Tottenham's Tactical Reality Check: Squad Building, Box Presence & The Vušković Decision (feat. Harry Brooks)

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0:34Jack:Thanks for the support, and now, on with the show. Before the season even kicks off, soccer fans are already making predictions. Who wins the league? Who qualifies for Europe? And who's lifting the trophy at season's end? On Calci, America's number one prediction market platform, you're trading against peers in a live market, meaning there's no house. And as the probability changes, you can buy in and out of your position. For a limited time, download the CalShea app and use code CUP26 to get$10 when you trade 10. K-A-L-S-H-I, CalShea. Trade the beautiful game. 18 plus only restrictions and eligibility requirements apply.

1:07Jack:Event contract trading involves risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices, values, and available markets may differ from those mentioned. For more information, see calshea.com slash regulatory. Before this, there's this. As you celebrate the game, take a deeper look at its roots. The people grow in the grass, paving the lots, welding the goalposts, inspecting every football. The hardworking people that make every Sunday possible. Carhartt is proud to outfit the crews behind the game. Visit carhartt.com slash join the trades to learn more. This Friday, return to theaters for Avengers Endgame Encore.

1:51Jack:I know I said no more surprises, but I was really hoping to pull off one last one. Reassemble the team. Six stones. Three teams. One shot. Relive the experience. You mess with time, time tends to mess back. The story continues. Tony, this is a second chance. Don't miss Marvel Studios Avengers Endgame Encore. Early theaters Friday. Get tickets now. Rated PG-13. Maybe inappropriate for children at 13.

2:38Jack:Hello everybody, welcome back to Rule the Roost podcast. Bottom of the league. What a way to make your Rule the Roost debut, Mr Harry Brooks. Welcome to the show, thank you for joining me mate. I mean, is it a silly question to ask how you're getting on? I'm all right, mate. I'm good. Yeah, I'm sure we would have preferred it to be in better circumstances. But it's a long, old season. It's a long, old season. So let's see. Yeah, but thanks for having me on, mate. Obviously a big fan of what you do. So no, I'm looking forward to it. Cheers. Well, look, you know, I'll let people know, I've obviously seen you speak to Flav quite a lot down the years.

3:13Jack:I've seen you on James Alcott's pod. So I thought, you know, I'll get you into the Royal The Roots company. Neil, I saw you talking on Twitter yesterday saying that, you know, you're not, what is it, you're sort of like a bit of a persona non grata you felt like this season because people think you're a bit negative or something about everything that's going on at Spurs. I mean, what is it that you feel that you're not happy with, I guess? Because I'll say I've been getting quite a lot of stick this season already for being called negative and I feel like I'm just simply highlighting that Spurs not scoring goals or winning games is not great.

3:48Yeah, I get it. And listen, fans want to be excited. And they've had, you know, two years of 17th, 17th. I know there was the European Cup win in that, but 17th, 17th. And all of a sudden, they're spending money like they never have done before, which is what people have been wanting for so many, so many years. You know, money's been spent on players with big reputations. There's that whole Premier League proven thing that, you know, fans get excited about as well. And so I get it. I get they want to be excited. but you know it's very difficult because I'm not I don't come from a fan's point of view doing what I do know my job I work in football so I just try to look at things as black and white now I'm very emotional I'm a very emotional person but that doesn't mean that I'm just a happy clapper or a negative Nancy it's just looking at the reality of what I see and if I look at the process of how Spurs have behaved in the past two to three years including the summer just gone I think it's unacceptable and listen of course Spurs fans will hope I end up being wrong and of course it's too early to say and I'm not saying that this is how it's going to continue but if I had to put my money on it I'm not saying that I don't think we'll get relegated but I don't think it becomes perhaps the the journey overall that fans want and we could go into loads of reasons as to why I think that is um but I just think that you know if you just try to look at I know football's a a mad business and it's not the same as something else but if you just looked at if is it black and white and you looked at the behaviors of how they've run as a business and you any other any other business in the world that done that people go like you're mental what are you doing this isn't how you run a successful business in terms of performance but there's so many things that go into that and i'm just i'm just talking in reality and because people are excited and also it's twittering online everybody's going to hate you for something so it is what it is but no but i do I do get it.

