The Football Reporters: Matty Cash exclusive & Man City’s title statement

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24:53So we were lucky enough to have Matty Cash join us on the podcast last week ahead of Villa's games against Maccabee and Bournemouth. James, you set it up. You sat there with the sponsor with Rob. What was the context of the interview? Yeah, well, I mean, he's in a very good place at the moment. I mean, Villa turned a corner after a slow start to the season. And, you know, he's been quite integral to that. He just signed a new contract a few days before we spoke to him. And he'd also scored the winner against Man City, which is, you know, no means for you. Great goal as well. So no, he was in a very good place.

25:26I don't know what you thought, Rob, but it was actually one of the most enjoyable interviews I've done in a while. I thought he was on great form. Yeah, and I think that kind of setting is a lot more relaxed when players are talking. You know, when he's obviously, he's not at a club. You know, being managed by club press people, you can maybe feel a bit freer to sort of talk about stuff. I thought he was quite engaging. You know, some of the detail he gives about Unai Emery and how they prepare for games and that one story he tells about preparing for City and he thought he was going to be Savino and then Docu starts or the other way around and how he deals with that pre-match.

26:02It's kind of sort of detail that you don't usually get in normal sort of footballer interviews and it's a benefit of having a little bit of time with him. These interviews sometimes are what, 10 minutes and we had half an hour, the best part of half an hour with him which obviously allows the conversation to run a little bit. I just thought he spoke really well. He's obviously a really impressive guy, playing really well, been rewarded with a new contract, probably going to go to a World Cup next summer. You know, everything's looking good for him. And quite an interesting character on a number of levels, obviously with his international background and, you know, playing for Poland and playing with Lewandowski.

26:33And I mean, he scored, as he mentions in the interview, he scored some big goals for Poland recently. And they've obviously reached a critical point in their World Cup qualifying campaign. And, you know, you want to see good characters like that do well, really. You know, and it's obviously a dream of his to go to the World Cup next summer and they're quite close to doing it. So people that don't know, what is the situation with Paul? Because obviously Matty Cash, born and bred in the UK, how is he playing for Paul? Is it an ancestral thing? Yeah, it's, I think it was his mother, wasn't it? It was his mother's side.

27:05But basically he had no, he had no sort of contact with the England youth team. He'd started football quite late. As he talked about in the interviews, sort of, I think 17, 18, when he started playing sort of professionally at a high level. So he'd kind of almost missed out the whole kind of youth team set up and the whole St. George's Park situation. So when Poland contacted him about his availability, you know, there was an opportunity for him to go and play international football. And again, I thought he talks really well about just how it kind of works. He's had different managers. I think he's had three different managers at Poland, some of whom he's probably got on with better than others.

27:45I'm sure that's always the case. and he can speak a bit of Polish. I've seen him in other interviews sort of identifying Polish food. He can do that but the language of football, I guess, transcends all that and plus he benefits from the fact that pretty much everyone in the Polish dressing room speaks English anyway. So he does say in this interview he sits with the translator next to him in the dressing room with this current manager. So I just think it's a fascinating thing to have to sort of, you're playing for your country but you don't speak the language and you're obviously not based there and all the dynamics and the challenges that come with that.

28:21But he just, you know, he seems to just be fully loving life at the moment for club and country. I just think it's an interesting, you know, when players get to talk in that much detail about certain things instead of, you know, those usual kind of pre-match. Are you looking forward to playing Liverpool the weekend? Yeah, I hope we win. Yeah, great. What do you think about the next game? Yeah, I hope we win that one too. Obviously, like, there's a structure to those things. I like that, Rob. You know, is that your interview style? I mean, jeez. I just think it's nice when you get a player, when you get time with the players and you can sort of start talking about kind of dynamics in the dressing room, you know, how you prepare for a game, all these little details and things that perhaps we wouldn't get.

28:49Because let's be honest, none of us get to speak to players as much as we would like. And perhaps people listening would think, well, you get to speak to players all the time. Well, we don't actually, not in that kind of environment. It's quite rare that players put themselves up in that kind of format. And I just think it's nice to give a player the freedom to kind of talk about the stuff he wants to talk about. And also, I think Emery's quite an interesting talking point here, because he talked about the video analysis meeting being an hour and 40 minutes long. You know, I mean, it's a long old time to sit there and he sort of jokes about it.

