Pep could finally drop Foden by unleashing Man City's "top talent"

Manchester City find themselves in a real fight for Champions League qualification.

Following Sunday’s 2-0 defeat at the hands of Liverpool, swatted aside by the champions-elect at the Etihad, Pep Guardiola‘s side are fifth, thereby occupying the final Champions League spot, but with five clubs two points or fewer behind.

Well, on Wednesday night, the Sky Blues will visit the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, a venue at which they’ve lost six of eight previous visits, including being dumped out of the Carabao Cup in N17 back in October.

For the Citizens to leave North London with three points, Guardiola must unleash Man City’s “top talent”, thereby dropping one of their most high-profile stars in the process.

Phil Foden’s form for Man City this season

Just last season, Phil Foden was named both PFA Players’ Player of the Year and Football Writers’ Footballer of the Year,

Teammate Rodri thereby asserted that Foden “has the ability to be the best English player in history”, but the 24-year-old has been a shadow of that player this time around.

Andy Hampson of the Independent notes that Foden ‘endured a slow start to the season’, with Sam Lee of the Athletic adding he was struggling to ‘regain his rhythm’, while Jonathan Wilson of the Guardian believes he’s never got going at all this season, only ‘flickered’ since that aforementioned slow start.

Simon Bajkowski of the Manchester Evening News succinctly puts it best: Foden has gone from being ‘the best player in the Premier League‘ to now enduring the ‘roughest campaign of his career’.

Well, Foden himself believes he has suffered from “burnout” and has been nursing “a few niggles” following the European Championships, to which Guardiola stated that his players “are human beings”, asking for supporters to “be patient”.

Nevertheless, as James Ducker of the Telegraph documents, Foden’s output has ‘fallen off dramatically’ this season, so let’s analyse the numbers to see if they support this assertion.

As the table outlines, Foden’s numbers are down unanimously this season, in terms of goals, assists, chances created, dribbles and touches, so at Spurs on Wednesday, should Guardiola leave his star midfielder on the bench in favour of Man City’s most highly-rated youngster?

Man City’s next Phil Foden

James McAtee has made 19 appearances for Manchester City this season, albeit 14 of these have come as a substitute, totalling just 648, all five of his starts coming in the FA Cup, EFL Cup or Community Shield, hence why Sam Lee of the Athletic reported that he is frustrated by his “limited opportunities”.

During the January transfer window, it was reported that Bayer Leverkusen were attempting to sign McAtee, with further claims noting he was also being ‘courted’ by Borussia Dortmund, but neither deal came to fruition, because Guardiola would not allow it, plainly stating “I need him”.

Jacek Kulig of Football Talent Scout believes McAtee to be a ‘top talent’, with Guardiola himself describing the 22-year-old as “special”, and the academy graduate has been effective during his limited opportunities this season, scoring six goals, most notably bagging a hat-trick against Salford in the FA Cup.

So, let’s assess how his numbers compare to Foden’s this season.

As the table shows, comparing the two is difficult, largely due to McAtee’s significantly smaller sample size, albeit his six goals in under 650 minutes on the field is a very impressive ratio, most recently on target during the 4-0 drubbing of Newcastle.

McAtee did start the EFL Cup defeat at Tottenham in October, with Guardiola afterwards exclaiming “what a game he had”, so could we see the youngster back in the lineup at the same venue on Wednesday?

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