City Cut It To Six!

27:15But today, if you didn't know Roberto De Zerbi was on the bench, this could have well been a Tudor team or a Frank team. And I'm sorry, that's not why they invested five years and 15 million a year for having the same as Tudor. And I know you could say, it's his first game, Jules, be kind, you know, give him some time. One, he doesn't have any time. Two, I'm sorry, but 10 days of training, and full training, by the way, there was not a game in between. it was 10 days where he could have double sessions, treble sessions they could have slept at a training ground for a whole 10 days you know, he could have done anything he wanted for 10 days right?

27:51I'm sorry, I didn't see today, I swear to you, it could have been ego to do on the bench, nobody could have told Yeah, I agree with that and it looks to me like and if you watch his teams, they do have an identity normally the way they play and it's high risk football but it's entertaining and it's effective and it's fast and he's a bit of a live wire on the sideline. But I think, to me, on looking at today's game, it's almost like he's caught in this crossfire of, I want to do it this way, but I'm thinking I might have to do it that way to stay up and in the end it's something in the middle, which isn't very good.

28:34At least it wasn't today. I'm slightly concerned that he thinks, if I try and get him to do what I want to do and how I want to play now we're definitely going to go down because they can't do it probably can't do it which is a worry if you're a Tottenham Hotspur player playing for such a big club and you can't play that style of football that he wants the positive football, the passing from the back the taking the ball under pressure the stretching the game making the pitch big, all that kind of stuff I'm wondering if he's thinking I'm worried we're going to get relegated doing that so I'm going to have to change short term to try and get results.

29:11And that's going against how his teams play and his philosophies. And then you end up in the middle of nowhere, which is kind of what jokes are saying, where they were today. It was nothing. It was nothing. And you talk about players short of confidence. And I've also got an issue with something like Van de Ven on the deflections. And by what Casey and I were talking, it was so good to see Kinski, at least not at fault. Kinski had a decent... And he didn't do anything... because he was a guy under severe pressure. Yes. Right. So, you know, that was nice to see, you know, he didn't make any, it wasn't a calamity.

29:46But on the goal, and I know there's a big deflection, you've got Van de Ven stood with his hands behind his back, and he could have... For two or three seconds. He could have came out early and closed that damn ball down, and you don't have to have your hands behind your back when you're outside the box, because guess what? You can't give a penalty away. You might give a free kick away, but at least you get out and close it down. and I think it typified Spurs for me in a sense why they're in this mire. There's three of them all stood on the edge of the penalty area with the hands behind the back whilst a Sunderland player pursued down on the edge of the box and was able to get a strike in and then the big deflection and the goal.

30:27You've got to go and close those scenarios down. You've got to put your body on the line because you're at that end of the season and there's a big question mark whether Spurs are going to be able to do this. Well, after the game, Roberto De Serbi was asked about the tough situation that he finds himself in. Let's have a listen to what he had to say. You mentioned the mentality the team needs now. They're in the relegation zone. Are you concerned about the impact that could have on them mentally, psychologically? You can see during the game. First of all, the players of Tottenham are all good guys.

31:05and they are suffering for this moment. They are not happy when we lose the game, or they are not happy to see Tottenham at the bottom of the table, for sure. But we have to find the energy, we have to find the right spirit to be positive, to think during the week. Do you feel like the fear of relegation itself is the problem? I think so, yeah. Interesting case. What did you make of what Deserby had to say there? I thought the fear of relegation should be the motivation that everybody needs to get themselves out of this situation. They're too talented of a squad. Yes, we're talking about who's going to score the goals, who's going to do these things like that.

32:03But it doesn't have to be a striker. Whenever there's a team that's struggling scoring goals, I love seeing a center back pop up on a set piece. I love seeing a midfielder come in from the wing and get on the end of something just to take some of that pressure off. It just almost seems like that, you know, Jules talked about it. You've got, I don't know if it's that three strikers to try to get something, but it's just something's off. It's just not clicking. There's not the fight that you want to see, and then there's not the, I don't know how you build confidence until you do something that builds confidence.

