's the whole package of what it takes to be an elite performer.

Despite all of the positive vibes for man-of-the-moment Foden I don't think he should start for England just yet.

There's time to change my mind on that but at the moment I don't think he should be ahead of my front four of Raheem Sterling, Jack Grealish, Marcus Rashford and Harry Kane.

It's going to be a tricky job for Gareth Southgate fitting everyone in, but first up he needs to find a system. In my opinion that's 4-2-3-1 with Foden a great option off the bench.

Scott Minto presents the Racing Post's weekly YouTube football show Different League in association with Betfred

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