Phil Foden - What Is His Potential?

lewwoo

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Hopefully for the national team and his sake he will take note of Sancho and move out of city fast. These few years wasted will impact on him hitting his potential.
 

Classical Mechanic

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Pellegri is injured since September, Sylla has replaced him, he is born in Nov 25 1999, and has played 5 league games during that period of time.
Not sure what that has to do with what I said JP.

Look at it this way, how many 2000 born players are making an impression in the top 3 leagues in Europe?
 

JPRouve

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Not sure what that has to do with what I said JP.

Look at it this way, how many 2000 born players are making an impression in the top 3 leagues in Europe?
I'm simply sharing the information that during the time frame used in this tweets, one player was injured and he was replaced by a player that is about a month out of the arbitrary age.
 

Classical Mechanic

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I'm simply sharing the information that during the time frame used in those tweets, one player was injured and he was replaced by a player that is about a month out of the arbitrary age.
Its not an arbitrary age in this conversation. Reiss Nelson is a December 99 too but fact is they belong to a different development year in European football. You qualify the UEFA u17 etc tournaments by being that age or under that age on the 1st January the year the tournament is held.
 

JPRouve

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Its not an arbitrary age in this conversation. Reiss Nelson is a December 99 too but fact is they belong to a different development year in European football. You qualify the UEFA u17 etc tournaments by being that age or under that age on the 1st January the year the tournament is held.
Dude, I just shared a piece of information about one of the player in the tweet and the 18 years old player that replaced him. If you don't want the information it's fine.
 

Classical Mechanic

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Dude, I just shared a piece of information about one of the player in the tweet and the 18 years old player that replaced him. If you don't want the information it's fine.
OK, no problem. Thank you for the information. Although you missed that Monaco played a 2001 when they got smashed recently :nono:
 

JPRouve

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OK, no problem. Thank you for the information. Although you missed that Monaco played a 2001 when they got smashed recently :nono:
I didn't miss it.:p

Monaco have used 5 players born in 2000 or after, Massengo(2001), Badiashile(2001), Geubbels(2001), Pellegri(2001) and Diop(2000).
 

CA1

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Let's be honest you don't actually know the family do you?

To start with both of his parents are big city fans.
My mate knows his brother very well.

I've met his brother a few times.

He's a United fan. Foden is the odd one out and the gist of the coversation was that he only supports City because he played for them. No idea about his Mum.
 

Andrew Wolf

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I think you are all expecting a little too much of Foden,too early.

He's operating in the engine room against players who have 10-15 years more experience and are physically stronger. He's built like a cocktail stick and expected to come up against players twice his weight and come out on top. It's clear he has brilliant potential and his technique and ability is already superior to some of those comes up against, but sometimes physicality wins over all of that. Having watched him last season and this, he's definitely getting there and he has bulked up a bit, but it doesn't happen overnight for an 18 year old kid.

The other youngsters who have come through have been mainly wingers i.e Sancho who are a little bit out of the rough and tumble of the middle of the park.
 

SadlerMUFC

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It's hard to tell what his potential might be when he doesn't get to play in the first team other than the odd late sub when City is way ahead or a Carling Cup game (or whatever it's called now)...
 

RooneyLegend

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One of the most unique English talents for a long time. The type of player he is just isn't what England usually produce. People forget he only turned 18 in May so hes still very very young and has plenty of time. I understand people eagerness to see him and the worries he could stagnate if he doesn't get enough game time but at the moment he is getting plenty and will get more.

Best way of putting it is that he has improved tremendously as a footballer since he got back from the World Cup last year. He influences games much more than he did and looks like he belongs at this level when he is playing so he obviously is improving and the minutes he is getting are having the desired effect.
Nothing unique about him given hes in the same era as Gomes and Gibbs-White.
 

charlie9882

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Does Angel Gomes need to leave United, like everyone is saying that Foden needs to leave City?

Gomes can't even get a sniff of game time in the first team (2 minutes of first team football over the last 2 seasons), is exactly the same age as Foden and was supposedly rated just as high a year or two ago.

Foden is getting significantly more exposure to the first team and looks to have much more of a future at City than Gomes does at United. I'm not seeing comments suggesting that Gomes needs shipping off to the Bundesliga.

