What Went Wrong for Man Utd and How to Fix it? Rio Ferdinand’s Hull Verdict

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1:22Michael Carrick, if you want that from somebody, Michael Carrick's not your guy. He's never going to be too high. We were winning last season, the most winning manager last season in the time that he was at the club, right? You wouldn't know it when you look at him talking in an interview. And you won't know it if he's the most angriest man in an interview and we've lost six on the bounce. What are you saying? He's such a calm and balanced guy.

1:48Welcome to this episode of Rio Presents. We are back, guys. Joining me, I've got Joel, I've got Steve. The band are back together after the summer. What a summer we had in LA, by the way, guys. What a summer. We are back. The Premier League is here. But today, listen, today, it's a rough one. It's tough. We're going to review the main night of performance. Then we're going to look at tactics, look at the players involved, see how Michael Carrick maybe could have done things a bit different maybe, or how his squad's evolving. And obviously, we're going to have to review Arsenal and their impressive start.

2:21But, Joe, do you want to kick us off? I know you're sitting there drinking your champagne. Yeah, bro. Honestly, it's been a great weekend of football. Probably the best opening Premier League that I've had in a very, very long time. But I do want to keep it on the Man United topic. There's two quotes that really stuck out to me and I want to see which one you agree with more. This is by Carrick, the first one. We haven't lost many games in six to seven months. So I get it. We've lost today and there's questions to be asked, but it doesn't mean everything's wrong. Now, when you look at Bruno Fernandes' quote now, he says, same mistakes as we did last season in every away game.

2:59We give too much of the ball to them. We need to press a little bit more, be more aggressive. Now, for me, the question is, are you more with Bruno or character assessment, Rio, when you look at the quotes made? I think Bruno's was more of an emotional comment after the game I thought they tried to press at times but it just wasn't right and I think when Hull had the ball if they switched it at any point it was a 1v1 in wide areas and it's lucky that it was Hull that day and not somebody else because it could have been even more I just think that the fundamentals of football there's a few things that you can't you can't bypass if you're going to win games if you don't defend crosses you lose football matches simple as that and we had two balls in the box didn't win the first challenge and obviously the ball ended up in the back of the net and I thought again, if you're looking shaky in them situations then you can't win games you go away I always say this to you guys it's hard to put it into words but after looking for Liverpool-Man City games the first teams I looked for at Manchester United were the promoted teams and if we're going to be playing them in the first 10 to 12 games away.

4:14Really? Because I didn't want that. I did not want that because the place is lit up. The place is, they haven't had too many bruises by that point. They're still riding on adulation and riding off promotion and we're in the Premier League and the place is like going bananas. The atmosphere is crazy. And they're not deflated. They're not a deflated bunch yet. So I always find them games very difficult because you go into them stadiums, it's a hot atmosphere. they're all up for it and their team are running around with four or five lungs each and it looked like that at the weekend and that's not an excuse for Manchester United players because you've got to be able to combat that but against the teams in probably like the bottom five or six last year we didn't win a game last season we played eight matches against teams who were in the bottom five at that time we didn't win one match we drew six of those games and lost two I'm seeing it.

5:09I'm more alarmed that we're not working this out. And we're not sitting there. That should have been a team talk. Look at this. We need to change this, guys. Going into this game, look at us. Against these type of teams, we've been terrible. We need to fix it. And the first thing you have to do in those moments, in those games against teams like that, is you've got to match them physically. You've got to be able to run as hard as them, if not more. Every challenge and duel, you've got to be competing massively. And again, defend crosses into your box. We couldn't do that. Rio, before Steve gets into it, does that new promotion bounce explain why Hull's players looked fitter and faster across the whole ground?

5:46That's where the Man United players have to take pride in. Before anything, passing, creativity, etc. Get against people and match them physically, especially at this stage. You have to. You can't go to them places and think you're just going to pass them off the pitch. You've got to go there. You've got to first, you've got to win that battle physically against those guys. Have you got the same desire? How are you going to win your individual duels? And in the game, the stats are telling me the individual duels. They probably come out on top just. But again, the alarming thing for me is this isn't a surprise when you look at the stats and the data that we've played against teams that are in the lower part of the league, especially the bottom five.

