MNC: What next for Arsenal & is Iraola right for Liverpool?

19:43Adam Crafton:I was a utility player, centre-back, centre-midfield, striker. No, I think, I mean, Arteta made the point, you know, Odegaard went off and Saka went off and Havertz, you know, so they had what they had. People are saying, well, should Maduweke have taken it? But if Gabriel put his hand up to take it, then let him get on with it. I think it's slightly disrespectful to centre-halves, over the years, or just defenders in general. A lot of defenders have been brilliant penalty takers. It's like we're looking at centre-halves like they're all donkeys, and they're not. Centre-halves can kick a ball.

20:23Adam Crafton:Somebody had to miss. People are forgetting he has a miss as well. So that wasn't just on Gabriel. I feel for him because that's a moment which, for all the wrong reasons, he'll never forget that. Paris Saint-Germain then have now joined an exclusive list of teams to win back-to-back Champions League titles all 10 of the outfield players who started the win over Arsenal also started their victory over Inter Milan now that is some consistency Adam it is and also I mean to think you lose Donnarumma and just go and win the Champions League again is pretty amazing fantastic team, unbelievable coach Would you bracket them now with that Barcelona team of Pep?

21:07I think in terms of they have a defined style, I think they're very hard to play against. You also look at the age of some of the players. Joao Neves, I think 21, Dwayne 20, Barcola 23.

21:20Adam Crafton:Do you think they are being bracketed in that same group? And if you think they aren't, why aren't they? I think maybe they aren't. They don't have that kind of magic individual. like Messi, they have six or seven of those brilliant individuals maybe. And they don't have six or seven players that have all come through the PSG system like that Barcelona team had. But I don't think that midfield, you know, that midfield, Joao Neves-Vitinha, Fabio Ruiz, I think it's probably as good now as the Xavi and Iesta one. The way that they press and circulate the ball, I kind of like that they don't really have like a proper striker either.

21:58You know, and actually, if someone had said a year, you know, two years ago that that 11 players or that 10 outfield players would go and win two Champions Leagues. I'm not sure anyone would have thought that would be possible. So that's a real kind of tribute to what Enrique has been able to do sort of with the system to create that.

22:19Conor Coady:I love the fact more, I think Adam just touched on it there, but I love the fact more that they're more of a team. So I mentioned about not having like the single individual. I love the fact that they're a team and they're all together and they all play to the manager's kind of tune and whatever he says goes we obviously all have you all seen his videos of when he's in the training ground when he was speaking to Mbappe about making him an animal off the ball and different things like that I think watching them sorts of things and then seeing how his team plays it resonates you look at it and you go wow the work he must put in on the training pitch to make this team a team is unbelievable and they play different to the Barcelona team as well for me I think they play a lot differently to that team I think they should be bracketed I think they're that good I think the manager is that good and I think what they're producing at the minute and how much we all love watching them, puts them in the same bracket as that Pep Guardiola team.

23:01The journey PSG have been on, if you think three or four years ago, it was all about individuals. It was Messi, it was Neymar, and who's the other one? Mbappe. I mean, incredible. Nearly forgot Mbappe. Nearly forgot. Well, I mean, it's easy. It's not, you know, who was talking about Mbappe on Saturday night, which is incredible to think, you know, to lose Mbappe, which for years, PSG had fought against, they just kept throwing more and more money at him to keep him. And then as soon as you lose him, you just develop this team. And it's not all about him. It's about the whole culture of the club resetting, I guess.

23:38But I do think that journey is very uplifting because it kind of tells a story of what team sport is all about.

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25:19Adam Crafton:The FIFA World Cup 2026. Coming soon. on 5 Live and BBC Sounds.

25:37Adam Crafton:Connor Cody, Adam Crafton, Chris Sutton on the Monday Night Club as we move on to Liverpool. Are you surprised they acted on Saturday morning, Chris, and sacked him? Yes, yeah, I am. Yeah, I just, I mean, Adam will probably have a better idea, but why not just sack him immediately after the last game of the season? You know, I mean, was this on the cards? I just don't, that's the bit I don't understand, you know, as much as anything. And, you know, I think you can have the debate about the rights or wrongs of it. He won a Premier League this season. They were in regression. A lot of the crowd, by all accounts, or the Liverpool supporters, I should say, had turned against him.

