Euros 2019: Phil Foden paints a bright future but England’s midfield flaws won’t be solved by one player

Having a player like Foden is fantastic, but it is not the same as having a robust, resilient team which can thrive at the top level

You can have the most talented teenage midfielder in the world but that is not the same thing as having a good midfield.

Phil Foden scored a remarkable goal for England Under-21s last night, a goal that was a reminder of his unique talents, a goal that only he could have scored, but even then it was not enough to stem the flow of the game. France got better as the game went on and England got worse, and while the two French goals were dramatic in their decisiveness, they also felt inevitable. The game was only heading in one direction and England had no response.

In that sense it was a typical England display, a game when Aidy Boothroyd’s Under-21s looked to have as much “England DNA” as any senior team in a tournament game in their history. Even under Gareth Southgate, the highest profile defeats, the World Cup and Nations League semi-finals, have followed the same pattern. Against Croatia and Netherlands, England started well, went 1-0 up, lost control in the second half before losing the game in extra-time.

That is nothing unique to Southgate either. It was the story, to varying degrees, at every English tournament defeat for a generation. There is even a precise precedent for what happened at Cesena last night: remember back to Euro 2004 when England were 1-0 up against France in the last minute of their opening group game. They found a way to lose that game 2-1 as well. This game 15 years on felt eerily similar.

Which is a shame because Foden’s opening goal was so good that it immediately felt as if England might now be on the brink of something new, that Foden would somehow represent a break with the past because of what he could do. Because England have not had many midfielders like him before. Yes, he has the old English characteristics of energy and mobility, charging into tackles when he does not have the ball. But when he does get the ball at his feet, Foden starts to look quite unlike any recent Englishman in his position.

Foden has a slippery, wriggly quality on the ball, an ability to carry it quickly forward through tight mazy spaces. His opening goal last night was a perfect example of this, taking the ball on the half-turn almost 40 yards from goal, speeding away from French opponents, jinking through them into space, slowing down, waiting, and then rolling the ball into the bottom corner of the net. It was a goal of ingenuity and skill and it felt like a goal to make everyone else confident about what was coming next.

But English football has a well-known Messiah complex, and no one player is ever really the answer. Simply having one brilliant number 10 was not the solution in Cesena either. Because France were sharper and stronger than England, and they made fewer mistakes. Even before they scored they missed two penalties, and the English defence was never quite strong enough to cope. Especially when Hamza Choudhury was sent off for a needlessly aggressive tackle in the box, giving away a second penalty, making it almost impossible for England to stem the flow.

Having a player like Foden is fantastic, but it is not the same as having a robust, resilient team which can resist this sort of pressure.

Perhaps last night’s defeat should be a lesson not just to this England U21 team but to all of English football: that having a brilliant technical midfielder is great, and Foden may well be able to make a difference for England senior teams in years to come. But any England team at any level will always have deeper issues to solve than this.