6:24Last season, like I said, I'll reiterate, we drew six out of eight and lost two. We didn't win one against a team in the bottom five. Steve are you worried about playing against sides that defend in a low block yeah you gotta be the stats show you that we're not good at breaking them down Rio was texting me through the game on Saturday and he was saying we're a counter-attacking team and maybe we are and maybe that lies to our strengths I think one of our best chances that we had on Saturday was when I think it might have been Kuno plays Mbumo through and he goes through with a goalkeeper just about gets a shot off but it's at the keeper and you're thinking that was one of our better chances in the game and it came from Hull having a rare high line when Hull was sitting in that back five all he did was force us wide and it was good from their point of view they defended the middle of the pitch really well they forced us into wide areas and when we got to those wide areas it didn't seem like United had the combinations like the half space runs the underlaps or the ingenuity to be able to to break them down from there so what we did was put 34 crosses into the box when we had no striker on the pitch like one of the best crosses like the best shape the best area the best delivery was Cunha but he's meant to be playing it to Cunha so like what are we doing you know we're putting crosses into areas where there's nobody in there and like putting crosses into like you know set plays was always going to be a drama I thought McBurney was going to be the drama and he got his head on a couple of things but he didn't even score one of the goals.

7:53We just got completely undone by set plays and at the other end, we're trying to play their game against them, which is not going to work. We should be using like, we've got some brilliant technical players. We can go up, back and through on one touch and we should have absolutely carved them open doing that. Steve, you know what? This game cried out for Ahmad. Someone with a little bit of guile. We didn't show any guile. I watched City yesterday. What opens up that game? a bit of guile Shirky comes on across from a set piece but the winner is a little bit of skill a little bit of guile there's a bit of a genius that comes out of it Ahmad has that type of little bit of like where you go I didn't see that coming I didn't expect that Run at someone commit someone make them foul you if they have to Yeah On the original question Joel where you said do you lean more towards Karik or Bruno they both make good points but they're both so they're both right but they're also both wrong at the same time because you can't just dismiss that.

8:53We haven't lost loads, so this one's sound because that's not good enough in any way, shape or form. And Bruno saying we allowed them to have too much of the ball. They're 20-some percent of possession. Don't talk nonsense, right? We had far more than enough of the ball to be able to do something. We just didn't do anything with it. And I personally thought the midfield balance was okay. Like, yeah, I agree that maybe energetically they were more up for it, but I thought the midfield balance and the control of the game was okay. I thought we just broke down when we got to the final third. I just don't think there was enough one touch.

9:22I don't think there was enough risk. I don't think there was enough people trying to commit players. I don't think we shot from good areas. We just got it into those wide areas, like 10 metres from the byline. I was like, cool, cross it. And weirdly, because I don't want him at the club, I actually thought Marcus Rashford was the most likely to go and get us a goal on Saturday. The mad thing is, I keep seeing people talking about the midfield. That wasn't a game where the midfield is going to win you the game either, by the way. That's where your forwards are going to win. Your wide players are going to win it.

9:49your creative players in those areas of flair are going to win you that game, right? I don't think we allow too many... I'm looking at it and going, oh my God, there's massive gaps in midfield. The transitions were getting hammered. Like Liverpool yesterday, I looked at it on the first goal. The transition, there's massive holes in that midfield. I don't see anyone going, oh, the midfield looks very open. Like, you look at even City, it happened to a few times. I'm looking at their midfields and going, wow, there's big gaps in their midfields. I didn't look at that and it wasn't glaring to me in that sense.

10:21Santos stopped a lot of that. His positioning was almost Carrick-esque at times. Yeah, I just don't think we had the now sort of creativity in that game to be able to unlock. And I think that was our downfall. And obviously the inability to defend crossings. But I've seen people saying, oh, Carrick, he doesn't look like he's got that edge or that grit about it and he doesn't look too despondent about losing. Michael Carrick, if you want that from somebody, Michael Carrick's not your guy. He's never going to be too high. We were winning last season, the most winning manager last season in the time that he was at the club, right?

10:55You wouldn't know it when you look at him talking in an interview. And you won't know it if he's the most angriest man in an interview and we've lost six on the bounce. He's such a calm and balanced guy. Speaking about midfielders though, Rio, the WhatsApp group, our WhatsApp group was popping off when I saw Fabrizio posted about Beliba Dill being back on. If you can tell us a little bit more about him because personally, I didn't think he had a great season last year. Was it tactical that United didn't want to spend all that money last year and it's part of the reshaping of, nope, they're not going to get bullied in transfers?

