Foden's decline is a warning to Liverpool's shooting star

Phil Foden was ready to take over the world. A potential was finally fulfilled last season, the ghost of David Silva laid to rest at long last.

- PETE HALL

In the same season, it wasn’t that Dominik Szoboszlai was particularly bad. The conundrum baffling many Liverpool fans was that it was difficult to decipher what the Hungarian had actually been brought to the club for.

That it is Szoboszlai helping inspire Liverpool to the title this season as Foden fades back into frustrating obscurity is a trajectory nobody saw coming.

The contrasting pair were deployed in similarly unfamiliar roles as their side’s focal point in attack in Sunday’s blockbuster at the Etihad. Only one had any effect on the outcome of the encounter and, essentially, the destination of the title.

During his first season on Merseyside, some thunderbolts with power rarely generated by humankind suggested Szoboszlai’s long-range shooting and willingness to go for goal from all angles were behind the club’s decision to splurge £60m. But those efforts dwindled as the campaign wore on.