Manchester City’s Phil Foden has played a big role for England in the 2024 European Championship.
With five games played prior to tonight’s semi-final clash against the Netherlands, the 24-year-old has started all of them, making him one of the eight outfield players to do so for the Three Lions.
Foden’s City teammates Kyle Walker and John Stones have also started every England game in this summer’s international tournament.
With Foden yet to score a goal or deliver an assist for the Three Lions in this competition, one pundit has shared his thoughts on what the City star needs to do to show the best version of himself.
Paul Merson shares what Phil Foden needs to do to show his best for England
When previewing England’s semi-final clash against the Netherlands in a recent video shared on the Sky Sports Football YouTube channel, Paul Merson had this to say on the subject of Phil Foden and what would be the best way for him to produce his best in an England shirt.
He said: “Oh the lad’s a talent, of course he is, he’s an unbelievable player, absolutely unbelievable player.
“Keep on getting him on the ball, keep on getting him touches on the ball and keep on making runs. We don’t make enough runs, there’s not a lot of movement, at the moment it’s a bit Subbuteo football.
“The only one who’s really running without the ball is [Jude] Bellingham sometimes and [Bukayo] Saka and that’s why Saka was the best play player on on last weekend because he got loads of the ball but his movement was great, he wasn’t standing still, he was moving, he was moving the full-back and he got on the ball a lot.
“Keep on giving the ball to Foden let him touch the ball. If he touches the ball 60, 70, 80 times in the game he will rip teams apart.
“If he’s touching it 10, 20, 30 times tops and there’s no movement you’re only as good as the movement around you and that’s the way it works, you have to have movement.
“At the moment we haven’t got that movement but drop him at your peril. This kid plays against packed defences week in week out and Holland will do the same, they’ll sit 10 behind the ball and they’ll counter attack.”
Foden is getting plenty of touches
Across his five games, the midfielder has had 342 touches of the ball in total, the fifth-highest in the England squad, with three of the players above him being defenders.
In fact, Foden has had more touches in the attacking third of the pitch than any other England player.
So, even though Darren Bent has claimed that the six-time Premier League winner has been ineffective at this tournament, he’s still doing all he can to get on the ball as much as possible and make things happen for his side.
Despite that, we agree with Merson that the more Foden gets involved with the play and touches the ball as often as possible, things will start to click for him.
