No Salah, No Problem

0:04Welcome to the latest edition of ESPN FC. I'm Dan Thomas joined by Craig Burley. We'll kick things off in Italy. Inter Milan taking on a Salah. Liverpool. No, that worked. I didn't know if I was going to be able to say that. Not sure. Liverpool, though, didn't need the Egyptian captain as they would win by one goal to nil, but in somewhat controversial fashion, they ordered a penalty late on in this game, where Virts was a judge to have been fouled. The referee didn't give it initially, went over to the monitor, changed his mind, gave the pen, saw the slide, would convert it, and Liverpool would win by one goal to nil.

0:35For more on this, let's welcome in, shall we, a former Interman, Jürgen Klinsmann, joins us, as does Jan Arger-Fjortov. And right, let's not mess around, Jurgen. Penalty or not?

0:46Well, you can give it, but very, very soft. Obviously, very, very soft penalty. I wouldn't have given it, but yeah, he pulled him just for a split second and that was enough then, but very soft decision. Jan Agafjortov? Well, I will say you can give a penalty for stupidity from Bastogne. Yes, very soft, but he gave VAR and ref a chance to give it. My God, you've gone to two guys that would throw themselves to the ground for$10. There is no diver here. $10 is generous. All right, I can maybe give you a pass, Jan, but there's no way Jürgen's going to pass. What do you say to you? No, I mean, I agree.

1:30It's a rather foolish act by Bastogne to even pull the shirt. But I think the mere reaction of Florian Wirtz and the timing of the throwing himself to the ground.

1:46I mean... There's a slight delay, isn't there? Basically, the set ball is there and then he goes down. Look, I don't think it's a penalty kick. End of story. But there's no rule, Craig. There's no rule for how long you make a pre-kick. No, I... To make the devil's advocate. I understand. I understand that Florian Wirt's movement is not rational to what happened to his shirt, so to say. But there is no rule saying that he just did a free kick for two seconds, one second, a split second. You can't throw yourself after the shirt is released and it's still in that act. Anyway, that's the way that they managed to get the three points and the win, which is the bigger story in the sense of the week or in the season that Arne Slott has had or more importantly in the four or five days that Arne Slott has had even if it's that long regarding the Mo Salah mess and how the club and himself have dealt with it thus far Mo Salah didn't travel I think that's a crystal clear sign about what way this is going to go and I think also the fact that they've gone into Milan who didn't pose the greatest of threat going forward, it has to be said.

3:02So that would aid in a bit the fact that Liverpool kept a clean sheet, which they've been horrendous at this season. So that's a huge bonus. They were a lot more solid. They had Eke Tiki on the left. They had Subozlai on the right, but playing a little bit of a hybrid. They had Alexander Izak through the middle. They had an extra midfielder in there. So they had a little bit more solidity about them. Andy Robertson played. Joe Gomez played. So a little bit more defensive strength. and it was another sign to say to a guy in Mo Salah who I think most of us have thought did not choose his words particularly well when he basically said this club owes me everything, this club owes me a favour, I have achieved everything here.

3:46What were the words that he said? I have nothing to prove, I have earned my place at this club by what I have done in the past and I think most people have jumped in that rightly so and said well no no your place in the team is judged on recent performances as Stevie said yesterday and those were the words that sort of got up a lot of people's nose the entitlement of how dare you question my place on the side how dare Arnie Slott drop me and the one way to sort of put it to bed a little bit for certainly for a few hours, is to go to the San Siro, is to go and play Inter, is to keep a clean sheet, is to win the game and say, you know what, you might not be on board with what we're doing.

4:31You might not be on board with the manager. You might be whinging about decisions being made. But we've got some other players here at this football club that are willing to roll their sleeves up and go and do the job. And Liverpool did that tonight. Inevitably, this is where the conversation was always going to go, Jürgen. If you were on his slot, how would you have dealt with Mo Salah over the last 48 hours? Well, this is always the biggest kind of, not problem, but the challenge for managers. You know, when you have players that are not content, when you have players that are mad and suddenly face a different reality of their situation, and obviously what Mo Salah did for Liverpool is unbelievable, is fantastic.

