Arsenal forced Manchester City to go to the final day, but Pep Guardiola's side were ahead within 3 minutes and never looked back. But as a fourth Premier League title heads to the Etihad, one player in a squad of superstars shone above all others. Phil Foden, finally trusted in the most important part of the pitch, has dragged City through a difficult season. Adam Clery looks at why his goal against West Ham was the perfect summation of his incredible season.
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00:00Hello, bonjour, howdy partners, what's left of Adam Cleary here for 442 and that's it,
00:09it's finished, it's over, the Premier League season has come to an end and Manchester City
00:13have won a fourth in a row.
00:17Now on the one hand, winning any Premier League title is an incredible defeat, it's an ever
00:22changing, ever evolving, dynamic, complex, nuanced thing that it is simply impossible
00:28to credit one player alone with achieving.
00:32But also, on the other hand...
00:34Okay so just a few things before we get started here, obviously Phil Foden didn't single handedly
00:41win Man City the title, we're going to get into a couple of things here, I just think
00:44he and he alone really neatly encapsulates the journey they've been on and also I thought
00:48that was a really good title and also, have you seen the state of me?
00:52I was literally in New York City like 10 hours ago or something, we were doing some filming
00:58with New York City FC, part of the City Group, so that's nice, isn't it?
01:01We got straight on a plane, flown back, come to the office because the Premier League's
01:04finished and what option have I got?
01:07So just, if this is the worst, most incoherent, babbling, tired video you've ever seen me
01:13make, that's why.
01:15And also I've just realised this has blue in it so it's going to be going mad with the
01:18blue screen background but just to be completely frank with you, the club gave me this on the
01:23day we left and it is thus the only clean thing I have.
01:27So don't worry about it.
01:29Okay, so yes, Manchester City, they won the league yesterday, Arsenal ran them right to
01:34the wire, they pushed them as far as they possibly could but this XI set up against
01:38West Ham United and got the job done.
01:41And while it maybe got a little bit nervy towards the end, I'm sure some bums were twitching
01:45when that West Ham second goal went in and then didn't, the actual nerves of the day
01:50were gotten rid of almost immediately by Phil Foden and that is just so, so fitting based
01:57on the season he's had and the journey he's gone through in this squad.
02:02Because let me just cast your mind back to this time last year, Phil Foden does not start
02:08in the Champions League final for Manchester City and I know we sometimes talk about Pep
02:12overthinking these things and playing with the XI in big games, he did not do that.
02:17He learned his lesson and ergo, Phil Foden was not in his best XI this time last season.
02:24Now I, as I'm sure you did as well, saw the departure of Ilkay Gundogan last summer and
02:28thought, oh well that opens that central berth for Phil Foden to play in.
02:33But come the start of this very season, Man City go away to Burnley and this is the XI.
02:40Pep sticks Julian Alvarez in the centre alongside Kevin De Bruyne and Foden is stuck out on
02:47the left.
02:48This is his heat map from that map.
02:50They lost Kevin De Bruyne in the first half, there was a big creativity vacuum and still
02:55Pep made him hold the width of the team.
02:58Very rarely allowed him to move into that central area.
03:02Also as a total aside, do you want to see something absolutely insane from that Burnley
03:06game?
03:07Right, they sub Harland off in the 80th minute for this man.
03:12Like just as a show of hands, did anybody else not realise that Palmer didn't play the
03:16full season for Chelsea this year?
03:19He actually had a few games for City right at the start because that passed me by.
03:24But I digress, right Kevin De Bruyne, he gets that injury at the start of the season and
03:27yet astoundingly Foden is still forced to play either on the left or the right and pundits
03:33across the land cannot help themselves but suggest that maybe Cole Palmer's form at Chelsea
03:39shows that Foden himself should have left Man City.
03:43And for the rest of 2023 it all kind of gets a little bit weird for Man City.
03:48Harland starts to go off the boil a bit and they can't quite make it work without De Bruyne
03:52and they go on some really un-City like runs of form.
03:56They have back-to-back defeats against Wolves and Arsenal in September and October.
04:01And then, and this is something you really do have to remind yourself of when you look
04:04at the run they went on at the end of the season.
04:07In November and the start of December they get one win in six and it's against Luton.
04:13After a two-all draw at home to Crystal Palace they sit fourth in the table and Pep once
04:19again goes back to the drawing board and this time finally puts all of his trust and all
04:25of his faith in Phil Foden as a central attacking threat.
04:30Starting with that aforementioned win against Luton, Phil Foden moves into the number ten
04:34role in a sort of 4-2-3-1, like obviously it was very Pep, you had another midfielder
04:39who would push up and then the defence would all sort of get in the middle as well.
04:43But Foden regardless was here, right in the middle during all of these games and from
04:47that game onwards they did not lose a single match in the Premier League.
04:54Now obviously this is a Pep Guardiola side isn't it, so you can't just say oh Foden was
04:59in the middle now for the rest of the season and that was that.
