No way Rodri was worse than Phil Foden Again I watched all games of Man City, and Rodri was the guy in the middle who sets up everything and he was the main man of the season for Man City. Good decision maker, very good playmaker, positioning is perfect, always shows up in the big times, good physic, he was a complete midfielder this season. Yes i don't think he had a good ucl but in the Real Madrid series, Ancelotti broke him cause he knows if that guy do whatever he wants his team gonna get cooked. I can name toooooo many games that Rodri saved Pep's ass this season Phil Foden was the weapon, Pep organize the whole games for Foden and Rodri, because Haaland and KDB was out for a lot of times of the season, and after Haaland came back he was not on the form like he used to. Foden had outstanding games but it was not for the every match. Imo Foden started going crazy after that Hatrick against Brentford match. First half of the season he was not that much. Had very important games and yes he was the better player for the second half, but for the whole season, HELL NO. Rodri was everywhere in this season. The thing with the Spain is everything set up for Nico and Lamine. Spain dominated the tournament with them not with Rodri. Even tho he had good games, he was not the main guy, he was playing the 6 role normal. In City, on the back he was controlling the game. Best player of the tournament was def Lamine, that child dominated the shit out of everyone. Yes Rodri was overrated in the Euro's but also Underrated in the PL imo.
Honestly, I think my ranking will change, so maybe I'll put the following definitive ranking: 1 - Vinicius Jr 2 - Bellingham 3 - Rodri 4- Carvajal 5 - Lautaro - I'm putting Bellingham back in Rodri's place, because Jude was a Euro finalist, decisive passer and decisive goalscorer in the RO16 round, in the 93rd minute. It's true that for a 21-year-old's first season, he's scored 23 goals for what is supposed to be a defensive midfielder. In truth, I wouldn't be shocked if we put him ahead of Vinicius Jr, because by way of comparison, Vinicius Jr ends up with 24 goals, one more than Bellingham, even though he's a striker. - But I personally find Vinicius Jr more impactful on the season, especially on the clutch moments of the Champions League finals (including the final), which is why I put Vinicius Jr first by a narrow margin. If Bellingham would have won the Euro, or lost anyway with a better Euro personally, I'd put him first. - I therefore leave Rodri in third place for the reasons given above. - Carvajal moves up to 4th place, because on closer inspection, it's true that he scored the goal in the Champions League final and made a great opening for Yama in the Euro final. - As for Lautaro, despite his Copa America campaign and his fine season in Serie A, the fact that he's out of the Champions League RO16 could work against him.
What you're saying is equivalent to say that Kroos were better than Vini Jr for Real Madrid this season. Using the very same arguments you're using for Rodri over Foden. Anyway Foden won POTT official award for Premier League (deservedly btw, he has the highest grade on dbscalcio). On UCL Phil Foden had the highest rating of ManCity on Sofascore
In La Liga Kroos and Bellingham were the best players for Real Madrid, Yes. But Vini Jr, after his injury, the come back was crazy ass hell. Imo he reached the biggest peak for this season. Vini in the second half AND in the most important moments of the season, he was there. The thing with the "Sofascore" Sofascore, FotMob, WhoScored... any other rating website is the worst way to look at football. If you not watching football with your eyes, don't watch it. If you watching with your eyes, you can use some stats to show why this player good at this thing. (performing under or up his xG, creating chances, dribble success...) I already said Foden was the best UCL player for Man City, and also one of the best players for the whole tournament. But Rodri in the PL clears Foden, from the start to finish, every game was under the control by Rodri, he was the guy who holds his team on the front in the matches, and showed up in a lot of important moments (i can name too much). Foden getting the PL best player award is so dumb when you look at it. He only get it because of his second half performance. Most of em because Brentford, Aston Villa, United games. In the season he was not consistent. Saying that "this site gives him the most ratings or this site too..." that is not how it works. PL awards is so dumb they didn't even put Rodri on awards. They put Haaland for him, after his injury he was ass and played badly on the important matches. But people looking at him then seeing that he got 27 goals, they starting to think this guy deserves more credits. This level of Haaland was not even close to the 2023 season Haaland. If everyone be themselves and actually rate players fairly it would be better, NOT WITH THE GOOFY AWARD SYSTEMS OR RATING WEBSITES.