5:38Listen, I have sympathy for the fans because, you know, Spurs is probably the biggest club that's underperformed so much for what it should be for years and fans are rightfully sick of it. You know, how much seasons it gets cost and they all go into it all day long. So I get why they just want to be positive and obviously it hasn't really been the start of the season for them to enjoy.

5:56Jack:I mean, that's it, isn't it? People want that escape and sometimes they just want to think it's going to be all right. It's a coping mechanism, isn't it, sometimes? but I think often people will negate the fact that people are coming at it from different angles for whatever reasons I know people always say like me doing a podcast and stuff you know you just want to like monetize it being miserable you've seen what I've I had that the other day someone said you saw what Arsenal fan tv have done and you kind of want to do that it's like I hate to break it to you but like with my viewership and everything like that I'm not I'm not retiring anytime soon like this is kind of more fun but you know from your perspective you're coming at this like you know if anyone isn't aware obviously harry is a is a professional coach he coaches players who are actively playing in the premier league and stuff right now so i guess when you're talking about this you're not doing it for like salacious clicks you're not doing it to create uh to create a bigger sort of um profile based off the back of like being negative online right it's just i don't perspective to be honest it doesn't benefit me in any way I don't know why I did it so yeah good now go on mate no I just I just I just you know like I do just look at it in terms of what I see and I'm not gonna I'm not gonna be a happy couple for the sake of it but again because I'm not coming at it from a fan's point of view you know and it is you know I'm sure listen it's probably not the right thing to say on the Spurs podcast but I care about my players more than I will ever care about a club you know so put it this way if one of my players is playing against Tottenham one day well then I'm obviously going to try and help them be the best they can be that day and whatever and so on so on but again i do i do get where fans come from you know because they just want to be as you said earlier it's spot on it's an escape and they want to be excited and they should be excited you know because it is a huge club and they were spending money um and if you can't be excited and drink then what's the point of it all so i do get it but that doesn't then mean that i'm going to necessarily change my opinion just because you know they've thrown a lot of money at it do you know what i mean yeah of course you know i I think also, you know, a wide array of opinions is sort of healthy, isn't it?

7:58Jack:I don't know. I think there's different extremes to it, right? But I kind of feel like in some ways we sort of come into this place where, because there is so much bile and unpleasant stuff online, I guess we've sort of all hunkered down into our little tribes, if you like. And when you hear somebody that says something somewhat outside of what it is that you want to accept within your bubble, then maybe people lash out a bit more than they would have done in the past. I don't know. This is probably a whole other podcast into itself, and I'm probably not qualified to be fully talking about this.

8:30Jack:But, I mean, look, let's look at the reality of Spurs right now. We're sat at the bottom of the Premier League, heading into the international break. There's been a lot of talk the past few weeks about Spurs' gradual improvement, yet we're not scoring goals. I mean, we did score two against Villa, I hasten to add, but let's say we've not gone ahead in a game yet. We haven't won a game yet in the Premier League. um we looked a bit better against liverpool at anfield the other night and i think that gave a lot of people a bit of hope um that things are going to click if you like what i put to you though harry and i'd be interested in your perspective on because when i when i look at spurs i don't i agree with a lot of the positive opinions i don't see a terrible football team if i'm brutally honest but my my worry is i see a decent football team that is lacking some of the requisite parts to be a fully functioning football team so this idea that things are going to click suddenly that we're suddenly going to have a number nine that is well suited to this system that is fully fit that is able to score a lot of goals and a backup for that player as well as well as say defensive cover Pedro Poro a few other things right it's it's not about a system clicking that's about Tottenham lacking some key fundamental parts to actually be successful right the makeup of football when people say the game has changed it it's an overstatement of course the game changes the game changes day by day but the crux of it and this sounds like a really silly thing to say but the one of the best people I ever worked with actually was it was the one that helped change Palmeiras Academy and turn them into for me the best powerful academy in the world and on the top of his um thesis he says people have forgotten that the job of football is to score more goals than the opposition, right?