05:02Birds chirped in trees, it rained candy and everyone was happy forever.
05:07De Bruyne got back in, so he got shufted out to the left, he got shufted out to the right,
05:10he did move around his starting position but the difference was how he was now used.
05:15So to show you what I mean by that, this is that heat map from that first game against
05:19Burnley again when he was used out on the left.
05:22You can see Guardiola wants him to hold the width, to stretch the defence, do all of his
05:26work out here.
05:27But then just a few short weeks ago with Alvarez still in the side, with De Bruyne still in
05:30the side, he fielded Foden out on the left hand side and this time, this is his heat
05:36map.
05:37And you can see the difference straight away, like yes his starting position is here and
05:40there are times when he is going to be stretching the defence, but he's now trusted, he is now
05:44instructed to get into these busy central areas where he can do really, really damagey.
05:53Brains already gone here, damage, he can do really, really damagezz.
05:57Wait no, hang on, did I say this was the Aston Villa game or the Brighton game?
06:01Because this is the Brighton game where they went away and he scored twice, not the Aston
06:04Villa game, that was something else entirely.
06:06No, I didn't sleep very well on the plane, why do you ask?
06:10But anyway, right, the question this invites is like, why now?
06:14Why did Pep suddenly trust him in that central area of the pitch when he seemed so reluctant
06:19to throughout his entire previous City career?
06:22Because don't get me wrong, Foden has played right in the middle for City before, but he
06:26never does it for a long run of games.
06:28He does it sort of situational, where he's the best fit, is what I was trying to say.
06:36And there are like three answers to that.
06:39The first one is the form was bad and City weren't really clicking and he had to try
06:42something and Foden probably deserved that shot, so that's the easy answer.
06:46The second is he managed to do something clever with Guardiola, which allowed him to sort
06:50of have that sort of stability on that side and let him move in, we'll talk about that
06:54in a second.
06:55But the third one, the most important one, is that Foden massively improved a very particular
07:01part of his game over the last 12 months, and that's now been rewarded.
07:05And that stat, specifically, is his chance conversion.
07:09Now these are his shooting numbers from two seasons ago, and these are his shooting numbers
07:15from this season.
07:16Now the obvious part of this is just the numbers game, like he's playing in a more central
07:20area, he's getting more chances, so obviously these stats are gonna go up, it's just proximity
07:24to the goal.
07:25But what should be absolutely leaping off the screen at you is these two bottom bars
07:30here.
07:31Now this is a stat that even though it's XG based and a lot of people would rather hoist
07:34themselves into a threshing machine and talk about XG, I actually really like because it
07:37does bear out in the eye test as well when you watch him.
07:41This is goals minus XG.
07:43So the big nerdy part where it sums up how good his chances are, but then actually factors
07:48in with what's happening in real life.
07:50And if you get a positive number out of this, it basically says, boy oh boy, you can finish.
07:56And two years ago, Foden was just pretty much absolutely bang on the average.
08:00Like you give him a chance that's supposedly worth like 0.8 XG, he'll score that eight
08:05times out of 10.
08:06You give him a really low chance, he won't score it that often, but this season, those
08:10numbers have skyrocketed to the very top of the league.
08:14Having a plus 0.27 score in this category, when just two seasons ago he had like minus
08:190.02, is a huge, huge improvement in his ability to finish hard chances.
08:26And this is why that first goal against West Ham that just sorted out all the nerves and
08:30put them on their way to winning that title is such a perfect encapsulation of the season
08:35he's had in this new role, because he's almost got this trademark goal now of receive ball
08:41in tight area, push it away from a defender, let it go early and accurately and score.
08:47He's got this absolute pinger in his locker now, and there he is, he is bang in the center
08:53of the action.
08:54He's not stuck out wide trying to stretch West Ham across the pitch.
08:56He is demanding the ball despite being in probably the worst position to receive it.
09:01James Ward-Prouse even reads that this is where the ball is going to go.
09:05He is on his way to Foden before the passes, and yet just somehow with that one touch,
09:11he takes him completely out of the equation, pushes it slightly far ahead of himself, and
09:16then lets it go.
09:17And we have seen this exact goal more than a couple of times this season.
09:21Like he loves to get the ball in this area.
09:23Look, here he is getting the ball in this area, moving in field, and then letting it go.
09:29And this is why this is all about trust from Guardiola, because he famously does not like
09:34his players to shoot from range.
09:37To him, that's just like giving the ball back to the opposition.
09:40And there is no way Foden would feel comfortable or confident repeatedly doing this unless
09:46there was an instruction from a manager.
09:48Like, yes, I hate long shots.
09:50I think they're a waste of time.
09:51But you sir, you son, you've got that about you.
09:54Look, here's another one of these that I just absolutely love this season.
09:58Once the ball receives it, little touch into space, and then wham, top corner.
10:03And even though it took him like half the season to get this integral to everything
10:06Man City are doing, Opta just put this graph up this morning showing like attacking move
10:12involvements.