11:28Why are you so excited for it being back on? I just think he's different to all the midfielders that we have. I think he's a great addition in terms of blend. In his best season, which wasn't last season, it was the season before, only three defensive midfielders had more progressive carries per 90 of at least 10 metres in length. that's his greatest strength his ability to kind of beat the press and then go bang through gaps is phenomenal and I know that opposing midfielders hate that type of player to play against his mobility is right up there he'll be in the top 10 in terms of fastest among central midfielders and if you compare that to Casemiro who's 92nd out of 109 in terms of that ability to be able to move so it's a massive difference in that sense but he's got a lot to learn he's not the finished article by the way And I don't think anyone in the recruitment or Michael Carrick or his staff will be sitting there going, we've bought the end product here.

12:23There's a lot to work on there. And if you're looking at just raw materials to work with, he has some great, great bits that you go, I'd love to work on that and improve that. If I can get improvement at 10 % in each area of this kid, at least he's going to be a phenomenal player. But again, you've got to get him working. You've got to get him tactically aware, tactically to understand things, understanding big distances. And again, if there are big distances in this team to cover in transitions, you wouldn't mind him being in about it because he'll get around people in that sense. Steve, you agree?

12:55His season last season wasn't as bad as people were making it out to be. Data-wise, he was still in the top five and ten of a lot of really important metrics. So he kept getting brought in and out of the team, but he was still putting in decent numbers. What I would also say is what United now have got, we did this last season with the attack and we've basically just done it this season with midfield. We've just focused on one area and we've completely overhauled it. And for like, what is it? 150, 160 million spent, something like that. 150 million spent. We've just bought three Premier League.

13:26I'm not going to say proven because I don't think Santos is proven. He's a Premier League experience, but not proven. But Tillman is and Balaber is. So we've just spent 150 mil. We've got three midfielders. Add that to the midfielders that we've already got. We've got now good depth, but also mad tactical flexibility. like I don't think Balaba changes the Saturday result against Hull like that wasn't the game where he was going to make a massive difference but you have Champions League games you go away to Anfield you go away to City you go away to ULOT like that's the sort of game where Balaba's going to shine I think where he's got other players that are going to run at him and people are going to try and put us under pressure and have the ball a little bit more than us that's where Balaba is going to shine and I think it's going to be really interesting to see which combinations Carrick shows because if I could pick a weakness in Carrick from last year it was very samey same in terms of the starting XI there's not a chance he can go samey same week in week out now like the same the same answer is not going to be the same question every single time so like really fascinating what we do at home against Ipswich to what we do away at Anfield to what we do against you lot to what we do in the Champions League it's going to be absolutely fascinating to see what he does with the options that he's got I just wish we'd go and get a striker because I thought that was our letdown on Saturday we haven't got Sesco fit you know Watkins is itching for a move we were talking about that a second ago and we've not spoken about it have we because we've not done a podcast but I would have cried man tears out of my face if we'd have signed Danny Welbeck over the summer like that would have been such a perfect signing for us but you know if we can get someone that can look you can have players that can play up front people are saying put Marcus Rashford there yeah cool he'll run in behind but Mbumo can do that I want someone that can hold the ball up and bring some others in and challenge at the top and get us out of pressure when we need to that's what we were lacking on Saturday I think the importance of Sesko is huge, especially if you go somewhere like that and your game plan is to put crosses in the box.

15:18You need him in the team because he attacks balls. I'm interested to see how he does this season in that sense. I actually think Mbuma up front in a number nine position as the backup one is the one I would probably go for more often than not, especially away from home. But again, Rashford's a great option when he comes off. He looks sharp. He could be valuable in them positions, especially again in the games where you feel you're not going to have as much possession maybe because of the pacing behind but i think there's a good mix there but sesgo is the one again if you're going to play them games where it's going to be hustle bustle and you're going to need people to challenge them and win duels and stuff like that it's going to be made into a more of a fight you need sesgo you need sesgo fit right man we've got loads still to come right on this pod but we'll be back shortly after this the big question is does the budget stretch now to go in and get in an Ollie Watkins or somebody like that.

16:09And I agree with Steve. If Danny Wilbert was on the market, like he obviously was, on a free transfer, he should have been one we should have gone for because he's one happy to be on the bench at this stage of his career but can still have an important role to play. Again, let's not get carried away, by the way, guys. It's the first day of the season. It's not a sprint. It's a marathon. I saw a tweet from David De Gea. It's a marathon, not a sprint, guys. So no league title or relegation was decided today on the first day of the season. Yeah. You know what I mean? But it tells us, yeah, but it kind of gives the vibes though.

