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Player Watch: Juan Foyth

hellava_tough

Well-Known Member
Apr 21, 2005
9,429
12,382
Fair play. There is a huge amount of optimism about Foyth bring through as our 1st choice RB. I'll be reserving judgement on a player that albeit has shown great potential, has also had many brainfart moments.

I do think he'll become a very good/ potential elite CB but I'm not sure he has the exact attributes to become a modern day FB/WB. Going into the new season with Aurier, Foyth and the clearly underated and underdeveloped KWP is disappointing to say the least. Added that Sessegnon appears to be the only piece of recruitment for the outgoing Rose I'm standing in the 'the FB situ is high risk' camp.

I predict we'll revisit this in the coming windows.

I really hope he succeeds at RB if that's where he ends up, but I haven't seen anything so far to suggest that he'll be better than our rivals' players in that position.

He looks like he could really develop into an excellent defensive player, but going forward he doesn't have blistering pace or the ability to take his man on. Not sure what his crossing is like.

Happy to be proved wrong, but I think CB is his best position.
 

stonebrow

Well-Known Member
Jun 28, 2012
1,014
2,738
This might’ve been said before but I think Foyth has a look of Corluka about him...I liked him as RB but as people have said is not in the same mold as the ‘modern day’ full back...time will tell but I’m on the optimistic side.
 

Japhet

Well-Known Member
Aug 30, 2010
19,232
57,389
I really hope he succeeds at RB if that's where he ends up, but I haven't seen anything so far to suggest that he'll be better than our rivals' players in that position.

He looks like he could really develop into an excellent defensive player, but going forward he doesn't have blistering pace or the ability to take his man on. Not sure what his crossing is like.

Happy to be proved wrong, but I think CB is his best position.

I think he'll be used at RB to give him game time and experience. Longterm, I think he'll move to CB once Toby moves. Sanchez seems very happy at LCB so it's a good fit. RB will be a good learning curve for Foyth.
 

hellava_tough

Well-Known Member
Apr 21, 2005
9,429
12,382
I think he'll be used at RB to give him game time and experience. Longterm, I think he'll move to CB once Toby moves. Sanchez seems very happy at LCB so it's a good fit. RB will be a good learning curve for Foyth.

That's actually a good shout.
 

WiganSpur

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2012
15,974
32,682
The sample size has been very small but all that video shows is a very talented centre back playing at full back. All the one on one defending there and tidiness on the ball is all what you'd expect from Foyth. But there's barely if any instances of him beating a man down the right and whipping in a dangerous cross or pulling back a pass for a late runner to finish. He's not getting in behind defences or getting to the byline.

If you want a RB capable of holding his position, being composed on the ball and competitive in defence, then he's your man. But when we're against sides who we are superior to (most teams now), it offers our opponents the luxury of being able to defend much more compactly. They'll know Foyth isn't really going to pose the threat of a winger down that side. Put a proper wing back there and suddenly there's acres for them to run into and deliver telling final balls. The point is having a wing back there opens up the space for the main attacking players.

We need a player who combines the attributes of Foyth defensively and Trippier going forward. We're a good enough team to be able to buy that sort of quality now. TAA and Robertson at Liverpool have to be the blueprint. At the moment, Aurier is the closest thing we have to that in terms of being OK but not great at both aspects. KWP is of course still untested but should definitely be given the chance to prove himself.

If we do have to move somebody else to that role, then my pick would be Sissoko. A good one on one defender who's very difficult to get past with explosiveness and experience of right midfield needed to beat a man. My only concern with him would be his final ball, but I always think getting into position is the most important thing.
 
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nedley

John Duncan's Love Child
Jul 28, 2006
13,941
28,069
I think he'll be used at RB to give him game time and experience. Longterm, I think he'll move to CB once Toby moves. Sanchez seems very happy at LCB so it's a good fit. RB will be a good learning curve for Foyth.

I think you'll be right.

I personally think giving him development gametime there at the expense of having a long term player in that position is the wrong approach.
 

Japhet

Well-Known Member
Aug 30, 2010
19,232
57,389
I think you'll be right.

I personally think giving him development gametime there at the expense of having a long term player in that position is the wrong approach.

I think buying in a quality RB right now would stretch our budget too, probably to a point where LoCelso might not happen. It's something that can be addressed in the future though. The other option we have at RB that nobody mentions is Toby (if he stays). He has played there a lot for Belgium.
 

Frozen_Waffles

Well-Known Member
Jan 26, 2005
3,760
9,505
The inverted full backs or the full backs not bombing on idea worries me. With city it works and in it works because they always play with at least 2, normally 3 very creative players in the attacking midfield roles.

In the past we have relied so much on rose, walker, trippier mainly because we have had only one creative player.

My guess is we wil get lo celso and suddenly we have 3 creative players in the midfield (including ndombele and if eriksen stays) and we lose the need for a dm in the process of changing to more conservative full backs.

Imo we still need one attacking full back. Which means that poch will balance it out.

So aurier and Davies, or foyth and sessegnon but not foyth and davies.
 

wrd

Well-Known Member
Aug 22, 2014
13,603
58,005
The inverted full backs or the full backs not bombing on idea worries me. With city it works and in it works because they always play with at least 2, normally 3 very creative players in the attacking midfield roles.

In the past we have relied so much on rose, walker, trippier mainly because we have had only one creative player.

