47 | Phil Foden - 2025/26

[supercity88]

Anyone can misplace a pass in such a situation, including Kevin.

The problem is that Foden lacks that ability to create many chances that both Kevin and David had.

At 25, he still has time to develop it, but it might be a bit difficult for him at this stage of his career.

You can't judge Foden on his lack of creativity in this current setup. He's got nothing but Haaland to aim at generally. We're so narrow and the majority of our players want the ball to feet so they're not looking to attack the space. Even Doku generally wants the ball to his feet, he doesn't look to run in behind the defence. If Foden was playing in a side with Sane and Sterling he'd look a lot more creative because he'd have so much movement ahead of him.

Silva had the ability to slide people in, Foden has that. De Bruyne was a different level in terms of his range of passing and ability to create from nowhere.

 

[supercity88]

Completely disagree, this standard that you're holding him to just doesn't exist and Saka and Palmer certainly aren't doing it and in fact have never touched the level Foden was at a season and bit ago.

As recently as Sunderland he provided a pass that should have been the game winner (Pass to Savinho). I don't think Foden has been great at all but the rest of the team around him has faltered in the last few weeks despite the West Ham and Forest wins. Appears that people expect Foden to be delivering everything himself.

Cherki played that pass but I agree with you. Foden's in bad form, probably just fatigued more than anything. But he's still shown plenty this season and if we sign Semenyo it would be an option to rest Foden, play Cherki central and have Semenyo wide. Then Foden gets a rest and would perform better.

 

[alexmcity]

You can't judge Foden on his lack of creativity in this current setup. He's got nothing but Haaland to aim at generally. We're so narrow and the majority of our players want the ball to feet so they're not looking to attack the space. Even Doku generally wants the ball to his feet, he doesn't look to run in behind the defence. If Foden was playing in a side with Sane and Sterling he'd look a lot more creative because he'd have so much movement ahead of him.

Silva had the ability to slide people in, Foden has that. De Bruyne was a different level in terms of his range of passing and ability to create from nowhere.

That's another excuse based on an entirely hypothetical situation.

This season, Gvardiol has more assists involving Haaland than Foden. Even if you factor in the role of luck, your explanation is rather weak.

Further, Cherki ruins your point.

Doku and Cherki top the rankings for chances created per 90. Shouldn't be possible if your point was sound.

Also, Reijnders and Cherki can be aimed at, but Foden doesn't find them sufficiently often.

Foden's decision making is levels below David's or Gundo's. He's better at scoring goals than them, which justifies his inclusion in the team, but his in game intelligence is nowhere near theirs.

 

[supercity88]

That's another excuse based on an entirely hypothetical situation.

This season, Gvardiol has more assists involving Haaland than Foden. Even if you factor in the role of luck, your explanation is rather weak.

Further, Cherki ruins your point.

Doku and Cherki top the rankings for chances created per 90. Shouldn't be possible if your point was sound.

Also, Reijnders and Cherki can be aimed at, but Foden doesn't find them sufficiently often.

Foden's decision making is levels below David's or Gundo's. He's better at scoring goals than them, which justifies his inclusion in the team, but his in game intelligence is nowhere near theirs.

Can Phil improve? Yes. Will he ever be David Silva? No. He's got more of an instinct to score goals so his goal/assist contributions will remain high.

There's nothing hypothetical about the way we're playing football. You can look at the one pass he should have played to Cherki and didn't but I can go and freeze a hundred situations from our recent games where his options were completely limited.

Phil's not going to pick up loads of assists when he has two wide players who want the ball to feet and 9 times out of 10 will also look to pass rather than shoot.

The discipline and quality of our build up play is absymal in comparison to previous City sides so comparing his output this season to some of our greats is unfair. He'll never be as good as those players, but I'm telling you now if he had someone like Semenyo in the side who would make that run in behind you'd see how much better his decision making is than you give him credit for.

 

[EdersonsSmiley]

That's another excuse based on an entirely hypothetical situation.

This season, Gvardiol has more assists involving Haaland than Foden. Even if you factor in the role of luck, your explanation is rather weak.

Further, Cherki ruins your point.

Doku and Cherki top the rankings for chances created per 90. Shouldn't be possible if your point was sound.

Also, Reijnders and Cherki can be aimed at, but Foden doesn't find them sufficiently often.

Foden's decision making is levels below David's or Gundo's. He's better at scoring goals than them, which justifies his inclusion in the team, but his in game intelligence is nowhere near theirs.