16:42Do you know what I mean? Look at where we sign. It gives the vibe. Yeah. It gives the vibe. I mean, can we get to one o 'clock on Saturday afternoon before all of the pre-season optimisms get away? Not me. Goodness gracious. I agree. I agree. Listen, I'm not sitting here saying I'm not disappointed. It ruined my bloody weekend. Like you say, before even bloody two, three o 'clock in the afternoon, it killed it. Hilarious. But, It ain't anything to start throwing your toys out of the promo bout. It's just like, again, we've got Ipswich at home next game. It could all be rosy again. Or it could go left again, mate.

17:15But you see, Harry Maguire, right, Rio, besides the fact that he dragged Maserati, his own player, he was holding him, hair-couled, bear-hugging him, would you say he was a positive from the match? Because it's easy to isolate that moment. But overall, what would you say about his performance? Yeah, outside of that moment was becoming a bit of a meme. he was at times he looked like the most in terms of creativity the one we was looking to to cross the ball he probably crossed as many balls as anybody else in the game like he was on the ball getting up the pitch trying to get on the end of things etc but yeah it kind of overshadowed that performance with the what he'd done at the set piece didn't it no it did I'd love to know what he was thinking doing that but yeah I agree he had a really good game he was strong in possession I think he won all of his duels or at least all of his aerial duels anyway yeah I thought he had a really, really solid game, but he loses a point for, like, Maz Rowe looked like he was about to at least go and challenge for the ball before it gets smashed into the roof of the net.

18:12And he's gone, Rio, please text him and be like, just explain, please. Oh my God. Bro, I thought it was AI. I couldn't believe what was going on. I was like, surely that's AI. But anyway, listen, before we move on to my team, because I'm itching to get onto that topic, something that really touched me was the Oli Watkins situation. Now, we understand that the relationship between himself and Unai Emery isn't in the best place at the moment. Rio, as a player, someone who's been on the playing end, do you have sympathy for Watkins and what he's going through at the moment? No, I'm just realistic about it.

18:49Listen, it's a short career. He's at a lot of stages of his career coming up now. And if they're saying, I don't know, he's going to go to Saudi and there's going to be life-changing generational money put in front of him, who are we to say no don't go he's looking after himself and his family do you know i mean it might not suit aston villa now and they've had their guts pulled out in this transfer window with all the players that they've had let go in this window but this is a two-way street and you look over the other side at your place i saw righty talking about martinelli the other day and he feels that the club aren't treating him right and the club should be this that and the other better towards him and he's been frozen out.

19:26This is a two-way street. So when I see people criticising Oli Watkins, the clubs do this as well, right? I don't know the details at Arsenal, so I can't comment on that. But there's been many a club in history that have frozen a player out after he's been there seven, eight, nine years, treated him like rubbish, just said, right, get on the scrap heap. You can go with surplus requirements now. We're done, right? I'm just like, put him on a scrap heap. and the player walks out, towel between his legs. No one says nothing. But the moment a player makes a stand and goes, no, I'm going to look after myself.

20:00Just like you clubs, look after yourself when the time comes. I'm the bad guy. I don't agree with it. Right? Because, and again, the word loyalty in this game is thrown about too often. Do you know what I mean? Because when it suits the clubs, they're not loyal. And when it suits the players, they're not loyal. So just let it be. I want to move it on though to the champions. Back to back champions this year coming. Joel, before we start, can I just say you see all these newly promoted managers, they come up and they try and make it difficult props to Frank Lampard for not trying to do that because too many managers come up and just try and park the bus and he went, nah we're not going to do that we'll just open it wide up bend over and let Arsala out there, wear with us Friday night, you know what I mean?

20:43I like that, I respect that Rio, does Frank Lampard ever watch what Steve says because if we did a compilation on Steve's comments on Frank Lampard, right? I think that's why he's not been on, Joel. Oh, okay. Makes sense because you guys grew up together. I'm thinking, what is he? Him and Ashley Young. Him and Ashley Young haven't come on. Coincidence. Coincidence. My goodness. Unbelievable. Anyway, Rio, like, you've got to talk to us, man. Our title-winning defence. What did you make of our start? It was typical Arsenal. What I expected. solid, hard to play against shut down the opposition at times and then fed on some mistakes and punished them you played like champions I was impressed, I thought again, the new sign on the left wing would look really, really impressive he looked the same in the charity shield as well or community shield, good acquisition 100 % but I don't see anybody being able to challenge you guys this season because you're the only team with stability Everybody has lost a manager, or Man City have lost the most important player in football in Rodri and a manager.

