Roy Keane raised a few eyebrows when he revealed which England star he felt would struggle to break into Thomas Tuchel’s squad but the Manchester United legend appears to have been proven right.
Keane had just watched England toil to a 2-0 win over Albania in World Cup qualifying back in March, with Myles Lewis-Skelly's debut goal and a Harry Kane strike doing little to convince after a dour performance at Wembley.
And one player's performance that night caught the Irishman's eye for all the wrong reasons, with Keane going on to predict that the player would not be a regular pick under Tuchel.
The player in question was Manchester City star Phil Foden, who was left out of Tuchel's first squad in 2025/26 for Saturday's win over Andorra and Tuesday night's clash with Serbia.
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The 25-year-old had a disappointing 2024/2025 campaign with his club, scoring 13 goals and producing seven assists in 49 appearances across all competitions and while that total might sound respectable, it was some way down from 27 goals and 13 assists respectively the season before.
Having been hauled off after 75 minutes for Jarrod Bowen, Foden’s performance against Albania led to Keane suggesting that he was lacking in confidence and would not be selected by Tuchel moving forward.
“Listen, Foden won’t have that problem coming up about where he will be playing, because he won’t be playing," Keane told ITV Sport.
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“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.
“Usually when he cuts inside, he’ll pick a pass out or get a shot away. He did none of that tonight and every time he got the ball, I’m looking at him thinking, ‘I don’t expect anything from Foden at the moment’.
"Wherever he’s playing, you’ve got to affect the game in different ways and he didn’t do that tonight.”
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Foden has also struggled at the start of this season, with the England international missing the opening game of the campaign against Wolves before playing just 15 minutes of his side’s 2-0 defeat against Tottenham.
To make matters worse, he was not included in Pep Guardiola’s squad for their 2-1 loss to Brighton and his failure to earn a place in the latest Three Lions squad has only served to underline Keane's previous comments.
The 2023/2024 PFA Players' Player of the Year could only watch on as Tuchel's side won 2-0 against Andorra to make it four wins from four in their qualifying group for next summer's World Cup.
An own goal from Christian Garci and a second-half header from Declan Rice were enough to earn all three points in a low-key affair at Villa Park.
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Foden has not played for England since coming on as a substitute in the 3-0 victory against Latvia back in March, with Tuchel not including him in the squad for the win over Andorra and friendly defeat to Senegal in June.
Jonathan Bray