“I’m feeling OK now, back at it,” Phil Foden told TNT Sports after helping Manchester City to a comfortable 4-0 victory over Slovan Bratislava, his best performance of the season so far.
There will be several City players, Foden among them, who could do with the game in Slovakia serving as a sort of express version of last December’s Club World Cup, which ignited their campaign.
Back then, City had just come off the back of a bitterly disappointing home draw with Crystal Palace, where they had played well but thrown the points away late on. That came just as it seemed they had been getting results back on track after a run of four games without a victory, so a change of gear was necessary.
The mid-season break in the Middle East, playing against lower level teams in a sunny climate, worked wonders — not least for Foden.
He had conceded the last minute penalty against Palace, which earned him a dressing room rebuke from some of his team-mates afterwards, so he used the games in Saudi Arabia to knuckle down, focus on his discipline and, from there, he surged to the PFA Player of the Year award as a rejuvenated City won the title.
This week, the team’s need for a jolt is nowhere near as severe. Overall they have started the season very well, winning their first four matches and then grabbing a morale-boosting last-gasp draw from the bitter clash with Arsenal. Against Newcastle at the weekend they were not at their best level, but nowhere near their worst.
Individually, though, it is clear that some players are lacking sharpness: Ilkay Gundogan struggled badly at St James’ Park — “one of the worst I’ve ever seen from him in the past eight or nine years,” Guardiola said on Tuesday — but he looked much brighter in Slovakia.
Foden, too, needs to regain his rhythm.
Having only reported back for pre-season training little over a week before the Premier League restarted, due to being given time off after playing in the European Championship final with England, he played the second half at Chelsea on the opening weekend and then, well, that was it for a while.
He missed the Ipswich and West Ham games before the international break with an unexplained illness, and played his football during that break at Stockport Power League rather than with England. He has been on the bench for the three league matches since then and struggled against Watford only last Tuesday, but fortunately for him and City, the past week represents some solid progression.
That Carabao Cup clash with Watford seemed to be an opportunity for Foden to blow the cobwebs away, but he looked lost by the end of it, his night unravelling with several misplaced passes.
Given his disjointed start to the season it was understandable that he looked far from his best and it was no surprise that he was on the bench against Newcastle at the weekend.
But he looked far sharper when called upon for the final 25 minutes in the North East, helping to knit City’s play together and provide some much needed threat as they pushed for a winner. Not the force of nature that he was last season by any means, but far better than the previous outing.
All of that meant that he was on the agenda in the post-match press conference, which prompted this answer from Guardiola.
“Phil doesn’t need time when he’s here clever and fine.” When Guardiola said ‘here’, he pointed to his head, and then his body. “It’s not a problem. I know how important he is. There’s no doubt about that.”
Foden was among the brightest players for City in Bratislava, too, on a night where the visitors completely dominated but not everybody took the huge opportunity presented to them against a significantly weaker side.
“A strong eight,” is how England coach Joleon Lescott rated him out of 10, during his punditry work for TNT Sport.
Guardiola gave his own verdict, of course, talking to TNT: “Still he is not at his best, he made a fantastic goal. He did not shoot strong, just passed the ball to the post, I always say pass the ball to the post, not shoot. He had more chances but step by step he is coming back.”
Indeed, the goal after 15 minutes was trademark Foden; receiving the ball from his right, he opened up his body and fired in with his left — the only surprise being that he found the bottom corner rather than the top.
It was the kind of night when City really should have filled their boots, and while they scored four goals, that only tells part of the story: they had 14 shots on target and hit the woodwork three times, with poor finishing and final passes just as much of a factor as bad luck or good goalkeeping.
“Yeah definitely, especially me,” Foden admitted when asked about it afterwards. “I had plenty more chances to score, a few other lads did as well so on another night it could have been more goals but we’re delighted with the 4-0.
“I’m feeling OK now, back at it,” he continued. “Obviously it was a slow start to the season after the Euros but I’m slowly getting there now, getting back into it.”
With Erling Haaland scoring 71 percent of City’s league goals this season, Kevin De Bruyne out for a couple more matches and Rodri out for the whole campaign, Guardiola will need Foden and Gundogan (and the wingers, and the overall set-piece threat) to get back to their previous levels quickly.
Not everybody took full advantage on Tuesday night, but Foden and Gundogan made a step in the right direction.
(Top photo: Christian Bruna/Getty Images)
