Manchester City manager Enzo Maresca spoke about Phil Foden's role in the team and the squad
Phil Foden
Phil Foden
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Enzo Maresca is looking for Phil Foden to step up and lead at Manchester City this season - despite not naming him in the captaincy group. The new Blues boss wanted an English member of his four-man leadership group and Foden put his hand up for one of the two available spots, but Marc Guehi was picked.
Guehi will work with Ruben Dias, Erling Haaland and Gianluigi Donnarumma to make sure there are no issues in the dressing room this season, and Maresca picked them out for their history in other teams. Despite making Enzo Fernandez captain when he was at Chelsea, the Italian has decided against giving the new club record signing any extra responsibility but Foden is in his thoughts.
"Marc was already captain with Palace, so he has the experience," Maresca said. "Gigi is the captain of the international team, so he has the experience. But these are the four that are going to be the captains. I was also thinking about Phil, because Phil is one of the guys from the house. He's not in that group, but for me he's also one of the captains, one of the players that belong to that group."
After losing the form that saw him named as the league's best player in 2024 and then missing out on the World Cup this summer, Foden has plenty to prove this season after being backed by City with a new contract. He has started the first two games under Maresca, although is in competition with Rayan Cherki for a starting spot in attacking midfield and the Frenchman already has two goals and two assists to his name.
Maresca sees Foden in that area of the pitch, although does like his players to be versatile and there are few in the squad who have played in more positions on the pitch than Foden has. That should help his quest for game time even as he fights to play a leading role.
"I think Phil's best position is in the middle," said Maresca. "But he's doing an effort to help the team, because for the first two games we didn't have an option in the wide area, because Jeremy was injured. No doubt that Phil's position in the middle is much better. But I'm very, very happy with Phil since day one. He's working very good.
"Even when he has played wide in the last two games, he was good. You can see that inside the pitch he's much better. But at the end, Phil is going to play in a different position, as we mentioned now, because he's a good player, and they can play in different positions."
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