Poor Gareth Southgate. Having three outstanding finishers is giving him a thumping headache ahead of the European Championship. Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden are thrilling football crowds with their goal-scoring talents in three of the best domestic leagues in the world. Most national team managers would welcome such a golden trio: but for Southgate it is a case of pass the paracetamol. He must wish the quality in his squad was more evenly spread so he didn’t have to keep picking Harry Maguire as the central defender when he has the turning circle of a small ocean-going liner.
Kane is the only one of the trio who’s an out-and-out striker; and of the three, City’s Foden is clearly the problem for Southgate. Were he eligible to play for any other home nation, he would be the first player on the team sheet for the next ten years – but he seems more of a pain in the manager’s side than a gem to be permanently embedded in the England team.
Were Foden eligible to play for any other home nation, he would be the first player on the team sheet for the next ten years
The issue is where to play him. Pep Guardiola seems happy to use him centrally now, though he can send him out wide too. Southgate almost always uses him wide. The romantics among us would like a midfield three of Declan Rice as a holding midfielder, Foden as the traditional No. 8, going from box to box, and Bellingham as a No. 10 behind Harry Kane. But Southgate is always cautious and wants to make sure he has defensive solidity in midfield, so he will probably go for Manchester United’s Kobbie Mainoowith Rice and Bellingham. This would push Foden – who will almost certainly win the Player of the Season award – out to the left of a front three with Kane and Bukayo Saka of Arsenal.
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