Its his lack of physicality which has held him back from more game time. Nothing else. And going out on loan would not have improved the situation. Its only now he looks physically more able to cope with more games.
That’s why he should have been playing wide for the past couple of years; he’s now physically ready to play in the middle, but is only just being shoehorned in now.
Will never make a top class left or right sided attacker as long as he’s got a hole in his arse. Potentially England’s best number 8 since or before Gazza though. Might get some regular game time there one day.
Gazza and Wilshere are those who he’s been compared to, and that’s worrying - both got crocked young because they invited too many tackles trying to carry the ball through midfield; luckily for Foden, his passing, and instinctive movement in and around the box are all potentially elite, so he can still develop into a top class midfield player without trying to beat 3 men every time he gets the ball. Will come with experience, hopefully.
So he's behind in his development because he's only got 70 appearances playing for City, and not 100 appearances for some tin pot club in a crap league? Good God almighty.
70 appearances mostly as a spare part in easy default wins - he’d learn/develop more in competitive games for mediocre teams.
Why did Madrid send Carvajal, Valverde, Casemiro, Asensio and now Odegaard etc out on loan to inferior clubs? By your logic, training with golacticos and coming on in 5-0 wins/starting Cup ties would have been enough to develop them sufficiently. Instead they loaned them out, brought them back and won European Cups and titles.
Modric, De Bruyne, Van Dijk etc have all built elite careers upon the platform of their formative years spent playing regular, challenging senior football in those ‘tinpot’ leagues. Valencia were a decent side when David Silva was loaned out consecutively to mid/lower table teams - why didn’t they just keep him about like a mascot like we have with Foden?
Adarabioyo is a prime example - he’s had a couple of loans in the lower leagues - one of which was average, and his latest one at Blackburn in which he has by all accounts been one of the most accomplished footballing centrebacks in the Championship, and potentially ready to make the next step in his career into the Premier League; if he’d stayed about playing cup games and as a sub in 4-0’s weekly, would he have developed in the same way?
Players need challenges to develop, and the role Foden has had for us in the past 2 years probably hasn’t pushed him in the same manner being an integral player with result-defining responsibilities for an average club in a tinpot league would have.
