Trent Alexander-Arnold returns to Liverpool, and Sporting's Gyökeres replacement is...Luis Suarez?: European Nights 11/04/25

0:00It's Rog. If you haven't noticed, I absolutely adore New Balance and all that they create. And although I'm not a professional footballer, I still love their boots worn by some of the greatest in the game, such as Bukayo Saka, Eberichi Eze, Jeremy Frimpong and the legend James Rodriguez. Whether it's the Fioran or the Tekela, both boots are made for performance. Fiorans are crafted for speed, features a new speed control stud designed for sudden stop shot, pivots and moves used by the fastest players on the field. and T 'Kella provide superior touch and control to bring your vision to life, reducing the space between the foot and the ball for a close, intuitive feel.

0:40Grab yourself a pair today at newbalance.com slash soccer. You're listening to the Men in Blazers Media Network, Suboptimal Radio. This one's going to go direct, it seems. Lee Kang in, swings it in, flick on! What a way to celebrate! your 100th Paris Saint-Germain appearance. Gonzalo Ramos wins it at the 10th. Are you ready for some football? It's Raunch and you're listening to European Nights, the show that arrives promptly and unfailingly in your feed, a bit like a PSG 95th Minute winner, inevitably to break down the midweek action from the Champions League, the Europa League and of course your beloved Conference League.

1:33Joining me, as reliable as Gancharo Ramos coming off the bench, as sweet as gelato, as delightful, oh well almost as Terry's chocolate orange, it's your mate of mine, it's Mr Rory Smith. Service. Or is it Sir Wuss, it might be Sir Wuss, I'm not sure. Just tell the less educated, those of us who didn't go to Cambridge, who are what you just said. It's Bavarian for hello. There you go. This is who we are now. This is what we've become. Just the occasional kind of regional greeting thrown into the podcast. So then a little bit of European kind of flair, I think. Yeah, also a little chilling. It's like the plot of Philip Ross, the plot against America.

2:12But raw, one thing I did want to ask you in the Premier League, you know, we've talked a lot about this, the obsessions about control, a little bit like Oliver Twist showing up and saying, please sir, can I have a little bit more control? Bunker, drilled defences, just an obscene reliance of wonder almost on set pieces. You know, the schematics drawn up by the coaching staff. But on the continent, between the chaos and variance of Bundesliga ball, Barcelona under Hansi Flick, a variation of that. And the soaring reigning Champions League champs Paris Saint-Germain there. What if we made the entire plane out of high-flying wingers?

2:49Feels like a little bit more fluid, a lot more attacking spontaneous existence over there on the continent. So which is the way of the near future? Is this a case of ruthless optimisation that hasn't yet caught on on the best clubs on the continent? Or are they busy enjoying their best lives while the British march on downly, drearily, set peacefully, or a bit of both? Well, it is interesting at the moment watching Premier League games, then watching European games in quick succession. At the end of this Premier League weekend, Rog, I watched a bit of AC Milan against Roma, which was defined by 40-year-old Luka Modric.

3:23and on one hand you can kind of say well that wouldn't you wouldn't get that in the premier league a 40 year old midfielder running the game launching last minute counter-attacks even whilst this team are winning but on the other it's quite refreshing watching it's italian or spanish football or even german football to be honest where where you don't have this reliance on set pieces where it doesn't feel as though everyone is waiting for a corner to happen before they try and score a goal where it still feels technical it still feels as though teams are moving each other around you know trying to dominate the ball Germany's a little bit different like the hegemony of the counter press remains true in the Bundesliga and it is it has always been a more physical more kind of aerial game game there anyway we've seen little bits of the the Premier Leeds set pieceification what I think of as the NFLification of football elsewhere PSG were were kicking for touch from from kickoffs long before Newcastle United but it does feel to me as though we are just at the moment and it's probably too soon to say it's a pattern.

