47 | Phil Foden - 2025/26

JewelZee said:
Arsenal fans have an obsession with trying to downplay Phil but the reality is he is a better footballer than anyone on their entire squad...
Click to expand...
Declan Rice is playing betterall round football than Phil this season,so far....
 
Absolutely bossing it coming in from the right the last 2 games , which coincidently is the position he played when winning POY. Need to stop the experiment of him paying Central to replace Kev buy a specialist for that role and play Phil where he has the biggest impact.
 
Gabriel said:
Couple of good finishes and some lovely play. More on the plus side of the ledger, but a couple of overhit attacking passes when we were in good positions and the bravery of the tin man when closing down that shot.
Click to expand...
The lion, surely?
 
I've said it before and I'll say it again,when Phil is on it there's no one in this league that can touch him with his technical ability,add his shooting,and his ability to make the right pass and he's simply world class.
 
Thought he was really good in the 1st half last night unplayable, my motm.

Minor gripe but when the game is chaotic and messy, I'd love to see him become Bernardo of 3 or 4 seasons ago, use his energy and technical ability to draw fouls and calm the game down.
 
MCFC1993 said:
Thought he was really good in the 1st half last night unplayable, my motm.

Minor gripe but when the game is chaotic and messy, I'd love to see him become Bernardo our 3 or 4 seasons ago, use his energy and technical ability to draw fouls and calm the game down.
Click to expand...
He’s not Bernardo though. He’s Phil Foden and playing just behind Haaland, like last night, he’s unstoppable. Grealish would have been great off the bench last night though.
 
youngbob said:
I wonder if the Leeds game should be a lesson in how we need to use Foden in the future (i.e. give him the ball with the goal in sight and not before). I think he's great, but I don't think he's the David Silva-type, "tight spaces" technician that he's being billed as, or that Pep seems to think he is. At least consistently. He's a gamebreaker and should be used similarly to Haaland, or how we used to use Sterling and Alvarez.

He can get involved in the build-up, like all our players get involved in some way. But I'd like to see him out on the right more and moving inside to score/assist, with Cherki or Reijnders behind Haaland instead. Kinda like where we had Alvarez during the 23/24 season during De Bruyne's four-month absence, drifting in from the right, instead of in this metronome #10 role he's been playing in during more recent games. His form is very up and down playing central.

Between his two goals against Leeds I thought he was shocking, to be honest, and he was pretty off-colour in recent games against Newcastle & Villa (and Leverkusen) too. He was frequently dispossessed, there were loose touches all over the place, and he couldn't stamp his authority down. He's definitely the main man in midfield, but he's better as more of a second striker/inside winger imo. He has a different physical profile to Sterling but he should be used like that.

He was at his best against Leeds when he was arriving in the final third as the last player (or 2nd to last player) to touch the ball in a move. Once Cherki came on, his role in the build-up shifted on one step, and it clicked. Having him be the guy who's meant to thread it all together and be the glue/metronome ain't working imo. As I've said, I think he's less of a Gundogan/Silva and more of a Sterling/Alvarez. He needs to be the guy our creative players look to find.
Click to expand...
This is his future. For the first 50 mins he was the guy coming to everything in the box, scoring the big goals. As soon as he had to drop deeper to accommodate Gonzalez going off, he went quiet, Fulham relaxed, and we spent the next 35-40 mins defending desperately. Needs to be played up top with Haaland, coming in off the right channel. Cherki in the middle, Doku on the left.
 
Needs to play further forward and be that exciting 10+ Goals per Season midfielder capable of drifting into pockets of space, and scoring all types of goals and with either foot

Too peripheral when playing deep so we need to stop trying to shoehorn him into some kind of position that exposes his lack of physicality.
 
Philip Walter Foden, the best English footballer ever seen, absolute special player... I watch every of our games and i'am so happy for him ,when he play, when he scores, when he make passes its a joy to watch :)
 
eastmanc said:
He's not as talented though
Click to expand...
And Rice is (just) behind Foden now on whoscored.com ratings, where Phil is now second to Haaland, and Doku is third. So on that rating, which is quite a good guide, we currently have the league's top three players. I still think we should have matched what Arsenal offered for Rice to see if he would leave London.

Phil BTW is just a wondeful player, truly gifted but also works hard and demonstrates that he has been learning from the coaches and top class players he has worked with. Part of his game is reminding me so much of Gundo when he drops deeper.

My jaw dropped the first time I watched Phil play for the first team (US pre-season tour v Rags) and he has continued to fulfil the obvious promise. If he can keep improving...
 
I don't think, at this stage, Phil will ever be more physically dominant so we have to ensure he's protected by getting the right players around him. He's composed on the ball, absolutely brilliant at creating things and scoring goals but he's doesn't have the pace, energy or physicality to be that workhorse in the middle of the park. Others have to do that job for him. Fulham upped their intensity but yet again we decided to fight fire with fire rather than pass and move and unlock them patiently. It's been the case in so many games this season where a bit of composure would be so much more effective. The majority of Fulham's goals last night came from us giving the ball away unnecessarily, hunting more goals. It was a piece of piss to score as many as we did, we don't need to rush things.
 
supercity88 said:
I don't think, at this stage, Phil will ever be more physically dominant so we have to ensure he's protected by getting the right players around him. He's composed on the ball, absolutely brilliant at creating things and scoring goals but he's doesn't have the pace, energy or physicality to be that workhorse in the middle of the park. Others have to do that job for him.
Click to expand...

I think I've always seen him in the Spanish Dave mould, but Dave had those workhorses to do the heavy lifting for him while he pulled the strings. One is so important for the other, if we can sort out our midfield whether that be a fully fit Rodri or help for Nico, I think the team would go up several levels because of Phils ability to express himself.
 
Prestwich_Blue said:
At his best, he's unstoppable when we're on the front foot but not very effective when we're defending or he's up against a physical midfield like Newcastle's.
Click to expand...
He's not supposed to be a defensive player though. I don't remember De Bruyne or Ya Ya doing much defending. Foden just behind Haaland is a sensational partnership. We saw that in that epic 6-3 Derby game. We need another defensive mid to play with Nico Gonalez. Stones and Bernie can't do it. A proper screen for the centre backs frees up Foden even more to link up with Haaland. If Rodri recovers great but we can't wait much longer.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Unread Posts

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top