Premier League Review: A perfect start for Carrick’s United & a winless weekend in the title race

0:00On the Football Daily Podcast, Premier League Review with Rick Edwards. Hello and welcome to the Premier League review after a weekend of drop points in the title race and not tons of goals. Joining me to dissect it all, the Telegraph's Northern Football writer and interestingly, the inspiration for John Lennon's I am the Eggman line, Luke Edwards, and former Premier League midfielder and probably your third favourite Rio, Nigel Rio-Coker. Evening, fellas. How are you? Hold on, wait. Who's the first and second favourite Rio? I just need to know. Ferdinand and then the place in Brazil. Debatable and debatable.

0:39I'll leave you at that. I admire your self-confidence. It's not a great weekend of football, I wouldn't say. There were some interesting stories emerging, but not many goals. No, it was a weekend for headlines for everything but the games, really, wasn't it? Yeah, it felt like it. Which is great for this podcast, let's be honest, because we want talking points, we want fallings out, We want people behaving badly. And we've got all of that. We want people offering others out for a fight, which is one of my favourite stories of the weekend. Oh, that's not great. Sorry, this is my... You may as well keep saying, Mum, I'm recording a podcast.

1:17Is she gone? She's gone. Oh, OK. I don't know where the best place to start is, but should we go Manchester United? Why not? I think so, because we've been hammering them week in, week out. and now they've had really a perfect start to life under Michael Carrick 2-0 win over Manchester City in the derby at Old Trafford don't think anyone was anticipating it even if you know I spoke to United fans before and they were like if we can get a draw out of this they'd be delighted but actually deserved winners and Bermuda and Dorgi with the goals also a sort of added bonus for them obviously creeping up the table but denying City the chance to close the gap to Arsenal kind of ideal for Carrick and could have been more as well.

2:06I mean, how many goals were disallowed for offside? Two, three, something like that. Three. Three goals for offside. Yeah, hit the post right near the end as well. Like it was a really dominant performance, Luke. Manchester United are so back, part 972. They did feel like it though. They are back. They are back. They've got a legend in the dugout, playing legend in the dugout, transformed them in a week. I think I know. I have seen this film, though. I remember this film quite well. Let's concentrate on the positive, because everything you said is absolutely 100 % accurate. They outplayed City, dominant, probably the best Manchester United performance for some time.

2:49Certainly this season. For two years, which doesn't reflect overly well on Ruben Amorim. I think the person who probably came out of this looking the worst is Ruben Amirim, given that he couldn't get a tune out of that team and certainly not a performance of that quality. So bodes really well. Excellent start for Michael Carrick. I think he will bring, forget the legendary player stuff, forget the Messiah, forget that they've cracked it in their bag. I think he'll bring a calmness to that position. So a dignity almost to it as well. I was impressed with the way he spoke to the media before the game, even more impressed with the performance.

3:28But yeah, it is, unfortunately, in the back of my mind, I've just got a voice saying they're going to end up giving Michael Carrick the job permanently, and then we're going to be back into the Ole Gunnar Solskjaer saga or scenario again. So yeah, perfect start for them. But I think Michael would be the first person to say it is only the start. But yeah, brilliant performance from them. I completely outplayed Manchester City. Also very interesting to see Maynou playing. Yeah, Ruman Amarim obviously didn't fancy him at all, but he came in and played well with Casemiro, Nigel. Yeah, but come on, it's like you said, it's one game.

4:10I expected a new manager bounce. Did I expect it to be as good as this? No. It's a win for Manchester United, but I've got to say it's a win that they actually deserved. and what makes it better is because it was the Manchester derby. But like you guys have said, we've seen this story before, so we've got to be careful. You know, we always say to the players and players always say, consistency is the key. Let's leave it for a while and let's just see. Because I don't say straight away Manchester United have turned the corner because it's these same exact players who, when they drew against Burnley, I think they drew to Burnley or they lost to Burnley at home.

4:42Wolves. Yeah, they ran down the tunnel, you know. So all of a sudden now, I think it's a good start for Michael Carrick. But again, cautious tell. Oleg on the Sholska, before he was given the permanent job, won, I think, 14 out of 19 games. Then he gets the permanent job and only wins two in 10. But it's a good start. It is a good start. And again, sometimes that's why I love the game of football. I don't know about you guys, but I really love this game of football because it can be seen in so many ways through so many different eyes. I mean, you look at Carrick's team there. Yes, Manu comes back in.