4:21But I do wonder if we might find that the style of play you get in the Premier League, the dominant style of play in the Premier League, is starting to diverge a little bit from the dominant style of play in Europe, where it is still a bit more technical, a bit more attacking, rather less attritional. And it'll be interesting to see in the latter stages of the Champions League, if you got Arsenal against, say, PSG, which one of those two styles wins out, then there's been a long, long time where basically those big teams in the Champions League all play roughly the same way. For once, we might get a little bit of stylistic variation.

4:56And I personally, Rog, think that's fun. I like utterly homogenous product rule. So I am fascinated to see which direction the travel we're moving into. But if you want to see continental teams enjoying their lives, This week pits two of the most fearsome clubs in the world right now against each other in the big gulp Champions League group stage. Bayern Munich and their future NFL kicker Harry Kane visit the aforementioned Paris Saint-Germain today, 3pm Eastern. Also on tap today, we've got the quite awkward Trent Alexander on a return to Anfield with all his glow-up new mates. The Victor Jocheres replacement at Sporting Club trying to make a name for himself.

5:36Several other Luis Suarez's and Crystal Palace's first foray into Europe. Truly a team just savouring every single moment. Let's make like Harry Kane, swapping out his career as an elite football striker for one in the NFL and go to the football. Fichar por un club como Real Madrid no sucede todos los días. Es un sueño hecho realidad. Estoy muy feliz y orgulloso de estar aquí. Tengo muchas ganas de enseñar mi juego a los madridistas. Your ears do not deceive you, dear listener. that what you just heard is the linguistic equivalent of French fries and ice cream. It's a scouser speaking Spanish, a combination so oddly sweet and salty you can't help but come back for seconds.

6:21This is not just any scouser. This was local lad Trent Alexander-Arnold, waxing poetic about his love for everything in Madrid at his introductory press conference for the club earlier this year, only weeks after playing his final game for Liverpool at Anfield and lifting that Premier League trophy. Oh, the hope, the joy Trent must have felt to finally show off those Spanish lessons he'd been secretly taking all the while. I'm obnoxiously air-quoting this, as I say it. All the while he debated, quote, re-upping for the fish and chips at Anfield or escaping to the red wine and jamón ibérico in Madrid.

6:58It was just at that very same press conference where he unveiled his Castilian alter ego in the form of the mononym Trent, which goes up there with Hulk and He Hate Me as one of the all-time choices for the back of a kit. But things haven't quite gone to plan since then for Trent in Madrid so far. He's only seen the field for 156 minutes this season. No goals, no assists, no patented in-swinging crosses, connecting with an awaiting forehead to his credit. He's had a hamstring injury that he picked up in September, which is partly responsible for that. But even when he's healthy, he's competing for playing time at that right-back spot with Federico Valverde, who, as you know, bloody good at football, as well as the Brad Marchand of La Liga, Danny Carvajal, who is also, you know, club captain.

7:46But what's that? Ray of sunshine opening up in the clouded Liverpoolian skies, because I don't know if you've heard, but Real Madrid are heading to Anfield today to take on Liverpool 3pm Eastern time for the first and only stop on the Trent Alexander-Arnold reunion tour. Football gods will have it. The aforementioned Danny Carvajal picked up a knock to his right knee, which will keep him sidelined for much of the rest of the year, opening up a sliver of hope that Trent will touch grass once again at the stadium in which we saw him turn into the Trent we know in our thrilled imagination. So, Roar, let's just say it's not quite worked out as Trent would have wanted in Madrid just yet.

8:26Is Xabi just being careful to work him back from injury or is the Valverde carver, Hal Haider, too much for him to break through? And if he does get minutes today, how do you expect the Anfield faithful to receive him? Yeah, the reception will be really interesting. I don't think it'll be a warm round of applause. I'm not sure we're there yet, Rog. I think if Liverpool were to beat Real Madrid, then he might get a warm round of applause off in a sort of patronising fashion. But beforehand, I'd expect a mixture of boos and semi-committed grumbling, I think. Oh, that would be a great caption on a Netflix movie, semi-committed grumbling.

