In England's 0-0 draw with the USA, manager Gareth Southgate has come under fire for not using Manchester City forward Phil Foden.
The Three Lions are still on track to win their group with one point, but many were disappointed in the performance's lack of effort.
After the first half ended without a goal, the ex-players in the ITV studio all agreed that Foden was the obvious person to look to in order to score the game's first goal.
It came as a huge shock to everyone when the 22-year-old attacker was benched in favor of Marcus Rashford, Jordan Henderson, and Foden's City teammate Jack Grealish as Southgate attempted to change the course of the match. The England manager, however, defended his tactical choices.
In his post-game news conference, Southgate explained his reasoning for not starting any of his forwards: "Whichever one of our forwards we didn't put on and we didn't win the game, I was going to be sitting here answering the question as to why I didn't put them on."
"We wished to alter the broad areas. Phil doesn't play there for his team, therefore we didn't think it was a game for him.
A lot of former England internationals expressed their disagreement with such viewpoint through a variety of channels.
When the game cried out for Phil Foden's imagination, it was puzzling that he sat on the sidelines, Jamie Carragher wrote on Twitter.
"My first assumption would be that Foden must be ill if you had told me before the tournament that he would only play for 19 minutes of the first two World Cup games... He has too many unique abilities.
"It's a terrible shame Phil Foden isn't playing for England's starting XI. He has tremendous talent,
Speaking as a pundit on ITV's coverage of the game, Gary Neville said, "I think he's our finest player, our best talent by a country mile, and he should be playing in that team.
"I have a lot of respect for Gareth and what he has accomplished; he has outdone Alf Ramsey in terms of accomplishments. Trent Alexander-Arnold and Foden, two players with quality who are now on the bench, have the ability to open up a game.
"When we discuss creativity, who comes to mind as the leading contender? Former Manchester City right-back Micah Richards announced on BBC Radio 5Live, "It's Foden.
I don't want to put the burden on Mount, but he didn't have his best game.
Players with talent on the sidelines. I was unable to comprehend it.
"It's not about a single player making the difference, but how often do we see him, week in and week out, get into those small pockets and create something from nothing? The decision for him to stay off the field was terrible.
But how does Foden stack up against the other offensive and creative options available to Southgate? We've looked to see how he stacks up against the other players in the group who will likely be used as attacking midfielders to support Harry Kane or Callum Wilson while playing in front of midfielders like Declan Rice, Kalvin Phillips, Jordan Henderson, and Jude Bellingham.
The data from Foden's 2022–23 Premier League season thus far are shown here, along with comparisons to James Maddison, Bukayo Saka, Marcus Rashford, Raheem Sterling, Mason Mount, Jack Grealish, and Conor Gallagher's similar results.
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