The problem with Phil Foden! Man City star has struggled to shine for England and played as if he had a weight on his shoulders against Serbia

Phil Foden is a problem for Gareth Southgate. One problem is that he doesn’t want to play where the manager chooses him.

A problem in the sense that his unwillingness to do so weakens the one part of the team that should be strongest. And because he is so good, a solution must be found beyond dropping him, even if his performance against Serbia warrants it.

The Premier League Player of the Year sometimes played as if he was being dishonored by being the last choice on the field of play. Certainly, when Southgate came to select the players for Foden’s preferred positions – number 10 and right wing – he wasn’t chosen for him either.

He played quite a bit as if he had a weight on his shoulders and all too rarely the ball at his feet. Once he got it, he was safe. If he didn’t, he was a danger because he drifted away from the area he was supposed to populate.

Stuart Pearce was in Gelsenkirchen watching England’s scrappy 1-0 win and he knows how a left wing should work. He had seen enough after 29 minutes and called for Foden to be substituted. Halfway through it was also the talk of the press. A heat map showed Foden had come onto the pitch for involvement but the magic in his boots had disappeared.

It would be fine if he cut in from the right and onto his left foot. But from the left he is unsure, a square peg looking for his square hole, but instead encounters Jude Bellingham, the teammate with a pocket full of pegs for all scenarios. Is the playground big enough for both of them? England’s most gifted couple are yet to form a partnership.

It was a surprise when Foden played the full 90 minutes, despite there being no improvement in the second half. Pearce wanted Eberechi Eze brought on, but Anthony Gordon would have been more suitable as England had lost their attacking initiative. Gordon can run backwards just as fast as he can run forwards.

So, what to do now? There is an argument, and this was put forward by Cesc Fabregas, that the responsibility lies with the player. As Foden’s friends tried to offer explanations in his defense in the BBC studio, Fabregas broke through that resistance in a way the 24-year-old had failed to do on the pitch.

“It’s about whether you want the ball enough to make a difference,” he said. ‘Do you like to put pressure on the ball? In the second half, when they come under a little more pressure, we see Foden hit the ball 40 yards without looking. You’ll never see Xavi or Andres Iniesta do that. You have to take responsibility. I think players like Foden need to go a step further.’

Fabregas is of course right, but maybe Foden is not that type of player. He doesn’t have Bellingham’s peacocking confidence. Foden is more of a home bird, as evidenced by the fact that he is performing much better for Manchester City than he ever did for England. His wings are clipped when he is taken from the comfort of the nest he knows.

Therefore, it is up to Southgate to solve the problem. The most obvious solution is to move Bellingham back into midfield, where the Trent Alexander-Arnold experiment certainly came to an end on Sunday night. That would allow Foden to play as a number 10 and feel the love of such a responsibility. At least that would put Gordon in a team that is already crying out for more players in their natural positions.

Foden may prefer to shift even further down the pitch and move to the right of the front three. But that’s where Bukayo Saka did what he didn’t do against Serbia: attack his wing-back with pace and purpose. Saka has always looked better in an England jersey. His 11 goals beat Foden’s four and at Qatar 2022, Saka had almost double the number of shots per game and touches in the penalty area.

In the 18 months since the World Cup, Foden has scored just once in 13 caps, while scoring for fun at City. He doesn’t seem to like England that much. In reality, that never really happened.

During the last European Championship, he was withdrawn from the squad after the first two games and only appeared for 25 minutes before missing the final due to injury. It is said that he was furious with the way his tournament was going.

It would be a brave move if Southgate relegated him to the bench again, but the England boss does talk about ‘finishers’ rather than ‘substitutes’. As one former player suggested to Mail Sport, why not have Foden as Bellingham’s replacement if Real Madrid’s star runs out, as he did against Serbia?

That’s a possible solution, but the one Southgate perhaps prefers most is to do nothing and leave Foden on the left and hope everything works out. The problem with that is that the problem persists.