29:17And obviously, Emery's got buy-in from the Villa players. You can see from the way they're playing. But that was a stick that was used to beat him at Arsenal. When it all unravelled at Arsenal, they were bored in those meetings. They felt they went on too long. Players have got time spans of like five minutes these days. Amrim says videos can be longer than 12 minutes. So that tells you everything. You remember the old Lou Van Gaal story about players were pretending to read his emails with video clips on. Well, they realised they had to open it, didn't they? Because Van Hal was tracking where they actually opened the email.

29:47So he put tracking email receipts on his emails. Well, Matty Cash speaks very positively about it, Mark. So away we go. Just to start then, I mean, let's just look back at the season so far. I mean, how do you sort of assess how things have gone? Obviously a bit of a slow start, but you guys have sort of found your strides in recent weeks. Yeah, thanks for having me for a start. Yeah, no, obviously it was a tough start to the season. Yeah, we didn't start well at all. I felt like we had a good pre-season. We obviously went to America. Results were okay. We were scoring a lot of goals. And then almost, yeah, the opposite way around when the season started.

30:28Yeah, and then obviously we just sort of tried to take it in our stride. Obviously, yeah, as I said, it wasn't positive, but we tried to make, tried to make, obviously, yeah, tried to do the opposite to what we were doing, really, and work on it on the training ground and try and create and score goals and practice and do what we've been doing over the last few years. That's made us be really successful. And in football, things can change quite quickly. As you can see, obviously, we're on a really good run now. Obviously, we lost at the weekend, but the games before that, I think we were brilliant.

30:58So, yeah, we're in a nice little stead at the minute, but still more to do. Part of that run, of course, was the win over Man City. So, come on then, this is it. Talk us through the goal. Floor is yours. you can have as long as you want it's funny though because when I came in obviously I had to do interviews and stuff with Sky and they were saying was it for me and yeah I killed our set piece coach and it wasn't for me to be honest but I spoke to Buendia the day before the day after and he said to me obviously the routine was for Rodgers to get the ball in the in the in the box but it was a little bit tight so he actually did look for me I think um and then yeah it fell to me and I just thought take a touch and then I saw that Donnarumma moved to his right and then thought I just hit it on my left and the other side.

31:40So nice finish, yeah. It's important that though, isn't it? Because I think there's obviously been a lot of talk about set pieces this season, kind of just generally in the Premier League. But I guess, I don't know if fans think they're so kind of, you know, trained and drilled that players can't ever sort of vary it or improvise. But obviously what you're describing there is, you know, is sort of doing it on the fly almost. Yeah, we spend a lot of time, a lot of time doing set pieces. Yeah, we spend almost hours on it, I'd say. on Thursday and Friday, building up to like, if we play on a Saturday, we would spend at least 45 minutes each day doing routines and trying to change the routine.

32:17And I think that's where our set piece coach, Austin's really good. He does so many different ideas against different teams and finds where space is going to be. So it's really good, but yeah, it can be long as well. But yeah, if you're scoring and creating from him, then there's no worries in doing it. Where does it rank for you in terms of goals that you've scored? Yeah, it's up there, I think. Especially because it was the winner. I was just praying. I was doing everything I could to defend the goal after it, just to make sure I got the winner. I was quite annoyed I didn't get the MOM as well.

32:50I said to Amadou, no, no, after you stole that off me, but he was great as well. I've got it the week before against Tottenham, so you can't always have it all. You can't have it every week. What does a win... I mean, I know obviously games are only worth three points, But when you beat a team like City, what does that do for the morale of the group and kind of the, I guess, the buy-in from the players about what the manager's trying to do in the turnaround that you've had? Yeah, it's obviously massive for the confidence. Obviously, we went away to Spurs and got a great result then. So the next game, City, was about trying to continue that and beat another really good team.