Foden looks to have more of a future than any academy midfielder breaking through at United at the moment. He has the same minutes as Pereira and McTominay combined, despite being 3 years younger than both and having world class competition.
 
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Murray3007

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its a lot easier to put a young player in when your doing well Foden at City compared to say Gomes here, however if they are good enough then play them, and ultimately depends on the player Foden might be happy building up the minutes and gradually getting more of a chance, cant ever be easy leaving a top team for any young player, but on the flip side look at Sancho and how game time has took him on. maybe a loan spell would be better for Foden, but its where he would go might be the problem. has he signed a new contract at City yet ?
 

robinamicrowave

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He's on to make 30 or so appearances this season, with 9 or 10 of those being starts. I think that's fair enough progress for an 18-year-old.
 

RedSky

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Not sure what that has to do with what I said JP.

Look at it this way, how many 2000 born players are making an impression in the top 3 leagues in Europe?
What do you quantify as the top 3 leagues? Spain, England and Italy?

All 3 of those leagues don't play many young teenagers, in fact they barely play any young players at all. Most develop in France, Germany.

In first 5 games of each league you got the following:

Germany: U19's had 3,711mins
France U19's had 3,593mins
Spain U19s had 1,568mins
England U19s had 1,361mins
Italy U19s had 1,097mins

He's on to make 30 or so appearances this season, with 9 or 10 of those being starts. I think that's fair enough progress for an 18-year-old.
I disagree to be honest. Granted he's being coached by probably the best coach in the world and training with exceptional players. But he's really not getting much game time apart from the EL and presumably the FA Cup against mediocre teams. That won't really help his game time experience. Having said all that, I think it's pretty hypocritical for us to point at Foden when we have Angel and Chong stuck in the U23s. Personally I think exceptional talents like these should probably move to a tier 2/3 club and play regular football. I'd have no complaints if Chong/Angel decided to leave for first team football.
 

RedSky

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Also, if we're being objective about Fodens playing time then you got to look at the big 5 leagues and compare playing times. There's 38 players aged 18 or younger who have minutes in their domestic league this season. Foden is 20th on the list in playing time. Not too bad really.

Here's something a little interesting about the list (didn't bother adding a few as they're from random countries).

French Nationality = 17 players / 4489mins
English Nationality = 6 / 1994mins
German Nationality = 6 / 594mins
Brazilian Nationality = 2 / 111mins
Serbian Nationality = 2 / 14mins
Italian Nationality = 1 / 79mins
Spanish Nationality = 1 / 157mins
 

Classical Mechanic

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Also, if we're being objective about Fodens playing time then you got to look at the big 5 leagues and compare playing times. There's 38 players aged 18 or younger who have minutes in their domestic league this season. Foden is 20th on the list in playing time. Not too bad really.

Here's something a little interesting about the list (didn't bother adding a few as they're from random countries).

French Nationality = 17 players / 4489mins
English Nationality = 6 / 1994mins
German Nationality = 6 / 594mins
Brazilian Nationality = 2 / 111mins
Serbian Nationality = 2 / 14mins
Italian Nationality = 1 / 79mins
Spanish Nationality = 1 / 157mins
Worth noting that Monaco have played a good numbers of those French teenagers and perhaps not to the advantage of them.
 

eldoherz

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Worth noting that Monaco have played a good numbers of those French teenagers and perhaps not to the advantage of them.
Monaco is a very unusual right now though. Some sources have them as having 12 players unable to play their next match through injury plus 2 suspended due to red cards. Imagine taking 14 players out of our squad and see who we'd need to play. Even city who are essentially doubled up on all 11 first team positions would be fielding some odd names in that situation.
 

JPRouve

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Monaco is a very unusual right now though. Some sources have them as having 12 players unable to play their next match through injury plus 2 suspended due to red cards. Imagine taking 14 players out of our squad and see who we'd need to play. Even city who are essentially doubled up on all 11 first team positions would be fielding some odd names in that situation.
To be fair, 4 players would be in the first team even without injuries, Pellegri, Diop, Geubbels and Sylla. Pellegri was as good as Falcao in the games he played.
 