5:15good game. Finally, they put Dogu higher up the pitch because defensively he can be a bit of a liability and he's causing more chaos for Manchester United up the pitch where Ruben Amirim did it, then revert back to putting him at wing back again where it just shows the beauty of the game. How so many eyes see it in so many different ways. And I think for me, sometimes we try and overcomplicate things and you get people like Luke who try and make it seem like some of these new managers. Why am I getting shots now? Why are you turning on me? Because you're there. Can I finish? I'm not turning on you.

5:47I'm just saying. You said people like Luke in a negative way. Well, we don't know that yet. We don't, exactly. Carry on. People like Luke in the media, who like the new coaches, try and act like they're reinventing the wheel. And one thing about football will not change. And the foundation of football will not change, gentlemen, is sometimes you get to a level where you just have to stroke egos. and some managers are better than others at it. And I think that when you look at Manchester United, it's just stroking egos, getting these players to find that confidence in themselves again, to go out there and perform.

6:24And sometimes you might have to find different ways to motivate these players. And I think that's what Michael Carrick's done. You know, there's not much you can really teach too many of these players. What happens in a situation like the one with Kobi Mane? Because from the outside, I think most people are looking at it and thinking, but he's really a very talented, I know he's young and he's got stuff to learn, but he's a really, really good player. And I couldn't, I couldn't understand why Amirim just didn't want to play him. It's, Rick, can I just say this? Yeah. I think it's great you say that because so many people say different things.

7:02So many people will say, oh, well, Amirim came out and said, oh, you've got to train well to play. Amrin also said, Kobe Mayne, who's in competition with Bruno Fernandes, where they're two complete different players for me, two different profiles. So basically you're saying the kid's got no chance. I think sometimes what people have to understand is, again, I always use this word, the human element of it. It's not wrong sometimes just to admit that you don't like someone. Because sometimes some of these managers get in these positions and they make it seem like it's never personal. It's never about the individual.

7:36It's, oh, they don't train well. but it's easy for them to say it because the people in the media and people like us will feed into that and say, okay, well, he's not playing because he's not training well. But we don't know that. We're not there on a day-to-day occasion. Sometimes managers just don't like players. They don't like the player regardless of how well he trains. That's what it felt like with Amarim and Mainu, isn't it? That's just my opinion. I'm not saying it's 100 % gospel, but from my opinion, I just believe he didn't fancy Mainu as a player. That's it. It's not about, I'm not there day-to-day training, so he could say that and that might be true.

8:07But at the same time, this is a young kid coming through the academy who, if you do play and then you don't play, you do lose your confidence. We've seen it happen with players older than Kobe Maneu. We've seen it happen with seasoned players when they're in and out of the team, don't play and they lose the confidence. And then there's the individual ego side of it. So I think that plays a part. The beauty with Michael Carrick coming in is he understands the club Manchester United. He understands the academy, what the academy means to the club and playing young players through the club. And also Michael Carrick played in midfield.

8:35He's a centre midfielder who could probably coach and develop Kobe Mainou more to understand what his best role or what he's best suited to play as a centre midfielder. So that becomes a bonus onto it. A long list of baffling decisions. Amirim's just ostracising of Mainou was right near the top of the list. Just really weird. Just really weird. Because he'd been fast-tracked into the England squad for a reason. And he actually did pretty well at the Euros, if you remember. And we were talking about him. And yeah, he had a lot to learn. And yes, there was mistakes in him. Yeah, but that's fine.

9:06But to go to... Yeah, of course, as a young player, the coaching make him better. But the fact he seemed to be trying to force him out. Yeah. And I wonder whether that was for PSR reasons, whether that was going to free up money for him to invest in the squad. I don't know. But of all the things he got wrong, we won't dwell too long on the formation he refused to change. That was probably one of the biggest blunders. And just plain odd, just really odd from a manager to sort of do that to a young homegrown talent who obviously has ability and had potential, and he made him worse. So at some point, that has to reflect on the manager rather than just the player.

9:41Let's get massively ahead of ourselves then, as we like to do. If Michael Carrick secures Champions League qualification for Manchester United, does he get the job permanently? He will have a great shout. I mean, there will certainly be a lot of supporters who will go for that, I think. I think if they finish the season well, if they do well. Look, Michael Carrick didn't fail at Middlesbrough as such. He had two pretty good seasons there and had his team ripped up and lost his best players and it unravelled in the third season. I think he showed potential there. It is a catch-22 situation for them though because they're pausing in the hope that there is, for want of a better phrase, there is a world-class manager out there that they can persuade to come and take the job.

