How Phil Foden can finally get back to his best at Man City after key turning point
Enzo Maresca had predicted Phil Foden would score, and he did score. For much of Foden’s career that would scarcely have seemed an outlandish prediction. Not now. Foden’s had struck 27 times for Manchester City alone in 2023-24. Yet when Ipswich arrived at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday, his drought spanned 35 games for City, plus two for England that may have cost him a place at the World Cup.
But there are two Fodens. Maresca remembered the teenage prodigy, the player who had won the individual awards, the seeming generational talent before he became the goal-shy City substitute. “With Phil I said many times, I know him from years ago, for me he’s one of the best Premier League players,” said the City manager, who had worked with Foden in his previous times at the Etihad Stadium. “And since day one it’s my duty to help him to again be one of the best players.”
That process got off to something of a false start. By the time City kicked off against Ipswich Foden had, in effect, sat out four-and-three-quarter games. His first-half red card in the Manchester derby was followed by a three-match domestic suspension. He was an unused substitute in the Champions League defeat against Paris Saint-Germain.
Even before being banned, he had been usurped, and under successive managers. In first Pep Guardiola’s valedictory season and then Maresca’s first in charge, Rayan Cherki has been the No 10 who has starred and sparkled. Foden has provided less magic. Perhaps it says something for the luxuries Maresca enjoys that Foden has felt the more prosaic player in his position.
Perhaps it is an added complication, too, that in Enzo Fernandez he has costly competition emerging, with the £125m signing spending the second half against PSG operating as the most advanced of the midfield trio. A lesson of that defeat may be that, against elite opposition, Maresca requires both Ayyoub Bouaddi and Elliot Anderson to anchor the midfield, perhaps meaning Fernandez is the most advanced of the trio.
There is evidence, too, that Maresca has his doubts about Cherki, a player he has removed three times at half-time already this season and considered curtailing his contribution at the break in a fourth match, when the Frenchman went on to excel at Crystal Palace.
Nevertheless, the route to more regular first-team football may come in other positions. Foden began at Old Trafford on the right and, while City have four wingers, the Brazilian Allan Elias has been a fringe figure so far. Foden could represent more serious competition for Jeremy Doku, Antoine Semenyo and Iliman Ndiaye.
Then, while City’s strength in depth is such that they have two players for every position, there is one particularly prominent exception: as centre-forward. Maresca had admitted he would have to rest Erling Haaland soon. The striker seemed to be substituting himself in injury time against Ipswich after being hurt, even though he allayed fears he faces a spell on the sidelines by telling his manager he was okay.
But Semenyo was slated to be the alternative to Haaland – perhaps in turn lending credence to the idea Foden could get more game time on the flanks – and he, too, looked injured when the Ipswich game ended; Maresca did not know the extent of the problem for the January signing.
When many another – including Semenyo, Fernandez and Anderson – was spared a start against Ipswich, it offered the idea that they were being rested first and that Haaland would sit out Tuesday’s game against AEK Athens. If so, Foden could be slated to lead the line in the Champions League.
It would have been harder to pick him to lead the line when he had not scored for more than 10 months. Now the long wait is over. “I’m very happy for his goal, and hopefully it can be just the beginning of many goals and good performances,” added Maresca.
Foden suggested a weight had been lifted. “I was definitely due one,” he said. “I have missed quite a few big chances this season. It's been eating me alive so [it was] good to score.” Until he slotted in Doku’s cross, he had got chances. In the Premier League alone, he had an xG of 1.56 this season before Saturday; he had one of 2.35 after his final strike of last season.
A calm finish was a reminder of the qualities he showed in the more distant past, the capacity to time his run into the box and the ability to be prolific. It was a well-timed return to form in other respects; there is an added focus on City fans now and their colourful, nostalgic reaction to the 114 guilty verdicts. Foden walked into post-match interviews with an inflatable banana. It was a reminder he is a City supporter and, in different ways, 2026 is proving trying for many of them.
