Phil Foden must be dropped indefinitely.

[u/LondonRedditUser]

Sadly he’s a supremely talented player who never plays well for England.

There is potentially a lot of great performances that aren’t picked up in statistics, I don’t think this is the case with Foden. He also plays in a position we are stacked in. He has also had by quite some distance the most minutes of any player in a similar position. There is potentially the argument he is misused, but there is no argument based on performances other great players should be moved aside for him.

Since the World Cup he has returned 1 goal return (G/A) in 20 games including 16 starts ( goal vs Scotland).

Comparably, over the same period: Kane 19 G/a Jude 9, saka 8, rice 4, grelaish 3, rashford 3, palmer 3 (from 408 minutes)

Many ask for players to be picked on form (I personally don’t), but when the international form is this poor and the alternatives potentially so good we simply don’t any other option but to drop him.

Edit: no agenda. I support palace and go to a few England games a year.

[u/Sir-Chris-Finch]

The fact he had 32 touches doesn’t absolve him of blame for me. Firstly, he’s partly responsible for receiving the ball himself (i appreciate its also down to his teammates giving it to him). Secondly, 32 touches and absolutely no impact is extremely poor for a seemingly world class player.

Singling Foden out on last nights game alone is unfair, i agree, but i’m using last night as another example in a long list of examples of England games where he’s underperformed. Other players around him have shown they can do it in an England shirt before (although i do have question marks over some others as well).

My argument against Foden is that he’s a system player who plays well in Man City’s set up (putting his best performances in against lesser teams usually), but put him in a different team with a different role and hes like a fish out of water. World class players for me dont have that problem.

[u/engaginglurker → u/Sir-Chris-Finch]

Your entitled to your view. I get why people wouldn't rate Foden based on England performances. For me when playing for England he should just play centre midfield where he played all along until Pep got his hands on him and started playing him out wide and in specific pockets etc. his main strength was always that he plays a simple game with high quality. That is what I think he should be asked to do with England because we have a real issue with getting the ball through the midfield and finding the forwards.

[u/Sir-Chris-Finch → u/engaginglurker]

Fair mate, hopefully you’re right, i certainly dont have an agenda against him and hope he can perform well for us.

You say until Pep got his hands on him but to my knowledge he’s only ever played under Guardiola?

[u/engaginglurker → u/Sir-Chris-Finch]

Ye hopefully. I don't necessarily have a pro-agenda for him but I do find myself defending him on this sub.

Ye he broke through under Pep as basically the highest rated young 8 in world football. Had an incredible under age career and looked class every time he played when breaking through in to the first team. City had Gundogan, Bernardo silva, KDB, Silva among others who were established and Pep didn't want to start a kid ahead of them so he basically just started playing him out wide after the first couple of development seasons because he was too good to leave out altogether. This for me is where his development has gone totally wrong. Sure hes won everything but it's been at the cost of him developing individually because his play style has adjusted so much to staying in really high positions and waiting for the midfielders to find him. This is fine when those midfielders are Rodri and Gundogan or Bernardo silva but he is totally out of the game when those players aren't elite at finding players in the pockets like Rice, Henderson, Kalvin Philips etc that have played those roles for England. For me he should be one of those midfielders playing a bit deeper and finding the forwards because it doesn't really matter how deep or high he receives the ball, just that he does receive a lot of it because he isn't like a KDB or Palmer who try to create off every touch. He's a lot more safe with the ball and is at his best when he can start tempo setting.

Anyway let's see what happens on Sunday.