10:31But if Carrick does well, there is bound to be a temptation. If he sorts that dressing room out, finish the season strongly, get into the Champions League, they will be sorely tempted to give him the job because he is a former player, because he understands the club and there'll be that emotional tug for them to do it. It is a very difficult decision for them to have to make if Michael Carrick does well. And my personal feeling is, if he shows he can work with Jason Wilcox, if he shows he can work in the management structure that's in place, those people at the club who are also feeling vulnerable, who have been threatened by Ruben Amirim's sort of exit speech, they may well go for Michael Carrick because they think it's the least explosive option for them personally.

11:11So it'll be very, very difficult. I think some supporters will be very underwhelmed if it was Michael Carrick, no matter how well he does. I think there'll be some supporters who think if he does well, he deserves the chance. Now, let's talk about the thing that we've obviously all been dying to talk about, which is the possibility of a fight between Lissandro Martinez, Paul Scholes and Nicky Barton. because it's really, there's nothing to not enjoy about this. Say it to my face, Rick. Say it to my face. Just say it to my face. Because I think that Butt and Skulls were both quite funny about what Haaland was going to do to Martinez.

11:46And you would probably have thought that they weren't a million miles off. And then Martinez just comes out, is really good. He won 100 % of his aerial duels, won 100 % of his ground duels, kept Harlem really quiet and then basically said, come over to my house or wherever. Come and say it to my face. It's lovely. Come and say it to my face. It's lovely. First off, in sympathy with Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes, as somebody who's never said anything stupid on a podcast, I've got no way in ever have a track record of ever putting my foot in my mouth and embarrassing myself. They made some lighthearted comments and Martínez responded to those comments absolutely brilliant.

12:28First thing I'll say is Manchester United are actually better at the back when Martinez is in the team, in my opinion. It was a bit unfair. I think everyone would agree with that, really. It's a bit cruel. I mean, they mox his size. They said that Haaland was going to pick him up on his shoulder and carry him. They're not exactly units. Whilst laughing like schoolchildren. It was very funny. But that response from Martinez is just box office. Come and say it to my face. Second thing I'll say is, I don't think Nicky Butt in particular is going to shy away from saying exactly what he said on a podcast to Lissandro Martinez's face.

13:03No. I don't think Nicky Butt is that type of character. I would agree. I think he'd be quite willing to go to his house and probably front up on his doorstep and say, yeah, I've said it. And I think Martinez will be quite willing to open the door and have it out as well. I think you underestimate the heart that Argentine has. He's got the heart of a lion. The butcher. He's a lunatic is what he is. He is. The butcher. He's got the nickname The Butcher. Yeah. I don't want to go round to someone's house whose nickname is The Butcher for a fight. At all. But to be fair, listen, it's credit to him though because it's not even the first time we've seen this though because when he first got to Manchester United, people did mock his size as well to say how is he going to play centre-back in the Premier League.

13:45And he proved people wrong in the first couple of games. It is surprising how good he is. Yes, he is. He's very good, very influential. Sometimes he can get too over-emotional, too passionate in the game, but he is a big difference maker. He's someone that could actually be a leader in that back line and be a leader for Manchester United because he's got it in him. They stumbled on a partnership because Maguire's hardly played either and he was also phenomenal. A player who's been written off more times than I've said stupid things on this podcast. Harry Maguire back in the team, he was phenomenal as well.

14:18So, I mean, that was a big part of the reason why Manchester United were so good. And I think it was very interesting if you watch before the game Jonathan Woodgate who was a brilliant centre-half probably the best centre-half I've seen play live in my professional career best Real Madrid debut of all time well that didn't go great but he was a phenomenal player and it's interesting that he's gone in there with Michael Carrick and Nigel's talking about Michael Carrick being able to help the midfielders with that previous experience with Jonathan Woodgate elite centre-back and he's playing they should have been capped way more time to England but it's interesting that he was working intensively with Martinez and Maguire before the game as well.