10:18So the crux of what happens actually hasn't changed and it hasn't changed while the ball is still rolling. It's 11 v 11. Most goals are scored inside the box. Most goals, you know, score more goals than the opposition. And it just feels like what I look like, what I look at Tottenham is it looks like they're gearing towards how an academy team might play, where it's like, there's lots of things that may look pretty on the eye and what people may say is attractive, but when it comes to the nuts and bolts of how to win football games, they're lacking in huge key areas and they can't get away with it nowadays by just being better than opposition or by supposedly having better players than clubs because they don't Bournemouth have fantastic players and they're i think don't think they've won a game yet um you know clubs the premier league now all the clubs are rich and where players are being developed quite often the same way across the boards they end up producing similar level of players so there's very few superstars nowadays that can get you out of trouble in comparison to what the rest have years and years ago you know you could almost be a big performing club but almost be a bit i'm not saying you could get it wrong off the pitch but you could almost get away with it because you would just have players that are far better than the other teams that was spurs for a long time right you know we'd

11:30Jack:have a sharing them a berbata for robbie keane whatever that would dig us out of the trenches and we and but football's always been won by the best players that hasn't changed it's not the system that wins football like the the best systems help profile your best players and i think that people have taken we spoke this off there before and i think people have taken pep guardiola's success a bit too literally um but spurs don't have the level of players now that are that much better than the rest of them so they're missing lots of that as you said the sort of nuts and bolts of actually how to win football games um and ignoring actually what does bring success in football across the board without having players are genuinely that much better than what's around them because they're not that much better than what's around them and we've seen this is again like the Premier League tax and how I think actually clubs are going to have to come away from that because the popular one this year was Sangari at Brentford and like you know well why why is he automatically a worse player than a Tonali well he's not well we don't know he could be but he might not be but just because he's there so just because it's Brentford just because it's Tottenham just because it's Premier League just because it's Ligue 1 or whatever doesn't automatically mean that he is automatically better or worse or whatever and i think spurs have perhaps um almost played football manager a little bit uh and it's not quite um yeah it's not geared towards long-term success for me before the season even kicks off soccer fans are already making predictions who wins the league who qualifies for europe and who's lifting the trophy at season's end on calci america's number one prediction market platform you're trading against peers in a live market, meaning there's no house.

13:03Jack:And as the probability changes, you can buy in and out of your position. For a limited time, download the Calci app and use code CUP26 to get$10 when you trade 10. K-A-L-S-H-I, Calci. Trade the beautiful game. 18 plus only restrictions and eligibility requirements apply. Event contract trading involves risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices, values, and available markets may differ from those mentioned. For more information, see calci.com slash regulatory. Before this.

13:32Jack:There's this. As you celebrate the game, take a deeper look at its roots. The people grow in the grass, paving the lots, welding the goalposts, inspecting every football. The hardworking people that make every Sunday possible. Carhartt is proud to outfit the crews behind the game. Visit carhartt.com slash join the trades to learn more. This Friday, return to theaters for Avengers Endgame Encore. I know I said no more surprises, but I was really hoping to pull off one last one. Reassemble the team. Six stones. Three teams. One shot. Relive the experience. You messed with time. Time tends to mess back.

14:16Jack:The story continues. Tony, this is a second chance. Don't miss Marvel Studios' Avengers Endgame Encore. Early theaters Friday. Get tickets now. I mean, one of the things I've sort of heard bandied about, I guess one of the things I've kind of felt when I've tried to look for answers as a fan as to what the hell is going on. You know, we've spent all this money and we look, honestly, at times, like it looks even more hopeless than last year, which is kind of mad to say to a certain degree. But one of the sort of things that's bandied around a lot is this sense that, I guess when you look at, say, some of the players that we have like among the savio players like that these are players that are deemed perhaps not good enough for i mean quite literally for manchester city or for an arsenal or for a liverpool maybe and so the next port of call is i mean james madison's another example right tottnham is the next port of call after those teams if you're not quite at that elite kind of wedge spurs will be quite a good home for you but a lot of people are kind of seeing that as like when you arrive at spurs you've got this lovely big stadium you've got this plush training ground you probably get paid a fat salary you're in london i mean as somebody that works with players do you buy that idea that players would come to a club like spurs and think well i'm never going to be good enough for those top clubs i'm here now i've got my salary and all those other things i can kind of just coast a bit there's no rule to it um and a player players do care right it's very very rare that you find a player that doesn't care about um playing football and playing football to a high level, right?