26:21Adam Crafton:Maybe that didn't help him. But why on Saturday morning? Maybe because there was a big game coming on Saturday night and it buries it a little bit. I don't know. In terms of the timing, a week after the end of the season, I think Liverpool would say that, you know, they took their time to take stock, did a review of the season, then held conversations with Slott. I agree with you. I think it's strange in the sense of only a few days before we were hearing that Slott was looking at bringing in his old assistant from Feyenoord as number two. So that tells you Slott certainly didn't see it coming.

26:56He seemed to be under the impression that he would get another year to work on it. I would say like the first kind of alarm bells for me were, I was talking to someone last week and we were both saying, well, where's Arreola going? Because it seemed like all these jobs were being taken up around the country and around Europe. You know, Mourinho going to Madrid and Carrick staying at United. Alonso going to Chelsea. and you start to think, with all due respect to Crystal Palace, you start to think, is he really leaving Bournemouth to go to Crystal Palace? It just seemed a bit strange.

27:29Adam Crafton:So did Liverpool get spooked by Milan and Leverkusen making moves? Possibly. Or, look, I imagine Richard Hughes, the sporting director, who had come from Bournemouth previously, I presume he knows Irayola pretty well. And I think Irayola and Alonso have the same agents as well. so you know I can't I can't imagine that this is like the first time Mireille has heard about this over the last few few days and weeks if it is then you know fair play it's like it's a sudden about turn but I think from everything we know about Liverpool they tend to be pretty pretty organized and look I mean for weeks that they've been giving the impression to media that slot would be staying so they've done this they've done this before you know with Isaac last summer they gave the impression no no we don't think it will happen and then they do it so it's not uncommon in terms of the way that Liverpool kind of operate

28:25Conor Coady:I'm going to be honest with you Chappers I find it a little bit uncomfortable I just don't like how he's had to put up with so much and listen I'm not just people might have a pop at me ever saying this and I understand what football brings and football moves very very fast I think we all know that football's a very fickle game but he came into Liverpool and I don't like this thing either if it was Klopp's team that he won the Premier League with you know how hard it is to win the Premier League what would we give to win the Premier League so I'm not having that you've still got to go through a full 38 game season and win the Premier League and they hadn't won the Premier League the previous two years no but I think they've won it once in however many years before that as well

28:58Adam Crafton:yeah but what I'm saying is

28:59Conor Coady:he wasn't taking over the champions no of course and he's still got to do the job he's still got to do the work and don't get me wrong it was still a top Liverpool team that he's took over I fully get that but you've still got to go and win it and he'd done that and then last summer we've seen something happen last summer with Diogo where it's the most tragic thing I've ever seen and nobody should have to deal with such a tragedy as that. And I just think we're so fickle within football because then last summer everybody's then saying it doesn't matter what happens this season. He's still got Liverpool Champions League football.

29:27Conor Coady:He still had to deal with what he's had to deal with. What he had to deal with at the start of last season is, I can't even get my head round, what he had to deal with his team, with the club, with the loss of Diogo. And now all of a sudden we're in a situation where Liverpool are sounding out of Eola before they get rid of Slotty. If that's the case, I don't know whether that's the case and I'm not putting that out there, but what I'm saying is I just feel a little bit uncomfortable with the whole thing and I don't know what the lads have been like inside the dressing room either so it seems like the harmony isn't right within the dressing room that's the thing we're reading coming out of Liverpool at the minute but it just makes me a little bit uncomfortable if I'm honest, Jappers Can I just ask you guys as players and ex-players what you make of kind of the parting shot from Salah because it felt to me on the outside as a journalist looking in it felt as if this guy's kind of decided is my time's up, I'm going to make sure his time's up as well with some of those messages he's been putting out.

30:20I don't know if that's too strong, but do you feel like it's the place of a player, even a star player, to be that public and that strong about the direction of a team under a manager?

30:32Adam Crafton:I thought that was a bit of snaky behaviour, wasn't it? For all those reasons, really. He's had a brilliant career, Salah, you know, at Liverpool and is adored by the Liverpool fans. And clearly there'd been a fallout and he couldn't wait to put the boot in. And I thought it was completely unnecessary. You know, I really didn't. And that certainly doesn't sit right with me. And, you know, Liverpool fans had started to turn anyway because of how much they adored Salah. That probably didn't help the situation as well. So, yeah, I thought Salah was so far out of order.