14:52So that could have a really big positive impact. Are you surprised? It's a bit of common sense, Luke. You know, if you've played in that position and you're a good player and you've played against world-class players and top players, you know how to transfer information well and you can get these players to understand their strengths and how to play in this league, it will be very easy. But again, I agree. I think that does play a part and goes away. I think you don't see enough. Obviously, it used to be quite in vote to have little or large strikers. you don't see many little and large centre-back pairings, and I really like it.

15:24Manchester City were pretty disappointing, and this is sort of part of a quite disappointing passage for them. I know they were unbeaten for a while, but if you look at them in the league now, haven't won in four, so lost this one, obviously, and then drew the previous three. And I don't quite know what the problem was, but I guess scoring goals is an issue. Haaland's only scored one in his last seven, which for him is a real drought. And then Foden, who was looking electric at the start of the season, now hasn't scored for eight games, I think it is. Rick, I'd say for me, my biggest concern, I don't know what Luke thinks, is Haaland, Erling Haaland.

16:14And it's not just he's not scoring goals, but it's also his body language on the football pitch now. I think the frustration is really starting to creep in because even watching him against Newcastle, yes, they won 2-0, but you could see that he's kind of getting a lot more frustrated now and more so back to the Manchester derby. He's making runs. He's not getting found. He's not getting the ball. They're not playing to the strengths. Then they're not even getting crosses into the box. And then the time when he actually gets taken off is when they start putting crosses in the box, which is absolutely crazy to me.

16:44And I think that the frustration in him now is really starting to grow and that's a worry. And the worst thing about that is you've got Semenyon in and then you've also got Doku. Both these players are out-and-out wingers. And I think for me, like you've got two absolute weapons out wide, but they don't get enough crosses in the box. And the difference between Semenyon and Doku for me is Semenyon is probably brought in more so to get more goals, to take off the pressure off Erling Haaland because he's definitely capable to get, I'll say probably at least 15 goals a season. Doku won't probably get you as many goals even though he should.

17:17But then, again, Phil Foden's form's dropped off now. So again, all the pressure and burden of scoring goals has landed on the feet of Erling Haaland, but he's not being used well enough. They're not finding him enough as they should. So that's a worrying. And I know defensively, Pep already is very aware and knows that his team is very vulnerable. So I think Pep's mindset now is, we're just going to score more than you. But because of obviously all the injuries they've got, fortunately for them, they've been able to maybe get Gay here and there, who can be a bit of a difference maker in that back line because that back line is just not good enough.

17:50You know, you look at the whole back line, their best defender you can put your hat on is probably Guardiola. And he's injured now of a broken leg. Other than that, there isn't really that solid still along that back in Manchester City's team. No. It's nice if you have a few problems, isn't it? Yeah, it's nice if you have a few problems as a manager that you spend close to half a billion pounds in 12 months to improve your squad. And what is fascinating about this? Do you think that means he stays? By the way, that spending. Yeah, I think that's a really interesting... I would say it's signpost that he is because they're spending so much money mid-season to get Semenyo, to bring Gahey in.

18:30Wait, stop. Sorry. Did you just say you think he's staying, Luke? Well, I have some inside knowledge of this. I did actually ask Pep Guardiola if he was staying at the end of the season at a press conference, and he shouted, oh my God, and shouted at me and got very animated. I've got one more year left on my contract. I'm staying, I'm staying. So he's either lying, but I think it's more actions rather than words, because he's never conclusively said, I'm going to stay for another year. There's been all this noise about maybe he's going to leave. But they've just spent close to£500 million on players you can only presume he had a pretty strong say in them coming.

19:11I just think that I wouldn't be surprised if he leaves. I think that, like Luke said, I do see the motivation in him, but I see motivation in him in the belief that they can win the Premier League title this year. And I think if he wins the Premier League title, with those players there, he can leave and he's left Manchester City in a very healthy state for whatever manager takes over next. I don't see it as a two-year project or anything like that. I think he wants to win it now, say, there you go, stuff this in your face and walk away and can walk away with a healthy, strong squad whoever comes next.

19:44What if they don't win the title and he's still got one year left on his contract? If they don't win the title, then I think he probably will stay for the last year. But I think if they win it, we've obviously been against catching Arsenal, maybe. He's protege Mikel Arteta. To win it like this, I think he'll be, there you go, have that and walk away. And he leaves them with a healthy squad. I just think he's in a very fortunate position that he's had that financial backing to try and rebuild that team mid-season. They were very, very active last January as well when the season were in trouble tallying off, brought in a load of new players.

