Once a position where England had an embarrassment of riches, a dip in form from a trio of key players could be a cause of concern for the Three Lions heading into the 2026 World Cup.
It’s no mystery that the quality of football in England’s top flight hasn’t been up to the same standard we’re used to. Rather, I should say that the entertainment factor is what’s fallen off.
The increased physicality of teams across the league has meant managers and coaching staffs have had to unearth every viable means to gain even the slightest advantage. This has led to set pieces being the subject of discussion for the vast majority of the season.
Games have become more cagey, the ball is in play for less and less time on average, and the league’s attacking talent has largely suffered as a result.
The biggest names that have been under the microscope have been three of England’s best young stars, who in the last few seasons have each shown genuine world-class levels. Saying Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka, Manchester City’s Phil Foden, and Chelsea’s Cole Palmer have all had underwhelming seasons would be putting it kindly, and it’s come at the worst possible time.
Saka was the beating heart of an Arsenal team that came agonizingly close to the title two years on the bounce, but he has seen his form tail off massively. Foden was the PFA Players’ Player of the Year just last season, off the back of a stunning performance that helped Manchester City to the title. Palmer immediately grabbed superstar status as he made a Chelsea team, devoid of a main man, his own, and forced his way into the England setup.
With the 2026 FIFA World Cup on the horizon, and the Three Lions yet again favored to progress to the latter stages, but not to win it, will the joint dip in form of their attacking superstars come back to bite them this summer?
There are a myriad of factors we can look at to try to nail down the simultaneous decline of these three players. Saka has played an obscene amount of football for a 24-year-old. Between 2020 and 2024, he racked up four straight seasons of 40-plus games and 3,000-plus minutes played, and while he was undoubtedly Arsenal’s “Starboy” and best player throughout, the mileage might be catching up to him already.
Palmer hasn’t played nearly as much senior football in comparison, but he’s been battling an awful groin injury for most of this season, and it’s been widely reported that it’s taken a massive toll on his output. Thankfully for Chelsea fans, it seems the worst of the injury is behind him, but his struggles in front of goal have persisted.
When it comes to Foden, it hasn’t been injury or burnout; he just isn’t really what Pep Guardiola has wanted this season. The signings of Rayan Cherki and, later on, Antoine Semenyo have meant that Foden’s game time has been greatly reduced. Semenyo’s directness and pace off the wing have been a Godsend for City since his arrival, and Cherki might be the most technically gifted player on the planet right now. He’s gradually gained more influence in the side, with his output being better than Foden’s in fewer minutes played (23 G/A in 2,582 minutes from Cherki vs. 15 G/A in 2,796 minutes from Foden).
Yet while these are all valid reasons that could be tied to their collective decline, the problem can be traced deeper.
There’s a league-wide problem looming large in England. Arsenal have the league’s best attack by goalscoring metrics, but it’s a far cry from the other giants of world football that boast lethal frontlines. Watching Arsenal and watching Bayern Munich gives distinctly different feelings.
The crux of the issue is the staggering increase in quality across the league, both in coaching and talent. The Premier League has long been the biggest brand in European top-flight football, with the best players regularly stating at least the slightest desire to test themselves in the “Prem” at some point. As things stand, the gap between the best teams and worst teams, in both technical quality and commanding physicality, is smaller than it’s ever been.
Every team in the league has a vast amount of money at their disposal, and the resources poured into the clubs both on and off the pitch are eye-watering. The wealth of knowledge available to coaching staffs across England is greater than it’s ever been, and there are no outright bad coaches in the Premier League. The tactical floor of teams has risen in tandem with the physical floor. It’s why so often you can see a team like Wolves or Burnley, for example, turn up against a “Big Six” side, set up in a mid or low block and almost completely stifle them.
There’s very little space for teams’ attackers to exploit, and it’s meant that goals have dried up league-wide. The average number of goals scored by forwards in the PL has fallen to 1.36 per game, down from 1.58 last season and the lowest level in 10 years. At the same time, the number of set-piece goals has gone up while open play goals have seen a noticeable dip.
So the challenge that England currently faces isn’t really the talent or quality of their attackers, but that the PL has become so overwhelmingly strong as a league across the board, that the product for the neutral has taken a hit as a result.
When it comes to Saka, Foden and Palmer, not only are their starting roles not guaranteed, but there’s a good argument to be had that they’re not even full on locks to make the final World Cup roster.
Another name that deserves mentioning in this carousel of attacking midfield/winger talent is Morgan Rogers, Aston Villa’s main man this season. He saw a hot start to the season that saw back-to-back braces in December, but Rogers has just five goal contributions since the turn of the calendar year, half the amount he recorded in the 2025 half of the season. But while he’s also struggled recently in the PL, his form for the Three Lions has seen him emerge as the likeliest of the four to start come the summer.
The plethora of attacking options was a weapon for England in the run to the EURO 2024 final, but two years later it’s not quite as fearsome. Thomas Tuchel himself stated his love for his attacking players, but the numbers from his wingers have not been outstanding. He went on, “So what is the reason for that? Is it according to the league, that the defenders are so strong that it’s difficult, it’s difficult to score and assist?”
What’s positive for Tuchel is that he does indeed have in-form forwards at his disposal, and if you’ve been paying attention, it should come as no surprise that neither currently plays in the Premier League.