47 | Phil Foden - 2024/25

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I don't like my mind constantly leaning towards wanting a change (because Pep is and should be staying next season) but I can't help but wonder if Phil is another one that needs a new voice, and a new pair of competent eyes looking at him and what he can bring to the team. He has had the same head coach in his ear his whole senior career.

His career trajectory up until last season was as perfect as it could be, brilliant young player in a brilliant team that usually started and delivered when he was fit in multiple positions. All culminating in a stand-out season at 23 when he started to drive the team forward as a key-player and went into the category of world-class

12 months later on the verge of 25, he suddenly has regressed massively and seems frightened to do anything wrong. He actually seemed to try and take some responsibility against Arsenal away, asking more for the ball to try and drive us forward but then he made that mistake that gave them a goal and he seemed to go into his shell again after that. And is it just me, or does he seem as lightweight now as when he broke through at 17? He started to really grow into his body in that 20/21 season, but he looks ill now
 
Lavinda Past said:
Post of the week. So many nails hit squarely on the head.

The idea of Pep Guardiola 'developing' young players is, in my opinion, the greatest fallacy in modern football.
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Each to their own, of course.
For me, it‘s a dreadful post. On par with the one they put in the Pep thread, suggesting he has only ever achieved ‚expected‘ successes and now needs turfing in favour of a serious ‚overachiever‘.
 
sh249 said:
Each to their own, of course.
For me, it‘s a dreadful post. On par with the one they put in the Pep thread, suggesting he has only ever achieved ‚expected‘ successes and now needs turfing in favour of a serious ‚overachiever‘.
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Dreadful doesn't even cover it. He's not a City supporter. 35 posts and not a single one makes me think he's a blue. Very telling the people who get sucked in by posts/posters like that.
 
sh249 said:
Each to their own, of course.
For me, it‘s a dreadful post. On par with the one they put in the Pep thread, suggesting he has only ever achieved ‚expected‘ successes and now needs turfing in favour of a serious ‚overachiever‘.
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We're getting a new coach soon, so why not go for it now...? Pep's clearly done enough here but now looks as stale as his team dud yesterday.

No better time for a change imo. Let fresh thinking rebuild the squad for ne t season.
 
Lavinda Past said:
Post of the week. So many nails hit squarely on the head.

The idea of Pep Guardiola 'developing' young players is, in my opinion, the greatest fallacy in modern football.
Click to expand...
I think there used to be at least some truth to it, he promoted Busquets and Pedro to the Barca team and made them key players, would they have had the same career without him?

Kimmich at Bayern I think was the only one, other than it’s literally just Foden and now maybe O’Reilly, Rico.

He did also make Coman a starter at Bayern, I think he was like 19 or so but that was a signing not a youth product.

Truly think he’d still be preserving with Eric Garcia today if he didn’t leave.
 
No issue with that line of thinking at all. Don‘t agree with it, but it‘s an entirely legitimate view.
But I just can‘t get my head around why anyone would feel the need to try to diminish Pep‘s achievements with us (and elsewhere). Or try to make out that he‘s the root cause of Foden‘s shit form.
Though going by @BillyShears response, it seems unlikely it was a good faith argument anyway.
 
BillyShears said:
Dreadful doesn't even cover it. He's not a City supporter. 35 posts and not a single one makes me think he's a blue. Very telling the people who get sucked in by posts/posters like that.
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It's a member of the forum expressing an opinion. An opinion that some people will agree with, and some won't.

At the end of the day, their opinion is as valid as yours. You should bear that in mind when casting aspersions about their allegiances.
 
Whos to blame? The kid has suffered constant abuse all season. It began way before that though at the Euro’s. Some of the abuse he suffered there was criminal.

He is not immune from criticism but he has hardly been helped has he? He needs a clear break from football yet his manager keeps allowing him to be exposed week in week out. All in a hope of potentially playing his way back into form. It hasn’t worked and now even his own fans have jumped on the bandwagon and started with the abuse.

Clearly these past 7 years have taken a toll! 60/70 games a season cant be helping either especially leading into tournament after tournament and he isnt the only english player that has been burnt out by it.

He needs to be dropped for the season given the club WC off and allowed to come back fresh for pre season.

His manager also needs to stop being stubborn tactically playing the same every week shunting people into positions and showing no tactical flexibility. This constantly slow sideways backwards passing clearly does not suit our forwards.

It’s clear Phil needs to play number 10. If Pep does not see him as that then clearly Phil needs to move on and be given that chance else where. But for as much Phil now needs to look at himself and decide if he wants to be that man, Pep also needs to take a look at himself. His man management and decision making around Phil & others this year has been absolute bollox.
 
ashleycaulcott1 said:
Whos to blame? The kid has suffered constant abuse all season. It began way before that though at the Euro’s. Some of the abuse he suffered there was criminal.

