47 | Phil Foden - 2025/26

jabbar52 said:
It’s been well known, and reported, he moved house because of complaints from neighbours where he lived previously. His parents lived in the same street and they might also have moved.
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He's a carp fisherman i think and I doubt he would catch anything more than a cold in the tiny stream that ran round the back of his previus home. There are plenty of big houses with lakes close by them for people with his sort of money and he can easily fish at the best and private lakes if he wanted to.
 
He still has credit in the bank, but it's depleting rapidly. Yesterday was a perfect chance to show he still has it, but by all accounts he half-arsed his way through yet another game.
 
Foden doesn't seem physically weaker than Bernardo and is quicker than him, but he lacks Bernardo's ability to shield the ball or the latter's bravery in duels. Those nice Foden tricks in training don't translate in actual game situations.

Bernardo may be a bit oldish now but he's still better than the younger midfielders, and it's not close either.
 
Shined when playing alongside players 4 or 5 years older than him, who were arguably the best players in their positions

David Silva, Bernardo, Rodri, KDB etc

Been found out now that he cant now take their mantle now that hes reached his mid 20s, so hes just become another squad member, who will give you a 6 or 7 out of 10 most weeks, with the odd 9

Sick of hearing the various excuses, he just simply doesnt have the heart that the greats have had, and that cant be taught
 
Scaring Europe to Death said:
The main issue with Foden was that his sheer volume of goals camouflaged any notion that without them his performances were actually quite ordinary

Now that the goals have dried up he's been exposed, and yet we're still looking for other reasons and arguing over his best position
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Think its the opposite to that, I think his role in the team is changing and his off the ball positioning and pressing, his picking up the ball and keeping it moving to retain possession are becoming more important to the team in the 4 man midfield we are using than getting into the box and threading passes that used to be his game. Fans watching him hoping to see the old Foden aren’t seeing the new role he’s developing into.
Oddly the old Foden role is now more suited to Cherki, except he hasn’t,as yet, got Fodens pressing and positional ability, If we carry on with the current 4 man diamond next season and I think we will, there is a role in it for Foden it’s just a different role to his old one, and one he’ll get better in.
 
blueparrot said:
Think its the opposite to that, I think his role in the team is changing and his off the ball positioning and pressing, his picking up the ball and keeping it moving to retain possession are becoming more important to the team in the 4 man midfield we are using than getting into the box and threading passes that used to be his game. Fans watching him hoping to see the old Foden aren’t seeing the new role he’s developing into.
Oddly the old Foden role is now more suited to Cherki, except he hasn’t,as yet, got Fodens pressing and positional ability, If we carry on with the current 4 man diamond next season and I think we will, there is a role in it for Foden it’s just a different role to his old one, and one he’ll get better in.
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If we replace Bernardo with top quality, then the natural options in midfield will be Rodri, O'Reilly/Foden and Anderson (someone else)/Foden. His current performances don't seem good enough to displace O'Reilly or Anderson/Tonali/X... The latter (would) offer more physicality, which remains important in the PL.

As a squad player Foden is more than fine. The big question about his future is whether he can become a firm starter in midfield.

We played with 3 midfielders at Anfield, so the 4 in midfield option has not been a regular thing so far. Maybe Doku vs Galatasaray was more of a mid than a winger.
 
alexmcity said:
If we replace Bernardo with top quality, then the natural options in midfield will be Rodri, O'Reilly/Foden and Anderson (someone else)/Foden. His current performances don't seem good enough to displace O'Reilly or Anderson/Tonali/X... The latter (would) offer more physicality, which remains important in the PL.

As a squad player Foden is more than fine. The big question about his future is whether he can become a firm starter in midfield.