21:53So I don't see them challenging you guys or being close, as close as they've been in recent years. Liverpool, a new manager again, so we're uncertain. Chelsea, new manager. Man Utd is still in the transition and rebuild under a fairly new manager. The experience that he has, Mikel Arteta, compared to all the others, is like night and day. I think he's six and a half, seven years in. Most people are not even in there for like 200th day, let alone years in this league. So he's dwarfed in terms of experience and he's now won. He knows how to win. Steve, I know you don't like the Arsenal fans a lot.

22:32You're not a big fan, but talk to me about what you actually, is there a player that's impressed you so far? I know it's only been one game of the season, but if you used to take the calendar year, for example, or a player that you reckon he's going to drive, man? It might be a new styling. It might be Solis. It might be... Talk to me about anyone that's impressing you so far. It certainly goes on Solis. But he was someone I did a scout report on at the back end of last season because, you know, obviously United were looking at left wingers. He was one that had clocked, was a decent signing. So I think you got him at a really good price.

23:02I think he's a good player. Bruno Gomaris is going to be a very interesting one because I think he was a blast for Newcastle. Real leader. And that, a bit like United, you've now got a lot of options in midfield. So, you know, you went very close in the Champions League last year. I'm so glad that you didn't go the whole way. But that could be the difference is having one more leader, one more bit of depth, because I think if anything's going to trip you up, and I hope it does, I think it's just the sheer number of games that some of your main players have played. I think the likes of Saka, the likes of Rice, the defence.

23:39I think they've played so many games. Rice at the World Cup looked completely finished He looked like he was out on his feet And I was hoping Coming into the season that that would kind of continue But the fact that you've Got options in midfield You've got options in midfield I think that If he gets spelled properly like Rio can probably tell us a little bit more Fergie used to send some key players off to go and get A week's holiday and stuff at times didn't he It wasn't frequent but like The occasional player would get a little jib off Did you ever get that Rio? I don't remember you ever getting that No, I never got it.

24:13I don't know why. I don't think he'd give defenders that type of... He's just a creative player. He needed that headspace to be freed up a little bit, probably. But, yeah, no, we didn't get that. But he was... I suppose the deck in the summer, he's had a nice time off. He's rebooted, man. He's ready to go again. He seems... When you're winning, man, you're not as tired. I mean, you lot have won a league. There's more stuff. And you can taste more to come with his team. Especially, like I said, when you're looking at other teams and the instability of all the other teams. there's more to win here for Arsenal.

24:44There's only, I think, three managers that have won back-to-back titles, Mourinho, Pep and Solis Ferguson in the Premier League. I think Michael Arteta is going to join that club. So it's an illustrious amount of names. But quickly before we move on, obviously we heard Wright speak yesterday or the day before about Arsenal and Martinelli and that situation. Just want to get a fan's perspective, Joe. Where are you on that situation? Somebody who's been at the club a long time, been a good servant, loyal guy, never been a days trouble for you guys, part of now the winning title team. What's your views?

25:17I think right, he is right in terms of, and yourself, there is an etiquette of how you deal with things. I think Martinelli, he's been there through, you know, the storm. I'm not going to lie, he's not always been the best, you know, but he has scored important goals for us. He's been there in the moment for you to win the league all of a sudden. And then I don't know how true it is whether someone's talking to him or not, or they're not talking to him or what the situation is. But it was sad to see him when we were celebrating the Community Shield and he wasn't part of the team. Like, out of all players, come on.

25:48Like, let's be real. He should be there. In terms of ability and on the pitch, can we do better? Yes, we can. I wouldn't mind him staying, coming on as a sub. Solis starting. He seems to have more qualities. You know, if I'm to be honest with you, Solis seems to have more quality than even Meduake on the right-hand side. I think we should always aim to push and improve. but there is a way at which we do things. And I think that the majority of the Arsenal fans will agree. I don't think there's going to be anybody disagreeing on that end. I was going to ask in terms of, we've spoken a lot about, you know, transfers and player loyalty.

