Ex-England captain Rooney calls on Man City whiz Foden to be AXED

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Ex-England captain Rooney calls on Man City whiz Foden to be AXED

Former England captain Wayne Rooney says Manchester City midfielder Phil Foden needs to be dropped.

Derby boss Rooney feels England must start Jack Grealish and Jadon Sancho ahead of Phil Foden going forward at Euro 2020, after the Three Lions' lacklustre performance against Scotland.

In his column for The Times, Rooney said: "City play in the final third. They keep possession there. And Foden is not a dribbler but a player who plays nice little passes and moves into good positions. At City, the movement of players around him enables it.

"City will play quick five-yard passes before a little movement — not a big one — will free Foden up and he has licence to go into the spaces and play as a No 9, at times, or No 10 at others. Whereas with England he is a bit isolated out wide and when he receives the ball, the possession is slow and there is little happening around him.

"That means he then has to dribble — and if you are playing in such a way that, from your wide players, dribbling is what is required then why not play Grealish and Jadon Sancho, two of the best at doing it."

He continued: "I love Foden as a footballer but you have to realise that, for four years and more, he has been moulded into a City player.

"Pep Guardiola did not let him go on loan, or experience a different style of football — his whole adult career has been spent playing the Guardiola/City way. It is hard for him to turn up and just change how he has been playing since the age of 16"