Haaland's evolution, the difference between good and great and what's the most intriguing league?

0:22hello and welcome back to the stadio podcast i'm isa kwanga i'm ryan hun Ryan, how are you doing? Doing all right, thanks, man. How are you? I'm not as good as you. I went to confession. What have I done? No, no, no. No, it's just what I've done wrong. So I went to... I thought I'd drop in on the Stadio Social Club meetup in Berlin. So I go to the wrong bar. Oh, this is... That was the day after we had the Stadio Social Club Discord hangout, which... I know. Again, resulted in a... Such a boomer. A technical difficulty. Oh, God. we fixed it but thanks to everyone who was there and we had a great time always great to see everyone they're really really fun those Discord hangouts yeah I really enjoy them if you want to come along to those and have access to the Stadio Discord and join the Stadio Social Club you can go to patreon.com forward slash stadio you can also just sign up as a podcast member which just gets you all the podcasts if you haven't signed up it will also get you the Champions League podcast this week because they will be ad free and in full to members only that's the only bit of admin other than that We hope everyone stays safe and well wherever you are.

1:27Today, we're going to do a quick roundup of some results for a bit. And then we're going to, well, disclosure, we're re-recording this intro bit from now because we went off on a bit of a tangent. So what we're actually going to talk about is like the difference between good and great. What makes a player good? What makes a player great? I mean, obviously, in a professional context, because every single professional footballer is really, really amazing at football. And then off the back of some chat about various leagues, We're going to maybe look at some numbers and see what's the best league to watch at the moment.

2:01But there is only one place to begin, and it's in Germany. And it's with some goals and red cards. Köln, four. Highest foul, one. Emmanuel Ferrai came on in the 77th minute, got booked in the 78th minute, and got sent off in the 79th. Oh, my God. the bench was still warm when he got back you know you know when you get out of your like warm-up coat yeah and the warm-up coat hasn't even had time to crumple it's retained a shape no no it's still still upright it hasn't even crumpled

2:43his seat on the bench was still warm you could probably boil eggs in the time he was on the pitch. Literally, I mean, back in a sec. I don't think you, it would have been like one of those omelette challenges that chefs have on. Got three minutes, go. Sadly. Supermarket sweep. He's got his first yellow. The pan's not high enough. The pan's not high enough. Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry. Hurry, hurry.

3:08Fabio Vieira, by the way, also got sent off in this game. That's his second red card for Heistfout already. Wild, but Cullen beat in Heistfout 4-1 quickly in the Bundesliga because we're not going to touch on it too much today but Bayern completely cruised past Bayer Leverkusen 3-0 on Saturday evening 15 wins in a row wild yeah RB Leipzig beat Stuttgart 3-1 Dortmund beat Augsburg on Friday night 1-0 St. Pauli St. Pauli yikes yeah St. Pauli are on a real slide and I think we'll save it and talk about them on another episode but after they had their best ever start to the Bundesliga season and then since then they've won they've lost six in a row in the league and I think they've only scored one goal during that time.

3:52I mean this though you talk about warning signs we've had a couple of bad reverses but this 4-0 at home to Gladbach is like a catastrophic result like without sounding over the top. It's possibly statistically the worst result of the season. If you look at how Gladbach have been struggling for Gladbach the way they've been struggling and them to be yeah to be beaten at home by that margin by a team going through that is that's an official warning sign. Gladbach is so weird right? They scored 10 goals this season and 8 of those came in 2 games. But I've told you this before right? I've told you this before about Gladbach's seasons.

4:31It's the kind of season where nobody knows what kind of season they are having not even Gladbach themselves. This is the absolute, this is the definition. But yeah we'll get back to obviously St. Pauli in the fullness of time once we've had a deeper look at that season but uh yeah from a distance it's it's concerning very concerning can i uh shout out the bass derby because royal sausage had been athletic club 3-2 with a stoppage time winner on the weekend but i just wanted to talk talk about uh ando bernicea the few minutes that he had for the first goal got injured went off looked like he was gonna have to go off bandaged his leg or like got you know got some got taped up came back on was hobbling and set up the first goal and then went off.

