Reasons why Rio is Positive | Why Yoro + Shaw are CRUCIAL for Manchester United

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1:27quite positive after a 1-0 defeat, me included. But Arsenal fans have won one in Old Trafford and are a bit despondent. So let's get into it, guys. What's going on? How was your weekend, guys? That was great. Steve, how was yours? All right. Panic went five games, five wins in the league. Absolutely flying in our newly promoted league. And I was at Oasis last night. So the losing to Arsenal, which I expected anyway, is merely a blip on a great weekend. Obviously, Joe, your face is beaming. I can see the positivity in your face. But let's start with Manchester United. I think everyone's been talking about the forwards.

2:02Yeah, rightly so. But I think, I always believe there's a foundation behind good forward play. And I thought at the weekend, the defence looked like there was a bit more kind of a method to the madness. And I thought that Leni Jorow and Luke Shaw especially, how comfortable they look now, how much of an improvement they are. they look fitter, they look stronger, they look more composed in defensive situations as well. That sets the foundation and the springboard for us to be able to attack and for those prominent forwards that we're hopefully going to now see a much more consistent output from.

2:41But I think when those forwards were looking back behind them, they wasn't thinking, are they getting tight enough? Are they too tight? Are they going to get rolled? When you get that kind of reaction from the players in front of defenders, it almost kind of makes people half-step and go a half a second later. So then things then change and don't become as consistent throughout the team. And I thought that was one of the pleasing things for me. And what I did like, that platform from behind and that confidence from behind allows, especially on the right-hand side, when you bring an Amadon who plays right wing back, he goes and plays like a right winger and Buma comes inside a little bit more in that Salah position, inside right position to be closer to goal, closer to Cescou.

3:25And then you've got Cunha freed up a bit more of a free runner, a bit more of a fluidity about the way he plays from that left-hand side. It made us look a lot more of a threat against probably the best unit defensively in the league, especially with the two centre-backs and the goalkeeper. So that filled me with a lot of confidence and optimism for the rest of the season. If we play like we played yesterday, we didn't get the result. If we play like that again and continuously, and keep improving, I think it's going to be a season to be a lot more proud of than it has been the last couple of years.

3:57I thought the way the game went was completely different to how I thought the game was going to go. I thought Arsenal would take the ball, stick it on us, United a play off the back foot and even though I thought it would be relatively close, I thought we would ultimately come out losing. That's not how it went down. Arsenal didn't lay a glove on United and you can talk about contentious refereeing decisions at both ends of the pitch which could have swung that game entirely 180 and the reason our United fans are happy after that game, I won't say happy because we're not happy after losing. We're encouraged, I think.

4:28We're encouraged. I think we're surprised and pleased with what we saw because we know what's going to come. Performances get results. You can get result, result, result, result, but if the performance that underlies that result isn't good, you're going to end up getting the results you deserve. And the same thing with performances. If the performances are strong, ultimately you'll start getting strong results from those performances and if united played 37 games in the manner that we played that game yesterday we will not be 15th next season that's why united fans are encouraged but i want to pick up on what you're saying about the defenders lenny euro yesterday played like a 100 million pound defender he was good with the ball he was winning every single thing in the air there was a ton of interceptions i thought it was mad chaotic It was effective.

5:15It was clearly on the front foot. But I can see so many high-scoring games with United if that's how we're going to attempt to defend in that sort of aggressive manner. What do you reckon? Wait, wait, wait. Look, excellent game. I thought the lit was immense. But a£100 million player. Just let's calm down a little bit. Yeah, Lenny Euro. Yeah, that's what I mean. Yeah, but let's calm down a little bit. 125, 130? Steve, come on, man. I understand why you're excited and there's a lot to be encouraged by. but I think 100 million, don't slap the pressure on him yet. He had a good game. I think it's more about the structure of the team.

5:49I said this in pre-season. I think it's like, we can go and get all the individuals that we want. If the structure of the team isn't right, then the fundamentals, we won't work. We'll continue to get beat and have indifferent results week in, week out and not be able to kind of recognise this team. What I liked about this this weekend, there was a method to the madness and you said it was a bit kamikaze at times but they're pushing and pressing, winning the ball and you can see the traits kind of coming out. Win the ball, play forward quickly. If you can't play your first pass forward quickly, then play out, get to one side, drag that team across the pitch and then Bumo or Ahmad in the second half will be out on the right-hand side.