5:14I mean, he's been such a big figure and he will be forever legend at Anfield Road. but kind of time moves on and they made some decisions in the transfer window this summer bringing in young players for more than I don't know how many hundred millions and you've got to make somehow a space for them and you've got to figure it out as a manager now who's in front of who do I have to bench here and there and then it depends on how the players react so you have all these big names and big expectations and then the things didn't start well for Liverpool. And that's why I think, you know, today we saw a Liverpool team that was very well organized defensively, but didn't create much besides maybe the chance from Bradley there in the second half going forward.

6:02But you could also sense it, you know, watching the game that not even Inter knew how to take this Liverpool side today. You know, Inter should have created more, should have done more, put him more under pressure and go for a three-point solution. instead of waiting and waiting and waiting until maybe something happens. And that's when something happens at the very end, if it was penalty or not. But the end result is a 1-0 win for Liverpool. And it's huge. It helps, obviously, on the slot in that critical moment. Obviously, they have to sit down. They have to talk. Most of them, they have to go through that.

6:40And everybody in the world is watching. The world of football is watching the situation. But for managers, really, this is very, very tricky. If you have a roster that is overloaded, especially in certain positions, where they double the positions and you have high, high quality, extreme quality, and then you have to figure out a way to tell your players you're going to sit on the bench. Now, obviously, it's more difficult to tell an older player. I mean, I call them always more experienced players because I don't like the word old because you are only good or bad. There's no old or young. But in his case, obviously, he's 33, and the players that they brought in are far, far younger, like Florian Wirtz, for example.

7:27And so they are the future of the club, and now he needs to realize that he has to fight his spot with these youngsters coming in for, obviously, a lot of money. And now these conversations have to happen and, yeah, make things clear. it's not easy for Mo Salah at all emotionally, absolutely not but for the manager he has the job to make this kind of decision tell more experienced players in this case your time is going towards an end and this is really a difficult one because you carry that with you as a manager forever because you are the one that told an older player it's time to go, it's time to move on, I'm going to bring in now some youngsters.

8:11I tried with the next wave of players. And obviously you can see that Liverpool is in a kind of transition. Something that maybe Inter Milan is now going sooner or later into. Because that is a team that is too old. You know, you could see it today. I mean, Acelbi was going out then. Czarnoglu was leaving the ground. And it's a very old Inter side that now needs to figure out a way to bring in younger players and refresh their rosters. So they will maybe be in the same situation as Liverpool next year or in two years from now. But again, this is work for a manager that is not easy. Jürgen, what would it take for Salah to play for you again after saying what he did?

8:54Would you expect an apology from him? I think an apology would help the case, you know, because he put himself a bit too much in front of everything. but I think it needed a cup of coffee between the manager and the player and then obviously open talk from the player to his teammates and then prove your point in training show everybody that you are right there that you want to fight for your spot he's obviously one of the best players ever in Liverpool history and he's still good he can still easily play another whatever, four or five years You know, Messi is 38 and Ronaldo is 40. Why can't he play until 38 or 40?

9:39Now he's going, obviously, to the Africa Cup of Nations. And then we will see him with Egypt in the next summer's World Cup. So he has so much still to do and to play for. But, I mean, it wouldn't hurt for him, for sure, if the team is coming back tomorrow and then they have a quick training session and maybe just to mention a couple of words in the dressing room. So he apologizes to Andy Slott. but he goes back in the side, plays badly for the next four or five, once he comes back from the African Cup of Nations, that is. His form continues in the same manner in which it has been for this season, which has been poor.

10:16For whatever he's done in the past, that's gone now. Great numbers, unbelievable numbers, which is one of the reasons that Liverpool had to give him the big salary. They were under somewhat a lot of pressure with Van Dijk and Salah to give him a new contract because they couldn't be seen to be letting go superstars who were winning the Premier League, But there was always the worry that these players at their age were going to fall off a cliff at some point. Those numbers were going to drop. And in some sense, I think this has fallen into Liverpool's lap in terms of they could offer him to Saudi Arabia in January or whenever it is.