We played with 3 midfielders at Anfield, so the 4 in midfield option has not been a regular thing so far. Maybe Doku vs Galatasaray was more of a mid than a winger.
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It has been regular, not exclusively , but would say since Christmas more than not. We won’t know until next season, but we’ll get a good idea over the summer based on who leaves and who comes in.Going of the rumours which may be just that ,seems to me we are looking more at central players than wide forwards/ wingers and attacking full backs.
 
blueparrot said:
Think its the opposite to that, I think his role in the team is changing and his off the ball positioning and pressing, his picking up the ball and keeping it moving to retain possession are becoming more important to the team in the 4 man midfield we are using than getting into the box and threading passes that used to be his game. Fans watching him hoping to see the old Foden aren’t seeing the new role he’s developing into.
Oddly the old Foden role is now more suited to Cherki, except he hasn’t,as yet, got Fodens pressing and positional ability, If we carry on with the current 4 man diamond next season and I think we will, there is a role in it for Foden it’s just a different role to his old one, and one he’ll get better in.
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I hope you're right mate, but I honestly think it's more basic than that

Foden's goals were an integral part of our 23-24 PL success and he couldn't have gone to the Euros in a richer vein of form.

However something happened that summer and rather than carry his club performances onto the International stage, we're now witnessing almost the complete opposite with the odd purple patch surrounded by peripheral mediocrity

I was in Cologne when England played Slovenia and was pleasantly shocked by Foden's popularity amongst the English hardcore
Everyone was convinced that Bellingham was stifling his progress, which might, or might not, have been the case.
However we can't blame Bellingham when City's best starting XI arguably doesn't include Foden.
 
It shouldnt be an issue with where he's being played on the pitch.

When he was coming through Pep played him in nearly every position in the front six positions and he performed, suddenly he can only play in one position and the players around him need to be of a certain type.

It was only during the November/December period when him and Cherki was on the same wavelength and everyone thinking something special might be building between them.
 
blueparrot said:
It has been regular, not exclusively , but would say since Christmas more than not. We won’t know until next season, but we’ll get a good idea over the summer based on who leaves and who comes in.Going of the rumours which may be just that ,seems to me we are looking more at central players than wide forwards/ wingers and attacking full backs.
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I think Cherki and Doku have rarely played as pure midfielders in the PL. Both have been used more as creative attacking players. So, we have played mostly something like 3-2-1 in midfield and attack. the 4-2 system has been used mostly when we have lacked options or have rested some players.

The fact we played with 3 forwards at Anfield is telling. My guess is we'll continue to play that system in big games but perhaps with Doku instead of Marmoush.
 
chris85mcfc said:
Shined when playing alongside players 4 or 5 years older than him, who were arguably the best players in their positions

David Silva, Bernardo, Rodri, KDB etc

Been found out now that he cant now take their mantle now that hes reached his mid 20s, so hes just become another squad member, who will give you a 6 or 7 out of 10 most weeks, with the odd 9

Sick of hearing the various excuses, he just simply doesnt have the heart that the greats have had, and that cant be taught
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This and only this - he has now become what the old fashioned fans used to say was a luxury player. When the team is on fire he looks decent and has always had the ability to score goals. However, when we saw the likes of Kev and others come to the end of their time with us he was the one who was supposed to step up and take the mantle - sadly his all round game, particularly his in game intelligence are not up to it. To be completely fair same can be said of the likes of Tijani & Kovacic who to me look ok but no way capable of being a player that makes us really tick.

It is up to Phil now - he is fast becoming like Sterling who declined slowly to the point of not being an option to make the difference for teams he played for. Phil is paid very handsomely but I can honestly see the club not offering better terms and him moving on. The one thing that doesn't help is when he loses the ball he doesn't react well and looks to others to make up for his error. He has too often become the player on the fringe of games.

He has been very lucky to have so many chances after bang average performances - I can imagine he looks great in training and always is available - as we know Pep is not keen on players who miss games through injury. But for me that is now not enough. I hope someone close to him has a word because we need the Foden of 2 years ago not this powder puff version of 2025/6.
 
From a purely business perspective the club need him to sign a new contract, that way we will get a fee if he ever moves on. As an homegrown player it’s all pure profit. We can’t let his contract run down and he walks on a free. It’s that simple really, his previous performances and accolades mean someone will always take a chance on him, like we did with Blobby Fowler.
 
Millwallawayveteran1988 said:
I think he could sign for say Madrid on a free in January couldn’t he! I would imagine if they/someone get him for that then they would pay him more than he is on here.
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Why would Madrid go for him? They are stacked with his type of players. All they need is a real RW and creative midfielder. Foden is neither of those.
 
Has he achieved everything he ever dreamed about with city, and topped it off with an individual award…. He has never really fitted in with England, so his hunger has gone and Ronnies instagram is a bigger priority.
 
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