9:02Semi-committed rumbling. Got to push you on this one, Roar. If you were there at Anfield, would you be amongst a uniform clapping or would you be amongst a uniform booing? No, I think if I was there at Anfield, I'd be there as a professional journalist, Rog, and so I wouldn't be doing anything. I'd be eating.

9:21I'd be drinking free coffee and having a pie. No, I think to me as a fan, I wouldn't boo, but I'm conscious that my approach to his decision to leave was probably not indicative of quite a lot of fans. My sense was he's given the team plenty of good years. He feels that he wants a new challenge. I understand that. I'm a little bit annoyed he's gone for nothing. But it never made me angry. Well, it only made me angry and sad when I realised how much they relied on him and how bad they were when he wasn't there. But apart from that, on a personal level, I wasn't kind of wounded or hurt or offended by it.

9:53So no, I wouldn't boo, but I think a lot of people will. It won't be a particularly warm reception. it does feel a little bit like his very slow start to life in Madrid has disguised how seismic a move this was Trent Alexander-Arnold was one of the defining figures of the modern Premier League he was one of the most talked about players of this century in English football in terms of the amount of attention that everything he did got whether it was good, bad or indifferent there was just so much to say about Trent that it felt like people were always discussing him and he was incredibly high profile and since he left that's diminished considerably as you say he's barely played it doesn't feel as though he's gone like Jude Bellingham to Real Madrid as kind of one of the main events he feels a little bit kind of secondary to Mbappe and Vinicius and Jude himself I think that will change with time, but I'm pretty sure this isn't how Trent would have liked to have started his Madrid career.

10:59I've got to say, Madrid catching Liverpool at a fascinating time. Before this weekend's win against Aston Villa, the form had turned into borderline free-fall. The whole world is talking about this ad nauseum in the football world. Liverpool losers of six of their last eight games or comps. One of those losses, a 3-2 stinker at Brentford two weekends ago, which is their fourth straight at the time, which caused Arna Slott to go about as nuclear as it's humanly possible for a Dutchman. What's concerning you the most about these performances? Like you said, you cannot compare all of them. The most concerning thing is that you lose four times in a row.

11:40So it's always about the result. And then afterwards, you're going to judge the performance, which today was, in my opinion, the worst from all the four losses we've had. Is there anything more bone-chilling than the mild condemnation spoken in the Dutch accent? But amid the plethora of struggles for Liverpool, the change in playing style, the fit of new signings, the disappearance of Florian Wurz, it's the struggles of that sweet Egyptian prince Mo Salah that has been the most fascinating to witness. Last year's Premier League golden boot winner has looked completely out of sorts and was dropped for the last two Champions League match days.

12:14We've discussed lots of half-hearted tactical shifts, the record money spent, the heartache and pain. It still reverberates to the souls of the Liverpool players as they continue to grapple with the quite devastating loss of Diego Juta. But one thing that's not been discussed as much as it should be is the absence of Trent Alexander-Orland and what that's done to the side. And particularly his impact on Mo Salah, the full-back attacker pairing, just owned right wing, that flank over and over together telepathically since 2017 and were capable of moments of sheer cohesive brilliance. Alexander-Arnold, Ossala's there and helps it goalwards and scores beautifully.

12:56Wonderful Trent Alexander-Arnold ball and a quite splendid Salah finish. That time together, learning each other's preferences, their shapes, their movement, all of it. We now know just how seismic that was to Liverpool's threat. In your mind, how big an impact is Trent's absence on this Liverpool season? For Mo Salah in particular, for the club in general, we forget Trent was actually in all of the pain, all of the agony, all of the frustration over the Spanish lessons. He was a bloody good footballer. And was such a key piece for this Liverpool side. Yeah, and I think actually it's one of those things we overlooked a little bit because there was so much relentless focus on what Trent didn't do, on the perceived defensive weakness, the fact that he seemed to be a vulnerability in preventing Liverpool conceding goals.