33:24And obviously, we all know the power of City and what they can do and what they've done in recent years. So, yeah, it was a massive result. And I think, to be honest, against City, we always play well at home. always over the last few years there's always been games where we're right in it and it's quite close um but as i said then you've got to respect them you know their power but then we also have got a lot of power where we can hurt them as well so but now a massive win definitely yeah has there been anything particular that's that's caused a turnaround in form you obviously mentioned a bit of the slow start and they went from that to winning sort of i think it was was it five on the bounce yeah was there anything particular that was behind that did you think i think Obviously, as I said, how poor the start was, I think when we got a win and started scoring some goals, we built a little bit of confidence together.

34:07Forward started scoring a little bit more. And I think in football, confidence is a massive part in getting results and having players in form and stuff. So, yeah. And as I said, over the last few years, we've been so good and won so many games that you almost find that river when you start winning. And I think that's what we've done. A lot of confidence was brought in after the poor start. You obviously also recently signed a new deal. I mean, just talk us through your sort of thought process there. Did you have offers to go elsewhere? Did you think about leaving? Yeah, I had an offer in the summer to go elsewhere.

34:42And then I had an offer, well, I had two offers from different clubs in the summer. But I never really focused on that. My main priority is to stay at Villa. I think Villa is a great club. Done a lot of work there, obviously, over the years and stuff to progress as a player. and I still think there's a lot more to go, to be honest. Yeah, my main priority, I said in the summer to the manager when we had a chat that I wanted to stay. I wanted to keep improving and obviously this year I think I found a good little bit of form. And yeah, delighted that they came to me and offered me a deal. I mean, when those offers come in, how does that kind of work?

35:16Was it a case that the club's made the offers and the club wanted to sit down and discuss whether you wanted to leave? I mean, how did that sort of dynamic play out? Well, yeah, a little bit of that. obviously I'd spoke to the manager in the summer we always have like an end of season talk and stuff and he just asked me where I was at and how I was feeling that he'd love to to keep me obviously I still had a few years left on my contract as well but obviously it was a point where was I going to renew or what was the case um so yeah I just said I had an open and honest chat that I really want to stay it's a great club I feel really settled here I feel at home here um obviously yeah I got my house and stuff there and yeah I just wanted to commit my future and then obviously yeah they they came to me and offered me a new contract and it had been in the pipeline for a few months when we had the conversation um but yeah I never really had set on leaving as I said I feel at home and feel comfortable here not comfortable I'm not you're never comfortable in the Premier League you've always got to like play well and produce if not you don't play so not comfortable comfortable is the wrong word I'm always wanting to improve but settled yeah yeah I mean and I guess the manager is obviously a big part of that as well um I mean just talk to us a bit about what makes him such a great coach he's known for his very long video meetings are they as long as people say they are they're getting longer to be honest yeah it's funny because when you win a few games in a row he gets more demanding and the videos go double as long um so yeah we've definitely been in the video room for sometimes over an hour and 40 minutes easily wow um yeah we have obviously when we play we then the week after watch the last game and they'll clip everything literally hour and 40 minutes easily of what we can do.

36:54It's funny because when we score, when he shows the clip of the goal, he'll then show other things we could do, even though we've just scored. It's like we've just scored and he's showing us different lines of where we could have played. And that just shows the detail and the intensity that he's at and how intense he is and how much he wants us to improve. Was he quite a big part of you wanting to stay and sign that? that contract you mentioned the conversations that he he had with you as well I mean is he quite a big motivating factor if you want to stay there and and you know achieve what you want to do at Villa a hundred percent yeah like I have a good connection with the manager we have a lot of conversations not regularly but we have conversations one-to-one a lot and he's a massive part and in in me obviously committing and and obviously the club as well it speaks for itself you know obviously playing for such a big clubs and honor as well but obviously having a manager that's so good behind it is definitely a big key factor.

37:55What sort of demands does he have on you personally? I mean, as a fullback, you've kind of got to do everything. I mean, I've watched some of your games and the ground that you're asked to cover is absolutely unbelievable. I mean, what kind of demands does he place on you and your position? A lot of demand, yeah. And you can never relax because the minute you start relaxing, he's onto you as well and he notices everything. he will never not notice something a little even if it's a little detail if it's in training or if it's something i'm sure he watches the sessions back definitely but um and that just shows the level you have to be at you know at a premier league club that are competing for europe and that's what the level should be at when you're bringing in players and stuff when you've got money to spend and you're as i said when you're competing in europe at the higher high end of the end of the table you need to be on it every day and you do and you need a manager that's demanding that can set standards.

