Euro 2020: England’s Phil Foden watches YouTube videos of himself to gain confidence before a game

The Manchester City playmaker will look to make his mark in the European Championship knockout stage.

Phil Foden watches videos of himself to provide inspiration (PA Wire)

England playmaker Phil Foden has revealed he watches YouTube clips of his best moments before games to fire himself up.

The Manchester City man may only be 21, but he already has plenty to choose from in the archives after starring in Manchester City’s Premier League title campaign and run to the Champions League final.

Comparisons to Paul Gascoigne have become inevitable – not least because of his bleached blond hair – and while Foden has cited the former England international as an inspiration, the only footage he watches online is of himself.

“Sometimes I watch my own clips on YouTube just so I go into a game feeling confident,” he said on the Lions’ Den YouTube channel. “I don’t really like to watch anyone else, I want to be my own person.”

There will be some impressive pieces of skill in the vault as the Stockport-born forward is especially good at gliding past players, something he says is instinct.

“You don’t work on it, it just becomes instinct,” he said. “When you see a man and put it through your legs, it just comes to you.

“The best players in the world just think fast.”

After showing glimpses of what he was capable of in England’s first two Euro 2020 group games against Croatia and Scotland, Foden was a substitute for the deciding clash against the Czech Republic.

And he admits he was not a good viewer.

“I feel like I was more nervous watching the game than playing,” he said. “When the lads were playing I was just biting my nails hoping the lads could get the win.

“They smashed it and got the win.”