FootballHQ

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Not yet as he's not ready for first team football but in a year or so he very well may need to.
He has next to no chance in the present set up. Look at Anders Pererria. Does reasonably well in two different loan spells so it's all building up for him to be a first team regular. He actually starts first game (and maybe second, can't remember) but United hit trouble and you then don't see him for ages.

Clubs nowadays just go for the ready made article or what they think is ready made. Bonkers to think Fred and Bakayoko cost nearly 100m between them and they've both blocked the path of homegrown players.
 

Mordownm35

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226 vs Foden's 267. Emile Smith-Rowe(Arsenal) is another comparable talent, he's played 312.
So he’s playing a similar amount of minutes to other young English talents then. Yet there seems to be no calls for Gibbs-white or Smith-Rowe to leave for more minutes. Why is Foden held to different standard to these players in terms of minutes required?
 

Bale Bale Bale

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So he’s playing a similar amount of minutes to other young English talents then. Yet there seems to be no calls for Gibbs-white or Smith-Rowe to leave for more minutes. Why is Foden held to different standard to these players in terms of minutes required?
Probably holding City's poor record of bringing players through against them and concluding the same will happen to Foden, he also has a higher profile than the other two currently so more attention is on him. Personally I think Foden is in a good position right now but the most important thing is that there is obvious progression there. Picking up minutes here and there will suffice this season but it's no good if it's the same story next year, he needs to be more of a rotation player by then otherwise he would be better off elsewhere.
 
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Classical Mechanic

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So he’s playing a similar amount of minutes to other young English talents then. Yet there seems to be no calls for Gibbs-white or Smith-Rowe to leave for more minutes. Why is Foden held to different standard to these players in terms of minutes required?
Foden won the best player at the u17 World Cup. Gibbs-White and Smith-Rowe were both bench players in the same tournament.

I think Gibbs-White might get a start soon after what happened at the weekend. I think he deserves one anyway.
 

BalanceUnAutreJoint

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France is by far the best league when it comes to young players.
Germany is one step lower and usually buy their young players from others leagues with a lot of them coming from France.
Barca could've had Dembele for 15M if they had bought him for Rennes where his talent was already very clear instead of waiting for him to shine at Dortmund.


Foden won the best player at the u17 World Cup.
You realize that these kind of awards are meaningless? This is a short tournament where only the player of a winning team or at least a semifinal team can hope to win best player.
Foden was England's best player but that doesn't necessarely mean he is the best individual player of the 2000 generation
 

Classical Mechanic

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You realize that these kind of awards are meaningless? This is a short tournament where only the player of a winning team or at least a semifinal team can hope to win best player.
Foden was England's best player but that doesn't necessarely mean he is the best individual player of the 2000 generation
They’re not meaningless. They don’t prove anything conclusive but Foden is one of the elite 2000s, there aren’t many in the game that would disagree with that. He has to prove it in senior football now of course.

I don’t think Pep is handling him too badly personally. I think he definitely wants to develop him judging by his game time so far.

Gibbs-White probably has the best chance of meaningful game time this year. Smith-Rowe will only get cup and Europa games but will probably be loaned next year.
 

Andrew Wolf

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Should get a start tomorrow in a big Champions League game. I'd be disappointed if he didn't considering our injiry sotuatisi in midfield. Only way he doesn't is if Guardiola decides to bolster the midfield with Stones/Delph in there with Fernandinho
 

Classical Mechanic

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I would say that I can’t see how he’s going to get a meaningful run of games. Having seen his games for City this season and watched him for England 21s recently I definitely think he’s ready to play every week at PL level. It’s hard to see how that can happen at City currently.
 

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I would say that I can’t see how he’s going to get a meaningful run of games. Having seen his games for City this season and watched him for England 21s recently I definitely think he’s ready to play every week at PL level. It’s hard to see how that can happen at City currently.
I agree, but at 18 does he need a meaningful run of games, if he was 20 or 21 of say he does but at 18 I think playing cup games and last 20 mins of pen games is more than enough
 

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No where near ready to play week in week out. Not physically strong enough, showed in the last game. Imagine playing for a lower side where he will be hounded and brushed off the ball. Has close ball control to do well but still lacking in physicality imo.