15:51This is most of their dreams from a young boy and they've grown up to do it and they love him. And even if you just think selfishly, well, the better they do, the more success they have, the more financially prudent they'll, you know, the more financial gain they'll get. So it's too easy to say that they don't care and most players do care, but there's so much that goes into the makeup of what makes a player successful overall. And it's very rare to have a player that has the talent and the stick ability to be relentless in your ability to be good all the time. you know and usually those players go to the top of the game and i think i think you're right spurs are sort of in that weird it's not the middle ground because it's above the middle but they're in that weird element where perhaps the top top level players don't want to go and join them because of where they're at currently but they feel that they're too big to go and get the singaris so they're in that weird element where they feel like perhaps we need to get players that are willing to come but perhaps the other lot won't have but then are there reasons why the other lot won't have them i think every situation you've got to look at in isolation but um yeah spurs are in that weird situation where they probably look at like i said you know imagine put it this way right i'm a huge fan of krupy and um i don't think it would have taken that much research when krupy was playing in league two to look at him and go this kid is unbelievable like you know we can see the trajectory but imagine if spurs had signed that as their as their starting number nine when he was in league two imagine the pressure in inverted commas on the manager imagine the anger from the fans what are we doing so there are i'm not saying i'll be brutally honest i'd probably be moaning about it on here that's the thing no of course and that's but i think that's where like the the club needs to be braver and and look at the it just feels like there's a lack of process at the club and i'm not saying that every club has a process there's always going to be some element of like well things have to change you can have you can have the most locked in process you could want every time there's a manager there's of course going to be variants and change and whatever but there has to be some element of structure and process as to why we're doing certain things and it just feels at the moment very very random and that they've got a manager in that you know they almost feel obligated to back because of him saving the club last year from utter disaster and just giving him all the money but again without really kind of a process and that just isn't how any successful business or club should ever be run that has nothing to do with being against a zerby that's just not how any club should ever run of course you need to help the manager and you know give the manager the tools but it doesn't mean you throw everything at the manager and go well here you go you've got all the keys to the kingdom and do it your way no matter what blah blah blah and i'm not saying it is as black and white as that but it's certainly gone too far that way i think and yeah there just doesn't seem to be a natural process to how tottenham are going to be successful it's like they're trying to hopefully land on it by throwing enough money at it and hopefully it works and it lands on it but that's not that's not joined up thinking and you you can't be consistently successful if you don't

18:40Jack:have joined up thinking it's funny it's funny isn't it because for so long we yeah you saw Tottenham incrementally improve by doing exactly what say Brighton, Bournemouth, those sort of teams are doing you know we signed your Lennons, your Huddlestones, Dawson and also those sort of players on top a Bale or a Modric or a Berbatov players like that so our scouting used to be quite good we used to show that we could build a team quite organically and give these players an opportunity give i mean we've never been to be honest we've never been the best of giving youth team players minutes but i think we've probably been better than we have been in the last few years there's just that sort of bit to me that wonders if like i think there's i think there's a lot of moving parts to this right but i think in some ways like kane and son were they were a bit of a blessing and i don't really want to say curse but they're a blessing and perhaps they left a bit of a legacy that could be considered something of a curse in that i still just my gut feeling on is on it is that the hierarchy at the club just didn't fully understand what they had in canaan son i don't think they really realized that like the actual level of those two players doesn't come along every day you can't just go out and replace that and you'll be okay again like these are two kind of players that are otherworldly right and we've seen that from the record we've seen that from their partnership and so it feels like we sort of built this business and this infrastructure and this team predicated on the idea that we'd always be performing at that level and it's like we're always trying to chase that it's like a crew analogy we're trying to chase the high right we had the initial high and we're constantly trying to chase it as opposed to like you say after after we've had a reign like Mourinho's and maybe even Conte's right when we've given it that final throw of the dice we had the sort of the last bit of Pochettino's team we thought whether people like it or not let's give it Mourinho let's see if he can get something out of this superstar team as it dies kind of thing he couldn't and so like you say it's like they missed that cue to be like right humble pie time let's take a step back right we got this nice big ground but also let's kind of remember where we are and let's again build it feels like we're just trying to rush it and so when people say when it gets thrown at us that we are trying to be like this sort of like tesco value version of a chelsea or a man united it feels kind of harder to refute because we're just chucking money at like you say these sort of players that it just doesn't fully make sense a lot of the time let's try and like of course i'm not the financial expert i don't know how this much esteem affected things in terms of giving whatever but let's just look at the process of tottenham sports braggling's behaviors right so they had pochettino and a fantastic team and it was never built on so there was already that is like you know recipe for disaster and then they got rid of him and then they got jose in who is very much a i will win now but they didn't give him the tools to win now and then they got um espiroso santo in who was the opposite of that almost in terms of like, I'm not quite sure what Asparo Santo, what the idea there was to be fair.