He is not immune from criticism but he has hardly been helped has he? He needs a clear break from football yet his manager keeps allowing him to be exposed week in week out. All in a hope of potentially playing his way back into form. It hasn’t worked and now even his own fans have jumped on the bandwagon and started with the abuse.

Clearly these past 7 years have taken a toll! 60/70 games a season cant be helping either especially leading into tournament after tournament and he isnt the only english player that has been burnt out by it.

He needs to be dropped for the season given the club WC off and allowed to come back fresh for pre season.

His manager also needs to stop being stubborn tactically playing the same every week shunting people into positions and showing no tactical flexibility. This constantly slow sideways backwards passing clearly does not suit our forwards.

It’s clear Phil needs to play number 10. If Pep does not see him as that then clearly Phil needs to move on and be given that chance else where. But for as much Phil now needs to look at himself and decide if he wants to be that man, Pep also needs to take a look at himself. His man management and decision making around Phil & others this year has been absolute bollox.
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Foden doesn't have the passing and intelligence to play as the primary playmaker for an elite team.

He just lacks those key attributes but Pep is also partly responsible for how he's managed Phil's development. I also blame the English FA football academy programs. England produce very limited IQ players
 
callumcity said:
I think there used to be at least some truth to it, he promoted Busquets and Pedro to the Barca team and made them key players, would they have had the same career without him?

Kimmich at Bayern I think was the only one, other than it’s literally just Foden and now maybe O’Reilly, Rico.

He did also make Coman a starter at Bayern, I think he was like 19 or so but that was a signing not a youth product.

Truly think he’d still be preserving with Eric Garcia today if he didn’t leave.
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I don't think it's as easy to develop young players today when you're expected to win things.

People point towards early 90s rags but they weren't competing when the league is basically full of quality players from all over the world right throughout the league. Try and do that today and you'll get left behind.

With the expectations on Pep and the level of players he is coming up against in the league, he can only afford to develop players with a very very high ceiling, on par with players you wound be willing to buy. How many of those has he truly had to work with?
 
It is common seeing in modern football players just coming to a standstill.

The touch goes, the dribbling goes, the end product and then the drive.

Sterling is the prime example of being overworked, he never got it back.

Under pep for years he was one of the first names on the team sheet and had played from the age of 17.

Foden has played too much football at this stage of this career, especially non stop in the last 2-3 seasons.

Even look at Palmer at the moment, the first time in his career he’s had to play every game and his form has finally gone off a cliff.

Modern football needs to change. There’s too many games and the intensity of the games is as high as it’s ever been, it’s killing them.

And is football any better for it? It’s less entertaining for me, if all the players are knackered and picking up injuries and games become robotic.
 
Agrree
callumcity said:
It is common seeing in modern football players just coming to a standstill.

The touch goes, the dribbling goes, the end product and then the drive.

Sterling is the prime example of being overworked, he never got it back.

Under pep for years he was one of the first names on the team sheet and had played from the age of 17.

Foden has played too much football at this stage of this career, especially non stop in the last 2-3 seasons.

Even look at Palmer at the moment, the first time in his career he’s had to play every game and his form has finally gone off a cliff.

Modern football needs to change. There’s too many games and the intensity of the games is as high as it’s ever been, it’s killing them.

And is football any better for it? It’s less entertaining for me, if all the players are knackered and picking up injuries and games become robotic.
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Agree with a lot of that. Sterling was always the type of player who would fade later in his career though. I expected Foden to be the opposite. At 24 i can’t really think of many players to have such a drop off physically as Phil. Could say Michael Owen but that was understandable as he’d completely snapped his hamstring.

Hopefully he can get it back but it’s worrying the longer this goes on. Looks like he’s running through treacle. Time will tell if he can get some zip back because if not he’s never going to fulfill his ridiculous potential.
 
Needs a spell out of the side to work on getting his mojo back - i dont think playing him each week is doing anything for his form or confidence. Its brutal watching him out there at the moment
 
BillyShears said:
Dreadful doesn't even cover it. He's not a City supporter. 35 posts and not a single one makes me think he's a blue. Very telling the people who get sucked in by posts/posters like that.
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Agreed. He’s either a Dipper or a Rag. His posts wouldn’t look out of place on RAWK or SadCafe.
 
Every game, he goes down at least once with an ankle knock, because whenever he runs with it now the opposition are desperate to stop him. They always dive in, a lot of the time catching his standing foot with their back leg. He gets zero protection from the ref. It's not surprising he ends up looking frustrated and taking safer options.
 
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