“He might be lacking in confidence” - Roy Keane issues warning to England star despite win against Albania

Roy Keane has warned Phil Foden that he could be dropped from the England starting XI despite their win over Albania on Friday. He believes that the Manchester City star was not good enough and lacks confidence right now.

Keane claimed on ITV that Foden was poor against the Albanian side and did not even get a shot away. He believes that the England winger did not leave a good impression on Thomas Tuchel, who was taking charge of his first match for the Three Lions. He said via Metro:

"If you’re one of those attacking players and you’ve come off the pitch and dominated a game like that against a poor Albanian team and you’ve not scored a goal, not had a shot on target, you’ve not tested the goalkeeper, you’d be disappointed because you’re there to affect games. You’ve got a new manager and you want to make a good impression. Rashford and Foden certainly didn’t do that tonight."

"I think he [Foden] might be lacking in confidence and he’s definitely off it, his club form is not great. We know he’s got that quality, usually when Foden’ at his best you’re going, ‘something’s going to happen’, even when he cuts in he picks a pass out, gets a shot away. He done none of that tonight, every time he gets the ball now I don’t expect anything from Foden at the moment."

England won 2-0 in Tuchel's first match in charge with goals from Myles Lewis-Skelly (20') and Harry Kane (77') in either half. The Three Lions did not let their opponents get a single shot away and face Latvia next on Monday.

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Thomas Tuchel wants more impact from England wingers

Thomas Tuchel spoke about Marcus Rashford and Phil Foden after the match and admitted that he wanted more impact from the wingers. He added that they are doing well for their respective Premier League clubs and wants the same for the national side.

He said via The Guardian:

“We will encourage him to do what he does best, to go at defenders, to go into dribbles. Both our wingers who started were not as impactful as they can be in club football. I’m not so sure why we struggled to bring the ball quickly to them. We lacked runs off the ball. It was a little bit too much passing, not enough dribbling, not aggressive enough towards goal. They trained very well, they were decisive in training. That’s why I also think they deserved [to start], they were very good in the last weeks with their clubs. We will keep on encouraging them.”

England replaced Gareth Southgate with the former Chelsea manager after the Englishman stepped down after the EURO 2024 final loss to Spain.