One on One | Aston Villa's Matty Cash, the Premier League's happiest right back!

0:29Hello, I'm Nasser Hussain. Premier League's going up every year, even from when I first made my debut. I can say I feel settled here, but almost in our job and in our roles, you can't get too settled because you've got players fighting for your spot and there's a transfer window every couple of months nowadays. When we're not winning, he was obviously being demanding. He's always demanding with us. But it's almost like he takes a little bit of pressure off us. But when we start winning, yeah, it can be really intense, you know. The older I'm getting, I think, oh, you haven't like, you haven't, you've not got this forever.

1:06So you just have to take every day as it comes and enjoy it. Because if you don't enjoy it, what's the point in doing it?

1:13Welcome to One on One from Sky Sports. It's the podcast where we try and find out a little bit more about some of the brightest stars in the Premier League. I'm Juliet Farrington. And I'm Joe Tomlinson. Jules, it feels like a while since we've been together on the pod and it's probably because it's now December and the football is coming extremely thick and fast. It's everywhere you look. It's every day and it's a busy time for everyone in and around the game. But there's always time to find 10, 15 minutes, isn't there? With good people, a couple of chairs, a couple of microphones. And this week, it's another of football's good guys.

1:45It's Matty Cash, the Aston Villa right back, possibly the best right back in the Premier League at the moment. What are you thinking on that one, Joe? I mean, Rhys James and Jurian Timber, I might have a word with the situation. But he's bloody good, isn't he? In the top three, in at least the top three. And when he scores, as we've known recently, he only scores bangers. And he was a delight to talk to as well. I interviewed him a couple of years ago at the World Cup in Qatar in the Poland Team Hotel. And this time I went down to Aston Villa's training ground just a couple of weeks ago. Interestingly enough, just after that November international break.

2:20And we talked about the influence Robert Lewandowski has had on him since playing for the Poland national team and what Unai Emery is like to play for. And we've heard players talk before, haven't we, on this podcast about Unai Emery and how he's always pushing his players, wanting more, especially when they're winning. And that's when he demands the most. And we spoke about his new long term deal as well, that he signed that will keep him at the club until 2029. And that's where we started the conversation. Matty Cash and I at the club, he says, feels like home. So welcome to One on One, Matty Cash.

2:55Matty Cash, why not? Oh, wow! Why not indeed? There it is! Aston Villa's first Premier League goal of the season. And it's a beauty! Matty, thanks for joining us. You've recently extended your stay at Aston Villa, signing that new deal. You said it felt like home for you. Why is that? yeah firstly obviously delighted to have extended my time here uh yeah i i did say it feels at home and i have said that for a while i can say i feel settled here but almost like in our job and in our roles you can't get too settled because you've got players fighting for your spot and you've got people that want to overtake you so and there's a transfer window every couple months nowadays so yeah no i just i feel at home i feel really good i feel like i'm playing good football especially under the manager as well I feel like I'm I've been playing in his system for a while now so I almost know what he wants of me and yeah I just feel comfortable in the environment I feel I know a lot of people here I've been here now five years four or five years hopefully many more years as to why I committed my future but what makes a football club feel like home for a footballer because you don't really know what the future holds do you no that's what I mean you never know what's around the corner in football and it comes thick and fast at you and yeah, I just feel like you've got to be consistent at this level, you know, you have to perform week in, week out or as I said, you get overtaken.

4:23So playing good football probably helps making you feel at home, being in an environment where you feel settled and you feel confident and almost relaxed a little bit. Yeah, so I feel like when you're relaxed, you play your best football maybe. Not too relaxed, obviously. I was going to say, because then you get overtaken. Yeah, exactly. So you've got to find a mixture of different things, I think. How does Unai Emery bring the best out of you? Because you also say that you want to push yourself. And we know that he does push players even further to become the better version of themselves than they feel like they are in this moment in time.