6:29So Casemiro, when you get it, I don't want it taking two or three touches and then a pass and then three passes. A raking pass, 30, 40 yards straight out there. Mount done it once or twice as well. You could see there was a method to the madness of what they were trying to achieve. And freeing up one of the wide players on the opposite side of where the ball was initially was the target for most of that game, to get out. And when you get into the ball to someone like Mbumo, who showed yesterday, you can get it to me, and if I'm free, I'll be 1v1 and I'll run at the defender and give him a problem.

7:01And he'd done that numerous times. And I think that those little things become in patterns. And that's what I said about last season. I was struggling to see regular patterns come out and rear their head on a regular basis. I hope this isn't just, again, one game in five that we see this. I hope this is continued and this is born out of a good pre-season where things are being put down on a training pitch. Rio, how good was Cunha and Mbumo? They are a totally different game to each other, but how dangerous did both of those two look? It's weird, it's almost like they both had 35-minute cameos each.

7:37Boomer in the first half, where he was getting on the ball, and I think his drop-off in the game was probably down to fitness. But he looked a threat immediately. He'd give us a different dimension. His positional sense, I thought, was one of the most pleasing things in where he identified when to stay wide, when to come in the pitch, get back into good shape. But again, when he's on the ball, you can see that he's going to be a threat and ask questions of the defenders. Kunja, I saw a stat yesterday, one of my WhatsApp groups, someone threw in just as the game started who questioned whether they would have even bought him because he was top of the list of Premier League players last season, walking time.

8:16And that did that. I went, oh, actually, would I want to sign a player who walks a lot? But then I watched this game and he was actually walking past a lot of their defenders. He was waltzing past. Ben White, I said yesterday, I think, tweaked a hammy, kept chasing him. And he is the unpredictable one in our team now. He is the one that when the ball goes to him, you're going, okay, I'm on the edge of my seat. Where are you going to go now? Because you might go left, you might go right, you might run straight past them. I don't know what you're going to do. But I like what I'm seeing. That's how I felt about Kuni yesterday.

8:50And I feel if I'm an opposing defender, watching what I saw yesterday, minus Sesko, by the way, I'm thinking oh this is a different Man United now they got power strength pace guile unpredictability if they keep coming with that mmm I ain't going to enjoy playing against this whereas I don't think Rio go on what noise did you make when you had that little flick around the corner oh oh but seriously I just think I don't want to get too carried away it was just it was pleasing that I went on the tour Steve we were on the tour It was pleasing that we'd been on the tour and some of the stuff we'd seen and we'd been hearing the guys talk about reared its head in the game.

9:35And we saw it. Long made it continue. Would you say that's the first time that you saw the system benefit the squad, benefit the team? Great question, Joel. I think it's absolutely. There's been every pundit and his dog has sat there and gone, oh, the system isn't fit for the players. And I just was scratching my head with that, right? Of course it's not going to be at that stage. The manager had brought in one player, a left wing back. It wasn't his group of players. Give the man time to mould the team to players that he sees fit for that formation. Now he's got five players in two windows that are his.

10:13So the team's starting to hopefully start to grow into a team that actually represents Reuben Amarim's style of football. And that's why when I kept hearing pundits say, the style of thingy, the style of football. He's not thinking short term. I've got to keep stressing, right? It's one game. But hopefully we're seeing the benefits of him sticking by his methods while we were going through some pain. And then as I start putting my pieces in there, we'll now start to see the benefits. And hopefully that's where we're going to be in the next coming months. What I saw immediately last season, which was a difference to Ten Hag, which was, I thought, was very noticeable outside of the going to a back three.

10:55The one thing I noticed with Ruben Amarim's system was it was very, very slow and very deliberate. Like, we were frustratingly slow. And you see the Stretford end kicking off with Onana all the time because he would slow it down every single time he got it. And I felt like he was deliberate. I felt like we were taking a lot more deliberate care to move the ball through the thirds. Yesterday, like Rio's already sort of touched on, the tempo had gone up five or six levels. And I think that, that's throwback Manchester United. The very best Manchester United. Sorry to jump in, Steve. Why is that, Steve?

11:30Why is that? And forget tactically, he's already said this because physically they was not at the level last season to play Ruben Amarin-style football. They've had a pre-season. And I'm wondering how impactful this is going to be. a tempo alone like the patterns whether there even was patterns properly last season but the patterns can remain the same the defending can remain the same the personnel can remain the same but if the tempo goes up you're just going to be more dangerous I think it's easier to mark a team that's playing slow and deliberate and moving a little bit you know creaky that when Manchester United are hitting you at 100 mile an hour like they were yesterday that must have felt relentless at times for us they must have come off the pitch going that's the worst relentless yeah and that's to me the best Manchester United teams have had that relentlessness to them that tempo that physicality to them that alone I think is going to bring points we're going to break teams with tempo this year now what did I see that was going wrong I thought you passed out from the back into our middle like that like there was nobody there that I think is a major drama I think we've got to get our pressing a pressing shape correct because it felt like It was very, very easy to pass it through.