26:22We have a lot of players at the moment are debt freer. You know, like Steve's just said the amount of games that we've played, he's hoping that's going to trip us up. But I don't think we're in danger of that because we've just signed Consa. You know, we've got players to come back, like Saliba. like we've got players that we ain't been playing like Zubimendi like we've got a lot of options yeah I think that's the scary thing for everybody else and for Europe as well I think it puts you in a great position I don't see your level dropping much when someone else comes in that's the strength of this squad I think the only one is probably when a fit and fire in Saka comes off the next player like Madiweki or someone comes in their output probably ain't near to him and probably Declan Rice.

27:07But then you've got Bruno Gomercia who's come now, which might soften that blow if Declan was to leave. But other than them two, you've got Brazl who can come. They was to leave. What do you mean? To come off the bench, right? Come off, come off the pitch. Leave the field. Sorry, leave the field. Please, please, please. I mean, but the big difference would be was if you're... But this doesn't normally happen, but if your centre-back pairing were to come out together, then you've got an issue. But I don't think there's a club on the planet that wouldn't have those issues. but Konza's an unbelievable signing at the price you got him.

27:38A phenomenal signing. Sound, steady, durable, reliable, no fuss. Going to be an amazing signing for you guys. And I think this is going to be a time of dominance for Arsenal, I've got to say. Yeah, I agree. I want to ask as well, when it comes to Gary Neville, he had some comments about Wurz and Isak. Bloody hell, we've been kind to them. They're going to have to start playing sooner or later Or else they're going to get a lot of criticism. For a start, they're too nice. If you're going to be nice, you better be incredible at football. Do you both agree with this, Rio Stee, with those comments?

28:21Issac's a bit harsh, I think. He's been injured. He's had a big spell out of the team. So I think he's one probably a bit harsh. Although for the price that he comes for, that just comes with the territory. but Wurt hasn't looked like a player that I saw in Germany when I watched the clips of him and watched games of him playing in Germany you're going like whoa Liverpool signed a proper Coutinho like player in terms of impact that he could have but he's looked everything but that I mean I was texting my mates who are Liverpool fans in a WhatsApp group that I got yesterday it said exactly that so it's funny you've said it today these two have got a big season they need to start performing the price tags and the expectations that they've got on their shoulders they can't afford another season at the level that they came and played last season because it won't be good enough won't be accepted at Liverpool or as Steve said it might be because the pressure is different there compared to someone like May United Yeah, you can't look at Paul Pogba getting four assists in a game and Graeme Suna shrugging his shoulders and saying it's all I expect from a player that's worth that much well you've got two there worth well in excess of£100 million and they've not put up the numbers yes I agree Isak's been injured and Virts hasn't been as bad as he's been made out to be but I'm going to just pour it on because it's funny and I think when Virts was in Germany I thought he was Kevin De Bruyne reborn honestly he was so good and the shapes and the positions he was taking up the vision, the little touches honestly thought that someone's cloned Kevin De Bruyne and put him in a different body because he was so good he's been better than he's been reported as but he's not been what they paid for him.

30:01I think that's fair. But I agree. Well, Neville can say that people have been too nice to him. He's been too nice to him. He's always too nice to Liverpool. He's always too nice to every single opposition club. And if he treated all the opposition clubs the way he treats Manchester United when he talks about Manchester United, he might have a point. But he doesn't. Maybe his standards are different though because he's played for the club. Maybe it hurts him a little bit more. maybe the standards and expectations are different i keep seeing people talk about man united and keep saying oh standards this isn't man united and it's there's got to be an inquest because man united standards are far beyond this it's a complete load of rubbish that was man united 12 15 years ago 20 years ago man united standards have dropped we're still a massive club we're still a huge club it when you look at us you can see that around the world the global the global interest right but in terms of standards and where we're at and what expectations the level has dropped so people when you're judging us stop judging us and comparing us to yesteryear teams that have gone on before i disagree what do you mean you disagree because for 22 years you guys were judging arsehole to the same invincible standards and on top of that if you were coaching today and you had a team full of youth players or even first team you won't be able to help but compare them or at least tap the badge and say this is man united what does that mean that means that the standards should be higher than what they've been showing and i think that's the issue as well i feel like because it's it's like players have accepted that the standards have dropped i think that's where it started i think if for example it's true you're chatting shit no i'm not real i'm telling you god it's okay yeah it's okay to say where this where that we were that we were this is the badge, yeah?