31:16Conor Coady:And the players in the dressing room, for me, I don't think anyway, being a current player within a dressing room now, if I see one of our better players doing that, you think, you're killing us here a little bit. It's not helping us, this situation. We've not had a great season. The season's gone how it has. We're now in a situation where, obviously, the manager's under pressure and that's just not helping at all in the slightest. So being a current player in the dressing room, I don't think it's the way to go about it. I think he knows what he's doing because he knows what the Liverpool fans are like with Mohamed Salah.

31:44Conor Coady:They absolutely adore him. And rightly so, by the way, because of the career he's had there. But I think there's a way to go about it myself, personally.

31:50Adam Crafton:I mean, do you think that whilst a lot of things have gone against him, and when I say gone against him, that is most definitely not to minimise what happened last summer with Diogo Jota. But then on top of that, the injuries that they have suffered. The players that came in, which he must have had a say in, but it feels like it's slightly imbalanced the squad in certain areas. But at the same time, because he wasn't Klopp, he was always on the back foot.

32:21Conor Coady:Yeah, 100%. And I think that's definitely gone against him. I think the ownership there, whoever it is making decisions, Richard Hughes and people at the football club have obviously looked at what's got spent last summer. Because he's obviously had a big say in what's got spent. And Liverpool have obviously finished where they have in the Premier League and the season hasn't been. So it's obviously been a big factor in it, but it's also been a big factor in why Liverpool have struggled. It's hard to gel them sorts of players into this team, big profile players who you expect to come in firing straight away.

32:49Conor Coady:It's really, really tough. And listen, that's what I go back to when I say chappers about. Football moves really fast. We all forget really quickly about what goes on and what happens because all of a sudden you're just seeing what goes on on a Saturday on the pitch and you're going, they're not playing well enough, they're doing this, they're doing that, they're doing this. And Liverpool haven't been good enough, of course, and for Liverpool's standards, Liverpool want to be challenging for the Premier League every single season, and that's not been the case. So if you're solely doing it off that on its own, then OK, you've made the decision.

33:12Conor Coady:But I just think you've got to look deeper than this on what he's been dealing with this season.

33:15Adam Crafton:Do you think Irelia will be the right replacement, Chris?

33:22Adam Crafton:I don't know. Will he be the right replacement? What is he taking over? Is he taking over an enormous club with talented players? what's the expectation at Liverpool is to challenge at the top end of Europe and at the top end of the Premier League. If you look at the job he's done at Bournemouth, was it 12th, 9th, 6th? Mo Salah, you know, he talked about, didn't he, Jürgen Klopp and heavy metal football. You know, the way that Bournemouth play, I mean, they are quite direct and Liverpool were quite direct under Jürgen Klopp. So, yeah, you know, I think he's a very talented manager who has earned the right through his experiences with respect to Bournemouth.

34:11Adam Crafton:And when he was in Spain, he was at Valicano. They, you know, were, you know, not big clubs. This is, you know, an enormous step for him. But he's, you know, he's done the hard yards and earned the right. but it's a difficult time to take over but in some ways you're better off taking over when the team has had a bit of a stinker the previous season and by Liverpool standards this season has been a bit of a stinker. The stats are not great when you look at managers within the Premier League who then step up to manage a big six team. So there are nine that have done it since 2010. Hodgson, Rodgers, Moyes, Pochettino, Lampard, Nuno, Potter, Maresca and Thomas Frank.

35:04Adam Crafton:And out of all of those, only two managed to stay in the job for over 100 matches. And that was Brendan Rodgers when he went from Swansea to Liverpool and Pochettino when he went from Southampton to Spurs.

35:18Conor Coady:Yeah, and I think that's what a lot of people think about, about these managers who've stepped up to these clubs and found it tough. And it will be tough, of course, it'll be tough, because the expectation at Bournemouth compared to Liverpool is completely different.

35:28Adam Crafton:I look at it two ways. Is it just down, sorry, Conor, is it just down to expectation? Because you started your career at Liverpool. Yeah. You've played at Wolves. You've played at Everton. You've been at different sized clubs with different expectations within the Premier League. Is it simply expectation?