5:17It's absolutely amazing. Amazing. But yeah, great win for Real Sociedad in the derby. Yes, yes. They look quite bright actually. Great game. They've started to steady the ship a little bit at Real Sociedad. They've went back-to-back wins now after the win against Sevilla and that's three unbeaten in the league after a very, very ropey start to the season. Real Madrid beating Valencia 4-0 and Barcelona beating Elche 3-1. Another goal for Marcus Rashford. Yeah. Check this out. Kylian Mbappe has now scored more goals in more European top five league goals than Thierry Henry. I don't believe that.

5:53Well, as in I believe it, you know, it's like when Giroud overtook. And you're like, you're like, no, well, how is he? When? How? Mbappe has scored so many goals and fought for Madrid actually already. It's wild. It's wild how he's just. Check this though. Yeah. So Thierry Henry scored 233 goals in 459 appearances. I think those are league goals, right? So Kylian Mbappé has scored 235 in 291. The thing about Mbappé, right, is that, look, we know he was in France and the level was not the level of... At that time, because, look, Ligue 1 has evolved as a league and it's now actually far stronger than it was when Mbappé first started playing in it, right?

6:40We'll talk about this in a moment. But he has scored. The volume that Mbappe scored at in Ligue 1 was an elite level. And it's a level you wouldn't get, you're not going to get respect for it because the team had all the resources, but he was still scoring at an absolutely elite clip. It was basically like Henrik Larsson numbers, right? Like, and the thing that's impressive about Mbappe is that he retained his sharpness at international level and in the Champions League. That was the big tell. Because if the league was really that easy, then he wouldn't be locked in as he was. but he's just I mean it's an astonishing achievement actually and what he's doing at Real now is eight games in a row running the show man running it 19 and 17 this year those are almost Haaland numbers almost almost right Premier League ground up quick yes Man City Bournemouth is the game I was most looking forward to just because the coach is going head to head but I thought City handled it really well yeah I did I was really really impressed by them actually just gave Bournemouth very little space.

7:40Semenya looked really bright. But other than that, I thought actually, I thought that City might struggle more in the central areas with Foden and Cherokee. Not the strongest defensively, but I thought they handled really well. And O 'Reilly again was brilliant. It would have been very interesting to see what happened if that first Bournemouth goal had stood. Yes. If they hadn't been offside. I must say the biggest result of the weekend, since we're rounding up quickly, for me was West Ham against Newcastle. is extremely impressive. Yeah. The Nuno era fully underway. That is a huge win against a Newcastle team that looked a bit, maybe a bit gassed, a bit leggy, but they fielded a very strong side.

8:23They have struggled a little bit, I think, with some of the, you know, having to challenge on multiple fronts thing. Yeah, yeah. I mean, then again, they've got decent depth in their last few results have been pretty decent, actually. It happened a couple of years ago, didn't it, when they were in the Champions League, or was it last season? Yeah, and you know, there's that thing about you get everyone's best shot. I just think West Ham had a real plan for them. And Nuno's a phenomenal coach who's had an extra couple of weeks. I mean, you saw actually, even against Arsenal, that first game. Yeah, you saw a plan.

8:53Yeah, you saw a plan. And now it doesn't take long for him to sort of get his identity on a team. And I'm kind of excited for West Ham actually under Nuno. I think it's a good fit for them. Danny Welbeck can't stop scoring. I reckon he might get called up for England, which would be amazing. We've got to talk about Welbeck at some point. Maybe not now because I think he deserves more depth in terms of... Yeah. We'll do a bit on kind of like renaissance players. Or strikers who put it all together. Like he's someone who really, I mean, he's got six and ten in the Premier League and all the pieces fit now.