12:45At times, and maybe it's just a little bit of practice, but at times we looked like we were going to press high, and we did, and a couple of quality passes and touches, and you were right through the centre of us. And then there was other times it felt like the distances weren't quite right in front of the defence, and I think that's why we saw so much 1v1 defending from the back three, because I just didn't think that there was anyone in front of them structurally. I thought Bruno was busy, Casemiro was busy, but again, it feels like there's maybe five yard too much of a stretch or maybe the defence hasn't quite got the confidence in itself to go high yet with it?

13:18Steve, one thing I would stay on that, yeah? If you're going to be a team that presses high, you've got to be able to play 1v1 on the halfway line. And that's part of the way that if you're going to be a pressing team, it has to work. You look at Arsenal, they've got two absolute beasts at the back, centre-halves, and their full-backs, by the way. The four full-backs they have, by the way. They can all play 1v1 and are happy to do it. That's why if they do go on a high-press arsenal and you play over that into your striker, their centre-backs, you can see them. They're looking to bully and dominate and that's what we have to get to.

13:50I think Luke Shaw is capable of that and so is Lenny Oro. A little bit less so maybe the one who plays centre in terms of coming into big areas and spaces, but that's why you've got your two Rottweilers, hopefully on the other side of you in a three, that you can push in and go, right, you go and deal with them 1v1. If we get to a point where our two wide ones are really confident going out wide, covering channels and going into the central area of the pitch to deal with people 1v1, we become a massive problem because we can really be forward-thinking, forward-thinking, pressing high up the pitch.

14:23And when you win the ball high, we all know what that leads to, at least opportunities at goal. You guys both spoke about intensity and you love the intensity and how it looks better, which I do agree with. But I'm also a bit concerned when I see Man United because I think, is that not just because it was against Arsenal? You got Fulham next week. We saw how well you showed intensity when you played against teams at Man City last season. Yeah, you're right. Is this the real deal or are we just seeing it? Because let's be honest, as much as we banter, Man United versus Arsenal will always be a big game.

14:57to those players especially, you know? Do you think it's easier to show that because it's a big game? Are they going to revert back to what we're used to seeing last season? I think it's a great point, Joe, and I think it's a really valid point because that was a bit of our undoing. Like, we played some really good moments on 60 minutes, 30 minutes against the big teams last year and then got undone. But against some of the lesser known teams, we were getting outfought, outrun, outplayed on numerous occasions where you thought we should be doing better than that. So this season, I think that's a big, big, big question mark that has to be answered.

15:32Like you say, can we beat the Fulhams and make Fulham look like a team inferior to Manchester United? Can we do that to a lot of teams around the ilk of Fulham? That's going to be the big ask. And we just have to wait and see. The signs are very good after the first game for me, but you still need to see it play out. Do you agree? Do you reckon it was just more because it was against Arsenal or do you reckon you've actually turned a corner when it comes to this intensity? No, I don't think it was anything to do with the fact it was Arsenal. I don't think it had anything to do with the fact it was Arsenal.

16:02I don't think it was anything to do with the fact it was opening day. I thought that there was things in that performance, there were traits in that performance that are repeatable traits. And it wasn't a case of like, people wanted to distill football down to so much bait, like they were up for it. What sort of analysis is that? Because that's what happens. Name names. Name names. let's not no no Steve anyone who works for TalkSport let's not let's be honest here it is a it is very possible and that's what happens with footballers if you've played any game you don't it doesn't even have to be a professional standard when there's certain teams you're playing against you're more up for it that's what happens that's what that's football yeah but I think that the manner of that performance there was repeatable traits in there that I think that there's a reason like Rio started it with it United fans are coming away happy and Arsenal fans are coming away a little bit gutted.

16:56And let's talk about Arsenal because I said, you changed the structure of this team. You take Havertz out. He did. You put Zubamendi and Rice in. Declan Rice was an absolute ghost yesterday. Where was he? He's a missing, that guy. No one knows where he is. And I tell you what, how do you cut spending so much money on a striker? How do you talk about needing to get a goal-scoring striker in? You spend all that money on Vitsi Okerez and then don't even play him at Old Trafford. What's going on with that? Steve, I know what you're doing here. You're fishing and looking for a response. You have to remember, he's also not fit yet.