4:58You have to be demanding. Obviously, you've got a manager who is really demanding and pushes you every day to be the best. Or the best you can be. but then also in yourself you've got to be demanding and you've got to do things right. Obviously at this level you've done a lot of sacrifices to get here but almost making the next step up to European football, playing in the Champions League, competing at the highest level you have to do more. It's an everyday thing, you have to train hard, commit your whole life to football and I think obviously in recent years we've done fantastically well. Players have been really consistent with performances and yeah, you've just got to live and breathe football and do the best you can.

5:35when you say about bringing the best out of you and being that best version of you you've also said that when you're on a winning run as a team he pushes you even further so I would have thought when you're not in a good space as a team that would be more prevalent too but when you're winning games yeah it gets even more demanding yeah I think when we're winning obviously we started poorly this season and obviously he wasn't happy but it's almost like when we're not winning he was obviously being demanding he's always demanding with us but it's almost like he's takes a little bit of pressure of us because he knows that we're not performing well although he's so demanding and does a lot of work on the pitch because there's a lot of pressure and stuff coming from the outside people obviously concerned as to why we're not winning or why we're not as good as we have been i think he almost lifted that pressure off us a little bit and he's not as intense and honest but when we start winning yeah it can be really intense you know in what way just the meetings go up the details go up again um the training demands go up everything yeah it's just because he wants so much success at the club and he wants everybody to be so successful i know it sounds obviously mad when you're losing why is he not like that but i think it's almost a thing to like come on we need to win let's take maybe a little bit of pressure off i don't know but when we're winning and when we start moving up the table into the champions league spots he's really demanding and that's back to cash

7:16i know you've been on international breaks you obviously go and play for your countries do you missing when you are on those breaks then yeah in a kind of weird way yeah it's obviously it is nice to change your environment up like I love going to Poland like playing for your country is fantastic but yeah almost like you know that you're here most of the time you know so obviously it's good to get back into a routine and come back maybe I don't miss the meetings as much and I'm there because in Poland we don't really have long meetings but you'll make up for them when you're back here yeah I always know that when I'm coming back in the meeting rooms coming up we're going to be there for a while but no as I said it's nice to go to Poland but then it's also nice to come back into a routine especially a positive environment at the minute where we're winning games it's always nice but that's just it you're back on track now so it kind of leads me to ask what kind of did happen what did happen at the start of the season I don't know like obviously obviously people have said obviously the end of last season we were unlucky obviously we were same points as was it Newcastle who was it Newcastle who were same points with I think yeah and we missed out obviously on goal difference yeah it might have been a little bit of like a like a little bit of a delay to that I don't know really obviously we we didn't start great and everybody knows that but I don't know if it's a pre-season thing if we didn't I don't know but we weren't nowhere near good enough what we should have been we know that and the only way was to work hard and just to try and find ourselves again um and try and be consistent like we have been over the last few years and obviously we're on the right track now here goes christian ericsson

8:51i know that life moves on quickly and games come every other day can you just take us though back into that dressing room at manchester united after what happened and the disappointment and the frustration and I guess anger in that moment yes knowing what was yours and was taken away yeah yeah of course obviously that as well but I feel like we ended that season so well like we were on we obviously signed Rashi we signed Marco Asensio in the January and from then on we were unbelievable and prior to the January we weren't that great and we weren't picking up results maybe so you could look at the United game but there's also games true in the past that you maybe could had got results and we weren't focused enough to do that so you can look at United obviously in the if you're talking about in the moment so disappointed to to not qualify and as I said on such a positive run coming into that United game we felt really good but it's football that happens you know and obviously sometimes it doesn't go the way it's meant to go and um I guess that's life as well isn't it but at what point do you look at a season and know you're on track to achieve what you want to go out to do this season?

10:04Well, the boss always says to us, he doesn't really look too much at the league table. I don't know if he's saying that. There's got to be a point though, hasn't there? I feel like when you get to the 30 game mark, you can almost look at where you are and if you're in the Champions League spot. But I think when you're talking the first part of the season, I don't think it's, you've got to be consistent. You've got to get the results and the three points adding up and stuff. But I think, yeah, when you get to the back end of the season when it's sort of hit the 30 games, you can start to look and think, oh maybe we could be here and then we get more demanding with ourselves um but yeah now obviously you've just got to try and win as many games as you can obviously every game is tough in the Premier League whether you're away in Burnley or if you're at home anywhere it's always tough to go to different places and the demand of the Premier League's going going up every year like even from when I first made my debut and nearly I'm nearly at 200 games now that's gone quick but the demands and the set pieces and the details into the game has gone to another level.

