After back-to-back Premier League starts for only the second time since October, it looks like Phil Foden is back in Pep Guardiola’s good books.
The England international has found game time hard to come by since the World Cup. Guardiola felt moved to publicly back Foden in the run-up to Manchester City’s meeting with Bournemouth on Saturday, before which he had been absent from seven of the team’s last 10 top-flight starting XIs.
The manager revealed that Foden has been struggling with a niggling ankle injury post-Qatar, but there was also a sense that Guardiola preferred other options.
Regardless, the 22-year-old did his squad status no harm by delivering a tremendous performance in City’s 4-1 victory on the south coast. Foden earned a higher WhoScored rating (8.98) than any other player at the Vitality Stadium. It was enough to land the player of the week award.
Foden played a key role in the first goal, making a penetrative off-the-ball run and then attempting to take the ball around Neto. He caused chaos in the Bournemouth box that led to Julian Alvarez converting at the back post.
He was also heavily involved in City’s second, teeing up Erling Haaland for a straightforward tap-in, before Foden notched his second goal of 2023 to take the game away from Bournemouth. Latching onto a loose ball played across the Bournemouth defence, Foden held off the challenge of Jack Stephens and finished coolly.
"He scored a goal, he was good, he is important," Guardiola said in his post-match press conference. "We need Phil, his work ethic. He made a goal and assist. He’s so important, step by step he will be back."
Foden demonstrated on Saturday why he is such a valuable member of the City squad. The ‘Stockport Iniesta’ has long been compared to the Barcelona great for his technical ability, but the game against Bournemouth showed why that it is not the most apt comparison.
Whereas Iniesta was a master at controlling the tempo of a game, knowing exactly when to quicken the speed and when to slow it down, Foden is more all-action. Iniesta’s supreme ball control meant he was a master in tight spaces, whereas the Manchester City man looks most dangerous when he has space in front of him to attack.
At times his aggressive style may have counted against him. Guardiola has preferred Riyad Mahrez and Jack Grealish out wide in the last couple of months, while Foden has only made one appearance in central areas under the City boss this term, that coming in the 3-1 Champions League win over Sevilla in November. "[He still needs] some maturity to understand what happens in the middle to read what happens," Guardiola said last week.
Out wide, the City boss may have concluded that Grealish and Mahrez offer more control.
On the flip side, Foden provides a dynamism and directness that can help to unlock opposition defences.
At 85.5%, he has a lower pass completion rate than both Mahrez (88.7%) and Grealish (87.7%), which shows he puts the ball at risk more frequently. That sometimes leads to the concession of possession, but on other occasions; it can help to open up a well-manned rearguard.
Foden is direct out of possession too. His incisive run for City’s first goal on Saturday was typical of his hustle-and-bustle style.
Foden has scored eight goals and provided four assists in 22 Premier League outings this season, only 15 of which have come from the start of matches.
Erling Haaland (27) is the only of Foden’s teammates who has found the back of the net more often, while only Kevin De Bruyne (12) and Bernardo Silva (5) have set up more goals. That illustrates how productive Foden is in the final third.
Saturday’s appearance against Bournemouth was Foden’s 200th at senior level. That is a remarkable feat for a player who only turned 22 last May, and one who is competing for minutes as a member of one of the strongest squads in world football.
It is only natural for young players to go through peaks and troughs, and Foden must have been frustrated with his lack of starts in the first few weeks of 2023. But after serving a timely reminder of his quality on Saturday, the City academy graduate will hope to become a more regular presence in Guardiola’s XI as the business end of the campaign approaches.