13:43I think we missed not only how central he was to kind of the way Liverpool attacked, but the fact that he was their main creative force. You know, there was that competition between him and Robertson to see who could give the most assists that was treated as this interesting bit of trivia. But really, it was pretty significant that for six or seven years, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson were the way Liverpool scored goals. And that was, I think, especially true of Salah, that he had behind him this player who could pretty reliably send him clear through on goal from a position that no one was really expecting and often couldn't really be stopped.

14:21Because it's very unusual for a team to have their most creative player at right back. But that's exactly what Trent was for Liverpool. And there's no question that whether it's the most significant factor in Liverpool's slow start or Liverpool's uneven start to the season, I don't know. but having to readjust to life without Trent has been really hard for the team as a whole they spent£100 million on Florian Verts to try and give them a creative outlet like Trent in a more traditional position but for Salah in particular I think it's been really difficult because you can see him in games he's dealing with a variety of right backs who are doing things he's not used to and he has to kind of recalibrate what he wants to do how he interchanges, how he interlocks with the team.

15:05Because that partnership, although it wasn't something we talked about that often, I think, that partnership was central to Mohamed Salah becoming Mohamed Salah. There's another former Liverpool star returning home that we've got to talk about. The one who's now taken off his soft-spoken confidence and smoldering good looks and moved them to the touchline. Xabi Alonso, who moved from Bayer Leverkusen to Real Madrid to take over from that human eyebrow. Carlo Ancelotti and I've got to say you know big picture it appears to have been quite a smooth transition Madrid currently sits on 30 out of a possible 33 points to 11 games is that good top of La Liga one of five teams who have won all three of their big Gulf Champions League group stage matches thus far they just big boy Laminemal and the rest of Barcelona in a quite testy El Clasico two weekends ago Xabi has quite expertly flipped last season some Bappe question into a Los Blancos version of calling ambulance, but not for me meme.

16:06That's because Kylian has been, in a word, utterly dominant. 19 goals in 17 games all comps so far this year, leading La Liga in that category as well, with nearly twice as many goals to the next man behind him. But Mbappe's success has come seemingly at Vinicius Junior's expense. The winger has been left out of the starting XI three times already this season. His substitution, it wasn't just a substitution, It was like a crash out when Xabi pulled him in the 72nd minute of the most recent El Clasico, drew the footballing world's eye back onto Madrid's ego balancing act in that front three and led to reports that the relationship between Brazilian star and coach had, quote, deteriorated.

16:47Vinny offered a public apology to the fans, as well as his teammates, the club and the president, leaving one name, Xabi's noticeably absent. So, Ru, what is Alonso doing differently than his furry-brow predecessor? And with a limited amount of minutes and goals that can be split between that giant star wattage amongst the front line, can he keep all hands on deck, so to speak, or is it just inevitable, this frustration for at least one of them? And will that drama spill into today's Liverpool game and beyond? It shouldn't be inevitable, because I think there is a way of getting everybody into the team, to be perfectly honest.

17:20What the Vinicius incident seemed to illustrate was how delicate it can be at Real Madrid. That even if you do something that is perfectly legitimate in a footballing sense, that's a logical sporting decision, there is a chance at Madrid that that kind of echoes and reverberates in a way that it doesn't at, for example, Bayer Leverkusen. And Xabi Alonso, I think, will have known that. He was a player at Madrid when there were also plenty of egos in that dressing room. But how he handles it as a manager will be fascinating to see because Kylian Mbappe in this form is your central figure. Vinicius is a more than important supporting character, but you can't have two kind of equally weighted attacking forces.