You realize those rating websites actually back up what you say? In the league Foden is 3rd or 4th of his team, in the CL as well. Rodri is far ahead in both competitions. Haaland being less good in the CL as the campaign before is also captured. Now, that this doesn't differentiate between level of opponents is right (nor should they?) but therefore I made myself a similar remark about pre-2010 Fabregas too... Meanwhile, it really is quite a stretch to put five or six Real Madrid players in the top ten...
This year for the Real Madrid only three players can come into top 10 imo, its easy, Kroos, Vini and Bellingham. I was bugging when they win the CL and i put Rudiger and Valverde in the top (they can only fit in top 20 imo or 25).
It should be tho, what I'm saying is this PL award is only given to Foden because of his Brentford, United and Aston Villa games. imo Rodri, Cole Palmer, Saka, Mohamed Salah had better seasons. These four players in their forms Foden can't handle them. Foden in the UCL top 7 or 8 for me. Some websites are different, and I'm never saying don't look at these websites, just don't rely your opinions for their ranking system.
All you're saying about Vini applies to Foden man lol he were particularly good at the second half of the season exactly like Vini. And Foden didn't only delivered against minnows. I remember a MOTM performance by him against ManUtd for example. He scored a goal against real Madrid in the first leg and played very well the second leg
Vini's second half performance was an ALL TIMER, what I'm saying is ALLLLL TIMER. Foden not coming close by an inch to this guy. Foden's second half success holding onto the games that Villa, United, and Brentford (also last game against West Ham). Btw these were the one of the most important games for Man City, and he showed up crazy ass hell. But that don't mean that he was playing the same football like Vini.
7.5+ performances by Foden and Vinicius on the second half of the season: Vini: 8.2 vs Paraguay, 7.9 vs Dortmund, 9.4 vs Alavez, 7.8 vs Bayern, 8.2 vs Bayern, 7.5 vs City, 8.4 vs Osasuna, 7.8 vs Celta, 7.8 vs Valencia, 7.7 vs Sevilla, 9.2 vs Girona, 10 vs Barcelona, 8.0 vs Atletico Total: 13 games 7.5 or higher out of 33 total games played (0.39 ratio) Foden: 7.6 vs Slovenia, 7.7 vs ManUtd, 9.9 vs West Ham, 7.8 vs Fulham, 8.7 vs Brighton, 7.5 vs Chelsea, 7.6 vs Real Madrid, 10 vs Aston Villa, 7.9 vs Newcastle, 9.8 vs ManUtd, 8.7 vs Bounermouth, 7.7 vs Brentford, 7.5 vs Chelsea, 9.2 vs Kobenhavn, 7.5 vs Everton, 9.8 vs Brentford, 7.7 vs Newcastle, 9.3 vs Huddersfield Total: 18 games out of 34 total games played with 7.5 or higher (0.52 ratio) Foden had an higher grade overall for the second half of the season too, and has more performances rated 9.8 or higher too
Of course it has to go hand in hand with what you see (so if I say Foden and Rice are very overhyped, it is also based on what I've seen of their career and the 10/15+ games in the club season), and has to be combined with other 'data', like this one for example: https://macro-football.com/iso/2324/ Rodri up there with the best, certainly among non-attackers. Sort by Xpar and 'Isolated Impact' (the two key numbers). Foden isn't there in those ranks. He isn't there next to Odegaard and other people. Again, I actually thought Foden played fine in the semi-final (the indexes and newspaper ratings thought otherwise). So it is not everything for me really. If I say that for me Rudiger is still not at the level of Van Dijk then I base that too on the latter his exceptional games against Manchester City and also the good outings against France and England in the euros (likely the best defender on the pitch, of the eight starters in total, for both; the indexes support this yes, Fotmob even a lot more than Sofascore but so be it). P.S. interesting to see Stefan de Vrij is in the top 50 of above link too... even if not playing everything for Inter.