17:35This is his third game. He came in late to the Arsenal squad because of when the transfer happened. When you're looking at the Mbwemos, the Kunyas, they've had a little bit more time than him. And at the same time, you're playing against Manchester United away at Old Trafford. It's not going to be an easy game. What, the team that came 15th last year that's had more losses than whatever? It's like a derby, Steve. When we play you, all of that stuff goes out the window. It's about winning. And sometimes it doesn't matter how you win. So I looked at Victor Jokerez. The crosses didn't look really good, I'll be honest with you.

18:06But he tried to put himself about, you know, he's going to need a little bit of time to settle in. Yeah, that's what you signed him for. That's what you signed, this absolute bags man, 50-goal a season strike. And that's why you signed him Wemo. And that's why you signed him Wemo. And he had chances and he didn't concern. I thought all your team needed was to score goals. No, no, no. But Mbwemo is there to score goals as well. Where was his goals yesterday? He had chances. Your team came second last couple of years. You're near perfect. Final piece of the jigsaw, you said. Final piece. Yeah. And you know what?

18:34It don't matter. Do you know? Because when you look at that board, when you look at the table at the moment, it's three points for us and zero for you. So all we have to do is go into next week and you keep on building with what he's done. You saw him in a friendly last week against Bilbao. You saw him. He knows where the goal is. he just needs a bit of time against these Premier League teams. It's one game, Steve. Yeah, but what I saw coming into the season, you change Havertz. What's happened in that game? You didn't have possession. Arsenal are a team that hold possession. You came to Old Trafford, you got possession taken off you.

19:06Why? Because you didn't have the outlet. Jokeres is not holding the ball up in the same way that Havertz was holding it for you. And also, you've lost Thomas Partey. You've now got someone that's a little bit neater on the ball. You are not the same team. Say goodbye to second. You peaked and didn't even win anything. Congratulations. You are now looking at four. Steve said goodbye to second. Wow. Steve, you have to remember, season among season, among season, you keep on making these shouts. And season on season, I'm absolutely bang on. Not really, because how many times have we had this thing where you go, Arsenal are going to fall off here and they're going to fall off there.

19:43How many times have you won the league? And all we've done is... How many times have you come in with a Premier League trophy? This is ours. and how many times have you ended up at the end of the season with no cake with no cigar with no sunglasses and no Premier League title he's not far wrong Joe you know are you going to let me no no no bruv listen the sunglasses are always there bruv we just bring them out at the right time alright I'm going to be calmer this season all I'm saying is we need to give him time and I do actually think Jokoros is going to do well for us it's just again it's the Premier League it's a high intensity game you came out against one of the best Man United performances that I've seen in years.

20:20So he's going to need time. I think with Gercarez, I think you've got to look at him and go, right, okay, where are his attributes best suited on the pitch and where does he cause problems? If you look at yesterday in isolation, running the channels is something he looks like he's good at and he enjoys. He's physically capable of doing that. I think he's still going to have to get fitter. He'll have to take more training sessions and more games to see the best out of him physically. But playing him in the channels and running. So away from home, more often than not that's going to happen. Somewhere like at the Emirates where they dominate possession, if they dominate possession, if you look at this in a Steve analogy, but if they dominate possession and pen teams back home or away, is that going to suit his game?

21:02Are Arsenal going to ask him to be playing in and off him and runners run off him? I don't think so. I think the ask of him is going to be when the ball gets into the penalty box, where are you going to find space to score goals and can you execute? how many times do we see Odegaard sack a combination get to the byline get in the corner of the box and you just need a number nine to just finish that chance off that's where he's going to earn his coin that's where he's going to get judgment I think that the the playing on the counter attack isn't going to happen too often for Arsenal this season I wouldn't say if you're going on based on past seasons they dominate possession most of the time I take Steve's point, but I think this guy has shown that he can score goals.

21:44And the only reason I wasn't championed in taking him to Manchester United was the mere fact that I thought his profile in terms of experience, age, what else is on the market, I thought it was more suited to what Man United needed. But I think on the market what was available, I think he's one of those players you go, I can understand why Arsenal have bought him. So you've got to give him that time. You You can't judge someone after the first game, especially when he hasn't had a full pre-season at it. I've got a question here, and I actually want to hear your opinion. This is actually from Irvin from 360 TV.

22:19He says he reckons Giochoresh is not that good of a player. He said that all he needs is five games, right? And he'll be able to make a full-on conclusion. And his thoughts were, we had a chat about this yesterday after the game after our live. He said, why is it that all the top teams who needed a striker were not in for him? Why? Why is it that he's outscored more goals than any other striker that's gone around? More than Eketike, more than Sesko. Why is it that a player like that hasn't been sought after more? And he also reckons that Rio, you and Jolion, you know, probably didn't think he was that much of a good player in the first place.

