Phil Foden believes England are enjoying “great times” and is relishing being among a wealth of attacking options, even if they mean he is not a certain starter at Euro 2024.
The Manchester City forward started England’s 3-1 win over Italy at Wembley on Tuesday night as the hosts secured qualification to next summer’s finals in Germany.
The Euro 2020 runners-up will no doubt be among the favourites to win the tournament after another strong showing throughout the qualifying campaign.
“We’ve reached a final now and we want to keep doing that. We’ve had a taste for it and we want to be in the big games and the big occasions and we’ve got experience on the pitch to do that so we are enjoying it.
“I thought it was a brilliant performance. I thought our defensive work was really good. When you come up against the likes of Italy you’ve got to defend sometimes because they have a great quality.
A treble winner with City last season, Foden now has 29 senior England caps but is not an automatic starter for his country.
Boss Gareth Southgate has plenty of attacking talent at his disposal, with Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka, who missed this international break with a foot injury, arguably ahead of Foden in the current pecking order.
“He is a fantastic player and it’s exciting, because we’ve still got big players to come back and help us as well.
“So it shows the depth of the squad and, if I’m not starting, I want to come on and try and change the game, so I’m here to help the team as best as I can.”
