England’s Cole Palmer era is here: Chelsea star must start for the Three Lions ahead of international flop Phil Foden

A year ago, Cole Palmer was still a month shy of making his senior England debut; today, it feels as though he is an indispensable part of the Three Lions’ present and future. As the post-Gareth Southgate era continues with Nations League clashes against Greece and Finland, Chelsea’s newest talisman is set to take centre stage under interim manager Lee Carsley.

But as Palmer’s star rises, another prodigious Englishman has seen his role with the national team thrown into question; if Jude Bellingham is untouchable and Palmer becomes un-droppable, where does that leave Phil Foden? A difficult and disrupted start to the new season means the Manchester City man finds himself on the back foot as England’s latest ‘who should start?’ debate intensifies, with Carsley charged with striking a balance between the new generation of attacking midfield dynamos at his disposal.

Palmer and Bellingham have proven that, alongside Bukayo Saka, they are the undeniable lynchpins that England’s attack should be built around for the long-term, which means Foden may well be fighting for his international future.

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  What’s eating Foden?

  There is an element of mystery surrounding Foden’s lack of game time so far for City in 2024-25. The 24-year-old has only made four appearances in the Premier League, starting just twice and amassing as few as 167 minutes. He missed three consecutive games at the start of the season and withdrew from Carsley’s first England squad in early September, with his absence attributed to an unspecified illness.

  The attacker has seemed subdued when he has played, considering this is someone who swept the end-of-season accolades courtesy of a sublime individual campaign last term, registering just one goal and assist so far which both came against Slovan Bratislava in the Champions League.

  It had been thought Foden was being eased into action after a busy summer with his country at Euro 2024, but with the majority of his international team-mates back into the thick of things with their clubs, question marks remain over what exactly is going on.

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    ‘Every player needs a break’

    City boss Pep Guardiola has been coy on the situation, perhaps trying to protect his player from too much scrutiny. Speaking in mid-September, he said: “Every player needs a break and rest. Phil had some disturbance in last few weeks, but played a good 45 minutes in midweek and he was the best player last season and now he is fighting to be back.”

    Asked again about the academy graduate’s lack of involvement more recently, the Catalan was more ambiguous: “The thing is he is playing, but Phil doesn’t need time. When he’s clever and fine, it’s not a problem. I know how important Phil is for us, so there’s no doubt about that. It doesn’t matter if he starts or comes from the bench. With this amount of games, he will have his minutes, that’s for sure.”

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    Palmer has to start

    Former City prospect Palmer is another player who enjoyed an exceptional 2023-24 season, but unlike his former team-mate, he has picked up where he left off at Chelsea and surely has to start for England on current form.

    After weighing in with 25 goals and 15 assists for the Blues last term, the 22-year-old already has a quite frankly outrageous 11 goal contributions in just seven Premier League games to date – including a hat-trick of assists against Wolves and his record-breaking, first-half four-goal haul against Brighton.

    Alongside Saka and Harry Kane, Palmer is one of his country’s form players going into the second international break of the campaign, outshining Foden and Bellingham so far, and his consistency means the Three Lions’ attack could well be shaped around him.

    It is that consistency that suggests he is well on course to be considered one of the world’s very best players, if he isn’t already. Not only is he virtuosic – capable of effortless pieces of skill, ball control and passes – but he also has the end product to match. In 54 appearances for Chelsea, he has 51 combined goals and assists – simply ridiculous numbers.

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    England’s present and future

    It has been reported that Carsley wants to give Palmer – with whom he won the Under-21 European Championship in 2023 – centre stage for the clashes against Greece and Finland and beyond – and you can hardly blame him.

    It is the first time the pair will have worked together since the attacker’s last appearance for the U21s a year ago, as the Chelsea talisman withdrew from the interim manager’s first squad due to muscle fatigue.

    Speaking upon naming the latest group, Carsley said: “Every challenge you put in front of Cole, he takes in his stride. He doesn’t get too high and he doesn’t get too low. That’s a brilliant attribute to have as a professional footballer. It’s great to see him doing so well.”