23:00And you just saw it earlier on. and it's not because he wasn't suited for Man United. You're just being polite. Just putting that out there, that's what he said. What I kept hearing was, oh, he smashed Man City and he's done this and done that. He played against an 18-year-old centre-half and Nakangi was out of sorts on the night. And I think two of the goals were penalties. So I was saying, calm down. I've watched him live twice, two or three times. And I watched him against Arsenal. He didn't get a kick against Arsenal. And they're two Premier League teams. I was thinking, I ain't seen enough to warrant people going, he's going to be the saviour.

23:36But my point was, especially for a dysfunctional Man United, 100%, I didn't see it. You say that, Rio, but Arsenal could have bought Cesco for 92, 93 million and they still would have, that sell-on point isn't that valid when you compare that situation. Because who's to say that with the way the prices are going up that they couldn't have had their value for money if it was Cesco? We didn't go for it because we didn't want to spend 92 million. Or you rang up and he was like... Nah, that's not what happened. But I'm just putting it out there from what the football fans in the world are saying because obviously I think he's a good player.

24:14I think he's going to do well. But that is someone who is not a fan of Jokka Rays. He doesn't support any of our teams. So he doesn't have that bias. But it was a very good question, I thought. I think he'll score goals. but I think that's not my issue with him. If I'm looking at it from a purely analytical point of view, he changes how you play and I think you're less effective because of that. That's it, simple. But he will score because he's a goal scorer. Okay, cool. Right, man, we've got loads still to come right on this pod but we'll be back shortly after this. You're probably multitasking right now, right?

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25:29Visit growtherapy.com slash start now today to get started. That's growtherapy.com slash start now. growtherapy.com slash start now. Availability and coverage vary by state and insurance plan. Hi, I'm Jack Ravici, Kramer host of The Best One Yet. At T-Boy, we're always talking about small decisions that can have an outsized impact. One of the simplest is staying hydrated. Whether I'm traveling, getting a workout in, or heading into a busy day, I keep Liquid IV on hand. It's clinically demonstrated to hydrate faster than water alone and contains three times the electrolytes of the leading sports drink, plus eight vitamins and nutrients.

26:07It's an easy addition to your daily routine and helps support hydration when you need it most. Shop now at liquidiv.com. Liquid IV hydration that goes wherever life takes you. Guys, it's obviously the first game of the season Start of the season I always say it I never felt fit Until probably five or six games In minimum Pre-season I used to be scared of football And games Because you're kind of open to people Watching when you're half fit Even less than that at times And so even after the first game You're looking at people like The new sign is like Gercoures Who hasn't trained with his team While he was at Porto Waiting to go to Arsenal He's now in the building he's not physically at his premium yet.

26:49So I thought we'd know better than to get somebody who's training some of the top-class talent around the world during their off-season to get them ready to when they go back in pre-season. An old friend of mine, Dan Edward, is joining us now. How are you doing, Dan? Morning, mate. I'm good. Yourself? We're waking up now talking about fitness and physicality, sharpness at this stage of the season. One part of the game that's grown massively over the years is that off-season and players kind of utilising their own coaches and building a team around them. You're one of those guys that a lot of the players lean on.

27:23Tell us a few of the names that you work with and how does that go about, the player go about getting someone like yourself on board? I've been fortunate enough to work with a few big players. Trent, Kamavinga, Jules Koundé, Welves, Youngie, the United boys. and yeah it's changed over sort of the last three to five years, it's become a lot more glamorous, the use of social media but whether it's through players direct contacting me or agents it's a lot more visible now, especially during the off-season, I think the work that I especially do during the season, in-season is a bit more private, not really for the cameras.

28:12However, you'll see a lot of players post their off-season training programs on their social media. And there's lots of coaches similar to me that run off-season training camps for players. What are the clubs like with that? Because I always look at it and think, if I was a club, would I mind it? And I think when I played, clubs didn't really allow for that to happen so much. You had to do it on the quiet if you did do it. But if I was a football club now, I would actually want to have dialogue with that coach just to understand what they're doing and just to kind of give them what we are doing and which we can come to a place of harmony where we're making sure that the players get in the best of both worlds.

28:55It's hit and miss, to be honest. I mean, I've worked with players from League Two to United and Madrid. And depending on sort of the S &C medical department, it depends on sort of how much information they want from the players and from yourself. To be honest, during the off-season, it's very, it's not as demanding for the players. They set their runs. You see a lot of things, I'm not going to start moaning about, But you see a lot of things on Instagram from Instagram coaches, what I call them, where they're battering players and they're running them through all these types of drills. Whereas the offseason for me is just about maintenance.