20:18They've spent as much as Liverpool have spent. Liverpool have taken a lot of criticism for their recruitment. How good has Manchester City's recruitment actually been in the last 12 months? I mean, that is a pertinent question that could be asked. Marmouche can't get a looking behind Haaland, can he? Kushanov hasn't really played that much. so yeah he's in a very fortunate mission that they are doing it I just think it would be strange for a club to spend that much money buying players at a manager who was about to leave but they're in trouble Man City because this is the time when we presumed they would put you know they put the accelerator down they go on a massive winning run they crank up the pressure on Arsenal they're in danger of letting Arsenal get off and ride off into the distance this is very un-Man City like it is actually but you've got to also look for the future there's still time for that to happen but it doesn't look likely does it at the moment no and we went into the start of this year thinking that you know Man City had that title winning know how Arsenal would will under pressure actually at the moment it's the opposite Arsenal are holding their nerve and Man City are faltering actually in fairness at the start of this season we were all saying well Liverpool are going to walk this and look at that's turned down only you said that Rick I didn't it was me I went very early and said, people keep assuming that Liverpool, just because they're playing badly, I remember it very vividly.

21:41I said, people just presume that Liverpool are playing badly and they're going to click. And I said, what if they don't? What if actually they've got worse? And look what happened. They certainly have got worse. By the way, City's, you know, I don't really like XG, but interestingly, their XG in the derby was 0.45, the second lowest recorded in Guardiola's 364 Premier League games in charge. He's brought in a lot of new players. That could do funny things to the dressing room as well. We've seen that at Liverpool doing all those changes in the summer. Just signing players doesn't automatically fix problems.

22:18It doesn't automatically make you better. It is a team in transition and it isn't transitioning as we expected it to. Not very well. On Arsenal holding their nerve, they obviously dropped points as well with a goalless draw at Forest. And they did. The thing is, they created enough chances to win it and they just weren't clinical enough. And it's one of those games where I thought, this is why you need Jokeres to be better than he is. They certainly need him to be better. Well said. They certainly need to be better. I think, listen, you don't even need to add more to that. I think there is no better way to put it than you just eloquently did, Rick.

23:00A hundred percent. I think you want to be a top team. You still need your striker to do his job and score goals. All the great teams we've seen. Yeah. On those kind of frustrating nights, you just want your top-notch goal scorer to pop up with a goal. And he didn't. And they can sort of complain a bit and say that maybe they should have had a penalty. I think that would have been really harsh. But they didn't. And yeah, I just don't think they particularly... Well, I don't know if you can say they deserve to win when they did create chances. But if you don't put the ball in the back of the net...

23:37Just an aside, have any of the big money summer signings centre-forwards, have they really, any of them, been brilliant? The best one has been Eketike. Eketike is the one that's actually lived up. How many goals has he scored? He's not scored... In fact, he's not scored tonnes, but... But he's impactful. in what he's done so far. He's shown the most promise, Luke, out of all of them. Okay, no, that's fine. I was asking a question I wanted to answer, but look at Volta Marder, started really well, massively tailed off, three goals in 19 games for him now. Sesko struggled at Manchester United. Chokerez, struggling at Arsenal.

24:14Isak, injured, was awful before he was injured. Wisser, obviously big money against Newcastle. He's struggling. So it has almost been all of those big money centre-forwards that were signed, all of them, to varying degrees, have struggled. It's just an interesting issue I wanted to raise, really. None of them have particularly prospered. Yeah, he scored eight goals this season in the league, Eketiko. So not loads in 19 games, but I think Liverpool fans would say that they like him, they're happy with what they're seeing. Yeah, I think Voltamada scored seven. So they've not been disastrous, but there are issues there for centre forwards coming into the Premier League and finding it very difficult.

25:00It was actually a really good result for Forrest, I think. And it's the kind of performance that you want to see from a Sean Dyche Forrest and the kind of performance that suggests they probably will. If they can keep that kind of thing up, they probably will be all right. Yeah, and it was almost because of results elsewhere, because of Manchester City losing and because of Aston Villa losing to Everton, it wasn't actually an awful result for Arsenal. There was a lot of hand-wringing going on on Saturday evening. But yeah, that's exactly what you need. It's why Sean Dyche went in there. I'm not concerned about Nottingham Forest going down.