Gareth Southgate is set to put his faith in Phil Foden for England’s last 16 World Cup clash with Senegal, talkSPORT understands.
Foden is in line to retain his starting place after scoring in the Three Lions’ 3-0 win over Wales in their last group game.
Foden’s Manchester City teammate Kyle Walker is also pressing for a start after proving his fitness with a commanding display against the Welsh.
England coach Southgate has had to decide between sticking with a back four or changing to a back three in preparation for a potential quarter final with world champions France.
First, though, they will have to advance past AFCON champions Senegal who are without star player Sadio Mane and now manager Aliou Cisse is a doubt with illness.
England will be looking to build on their performance last time out, where Southgate threw Manchester City star Foden into the fold and was richly rewarded.
The 22-year-old attacking midfielder scored the second of three England goals in a convincing win which secured top spot in Group B and sent Wales packing.
Foden only played 19 minutes in England’s first two group games, seeing a late cameo in a 6-2 win over Iran before being left on the bench in a bore-draw with the USA.
Now though, Southgate is keen to harness the two-time Premier League Young Player of the Season’s flair and skill as he looks to book a place in the final eight.
Speaking to talkSPORT after the Wales game, Man City and England teammate John Stones said: “I’ve never seen someone like Phil at that age.
“His football knowledge, his freedom in how he plays and how he expresses himself and the ability he’s got is frightening.
“I’m a huge fan of Phil and I’m lucky to get to play with him almost every day, I look forward to what he can do and I love playing with him.”
talkSPORT World Cup 2022 Coverage
talkSPORT is bringing you wall-to-wall coverage of the 2022 World Cup.
We are broadcasting all 64 games in the tournament live, with over 600 hours of coverage across our network.
You can tune in to talkSPORT and talkSPORT 2 via our free online streaming service at talkSPORT.com.
talkSPORT is widely available across the UK via DAB digital radio and on 1089 or 1053 AM.
You can also download the talkSPORT app, or ask your smart speaker to play talkSPORT.
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;
n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,
document,’script’,’https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
fbq(‘init’, ‘752905198150451’);
fbq(‘track’, “PageView”);
News Summary:
- Gareth Southgate to put his faith in ‘frightening’ Phil Foden for England’s last 16 clash with Senegal as Man City star could be joined again by Kyle Walker
- Check all news and articles from the latest Football updates.