Fabulous Foden is a jewel and has now joined Gareth’s list of undroppables
THE selection debate with regards to the Stockport Iniesta is getting less and less complicated with every match-winning performance he produces for Manchester City.
The question is no longer whether Gareth Southgate will pick Phil Foden to start for england at the european Championship this summer. The only question now is where he will play him.
Foden has simplified that debate all by himself. his two goals against Manchester United on Sunday were just the latest manifestation of the flowering of a special talent. It has got to the point where, even in an england side stacked with attacking prowess, it is inconceivable that he is left out.
It made the heart sing to hear Pep Guardiola’s tributes to him on Sunday and to listen to him observe that ‘ he lives to play football’. Foden’s nickname might be a nod to his roots and a childhood spent in the shadow of Stockport County’s edgeley Park, but if the Iniesta part of it started as a far-fetched tribute, it doesn’t feel like that any more.
After the win over United, the City boss mentioned him in the same breath as Lionel Messi, which was another burst of clarity. It was unthinkable that Spain would have left prime Iniesta out of their starting XI and it is now unthinkable that england would leave Foden out of theirs.
It was not just his goals in the Manchester derby that made Foden stand out, it was his overall performance.
In an outstanding City team, he was the outstanding player. he tortured the United defence all afternoon. In the build-up to his second goal, he literally ran rings round Casemiro.
Sure, there are those who like to characterise Southgate as an excessively cautious manager and who worry that the england boss will still try to find reasons not to pick Foden and instead buttress his midfield with Kalvin Phillips or Jordan henderson. Those worries are obsolete now.
Teams evolve fast in the white heat of the build-up to a tournament and, even if Southgate has taken some convincing about how to accommodate Foden’s special talent without upsetting the side’s balance, Foden has dismissed those reservations and more with the way he has been playing for City.
he is not just outstanding going forward and technically brilliant. As post-match analysis of his performance against United underlined, he is also a diligent team player who does not neglect his defensive duties and understands what it takes to hold down a place in the best club side in the world.
Southgate might be a conservative manager, but he wants to win matches and crown his years in charge of england with a first major tournament victory since 1966.
he was at the etihad on Sunday and saw a player who is not only a match-winner, but who will not let him down. he saw a jewel. he saw a player he has to add to his list of undroppables.
As england head towards clashes with Brazil and Belgium at the end of this month, harry Kane is on that list, too, along with Bukayo Saka, Jude Bellingham, Declan Rice, John Stones, Kyle Walker and Jordan Pickford.
It is a tribute to Guardiola, above all, that Foden is now on the list too. Guardiola has curated Foden’s career with great care. he has nurtured his talent through times when agitators said Foden was being held back or marginalised and that he should be sent out on loan.
Guardiola has ensured Foden did not go the way of so many other great english talents, dismissed as a dilettante or a maverick. When Stan Bowles died last month, it prompted an outpouring of fond tributes to a special talent, but also a flood of regretful reflection that Bowles had only earned five caps for england. Tony Currie, another extravagant talent, was restricted to 17 caps and Frank Worthington won just eight.
Foden’s career has not been allowed to be shunted into a siding like that. his talent, and Guardiola’s appreciation of it, has seen to that.
Southgate deserves some credit, too. Foden has already won 31 caps. he is not destined to have a cameo role for england, he is destined to be one of the team’s main players.
Where? That question remains, partly because Foden is so gifted that he could play either in a midfield three or the attacking line. My preference would be to play him on one side of Kane, with Saka on the other. I’d have Rice, Bellingham and Trent Alexander-Arnold in midfield, but that may be a step too far towards adventure.
Some will argue that Foden is wasted out wide, but that ignores the fact that, just like Nottingham Forest’s great left winger, John Robertson, he has the talent to be a playmaker from almost anywhere on the pitch. he dictated the play from a nominally wide position on Sunday. he could do that for england, too.
As City pursue another Treble, advancing relentlessly on all fronts, Foden is at the heart of their campaign.
This Sunday, when Guardiola’s side come up against Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool kids, Foden will stand out as an example of a rare talent nursed through a club’s academy to the point where his ability is now in full bloom at the age of 23.
Perhaps it is a good thing that an argument is now raging about whether it is Bellingham or Foden who is england’s greatest talent. Who cares, frankly?
Southgate is a lucky manager to have them both at his disposal. Where to play the Stockport Iniesta is not a problem, it is a privilege.