Yep. He's arrived.
For about three years he's obviously been really good and a valuable member of the first team. He's come up with big moments - I don't need to listen them because we all remember. But for me he always (somewhat) lacked the game-breaking quality I really wanted from him. The amount of times he's almost scored one of the greatest goals you'll ever see was really unlucky but I think back to that moment against Inter, in Istanbul, when he should have just buried the shot after the turn and run. Moments like that always seemed to hamper his game a bit.
Down the years (while at the top) we've had players like David Silva, Grealish, Ake, Gundogan, etc. who follow the manager's instructions to the letter and do wonderful things with the ball and provide massive moments of their own. These players are obviously worth their weight in gold and have helped keep us steady in big games when everyone else about them is flapping and panicking. You'd never accuse David Silva of being a nervous footballer, would you? Haha. They are all absolutely elite at that kind of play and that's what made them special.
Foden, imo, has never quite been disciplined enough to specialise at following instructions in the way players such as David, Jack, Ilkay, etc. have done. He always had a little maverick quality that got the better of him at times. He needed to become a game-breaker. Someone who follows instructions 80% of the time but 20% of the time clearly wants (needs) to do his own thing. But he wasn't quite good enough at game-breaking either. Let me explain.
Players like Yaya Toure, De Bruyne, Aguero, and Rodri... Sometimes when games aren't going well for City, you see them standing and watching for a moment, and you wonder why they're not getting involved and why they're choosing to take a breather when the chips are down. Then suddenly out of nowhere you can see their minds click like, "Fuck this, I'm doing this my own way" before they score a mad goal or find a cross you've never seen the like of before (or since). How many times did Yaya take games by the scruff of the neck and just win it on his own? The same goes for Kev, Sergio, Rodri, etc.
And that was Foden in the second half yesterday - when he picks that ball up from Rodri's pass before the first goal he can easily just keep the move going, but he thinks "Fuck this, I'm doing this my own way" and blasts it home from 25 yards. The game needed something like that. We were dominating but it just wasn't falling for us in the area - sometimes you need a Yaya or a De Bruyne to just get their head over the ball and put their foot through it. And then he did it again in the second half, when he created the move by himself and just told Alvarez where to go with his movement off the ball. That's the game-breaking quality he's been lacking to become a proper elite and it's here now.
The first time he did it this season - well, the first time it jumped out at me - was Everton away, when Kevin was still injured, and I was looking to Phil at half-time to just wrestle the game back in our favour. So what does he do? Takes a moment at the start of the second half to analyse what's happening, stands in some space, gets the ball, has a think, then "Fuck this" and BANG it's in the back of the net. 1-1 game on. Then again at Brentford, 1-0 down, chances not quite falling for us. Then he takes a moment, hangs about in a half-space on the edge of the area, waits for the ball to drop to him and BANG it's 1-1, game on. Then he took the game on his shoulders and won it for us that night.
Now he's doing it in derbies. Long may it continue.
