City 5, AEK 1: Foden Can Play Anywhere When He Plays Like This

Before kickoff I said I was excited to see Foden on the right wing, because I thought he could be really good there in Maresca's system as a right inside forward with his final output. He was. Then Maresca moved him to false 9 and he was even better. 90 minutes, 3 goals, an assist, and a perfect 10 from Sofascore (FotMob gave him 9.8, which is basically the same thing said with less confidence). City beat AEK Athens 5-1 at the Etihad with 64% of the ball, 17 shots to 11, 2.84 xG to 0.72, and 54 touches in their box to their 10. Last week I wrote that Foden's best spot is the 8. Tonight he scored off the right and then scored twice more through the middle. When he plays like this he can play anywhere, and I still think he's more effective than Enzo in the 8. Wealth of riches, I guess.

The first 11 minutes were pretty boring, then Samba won a free kick, Enzo hit the crossbar with it, and Elliot Anderson was there for the tap-in at 12'. Fine. The goal that told you something came at 34'. Lewis finally got something out of that run in behind, through the half-space channel between AEK's left-back and center-back, and Foden finished from the right side of the six-yard box into the top corner. Great interplay, exactly the kind of goal we keep saying we want to score. At 62' McAidoo came on for Samba, Foden moved into the 9, and McAidoo took the right. Three minutes later Cherki, playing almost like a deep-lying playmaker from the 10, dropped a ball over the top to Lewis, Lewis laid it off perfectly, and Foden put it top bins with his left foot. At 76' Lewis slid a great ball through to McAidoo, McAidoo crossed, and Foden tapped it in from close range to finish the hat-trick. Foden took 4 shots, scored with 3 of them, and turned 1.24 xG into 3 goals. He did well off the right. He was amazing at the 9.

Foden took 4 shots, scored 3, and turned 1.24 xG into a hat-trick.

Rico Lewis is the most complicated player in this squad and this game was the whole thing in one night. Sofascore has him at 56 of 57 passes, 5 key passes, 2 big chances created and 2 assists, a 7.8 rating. Those are numbers you'd be thrilled with from a midfielder. And he is the reason AEK scored. At 52' Khusanov got pulled out of position all the way to the touchline, and Lewis stepped up to the attacker but not enough. He got caught between committing and delaying, got cooked, and then didn't track the man he'd stepped to into the space Khusanov had vacated. Stavros Pilios finished the break with a left-footed shot into the bottom corner. Way too easy. Sofascore actually charges Khusanov with the error, but Khusanov was only out there because the shape asked him to be, and the guy who had to cover for it didn't. For the first 10 minutes of the second half Lewis was playing like a left wing-back instead of a full-back and the whole shape wobbled. I don't think he's a right-back. He's a CM or a CAM who can fill in at full-back, and at home against a team sitting in a 4-4-2 he can get away with it. Against anyone who can actually run at us, I don't know that he can.

Allan was the other guy I wanted to see with the ball, and he's a 1v1 monster. 4 of 5 dribbles completed per Sofascore, skinned his defender at 23' and hit the bar, did it again at 38', and at 57' he worked the cross that started the Cherki goal. The only problem in the first half was that he'd beat his man in the final third and there was nobody to pass to. Cherki, meanwhile, was just having fun out there. Insane touches, always looking to go forward, 108 touches and 4 key passes, and his goal was sublime: a touch, a Cruyff turn, and a pass into the corner off Foden's layoff. Sofascore gave him an 8.7 and I've got him at 81. He also gave the ball away 16 times, the most on the pitch, and I genuinely don't care. That's the product of who he is. He's a maverick, and I'd rather he tries the riskier dribble or the riskier pass than the safe option, because that's exactly what makes him special.

Then there's Enzo. Once again offering absolutely nothing. Nothing going forward, nothing defensively, just a big nothing. I wanted to see how he'd handle that hybrid 8 and 10 role and the answer was 0 of 2 dribbles, 1 key pass, possession lost 10 times, and a free kick off the bar that turned into Anderson's goal, which is the only reason his numbers look like anything. When McAidoo came on I would have pulled Enzo, not Samba, and still moved Foden inside. Maresca left Enzo on until 72', and Foden at the 9 is the reason nobody noticed.

I wanted Floyd Samba on the score sheet. He touched the ball 6 times in 62 minutes.

Samba is the one that worries me. I really wanted to see him score, and in 62 minutes Sofascore has him with 6 touches, 2 passes and 0 shots. He kept dropping in to link play, but a striker who touches the ball 6 times in an hour isn't linking anything. You could tell he was lost out there, just not involved enough, and I think it's a combination of him and a system that never found him. Quick hits on the rest: Anderson scored but gave the ball away more than usual. Khusanov made a massive covering tackle on the corner counterattack at 49'. Gvardiol went down and had me holding my breath, then somehow picked up a yellow at 59' for the challenge. Love seeing Vitor Reis get 18 minutes, because with Nunes out we need cover at the back, and it's Reis, Dias, Gvardiol and Guéhi in the center-back rotation. Braithwaite came on for Dias at the end, more time for the youngsters.

So I'll take the win, and I'll take being half right about Foden. The right wing works. The 9 worked better. The 8 is still where I think he beats Enzo for the shirt. That's three positions and one player who looks like the guy who won us everything, and the problem for Maresca isn't finding Foden a spot anymore. It's deciding who he takes it from.