21:52And then they went back to Conte and then they didn't give him the tools. And now, anyway, they've ended up in a situation now where they've gone and given Deserbi all this money that they've never given anyone else, but a manager that's never shown he can take a club from, from, you know, a grade B to an A - or an A - to an A-star. And you could not get more, like Pochettino's one style, Jose is different. then Santo is very different. Then Conte is very different. Then Poster Coglu is very different. Then Frank is very different. Then Deserby is very different. And it's like, there is no joined up thinking to any of this.

22:26And if you just take away the name of Tottenham Hotspur and just put any business like that, anybody would go, well, of course it's going to fail. Like you're just chopping and changing. And then when you do go down, whatever route you go down, you don't give that person the tools of what you employed them for. So, and again, I think they've just, But behaviours this summer just smacks of desperation if they think they've landed on whether they're right or wrong. That's just opinions. But they obviously believe they've landed on a potentially elite level manager. And they think that he is the one that can take them through that.

22:58And perhaps that is their process. And they go, no, we back this. And we'll see. Only five a time we'll see if that's the case. But I just think the process of the entire club has just been insanity. And I'm a big, I really dislike the illusion that spending more money automatically gives you more of a chance. I really dislike that. I think it's a really lazy narrative because, yeah, okay, by generally speaking, the better players cost more money and therefore the better clubs will buy them and they'll win more often. But it's not a rule. The best Spurs team I've ever seen had, you know, comparatively, a very cheap outlay.

23:33The greatest football team I've ever seen. I think 10 of the 11 players were from the academy at Barcelona. Just throwing money at it isn't the answer. It's about looking good what it is and going and i think the biggest the biggest one of the biggest lies or gaslighting situations is when people say yeah but he's experienced it's like well okay but then what i like to put to people that say experienced is that person's experience is actually proving that they're not that good or that they're at this level but they just think that because he's played a lot of games in the premier league so it's like well surely then it's better to go but actually i look at this player and i think that he has he could be glimitless how far he goes you know that's why i've got a lot of stick for it but that's why i prefer bergval to tonali i'm not saying bergval right now is a better player than tonali but tonali has had years and years and years of playing and proving he is this which is a good player but it's not for me a superstar right and now maybe he could turn into that i don't know but it's like he ticks the experience box whereas if you look at something like bergval okay there is a chance he doesn't become the consistent seven out of ten every week but if i look at something like a bergval i go but that could be something remarkably special like that and I don't think I suppose like Tottenham unless they're going to throw millions at it but millions of bringing in the absolute best players well then how are you going to usurp an Arsenal or a Man City you've got to do that by being bold and being brave and bringing in footballers and working with footballers that actually they haven't they haven't gone for but they could end up being really really special like a crew team because all of a sudden you can end up with a team that you didn't buy them when they're at their top but their top has become better than what they have rather than the experience of like well okay they've proven they're good but they've proven they're not as good as these guys you know and I think the Spurs have gone down that road of like they've done that where they've brought in players that have proven they're okay you're pretty good but not that that good um but haven't done it in a balanced way so it's like it's like they've ignored what actually makes football successful you know and call it as ugly as you want there's no box presence in either of the two boxes.

