Pundit Martin Keown has said that Manchester City star Phil Foden should be starting in midfield for England.
The 23-year-old has been included in Gareth Southgate’s latest England squad for their upcoming games against Ukraine in the latest qualifying match for Euro 2024 and a friendly against Scotland.
With England set to take on Ukraine later today, one pundit has been singing the praises of Foden and highlighting where he should be playing in the national team.
Keown wants Foden for England midfield role
Speaking on talkSPORT, Keown had this to say about Foden and how he’d like to see him fit into the England team.
He said: “Foden I thought, recently played against Newcastle, by the way, he sat on the bench for the next game, which is a worry.
“He was quite magnificent against Newcastle playing off the front. So play him with the two midfield players, [Jude] Bellingham and [Declan] Rice and play Foden off the front, that’s the future.”
Looking back to City’s 1-0 win over Newcastle, as Keown mentioned, Foden not only provided the assist for Julian Alvarez’s winning goal, he made seven key passes in total throughout the game, more than any other player that featured in the match.
This display ultimately earned him an overall match rating of 8.9/10 from SofaScore, making him the highest-rated player on the day.
This makes it easy to see why Keown thinks the City star could be very effective in a midfield role for England next to Bellingham and Rice behind the attacking players.
Even though Foden was on the bench for the 2-1 win over Sheffield United, it was revealed that this was due to him having stomach issues on the day, therefore dismissing any sort of worry that Keown had on the matter.
Moving forward, we feel that seeing Foden operate in a midfield role for England on a regular basis could see him become a vital figure for the national team, especially if he can deliver goal contributions consistently.
