Foden scored City’s equaliser in Tuesday’s first leg draw at the Academy Stadium after Ike Ugbo had put the visitors ahead.
City will now head to Stamford Bridge for the decisive leg next Wednesday and Carsley believes the 16-year-old still has an important role to play for the young Blues.
He said: “Phil’s got the knack of getting important goals and the way he takes the ball and finishes is very impressive. He’s very talented. He’s a very good player for us and he was disappointed to come off but he cramped up and I thought it was best to change it.
“We’re looking forward to getting him back to full strength for the second leg because if we’re going to do well in this competition it’s going to be down to him.”
View highlights of the first leg of the FA Youth Cup semi-final below...
Both sides had their chances in the first half with Lukas Nmecha twice going close for City but it was the Londoners who took the lead shortly before half-time. City fought back from a losing position to win their quarter-final over Aston Villa and Carsley was delighted with how his team responded in the second period.
“It’s a good trait to have. We’ve come back numerous times this season from a goal down and we did it in such an important game tonight so it shows that the team has got a lot of character.
“The teams were really closely matched with a lot of talented players on display. I thought that they shaded it in the first half and handled the occasion better than us but we warmed to it and in the end it was a fair result.
“We grew as the game went on and I’m really looking forward to the second leg because we can play a lot better than we have shown tonight.”
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