18:00You have to have certain ways of playing. And I think one of the main things Alonso has tried to do in the first few months of his time in Madrid is treat it a little bit more like a normal team, to be honest, rather than Carlo's... Carlo Ancelotti was brilliant at kind of making everybody feel as though they were the most important person. I think Alonso wants them, and I think he's been brought in to force them to operate a little bit more like everybody else where there is a system, there's a tactical approach, there's a necessity to sacrifice yourself a little bit for the good of the collective.

18:33None of this is unusual in football. It's maybe a little bit novel at Real Madrid. And I suppose what's happened with Vinicius is a sign that it's a difficult transition for some of them. There have been those kind of whispers around Madrid despite the good form that maybe they think some of Alonso's work is a little bit too, you know, a little bit too industrial, maybe a little bit making them run around a touch too much. Maybe they don't need quite this much coaching. Maybe they're good enough as it is. That tends to happen when you have this battle between the coach and the players for who has the actual power.

19:09And it happens at Real Madrid more than anywhere else. It doesn't seem to be holding them back at the moment. I'm not sure it'll hold them back at Anfield, to be perfectly honest, but it may well in time mean that Alonso comes to realise that there are certain players, and it would look like Vinicius at the moment, who might long-term not be part of his project. That said, if you're Vinicius, presumably you want to play at Real Madrid, so you're being presented with a choice. You either knuckle down or you leave. Too much training. How dare you? Too much coaching. How dare you to not know who we are, sir?

19:41But Roy, it is time to warm up the crystal ball, pull out your tarot cards. We know you keep in your pocket at all times to ward off the Yorkshire spirits. Clash of the big boys. We're all waiting for what's going to happen at Anfield. Round 100 are going to win. And I think they will probably win relatively comfortably because they are one of the form teams in Europe and Liverpool are relatively fragile still. I think Liverpool might put up a bit more of a... Do you mean this? Are you just trying to speak out your worst possible... You do my trick, trying to speak out your worst outcome to put it out into the world and defend yourself.

20:15There's an element of superstition about it, but I think, yeah, if you take that aside, Liverpool are slightly stronger after that Villa win than they would have been had they not beaten Aston Villa, but they are still a team that have been struggling to adapt to their new identity. I think Florian Virts will play for Liverpool. I think that it may well be that Slott's decided the Champions League is a better environment for him than the Premier League at the moment. Liverpool will make a decent fist of it, but Real have so much quality and Liverpool's defence is still so shaky that it's really hard not to see Vinicius and Mbappe and all of the others scoring more goals than Liverpool can.

20:49So I might say that Real win 4-2. That might be, it feels like that kind of thing. I think Liverpool probably have it in them to score and they maybe have it in them to keep Real honest. But I just think Real Madrid have got too much quality at the moment for this version of Liverpool. God, the notion of seeing Trent just wander onto that field like in the second half and swinging home an assist onto an awaiting Mbappe body part. Just, I mean, that drama, that theatre, that human experience. It's almost, I mean, again, someone who doesn't deal with Schadenfreude at all and watches football objectively, it would be almost too much.

21:29It would be fascinating to see Trent play just because, you know, for years and years and years, Liverpool fans and Liverpool players defended his defensive shortcomings because of what he added in an attacking sense. And it would be fascinating in a purely footballing, in the theatre of football, to see Andy Robertson play against Trent Alexander-Arnold. You know, they're incredibly close as friends. You know, partners in crime for so long. They must know each other's strengths and weaknesses so intimately. It would be worth playing Trent for the duration of the game, and Robertson, although given that he played against Villa, maybe not, just to see how that battle sort of plays out.

22:07to see how Cody Gakpo does against Trent Anderano, the player he's faced in training a million times. There must be a way that that can be used to Liverpool's advantage. Whether Trent starts or not, I don't know. Maybe that's a reason for Xabi Alonso to leave him on the bench in reserve. What happens if he scores? I presume he doesn't. I mean, what happens if he scores is he doesn't celebrate, I think. It would be a great place to kickstart his Real Madrid career. That's why, guys, it's almost too much humanity. It's almost too much for me to bear. That game today, 3pm Eastern time, we'll be back to talk Luis Suarez.

