Phil Foden's role at Manchester City has again come into the spotlight. Shifted out wide to accommodate the return of Kevin De Bruyne, he found both time and space in the centre of the pitch and rescued his side from a precarious situation.
But is that number 10 position his natural home, and how can Guardiola find space him in an already packed squad.
But is that number 10 position his natural home, and how can Guardiola find space him in an already packed squad.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 Now obviously, Phil Foden is brilliant and Pep Guardiola rates him really, really highly.
00:06 And yet, heading into the Champions League final last season, City's biggest ever game
00:11 in their entire history, according to my friend who likes Manchester City, this was their
00:16 starting 11.
00:17 And again, just a few days prior to that, the FA Cup final, another part of that historic
00:21 treble, they lined up like this.
00:23 No Foden in sight.
00:24 Now, to be fair, he did get on the pitch in both games, but that's not the same as starting.
00:28 Clearly he's not in Pep's idealised strongest 11.
00:32 And the reason for that is kind of fair enough, I guess.
00:35 You remember last season, City were playing with this mad box midfield thing where they
00:39 had one of the centre backs push up into the middle.
00:42 Now obviously in this system, Kevin De Bruyne, he has to start because every single thing
00:45 creatively goes through him.
00:47 So Foden was either going to play where Gundogan plays or where Grealish plays.
00:51 Like on the one hand, he can attack into the box as well as, if not better than Gundogan,
00:55 but for the phases of the game where he was required to sit in that box midfield, dictate
01:00 the tempo and slow things down, Foden doesn't want to do that.
01:03 He wants to get on the ball, turn and drive it forward.
01:06 And then likewise, sticking him out on the left, he doesn't want to hold his width and
01:09 stretch the opposition defence.
01:11 He wants to get on the ball and attack into the box, which is very useful to have in certain
01:16 games or in certain phases of games.
01:18 But Pep Guardiola wants control above absolutely everything else and Grealish and Gundogan
01:23 had more control.
01:24 But this season has been very different.
01:28 Of this little box here that was so important to the way they play, three quarters of it
01:32 has not been available to Guardiola regularly this season.
01:35 So he has completely changed the way they play.
01:38 Now before we start, I will just say that trying to precisely nail down how Pep Guardiola
01:42 sets Manchester City up is a lot like snogging somebody at a family wedding.
01:47 In that it's a lot harder to do than people realise.
01:50 And if you have not done your research, can be very, very wrong.
01:55 I'm told.
01:56 Now I don't want to be wrong precisely how he has changed, it seems to vary every single
02:01 week.
02:02 But one thing that is consistent is that Phil Foden, when he's been able to get into central
02:05 positions, has absolutely thrived.
02:08 So to show you what I mean, here is Phil Foden's seasonal heat map across the entire course
02:13 of last season.
02:14 You'll see they primarily had him on this left hand side, occasionally get a little
02:18 bash out on the right, but by and large, he was doing that Jack Grealish job.
02:22 Get on, stay wide, hold the width, and if you can maybe sort of meander into this area,
02:27 do it, but not often.
02:29 But this season, oh mama.
02:31 Now you will see he is still largely focused on the right hand side.
02:34 He has found himself lining up in a wider position quite a lot, but you'll see he's
02:39 been able to get into that inside channel way more often.
02:43 Like I honestly, truly, genuinely do not think this is a reach.
02:46 But I think Phil Foden is the best player in the Premier League at receiving the ball
02:51 in tight spaces and either turning that into a chance or turning that into a goal.
02:56 His instincts in this regard are just second to none.
03:00 It's such a waste to try and use him as a creative player or talk about dropping him
03:03 down into the midfield or having him play wide because when you put him in the penalty
03:08 box, he does things I don't think any other player can do.
03:11 Like the Brentford game is just such a good example because how many players do you know
03:15 in this situation would either just try and head this towards goal or volley it first
03:20 time.
03:21 Foden somehow decides to bring it down onto his chest, which should allow the Brentford
03:25 defenders to get back, but then takes the ball almost instantly once it drops.
03:29 Like it's just an almost supernatural reading of the time available to him.
03:34 For the second goal as well, he's wandered in off the right hand side into this little
03:37 gap that Brentford have left between their centre backs.
03:41 And he just, again, somehow seems to know to check his run at the last second.
03:46 He knows that chance isn't going to be there forever.
03:48 He really, really wants to go, but De Bruyne is just fractionally behind him in terms of
03:52 when he puts the cross in and he should just run offside, but instinctively checks and
03:57 then just puts like the most delicate glancing header into the far corner.
04:02 Like that is the work of a proper, proper penalty box striker.
04:05 Third one's the best though, because again, he's come all the way in from the right hand
04:08 side to find this gap in between Brentford's lines.
04:11 The ball is played ever so slightly to the right of him, which is exactly what he will
04:15 have wanted because it makes it far easier for him to turn and go a goal.
04:18 But again, he instinctively lets that roll through to Erling Haaland.
04:22 I mean, he might also get a shout from him, but let's just go with the fun one.
04:26 And again, how many attacking midfielders do you know who would either hit this first
04:30 time or take a slightly heavy touch or want it too far over onto the left to get it on
04:36 their strong foot and allow the defender on that side to come and put a block in.
04:40 But he does all of this absolutely perfectly.
04:43 One touch, two touch, draws the goalkeeper out and slides it around him.
04:46 It is again, the play of a proper penalty box striker.
04:50 He's just so deadly in these kinds of situations.