35:46Conor Coady:I think it's expectation I think yeah I think a massive part of it is expectation mate because Bournemouth for example have punched above the weight this season haven't they so what he's done with Bournemouth has been incredible it's been fantastic and I was going to say that I've loved I love the way he's been given an opportunity because I look at some other managers in the Premier League doing ever so well so you look at someone like Hurt so you look at Keith Andrews now who is doing unbelievably well I'd love to see these managers go up and get this opportunity but when you're reading out stats like that clubs will look at them stats and go So I'm not so sure because can he make that jump to a bigger club?

36:17Conor Coady:So I'm hoping he goes in there and flies and does really well because then you'll see other managers do well. But I think a huge part of it, Chappers, is expectation. Bournemouth aren't expected to go and win the Premier League. Liverpool are expected next season, and only are you, if he takes the Liverpool job, is expected to go and win the Premier League in year one. 100 % because of the money they spent last summer. Maybe the money they're going to spend this summer, Adam might tell there's a difference, I don't know. But he's going to be expected to go and win the Premier League and it's a huge difference compared to Bournemouth.

36:44Adam Crafton:Well, I think you want to make the point, Adam, don't you, that Liverpool fans will also expect their team to have the ball. Well, yeah, I think that's true. I think Chris is right that Liverpool are maybe more direct traditionally than a Man City or a Chelsea perhaps even, or an Arsenal historically with Wenger. But Eriola teams for the last three years haven't usually had most of the ball in a game. and that is unusual for Liverpool. It's not saying that Liverpool need to have 70 % of the ball, but it's gone up for Bournemouth. So it was 43 % in his first season, 48 % in his second season, 50 % last season.

37:24Now that might just be because the players aren't as good and that's the only way that you can go and really go and win the game. But I think Liverpool will probably need that to be 55 to 60. for them to control games in the way that you need to and not give up chances. So I think that is a significant thing and that's a stylistic thing that he's going to have to change. The other thing I wonder about him, and I think he's an amazing coach, I've interviewed him last summer, incredibly impressive guy, is the pace and intensity at which his teams play. We've seen how that works when you've got one game a week in a Premier League season.

38:06how does that work when you're in four competitions and you're in you know the eight Champions League group stage games um we've seen a lot of tea you know you look at what happened to Liverpool this season over that kind of uh winter period Man City last season as well or now two seasons ago isn't it when they barely won a game for about 13 games with all those Champions League midweeks that's something I'd be worried about and also Bournemouth picks up a lot of injuries as well that was even with one game a week so i'm curious to see how he adapts to that

38:39Adam Crafton:i think he's capable of it but let me expand on that then because antoine semenio spoke to sky earlier this season along those those lines he said at the start i'll be honest i didn't see it he had his way of playing it was very new to us like the way he structured the weeks we didn't really have any days off it's very hard for a team going from having wednesday and sunday off to no days off we'd play Saturday train on Sunday you're hanging your legs are gone you're doing possession you have to run around and you're thinking oh dear it was very different at the start results weren't going our way and the fans were saying they needed to be sacked then we beat Burnley at home and everything changed we got used to the system and we just went up from there but if you followed that train of thought then pre-season will be massive for them because As Adam says, once the Champions League comes in, he's not going to be able to do what he did there, is he?

39:32Conor Coady:No, of course not. Not with the amount of games. He's going to have to restructure his week again where he's going to have to put in the Champions League games. But I think that might be another decision as to why Liverpool have done it now, really early. So if Andoni Arreola gets it within the next week now or the next couple of days, as obviously we're reading, he's got a lot of time to prepare and a lot of time to plan for what's obviously going to come his way come next season, whether that's pre-season, going into the season, the games he's going to have within the Champions League. I think it's a big factor and listen these are all good things Antoine Semenu was talking there when he was there that's a good thing look at where Bournemouth find themselves are now when a new manager comes in and brings fresh ideas as a player Chris will tell you as well you're desperate to do well you're desperate to take it on board I agree with Adam I think Liverpool have to have the ball I think that's going to be different because I think Liverpool and Anfield have to have the ball and it's going to be really interesting how if it is going to be heavy metal football we see someone like Florian Vert who's just been signed for over 100 million how are you going to get him into that system of playing heavy metal football when he's more of a pocket player, receives on the half turn, drives forward, links the play, he's good on the ball.

