I watched the 0-0 draw against the USA with my England and Barcelona team-mate Lucy Bronze, and even before the first half had finished, I was saying to her that this is just a game for Phil Foden.
I know people have spoken about physicality, and the USA are very strong, great runners, but I felt like it was a game for brains and intelligence, a game for finding those pockets of space, and I don’t think there’s a better player than Phil for doing that.
He pops up in those spaces that are so hard to defend, and he could have controlled the tempo of the game for us, both slowing it down and then speeding it up when England needed him to. I was disappointed he didn’t come on and, hopefully, he’ll get that chance against Wales and show everybody why he should be playing.
Watching Germany and Spain play on Sunday, when neither of them started with a striker, got me thinking about Phil and what Gareth Southgate might do if England ever were without Harry Kane for any reason.
Obviously, Callum Wilson’s having a great season at Newcastle and he is a goalscorer, you can’t argue with that. He’s a threat running in behind, he can hold up the ball, and if you’re looking at a traditional No9 then he would be the option.
But it would be interesting to see Phil play in there as a false-nine. He’d be really good at linking the play and it would give him a little bit more freedom to roam and find the ball and create. That’s what his strength is and he’s played that role for Manchester City and been unbelievable, creating chaos for opposition teams.
It would be exciting to see him try to do that in an England shirt — but hopefully it doesn’t come to that!
The USA result obviously wasn’t the most exciting as a fan, but it wasn’t the end of the world either, so long as they can bounce back against Wales in what is a bit of a derby.
My first game at a major tournament was against Scotland at the 2019 World Cup. It was a similar type of occasion, really nerve-wracking and a match we were expected to win, but you just never know.
The first 20 or 25 minutes were really scrappy, I don’t think the ball was on the floor for much of it. It was bypassing midfield, one of those games where your head is just constantly turning, looking up in the air as it goes over you. I remember we came in at half-time and Phil Neville gave us a real talking to. Second half, we calmed down a little bit and played some relatively decent football and we ended up winning 2-1.
When we play in those kind of games now, we try to just think logically and try not to let it become too emotional. We try not to think about it as a derby and think about what we’ve done in previous games, about tactics and areas to exploit. If the boys can look at it from that point of view but still match Wales’s work-rate and their effort, then it shouldn’t be a problem for them.
A lot of teams don’t particularly like England, so whoever we play against, they always seem to try a little bit harder anyway!