32:44And the only way you can do it is somebody has to say, take the responsibility, and I think that's what everybody's waiting for. Everybody's just thinking, ah, Spurs will figure it out. They'll get a couple wins. They're too talented. It'll happen. And then each week it goes, without doing it, it's that little bit everyone's down, fans are coming on, press are coming on, and I'm still waiting for that, okay, who's grabbing this? Who's grabbing this, you know, by a scruff of the neck and saying, okay, this is what we're going to do, and who are the leaders? Well, the other side of it as well, they haven't got a midfielder that can pass the ball with any great creativity.

33:27You know, Paulinho, Conor Gallagher Papi Saar Yves Bissouma Bentancourt's not around at the moment Bentancourt can pass the ball but he's not around They haven't got anybody that, you know we talked about the creativity it can't just be your wide players it has to be someone from the middle of the park as well or the midfield and they've got a lot of guys that run about and graft in the middle but they've not Well, there's not anybody who can hit a 50, 60-yard beautiful ball to a striker who's bent around. Not to my knowledge. Yeah, but Craig, I call a lot of Atletico Madrid games. And I watched Conor Gallagher run around, make tackles, get in the box, get stuff going.

34:14And I didn't even know he was on the pitch. Well, he hasn't been getting a game. Well, but still, he had a game today. He started today. I know. I want to see that run, tackle, fight, get somebody behind you. I mean, yeah, it's hard enough. if you don't have a player that can play the ball like Churchy did for the second goal, then you've got to win something like Man City did against Caissano. Press. Win a ball in a good area and make an easier chance. I didn't see either. And that's the part that I think is the most frustrating. Joe was saying he's had 10 days to look at players. These next few days, he's got to look at these players and say, right, right, he's got, right, him, he's in, him, he's in there, right, I can trust him, he's got, I've got half a chance with him, and he's got to figure out the ones that he's got pretty much no chance with, he's not going to say that to them, because he doesn't want to lose them, but he's got to, in his head, he's got to figure out, right, is it Matthias Tell and Chavis Simmons here, is it, you know, talking about, you know, if I'm Matthias Tell or Chavis Simmons or anybody like that and I got as Joe said the number 9's playing in the wider positions or wherever they're ahead of me I'm asking a question what the hell am I doing and so he has to figure that out quickly the guys that are going to get him results the guys that he can at least semi-trust at the moment to try and do a job and if he doesn't figure that out they're screwed they're screwed because the more times you're trying to figure it out and the longer you're making all these changes the less chance you have of getting results so he has He has to figure it out quickly, and he's going to have to run with it.

35:54Well, we've said it before that Spurs do have a lot of talented players, but do those players have the scrap in them, have that fight, have that grittiness to just churn out an ugly win? Well, if you look at their running of games now, from now to the end of the season, they're going up against a lot of teams that do have that grit and that scrap. Jules, if you look next, it's against Brighton, a team that De Zerbe knows very, very well. Then they're away at Wolves. They're away at Villa Park. Then up against Leeds. than Chelsea and Everton. Where will they get their chances from? That's a great question, to be fair.

36:30I mean, I think the Leeds home game, for me, even more than Wolves away, the Leeds at home might be the key there because it's so close to the end of the season. But Brighton next weekend, especially at home, because as we know, Spurs are the worst team at home, even worse than Burnley, or as bad as Burnley, really, this season. So at home, there's no guarantee they won two games all year, all season long at home in the league. So that's tricky. A Brighton team, as we saw yesterday, is playing well, could potentially be fighting for a conference league position for next season, all of that. So they will go there and will want to go for a win.

37:06And then you look at all the other fixtures. They've all have something to play for, apart from Worlds, maybe. Okay, but the rest, they will. So it's tricky. Even his communication will have to be good. And certainly it feels like we'll have to be better. The clip that we saw, he said we need to find that energy. He didn't look like he even had energy today on the touchline or in this press conference. He also said they don't need a coach. I can be a father. I can be a brother. I can be, okay, they need a coach too. I know they need some love and I know they need some confidence. And the French have a great word.

37:41We have like this word, say, calinotherapy, which is like cuddle therapy, if you want. Oh, I love that. Sure, they need a bit of that. No problem. Yeah. No, it's great. I knew you would. Sure. But they need a coach more than anything else because, as we saw today, they are all a bit lost. And if the structure is not there, if they don't really know what to do with the ball, if there's no creativity, like you said, if you start playing number nines in all those wide positions, you lose Romero potentially as well because he came off injured, crying. This is not good. They need a coach before the dad, the brother, the nan, the granddad, the cousins, the whole family if you want, and all those like cuddle therapy.