11:03And the trends as well. Because we're in a set piece trend at the moment, aren't we? Yeah, long throws. Good job I've got a long throw. But yeah, every time I look at Instagram, there's a long throw from Brentford coming in. Especially when you're playing against them teams, it's difficult to mark. It's at this time of the season, I think, though, that from the November international break through to the March, this is where things can be won things can be achieved because it's just straight through isn't it yeah that's what i mean is obviously when you look at september october november you've always got a break from the international but now yeah we're just all the way through now so um months and months of loads of football especially the christmas period you have so many games coming thick and fast and obviously europa league we've started really well in that as well but yeah it's good as a footballer you want to play games you know it can be quite tiring at times but it's better definitely better to be playing games and training yeah especially when the weather's like this and then from an international point of view you're still within a chance of going to the world cup as well last time i spoke to you was at the world cup in 2022 in qatar at the poland team hotel we talked about lewandowski rumors flying around that it was going to be his last world cup and he was going to retire and you went not a chance and he's still yeah still going on now Yeah, I could see it.

12:23He's got the desire and the hunger to be at the best. Obviously, he's a bit older now and a bit more. He's still in his 30s. Yeah, he's still in his 30s. Not too old. But obviously, we're talking football terms. If you're in your late 30s, you can be classed as old, really, can't you? Well, you've passed your peak. Yeah, passed your peak, I'd say. That's a better word for it. But he's still in his peak. He's scoring hat-tricks on the weekends and stuff still before international breaks. but no, I knew when I spoke to you in Qatar that time and you said how many is he going to play. Yeah, hopefully another one, definitely.

12:58Obviously, you've got Albania in the playoffs and some tough, obviously, it's a tough game. We've got to get through that and then to get to a final but yeah, it would be great if we could get to another one and have him part of the team. The corner is dangerous! And who else but Robert Lewandowski! How much more have you taken from him, being around him? a lot more now in his presence yeah i think like when you work with a player like that and you see his cv and how many games he's played and the amount of times he's been available to play and you can just see how he he lives right you know he's always doing something recovery wise or he's yeah he's just he's an icon isn't he really so when you look at him yeah and i have conversations with him as well and he's almost like a he could just sit here and talk to him like we are now so So you take, yeah, definitely from the best players, you take definitely good info.

13:49Does he ever pick anything up on you? Does he ever look at you and go, come on? He asked me the other day how many goals have I scored this season. And for club and country, I'm on four, which is all right, early on. And he was happy with that. As long as I'm feeding him assists, I think he's all right. But no, we always have conversations, not just about football. We talk about other things as well. So, yeah, no, it's good. And we've seen John McGinn while we've been here having this conversation. I bet he's still on cloud nine. Yeah, to come down. The boss said to him, oh, John, I hope you haven't been partying too much.

14:19And Ginny said to him, oh, no, I knew you'd be watching me, so I haven't definitely partied too much. Of course I haven't. I think if there's a time to party for him, it was like the other day after that, if there's any sort of, if anyone's going to let him off. But no, delighted for him. It's a great achievement to go to the World Cup. Fantastic, yeah. It was a great game as well, yeah. But it's good to come back into this environment. You're still in with a chance, and there are others who are going. Everyone's happy. Yeah, everyone's in a great place. Obviously you've got players from Belgium, England, obviously Scotland now.

14:54It's great for players in the team to be competing and going to a major tournament. Yeah, it's fantastic. Hopefully I can sit here in March and say the same thing. So what can be achieved this season? Because you say the season's back on track, you're in the position that you're in and you're pushing into those top four, five places, but top four, and you want to get back, don't you? You want to get back to those nights against PSG. Yeah, definitely. I think that's what we've, as a young boy, you dream of playing in them big games and playing Champions League quarterfinals. And yeah, the experience you get from that is fantastic.