Before the Final, I never heard anyone talk about Rodri that highly. In fact, it was Fabian Ruiz who had the best WhoScored metric of all the Euro players. Rodri is a hell of a player but he's not Ballon D'Or candidate. Neither is Carvajal. I would honestly go with Vini. He missed the Colombia match due to a weak yellow card suspension. Won the CL, La Liga and played reasonably well for Brazil this time.
That 7.5 Bayern game clears Phil Foden's whole season, watch that match again, that was one of the most killer performances of all time in the UCL. That's what I'm talking, ratings don't show that, you need to score or assist to get up high. Foden is useless if he is not scoring, because he is really not that good at playmaking, good link up player but if he not scoring he is not gonna give any positive thing in the pitch. That Bournemouth game was awful, and he got 7.7 because he scored that tap-in. It was a horrible game. I don't want to talk about ratings, the thing that we need to discuss is how players are playing and how they contribute to their teams, it is good, decent, or poorly. For me if Foden not scoring he is not gonna get you better in the pitch. But Vinicius dribbling, creativity, speed, shooting, passing, 1v1 skills, link up plays, off the ball positioning, every aspect of the game, HE CLEARS THE SHT OUT OF FODEN.
That a hat-trick gets you a high rating is generally true for WhoScored but believe me, in SC there are many games with a brace or a hat-trick where a player gets only a 7.6 or 7.8. Let's also not forget goals are actually important to win a match, in a low scoring sport.
Yes, because Southgate designed that goofy 3-4-2-1 system for him, even tho in the final and quarter final he was still ass. I don't want to talk about England because Southgate is the best coach to missprofile their players. But the thing with the Foden is, I don't think he is that special if he is not upgrading his playmaking skills and feeding the people around him more. He can't play 10 by himself because he don't got the abilities like Jude Bellingham. He is not a good winger, always need to cut inside and shoot it with his left foot. He is not creative like Saka or Lamine. But people don't want to talk about that because his goals in the big moments (which Pep Guardiola sets him incredible in the pitch).
I can understand this not for every website but that don't change the fact that Vini was incredible for that game, and it shows 7.5 on that website. Of course you are right about goals are actually important to win a match in a low scoring sport, but also don't forget that it's about the momentum, because Vini killed Kimmich in that game and created too much chance for himself, that's how the first goal happened. Vini shooted, Neuer saved but failed to hold the ball and Joselu scored. Whole match he go crazy and when i see he got 7.5, yes im getting mad about this.
I'd agree for 80% with this and is part of why I find him very overhyped (based on what I have seen). An academy project.
This quote by Pep is changed a lot of things about Foden in people's mind "I have said many times in press conferences, but maybe not said it in front of him. Phil is the most, most, most talented player I have ever seen in my career as a manager. He has everything to become one of the best players." His movement and shooting is incredible but saying that MOST MOST MOST TALENTED, i don't see that, I'm not trying argue with the best manager of all time but Foden never played like he was one of the most talented player in the world.
What you say just doesn't match reality. Vini Jr definitely has the edge when it comes to Dribbling. But when it comes to passing, Foden is definitely better. This is evident by their numbers of assists, xA, BCC, crosses, and long balls where Foden has more in all but long balls. I noticed that Phil Foden also had a much higher xG overperformance and Vini Jr lost a lot of big chances. Edit: Foden has a MUCH higher number than Vini Jr in all defensive actions too. This thing that he doesn't offer anything or make his team better when he doesn't score goals couldn't be further from reality
It is in 'the bald fraud' his handbook, located just next to his chequebook (115+ breaches wasn't it?). He arrives at Bayern Munich and suddenly local boy and captain Lahm is the most intelligent player he has ever seen. The Nandrolon Pep (thrice the allowed value, but unlike other footballers with just a 2% margin came away with it) knows what he has to say to play the public and the press.