40:30Conor Coady:So he's got all these things to cater in, but it's a massive plus that they've got him here, or if they get him early, that he's got a long time to prepare for it.

40:38Adam Crafton:Thank God for Burnley. I mean, that result getting him off the mark. I always think the no days off thing, Connor. I mean, that doesn't go down well as well. Not when you're losing, Chris, like he was at the start. Double sessions, of course, to translate from footballer speak, is just a normal day's work. Yeah, but it's not. It is. I've had this argument with several footballers in the past. Double session is just a day's work. if you add it together it's probably half a day if you just do the sessions can I just make the point that it is physical and it is tiring and maybe yourself and Adam wouldn't understand that but you know sometimes if you work hard you need to lie down

41:33Conor Coady:good show Chris

41:36Adam Crafton:there is that aspect he'll go in and he'll coach as always coach. Do you think demeanour is important and how he handles himself is important because Slott, through no fault of his own, was not the same kind of effervescent character that Klopp was. If you aren't that character, it's very hard to then manufacture the sort of that passion and rousing and so on and so forth. Do you think it's important at Liverpool to have to have that personality?

42:15Conor Coady:100%, even more so at that club, Chappas. Even more so at that club. They feed off the manager. The manager at Liverpool is the most important figure at the football club by an absolute country mile. He's a god when it comes to that football club. And it's different at different football clubs. Football clubs look at players, and some players might be the hero, or certain players might be the hero. At Liverpool, it's the manager. And you have to have a rapport with the supporters. You have to have this feeling that supporters can look at you and know you're going to make that change. the players and it's the same for the players by the way I'm the same now as a player when a manager comes in oh you've got a manager you want him to be uplifting and you want him to be loud and you want him to be energetic and not all managers like that and I completely get it and some good managers aren't like that either by the way but I'm just saying when you're at that football club I feel like you need to have that as I mentioned it before about what Mohamed Salah said about heavy metal football he needs to be on the front foot constantly to get the best out of that football club for me

43:03Adam Crafton:From your experience interviewing him do you think he'll have that Adam? Yeah, I think he's really charismatic. I don't know if people saw, maybe Liverpool fans can go and look for it. He did a speech on the pitch at the end of Bournemouth's final game of the season. The other thing that I think Liverpool as a club will really like about him is when I was talking to him about how he felt about, Bournemouth had lost half their team last summer. They'd lost almost their entire defence and their goalkeeper. And the club had just recruited him new players. So they sold Kerkers and they got Truffa in.

43:36for maybe seven or eight million, who's fantastic signing as well. And I said, how do you feel about that? Are you involved? And his view on it was, I'm just an assistant for those who are signing the players. My view on recruitment is, I'm not across all of these different leagues in the way that would be necessary to sign them. My expertise as a coach, I trust the people in recruitment to do that job. And I think for Liverpool, when you think of that, Michael Edwards, Richard Hughes, Julian Ward-World, where that was one of the issues they had with Klopp and probably one of the reasons why they left previously.

44:12I think that will appeal to Liverpool. It will give the club more control.

44:17Adam Crafton:You've got that smile on your face, Chris, which suggests I'm sarcastic as coming, so I was just leaving the space. Always a bit sceptical with stuff like that, happy with the players coming in. give him a year and a sixth place finish in his first season and he'll be saying well i need to sign the players myself you know who are these recruitment buffoons they don't know what they're doing uh chris listen connor cody adam crafton on the monday night club let's turn our attention to the world cup uh and they've made some late law changes so 11 days to go to a world cup what is it 10 days is it 10 days dale johnson i think it's 10 yeah it's 10 isn't it uh Anyhow, welcome, thank you, Football Issues correspondent with us.

45:03Adam Crafton:Before we go into them, why do they always make law changes before the biggest tournament every four years? I don't think we've ever seen anything like this before, nothing quite like this. Obviously, we get tweaks before major tournaments, but there are so many things for this World Cup, so many things for people to keep up with that they're not going to realise has changed until we see it happen in a match. Also, you've come in here without any notes, So do you know all of them or am I meant to read these out? I pretty much know all of them. All right. Because there are a lot. I mean, most of them, most of them are designed at trying to speed the game up, aren't they?

