Foden says Man City were ‘tired’ and ‘did not cope with the physicality’ after letting two-goal lead slip to draw with Brentford | OneFootball

Phil Foden says Man City looked “tired” and did not deal with Brentford’s “physicality” well enough as they let a two-goal lead slip to draw 2-2 at the Gtech Community Stadium.

Foden scored twice to put City two goals ahead, first finishing from a Kevin De Bruyne cross before following up Savinho’s shot to slot home.

But after Yoane Wissa had pulled one back for the Bees, firing in from Bryan Mbeumo’s pass, Christian Norgaard scored a late header to salvage a point for Thomas Frank’s side.

Foden was frustrated with his side’s inability to counter Brentford’s strengths late on and speaking to TNT Sports, he said: “I think we looked tired at the end. For the last 20 or 30 minutes we looked a little bit leggy.

“They were putting longer balls into the box and I don’t think we coped with the physicality at the end.

“It’s one of the toughest places to come as well. They give you a different challenge going man to man, long balls, physicality, so it’s a challenging place to come

“When we went 1-0 up, it was a bit disappointing after that. We let our form slip, giving easy balls away, so it’s something to learn from.

“We’re used to playing in competitions every three days, it’s something that the squad is quite used to, so there’s no excuses.”

Foden, last season’s FWA Footballer of the Year, started the season slowly following a busy summer at the Euros with England and also suffered with Bronchitis.

But he has now returned to Pep Guardiola’s starting 11, with his double against Brentford meaning he has scored four goals in his last three games.

And Foden insists City are improving despite dropping points again.

“We’ve definitely picked up from previous performances,” he said. “The performances are a lot better than they were but there’s still steps to go to get where we want to be.

“But as long as we keep making those small steps and improving. That’s what we’re aiming to do.”