Danny Mills has claimed one Manchester City player is better than Jude Bellingham at one particular aspect of the game.
The Blues recently secured their sixth Premier League title in seven years and could go on to win their second FA Cup in a row by beating Manchester United this weekend.
After the final, the season will come to an end and multiple City players will switch their focus to the upcoming European Championship in Germany.
With the provisional England squad being announced yesterday for their upcoming pre-tournament games, four City players were included.
Looking ahead to the tournament, one pundit and former City player focused on one area of the England side and spoke about how one particular current City star could play a key role in the side.
Mills says Phil Foden should play an attacking-midfield role ahead of Jude Bellingham
Speaking on talkSPORT, Mills had this to say on the subject of how Gareth Southgate could, and perhaps should, set his England midfield up for the Euros.
He said: “I still think Gareth is going to go with Declan Rice as the holding player as much as I think we’d all like to see [him] maybe a touch further forward.
“I think with Phil Foden having been exceptional this last three or four months, I can see Jude Bellingham having to play a little bit deeper.
“I know we’ve all talked about Jude Bellingham as the number 10 but I think Jude has got the energy, the belief, the mentality where he could actually play a little bit deeper.
“Rice as the out-and-out holding-midfield, player Jude Bellingham maybe to one side of that but allowed to get forward at times and use his energy box-to-box and let Phil Foden play in that free role if you like in that sort of that 8, 10 role and do what he is best at.
“You’re going to have to compromise somebody in somebody’s position because you can’t play five number 10s, it simply cannot happen, but I just think the way that most teams will set up against England will be defensive, they will sit quite deep, now who is going to be better at breaking those defences down? I think it’s Phil Foden.
“When I watched him the other day, his moving, he’s always between the lines, he’s always receiving the ball with his back foot, he’s looking to play a pass through.
“I think you find that Jude Bellingham is more of a dynamic, a Steven Gerard-esque type player making those box-to-box runs getting into the box late scoring goals, shooting from distance.
“I think Phil Foden has a little bit more craft and a little bit more guile and is more likely to unlock a tight defence.
“I think we all know, we’ve seen enough tournament football, the majority of games are tight they’re not fours and five ones, they’re 1-0, 2-1, 3-1 if you’re lucky in the dying moments just to relax and ease off a little bit so I think that would be the way I would be leaning.”
Bellingham vs Foden
Even though Foden played over 600 more league minutes than Bellingham this season, the 23-year-old has a higher rate of shot-creating actions per 90 minutes (4.54 vs 3.96) and goal-creating actions per 90 minutes (0.66 vs 0.53) than the Real Madrid midfielder.
Having also made more key passes (73 vs 48) and carries into the penalty area (56 vs 26) than Bellingham, this further backs up Mills’ point about Foden perhaps being more suited to play a central-attacking-midfield role over the 20-year-old this summer.