He has to be good enough to get on the pitch as do them all,sane had to fight last season and phil has to do the same,if we lose sane people will say well he clearly wasn't good enough to convince pep to play him,the same goes for phil,local boy or not,let's wait and seeAnd maybe there will be a correlation between him not playing enough and not being good enough.
This time next year he will have daves spot and be ready
Not seen much clamour for him coming on in the second half against Norwich, so that makes me assume none of us see him as a game changer yet.
Therefore, I guess the clamour comes to play him when we play games we are likely to win, like Norwich...
It’s the Foden conundrum. When do we play him as not many games are guarantees in the PL, but he needs minutes to progress.
Personally, I’d start him against weaker sides at home, but it risks us dropping points.
If at any stage this season, we find ourselves too far off the pace (unlikely, but possible), then I’d play him a lot more to benefit him and us in the future.
Basically do what the scousers did last season by not taking the domestic cups too seriously and concentrate on the CL.
Not seen much clamour for him coming on in the second half against Norwich, so that makes me assume none of us see him as a game changer yet.
Therefore, I guess the clamour comes to play him when we play games we are likely to win, like Norwich...
It’s the Foden conundrum. When do we play him as not many games are guarantees in the PL, but he needs minutes to progress.
Personally, I’d start him against weaker sides at home, but it risks us dropping points.
If at any stage this season, we find ourselves too far off the pace (unlikely, but possible), then I’d play him a lot more to benefit him and us in the future.
Basically do what the scousers did last season by not taking the domestic cups too seriously and concentrate on the CL.
I kind of agree but then I think the only thing stopping him from being a better player than the likes of Gundogan is mentality.
Look at the Spurs game at the end of last season. Sure, Phil started and scored the winner in a high stakes game but it was actually one of the worst performances I've seen from him. Not because he was outplayed by them but because he was too pumped up and desperate to make an impact. His pressing was headless and overenthusiastic. He was charging down their players with no regard to whether or not his teammates were in position to support the press and as a consequence he either committed a foul or they played the ball around him easily. There was so little control.
I'd suggest the reason for that is that he's not used to being given starts in high risk games, desperate to make an impression and lead his boyhood team one step closer to the title. The only way I see him being able to overcome that is by us trusting him more often against decent opposition.
If we can't trust him now and if we don't think he's already as good as the senior players then we're wasting everyone's time and need to sell him. The excuses made sense when he was 17 but he's a couple of years older and every single one of our proper important players were getting frequent minutes and performing at that age.
The "potential" and "ceiling" bullshit gets talked about like each player follows a linear curve in their development. From my experience, the best players are the best from the beginning of their careers and all they do is improve their physique and gain experience to improve their mentality.
I'd like to think that Phil belongs in that category but he's currently being denied the opportunity to show it.
Which begs the question, when should he start?
Which begs the question, when should he start?
Personally, I think he should be getting the nod whenever one of David or Kev can't play. We need to be giving him the chance to sink or swim.
Against Watford on Saturday.