England manager Thomas Tuchel has raised clear doubts about Manchester City midfielder Phil Foden\u2019s chances of making the World Cup squad after a tepid international break. Tuchel praised Foden\u2019s attitude in camp but warned the midfielder has not translated that into match influence.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe tried everything,\u201d Tuchel insisted about Foden\u2019s attitude. \u201cI would say he was excellent in camp but, yeah, he struggles to show it on the pitch.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, he didn\u2019t have a lot of minutes for City recently. Then he came to camp with the brightest smile and was so good in training and I thought he will just surprise us and will play with the same verve and excitement but, yeah, he struggles to have the full impact.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked whether an underperforming player would still be taken to the finals, Tuchel was blunt: \u201cI can, but the question would be if we will. It\u2019s not a guarantee that he will come.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Foden approaches his 26th birthday, his best role remains a subject of debate. He was the 2023\u201324 Premier League Player of the Season and has operated across Manchester City\u2019s forward line \u2014 on the right, the left and centrally. This season most of his minutes have come in a central role, a position Tuchel has tried to fit him into with limited success.<\/p>\n
Competition for attacking midfield places is intense. Tuchel can also call upon Jude Bellingham, Cole Palmer, Morgan Rogers, Eberechi Eze and Morgan Gibbs-White. Arsenal youngsters Ethan Nwaneri and Max Dowman are being mentioned for the future. With a finite number of places, giving Foden a slot would mean leaving another of that group out.<\/p>\n
Foden\u2019s international record underlines the concern: his 49 England caps have yielded four goals. Sir Gareth Southgate previously faced similar questions and sought guidance from Pep Guardiola over Foden\u2019s best position. Foden started every England game at Euro 2024 but returned without a goal or an assist, and he claimed he was a victim of his own versatility.<\/p>\n
Tuchel\u2019s remarks leave Foden with little time to alter the selection picture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tuchel warns Phil Foden faces a World Cup battle after a muted international break. Selection doubts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10512,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[961,1056,172],"tags":[1305,1304,1562],"class_list":["post-10513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-man-city","category-epl","tag-bench-selection","tag-benching","tag-england-manager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}