45:39Yeah. So the idea is, as we saw in the last couple of World Cups, we had so much added time in these games, 10, 12, 15 minutes. So FIFA's idea is that if they reduce the amount of stoppages in the rest of the game, there won't be as much added time. Now, of course, we're going to get three minutes every half anyway due to the hydration break, which is going to be great. But what we've got instead is we've got a countdown for 10 seconds on goal kicks and throw-ins. And if you take too long, then possession will change. And that's not going to be as soon as you get the ball, you've got 10 seconds.

46:08It's really about when players are taking too long. Long throws aren't going to have a 10-second. But if a team starts to take liberties with time, then the referee will start a countdown. A really interesting one is substitutes. Substitutes have 10 seconds to leave the pitch. If you don't leave it in that time, then the substitute can't come on for at least a minute. And we saw this in an international friendly today, between Japan and Iceland. And Iceland didn't take a substitute off in time. And so the substitute couldn't come on. And this was in the 87th minute. And in that time, Japan scored.

46:42So we've already seen, because the international friendly are using these rules to get used to them. So we've just seen in one of the first games, a team score a goal against 10 men. And another thing, we might see this as well with 60 seconds off the field on an injury. A team's playing with 10 players. It's going to really hamper them at times, I think. And I know that PGMO were against 60 seconds in the Premier League, but we're going to have that in English football next season. So the injury...

47:08Adam Crafton:What if the player has cramp? What if they make a... And a player has severe cramp because they're a little bit dehydrated and they're on the far side of the pitch and they're playing Brazil and the Brazil fans are all on the fold surrounding. I mean, that's ridiculous, isn't it? Is there going to be any slack cut? If a player's got an injury, a visible injury, then the limit won't apply for obvious reasons. And also, they are expanding or supposedly being more firm on the fact that when you have an injury, you should leave the field at the nearest point. And because obviously a World Cup shouldn't have any security issues, that should not be a problem.

47:46and the players should be able to leave in a quick and orderly manner. Is cramp an injury? Well, they could argue that you can't move fast to get off the pitch.

47:56Adam Crafton:So if you're going off as a player to be substituted, you can go off anywhere on the pitch? Anywhere on the perimeter, yeah. If you go down with an injury and are treated, but an opposition player isn't booked for a foul, is that right? That's right, yeah. Then you have to go off the pitch for 60 seconds? Yeah, 60 seconds. What happens if that's a... Is that even if it's a head injury? No, concussion doesn't count. There are a few exemptions. If two players collide with each other, like you say, if there's a disciplinary action or certain factors like that. But for the most part, it will be that if you go down and you need treatment, then you have to go for 60 seconds.

48:35Now, the interesting twist for this is the goalkeeper tactical timeout, which we've heard about all season. Leeds manager Daniel Farker was very angry against Manchester City earlier this season. So FIFA are going to ban the goalkeeper tactical timeout.

48:50Adam Crafton:So that's when the goalkeeper goes down injured, but there's nothing wrong with them, and then all the outfield players run over to the bench. Exactly. So FIFA has said that the referees are going to enforce that the players cannot go over to the touchline to receive instructions. Now, the problem with this is it only solves part of the problem because this is also used to break momentum. So you're still going to see goalkeepers go down in the 90th minute to stop the opposition attacking because they can do it and you don't need to go for a tactical team talk. You're achieving what you want to achieve by stopping the momentum of the game.

49:21Adam Crafton:The referee will what? Move towards the technical areas like a bouncer at a club to stop outfield players going to their coaches? This is the whole question. We had a briefing with Pierre-Luigi Colina on Friday and I specifically asked, can you take disciplinary action if they go over and have this team talk? and they said no. Kalina said we had a briefing with all 48 coaches and they understand the situation but there is no disciplinary action so what's going to happen when all these players decide they want to go and have this team talk? They are of course going to have a natural team talk twice a match now anyway with the hydration breaks.

49:58Adam Crafton:Well I've seen an image of that from the USA friendly where there was a hydration break and Maurizio Pochettino got his laptop out and the whole of the USA team stood around looking at analysis on the laptop. So that will replace that. Exactly. We are still going to have this tactical timeout, but maybe not at the opportune moment that a coach might want it. Say when his team's been reduced to 10 men and he wants to redo the formation of the tactics, he won't be able to do it at that specific point. It will only be during that three-minute hydration break.

