Arsenal fans send message to Phil Foden after Bukayo Saka spotted with Tuchel | Football
Arsenal fans have warned Phil Foden he should prepare to step aside after Bukayo Saka was seen embracing Thomas Tuchel following England’s win over Latvia last night.
The Three Lions continued their winning life to start under their manager with another routine win at Wembley with Reece James, Harry Kane and Eberechi Eze all on the scoresheet.
Foden, meanwhile, had to console himself with a place on the bench following Friday’s night’s disappointing performance against Albania.
The Manchester City star has often found it hard to reproduce his club form on the international stage and lamented his output at Euro 2024 after which he claimed he craved more opportunities in a central role.
Earlier this year, he told the Manchester Evening News: ‘I feel frustrated I didn’t get out what I wanted to get out of it. The position I was put in on the left was very difficult to influence the game.
‘Coming off last season being the best player in the Premier League and playing centre midfield, I do feel the position was quite difficult to get used to.
‘I’m one who can play multiple positions and had to try to deal with it the best I could. I don’t feel like England ever got going or performed to our potential.’
After another subdued display against moderate opposition, Foden was warned by Roy Keane, in his own inimitable style, that he needn’t worry about where best he would fit in under Tuchel.
Asked if Foden might be more comfortable in the No.10 position, Keane said: ‘Listen, Foden won’t have that problem coming up about where he will be playing, because he won’t be playing [at all].’
He added: ‘I think he might be lacking in confidence. He’s definitely off it. His club form isn’t great, but we know he’s got that quality. Usually when Foden is at his best you’re sitting there thinking ‘something is going to happen’, but I wasn’t thinking that tonight.’
Asked about Foden’s situation after he was left out of last night’s starting line-up Keane again stressed the different nature of international football compared to what the 24-year-old has grown up with at City.
‘The challenge playing international football is you have to come away from what you do at your club,’ he said.
With Saka edging his way back to full fitness, Foden faces another challenge to remain a key part of Tuchel’s plans going forward.
How Arsenal will manage Bukayo Saka’s return
Every time he plays they will be straight back at it at the training ground, testing his hamstring muscle strength, testing his biomechanics, testing his muscular endurance. They will be looking at getting him that exposure [back to first team football], come back in and see how he responds. Give him a bit more exposure, get him back in again and see how he responds and make sure everything looks okay. They will keep doing that until they feel he has built of a level of resilience ands robustness so they can start putting the pieces together more frequently. Arsenal have world class staff, they will have a very detailed and intricate plan and I am sure they will do a good job.
They’ll have some key markers to help them understand his hamstring functions, strength, its endurance, some of his biomechanics and movement capabilities. they will look at recovery as well and understand what he is able to do in a game, , what type of distance he covers, how many accelerations, they will be comparing this to pre-injury and other athletes on the pitch to make sure he is at the same level or what they and Saka would expect.
Saka has had a lot of downtime which in some respects is great but ideally they would have wanted him with more football under his belt to come back in at the end of the season ready. Of course, a world class player coming back in can really help drive them towards the end of the finishing line but they also have a player who hasn’t had a lot of football. Even if the physical side of things is great, will he be match fit, will he be sharp. can he just slot back in tactically and technically?
Stephen Smith, Kitman Labs Founder and CEO, was speaking exclusively to Metro.
Kitman Labs is the world’s leading performance intelligence and technology company, specialising in injury welfare and performance analytics working with the Premier League.
The Arsenal winger is close to making his comeback after four months out following hamstring surgery and was in attendance at Wembley last night where he received a warm hug from Gareth Southgate’s successor.
‘Tuchel is salivating over the thought of having Saka back, especially after witnessing these other right wing performance,’ observed one fan on X.
Another clearly felt the writing was on the wall for Foden, who said: ‘He’s had enough of Foden already. Look at the excitement of Tuchel when he saw Saka.’
‘He’s the biggest winner of the international break because it just proved what we already knew that the drop off between him and anyone else in his position in this country is massive,’ said another Saka fan.
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Arsenal fans send message to Phil Foden after Bukayo Saka spotted with Tuchel | Football
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