38:19short but they need a coach too. Can you imagine one of our old managers with cuddle therapy? I've heard of pub therapy. There's pub therapy that works very well. There's not enough psychologists in London for this Tottenham team. You know what would worry me? I think the home form is telling for various reasons and I think some of it is structure and approach and the hiring of Thomas Frank and the way they went about it. I don't think there's any doubt about that but there's another side to it. when your home form is as poor as Tottenham's has been, and this sort of fits into the whole relegation battle, when your home form is that bad, part of it, not all of it, but part of it is telling me, and we know this, Casey, is when your own fans turn on you, when results are bad and the natives are restless, it's a tough place to be.

39:11When you're away from home, there's a few thousand. When you're at home, there's 60 or 70 thousand. and quite often they've not liked what they've seen this season, and I think the players have been affected by that. And I'm not saying that's right, but you live and die by how you're affected by it. Right. And I think not all of Tottenham's results, but a big chunk of the results have come down to them folding. Folding when the crowd got on their back in second halves of games, and early in the season actually it was going behind very early, they almost went behind in every game they played. But they've folded in so many games, particularly in the second half of the season at home, that I think that would tell me that the mindset in this Tottenham camp is weak because they haven't been able to handle when the crowd get anxious and nervous and noisy, players start to hide.

40:06And I think we're seeing a lot of that with Tottenham. And they have to get out of that and out of it quickly. As you know, managing maintenance, repair and operations is never easy. But for the ones who always rise to the challenge, Grainger has your back. From professional-grade products you can count on to fast, dependable delivery, they're there to help you keep things running smoothly. Plus, their technical product specialists are here to help answer your toughest questions. And because Grainger knows safety is always a priority, they're committed to being your partner in protecting both your people and your facilities.

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41:15Here's the bottom half standings. Look at how things are shaping out in La Liga. You can see El Che Real Oviedo, much to Sid Lowe's dismay, still very much rooted in the relegation zone as well as Levante. Look at all the way to 13. It's a tight race in the final relegation spot. Bayern, Euro club, not quite out of it yet. No, Real needs a win or two. And here's the top half of the standings after Real Madrid dropped points this weekend and Barcelona got a big win. Barca are now nine points clear at the top of the table and they are on a five game win streak. So it looks like they are very much poised to repeat as champions of España.

41:56Well, if you want to see more about the La Liga title race, just head on over to our ESPN FC YouTube channel. And there's more Spanish football coming your way on our networks. The Copa del Rey final. Atletico de Madrid up against Real Sociedad, the 18th of April, 3 p.m. kickoff. But you know, join us 13 minutes before for the pre-show on ESPN+.

42:23Let's head to the Bundesliga now and see if we'll actually get these highlights. Yes, we will. We've gone up against Werder Bremen in this one. Yep. A little contact in the box. My players have gone down for absolutely anything these days. There was barely any contact there. That's what VAR was supposed to take away and unfortunately didn't. But then last defender gets the red card. I thought there was maybe a little cover coming around. I don't know. A bit of a bad ball back there. Yeah, maybe there's nobody around from that angle.

43:09Oh, goalkeeper. Those are always fun as a goalkeeper. You make two great saves and then there's another. Help me out. Help me out. I'm calling up 2-0 in this one.

43:26Oh, somebody else. What now?

43:32Oh, God. I mean, there's a bit of contact, isn't there? Penalty. And it's buried.

43:44Into the sixth minute of stoppage time we go and ooh! That's a nice way to score a goal. Yeah, don't cheat the cross. Don't cheat the cross. Including a big win. Both teams fighting for survival. Elsewhere in the Bundesliga, Stuttgart went up against Hamburg. Stuttgart, 21st minute. Stuttgart here with the build up and Angelo Steeler will get the goal. That was so easy, it looked, it was an easy day for Stuttgart and that just opened things up. Nice little back heel there. Is that Undav? 32nd minute. Good player, nice little back heel into his colleague. Schroeder up 2-0 in this one into the second half now.