10:48And they're not going to look like the bad guys. But if he comes back in the team with an apology and plays badly and Arne Slott has to leave him out again, where do we go? Right. Where do we go? I mean, because he's already basically said, Mo Salah, that is, that, you know, you're dropping me, the superstar. He's basically saying you can't do that. That was paraphrasing what he said in his words. You know, I have earned my place. That's saying, and saying I have earned my place, he's saying what I've done for this club, in his eyes, and then Stevie said yesterday, what this club and these players have done for him, it works both ways.

11:27but what I have done for this club means this manager should not have the right to leave me out. I think that's the part of it that just got me sitting back going, wow, that's super arrogant. And the other thing is from tonight, this was such a big game for Amnesty Slott tonight because had Inter Milan taken this Liverpool team apart, and we've seen it this season, by three or four goals, I'll guarantee you every man and his dog would have been saying maybe Mo Salah's got to him this guy's lost the dressing room it would have been a lost the dressing room conversation so this was a huge night for Arne Slott Jan it must be so refreshing to see a Norwegian journalist get a decent interview yeah my colleague was just standing there it was unbelievable I spoke to him straight after I was in the studio and we got a message yeah he's been filming it as well we got it but it's an amazing It's an amazing story.

12:24And I think now, 48 hours afterwards, we can also reflect on what's happened in a bigger perspective. Because I think the king is dead, long live the king. I mean, this is a club that took Bill Shankly left, Bob Paisley and Sir Kenny in for Kevin Keegan. It moves always on. And I'm with Craig. I mean, I can't believe that his best argument was that I have earned my place. That means that Sir Kenny Dalglish can figure out tomorrow that he wants to play against Brighton on Saturday and he can play. I mean, I think that's the worst argument ever. It's all about today for sports people. We know that.

13:04We get our legs, we get tired at some point of our career. But you have to produce. I mean, nobody can look at the performances of Liverpool Football Club this season. nobody can look at the performance of Mohamed Salah this season and can say that he should be a fixed starter in every game. And you saw it tonight as well. This was the same thing that they did against West Ham. This was a professional way. They came there, disciplined, conceded no goals, winning a football game. And the other argument, if I may say at the end, is that, of course, Mohamed Salah has the freedom of speech. He can be as irritated.

13:42He can be as annoyed as anyone. But there's been coming out reports, of course, that a striker like one of the two, three superstars of the Premier League is not happy to sit on a bench because it goes off his proudness. But then you go in the dressing room, go to the manager, go to the owners, do whatever you want. But you can't do that. I mean, we're all selfish. We all got our kind of proudness. But you can't do that. Sorry, mate. Although we love you as a football player, you can't do that. Just a reminder, a lot more reaction to what we see, the big stories on the latest edition of the Football Reporters.

14:19That is available now.

14:54Atalanta 2, Chelsea 1 is how it finished in Italy. Gio Pedro opening the scoring for the visitors. But two second-half goals for Atalanta would see them get the victory. Jan, you'll keep an eye on this game for us. What's going on with Chelsea? Well, it's always when we talk about those contenders for anything, they are gone. And today, I mean, we saw the goals there. I mean, one nil up. And then for me, yes, Camacho is so free. You can't do that. You get teased over to the near post, as Craig was alluding to. But still, you can't let him do that. There is something with this Chelsea team that reminds me of the good old Dortmund team.

15:37So remember when one player went down, seven went down? There is something with the mentality in that team. They go down together. It's not that one or two go down. It's like a mentality in the team. Joe Pedro had a chance there at the end. Having said that, we have to respect Atalanta, not a flyer in La Liga. Now it's Serie A, sorry. but in the Champions League doing ever so well and they were clever and I think you were kind Craig to the goalkeeper on the second goal for Ketelar I think he didn't look well at that goal either so a sad night for a Chelsea team that can't can't last as a contender more than two or three games yeah but I'm just I was just looking at the league table there I think they're 10th Champions League table yes right they're 10th out of I'm being told they're 11th 11th 10th I was looking there the glasses, all right.

