Phil Foden’s stoppage-time appearance in Manchester City’s Carabao Cup final victory over Arsenal felt like a “charity” substitution, says former England captain Wayne Rooney.
With City closing in on a 2-0 victory at Wembley Stadium on Sunday, Foden was introduced off the bench in the 90th minute by boss Pep Guardiola to replace Rayan Cherki.
Frenchman Cherki, January signing Antoine Semenyo and Savinho have all been preferred to Foden in recent matches, with the Englishman starting only four of City’s past 13 matches in all competitions.
The 25-year-old has not scored in his past 20 appearances dating back to 14 December, when he had been in decent form with a run of six goals in five games.
“Football sometimes is not straightforward,” Foden said after the victory over the Gunners. “There are ups and downs and sometimes you can’t be the best version of yourself and that’s the way it is.
“It’s just about how you pick yourself back up. I’m still keeping my head down, trying to train as well as I can every day.
“Hopefully I come back after the internationals a lot sharper and hopefully I can get more minutes and be back to where I was at the start of the season.”
Foden has now collected 18 trophies since breaking through into the first-team as a teenager and was called up to the expanded England squad for the forthcoming friendlies against Uruguay and Japan.
But there are question marks as to whether he will make the cut for this summer’s World Cup, while he failed to make it off the bench in last week’s Champions League last-16 second leg tie against Real Madrid, with City suffering a 5-1 loss on aggregate.
Speaking on the BBC’s Wayne Rooney Show, the former Manchester United forward said: “I felt sad for him but not sad because he is coming on in a cup final.
“There was a game a few days ago when he didn’t even get on the pitch. If that was Max Dowman coming on at the end, you would think good experience. But to see Phil Foden coming on in a cup final, it felt like a charity sub to get him on the pitch.
“I don’t know what has happened, he is a top player. It feels strange he can’t get anywhere near the team. It feels like something has gone on there.
“I thought Foden was in good form but all of a sudden we haven’t seen him get any minutes. Firstly he will be pleased they won the cup but from a selfish point of view, he would have wanted to be out there and having an influence.
“That will be a tough one for him.”
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