38:48So, yeah, and as I said, he does change a lot of stuff in different games when we play against different teams. There's different tactics. So sometimes I'll be playing in a back three. Sometimes I'll be high and wide. And as I said, there's different roles that I need to play. And I understand it because I've played for him for a while now. And you have a dedicated full-back coach, right? Is that right, Villa? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Because that's not common, I don't think, is it? I mean, is that something you'd experienced before Unai came in? No, never, no, no. Yeah, we've got full-back coaches and obviously the coach does do a lot of stuff with other positions as well.

39:25But in terms of full-backs for me, I do loads of like one-to-one stuff. Even, for example, the day before we played City, I'd done 20 minutes just alone with him on marking Doku, on how to mark him. And I do a lot of research myself and studying on wingers and stuff, but it was like 20 minutes and then Doku didn't even start the next day. so it's like oh done all that for no reason um because i did plan for him to play and then i didn't savinho ended up playing left wing as well so i was watching loads of clips on doku thinking this is how i'm going to defend him one-to-one even start so yeah so uh that was annoying but is there anything you can do in situations like that i mean say that you get a team sort of an hour before are you sort of thinking oh no i need to sort of like get a little bit of a debrief on savinho now or do you just think oh no yeah i just gotta go out and do it yeah no the night before i always go on my laptop and i'll watch the last clips from the winger that i'm going to play against the next day and i'll watch yeah 15 20 minutes of his last actions or whatever yeah and then obviously yeah if he's not going to play and it changes then you've got a less time to do it so um i think i watched the um someone in an interview a manager said the other day was it maresco about a back five yeah it was sunderland yes he planned for a back five for sunderland and they played a back four or something or the other way around yeah and it's yeah it's like that really to be honest, but obviously just with a winger.

40:43I mean, just sort of generally, it feels as though the role of full-backs evolved a lot in the last five or ten years. I mean, how have you had to adapt? Is this sort of trend in the Premier League now more suited to the way you naturally want to play or have you had to kind of train yourself to almost play differently? I was saying this the other day, when I first signed for Villa, it was almost five years ago, five, six years ago, five years ago, yeah. the fullback was bombing on every time he could and I think the game sort of changed a little bit I think Pep brought in inverted fullbacks playing into midfield and then you looked at like Guardiola the left back at City started like like a third centre back playing fullback and now it's sort of changing a little bit again I think it goes in and out it goes in and out of different things so now I think yeah it's starting to go back to the maybe overlapping fullback a little bit um but yeah a bit of both really I think the structure we have as I said it depends who we're playing as to what we're going to do and what he wants our fullbacks doing have you got any specific aims for this this season at Villa I mean obviously you've had experience of Champions League football you were so close to getting it again last season I mean do players talk about that does Unai set kind of aims like that have you got something in mind that you want to achieve this year I know it sounds a bit cliche but just try and try and take every game as it comes.

42:07I think the main thing for us is to do well in the Premier League, I'd say. Obviously, we're in Europe as well and we want to win a trophy. So I think that you've got to get a balance really between finishing as high as up in the Premier League as you can and then also having your other eye on a trophy where it comes from the FA Cup or if it comes from Europe. I think bringing a trophy back to Villa will be unbelievable. So, yeah, two little challenges really. Try and finish in Europe again, get the Champions League if we can. and then obviously having a lot of winning a trophy and bringing it back.

42:37But as I said, that's a long, long way away in terms of still got to win a lot of games to get there. So you've just got to try and build the points up there. And another aim of yours must be going to the World Cup. Obviously, you've got a couple of massive games coming up for Poland just to kind of go back to the start with Poland. Did you ever have any contact with England at youth level? Was that, was England ever sort of, was that discussion ever had with the FA or was it kind of, you know, when Poland came in, that was that? Yeah, never, to be honest. I never had any contact. To be fair, though, I came into professional football quite late, to be honest.

