My thoughts on Foden hate and the calls to drop him.

It's tournament football. Managers play the most reductive styles to fit everyone together as easily as possible.

I'm really not bothered by the overreaction by other England fans. It's all prisoner of the moment, knee jerk instant reaction nonsense.

Bellingham is a national hero now. A few days ago he was overrated

2 things can be right at the same time, yes the england set up doesn't allow foden to play to his full potential in this preferred position but the way he's been playing even on the left field and drifting in is not what you'd expect from someone of his level and experience even.

The extra time setup as in players and formation was the most balanced I personally have seen the england team play with threats on either side and Toney to help relieve pressure when trying to break the press.

At this point if Southgate doesn't want foden centrally for whatever reason might as well bench him and put a natural winger there.

I'm hoping this experience teaches foden not every team will work as per your expectations and he's to be more demanding and force things if he's to continue playing internationally with the same effect he does for City.

No matter how skillful someone is if they can't use it, there's no point to be made for ifs and buts.

I wanna know why Saka is immune to all criticism, he hasn’t even registered a shot on target so far and besides that accidental assist in the first match he really hasn’t done much

Most pundits are (correctly) calling for Bellingham to play deeper and have Foden at the 10.

And given how none of the other midfielders that have come in to play with Rice have offered anything (Mainoo spent much of the first half yesterday hiding behind Slovakia forwards and getting bollocked by Stones for not moving into space), I think it's fair to say having someone actually looking for the ball and looking to drive on with it would be a massive improvement.

Because that was the issue yesterday. The midfield was not helping the defence play around the press. The forward 4 are never getting the ball if the only option is to ping it long, and having them drop in just leads to a compressed pitch, which is simple to defend.

Supplementary benefits of that is having an extra space to bring Gordon in on the left side to hold that width, which rectifies the issue of Foden moving infield.

Declan Rice has been the biggest disappointment by a wide margin, followed by Kane. And you nailed it—many fans overlook overall performance for stats. It’s stupid, but we are all guilty at times.

Firstly none of England's attacking players have played well, not a single one. mainly that's down to the lack of structure.

As for why Foden is being singled out. It seems to me that there's a narrative being created of Jude v Phil. Where this is coming from I'm not quite sure. A little bit of Madrid influence. A little bit of some people supporting players rather than teams. A little bit of people hating city and a lot of people need a scapegoat.

It's pretty fucking childish wherever it's coming from. The biggest problem you have though is that you're putting far too much weight on what idiots on the internet say.

I wouldnt look too much into all these debates. England arent working as a team and more or less everybody looks awful. Now ppl are finding scapegoats ... and Foden is playing out of position so its like the easiest thing to think of ... thats all.

He's not been great, but the whole team has been pretty garbage.

Fodens movement is really good. He is constantly finding a pass and moving into space, but this is not a Pep team, and they either don't have the balls or the permission to play those return balls. To the uneducated eye, it ends up looking like Foden plays 30 backwards passes a game and nothing else.

Foden simply won't shine for England until Southgate is gone and we have a manager with the tactical nous to play Rice as a single pivot behind Bellingham and Foden.

It's not worth dedicating time towards. There's no chance he gets dropped because Phil still created our best chances yesterday.

More than anything, I'm slightly embarrassed by everyone's reactions to scraping by Slovakia 2-1. We were an absolute disgrace again and Switzerland will absolutely tear us to pieces unless Gareth Southgate locates his testicles and stops being an utter coward.

No one hates foden, I’m a Liverpool supporter I think he like Trent have been criminally played out of position so their attributes we look for and know them for are impossible to show with how the team is set up. Foden is being over crowded on the rare instance he gets central and Trent was being played with no one in the team capable of runs in behind .

I’d just as soon Foden not play, especially under clueless Southgate.

Southgate is the one to blame, outright refuses to put players in their best positions. Will not sub Kane or saka no matter how shit they play. Same for Bellingham who was poor again, selfish and not a team player. Fuck them all, Foden has the medals and nothing to prove

Yep terrible input from clueless monkeys

Exactly this, foden def hasn't played that well, but there's genuinely people who've said he's a mid player who just benefits from a good player.Its crazy, whenever they're talking about pep they just say hes lucky to get the best players but now when they're talking about the players the roles are switches.

Bellingham has been England’s worst player until he scored that goal yesterday

I still wouldn’t start him

Not a MCFC fan and I like Foden but the way Southgate sets up his team there is no place for Foden.

Very rarely I agree with City fans arguing as much as this one. You are spot on. Also I have no idea why this sub popped up onto my feed.

Considering all the players on the ground, foden wasn't the one with the worst performance. Some how all the blame is on him . They hate him for he is a blue.

The England discourse makes me laugh so much. They have a bunch of players that don't fit together at all. Don't think Southgate is doing some incredible job but don't think he's doing a bad one either. It's actually an impossible job when their players don't complement each other at all. Foden doesn't fit with their squad at all. Bellingham and Rice dint fit together in the midfield. Kane doesn't fit with the wingers etc

It's up to them, to be honest. I can't always hold their hand.

The problem is, Kane, Foden and Bellingham can't be played together because they all like to cut in centrally and occupy the box. Numerous times great opportunities have arose on the left side and Foden is arsing over with Kane centrally. Bellingham has been very poor as well and Kane is washed. HOWEVER they are scoring, Foden isn't. If Foden can't change his game to accommodate for lack of natural overlap and a congested centre, then that's not great from him. Now there is numerous problems with that team including nobody helping build up to account for Rice's lack of vision. But Foden cannot get away unscathed here imo. This is yet another England tourney where Foden is ghosting.

Foden played better than most on the field last night. At least he was trying to set up chances.

Hmmm hate = Foden rightly being called out for being ineffective. And before you moan about it being Southgate, everyone knows it’s his fault but he ain’t doing to change anything so the best we can hope for is that a different player might help

Foden hasn't offered England anything in this tournament.

Whilst I agree that most of the team has also been awful, that doesn't change fodens performance.

Saka (whilst also not great) is about the only player offering width, of Foden played RW we would have zero width.

Bellingham has scored 2 important goals whilst not playing well, you simply cannot ignore that.

Personally I would drop Foden for a more direct wide player

Just hope England crashes out and we dont have to hear about this every 2-3 days.

I'm not coming in here to wind anyone up, but the fact not one person here is actually willing to argue he's been anything but crap is very telling

This is just factually incorrect, look at Cole Palmer when he came on the pitch everyone on England was passing to him, why? Because he was the only one passing the ball into genuinely good space and where people could head it/get good contact onto it to get a goal, in extra time the person taking the free kicks went from Foden to Cole and that free kick lead to the build up to the second goal, it doesn’t matter whether Kane or blank or Betty boop was playing shit, foden’s free kicks, corners and accuracy on long balls and crosses was horrendous and needs to be noticed, no matter how you slice it.