50:31Conor Coady:I was going to ask about the goalkeeper one, to be honest, but is it too many? Is it too many, do you think? Do you think we're at a point where we're going, this is a bit silly now?

50:38Adam Crafton:I actually feel quite sorry for the referee here because it strikes me that they have a knock. The countdown, is that an actual clock in the stadium countdown for a goal kicker or throw-in? No, it's just going to be the... He's not going to make it up with his fingers, is he? Well, actually, you say that, Chris. You say that, but what it's going to be, it's going to be like the goalkeeper when he catches the ball at the moment. Yeah, the eight seconds. The eight-second one, yeah. The referee's going to monitor it and if he feels like they're taking too long of the goal kick or the throw-in then he'll raise his hand and do the five second countdown for the last few seconds so you are going to get

51:13Conor Coady:I was worried about the eight second one at first to be honest with you when we first got briefed on that in the EFL we got briefed on it and I was sat there going I asked a million questions I was going nah can't be the case what happens if we're winning do you want to waste a bit of time or whatever and that was what it was to get rid of and I actually think it's worked quite well I actually think has it? yeah I actually think it's worked quite well so I'm hoping this will probably be similar but it just seems like an awful lot

51:35Adam Crafton:sorry the one I don't I'm trying to work it out. So a player gets injured and he has to be taken off for 60 seconds. I mean, there's going to be such a rough World Cup. You're going to want to really hurt the opposition then, so you have the advantage, aren't you? No, because then you'll get booked. Then you'll get booked if you do that. Yeah, but if you're sly, there's a lot of sly players. I mean, Connor, you know, what do you know? Sly, so you're standing on people's feet. If you know the opposition's going off for a minute, I mean, that doesn't seem right. that really seems that's odd that I think one thing we've got to say here is the reason why all these rules are coming in is because players and coaches are trying to find every which way to get an advantage around the rules and it's got to the point where so much time has been wasted on goal kicks, throw-ins, injuries etc.

52:27that they felt that the only way they can tackle it is to bring in these new regulations and you're absolutely right, the referee is going to spend most of the game counting and they are actually making decisions

52:35Adam Crafton:or trying to stop people going over to the bench. What, are you shaking your head at, Adam? Just everything? Well, all of it, because it's just too much stuff to expect people to just sort of come to terms with 10 days before a tournament. But also, it's also because FIFA are worried, I presume, that their games are going to last too long for the people who are putting this on television, right? Because if you now add in your three minutes in each half for the hydration breaks, the 15 minutes at the end of each half that they were adding on at the end of the World Cup games last time around, plus possibly extra time and penalties, the games are going to start lasting quite a long time unless they clamp down on some of this time-wasting stuff.

53:19So that's probably also part of what they're thinking. They will be worried about some of this stuff overrunning,

53:25Adam Crafton:I think, for broadcasters. Because there's likely to be more VAR. Because we haven't even got on to that. Oh, joy. Exactly. and there's now three new areas of VAR to take into account, which means there's going to be extra time there. So if we cover that, basically there's now going to be VAR checks on corners, only corners, not goal kicks, and they will make sure that that's the right decision. Hang on, sorry, sorry. So if the ball goes out for a corner, they will check it is a corner. Every corner. Every corner. But if the ball's gone out for a goal kick, they won't check whether it might have been a corner.

54:05Adam Crafton:Correct. Okay. And they're saying... Dale, sorry, can you explain this for... Hang on, Adam. I always feel halfway through any conversation we have with Dale, it's important to point out that he doesn't work for FIFA, UEFA, IFAB, PGMOL, or anybody else. Anyhow, go on. Sorry, I've seen sort of flicks of this one today, but maybe you can explain it fully. There also seems to be some rule that if an offence takes place by an attacking player before a corner is in play, that that will be penalised by the referee. Is that correct via VAR? Yeah, so that's the fun one that was announced on Friday. And Pierluigi Colina was very proud of it because Colina is absolutely desperate to have anything that can be fixed by VAR, fixed by VAR.

54:56And so what he's looking at here is, you take the England versus Uruguay in March, when there was a blocking.