31:48Right? But you have to have realistic expectations. You have to have realistic kind of setting your stool out in a realistic manner. Let's not be stupid and try and go, okay, Man United standard 20 years ago was winning the league every year. Are we to sit here and to pretend that Man United should be going for the Premier League title today? Is that what you're saying? I believe it's the way that you approach the situation. I think the standards dropped so much that you needed all these... What were the managers saying that were coming in? The managers are saying the same thing. Players are not running enough.

32:18The standards have been poor. When you look at the way people were going around in the changing rooms, the standards had dropped. That's not Man United. Yes, you're not going to be winning the league every single year. Liverpool don't win the league every single year. But when I compare their standards versus what your standards are like, I can say they're completely different. Because we're winning titles, mate. When you're winning, that's fine. That's it. You don't sit there and try and pretend that we didn't have off days where we weren't as good as we should be. I didn't say that. Or sometimes it pointed at us that that other team outworked us that day.

32:52It happens in football, yeah? But my point is, Man United's expectations as a football club are very different. The landscape is very different. So we can't keep judging Man United's team right now to the standards of yesteryear. Judge them to where they are over the last three or four years. Is there an improvement last season from the last two years before that, prior? Yes, there was. right but it's not an improvement to suggest that oh we should be sitting there and going we should be winning the league and blitzing every team in front of us obviously we all want that but you've got to be realistic at times as well and realize where you are at this moment in time we're not sitting here we can't compete with teams to go and buy players that are 130 million pounds or the best players on the planet so there's building blocks have got to be put in place to get there at some point yes we want to get there but we're not there yet all right steve you look like a Muppet.

33:42It's Rio saying that. That's why it's a journey with what Joel's talking. That's all I wanted to just fit in. Yeah, like a plum. You're boring me, Joel. I'm going swimming. I need your predictions quickly before you go back to snorkelling. Steve, Rio, where are Manchester United finishing this season? Top four. I'd be happy with top four. This is what I mean. I would be happy with top four. Give me a position, Rio. What's going on? Joe, this is the problem with you Arsenal fans. You're deluded. You've won the league this year. Well done. But for every year before that, when you were shit, you were going, we should win the league.

34:19We should win the league. Oh, my God. Standards, Rio. Standards. Stupid. That's what it was. Standards. Do you know what I mean? No, you're an idiot. You're idiots. But tell me, top four. Where in top four? What's all this on-defense business? Where? Mate, Man United. I'd be happy for us to finish top four. Consolidate on a season what we had last year. year and if we can win this trophy as well alongside that happy anyway guys success success makes people lose their memory sometimes and that's just what joel's done joel's forget they've forgotten the dark years totally he's forgotten the dark years where they were they were a banter club uh i'm looking at a treble this year boys listen i want to say thank you very much for everybody watching we are back the boys are back in town that's right man big interviews uh coming out we've already had the tillemans interview and the chicharito interview you so far on Rio Meats.

35:10Rio, quality interview. I like the Tillemans ones, especially for me, because I didn't really know him as a character, and I thought that you were able to draw out good personality from him as well. Talking about Tillemans, what did you think, Rio, of that clip that went viral, about when he spoke about fitness and, you know, not needing to run too much or not needing to do too much fitness training, shall I say? Yeah, yeah, I've seen that clip. It's gone everywhere. I mean, obviously, because, especially after the first game of the season, but I think it was taken out of context. I asked him about how much running and stuff he's doing he's said not not too much he's still fit they haven't had much time off from the world cup and i went and watched a training session in dublin and they're listen they're moving mate they're running but with the ball and that's the difference football players don't like running without the football if you ask all the players and you set a session up where they're running with the ball they're happy the moment you're and that's what i got from that and that's why i thought he was like yeah here we ain't doing much running like because it ain't just like athletic running without the ball where it's a stopwatch and him it's ball retention ball running, pressing, etc.

36:08Transitions, all with the ball. And that builds massive match fitness. So I don't have any question marks about the fitness of the players, not at all. Also, special message, by the way. Jed Spence, right, sent us a message. He said this, Rio. He said, obviously, congratulated him for moving to Inter, etc. He said, next time, he wants to be sitting on Rio Meets, not Rio Presents, directly from him. So, yeah. And the fact that he knew, what I loved is, he knows the different formats I was just like I was like rah so you know what I told him I said to him make sure you bring them shades again bring your shades and you can come on we'll get you on say no more say no more Rio presents Joel, Rio, Stee we are back signing out peace

37:05you