04:53 And it absolutely baffles me that Man City aren't building that point of attack around
04:57 him.
04:58 Like the goal he scored against Leipzig in the Champions League this season.
05:00 I saw that and I just thought, you have to commit to this.
05:03 It's too good to be like asked to do other jobs.
05:06 Like if you remember City were 2-0 down in this game at half time.
05:09 So Leipzig went to a really compact low block and they just could not play through them.
05:14 But then in the second half, Foden just went and played right up alongside Haaland.
05:18 And all of a sudden City could play into these really tight areas where there was no space
05:22 and loads of defenders.
05:24 And both the goals that followed are just stunning.
05:27 For the first one, Leipzig will be fairly comfortable with this situation.
05:31 They've got both Foden and Haaland marked.
05:33 They're receiving a pretty bad ball and neither of them are facing the goal.
05:36 But Foden somehow finds himself a yard, brings that terrible pass under control and puts
05:41 Haaland in with about three touches of the ball.
05:43 And then for the equaliser, this man is marked.
05:46 You would regard him as no threat whatsoever.
05:49 But again, he brings such a difficult pass under control and does so in such a way that
05:53 this defender now can't make a challenge.
05:55 But he's got it so tight to his feet that this guy can't get across.
05:59 And then when he does, he sticks it through his legs and into the back of the net.
06:03 Like that's...
06:04 Normal players can't do that.
06:06 And he's been doing this all season.
06:07 Like he was the best player on the park against Brentford.
06:09 He was the best player on the park against Everton.
06:11 He single-handedly navigated them through a really tricky game against Sheffield United.
06:15 He was responsible for the comeback against Luton Town.
06:18 When he can get on the ball in the middle, he can make things happen.
06:22 But likewise, there are games where he's incredibly ineffective.
06:25 Like he was pretty much a passenger when they played Liverpool.
06:28 And lo and behold, this was his heat map from that game.
06:31 He could not get off the touchline.
06:33 So now here is the conundrum.
06:35 Kevin De Bruyne has returned from injury.
06:37 So Foden's opportunities to play in the middle of the pitch should be a lot more limited now.
06:42 Now obviously that was not the case in the Brentford game because they took the lead
06:46 and because of their system, City ended up having Alvarez just play right up alongside Haaland.
06:50 De Bruyne was sort of floating in a deeper pocket to find a lot of space.
06:54 Vardial was able to provide all the width down the left-hand side, which meant Foden
06:58 pretty much had all this space here to float around and do whatever he wanted.
07:03 But I would say, and again, very hard to predict Pep Guardiola, it's unlikely you're going
07:07 to see City setting up like this going forward.
07:11 And that's the challenge for Pep Guardiola.
07:13 You've got to find some way to give Foden the license to play in this sort of space
07:18 because, well, when you do, here's all his passes from the Brentford game.
07:22 F***ing amazing.
07:23 Right, look, so just forget the stats and the graphs and the clips and the pitch and
07:27 just everything else.
07:28 Just turn all this off, right?
07:29 The problem Manchester City have at heart is that they don't need to change anything.
07:36 They're still probably the best team in the Premier League.
07:38 They might well go and retain the entire goddamn treble all without trying to accommodate Phil
07:43 Foden into what is his best role.
07:45 But that is not the point.
07:47 This isn't necessarily about Manchester City.
07:50 It's about Phil Foden.
07:52 And I think what I mean by that is that he will be at a part of his life and a part of
07:56 his career where he absolutely knows the kind of person and the kind of footballer he is.
08:01 And he could very well stay at Manchester City and win 14 more trophies, but he'll do
08:05 so being asked to not be the kind of person he is and not be the kind of footballer he
08:11 is.
08:12 Phil Foden should be the central attacking focal point of one of the most exciting teams
08:17 in all of football.
08:18 But my worry is at Man City, all he'll ever be is somebody who is asked to accommodate
08:24 the central attacking focal point.
08:26 Don't get me wrong, he will know how good he is at football, but just my personal opinion,
08:31 having watched him this season, is I don't think he should settle for being a substitute
08:36 in the Champions League final or the FA Cup final.
08:38 I think he should be dragging teams towards things like that because, well, if he can
08:44 drag a club side towards a major honour, then he could drag his national side as well.
08:50 And that'd be nice, wouldn't it?
08:52 *BEEP*
08:53 *FUNKY MUSIC*
08:57 Now here's where you come in though, because if you have agreed with that or even just
09:00 found it interesting, then please do consider subscribing to us here on 442.
09:03 I know everybody on YouTube is like, "Oh, could you please subscribe?"
09:06 But it does genuinely really help the channel get a bit of traction on the old algo and
09:11 shows the kind of progress we're making.
09:12 So we are genuinely indebted to everyone who has already done that, all like 110,000 of
09:17 you in the last sort of five or six months, and everyone who's considering doing it right
09:22 now.
09:23 Eh?
09:24 Other than that though, any thoughts, feelings on Phil Foden or pretty much anything to be
09:28 honest, go grab me on Twitter or X or Instagram or wherever, @AdamCleary, C-L-E-R-Y, the 442
09:33 social's in the corner of the video.
09:35 Latest issue of the mag, Alex Ferguson's on the cover.
09:37 Sorry City fans, but it's really, really good nonetheless and available still in all good
09:42 retailers and the crap ones as well.
09:44 But until next time, thank you very much.
09:46 This was me, this was City, this was Phil Foden, and over to you Pep!
09:50 I'm sure he's watching.
09:51 I'll see you soon.
09:52 Bye!