Will Phil Foden play for Manchester City this weekend - and should he be in your Fantasy Premier League team?
Manchester City kick off their new season with a trip to the Molineux on Saturday evening, but there’s at least one selection dilemma which is shared by both Pep Guardiola and millions of Fantasy Premier League managers – whether to pick Phil Foden.
The England attacking midfielder struggled last season and often looked exhausted, but was worth a massive 230 points in 2023/24 and could easily be one of the best assets in the FPL again should he recapture his best form. But to complicate matters, Foden could be injured this weekend – so will he play against Wolves, and should FPL managers pick him in their starting squads?
Will Phil Foden start against Wolves this weekend?
Foden missed Manchester City’s only pre-season warm-up match against Palermo thanks to a minor ankle injury, and as a result starts the season with the dreaded yellow triangle dangling next to his name in the FPL app.
The good news is that Foden returned to training on Thursday and Pep Guardiola told reporters after their 3-0 win in Sicily that Foden would “hopefully” be ready to play a full 90 minutes against Wolves this weekend.
That said, this is Guardiola, and his notoriously capricious rotational system begets few guarantees – and Foden only started one of Manchester City’s four fixtures during the Club World Cup in the United States, although he came off the bench for the remaining three.
There may be less competition for starting places this weekend than usual, however, despite the signing of Rayan Cherki – with Kevin de Bruyne having left and Savinho’s future in doubt amidst interest from Tottenham Hotspur, there is perhaps a slightly easier path towards minutes right now than there might otherwise have been.
Still, Foden clearly isn’t an entirely nailed-on starter in Guardiola’s mind right now and is coming in with a minor fitness concern, so there is a very high chance that he doesn’t play the full match against Wolves.
Should you sign Foden for your FPL team?
Even were Foden guaranteed the full game, however, FPL managers would probably be well advised to steer clear for now. During last season, Foden’s output in terms of goals and chances created almost halved compared to 2023/24 and his minutes dropped away considerably – and he has yet to demonstrate that he is back to his best form.
It’s also worth noting that he has only really hit those heights in one season, at least in FPL terms. His prior returns in the 2021/22 and 2022/23 seasons were both modest, below 150 points, and he would have to be pushing to get close to 200 points to be worth his £8.0m price tag.
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Foden, at his best, is a quite brilliant player, but that has only once translated into a sufficiently steady stream of goals and assists to make him a first-rate FPL asset. There is no guarantee that he won’t get there again, but with players like Bryan Mbeumo operating at the same price point and reliably scoring more points, it’s hard to make the case for Foden until he proves that he’s back to his best – and that he’ll play week in, week out. For now, FPL players should avoid him.
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