With many fans and pundits alike criticising Foden's performance playing on the left against Serbia in their opening match, is Foden the best fit for the role?
England seem to have not been clicking as well as everyone thought in particular up front with the side having scored just two goals in their opening two games. Foden has been the one criticised heavily for this and this has come with valid reasoning. Whilst the Englishman's performances haven't been shockingly bad, what he has been offering seems to not be benefiting the England attack the same way Kane, Bellingham and Saka may have been doing.
One of the main issues is how the play style does not suite Kane's playing style as a striker. Kane likes to come in deep to get the ball and play it to an inverted winger or an attacking midfielder. The best examples of these were at Tottenham when Kane combined with the likes of Son. However, as Foden likes to roam around the edge of the box, it leads to Kane having one main target with his passes in Saka. Some other left wingers could play in Foden's position and create more goal scoring opportunities however.
One of these players is Cole Palmer. The current Chelsea talisman just finished an absurd debut season for Chelsea in which he scored 22 goals and also contributed 11 assists in 33 appearances for Chelsea in the Premier League. This is the kind of goal scoring threat that Kane could benefit from having at his disposal much like he did whe he was at Tottenham or even now what he has at Bayern Munich.
It would also open up more options for England other than just having Saka on the right or Bellingham muscling his way through the centre halves. This could be a sure fire way for England to create more goal scoring opportunities and to start to score more too.
Another one of these players who could play in this role is Anthony Gordon. Anthony Gordon will add the width needed to create more chances for England by spreading the defensive shape out which England have been failing to do for the majority of the tournament thus far. Having Gordon would open up space for more creative opportunities especially inside the ox for players, such as Bellingham and Saka and even a late arriving Kane following a deep ball. Doing this will add more of a variety to the England attack and could make them more of an unpredictable unit going forward if done correctly by Southgate.
Whether Southgate opts to mix things up later in the tournament or keeps his attack the same, it is clear that something tactically may need to change before England embark on yet another disappointing European Championship campaign.
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