15:28So us as a club and the players, we would love to be at that level. Obviously, we've got to do a lot more work to get there. But yeah, as I said, we're in the Europa League and we've got a great chance to hopefully do something great. Obviously, it's easy now to say that we want to win a trophy, but it's another thing doing it. It's really hard to do. Yeah, really hard to win a trophy, no matter what trophy it is. Obviously, we've got the FA Cup coming up as well soon. But yeah, Europa League will be great and then obviously being as consistent as we can in the Premier League. The Premier League is one of the main ones where you can get into them European positions and just enjoy it, enjoy the way.

16:05I enjoy playing football and playing for a great club Do you think you'll ever stop smiling? Hopefully not Because all you're doing is smiling Everyone's happy I just try and get the most out of it I think the older I'm getting I think you haven't got this forever So you just have to take every day as it comes And enjoy it Because if you don't enjoy it What's the point in doing it? I love my job I love playing football I love working hard It's good to smile It's been lovely talking to you Thank you for your time Cheers Matty thank you jules what absolute delight matthias by the way he is by far and away the best golfer in the premier league he is absolutely electric on the course i promise you is unbelievable i assume by saying that you've been in his presence you've been amongst his team or playing against him which you know what i actually haven't yet oh i have watched him a considerable amount online He's played quite a few golf games at a really high level on YouTube.

17:05If you haven't watched Matty Cash playing golf on YouTube already, I genuinely suggest you go and do it. He is so good, like seriously talented. And was he smiling all the way through? Of course he was. He is such a nice guy as you just heard in that interview. He can't stop smiling. And I imagine he's a person who's just like that anyway, whether you're in his presence or not. And they say that smiling can be infectious. It can rub off on people. and I think you could hear that in the tone of my voice as well and the smile that I had just by talking to him and how his mood rubbed off on me and why wouldn't he be happy?

17:40Just got that long-term deal at the club he calls home. They're back to winning ways, they're playing well and there's always that talk, isn't there, of a top four finish this season and how they really do want to be back in that Champions League and he's got the chance potentially to go to the World Cup with Poland if they can make it through their playoffs in March. yeah do you know what as well I remember doing Unai Emery for the pod last year and you can really get a sense that he demands a lot from his players and I think what you got a sense from that interview as well is that Matty Cash responds to those demands really well I think the whole Villa team do to be honest with you if you look at the results since about September they are on a serious serious run I mean Matty Cash this season his form has been so electric you think that pass against Tottenham that's past the season just unbelievable technique and I think his rise to power kind of coincides perfectly with Unai Emery's arrival at the club yeah and Matty Cash saying that when they are winning and they are doing well that's when Unai Emery demands even more of them as if they've got even more to give he just wants that perfection from his team and they've had so many ups and downs Aston Villa but they seem to have settled now and they are taking on the elite clubs in the Premier League, as we would call them, and matching them toe-to-toe on many occasions.

18:57And he's been a big part of Villa's success in his five years at the club. But to be honest, wouldn't the world be a better place if there were more Matty Cash's in it? And I think that's the point. He never stops smiling. Love it, Jules. Absolutely love it. Thank you very much for listening to 101 from Sky Sports. if you'd like to watch Jules' interview with Matty Cash find it on our Sky Sports YouTube channel Sky Sports News and of course across our socials and we're here every week in conversation with some of the biggest names in football so if you don't already give this show a follow you don't want to miss us and it's me again next week Joe and hopefully heading back down to the Midlands for our next conversation that's all I'm saying for now Catchy one ball Ali Joe Catchy one ball how's it going?

19:45Yeah it's going well it's going well It's quite intense at the moment. It's pretty feisty down there. It's a long day on a Monday, but it's well worth watching if you haven't already tuned in. See you next week, Joe. See you later.

20:03Missed the post-match analysis of the big games on Sky Sports? Then check out the Sky Sports Premier League podcast. After every live game, top pundits like Roy Keane, Jamie Carragher and Micah Richards chat about the big talking points and we hear what the managers and players have to say as well. That is the Sky Sports Premier League podcast available wherever you listen to your podcasts.