43:14So I didn't come into football until I was 17 at Forest. And then I ended up making my debut at 18. So it came quite quickly. So I'd never had any conversation with England youth level now. And I mean, just talk to us a bit about your journey with Poland and how welcoming they were at the start. It obviously must have been a bit sort of strange to go in there initially. I know you tried to speak some of the language, but obviously, I mean, I've been to Poland. It's a very, very difficult language to try and understand. I imagine it's really hard to learn. I mean, just talk to us a little bit about your journey from when you came in to where you are now.

43:52Yeah, to be honest, I absolutely love it there. I think from the minute I've gone there, I've enjoyed every camp. I think over the past few years, I've had times where I've had a little niggle before camp and not gone. But yeah, it's brilliant. Playing for the country is great. The atmosphere is always amazing. The people are always so welcoming when I'm there. I have great support from them. And I think this season as well, when we played away at Holland, it was a little bit of a turning point for me. I scored back to back against Holland and Finland and that sort of kickstarted my season a little bit.

44:22So it just shows how important it can be to find form at international and then bringing it back to the club. But yeah, no, it's been great. I think, yeah, as I said, the support that they give me there, I feel like it gives you an extra lease of life, as I say. It's great. And I've seen him talk in other interviews about how, you know, obviously most of the Polish players basically speak English anyway, so it's kind of, you know, it's sort of easier for you around the place. But I'm curious, like on match day and in team meetings and stuff, so when the manager's kind of talking to you before the games, does he do that in Polish and there's a translator?

44:53Or how does it sort of work on match day? well I've had a few different managers so the first manager I went there was Paolo Sousa he was doing his team talks in English so I was sort of okay because everything was English and didn't need a translator and then they brought a Polish manager in who didn't really speak any English so I had a translator um and now the manager's Polish and he doesn't really speak a lot of English even though I have a really good connection with him it's weird because he can't really speak to me much but like we somehow have a good connection um I have a translator yeah so as soon as anyone starts speaking, I've always got someone with me that's then saying what everyone else is saying.

45:31So I don't feel as left out. Obviously, you've got a massive, the possibility of a massive tournament at the end of this season. Are you able to put that out of your mind at all? Is it even possible to do that? Or is it always just sort of there in the back of your head that that's going to be there at the end of the year? Yeah, well, obviously I experienced the last World cup and that was unbelievable it was such a good experience so yeah I've got that in my mind that I'd love to go to another one to play in a major tournament before was as I said so good so if I can do that again with Poland it'll be yeah unbelievable so obviously we've got a massive two games coming up against Holland and Malta so yeah fingers crossed we can do the best we can and try and get there whether it's through first in the group or playoffs yeah.

46:20Do you I mean I I know you're still in the middle of your career, but do you ever step back and give yourself time to think about how much you've achieved? You talk about coming into football dead late. You were at Forest. I think you were on loan at Dagenham at one point. You're playing Champions League football. You've been to a World Cup. You might go to another World Cup. Do you ever take a step back and just take all that in? I don't think you have time to, to be honest. Every day, this comes thick and fast. You haven't really got time to think about how well you've done. It's always like you're only as good as your last game in football but in terms of achievements course yeah like I've I've done great from as I said not coming through an academy to then making my debut at Forest and then coming to Villa and then obviously a lot more has happened since then um I probably were back when I was back at Forest and I was playing the championship I was I probably thought oh nice little life this couple grand a week stay here um and then yeah obviously ever since that it's evolved and gone on playing Champions League for your country, major tournaments, and then storing winners against City as well.

47:23I've got to ask you about Robin Lewandowski. Obviously, you played with a lot of top players. I'm guessing he's right up there as one of the best. He's obviously back in the Poland squad now. How much would it mean to him and to Poland as a country to see him have one last crack at a World Cup? Yeah, definitely. I mean, he's sort of like an inspiration to the country. if it wasn't for him. I don't think football would be as big, obviously. Such a good player, as I said, his numbers. I was actually, last month when I was at Poland, I was actually going through his numbers just to have the look because he's an absolute beast, honestly.