44:36The stat will score from outside the box. And again, we talk about just letting players run and just standing there and not covering and it leads to the deflection. Speaking of deflection. Back in the day, Casey and that would be absolutely on the defenders constantly closing the ball down. Such an important part of the game. You don't get it right and quite often you'll pay the penalty. All right, well here's the bottom ten of the Bundesliga standings. You will find Werder Bremen right there, three points above the relegation zone. Yeah, again, another league, super tight, all the way up to 10th, 9th, you know, with that final relegation spot.

45:19Well, there's plenty more Bundesliga football coming your way on our networks. Hoffenheim up against Borussia Dortmund. That's next Saturday, 9 a.m. on ESPN2. And Bayern Munich, they will play Stuttgart that Sunday, 11 a.m. Eastern Time, also on ESPN2.

45:37All right, well, Union Berlin have made history. Marie-Louise Eta has now become the first woman appointed to manage a men's team in one of Europe's top five leagues after being named interim head coach of Union Berlin. So history made here. It is an interim role. But Jules, what's the response been like for this one? And tell us more about her appointment. Yeah, I think this is great. Really, I remember when Corinne Diacre in France was appointed as the Clermont head coach in the second division at the time, back in 2014. I thought, OK, this is great. She'll be a pioneer. And then many will follow after that.

46:16And actually, she left after three years. She did a really good job. They finished, I think, eighth, tenth. You know, she kept them up. It was really good. She had a good rapport with the players. It looked very positive in every angle possible. And yet that ended in 2017. And since then, just nobody followed until Eta today. That was announced. Or last night, she was announced as the interim coach until the end of the season. So I think she's got seven games maybe. I can't remember how many left or eight games in the Bundesliga. To, I guess, prove what she can do and then hopefully get the permanent job next season.

46:52But I think this is great. I think, again, it was long due. It should have come before. And in a way, it's not a surprise that a club like Union Berlin, that does things very, very differently to many, many other clubs in the world, is taking this decision. Yeah, Union Berlin definitely love to do things their way. But either way, we love to see. So I'm pretty sure this will be a talking point on the next edition of Football W. I will be on there alongside Ali Krieger and Jeff Kasuf. That's Tuesday at the new time. Remember, 1 p.m. Eastern time on ESPN+. If you've ever wanted real energy without choking down something that tastes like regret, Bucked Up is the answer.

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49:25All right, well, that's going to do it for this edition of Extra Time. Obviously, and FC, we had to cut out some highlights because Craig didn't want to do them, but we're going to get some questions. I found them. He hid them from us. Let's do it again. Don't go anywhere. Extra Time's next.

49:45All right, welcome in to Extra Time. Alexis Younes here with Casey Keller, Craig Burley and Julien Laurent. Let's start off. Which storyline is most compelling to all of you? Arsenal possibly bottling the Premier League or Spurs fighting relegation? Jules?

50:05I think to both a great rally, but I would go for Spurs. If Arsenal missed out on the title, they did it the last two seasons. There's been nothing different, really. Yeah, they'd be more disappointing. They would have been in the lead. If City cashed them up and win the title, for what I believe would be Guardiola's last season, I don't think he would be the next season. I think he leaves in the summer. That would be a special line for sure. But if Spurs go down for the first time in Premier League history, obviously the last time, I think they went down was 1977. It would be huge. Because I think if you look even pre-Promer League, and the boys will help me on that, I can't remember.

50:44but maybe United back in, what was it, the 70s or something, I can't remember, 50s, but for such a big club at this time, right now, with the financial power that they have, the stadium, the training ground, for them to go down, this would be enormous. Well, West Ham, and I know they've been up and down since then, but they went back down in the 90s, I believe, with, I think Don was in that side, but it was Di Canio, it was Canuti, there was a lot of very, very good players. Minus Don. Probably better players than, no, Dom's a good player. Probably better players than what Tottenham have now, actually, when you look at some of those guys, and they went.