29:37It's just about getting the players ready for preseason. So some of the clubs, I mean, Madrid and Liverpool, the two clubs that I've dealt with recently, they're very hands-on and want sort of reports and give you very detailed off-season training programmes sort of minute to minute, day by day. Some of the other clubs just set the runs and it's down to you to run whatever you feel comfortable running. How much do you sort of think what your job is, is injury prevention, like prehab, to make them strong enough for the demands of the game? And how much do you think he's stretching their abilities in the strength and conditioning of their fitness?

30:21The most important thing for me, personally, is player safety. My job isn't to make the player a better player. I'm only with them during the off-season and then when I'm working with them during the season. So it's about injury prevention. It's just about maintenance work. And I think that's where you'll get, there's obviously going to be injuries inevitable. And there's been press recently about a player getting injured, which I'm sure we'll discuss. But during the off-season, it's just about coaches doing maintenance work and ticking the players over to make sure that they're in top condition for when they start pre-season.

31:02You're obviously working with the players and it's maintenance work, as you call it. And you're working with them during the off-season and during the season itself, but isn't this something that clubs should be doing more internally? Or are you happy with the fact that they give you more freedom to do it in your own space? Because you're going to have some people that go, hang on a minute, what's he do with them over there? Is he doing it right? Is he doing it the way the club would want to do it? What's your thoughts when you hear things like that? I completely get both sides. And I've been working with players individually now for about six years.

31:33So I've kind of seen the progression and especially with the rise in social media. But I think where it's become a bit more glamorous now and people are trying to take advantage of it, where the Netflix documentary, The Last Dance with Michael Jordan and the documentaries with LeBron James and Steph Curry, where it's not frowned upon in the US, 82 % of NBA players have their own private coaches and 74 % of NFL players have their own private coaches. It's not frowned upon in the US because they take it that seriously. By all means, it would be ideal if the clubs only work with their players and players only work with the coaches at their clubs.

32:25However, there may be five to 10 S &C coaches at the top clubs and there's 25 players. Each player has to have their own individual programme. And what you will see the old school coaching, if we're talking about pitch-wise, the centre forwards would do their finishing. And you'll get four or five players, edge of the box, set it in, they set back and you shoot. And that's the striker's finishing. That's what Steve does. However, for my role, when I'm working with forwards, it's where do they take and basing it upon stats where do they take most of their touches in the box one touch or two touch what part is on the right side is on the left side right foot or left and it's about repetition and replicating what they actually have to do in a game so i think it's trying to give them a more tailored program rather than a generic program that clubs do which are amazing but players want individual training dan one manager who had a bit of a problem with it was Paul Hickenbottom who's the Preston North End manager and he was really critical of coaches like yourself of coaching players outside because one of his players got injured doing just that how do you kind of rip off his criticism of coaches like yourself outside of the club I mean I understand his frustration the coach he was talking about Tom I know really well and Tom has worked for a Premier League club for a number of years is running his own program so I know the work that he does is outstanding injuries are inevitable and there's always going to be the player that gets injured working with their own team during training this was what happened with his player was not an injury where it was about load it was a knock where his foot hit something and he's hurting his ankle so players trust these one-on-one coaches clubs trust these one-on-one coaches that's why there's so many players that work with one-on-one specialists and as long as the communication is on point and clubs are talking to the coaches and players and vice versa there's always a chance there's the freak injuries where a player got injured stretching for their remote so these are inevitable but as long as the communication is right and on point, then the main aim is to try and make the player as good as you can.

34:59You've worked with these guys like Trent and Kamavinga, Mbuma, the new sign of the Man United, and plus many others. What's the most common thing these guys would ask of you as a coach outside of the club during the season, especially? I think the service I like to provide is just a tailored service for the players and individual program where they're going to be doing replicating whether it's in the gym or on the pitch it's going to be position specific and it's going to be player specific so for instance if it's like i said working with a forward it has to be sort of their side of the pitch in the area it has to be and and 90 of this is unopposed so i i can already hear or imagine the comments about you're going to be getting players injured and it's overused.

35:54I understand the load, the GPS, the stats behind it in terms of understanding a player's rest and recovery. These players during the season are used to a structure. And although they may do finishing or they might do position specific training with their team, they want to do stuff on their own where they're comfortable making mistakes in their own environment and whether it's me going to the house and working with them gym or working in their garden and obviously the guard their gardens are like pitches anyway but it's just about repetitions so that when they're in training they're not making these little errors the coach sees the end goal they might see an assist or they might see a finish.