48:02He's like hunger for goals and his hunger for success. He's like to a next level and to be with someone like that and working around them closely and seeing how they live their life only benefits you, definitely. I think, yeah, he's on his numbers or goals. He's like, it's got to be Messi, Ronaldo messier than him for sure. And that just shows how good he is. There's a lot of chat, obviously, around Erling Haaland and Harry Kane at the moment and their form. I mean, you obviously see Lewandowski up close. Do you think he's still at that level? Should we still be talking about him, you know, up there with the very, very best even today?

48:39Well, every time I click on live score and I go on Barca, he's scored. So, yeah, obviously he's getting a little bit older now. But as I said, his physique and stuff, he's still a beast and he's still got the hunger to score. Obviously, Haaland and Kane might be a little bit younger than him. And obviously, Haaland, he's on another level, I think, and he's only going to get better, I think. But yeah, I think he's still at the level for sure. As I said, he's still scoring goals at the highest level, playing for one of the biggest clubs in Europe. So, yeah, he's still there. just just away from football matty i mean obviously you talk about it being so so pressurized and the demands that of playing premier league football and of the manager what do you do to kind of get away from all that do you do is there anything you do particularly to to switch off i know you're into your your golf and things is that kind of what it centers around yeah no i do i try to play golf i try to switch off it can be hard though obviously like obviously when things are going tough as well it can be hard to switch off from it because you're always thinking about constant football um but yeah i try to play golf um i like playing chess uh what else do i do yeah just chill out really a bit of netflix um as i said though golf out in the fresh air playing with your friends you can't really beat it to be honest do you see taylor's twift live yet no i haven't no she i need to see her i need to see her she needs to come to england everyone was talking about that when i got voted for player of the month it was like get all the taylor swift fans to vote for me and try and make me win you um do you really drive a golf ball 350 yards yeah i do yeah have you not seen the youtube channel no i've seen the video where you were nonchalantly walking up the stairs and go i drive a 350 and it should just yeah no carnage on the internet yeah i know i saw that and then people were like don't believe me i'm like well i do do that what are you playing off now is it two three scratch yeah now but you're scratched now i mean yeah yeah look i mean i don't want to i don't want to write off the rest of your professional football career but would you ever like when you're older would you ever think about trying to trying to go pro in golf i mean you could well i had a few conversations with people at the golf so maybe but now obviously now yeah i'm only joking like the level that they're on is like obviously i played with like i've played with polter westward and stuff like that and like the level they're on is incredible I'm good at golf but I'm nowhere near that level in terms of where the pros are I'm just like I think people make it sound that I'm better because I'm a footballer and it's like unexpected to be really good at golf but in terms of being live on tour nah you must be the best in the Villa dressing room by a mile oh yeah yeah anyone anyone even close or not nah not close you still got that you sound like an idiot saying that but I've said it that many times and they don't argue with it so I'm happy to say it.

51:32Yeah, because you've still got that, is there that Villa WhatsApp golf group? Is that still going? It's still, it's like faded out a little bit. It was like Ashley Young, Danny Ings and sort of they moved on and it's sort of like gone quiet a little bit. And you've basically ended the conversation because you're just better than everyone else. Yeah, it's not really about being better though, is it? It's just like we have like, just about enjoying it when you play, isn't it? But I guess like, yeah, I'm the lowest handicap. Yeah. Just in terms of the other stuff, I mean, you mentioned there, it can be quite hard to switch off and stuff.

52:02When you were going through that little run at the start of the year when things maybe were odd to start the season, sorry, where things aren't going as well as you'd want, how much of that do you read? Do you see it? Do you see social media? Do you switch off from it all?

52:16We're only human, aren't we? So I think everyone sees it. Everyone's on social media and sees everything. I think if players say they don't read it, they're lying because you do see it. We're all on Twitter. We're all on Instagram. We're all on TikTok. It's normal, isn't it? yeah um and to be honest i've sort of got like used to like i've just got used to reading negativity to be honest i know that sounds really bad but i think like on social media now there's that much negativity that it's just normal isn't it so like as players i think yeah it's like whenever you go on this news or if you go on sky news or if you go it's all negative in it it's like that's just the world we're living in like it's just how it is um so i've kind of just got used to like people being negative really and then obviously it's nice when people are positive of course and when things are going good it's normal to be positive but there's a lot of i'm not talking about villa fans here by the way i'm talking about football in general like i'm not talking about villa fans because i think they're great and there's obviously times where they are negative and stuff and that's normal it's football fans for you it's normal and they have every right to have an opinion on football but i'm just talking about tv in general i think everything's just negative when i read it sky news everything sky sports everything is that just maybe you get a little bit older that you're able to switch off a little bit more than you were when you were younger.