51:24However, they, over the years, have been a bit of a yo-yo club. Tottenham have not. And they've built this. I mean, to be fair, what a cracking stadium for all those other championship teams to go and play at. But I'm not sure. I read something a while back, and it was talking about the clubs that generate the most match day revenue. And Tottenham's in the top five. Oh. And you're thinking, financially, they've put themselves in such a great position that you just can't imagine that they can't get a couple results. that they haven't won a match since December. This is crazy. They don't have the scrap, do they?

52:12Yeah, but even the quality. Normally, if a Spurs team was not a scrapping team, they had the quality to get the results that they needed. And then the question mark was always, what are those little pieces that are then going to take them to that next level? And you think over the last several years,

52:34European Cup final, winning the UEFA Cup to relegation? Yeah. I mean, that's insane. Massive fall from Grace. Next question. Was a false sense of security part of Pep Guardiola's strategy? What does that mean? Me thinking that the first half was going to be kind of just and then turn it up. I just think it was not the way they wanted to play that first half and then had a little talking to at halftime and took it to another gear. A little halftime hairdryer's treatment. Next question. With Pep Guardiola's career accomplishments, where would winning the league this year with a team going through a rebuild and transition rank?

53:18Jules? I think he would like it, especially like I said, I think it's his last season at the club. And then after that, we won't see him again at club level. I think he will take a national team at some point and then that'd be it. So yeah, it might feel special for him. Let's not forget as well that they got Semenyo and Gehi in January. And when you are able, whoever you are as a manager, whoever's club, but when you are able to bring two players of that quality for that amount halfway through the season to give your team another dynamic, to give yourself more options, to give that kind of boost to your season, I think it makes a massive difference.

53:57I'm not saying that the others missed a trick or something, and I'm not taking anything away from the work that Guarjola did in the first half of the season and since then. But they've been game changers, as has been Nico Riley, for example, on that left-hand side since he played in that kind of hybrid, left-back, left-sided defensive midfielder. But yeah, I think Pep, because it's also Arteta and it's Arsenal and they were behind for most of the season, if they do catch them and win that race, I think, yeah, he would be very pleased. And I think also a little shout-out to Kusunov. who, the young lad who came in from France and had a very tough time.

54:35Youngster's not easy. Came in for relatively big money. He has been on a very upward trajectory. And what's, you know, I don't think, and maybe I stand corrected, as he learns the game and learns the positional side of the game, I just, I admire how great an athlete he is. He has got to be one of the quickest, if not the quickest centre-back in the Premier League or maybe European football. It's a brilliant asset to have. And once he gets all the other experience and continues with his confidence and about positioning and all the other stuff, you know, he could be something that City fans couldn't see six months ago.

55:23Yeah. Because he was a struggling young man and he's got a long way to go, but his progression has been very, very good to watch. We're going to have to get you tickets to watch him at the World Cup with Uzbekistan. Are they here? Yeah. You going to get some Uzbek shirts on, Craig? Yeah. At least for Scotland. He's a big fan. I'm not even getting a Scotland shirt on. Worry about that. All right, next question. Craig, can you believe that until the next World Cup or Club World Cup, Chelsea will have to wear the badge on their kids?

56:01Only Frank loves this question. The whole Club World Cup, I don't want to get into it. I don't want to start going. I think they knew that's why they asked you. That's a wind-up for sure. Yeah, I mean, you take PSG, for example. They're starting to hit the stride now, but they had a long, long season. Then they had that Club World Cup and they had some injuries and players were tired. They're now really getting themselves going. We saw that game, for those that saw it against Liverpool, it should have been five or six. So I think, again, I said I wouldn't get into it. Why am I getting into it?

56:38He's getting into it. I couldn't resist. An utterly, utterly, utterly needless competition for players. But they got the badge. They got a badge. They got a nice, shiny badge. And somebody's got a lot of money somewhere and made a lot of dollars off it. So there you go. Well, funnily enough, the next question is also for Craig. Craig, they're loving you. Craig, with Leeds only three points off the bottom, why does it seem as though the general consensus is that they're safe from going down? Their last win in the league was more than two months ago. Yeah, I don't think they're safe from going down.

57:09But I think one of the differences with this Leeds side is they can play a little bit of football. They're in the FA Cup semi-final as well.

