Lionel Messi – Barcelona; Mario Götze – Bayern Munich; David Silva and Kevin De Bruyne – Manchester City. After Jude Bellingham ignored Pep Guardiola’s entreaties to be his next fantasy footballer and chose Real Madrid, can Phil Foden finally fill the role as the manager strives to build another great team?
At 12.30pm on Saturday the 23-year-old has his latest audition when the treble winners host Liverpool in the blockbuster Premier League showdown of the season so far.
If, that is, he is selected – which is the clue to Foden’s status under Guardiola. This is a footballer who since his debut at 17 as a 75th-minute replacement against Feyenoord six years ago has won five Premier League titles, two FA Cups, four League Cups, the Champions League and the Uefa Super Cup but is still to convince his manager he can be De Bruyne’s successor as the next dazzling star in a Guardiola constellation that features Messi (Barça, 2008-12), Götze (Bayern, 2013-16), and Silva (City, 2016-20).
De Bruyne, of course, is not finished but the hamstring injury sustained in the opening minutes of the season at Burnley in August that required surgery and rules him out until the new year is a reminder to Guardiola of how the Belgian, at 32, is entering the autumn of his career.
Guardiola’s construction of his stellar teams around a Messi, Götze, Silva and De Bruyne means the manager’s belief in rotation to drive competition and hunger is ignored, with these key players rarely dropped for major games when in peak form. In return he demands that the X-factor footballer produces. To see, then, Foden discarded from last season’s triumphant FA Cup and Champions League final XIs showed he is yet to persuade Guardiola he can be City’s consistent contest-winner.
When Silva ended a glittering decade at City he was rated by many as the club’s greatest footballer. Three years later De Bruyne’s serial A-list displays allow a similar claim. In January 2020, before Silva’s departure that summer, Guardiola said: “We trust Phil. If we didn’t believe in him we might go to the market to replace David, but we have Phil.”
Guardiola still has Foden but last season was a first post-Silva campaign in which faith wavered, the England international being trusted with markedly less playing time. In 2020-21 Foden played 3,373 minutes in all competitions that came in 36 starts in 50 appearances, with 16 goals (all career-high numbers) and 10 assists. The following season the same statistics read 3,184, 36, 45, 14, 11. Then Foden endured a notable drop to 2,260 minutes and 29 starts with only eight assists, though in 48 appearances there were 15 goals.
Injury and illness were factors – a foot injury sustained in January’s 2-1 defeat at Manchester United and appendicitis in March cost him two months. Yet when fully fit again, he was an unused substitute in April’s 1-1 Champions League quarter-final second leg draw at Bayern and at Real Madrid in the semi-final first leg, and an 84th-minute replacement (for De Bruyne) in the return against Madrid as City coasted at 3-0.
This observer has witnessed the majority of Foden’s displays in City colours. It is difficult to remember him performing poorly. Instead the image conveyed in the mind’s eye is a whir of nimble feet, slick touch and a crafty vision, plus his surging, knifing runs, Foden decorating many contests and being pivotal in his fair share.
With De Bruyne in his pomp this is hardly shameful. And Foden is still only 23. Götze was 21 when Guardiola recruited him from Borussia Dortmund in what Dortmund’s then coach, Jürgen Klopp, later characterised as a fait accompli by describing the attacking midfielder as a “Pep Guardiola favourite”.
Foden has often operated as a wide man, which allows fewer opportunities to control a game than De Bruyne who, as an 8 or (particularly last year) 10, has been the chief conductor of City’s dizzying attack.
But as De Bruyne becomes less robust can Foden seize his chance? Guardiola wants him to. When De Bruyne was replaced after 76 minutes of June’s 2-1 Cup final victory over Manchester United the manager turned to Foden. When, a week later, De Bruyne limped out 36 minutes into the 1-0 treble-sealing Champions League triumph over Internazionale in Istanbul up went Foden’s number again as his substitute.
After Foden started and disappointed in the 2021 final when City lost 1-0 to Chelsea here was a golden opportunity for him to prove he could thrive in the continent’s elite club contest. But though competent at the Ataturk Stadium no game-of-his-life display was produced. Those who will argue Inter are a tough team to dominate simply make the case for what is required: the ability to take hold of a contest in the highest-stake game and shape it their side’s way.
Foden still has time but, maybe, not as much as his 23 years suggest. If Bellingham had chosen City, Foden’s hopes of becoming “the man” under Guardiola would have seriously receded, as shown by the 13 goals scored by the 20-year-old Bellingham in 14 Madrid appearances.
In 235 outings for City Foden’s tally is 65, so a rise in the finishing ratio would aid his case. He will hope to start doing so on Saturday, when Guardiola’s leaders welcome Klopp’s second-placed Liverpool.
First, there will be an anxious wait to read his name on the team sheet but given that Guardiola has chosen Foden to start 14 of City’s 18 matches this term he seems likely to walk out in the starting XI. Then, as his manager likes to say of all of his players, it will be up to him.