I think it's pretty fair. Savinho has 1 goal in 44 and Doku has 7 goals in 73, giving these two the ball in not going to end in assist 99% of the time. That would be the case whether it's Cherki, De Bruyne or Foden passing it to them.

If I can trust AI, before he left De Bruyne never assisted either Doku or Savinho for City in the league.

 

[alexmcity]

I think it's pretty fair. Savinho has 1 goal in 44 and Doku has 7 goals in 73, giving these two the ball in not going to end in assist 99% of the time. That would be the case whether it's Cherki, De Bruyne or Foden passing it to them.

If I can trust AI, before he left De Bruyne never assisted either Doku or Savinho for City in the league.

Cherki is leading the league in assists, having played half the minutes of B. Fernandes and in the same team as Foden.

If you have the ability, you have the ability. The rest are excuses.

 

[Craig]

I think it's pretty fair. Savinho has 1 goal in 44 and Doku has 7 goals in 73, giving these two the ball in not going to end in assist 99% of the time. That would be the case whether it's Cherki, De Bruyne or Foden passing it to them.

If I can trust AI, before he left De Bruyne never assisted either Doku or Savinho for City in the league.

Yet Doku wouldn’t have got the assist if Foden had managed to beat one defender with a pass to give Haaland a tap in. His brilliant bit of play would have been the main reason for the goal though. The excuses for Phil on here are endless. Simple pass to put Cherki clean through but choose the wrong option. It’s not all about goals and assists Silva showed that. Doku gets us up the pitch and creates space for others as defenders are scared to be one on one against him.

When you aren’t contributing much else then yes it gets looked at. Foden isn’t doing much when he’s not scoring. I’ve seen people mention Saka only has 3 assists in the league this season. He’d still be Arteta’s first attacking pick because teams have to double up constantly or foul him. Sometimes the eye test says more but there’s such an obsession these days with assists.

 

[Big Yaya Wilko 12]

I'm fairly sure I could make that pass, to be honest. And the highest I played was on the bench for Cheadle Town about 15 years ago.

 

[EdersonsSmiley]

Cherki is leading the league in assists, having played half the minutes of B. Fernandes and in the same team as Foden.

If you have the ability, you have the ability. The rest are excuses.

3 of Cherki's assists have been to Foden who obviously can't assist himself. The facts are that other than Haaland and Foden, none of the front 4/5 ever scored any goals.

League goals this season:
Haaland 19
Foden 7
Cherki 2
Doku 1
Savinho 0

Outside of trying to feed Haaland, what should Foden be doing? All KDB did towards the end was look for Haaland because he knew it was pointless giving the ball to the rest (inc Grealish at the time) as they are all allergic to scoring.

 

[alexmcity]

3 of Cherki's assists have been to Foden who obviously can't assist himself. The facts are that other than Haaland and Foden, none of the front 4/5 ever scored any goals.

League goals this season:
Haaland 19
Foden 7
Cherki 2
Doku 1
Savinho 0

Outside of trying to feed Haaland, what should Foden be doing? All KDB did towards the end was look for Haaland because he knew it was pointless giving the ball to the rest (inc Grealish at the time) as they are all allergic to scoring.

Reijnders is on 5 goals. Just 2 goals fewer than Foden while playing deeper than him.

Also, without the assists to Foden, Cherki has twice as many assists as Foden in far fewer minutes. If you can, you can. Excuses are cheap.

 

[domalino]

Just 2 goals fewer than Foden while playing deeper than him.

If you look at the average position maps that float around on social media and here after every game, Reijnders does not play deeper than Phil, he's usually right next to Haaland, sometimes he's the furthest forward player (presumably in games where Haaland has to defend more corners).


Also all competitions Foden has 2x as many goals from pretty much the same number of shots.

 

[domalino]

I've also seen KDB butcher a simple pass like that dozens of times and no one cared if we won the game.

No one's perfect. Phil's been great for a few months now, stepped up massively to get us near Arsenal when Haaland's purple patch ended and as the only other goalscorer in the squad. We got unlucky that he and Cherki had their worst games of the seaon on the same day.

 

[alexmcity]

If you look at the average position maps that float around on social media and here after every game, Reijnders does not play deeper than Phil, he's usually right next to Haaland, sometimes he's the furthest forward player (presumably in games where Haaland has to defend more corners).

That's due to Reijnders being one of the high-pressing group.

In the build up play, Reijnders is closer to the DM than Foden. When we beat the press and control the ball in the middle or final third, he makes runs in behind.