My guess is we wil get lo celso and suddenly we have 3 creative players in the midfield (including ndombele and if eriksen stays) and we lose the need for a dm in the process of changing to more conservative full backs.

Imo we still need one attacking full back. Which means that poch will balance it out.

So aurier and Davies, or foyth and sessegnon but not foyth and davies.

I'd say the issue in this would be dele because in this sytem it'd suit us having Foyth and Davies as fullbacks as they're not the overlapping types but we would need 2 out and out wingers and it's whether you sacrifice one of the wingers for dele or one of those creative midfield options. That's the problem I see as to why we might not use this sytem.
 

Frozen_Waffles

Well-Known Member
Jan 26, 2005
3,760
9,505
I'd say the issue in this would be dele because in this sytem it'd suit us having Foyth and Davies as fullbacks as they're not the overlapping types but we would need 2 out and out wingers and it's whether you sacrifice one of the wingers for dele or one of those creative midfield options. That's the problem I see as to why we might not use this sytem.

This is the other problem, city have sane and sterling to offer width, you could argue we have son and moura but imo they are not wingers. Which means we could become incredibly narrow and a bit one dimesional.
 

punkisback

Well-Known Member
Apr 10, 2004
4,410
7,278
The sample size has been very small but all that video shows is a very talented centre back playing at full back. All the one on one defending there and tidiness on the ball is all what you'd expect from Foyth. But there's barely if any instances of him beating a man down the right and whipping in a dangerous cross or pulling back a pass for a late runner to finish. He's not getting in behind defences or getting to the byline.

If you want a RB capable of holding his position, being composed on the ball and competitive in defence, then he's your man. But when we're against sides who we are superior to (most teams now), it offers our opponents the luxury of being able to defend much more compactly. They'll know Foyth isn't really going to pose the threat of a winger down that side. Put a proper wing back there and suddenly there's acres for them to run into and deliver telling final balls. The point is having a wing back there opens up the space for the main attacking players.

We need a player who combines the attributes of Foyth defensively and Trippier going forward. We're a good enough team to be able to buy that sort of quality now. TAA and Robertson at Liverpool have to be the blueprint. At the moment, Aurier is the closest thing we have to that in terms of being OK but not great at both aspects. KWP is of course still untested but should definitely be given the chance to prove himself.

If we do have to move somebody else to that role, then my pick would be Sissoko. A good one on one defender who's very difficult to get past with explosiveness and experience of right midfield needed to beat a man. My only concern with him would be his final ball, but I always think getting into position is the most important thing.
Last season trippier struggled with his usually good crossing and chance creation and was his usual woeful self defending. Having Foyth who can defend at RB would be and upgrade.
 

rossdapep

Well-Known Member
Aug 25, 2011
21,905
78,640
This is the other problem, city have sane and sterling to offer width, you could argue we have son and moura but imo they are not wingers. Which means we could become incredibly narrow and a bit one dimesional.
I think ppl will be surprised at how Foyth will fill this role.

I think he's quicker and more agile than ppl think plus he's got great technical ability.

I predict that at the end of the season everyone will be happy with him as our RB
 

GetSpurredOn

Well-Known Member
Jun 18, 2006
5,022
8,922
I think he'll be used at RB to give him game time and experience. Longterm, I think he'll move to CB once Toby moves. Sanchez seems very happy at LCB so it's a good fit. RB will be a good learning curve for Foyth.

Isn’t that how Carles Puyol and Sergio Ramos started out?
 

walworthyid

David Ginola
Oct 25, 2004
7,059
10,242
I really hope he succeeds at RB if that's where he ends up, but I haven't seen anything so far to suggest that he'll be better than our rivals' players in that position.

He looks like he could really develop into an excellent defensive player, but going forward he doesn't have blistering pace or the ability to take his man on. Not sure what his crossing is like.

Happy to be proved wrong, but I think CB is his best position.
He takes his man on better than any of our full backs with the exception of rose and he mainly does it through pace/luck/diving!

Foyth has got skillz! He really does. He can take a player on and is seriously good on the ball.

I think he has the skillset to make a fantastic fullback, but not wing back!
 

jordibwoy

Well-Known Member
Jul 31, 2015
419
1,601
Isn’t that how Carles Puyol and Sergio Ramos started out?

and Maldini, Thuram, Abidal, Umtiti. Desailly got playing time in DM at Milan. Toby played RB at Atletico.

Also the first time I saw Varane play was at 17 years old for Lens. He was in CM and had braids. He was actually really good playing almost box to box, had never heard of him but he stood out the most to me that day.
 

GetSpurredOn

Well-Known Member
Jun 18, 2006
5,022
8,922
Out own Ledley King got gametime at DM during his development.
Maybe more long term view to Foyth playing RB than just filling a gap.
 

Newbops

Active Member
Aug 31, 2012
54
224
Didn’t realise that Foyth now qualifies as U21 (on the B list) for Champions League since he will have been at the club for 2 years at end August. Was mentioned in an article in the express today:

“For players to be put on the B list they must be born on or after 1 January 1997 and have been eligible for the club for two years since his 15th birthday”
 

Ben1

Well-Known Member
Jun 22, 2015
2,130
8,411
It may be pre season and he may have been at Copa America, but there have been very few minutes at right back in the two games so far.
 
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