What has happened to Phil Foden? After a lost season, one big question remains | OneFootball

The question about Phil Foden drew an answer that didn’t mention him by name. Perhaps that was apt. There have been fewer mentions of Foden than expected this season. Fewer sights of him, too. The reigning Footballer of the Year was limited to 14 minutes on Saturday. Not, Pep Guardiola said, by a lack of energy or confidence – “absolutely not” – or by injury. Just by managerial choice.

It wasn’t a one-off. Foden was on the bench when Manchester City visited Tottenham last month. He was, too, held in reserve when Real Madrid came to the Etihad Stadium. Under other circumstances, the demotion of the reigning Footballer of the Year, the generational talent, would have garnered more attention. But so many things have gone wrong at City this season, so many certainties upended, that at times it just seems one of many.

But last year seemed to mark the changing of the guard, the time when Foden assumed the role he had long looked destined for, as City’s principle attacking midfielder, and delivered goals at a greater rate than most had envisaged, 27. And now, like much else at the Etihad Stadium, the picture is altogether cloudier. Is it an off year or regression? Will Foden regain his centrality in Guardiola’s plans when Rodri is available to anchor the midfield again or will the City manager build around others instead? Either case could be argued.

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The sight of Foden warming the bench has become a regular one (Getty Images)

Guardiola’s response when invited to discuss Foden’s omission against Brighton was revealing without directly referencing the Mancunian himself.

“All the managers around the world have to make a right decision,” said a manager whose decision-making has seemed based around hope as much as judgment at points in a difficult few months. “When they select 11 they have to believe that they are going to win I never found a manager who selects a team thinking its going to lose. So I try and if we win I am right and maybe not if we don’t it could be better. I tried to be honest, I needed speed up front, I needed stability in the middle with Gundo’s intelligence and the physicality from Nico.”

Nico Gonzalez and Ilkay Gundogan are an imperfect pairing, the Spaniard only really living up to Guardiola’s description as a “mini-Rodri” in the demolition of Newcastle, the German lacking the legs to really complement the newcomer. Foden, though, is not really in competition with either: albeit with the caveat that a better City side might be able to play with a lone holder, in Rodri, and two attacking midfielders or, in Kevin de Bruyne’s term, “free eights”. There weren’t any against Brighton and De Bruyne got just four minutes.

And on Saturday, City almost played 4-4-2. Foden lost out to Omar Marmoush. The Egyptian won a penalty and scored, showing the speed and dynamism Guardiola wanted, combining better with Erling Haaland than Foden has of late. “Erling is a top, top player,” said the January signing. “He makes it easy for any player playing next to him to play good. I try to learn a lot from him. It's really nice playing that way.”

Marmoush’s arrival is part of the way Guardiola is recalibrating his squad. His thinking is shifting, too, with a greater emphasis on both raw speed and out-and-out wingers, with Jeremy Doku and Savinho starting the last four league games together. Each counts against Foden, whose days as a touchline-hugging runner seem behind him and who, like most others, isn’t as quick as Marmoush.

Guardiola’s own rapid rebuild in January was enforced by the emergency of City’s plight. It has brought some experimentation of late: Foden floundered as a striker when Haaland was injured, a player who prospered as the false nine a few years ago floundering in the absence of the out-and-out centre forward when given the tough task of leading the line in the Bernabeu.

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(Action Images via Reuters)

Marmoush has been deployed off the left, off the right and in the middle, all positions Foden could occupy. Earlier in the season, perhaps reflecting his brilliance last year, Foden was only used centrally, his days of being shunted around the side seemingly over. Now he is veering between the pitch and bench. After a slow start to the season, interrupted by illness and injury, he returned to form with six goals in as many games in January. Since then, however, he has none in his last 11 outings.

On Saturday, he was a substitute for a substitute. As the pecking order shifts, Guardiola has some deluxe deputies, with Bernardo Silva and De Bruyne fellow replacements. It underlines that he has a host of options: but not, right now, any that offer the compelling chemistry of previous City sides. Foden, De Bruyne, Silva, Gundogan and Marmoush are very different players but, in contrasting ways, could covet roles in similar parts of the pitch. The two oldest of them have uncertain futures, the newest is less than two months into his City career. Collectively, they give Guardiola more questions than answers as he tries to work out when, where and how often to use Foden next season.