There is a scene in the follow -up of the television series in which Patriarch Logan Roy ruthlessly rejects the opportunities of his eldest son to reject his media empire. “You are smart, you are good,” he says Kendall. “But you are not a murderer. You have to be a murderer.”
The exchange rose in me when listening to a heated debate between Sky Sports Pundits Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher this week at the plight situation of Phil Foden, who looks the risk of losing his place in Thomas Tuchel's English team in the midst of a bad season with Manchester City.
While Neville stated that the PFA and FWA player of the year of last season should be a guaranteed choice for England, Carragher argued differently. “He played every position for England and he didn't do it,” he said. Since September 2023, Foden has not scored or helped for the national team.
“I feel when I look at Foden that he seems like a shy boy, which is fine, everyone is different,” Carragher continued, speaking on the overlap. 'But I don't think he has that arrogance on the field for England, such as [Jude] Bellingham, and I think that stops him.
'He was previously in the English team [Bukayo] Saka, he was in the English team for Bellingham. But those two grabbed their chance. There is no way they are now excluded. “
Neville spoke to the ability of Foden, who did not dispute CARRIJFHER. “We all love him,” he said. But his argument came back to his character – and not just in relation to the national team.
In what should be a year of follow -up in Manchester City, where others show signs of age, is the 24 -year -old Foden who demonstrates that he misses the “murderer” edge needed to perform?
“City, we all know, have been dropped off this season because players who have been legends, there are not the same players, so Bernardo Silva, [Ilkay] Gundogan, Kevin De Bruyne, “Carragher explained.
“I am disappointed about Foden, not because of how he played because we all have seasons that we are not playing well, but because of the personality of going:” This is now my team. “
“De Bruyne leaves in the summer. This is your year to say:” The team is struggling, but I'm going to lift it. I'm the man. I'm the man. “
Foden's drop-off in statistics
At the moment it is worth a memory of how good he was last season. His total of 27 goals was by far the highest of his career. There were also 12 assists. He played a key role in the title Triumph's title and the praise were no surprise.
The drop-off was grim. This season, Foden scored 10 goals for City, but six they arrived in a three -week period in January and there have not been in 11 performances since then. Usually he is driven by games and effort to make an impact, albeit in the context of a difficult season for the club.
His output, in terms of goals and assists, is almost halved compared to last season, its average falls from 0.85 per 90 minutes to 0.50 per 90 minutes. It is in fact his lowest productivity since he broke in the Pep Guardiola team six years ago.
The city needs FODEN to take responsibility, because De Bruyne's influence starts to decrease in particular at the age of 33, but he generally contributes less in general.
It is not only his figures for goals and assists that have been immersed.
Foden also has fewer accents and makes fewer passes. He completes about half of as many dribbles as last season and hints on a loss of trust. He also gets less in the opposition box.
He has had to switch between different positions and his time divided between the right wing and the No. 10 position, but that is not unusual for Foden. It was certainly no problem last season.
His heat cards show that he works in the same areas as then, albeit this time without the consistent presence of the now left Kyle Walker behind him on the right.
Is fatigue a problem?
That revolution around Foden makes a possible contribution to his dip. Fatigue is another. Guardiola was careful with the playing time of Foden in the early years of his city career, carefully to ensure that he was not overloaded when he adapted to senior football.
That changed last season. Foden made 53 performances for City in seven different games and played a total of 4,276 minutes, by far the highest of his career to date.
Only Rodri played more minutes among city players, with 4,327. Foden was just before Walker, who played 4,083. Rodri was subsequently sidelined by an ACL injury, while a descended hiker on loan for AC Milan in January and quoted a structure of fatigue in the city.
Foden, just like Walker and Rodri, succeeded a debilitating domestic season by shifting last summer at the European Championship for his country, and played another 636 minutes for England during a tournament in which his performances were heavily investigated.
Fatigue, both physically and mentally, have clearly influenced Foden. But Guardiola did not hurried him back at the start of the campaign. Foden only started his first game at the end of September. He only started a Premier League match in October.
The hope for Guardiola and the city, and indeed England, was that drifting back from him in action would pay in the course of the campaign, but Foden continued to struggle, what the uncomfortable questions of Carragher have asked about his capacity to take the next step for club and country.
So what now?
Only successively Kendall responded to the wilting assessment of his father of his character by turning against him in an attempt to demonstrate the qualities that he was accused of missing.
Foden must also try to prove his point, although in the hope of a better result.
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