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    Completing the puzzle

    But where does that leave Bellingham and Saka in this attacking constellation? Palmer is at his most lethal as a roaming right-winger or as a No.10 behind the striker, which means he will be occupying one of his team-mates’ positions in Carsley’s 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 shape.

    Having plundered plenty of goals further up the pitch last term, Bellingham has been playing back in a deeper role for Real Madrid this season following Kylian Mbappe’s arrival. Although he has failed to trouble the scoreboard, he remains a key player for Los Blancos and is always heavily involved defensively, in their build-up play and attacks, operating in the box-to-box role he made his name in at Borussia Dortmund.

    That is handy, given Kobbie Mainoo was forced to withdraw from Carsley’s plans this time around, thus opening up a midfield spot. The interim manager has an opportunity to experiment with both Palmer and Bellingham in the team. In turn, that means Saka’s right-wing spot is unaffected, with the former playing in the No.10 role and the latter as a No.8.

    Looking further ahead, Carsley – or whoever replaces Southgate permanently – may see fit to shift the versatile Saka to the left flank, with Foden and Jack Grealish failing to make that position their own for their national team. Whichever way you look at it, it feels as though Foden – whose international record of four goals and eight assists in 41 caps is pretty underwhelming for a player of his ability – is the outlier as things stand.

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      Balancing act

      Carlsey has already admitted that one of Bellingham, Foden or Palmer will probably have to miss out at this stage – especially based on recent form and fitness issues.

      “I think with the period of the season we are in, I can probably justify why we wouldn’t start all three of them at the same time in terms of the amount of games that they’re playing, what they are going back to and what they have come from,” Carsley said when asked how he plans to fit them all in.

      “Some of the stages they are at in terms of just coming back from injury or not having had that many minutes,” he continued. “What’s important is that we get them all on the pitch at some point and we try to find the balance.”

      Of course, Nations League games against Greece and Finland are hardly the be all and end all as another tournament cycle gets underway, so there is scope for plenty of experimentation.
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      ‘Got to be creative’

      That experimentation could see all three of England’s next-generation superstars start together, with the interim manager believing it is possible to have them all in the same team if they warrant it, but that will require some ‘creativity’.

      “Yes, you’d try and find a way of getting them into the team,” he said when asked if it was something he would like to try. “We’ve got to be creative. If they are all playing well and they all earn that place in the team.

      “A lot of the head coaches spoke about how many good players we’ve got but they almost referred to it as a problem,” he continued. “Whereas I am thinking it’s a nice problem to have. The challenge is getting the balance. It might mean that now and then one of them misses out or in terms of a tournament, it’s very rare that you start the same team in every single game.”

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      Uphill battle

      Irrespective of club form, it currently feels like Foden is on the outside looking in, and his failure to catch fire at a tournament proper in the summer, off the back of his stellar individual campaign, may well count against him long-term, as his direct competition seized their opportunities.

      Although Bellingham looked jaded for long spells at Euro 2024, he summoned something within himself to come up clutch on three separate occasions for his country; scoring the winner in the group opener to down Serbia, hauling England out of the flames with his spectacular, last-gasp, bicycle-kick equaliser in the last 16 against Slovakia, and providing the assist for the Three Lions’ equaliser in the final before the eventual defeat to Spain.

      Palmer was similarly effective in significantly less time on the pitch, demonstrating that he was built for the biggest stages of all. Chelsea’s new talisman didn’t start a single game in Germany but stepped up in the key moments, dissecting the Dutch defence with the match-winning assist for Ollie Watkins in the semi-final and planting an unstoppable finish into the back of the net in the showpiece to level the contest in Berlin.

      Despite being included in Gareth Southgate’s starting line-up for every game, Foden never looked likely to provide a similar moment of inspiration, as calls grew for the pragmatic ex-manager to make a change. He was often forced to come searching for the ball having been started somewhat out of position on the left flank and ended a frustrating personal tournament without a goal or assist.

      It was a familiar story for him in an England shirt; Foden needs to find a way of replicating his form at club level for his country, otherwise he may well become the fall guy.