53:32Yeah, I don't try and let it affect me now. I just sort of try and block it out and I think it's the world we're in, isn't it? We're paid to play football. Everyone's paid. Everyone can have an opinion on your own football. It's just how it is. You just have to do your job and be full. I mean, you might not want to talk about this, which if you don't, it's fine. But there was obviously that there was a sort of high profile case where you were involved in after the Spurs game last season. did that affect you at all? Were you able to kind of shut that out of your mind? That didn't really affect me, no.

54:04Not really. Obviously, I didn't mean to do the tackle on Bensica. I went for the ball. It's a challenge. And obviously, there was a lot of stuff. But to be honest, I think I did actually delete social media that week because it was quite bad. But it didn't affect me in terms of like, wow, this is so bad. Everyone's abusing me. I just sort of just blocked it out and just thought, I didn't mean the tackle. It's a tackle, isn't it? Does Inouye Emery have any kind of rules around this, like with social media, like banning it on game days or in the dressing room? No, he doesn't really get involved in that.

54:41But I don't think he's big on social media. But the older you get, the more you realise that the more you block it out, the probably the better. Because you're still going to have to turn up on the weekend and perform. So if you read it, what's the point? You might as well just try and do your job the best you can and go from there. And as I'm older, as I've older and I've seen different situations and I've got a bit of experience, you notice that. But when you're a bit younger, you obviously can be a little bit more naive. You can see it a bit more. Can I ask you about, I saw the clips last season of you being interviewed by your sister.

55:13It seemed like that, it was quite, obviously she's trying to break into the industry as a host and a reporter and stuff. Was that quite surreal to have you both sort of in the same industry doing those interviews? It was funny, yeah, because obviously um when we play psg away like i've walked out the tunnel and she was on the side of the pitch like presenting and i was like he was like with smichael and i was thinking oh this is great um and then after the game obviously we'd done a few interviews and it was great for her as well yeah because she's really good at it as well and she's got a real passion about being a presenter and obviously now she's got a full-time job at cbs they've been great with her she's living a good life in new york so um fair play to her yeah she's great she's passionate about it and that's all you want.

55:54Is she harsher with you with the questions that she asks or is she a bit softer? Nah, she's all right, to be fair. I always say to her, don't ask me any silly questions. But yeah, as I said, she's really good. She's taken it right in her stride. So I'm proud of her, yeah. Just before we sort of finish with a couple of kind of broader questions, I've got to just ask you about that assist against Tottenham because it was unbelievable. ball. I mean, just talk us through it because it was just a incredible goal. I can't believe Roy Keane said that I mean it. I've worked with Roy Keane. He's seen that every week.

56:33I'm joking. Yeah, no, it was good, to be honest. Yeah, I enjoyed it. But I did say, and I do actually do passes like that a lot in training, but obviously it's nice to execute it in a big game. Yeah, the ball was running back and I just thought, I looked up seeing Luka and we always try and hit a second phase when the ball comes out from the set piece. So, yeah, I just thought try and catch it on the swaz in it. The ball had a nice bit of movement on it. And just finally then, I mean, I just want to ask you just a couple of kind of bigger picture sort of questions about the game. Just we sort of touched on kind of set pieces in general.

57:11But I mean, there's obviously a lot of chat this season about the Premier League, about that there is now a trend moving away from maybe the sort of pep style, possession-based style, to teams going more direct and maybe more of an emphasis on set pieces. I mean, as a player who's obviously playing in this league every week, do you feel that shift? Do you feel you're coming up against different things? Is the manager asking different things from you? Yeah, definitely. I think, as I said then, when we do a lot of work on set pieces, we also watch who they're playing against and what they do. and there's so much more detail into set pieces.

