There is a scene in the television series Succession in which patriarch Logan Roy ruthlessly dismisses his eldest son’s chances of inheriting his media empire. “You’re smart, you’re good,” he tells Kendall. “But you’re not a killer. You have to be a killer.”
The exchange came to mind when listening to a heated debate between Sky Sports pundits Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher this week on the plight of Phil Foden, who looks at risk of losing his place in Thomas Tuchel’s England team amid a poor season with Manchester City.
While Neville insisted last season’s PFA and FWA Player of the Year should be a guaranteed pick for England, Carragher argued otherwise. “He has played every position for England and he hasn’t done it,” he said. Foden has not scored or assisted for the national team since September 2023.
“I do feel when I watch Foden that he seems like a shy lad, which is fine, everyone is different,” continued Carragher, speaking on The Overlap. “But I don’t think he has got that arrogance on the pitch for England, like [Jude] Bellingham, and I think that holds him back.
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Thomas Tuchel insisted Marcus Rashford and Phil Foden know what is required from them after criticising their performances against Albania
“He was in the England team before [Bukayo] Saka, he was in the England team before Bellingham. But those two grabbed their chance. There is no way they are getting left out now.”
Neville talked up Foden’s ability, none of which Carragher disputed. “We all love him,” he said. But his argument came back to his character – and not just in relation to the national team.
In what should be a year of succession at Manchester City, where others are showing signs of age, is the 24-year-old Foden demonstrating he lacks the “killer” edge required to step up?
“City, we all know, have dropped off this season because players who have been legends there are not the same players, so Bernardo Silva, [Ilkay] Gundogan, Kevin De Bruyne,” explained Carragher.
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Sky Sports News’ Rob Dorsett and Pete Smith discussed Phil Foden’s England future after England’s win over Latvia
“I’ve been disappointed with Foden, not because of how he has played because we all have seasons where we don’t play well, but because of the personality of going, ‘This is my team now’.
“De Bruyne is leaving in the summer. This is your year to say, ‘The team is struggling, but I’m going to lift it. I’m the man. I’m the guy.'”
Foden’s drop-off in stats
At this point, it is worth a reminder of just how good he was last season. His total of 27 goals was by far the highest of his career. There were 12 assists too. He played a key role in City’s title triumph and the accolades that followed were no surprise.
The drop-off has been stark. Foden has scored 10 goals for City this season but six them came in a three-week period in January and there have been none in 11 appearances since. Mostly, he has drifted through games and struggled to make an impact, albeit in the context of a difficult season for the club.
His output, in terms of goals and assists, has nearly halved compared to last season, his average dropping from 0.85 per 90 minutes to 0.50 per 90 minutes. It is in fact his lowest rate of productivity since he broke into Pep Guardiola’s team six years ago.
City need Foden to take responsibility as De Bruyne’s influence, in particular, begins to wane at 33, but he is contributing less generally.
It is not just his numbers for goals and assists which have dipped.
Foden is also having fewer touches and making fewer passes. He is completing around half as many dribbles as last season, hinting at a loss of confidence. He is also getting into the opposition box less.
He has had to switch between different positions, splitting his time between the right wing and the No 10 position, but that is not unusual for Foden. It certainly wasn’t a problem last season.
His heat maps show he is operating in the same areas as he was then, albeit this time without the consistent presence of the now departed Kyle Walker behind him at right-back.
Is fatigue an issue?
That upheaval around Foden is a possible contributor to his dip. Fatigue is another. Guardiola was cautious with Foden’s playing time in the early years of his City career, careful to ensure he was not overburdened as he adapted to senior football.
That changed last season. Foden made 53 appearances for City across seven different competitions, playing a total of 4,276 minutes, by far the highest of his career so far.
Only Rodri played more minutes among City players, with 4,327. Foden was just ahead of Walker, who played 4,083. Rodri was subsequently sidelined by an ACL injury, while a jaded Walker left on loan for AC Milan in January citing a build-up of fatigue at City.
Foden, like Walker and Rodri, followed up a gruelling domestic season by featuring at the European Championship for his country last summer, playing a further 636 minutes for England at a tournament in which his performances were heavily scrutinised.
Fatigue, both physical and mental, have clearly had an impact on Foden. But Guardiola did not rush him back at the beginning of the campaign. Foden did not start his first game until late September. He did not start a Premier League game until October.
The hope for Guardiola and City, and indeed England, was that easing him back into action would pay dividends over the course of the campaign, but Foden has continued to struggle, prompting the uncomfortable questions posed by Carragher about his capacity to take the next step for club and country.
So what now?
In Succession, Kendall responded to his father’s withering assessment of his character by turning against him in an attempt to demonstrate the qualities he was accused of lacking.
Foden must try to prove his point too, although in the hope of a better outcome.