36:41However, my selling point is my attention to detail. So how can we improve the first touch or your body positioning or your hip movement so that we can get it two times out of three instead of just getting a one out of three result? Are you talking about like ATG sort of stuff? Are we talking like loads of Nordics, like ankle stability and strengthening, like specifics? What are we working on with the players it does depend on the player to be honest and i think that's the difference between some of the lower league teams um why some of their players will have individual coaches because they just don't have the staff you'll see you'll see online the vacancies for s and c or medical departments that need numbers especially in the lower teams um and that's why they go to individual coaches and it varies player to player depending on their fitness levels you don't need to do anything with their fitness levels sharpness sometimes is what I mean by that is just a little I always use center forwards because it's easy to compare but if we're doing near post finishing they might be three yards away from goal but you're playing the ball across to them and they're going with their weaker foot and it's that repetition where they're strengthening their ankle and they're just touching the ball inside of the foot into the goal and there's so many opportunities where you'll see the ball in the six yard box and a player should score but they over hit it or they hit under the ball or they miss hit it and it's having that repetition it's so basic but it's making sure that the player knows the moment you're painting pictures they're in a certain area nine times out of ten everyone's expecting them to score because the ball's in a six yard box it's bouncing it's bubbling but how many clubs spend time doing the basics like that when it's just one specific player.

38:33And then you're looking at, you're doing it with the inside of the foot, you're doing it with the laces and you're just trying to repeat all of these potential scenarios so that when it happens in a game, you're confident and the player's confident, which is key, that they know they're going to finish it. Well, listen, man, long might continue. I'll have to come down and watch a couple of sessions next pre-season, man. Yeah, you're going to do two taps to start cheating again. Have you beat me at two taps before? I can't. The Wi-Fi's gone. Can't hear you. Well, listen, man, Dan, thanks a lot, man.

39:02Appreciate your time and keep up the good work. Appreciate it, guys. Have a good day. One team that I want to speak about where, obviously, we've been focusing, a lot of us have been saying, oh, Liverpool will win the league, it's Liverpool's to lose, etc. Manchester City were on fire this weekend gone. I mean, it looked like they didn't miss the legend who is Kevin De Bruyne, because they had Rinders, who for 50 million looked like an absolute bargain. Well, I knew Rinders was a good player, because I've seen him play for Holland and I've seen him play at Milan and I thought, yeah, very good player.

39:33Really good mover. Get box to box. I didn't see the pass that he produced for the first goal, by the way, that Rico Lewis crossed for Haaland. He just dinged it over the defence. I didn't know he had that finesse around the box like that. But his ability to move and run and find space from the midfield area, I think he was good, really comfortable with the ball. He just looked like he fitted in and slotted in so seamlessly. It was just lost De Bruyne. Not that they've got another De Bruyne, but they've got someone who can impact his team. And he looked super comfortable. And Cherky, I think, could be one of the buyers of the season at the price they got him, how cheap he was.

40:14Just for pure being like a throwback maverick type player, we've seen what he's done in France. Can he transfer that to the Premier League? That's the big question with him. But there's no doubt in my mind that in terms of skill set and unpredictability and pure cheekiness, he's going to be definitely one to watch that you go, actually, I don't mind turning the TV on, even though it is Man City, just to see if he's producing any moment. Because he's got that much imagination and that much kind of audacity. He could embarrass many, many defenders this year. And City, you look at the players that weren't playing the other day, and they still smashed Wolves by a four.

40:58you had Rodri and Foden in the stands, just to name two. Akanji, another one. Do you know what I mean? Aki, Vardiel. There's a lot of players not playing still in that team. I think I've missed a couple even more still, but they got depth in that squad and they're going to be in the shake-up, no doubts. I have to say something that interests me. You mentioned Cherki. First of all, he could end up being better value for money than Wurz. That's one shot that I've got, even though he's only bought for 31.5 million pounds. But I do think he's an interesting one because he's not a Pep Guardiola type of player.

41:35Now, usually when you see him playing, running back is not his best attribute. And we all know playing for a Pep Guardiola side, you need to be able to run back or you will be made an example of. Do you think he's going to humble himself, Rio, in this team? Or do you reckon he's going to carry on being the maverick that he is? Unless you're Messi, you don't cheat in his team. Simple as that. it's been proven when he went to Bayern there's no cheaters and they got world class players all over the gaff Barcelona had world class players the only one allowed to to half step and take a little breather was Messi because he knew what he was about he's the best one of the best if not the best players of all time so Cherky I think I don't think you look at it like that I think you look at it like well what did he get out of someone like Mahrez who was a mercurial talent a crazy talent can he get anything like the output that he was producing you know is he going to be disciplined enough?