25:36How are you possibly supposed to win consistent football games if you haven't got presence in the attacking box and your defending box where most goals are scored? It's no logic to any of it. How are you possibly supposed to be successful if you've got next to no presence in the two areas where most goals are scored or conceded? It's wild.

25:55Jack:Well, and that's what worries me. That's the point of being sort of... And when I say presence, it doesn't have to be like a big unit. Presence in just terms of like these players that know how to produce in both of those boxes. You know, they did have one person, but they haven't registered him. They've still got him, but he's even registered for the squad. Yeah. It's mad, isn't it? It's mad to do that and not even replace him. But we'll get into sort of more of that stuff in a bit. I mean, let's look at the actual Villa game itself. Yes. Sorry, I went through that. We've gone 3-0 down. I mean, I know we did score two consolation goals, but again, scoring two goals a year already.

26:32Jack:When you've already shipped three at home is... not great is it really um i mean this is also let's let's not forget this is a villa side that's faced its own sort of share of issues this season ahead of this game um i mean where where where where to you did the failures arise in this game mate and i guess like let's also expand that out as well a two-part question in that it's another hefty defeat at home like how does that keep happening as well. I do agree with the Zerbe in what he said after in terms of, I don't know if it was a real quote. Was it a real quote in terms of him talking about the fragility of the team?

27:11Let me double check that for you, but I think... Whether it is or isn't, but overall, let's say that is a real quote. He spoke about the fragility of the team and listen, that is correct because it's not a coincidence that that's now two home games in a row, Everton and then Villa, where the first 15 to 20 minutes they started, you know, positively or whatever it might be and then you can visibly see the tide turn, right? Whatever happens, but that's how all football games go pretty much. You don't have a team, especially at the top level, you don't have a team dominating from minute zero to minute 90, right?

27:41So let's say a team starts excited and starts powerful and aggressive and create whatever it might be. And they're on the front foot and the ball doesn't go in the back of the net for the first 20 minutes. Okay, that can happen. It's football. And the other team might then have a five, 10 minute period spell themselves, or the game might go flat for whatever reason that can happen that shouldn't panic you and that shouldn't make you just never be able to get it back again but that's what's happening in both those games right they're the two games i've seen recently that i've seen full 90 minutes i can't pretend to have seen the full 90 of liverpool whatever but it is real fragility to start you know on the front foot and then just because you don't score in those first 20 minutes that's like oh my god now it's a disaster we missed our opportunity it's like no there's 70 more minutes plus added time left what are you doing And it's just like they've been built to score in the first 20 minutes, the players.

28:33And if that doesn't happen, then they just go, and either they do what happened against Villa and they just completely collapse and it's like 3-0, then 3-2 obviously, or it happens versus Everton where it's kind of like nothing really happens, to be honest, as it goes on. Now listen, De Zerbe can't just look at the players for that. That's on De Zerbe. He's the one that is steering the ship. But it also does go down to reason. I don't think it's a coincidence. Maybe it's an excuse, but how often this has happened with Spurs over the years. But yeah, we can talk about the tactics of it, of course.

29:06And I've made my thoughts clear of that on Twitter, or whatever it's called. But as a starting point, it is clear that there is a real mental fragility to how Spurs are as a club. And half of that you can understand because they've underperformed so badly for two years. So perhaps there is that nervousness from players thinking like, Jesus, look how bad he was underperforming. So they're always on edge. But you can't have that as an excuse. That's just the reality of the situation you're in. You've got to rise above it. And if you can't rise above it, that's the problem. Before this, there's this.

29:45Jack:As you celebrate the game, take a deeper look at its roots. The people grow in the grass, paving the lots, welding the goalposts, inspecting every football. The hardworking people that make every Sunday possible. Carhartt is proud to outfit the crews behind the game. Visit carhartt.com slash join the trades to learn more. This Friday, return to theaters for Avengers Endgame Encore. I know I said no more surprises, but I was really hoping to pull off one last one. Reassemble the team. Six stones. Three teams. One shot. Relive the experience. You messed with time. time attends to mess back. The story continues.