16:30Smart Alec producer.

16:34And, you know, there's 400 teams in this freaking league. You know, there's like 36 teams. Now, I understand the Japanese are there, but this isn't good for Chelsea, is it? This isn't about the Champions League per se. This is about their form, their consistency, their inability to take and harness what they had in the Arsenal game, which seems to be what everybody's talking about because it was particularly good and then go and do this. Lose at Leeds, albeit Mareska made two, I think, big mistakes in the changes. He left out Neto and he left out Rhys James. They were two of the best players against Arsenal.

17:13Bournemouth was a dull game. Bournemouth bossed the first half. Second half was pretty dull. And then a loss tonight. And I think that's more the concern for Enzo Mareska going forward rather than this Champions League table is the fact that are they going to pick it up? Can they put a consistent run of results together? Can they get a consistency within their team selection? Can they defend well enough which we didn't see tonight? So I think those are all the questions that we thought we had the answers to from the game against Arsenal at home. We thought, wow, this could be pretty good. This is much better than we thought at the start of the season and then we have these three games big disappointment.

17:49So who are the real Chelsea, Jan? That's a good question. I think they will go through though, if you You see, they're playing Paphos at home. Yeah, they'd be fine. They would be fine in doing that. I think the real Chelsea are still looking for their identity somehow. I mean, we can see what they can do when they are very good. We can see that. But if you see their lowest point, it's too low to be up there. You see Manchester City has kind of go with their bad games, but still the bad is still at three points. with Chelsea the lowest point is too low and you saw that today in key scenes in the game that they're not up for it but I think they're going to be all right and maybe it's something wish thinking that we want the Premier League to be so exciting we want Chelsea there, we want City there we want Arsenal there and they're probably not good enough mentally I bet we don't have any questions tonight on Extra Time about our Chelsea title contenders That ship has sailed.

18:56I'm going to move on now. That's a nice segue into extra time. I was going to slaughter the people that send the questions in. Well, you could do that freely on extra time today. That's available, of course, on our YouTube channel.

19:13Barca would get the win against Eintracht Frankfurt. Not, though, before the Germans would take the lead. Now, with a nice finish to make it 1-0 in the 21st minute. They almost made it two just before the break. However, a quick brace from Koundé in the second half. We'll see Barcelona win by two goals to one. Barcelona win then, Jürgen, but once again, that little vulnerability at the back. Yeah, it continues, but obviously for them, thankfully, they won the game. Two headers from Koundé. I thought the second header was a very difficult one for him, but I was wondering if the goalie maybe wanted to come out at a certain point because the ball was up in the air for quite a long time.

19:53But no, it's a good result, obviously, for Barcelona. But they keep offering chances to their opponents. And Frankfurt is a little bit more clinical. They get an equaliser. They tie the game up with 2-2 or maybe even score before. But there's pure entertainment always guaranteed when you watch Barcelona. No doubt about it. They'll offer up. I mean, I'm just going to go to Jan. You don't even have to bat in. I feel that I'm semi-recovering from the drama. Jan, Eintracht Frankfurt would be disappointed, wouldn't it? They didn't get something from this game? Disappointing. I mean, this is a team that concedes six goals a game.

20:32I mean, we're super happy. I mean, they lost 6-0 to Wolfsburg. Ah, yes. No, to Leipzig this weekend. And we conceded 29 in the Bundesliga. No team in the world has conceded more goals. Now, to be fair, I think that, yes, Barcelona were the better team, but they didn't create a lot of chances that we feared, especially in the first half. I think they will be very disappointed the way that the goals came. I mean, if you made a list of the players who are going to score against you and then you end up with two goals from Kunder, you will think, oh, we should have put the money on him because that was a high odds.