42:26That's the big question for me. Will he be disciplined enough to play in a position where it's more beneficial for the team than the individual himself? And that's what Jack Grealish ended up doing, but he's been vilified for that in his country. Jack Grealish was never the Aston Villa Grealish at Man City, but the Giza won trophies. And I would go as far as to say that if you spoke to a lot of the City players, were they appreciative of the way that Jack Grealish played for Man City? Did he help them get over the line to win the trophies they did when he was there? They'd say that he played a big role in that.

43:01So it might not be the Grealish that we wanted to see, but it's the Grealish that Pep Guardiola and the squad needed to win the trophies that they did. And if they can get that out of Turkey, us people that want to see Mavericks might be disappointed and go, what's going on? Throw our toys out of the pram. but if he's winning trophies and Pep's getting what he wants out of him and that means dumbing down the way that he plays a little bit then if it works for City then so be it Clearly not the Grealish that Pep wanted to see enough of otherwise he wouldn't be on loan to Everton at the moment You could say that but what I mean is that he was still playing and when they won the treble they were still playing it Yeah that was a really good season obviously the most important season and that was his best season I was actually looking at his stats the other day and I like obviously I liked him at Villa and I think even for England in the cameos he was having in Euros 2020 I thought incredible but it just hasn't worked out and we can put our hands up and say he hasn't been in his best form hopefully he can do well for Everton and get the freedom Can I just go on that point with Grealish though because a lot of people do say this year and a lot of people that say this like you just said you started the best sentence with I've looked at his stats stats aren't the telling thing for every single player it's not like we're becoming we're not the NFL or the NBA where stats are just the absolutes to what defines a player I think that with Jack Grealish and I think there's certain players and I'm not trying to make excuses for him all I'm saying is that I think when you speak to City players why do you like Jack Grealish and your team and I think I can give you quite a few points as to why they like him and his team Harland 100 % would like him and his team because one Grealish brings two or three players to him most of the time because they know what he's capable of.

44:52He holds onto the ball longer than most players. He's one of the only players allowed to do that in the City team. Why? Because he drags players over to him which will enable there to be spaced somewhere else which City, other players can exploit. Sometimes there's a reason why players are on the team and it's not necessarily for stats. There's other reasons why they're there. So why isn't Pep kept in then if he's so good? Because I don't think it's just about necessarily just football. I think there's other reasons to it. Yeah, he may not be playing as well as he has before prior to this, but he's had a few injuries as well and maybe the manager wants to freshen it up.

45:30He's been there, he's done it, he's won things. Maybe he thinks that Jacques needs a new adventure, a new chapter to freshen himself up. Maybe the squad needs a few new players and Jacques doesn't fit that script anymore. But I think he had a purpose as to why he was there and what he'd done. And he wasn't just about scoring goals and making assists. In the words of Stephen Howson, no further questions, Your Honor.

45:56Anyway. I just want someone to defend me as hard as Rio defends Jack. Yes. You never defended that hard for United, Rio. But you know what? At the same time, I've said all I've said there, yeah? And I still think Jack Grealish will sit back when he's finished playing his career and I've said this loads of times and go my best football weren't at City but I won everything so I can't be too despondent about that and I think the enjoyment factor wasn't there like he had at Villa the ability to be free and play with a freeness wasn't there I hope he gets that back now at Everton but there was a means to why he was doing what he was doing you have to say there's a certain amount of like humility and and actual like you know what he sacrificed a lot of what he loved about the game for the betterment of a team.

46:46Can we not respect that? It's hard to do that, you know. Anyway, guys, I want to say thank you very much for watching Rio Ferdinand Presents Channel. This weekend, there's been content firing out. If you haven't seen the live from yesterday, you get the real raw emotions. Obviously, we've had interviews coming out. We've got more interviews coming out soon, right, Rio? Do you have any names for us? Yeah, man. Yeah, we've got one with Wayne Rooney dropping soon. we've got one with Michael Owen the Michael Owen one both of them are bangers I've got to say you see both of these guys in different lights especially Michael Owen who I know Michael from as a kid and he's a funny guy a lot of confidence and when you see him on Rio meets you would never have seen a more confident Michael Owen and there's a good reason for that as well I might skip that one unless I'm tired unless I need an early night no no Steve Steve you're going to like this one you're going to like This one's for people like you, who don't know Michael and have no belief in Sirius.

47:47He said I might say that. Anyway, for everybody watching, please don't forget to subscribe, turn off your notifications. We are back. The boys are back in town. Boys are back in town. Joe Baer, Stephen Housen, Rio Ferdinand, back for a big season on Rio Ferdinand Presents. Signing out. Peace.

48:12Thank you.

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