47 | Phil Foden - 2023/24

[Craig]

Pep plays Phil wide left, Ancelotti plays Bellingham through the middle. You have a problem, blame Pep lol but seriously Phil needs to step up

It’s his worst position. Look at all his screamers this season. They’ve come from the right cutting in or when he’s started centrally. Most the time Doku or Grealish are on the left for us. Pep played him from the left in the cup final but with loads of licence to drift in. It just left us unbalanced us with nobody to create space for Phil in the middle by stretching the pitch down the left.

Agree it’s still easier for him for City if he’s there because we dominate possession so much. It will get worse for him if he stays there through this tournament. When we play a decent team they’ll start attacking down that side and Phil will have to stay wider to plug the gaps.

 

[dennishasdoneit]

Waistcoat even kept Phil out wide when Mainoo came on to play in Phil’s preferred position. Waistcoat is blinded by Billy big bollocks Bellingham and him and TAA are the big egos in this squad who will ultimately fail

On the Nail.

 

[01282]

I was at the game and the amount of times Foden played a pass and never got the return was ridiculous. I can see this being a long standing issue with the media not helping his cause.

 

[mattcity5]

Playing him on the left isn’t the issue. Waistcoat is playing him in the exact same role that Pep plays him in. Foden plays left wing for us too. The difference, and THIS is the real issue, is the lack of control and proper build up under Southgate. It’s that control which allows City to consistently get up the pitch, pin the opponent back, and get everyone in their final positions (which for Foden is in the centre). It looks like Foden plays more central for us purely because we have control of the game. With England he has less opportunity to reach his end position because we just get the ball and twat it as far as we can.

I honestly think Southgate just thinks “Pep plays him there, drifting inside - I’ll do the same” but he doesn’t actually understand how the system allows it to work at City. He hasn’t once thought about that.

Totally this.

Watching Pickford, it was lack time travelling back 10 years that match. I've not seen as many kicks hit long since before Pep came to England, at least.

Stones always wanted the ball from him, others looked to be roughly in the right positions, but I don't think anybody else really wanted the ball off him. So aimless and long, always. I sometimes hear the Pickford's good with his feet - if they mean he can kick the ball, ok. But it just seems that the rest of the England fanbase have lower standards than us City fans.

 

[CatMan]

I'll be honest, for the first 60 minutes he was shite. No ifs, buts or Man City glasses, he was shite.

What didn't help was Bellingham being overly self indulgent and wanting to almost show off. He's a great player, but his ego is even greater. Everyone suffered as it became the Jude show. Foden, TAA and Kane alike, all had their thunder stolen as Bellingham refused to stay in position or make a simple pass.

What did infuriate me about Foden was he went on that field chewing gum! He sang the National Anthem with gum in his gob, and every time he was involved in a breakdown of play, the camera would zoom in to find him chomping like Ermintrude the Magic Roundabout's Cow! It's not a good look and doing it shows you are not fully focussed. And before any young shite who thinks its OK to go on the field to represent your nation chewing gum, ensure you can quote a boxer, rugby player, athlete or indeed and sporting performance publication that recommends chewing gum as an aid to sporting performance!

 

[dennishasdoneit]

Except that Southgate actually has the players to play everyone in their correct positions, and instead, plays them out of position to fit in another player (TAA) out of position.

You could easily play:

Pickford

Walker------Stones-----Guehi------Trippier

Rice------Bellingham

Saka------Foden------Gordon

Kane​

And Trippier would be the only compromise. Bellingham is arguably the closest thing England have got to Gundogan. He's decent enough defensively, fairly physical, and incredible at arriving in the box at the right moment. And Gundo spent his entire City career playing behind Silva, De Bruyne or Foden. The reality is that that formation above would already be pretty defensively solid, because Walker and Trippier are not going to be joining the attack that much anyway.

Ignoring Foden's performance, let's actually look at how many chances England created. They had 5 shots in 90 minutes, so it's not like Bellingham and "Trent" have shown themselves to be creative geniuses. Most of the threat came from Saka, which is normal, because he's the best player at taking on opponents one-on-one, and in the absence of any coherent attacking plan, that's the best way to make something happen.

Absolutely Foden hasn't been good enough, but if you're handed the best player in the Premier League last season, the best player in La Liga, and the highest scoring striker in Europe (and it's not like Saka is a weak link), and you manage 5 shots on goal against Serbia, then maybe you need to look at the manager and the tactics. For comparison, the Netherlands managed 21 shots, Switzerland 15, Spain 11, Croatia 16, Italy 17, Germany 20. Even most of the losing teams had more shots than us.

We hear a lot about how the defence is weak so we need to set up to protect them. Walker was in almost everyone's team of the season, and is a good shout for best RB in the world. Stones had an injury-hit season, but he's still the player that a year ago was given credit for transforming us into treble winners with his intelligent play, and being the best player in the CL final. Trippier too might be getting on a bit and playing out of position, but he's a quality, experienced defender. So what they're basically saying is that we need to constantly build our entire team around protecting the back four because one of the four isn't a CL regular or playing for a title-challenging team.

Enjoyed reading that. Thought provoking.

 

[Dipsis_LTU_MC]

 

[tommybooth]

Southgate cannot get away from strong defence. Hello. Goals.

 

[robbieh]

I'll be honest, for the first 60 minutes he was shite. No ifs, buts or Man City glasses, he was shite.

What didn't help was Bellingham being overly self indulgent and wanting to almost show off. He's a great player, but his ego is even greater. Everyone suffered as it became the Jude show. Foden, TAA and Kane alike, all had their thunder stolen as Bellingham refused to stay in position or make a simple pass.

What did infuriate me about Foden was he went on that field chewing gum! He sang the National Anthem with gum in his gob, and every time he was involved in a breakdown of play, the camera would zoom in to find him chomping like Ermintrude the Magic Roundabout's Cow! It's not a good look and doing it shows you are not fully focussed. And before any young shite who thinks its OK to go on the field to represent your nation chewing gum, ensure you can quote a boxer, rugby player, athlete or indeed and sporting performance publication that recommends chewing gum as an aid to sporting performance!

Viv Richards

 

[CatMan]

Viv Richards

Cricketer last time I checked. Did less running that a blocked tap. Top athletes that use cardiovascular performance as key to their performance, do not chew gum.