Manchester City failed in their primary objective of signing a striker in the summer and every poor performance since then has led to that failure being questioned again and again — but now at least Phil Foden is providing an answer.
For the first time in a number of years, City's hierarchy came out of a transfer window looking slightly foolish.
The club had earmarked the summer as the perfect time to spend heavily on a striker, having allowed their record goal-scorer Sergio Aguero to leave. And they were in a position to focus entirely on signing one, as it had been ensured in previous years that there was ample quality and depth in every other position in the squad.
Confidence was so high that chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak, in his post-season interview, made the unusual decision to publicly make the Blues' position clear and tell fans he was 'confident' that Aguero would be replaced.
But it soon became apparent that things wouldn't be that simple. One potential target, Erling Haaland, was ruled out early doors as Borussia Dortmund made it clear they would be keeping the Norwegian sensation as they allowed Jadon Sancho to leave.
So instead all attention turned to Harry Kane, with the Tottenham talisman not hiding his desire to leave North London so he could finally win some silverware.
Like Al Mubarak earlier in the summer, Pep Guardiola spoke on the matter publicly too and made a rare comment on another club's player. But despite all the angling from Kane and City, Daniel Levy refused to yield.
With three years remaining on his contract, Spurs were under no pressure to sell and thus Kane did not leave and City ended up without the striker that had been promised.
Jack Grealish did come in on a record deal to alleviate the disappointment somewhat, but the club still ended the window with a bit of egg on their face and now get reminded of it every time they attack falters.
In the absence of a new striker, and with Gabriel Jesus finding a new home on the right-wing, Guardiola has been forced to experiment with different players leading the line. Ferran Torres, Raheem Sterling and Grealish have all played there to varying levels of success this season, but none have done it better than Foden.
Playing the central attacker role for Guardiola can be a thankless task at times, as so much of the job entails leading the press, putting in a massive shift to close down the opposition defence and then, when you actually get the ball, bringing the other attackers into play.
A City striker can't just wait for the ball and concern himself with scoring goals; there is much more to the job than that, which is a testament to just how good Aguero was.
While no one can fault the efforts of Torres, Sterling and Grealish when deployed there, all the busy work just doesn't suit their natural games, so they lose so much of what makes them brilliant and the system then stutters as a result.
Sterling and Torres (the latter who may yet grow into a striker, in fairness) like to run at players with speed, getting past them and advancing on goal, with the lack of space in the middle compared to out wide it's much harder to do so. Grealish, meanwhile, likes to drop deep and keep hold of the ball to work his magic, not stand on defenders' shoulders and stretch back-lines, which lessens the pressure upon them.
Foden, though, is the perfect hybrid of the two different styles. He is deceptively quick and strong so can get beyond defenders, battle for balls with them and has the cardio to constantly press, while also being more than capable of keeping hold of the ball to drag centre-backs out of position and bring others into play.
Like the other three, he isn't a clinician finisher, with just the one goal to his name so far this season (although what a strike it was, against Liverpool) but his overall play makes him by far the best suited to the role.
City have won all three games in which Foden has played through the middle so far this season — including the crucial victory against Chelsea — and, in fact, have won the other four games in which he has played there in the past too, with other wins coming against Liverpool and Real Madrid, as well as Tottenham in the Carabao Cup final.
It's clear that City play best when it's Foden who is occupying the striker position and, until an out-and-out No.9 can be signed, he must continue to play there.
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