21:06I think Frankfurt will take this game into where they are at the moment. In the table, not so, I think they're two points away from a Champions League place, but still been a bit disappointing for them and conceding unbelievable numbers of goals. So I think I fear them. When I sat down to watch this game, I feared this game big time. But yes, the Champions League is gone now. And Jürgen will know the best words in German is Doublebelastung. They have played Champions League and Bundesliga, Champions League and Bundesliga, Champions League and Bundesliga. The double kind of energy has taken a toll on Eintracht this season.

21:42So we just hope that they will sort it out before Christmas. Yeah, and all that Laminya-Mal drama has taken its toll on us. Who would have thought we'd talk more about Franks than Laminya-Mal? We'll never trust him again, will we? Yeah, you know what he's like. Just a reminder, full programme of La Liga matches for you coming up this weekend. Barca, of course, looking to extend their lead at the top of the table. They're at home against Osasuna for Real Madrid, who will be in charge of their game away against Alaves. All these games are live on ESPN+. In the early game, it was Bayern against Sporting.

22:18The visitors, in fact, would take the lead 10 minutes into the second half and own goal from Kimmich, making it 1-0. However, Vincent Kompany's side would rally. Gnabry and Lennart Karl once again impressing. Tarl scoring late on as Bayern would win by three goals to one. Jürgen and Jan still with us. Jürgen, talk to me about Lennart Karl. Well, a super special talent. Absolutely outstanding at that age. It's impressive. He seems like just to play like he would play in the youth team. You know, he doesn't get bothered by 70 ,000 out there. Tackling him very, very gifted. Very creative. Has the smell for where the ball will end up in the box, which reminds me a little bit of Thomas Müller.

23:03He always knew where the ball will drop. So this is a very, very special kid. And I mean, obviously in Munich, the big discussion is, you know, once Musiala is coming back, how these two youngsters will play together. there's a lot of excitement there and then there's the speculation and Jan Aki knows that is this kid already mature enough to go to the World Cup next summer? Would you take him Jürgen?

23:31If you have a kid like that I mean obviously now you have 26 roster spots which is not so easy for a manager to deal with 26 players instead of the 23 before that came all with COVID obviously I would take him in a heartbeat, absolutely. What will Moussiala's fitness be by the World Cup? What are we expecting him back? Guys, do we know? I think we expect him back. It was a bit delayed. They hoped that he maybe gets some minutes before Christmas, but it seems now that they will save that over the new year. In a month, three weeks, four weeks' time he'll be back. Good news for Canada today, Alphonso Davies got some minutes today, talking about injured players been out for a while, so he was on the bench and came on in the 88th minute, so that's good news for Bayern and good news for Canada.

24:24I suppose if Moussial is back and has three or four months of football, and this is not easy, and gets his form back, because when you have such a bad injury, we've seen it with Rodri at Manchester City, come back in much more experienced player but come back in, play some games, pick up some other injuries, play some games, pick up some niggles. These things can happen and they can really wear on you. And that might not be the case for Murciala, but we've seen it with Ansu Fati as a youngster at Barcelona. We've seen it with Pedro as a youngster coming back and getting niggles. So it would depend how he comes back in.

25:00If he comes back in and he's fully fit and he's flying, then Murciala will go to the World Cup. I suppose the one question you could be if Leonard Carroll keeps playing like this, is it Florian Wirtz that might be? Right. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Florian Wirtz and Muzialla will so go to the World Cup. They will go there with a Nike wheelchair. I mean, that is no chance. So are you saying if Florian Wirtz, listen, I think they're great players, but even great players have poor seasons. If Florian Wirtz continues to have a very average season for Liverpool, in and out the team, left out the team, are you saying there's no chance the youngster would go?

25:45I think the youngster will go. I think Jürgen makes a very good point with the 26-man squad. I think you should bring in players, be ready for the next World Cup, the next European Championship. But Florian Wirtz and Muziala got so much credit in the bank. They are seen as the future of Germany, even if they have a poor season. But I would bring Leonard Kahl, absolutely. And the thing is, I think the last game of Germany, there were five Bayern players in the team. And with the form Bayern is having, they can only help Julian Nagelsmann. And then we see how proud he is, how many players he dares to play in the starting line-up.