GRAFTER FODEN STILL A PUZZLE
Time running out for Southgate to nail down position for Phil
IT IS not the first Saturday night this year that Phil Foden has been a largely anonymous figure in the midst of everything while the battle went on around him. Viral footage of scenes backstage at the Amir Khan fight involving his mum Claire can certainly attest to that.
But Gareth Southgate now has only seven games to discover the most constructive way to use this country’s next most promising talent after Harry Kane.
Last night Foden’s hard graft rather than his flair was enough eventually to crack Switzerland.
As he has learned under Pep Guardiola, his dogged pressing of the last man enabled Kylewalkerpeters to intercept a weak clearance just before half-time and Luke Shaw did the rest. Somewhat emphatically, it might be added.
Already this is the 14th time he has pulled on the Three Lions shirt and still Southgate seems no closer to knowing what best to do with such an immense talent.
He’s been played on both sides of the midfield, as a wide man and as rightsided attacker with occasional stints in a more traditional No.10 role.
Last night Southgate decided he was going to take the first hour to look at his Plan A before ringing the changes.
Interestingly, though, he left
Kane and Foden on for longer – for all the scribblings on pads that Southgate was doing with his assistant Steve Holland, he might just as well have been trying make Foden fit into hiswordle as his England attack.
Guardiola’s solution recently has been to play him as a false nine and for periods he was indeed encouraged to patrol the areas beyond Kane.
Frustratingly, the only time that looked like working, Foden timed his run badly and was offside long before Kylewalker-peters struck the post.
Foden’s belief lies in his technique not his pace, so his runs go in search of half-a-yard of space rather than the couple of yards of clear ground that Heung-min Son bursts into when playing alongside Kane for Spurs.
The England captain will have to attune his radar accordingly.
Foden’s night was not helped by the lack of possession he was seeing with England’s rearguard struggling in the face of an energetic Swiss press.
The introduction of Jack Grealish paired Foden more with somebody on a closer wavelength and the two worked well together.
It relaxed some of the front-line duties for Foden and he was finally able to drop deeper for the ball.
Perhaps that will yet be where his England star finally aligns, adding creativity to an area where there is still too much of a philosophy of safety-first.
But where on earth then do you put Jude Bellingham?
The pair shook hands as Foden finally made way in the 79th minute, with Southgate waiting next in line to give him a swift pat on the back.
On balance, it was not his finest performance in an England shirt and if anything, the introduction of Bellingham brought more life to the Three Lions’ play. Further pause for thought.
Perhaps, Southgate will have something different in mind again for Tuesday night’s game against the Ivory Coast.
There will be wholesale changes to the defence no doubt.
Scoring goals at the other end, though, remains the hardest part.
So far the last two major tournaments have been testament to Southgate’s man-management ability; his skill at building bright, young international talents sometimes virtually from scratch.
Qatar is a different riddle – a measure of the tactical acumen he has to make all the pieces fit together properly.
And Foden remains the biggest conundrum of all.
STRUGGLE: England’s Phil Foden found that hard graft achieved more
than flair