57:20They have something that Tottenham don't have at the moment. As well as being able to play a little bit. There's a little fight. They get a bit of fight. They get a bit of fight. Especially at home. Ellen Road. They've got a fight. They've got a fight and they've got a bit of grit. And they've got a manager who understands what they have and what they are. And I think that's going to give them the best opportunity to stay up. Well, Jules talked about it a little bit when we looked at who has to play who. And with Spurs away at Wolves and home with Leeds a couple weeks later, those are going to be two gigantic matches.

57:54And you know, Leeds are not the type of team, if they go down, they'll go down having given their best. Yeah. And they may come up short. I don't know. But they'll leave nothing on the table. When you look at Tottenham, they're leaving everything on the table at the moment. And Leeds would not go to Tottenham with any fear. Yeah. Why would you? You've only won two games at home. That's the tricky part. I mean, you always go somewhere and you think, okay, who are we playing here? Okay, where are their strengths or weaknesses and all this kind of stuff? And right now with Tottenham, you're just thinking they're folding under the pressure from their own fans, like you mentioned.

58:34They're not, you know, running, scrapping, fighting, pressing. But you're seeing that from leads. And so when push comes to shove, I think you're looking at it and going, okay, when that scrap's needed against one of those other teams on the bottom who that result might be the difference, you just see it coming from leads more than you see it coming from spurs. and you're seeing it a little more from Forrest as well. Jules, what do you make of Leeds? I've tipped them to go down, really. When we've had the discussion before, I've got a feeling that in these kind of final seven games, and they obviously have a massive game tomorrow, where United or Trafford, that I think can be a big decider too of where they will be.

59:27But yeah, I think the other three will be okay. And these Leeds will go down. Big game tomorrow. Leeds not winning that one. What, Man United? Big game. Because sometimes it feels like we're around the same level. Next question for Casey. Casey, do you think... What was the score at Ellen Road again? Stop. Casey, do you think hosting the World Cup... Oh, that was the Ruben Amarim. Yeah. Oh, am I a head coach or am I a manager? I'm a manager. I'm a head coach. What's this guy talking about? No, Michael Carrick's at the wheel. So I expect. Get them out. Get them out. Casey, do you think hosting a World Cup has slowed the U.S.

1:00:03men's national team's development over these four years due to a lack of meaningful games? I mean, there's a very big argument for that because you do. You have a situation where you're so used to, particularly from the management side and the player side, where you can't experiment because each game matters so much that you're playing. And so you get this idea, you know, Craig's talking, you know, Jules talking about, you know, does Zerbe having to figure out his side in a hurry? When you had 18 qualifying matches, which is what we used to have, you had to figure out who can do what, who's done this over an extended period of time, who's done it under pressure in a Central American country on a terrible pitch where speaker trucks came out all night.

1:00:54You didn't get any sleep. There's guys with machine guns surrounding the field. You think they're there to protect you, but you're not sure. And you've got to get a result. But it's more about that than the actual quality of a lot of the opposition. Yes, absolutely. Because you're not, and I'm not taking away the compliments of Casey and Atta, but qualifying for World Cups. but you're not testing, and qualification generally, you're not testing yourself against the real cream. You're not playing the big European teams or South American teams. But there's still a pressurized situation to get results.

1:01:28You know, look at, what was his name? The coach, when they went, Bruce Arena, when they went down to, was it Trinidad? Trinidad-Tobago. To Xhaka. To Xhaka's against Trinidad's almost like second team. Yeah, because Trinidad were out. Yeah. And we're, I'm not saying mocking what they said, but kind of in a jovial, we just need to be here. Yeah. And we're going to win. And then got the plants taken down and was like, wow. Yeah. So, yeah, maybe there is a little bit about that, but you can still prepare enough for a World Cup. I mean, I think what it does, Craig, is it forces you to pick a team. And I think over these last couple of years with Pochettino, I still have absolutely zero idea what the team is.

1:02:15Because everything has always been, well, let's give these guys a chance and let me have a look at this guy and then we'll look at these guys and then, oh no, that didn't work out very well. So let's change seven, eight for the next game where if it's back to back qualifying and you have a little blip in the first game, you work on it in training, you have more or less your same team. And now you fix that, you get a win and then you move on to the next round. And it just has been experimentation. It wasn't a good time to be talking about semifinals just before you played and got walloped by two top ten teams.