57:47I think in the last few years, especially this season, especially long throws this season, I think every team we've played against has thrown a long ball into the box. And I've seen online the other day the percentage has gone up massively into long throws into the box because it's so dangerous. It's almost like a corner, isn't it? It can almost be a bit more harder to defend than a corner because you're not expecting it. Especially against Brentford as well. seeing the goal they scored against um it was against liverpool actually at home yeah like a long throw into the back post and then goal it's like yeah it's hard to defend and what do you i mean when you're sort of dealing with that that kind of stuff um i mean do you notice a difference when you're nice kind of giving your instructions when you're facing a team like brentford who maybe can throw throw balls into the box like that i mean how how do you even prepare for stuff like that yeah well you watch clips on it like we watch clips on it the day before and like long throws and obviously set pieces as well so we almost set out a plan how to try and avoid it um and yeah obviously some teams have players that can throw it further than others um and we almost look at where they're going to throw it and who's going to throw it into what zone and you sort of just try and defend it yeah it's like a set piece really in it and you just study what they do and where the ball normally goes.

59:06And do you see, I know there's a lot of talk about the entire shift of the game in the Premier League is a lot more direct, more teams are maybe going long to a centre forward than perhaps they were a couple of years ago. As a defender, do you notice that a bit more or has it been a bit overblown by us a lot in the media? Yeah, I think what in terms of players are going, the ball's going longer now. Yeah, just maybe teams going longer maybe than perhaps they were maybe three or four years ago. Yeah, I guess so. I think so, yeah. I think at Villa, we try and mix it up. We try and play and gain confidence from being good in build-up because you can have success from it.

59:40If you build up really well, you can obviously lose the ball and they score. But Unai always says to us, if we lose the ball and give it away, we just keep trying, we keep doing it. But obviously, yeah, old-fashioned way is to get it into the striker, hold it up and play second balls, isn't it? And that can be effective as well. So, yeah, trying to find a balance, really. and and just finally matty um i just want to talk to you about the fixture calendar because i i sort of feel like we don't hear enough from players about this because you know there's often talk about broadcasters and extra competitions and fans and all that but you you know you guys are the other protagonists you're the ones who are asked to go and do it three day every three days for nine ten months i mean you know floor is yours really to some extent i mean what how do you feel about the fixture calendar do you feel the players are underrepresented do you feel there are too many games or do you feel it's you know you just want to play and and do everything you can in your career i don't really know to be honest obviously i love playing and stuff but it can be quite it can be tough like you have some weeks where like some weeks for example we'll have three games a week and i'll feel really fresh and in the third one i almost feel better than i did in the first um but then in other weeks your body can be that tired where you just feel shattered and you can't perform to your best but i don't really know i i don't really moan about it to be honest i just try and play if we have a game we just get on with it and play um but maybe there could be a little bit of more protection for the players maybe um and i think they've brought that into the cups didn't they where there's like now i think in the fl cup today not have extra times and stuff like that now i think it's straight penalties for that reason just little things like that help you know um and obviously you have international as well where you finish and then you go straight away and you've got games.

1:01:25So, yeah, it's not really something I look into. I just think if there's a game, you play. And if you're tired, be honest, hold your hand up. It's difficult for players to do that, though. I mean, because if you're competing for a starting spot every week, you're obviously in the dressing room. You probably don't want to stay, do you? It's like if you've got a little injury or whatever, you sort of think, well, if I can get through it, then I can keep my place, you know? Yeah, like there's been times before games where maybe the day before I'm feeling really fatigued and then you play the next day and you find that adrenaline and then you just keep going and you feel all right.

1:01:57So, yeah, no player wants to not play. Like, I'll always want to play, but obviously I think with players that have had little injuries maybe before, you have to be a little bit more careful because if you're playing really fatigued with old injuries, then you could be in trouble. So, but as I said, every player wants to play. For me, for sure, I want to play every game. All right, well, there we go. Well, you know, just to avoid fatigue, we'll end it there then for you, Matty. So thanks so much. Thanks for having me. Well, that's it for today. Thanks for listening. We'll be back next week.

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