30:27Jack:Tony, this is a second chance. Don't miss Marvel Studios, Avengers Endgame Encore, early theaters Friday. Get tickets now. Ready PG-13. Maybe inappropriate for children under 13. Every game day, you show up for your team. Now, it's your time. We go V! We go V! Ask your prescriber about We Go V. semaglutide injection 2.4 milligrams a glp1 call 1-833-4-WEGOV or visit wegovi.com to view the medication guide and to learn more about wegovi why wait i mean i guess i'd be interested from your perspective like as somebody that works in football and stuff and it's not to at all undermine your profession but i just wonder if at times i mean would you agree that football perhaps isn't always as complex as we like to make out that it is yeah 100 that players will think you can get a tottenham you can beat him at home and thus they play with they perhaps take that shot that they otherwise might not or it just it just feels like people are quite willing to have a go at the tottenham hotspur stadium because we ourselves haven't made it that fortress football is nowhere near as complex as people make it out you know it's not and i think a lot of that is use for people maybe trying to seem smart i think it's two things online i think a lot of people try to seem smarter than so that it's almost like they are above people and how they talk um and they sort of use complicated job and make it seem like a really complicated process when actually it isn't that complicated a lot of it um and then there's the other end of the spectrum people that sort of work in the game perhaps players would have like an excuse culture because it's built in it's built in and it's like you know oh we can't do that here or this is what football's like it's like well no it doesn't have to be like that you know i got i got caned on um by a lot of arsenal fans which they're really strange um but they uh there was a there was an action in a game when it got it went quite viral of brighton pressing arsenal and of how amazing it was it was a good press but there was a moment when konza could have played quite a simple ball wasn't a difficult ball into rice in front of him who had like 10 to 15 yards of space and it's like if you just showed that to someone that has perhaps never watched football they would probably look at and go why didn't he just pass over there to him and most of the time they would be right but people overcomplicate football because they're so i think they're naturally on the back foot they wanted to be they're pragmatic naturally so they want to make sure don't make mistakes do things the way that we've been designed to do it and um yeah i think the standard of football should be far far better across the board and i think that people massively overcomplicate the game you know um and the best players we've watched the best teams that we've watched they don't overcomplicate the game actually um so there is a lot of that and teams definitely probably i think they whether it's the spurs stadium or whatever there isn't there is no subconscious fear for these players probably coming to top of the stadium and that is an issue um you know you hear about players speak all the time about you know the old sranix ferguson's lot and how you know i hear ex-players speak about they looked at players and they almost like they could tell the opposition knew they were beaten before they'd even stepped on the pitch um how true that is obviously only only players can truly answer that themselves.

33:37Let's never forget, lads, it's Tottenham as well,

33:39Jack:if we're speaking about Alex Ferguson, right? Yeah, things do stand to reason. Now, you know, Spursy is a word that hasn't just been brought out of nowhere. It's not some weird, you know, spell or curse, but it's happened because as a club, there is a soft underbelly. And soft underbelly doesn't just mean going around kicking people. Of course it doesn't. But it just means that if something goes wrong, okay no problem that's life that's football we can ride this out we can adapt and there's very little adaptability about how Spurs play at all right now I just sort of yeah it feels I don't know it just feels like there's something it feels like it's almost like a sort of meme amongst the players almost to score at Tottenham and maybe it's because my only reference point is watching these players when they play against Spurs but it just always feels like each and everyone you know you saw it Valanga the other week or Jackson here that they've got like it's almost like they've got a special celebration lined up for their goal at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

34:34Jack:You know, it's just that, it's that kind of, it feels like, it feels like bullying, Harry. That's what it feels like, mate. It feels like they're all bullying us. They won't leave. Just let us win at home, right? Just let us have a bit of fun. I will say this though, obviously the three points, it wasn't, it didn't make a difference, but it was vital that they call it Gallagher. I don't know if it was down as an own goal, but vital that Gallagher got that goal because they needed to get that off their back. they needed to at least score a goal so they don't have to go into the next game now listen that is you are literally scraping the bottom of the barrel there to try and find a positive in that but that is at least one thing now that they don't have to technically have in the back of their mind the next time the next game they go into but yeah nice little assist from Kuzis as well lovely assist yeah lovely yeah I think it's a I think because he's a fabulous player and he had a very difficult injury to recover from that's speaking to physios the thigh that was damaged in that way or the quad you know is a really difficult injury to perhaps come back and that's again but that is where sometimes i do feel sorry for players in the sense of i don't expect the fans on the outside to know all the in and outs but they would be surprised actually how often players do realize what's wrong and do want to be better and do want to do certain things but there's so many things that they feel like they perhaps stop some more heart or hampers it you know and it is the best players are going to rise above that somehow but it is difficult you know for players um to be good all the time because that's kind of what you have to be in football you have to be good all the time.