22:41No, not that one. And not the other one either. It's the newest entrant into the Luis Suarez pantheon after a short break. New Balance is a brand I've loved dearly for my whole life. And as if I couldn't love them more, they're now an official sponsor of the MIB Media Network. And as it turns out, I'm not the only elite footballer they're sponsoring these days. Bukayo Saka Endrick Eberichieze Jeremy Frimpong legendary James Rodriguez and our own beloved Tim Weyer they're all riding with New Balance these days and we're the biggest summer in soccer fast approaching I can't wait to see their incredible footballers play their path on the world's biggest stage whether it's Endrick cutting up opponents in his takealas or Bukayo Saka banging in goals left and right in his furons we're here for it all grab yourself a pair today at newbalance.com slash soccer

23:50That was the Colombian goal call of the first. Do I need to tell you what that was? I think you know. It's the Colombian goal call of the first of four goals by one Luis Suarez against Venezuela, September, a 6-3 Colombia win. when the striker became just the sixth player to score a poker or four goals in South American World Cup qualifying, joining legendary Brazilian strikers Zico and Romario and some other gent named Chex Notes. Luis Suarez. That's right. Today we're talking about Luis Suarez. No, not the 1960s Luis Suarez. El Arquitecto. The architect, the Spanish midfielder who won the Boulon d 'Or while at Barcelona between 1955 and 1961.

24:34Sadly, not the Argentine international Luis Suarez, who I know you know, played for the New York Skyliners at Yankee Stadium in 1967 in the United Soccer Association precursor to the NASL. And no, not Leo Messi's mate, the Uruguayan striker, ravenous for goals or flesh in equal measure. This Luis Suarez is a Colombian striker, and he first crossed many people's radars when he scored those four goals against Venezuela within just 25 sizzling minutes. But any scouts first taking note were a couple of months late because Sporting Club de Portugal had recently snapped him up over the summer to replace one outgoing Victor Jocherez, that Swedish striker, taking his Bain celebration to Arsenal for$76 million, having scored 97 bangers in 102 games for sporting.

25:25In fact, Sebastiano Matias, the assistant coach of Colombia when Luis Suarez made his international debut, said, quote, in terms of style, he looks like a player identical to Jochrez. Matias then proceeded to detail all the ways they're different. Jochrez far better in the air, Luis Suarez more comfortable between the lines, an aggressive player, versatile, who, quote, doesn't ask permission to shoot. He's a player nicknamed El Bison. His hero is Brazilian legend Ronaldo Nazario, the original Ronaldo, as Mourinho once called him, even though he was born too late to see more than YouTube highlight reels.

26:03Rui, what kind of a player is the latest incarnation of Luis Suarez? What has Sporting got on the hands in their Jocares replacement? He's a late bloomer, and to that extent, is a little bit like Jocares. He came from Almeria, a relatively unheralded Spanish team, although one where a certain Darwin Nunez had played previously, who went from Almeria to Benfica. It's a relatively well-trodden path. He is, as you say, aggressive. He's quick, technically excellent. Does kind of fulfil that physical role that Jocares had for Sporting as well. I think the one thing that's really interesting about kind of both signings is that Sporting have taken a risk.

26:45In both cases, you know, Jokeres came to Sporting having kind of done fine in the championship in England for 18 months. You know, he hadn't been the sort of player that kind of the entire continent was chasing. There was a sense that he'd, maybe his window had gone and Sporting saw something in him, unleashed him, nurtured him, nourished him, and turned him into a 60,$70 million striker. Suarez is a couple of years older still. And to be honest, his career has been even less remarkable. But Sporting very clearly think they can see something in players that other people can't or don't. And if you take Jokeres as the example, they might have a point.