- Foden played on the right wing for Tuchel’s first game in charge of Three Lions
- He does not, however, possess the direct pace required to fill the role in the side
- LISTEN NOW: It’s All Kicking Off! Is England’s squad good enough to win the World Cup?
Thomas Tuchel is right to encourage more dribbling from England because there isn’t enough of it in the modern game. The real trick is identifying the right players who can do it.
For someone as quick, dynamic, physical and skilful as Marcus Rashford, it’s a no-brainer — you should tell him to run at defenders all day long. Phil Foden is different. He doesn’t have electric pace and it’s his football intelligence, not dribbling prowess, which gets him into great positions.
Asking Foden to do a similar job to Rashford takes away the significant other strengths the Manchester City player does possess.
As a youth player representing England schoolboys, I had a dribbling period because at that age I was good enough to go past players. It became harder as I graduated to tougher defenders and my manager at Crewe, Dario Gradi, ordered me to stop dribbling because it negated my real threat; seeing the pictures early and making key passes.
He’d show me videos of games I’d affected with my passing and compare it to the number of times I’d lose the ball trying to beat people.
It wasn’t my natural game, even though I’m still proud of a solo goal I scored against Swansea after ‘forgetting’ Dario’s orders!
Phil Foden’s main strength is his football intelligence rather than his dribbling prowess
Thomas Tuchel is right to encourage more dribbling from his players – like Marcus Rashford
If Tuchel wants his wide players to take defenders on, there is a long list in front of Foden
If Tuchel wants his wide players to take defenders on, which I applaud, it’s Rashford, Bukayo Saka, Anthony Gordon, Noni Madueke, Morgan Rogers and Jarrod Bowen he should turn to, rather than Foden.
Though Tuchel was referring to Rashford and Foden when he said he ‘hoped for more impact and aggressive runs towards the box’, I think the manager’s dribbling philosophy extends to his midfield players as well.
Against Albania Tuchel played with two No 8s, Jude Bellingham and Curtis Jones, who can both travel up the pitch with the ball.
It was a lovely bit of skill from Bellingham to dribble past a defender in a tight area before setting up the opening goal for Myles Lewis-Skelly.
Jones’s profile as a ball-carrier suggests you’ll see a lot of him in the Tuchel era. He’s more suited to bursting past players than Adam Wharton for example.
As a midfielder, I used to love having dribblers around me.
On my full Liverpool debut, I spent most of the game admiring Steve McManaman destroy Aston Villa. He would glide past players with quick feet rather than pure acceleration. I wasn’t surprised he won Champions League titles with Real Madrid.
I’d also count Michael Owen as one of the world’s best dribblers at that time. He was always so direct, taking a risk to commit defenders and invariably skipping past them.
Curtis Jones’ ball-carrying ability means we are likely to see him regularly under Tuchel
It may mean the likes of Adam Wharton, whose strength is his passing, is less likely to feature
At Fulham, we had Damien Duff — a wide player with very good close control — and Mousa Dembele, who would run past people with nonchalance through the middle of the park. The winger on the opposite side from Duff, Simon Davies, was more comfortable cutting inside. The important lesson was no player was asked to do anything unnatural to their game.
I am glad Tuchel is taking a bold approach. He has wonderful options to make England the poster boys for a new dribbling generation — as long as he picks the right players to try it.