35:55Jack:I mean, well, let's talk about, I mean, like Solanke. I mean, he's somebody that's drawing a lot of eye out of the back of this. And again, I'm not going to act like I'm above it. I thought it was a fairly pitiful performance from him against Aston Villa. But to your point, I guess this is somebody that we don't fully know his physical state either, right? He's somebody that's been recovering from injuries for a long time. He's basically the only recognised number nine in the team now because the manager's fallen out with Richarlison or whatever. Again, that's the club putting a lot of pressure on this one player who might not be fully fit, right?

36:30Who knows? But he does look physically shot. I mean, I could not believe my eyes of that chance he got on the weekend of just how uncoordinated and heavy the footwork looked. And that was like, you know, you could say that it caught him by surprise, but that was like, the feet just looked so heavy and uncoordinated. And he does look physically shot in a lot of ways. and yeah listen I think that there's too much emphasis put on physicality in terms of the success of it um being the difference maker but there has to be a bare minimum of physicality in this league when everyone else is mobile and can run and things like that if you are a play yourself that actually doesn't have at least a bare minimum of like being able to run and when I say bare minimum still a very high level of course Selenke's still an incredible athlete but I'm talking about if you are someone that's struggling to run and the mobility whatever it that is a big big problem you know um in any league but it is it is a bigger problem this league uh but yeah you have to be able to be mobile and be able to move your feet and coordinate and balance and things like that and yeah he does look physically shot and um it's massively harming his performances and obviously spurs' performances however much goes into that i don't know if that is down to literally him recovering from injury confidence a mix of loads of things who knows but But no, he looked like he was struggling on Saturday.

37:45Jack:If we look this weekend at somebody like Brian Broby, who scored a hat-trick at the Etihad, we sort of speak a lot about the increasingly physical nature of the Premier League that I guess, let's say, Arteta's Arsenal have maybe ushered in or at least been the most popular example of, perhaps not with Spurs fans, but if you get the point I'm making, is that the sort of profile of player that you think is going to work in this system? Because I guess, I think we were linked to Broby at times in the summer. We've also been linked with Mateta. And I know I've sort of turned my nose up at options like that.

38:23Jack:But now I kind of look and think, God, I mean, it almost feels like that's what we're crying out for. I think that people look at physicality a bit wrong. They look at it as like a big, massive unit, whereas actually the most important physicality. So people would look at James Madison, and they try to try looking before the injuries right um because obviously injuries he's had some horrible injuries but people look at james madison they never look at him as like an incredible physical attributes right but actually some of his physical attributes are outstanding and very relevant football he's got an unbelievable balance agility twist and turn shift of weight um that's far more football beneficial than being a big six foot five unit that can't move now obviously listen If you can have an incredible athlete and an incredible touch and all this, then obviously it's great.

39:11But I believe that at the very, very top level, it is the quality of how your brain works and, you know, the technique that is the difference maker, you know. But you have to be able to cope physically and have physical advantages. Like, you know, before we mentioned earlier about Kruppi. I think Kruppi is a fabulous footballer. He has outstanding physical attributes. He's not a six foot five mountain. He's not going to, but he's got great physical attributes. but the thing that makes him so special is his brain, his touch, his whatever. And I think that football has gaslit people into thinking that it's all like physicality nowadays.

39:46Actually, no, that is a part of it. You've got to have it as a bare minimum. You've got to be fit. You've got to be coordinated, things like that. You've got to be able to run. Of course you do. But, you know, the best players and the best teams aren't the best players because they are the biggest or they can run the fastest. That's not what makes them the best.