Foden is closer to being a 10, Reijnders is closer to being an 8 (in possession).

Edit: Foden has contributed G/A every 166 minutes in the league, Reijnders - every 178 minutes.

The widely shared perception that Foden has been much better in the PL than Reijnders is a bit biased. Plus, the latter is still finding his feet in the league.

 

[alexmcity]

This suggests that my comments on Foden's creativity have been wrong. But seeing Wirtz in that list makes me thinking that the criteria for chance creation are pretty low. I've watched Wirtz and he has looked decent (at best) creativity wise.

IIRC, Wirtz is nowhere near the top in terms of *big* chances created, unlike Cherki and Doku.

 

[domalino]

seeing Wirtz in that list makes me thinking that the criteria for chance creation are pretty low.

A chance is just a pass that leads to a shot.

A big chance is a pass that leads to a shot with xG over 0.33

xA is the real stat you want here, as putting on a plate gives you a value much higher than some shitty pass that leads to a shitty shot and doesn't punish the passer for having a bad striker (or reward the passer if the person they give the ball to scores a wondergoal).

Foden's 15th in the league, Wirtz is 47th

https://fbref.com/en/comps/9/passing/Premier-League-Stats

 

[EdersonsSmiley]

Reijnders is on 5 goals. Just 2 goals fewer than Foden while playing deeper than him.

Also, without the assists to Foden, Cherki has twice as many assists as Foden in far fewer minutes. If you can, you can. Excuses are cheap.

Reijnders has essentially played a second striker with Haaland this season, in no way has he been playing deeper than Foden. Go check some average position maps if you don't believe me.

This whole conversation was about whether Foden would have more assists with wingers like Sterling and Sane which I demonstrated would be very likely with how inept our wingers are in front of goal.

 

[Jonas.shaffer]

Foden's 15th in the league, Wirtz is 47th

Even more impressive, he's actually 12th.

 

[alexmcity]

Reijnders has essentially played a second striker with Haaland this season, in no way has he been playing deeper than Foden. Go check some average position maps if you don't believe me.

This whole conversation was about whether Foden would have more assists with wingers like Sterling and Sane which I demonstrated would be very likely with how inept our wingers are in front of goal.

Our wingers are not expected to score many goals, their main job is to create chances. And I wouldn't call Cherki inept in front of goal, or Reijnders for that matter

The latter being a second striker doesn't help your point. Because Haaland aside, the most prolific striker in PL history, Foden can create chances for Reijnders and Cherki.

Anyone playing with Haaland is expected to have a good number of assists. His movement and productivity are extraordinary. Even Gvardiol and Nunes have 2-3 assists for Haaland this season. So, if you struggle to create many chances for Haaland, then non-prolific wingers are not a big reason why you are not in the top 10 of chance creators in the league.

Foden is 25. He CAN improve further. Let's hope so, because we need him to be one of the best players in the league in order to compete for the title.

 

[dennishasdoneit]

He's had a poor few games now and was constantly making the wrong decision on the ball yesterday much like Cherki. Lad has been close to his best for a lot of the season though so inclined to just put it down to a dip in form and he'll come good again. Just looks like he maybe needs a game or 2 out of the side to recharge. Much like Haaland, Cherki. Unfortunately we don't have the depth to do that so just have to hope he and a few others play their way back into form again. He's a big reason why we were able to get over a shite start to the season and get so close to Arsenal again so I'm not throwing him under the bus for having a dip in form now. Backing him to come good again soon.

Fatigue..and v Chelsea ,the fact that one Reece James was assigned to stick close to him all game,and did so very effectively...perhaps mitigate a poor performance..

Time will tell if he has lost his high performance level for good
But the fact that RJ ,once the best right back in the premier,and now an effective central mid player nullified him should be a sign that Chelsea feared Foden...

 

[Jonas.shaffer]

Anyone playing with Haaland is expected to have a good number of assists. His movement and productivity are extraordinary. Even Gvardiol and Nunes have 2-3 assists for Haaland this season. So, if you struggle to create many chances for Haaland, then non-prolific wingers are not a big reason why you are not in the top 10 of chance creators in the league.

This feels extremely disingenuous, considering Phil is just outside the top ten in xA at 12th (as posted above), not to mention he's one of the league's top goalscorers.

Phil should have more assists to Haaland this season. I can think of a few grade A chances Haaland has missed from Phil off the top of my head. One of which was versus West Ham, which he put in right after the initial save—another versus Sunderland right in front of the goal, etc.