Manchester City star Phil Foden has addressed why he seems to struggle more playing for England than he does for his club. The conundrum surrounding the attacking midfielder is one that has existed for some time now, with his performances at Euro 2024, off the back of winning the PFA Player of the Year award, disappointing many fans and spotlighting the problem the 24-year-old has had with the Three Lions.
Many believed that Thomas Tuchel's appointment as new head coach would give Foden some new life, but in the German's first game in charge, it was the same old story as Foden was left out wide and was largely ineffective against Albania. Now, the playmaker has given his thoughts on the matter.
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Speaking in an interview with GQ, Foden opened up about how going away on international duty differed from his day-to-day life in club football, revealing why the shift between the two may have impacted his performances in recent times:
"For both, everyone's watching and rooting for you to do well, but [there are always] people who are going to judge you no matter what. I feel like there's a lot more pressure in an England shirt to deliver. You've got a different manager, a different way of playing, playing with players you don't play with on a regular basis, so there's a lot of things when you go to the national team that are different to the club.
"But I don't approach them differently. I try to work out the players as much as I can – where they're going to run, what movement they're going to do."
Foden has faced more criticism than ever this season as he has failed to match the standards he set last season for Manchester City, who, as a group, have fallen far short of their pre-season expectations. Despite that, former England defender Gary Neville said that no matter what, the playmaker's talent means that he should always be guaranteed a spot in the Three Lions' starting XI.
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Many placed the blame on former England manager Gareth Southgate for not utilising Foden in the best way possible during his time as Three Lions boss, as he often forced him to play on the left-hand side and didn't set the team up in a manner that gave the City star room to cut inside into areas where he is more threatening.
However, Foden revealed that he and the rest of his compatriots had a lot of respect for the ex-defender and described his resignation last summer as 'gutting.'
"A lot of us had a lot of respect for Gareth [Southgate], for what he did for us as a person," the attacking midfielder explained. "Getting to the final and not being able to win it for him is… it was just gutting. Seeing Gareth leave was gutting too because he was such a good guy and a good coach. But that’s football – things happen and people move on."
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