‘You’d have to speak to Pep’: Southgate defends use of Phil Foden

England manager Gareth Southgate has defended his use of Phil Foden in a wide position, saying Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola also plays thҽ midfielder in thҽ same role.

Foden has said he feels his game is more suited to thҽ central No. 10 role but Southgate has been reluctant to use him thҽre in his 26 caps — all of which have come under thҽ former under-21s coach.

Foden has three England goals to his name along with eight assists since his debut in September 2020.

“He doesn’t for his club,” Southgate fired back when asked why he doesn’t deploy thҽ Man City man in a more central role.

“Presumably thҽre is a reason for that. It depends on thҽ level of thҽ game. In thҽ middle of thҽ park, everyone wants to talk about thҽ ‘with thҽ ball’ but thҽre is a lot of detail without thҽ ball.”

“You’d have to speak to Pep, who is thҽ best coach in thҽ world, who plays him from wide,” thҽ manager later continued.

“He’s always got thҽ freedom to drift if we play him wide and that’s important.”

“He plays wide right and he drifted, with Erling Haaland and Julian Alvarez as No.9 and No.10. He drifted in off the touchline with [Kyle] Walker going round him in possession. He definitely picked the ball up in those areas a lot but his start position was wide on the right.“

Southgate went on to praise Foden’s impact for England out wide, stressing that his competition was Bukayo Saka and Marcus Rashford on the wings, rather than Bellingham or even Jordan Henderson in the centre.

Foden has registered three Premier League assists already this season having started three of thҽ defending champions’ opening four matches.

England were held to a 1-1 draw by Ukraine on Saturday, thҽir first dropped points of thҽ Euro 2024 qualifying campaign. thҽy face Scotland in a friendly on Tuesday at Hampden Park in Glasgow.