10:13Nobody in the Premier League this season was involved in more
10:17than Phil Foden.
10:24And yeah, all right, you might be sitting there going, well, of course he's in a graph
10:27like that.
10:28He plays for Manchester City.
10:29He's probably in it every single year.
10:31And no, he wasn't in that graph last year or the year before.
10:35And the reason for that is, well, look at this.
10:38Across all competitions this season, Phil Foden is two episodes of friends away from
10:45being Man City's most used player.
10:48Last season, and this will shock you because it shocked me, he was their 14th most used
10:54player.
10:55And going back to that thing I said about Guardiola helping with this, like part of
10:58the reason Foden found himself stuck out wide was because Man City's system always needs
11:03somebody to be out wide.
11:05And it was kind of bad luck on Foden's part that he was able to do that role.
11:09But now that he was moving into the centre, he found a way to fix that.
11:12Didn't really bear out too much in the West Ham game because they had Doku starting on
11:15that side.
11:16But if we rewind to like the Fulham match where we had Foden on the left, you can see,
11:20and this is Guardiola's map, how he is sort of encouraged to get up the left-hand side,
11:25be that ball carrier he was born to be and get into this area.
11:29And lo and behold, if we look at the average positions on this, Guardiola compared to the
11:33rest of the back four and where Phil Foden is, you can sort of see that little mechanism
11:38they've got where one pushes forward and one swings inside.
11:41I was actually really gutted I couldn't do a video on this game specifically because
11:45the way these two worked was brilliant.
11:47Like Foden kept drawing out both Paulinho and the defenders into that area by moving
11:52out from the left, which allowed Guardiola to get his run in and get those goals.
11:56Like it was absolute perfect play from the pair of them working in harmony.
12:00And that basically is how Pep Guardiola simultaneously solved the Phil Foden conundrum and, you know,
12:06completed the non-trivial challenge of winning a fourth consecutive Premier League title.
12:10After seemingly years of me, you and everybody else saying he needs to put his faith in that
12:14player in that position, he finally did it and found a way to tweak the system to give
12:19him the best possible chance of succeeding.
12:22So if I can find a picture of the pair of them shaking hands, I'm going to put it on
12:26screen now because well done the both of you.
12:29And I mean, can we just have another look at Man City's run form from when he made that
12:34change with Foden against Luton all the way to the end of the season.
12:38Like I don't ever want to hear anybody telling me that Arsenal somehow bottled this league.
12:42This is just like an absolutely imperious title closing out performance from Man City.
12:50And you know what, I know they've not had the hype this year.
12:53Like I even know we've not done that many videos on them because I haven't felt that
12:56tactically interesting as much as they were last year.
12:59And maybe Harlan's gone off the boil a bit.
13:01No, maybe Pep needs to retire or leave Man City at the end of the season.
13:05Yeah, that's unbelievable, unbelievable form across a Premier League season.
13:11Like this city side is as good and as worthy of this title as any, any of them.
13:18And I know I said I was going to do a big thing about Rodri in this, but honestly, I'm
13:22so tired, I just, I can't bring myself to spend another 15 minutes talking about something.
13:29So look, here is stats from FB Ref.
13:32What do you need me to say?
13:33Like if you've got, if that's the guy who was your sitting midfielder in a possession
13:36heavy side, of course you're never going to lose a game of football.
13:40He's the best midfielder in the world, like playing it forward and just making sure things
13:46happen.
13:47And when City was sort of, when they were having their wobble at the start of the season,
13:49he kept it all together.
13:50So that was going to be the gist of what I was going to say, right?
13:53If you're a Man City fan and you would like to know more about Rodri, if you'd really
13:57like to see a pure Rodri video, tell me in the comments.
14:01And when I have had a hot meal and my own bed, I will make it.
14:05I promise.
14:06Anyway, that is quite enough for me, I think, so please do let us know what you make of
14:11this video of Man City season as a whole, of Phil Foden's performances.
14:15Who else in this team deserves recognition?
14:17Please get it all in the comments below.
14:19Man City fans, you should be celebrating, and what better place is there to celebrate
14:23than YouTube?
14:24Speaking of which, if you have enjoyed this video, then congratulations on your incredibly
14:28low bar, but please do consider subscribing to us here on 442.
14:31Obviously, there will be more videos and there will be better videos.
14:35The Euros is coming up as well.
14:37So we'll be covering the hell out of that, the latest edition of the magazine.
14:40The Euros cover is available now wherever you buy your magazine.
14:44That's not really any of my business.
14:45You can get me on social media at Adam Cleary, C-L-E-R-Y, I'd probably put it on screen now.
14:50In the 442 videos, the socials are in the corner of the video.
14:54That's what I meant to say.
14:57I mean, I'm not moaning.
15:00I'm not looking for a medal.
15:01I've had a very, very nice time, but it just gets you, doesn't it?
15:05It just gets you in the end.
15:07Goodbye.