1:02:48Well, yeah, and I don't think Belgium are any more than average now. They've lost a lot of the big superstars they had. Kevin De Bruyne is still there, but he's not. He's not. The Kevin De Bruyne of eight years ago. He's still a good player. And then you play Portugal, you get a bit of a lesson there as well. What the scoreline wasn't as bad. So yeah, I mean it's going to be tough, but there should not be any excuses really if it doesn't go well. Jules, what do you think? Yeah, I agree with the boys. I think that pressure, the tension, you can't replace that. Friendly certainly won't help with that, even for the players' mindset, even subconsciously.

1:03:25Not the players maybe thinking about it all the time, but subconsciously you don't approach the game in the same way. It's good to be French, isn't it? It must be so nice to be French, man. Just quickly, while we're on a different subject, Jules. I feel like a fan here. Is there a better player in Europe at the moment? No, I'm being serious. Is there a better player in Europe at the moment than Michael Alisi? Yeah. No, I agree. I mean, the La Minha, my fans, we love that. the fans will be there, sure, but I think Vincent Kompany and Bayern have taken him to another level. And himself as well, with all the work that he's put up.

1:04:07Even somebody was telling me, like physically, you know, physically he's been able to now cope better with challenges and rough defenders, if you want. Palace, maybe he was still a little bit lightweight in some of them. He was talented, but he's worked so hard to get to this level now that every time he touches the ball in different areas within the pitch, he's got an impact on the game. What fascinates me the most, Craig, really, and I know this is up subject, but if you were the France team head coach and Kay is the same, Odyssey is not just maybe top three best players in the world, but certainly the best in his position.

1:04:43Okay, you can have Lamine if you want, level up with him. But would you change him and play him in a different position when the guy in his natural right winger position is the best in the world and yet Deschamps is taking him away from that and playing him centrally, where he's very good as well. I mean, he's so good, he can play anywhere. But I would tend to keep him in the best position considering he's having the best season of his life. Jules, is that the biggest worry for France is that the team is so stacked that you're trying to figure out how to keep all these great players happy? Dewey, Dembele, Mbappe, Van Coole.

1:05:21And then the pressure of knowing you have this unbelievable squad and the expectation from that? Yeah, maybe. I think we've said it the other day as well during the international break. I think, and as you know, how arrogant we are in France and especially in Paris. Where's Frankie? Yeah, but the biggest thing is that, you know, we can be our own enemy in the sense that we can take things for granted and we can take things lightly. And Deschamps, before the Columbia game, so after Brazil and before Columbia, He said, we have to stay humble here. Because already he could sense that within the squad, after the Brazil win, there was maybe a bit of that kind of feeling.

1:06:03So it's that. And you're right. I think for me, and especially for Deschamps' last tournament, it will all be his decisions and who you play where. And don't get that one wrong. Because with all the talent that he has, there's a lot of different options that he can use. Was it Korea 2002? How did we turn into a France segment? Well, because we don't. Does nobody want to go home? Let me just, we need to wrap this up. But I want to just say something because before Barcelona fans get their knickers in the twist. Right. I wasn't saying. By the way, I don't care anyway. I wasn't going to say. There's a first time for everything.

1:06:38Come round my house and we've sucked it out. All right. But I wasn't saying. Sorry. I didn't mean Michael Elisa is a better player than Laminya Mao. But I think at the moment, my point was he is having a bigger effect in some games. He's, yeah. And if you want to come round the house, I'll take you to Roblox. But no, no, it's great to see. I love to see somebody going from a smaller club into a huge arena like Alicia has. Not stepping out of a Liverpool or a Man United or a PSG, but stepping out of Palace where there's not really much expectation. Going on to this huge arena at the Allianz. with all these great players and turning it on and strutting about with the chest out as most French do anyway.

1:07:24Yeah, sure, French. All right, let's not let Jules in for this one. But Jules, let's see if France will allow me citizenship because I will happily jump on that bandwagon. Let me tell you what team. With pleasure. You just got a bonus France segment from us, but there'll be plenty more talking about France. Probably not this week, but there's a new ESPN FC coming your way tomorrow. R.O.K. Murray will be back for it to keep these boys in check. We are on seven days a week. Just check your local listings.

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