Foden had a poor Euro 2024 for England, but was it all his fault?

Phil Foden’s stats from England’s defeat to Spain in the Euro 2024 final do not make for pleasant reading.

England slumped to a 2-1 defeat at the Olympiastadion in Berlin, becoming the first team ever to lose two successive European Championship finals.

Gareth Southgate’s side underwhelmed for much of the tournament, but the sheer amount of individual quality in his squad kept propelling them forwards.

Bellingham came up with an incredible bicycle kick in the round-of-16, penalties were needed to see off Switzerland and Ollie Watkins scored a last-gasp winner against the Netherlands with a shot with an xG value of just

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Of England’s 26 squad members, Jordan Pickford, Bukayo Saka, Marc Guehi, Cole Palmer and Ollie Watkins are arguably the only ones who can be happy with their performances.

Meanwhile, Bellingham, Harry Kane and Phil Foden – the best players in La Liga, the Bundesliga and the Premier League respectively last season – had tournaments to forget.

After failing to provide a single goal or assist in seven games in Germany, Foden has been the target of heavy criticism.

The 24-year-old scored 19 goals and provided eight assists for Manchester City last season, but as has been the case before, he failed to replicate his club form on the international stage.

In 89 minutes on Sunday he took one shot on goal – the first of England’s four on target – and completed no crosses or dribbles and failed to create a single chance for his teammates.

Getty

Were his lacklustre performances all his fault though?

Over seven matches it was clear that Southgate’s system did not get the most out of his very best players.

Kane likes to drop deep, but without attackers running beyond him he slowed the game down and clogged up the attacking midfield area.

Playing that kind of striker – an exhausted, half-fit one at that – without the right support and in a team set up to counter-attack was never going to work.

After Southgate’s post-group stage formation switch, Bellingham often found himself having to drift out to the left hand side, neutralising the goal-scoring instincts he showed during his superb debut season at Real Madrid.

Foden was switched from an out-and-out left winger – a role he rarely plays for City – to an attacking midfielder, but found little room to operate in when faced with a low-block defence and crowded out by Kane and Bellingham.

Playing in a system that seemed to focus on getting the ball to England’s stars and hoping they’d create something from nothing didn’t suit anyone, certainly not Foden.

Southgate has received criticism in the wake of the final defeat (Getty)

Some fans argue that Foden has become a ‘system player’ under Pep Guardiola, that he can only perform in a hyper-specific environment in which he knows where the recipient of his next pass will be before he’s even on the ball, the structure of every attacking move and his role within it.

But is that not the case with most elite-level players in the modern era?

Cole Palmer is the obvious exception, but when you consider the unstructured mess he walked into at Chelsea, it’s perhaps not surprising that he now excels when playing ‘off the cuff’.

It cannot be pure coincidence that Foden looked much better during the first half of England’s semi-final victory against the Netherlands, a 45-minute period in which Southgate’s side attacked on the front foot, Kane’s link-up play was good and England’s defence and midfield looked to progress the ball intelligently.

Foden had a poor Euro 2024, as did most of his teammates. He must shoulder some of the blame, but let’s not get carried away.

Anyone calling him a ‘fraud’ or ‘overrated’ is either being disingenuous, has an agenda against Foden and Man City or is just plain stupid.