55:02Adam Crafton:And they used that as the example. That was the example. That happened before the corner was taken, so the VAR could not disallow the goal. Now they're saying that if that does happen in the future, the VAR can step in and say there was a foul that had a material impact on the outcome of the goal, and they can intervene and disallow the goal, but restart with the corner. but if there's a defender doing that they're not going to intervene in any way oh hang on good news for Connor

55:31Conor Coady:you've done me a little bit there so can you say that? I've always been I actually think that's a good one so I always say it's like if I'm playing a game and someone's grabbed me and I hate it when a referee comes over and goes stop that like your kids just blow your whistle give a foul do you know what I mean you get that much blocking now in the box you get that much stuff and I always just say to a referee just blow your whistle but it only worked But it should work both ways. Yeah, both ways. So you just said if it works, you won't. So they're staying true to the fact that you can't give a foul when the ball's not in play.

56:01Okay. Which is why when it's a goal scored, it's a corner retake, not a free kick to the defence. And obviously for the same logic, they can't give a penalty. And we saw in Tottenham versus Chelsea, there was an incident when someone was holding, but he released before the ball came in play. So they couldn't give a penalty. And that will still be the same case. If there's a holding by a defender, the ball's then kicked there's no penalty or no sanction

56:25Adam Crafton:And then the other VAR thing they can review second yellows now Yeah so they can review second yellows given but not potential second yellows So if you're on a yellow card and you commit a potential second yellow card therefore a red card they won't look at that but if you've been sent off for a second yellow they will have a look at that but they're saying that the second yellow has got to be wrong as soon as you look at it If it's a foul and they give them the second yellow, they're not going to rescind the second yellow for that. It's got to be not a foul to have that card removed. Do you think all of these will last the whole tournament?

57:02Adam Crafton:Or do you think they'll... Because this happens, doesn't it? They'll get 10 days in and think, we may need to change that. These are not only just for this tournament, they are in the laws of the game, so they will be in the Premier League next season. Well, all of them? All of them, apart from the corners, which is a competition opt-in, which the Premier League won't opt-in because no one wants to see every single corner reviewed. And another competition opt-in, which we haven't covered yet, is players covering their mouths and getting sent off. So other than that, everything else we've talked about so far will be in the Premier League and the EFL next season.

57:45Adam Crafton:I mean plenty of messages on this. Dave in Durham we need to go to just using a stopwatch start and stop it cuts out all the nonsense David in Manchester I think we need to be aware of what we're doing ultimately it should just be the referees, it should be stronger and tougher on time wasting, we don't need to legislate for every eventuality and the other one which I do kind of see the point here from Bob if they just allowed players to be treated while the game continues, which does happen in other sports, such as rugby, has anybody asked what would be the issue with that? I think they're just concerned with the impact on things like offside, if a defender's down injured.

58:28Obviously, you could say if a defender's getting treatment, they don't count for offside. But they're just worried about the impact on the game in terms of where the game might be being played and things like offside.

58:38Conor Coady:What do you mean with that? What if a physio kid went off the line? I was going to say, are you on about... Hang on a minute, Chappers. What's going on here? Are you talking about players playing around a physio on the pitch?

58:48Adam Crafton:Why don't you treat an injured player?

58:50Conor Coady:No, no, Chappers, that can't happen.

58:51Adam Crafton:Not on the line, obviously, because that would be a good dick. Just certain areas? You would have to use your common sense. But I can see an argument for trying it. I mean, you're moaning about it getting more complicated. You're complicating things even more. You're putting more people on the pitch. I'm putting one person on the pitch The club doctor having an assist I mean anything can happen Why do you have to take everything to an extreme example that just would not happen It just would not happen that way But it could happen It couldn't, you're not going to allow a physio to come on to treat somebody and it bounce off his head and go into the net I'm not allowing that You're allowing that I'm not, you're using common sense That's it for this episode of the Monday Night Club The next Football Daily we'll look back at France 98 and will be available to download on Tuesday.

59:49Five Live Sports. Hi, I'm Jen Bissie. My favourite World Cup moment.

59:54Conor Coady:Has to be France 98. Watching Scotland score our World Cup, I think that's why I fell in love with football. Here comes Coulons, and it's in the net! Stop on the level, it's 1-1! What makes the World Cup so special is purely because it's a global tournament. It brings the whole world together. No surprises that it's known as the beautiful game. It's the best community in the world. The People World Cup 2026. Coming soon. Listen on BBC Sounds.

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