9:26He's on course for his best ever Premier League striking season. I hope he completes that arc. But yeah, we'll get into that. Very pleased with Arsenal's 2-0 win away at Burnley. There could have been more, but very, very happy with how they handled that. Can I just shout out Gabrielle's assist, which was absolutely... Oh my God, so good. I don't think it got enough love, this. Technically, it was so good to do, just the assist. Do you know what I love about this? What I love about this win was it was, what's the Mary J. Blige album? No more drama. Like, business-like. There's something really demoralizing about their run of form at the moment.

9:59They haven't conceded since, what, late September against Newcastle? Yeah. That's it. and like what seven straight clean sheets and this is the problem now the longer you go on people are forgetting what a goal against Arsenal looks like and I think Pep said it'd be nice if Arsenal could concede a goal you know at some point yeah I mean that is quite wild if you think about it there's basically not that much noise in the moment there's not much noise that was the thing that I think really affected the players was that every single result was met with such extreme emotion that seems to have calmed down a little bit now which is good let's quickly shout out Palace Palace beating Bremford 2-0 another good win Mateta's header in this that is look classic that's the ones when you're like you want to set all your friends who've ever played strike you want to just send them like a video of that header that is absolutely elite love that love that oh that's vintage that is vintage Mateta Fulham beating Wolves 3-0 and that cost Vito Pereira his job four points adrift at the bottom of the Premier League and it's bleak it's not looking good for Wolves Gary O 'Neill or Rob Edwards for the Wolves job oh Gary O 'Neill going back oh actually I did see that yeah Gary O 'Neill going back would be Rob Edwards would be a good shout I think yeah I think so I think so chance to kind of run it back you know yeah and like all the things he things he looks at with Luton that maybe he would do differently now some good players in that Wolves side really good and some goals as well in there some good goals speaking of goals 2 all at Forest between Man United well between Forrest and Manchester United yeah ending the winning streak take that yeah actually yeah Forrest looked decent and it's the kind of game that United lost last season so actually yeah like a point away a late winner a late equaliser it felt like a winner late equaliser from Ahmed gorgeous volley which probably won't get the the the comments it should because United aren't necessarily doing that well this year but good result I think for Forest and for United and we move even with the the corner that wasn't a corner ball wasn't out of play for the Casemiro header oh right okay well we'll take it I mean it's bad like gotta be sure if it goes out of play yeah I mean I'm not losing sleepover for it you're a Man United fan that's why that's true that's true in the evening kickoffs on Saturday Chelsea beating Spurs 1-0 I think this is a good result wasn't the best game in the world no Yeah, good win for Chelsea.

12:33And they didn't get anyone sent off. So very good all around. Yes, they're up to, well, they're up sixth. Yeah, no one else in that top six, apart from Arsenal, really looks like they've got a handle on things. Well, obviously, Bournemouth are balling out. And as I said, I was chatting to some of the listeners about this. Bournemouth, just such a good team. It's just squad depth, really, with them. That's all it is. like on their day they can match anyone uh it's just the actual depth but the other teams apart from that apart from Bournemouth in that top six at Arsenal no people are not really maximizing I think you know interesting to come yeah yeah Liverpool are back to winning ways they beat Villa 2-0 at Anfield I forgot that Hugo Echotique's goal was disallowed in my head and when I went to check my fantasy team I was like why has he got so few points he scored he did not in fact score it was disallowed rightly so for offside I'm like that with some things I still think that Brighton beat Leeds 4-0 instead of 3-0 I don't know just like some phantom fixtures are just different in my head but yeah good win that good win just one thing on this game that we will shout out because we will talk more about Liverpool on Wednesday's show after the Real Madrid game there's a Mo Salah start it's been a while but there is a Mo Salah start even in a difficult season he still he still produces the numbers it's unreal 250 goals for Liverpool.

14:04I don't, can I say, I don't believe that. Do you know what I mean? I don't mean, I'm not saying it's not a brilliant player. I'm saying it's fake news. That's such a world we live in. How has he done that? How has he got there so quick? Like, that is so many goals. So many, he's been there like five minutes. He's been there five minutes. the weight the weight of accumulation people knew this anyway because recently he went he became Liverpool's third highest goal scorer third top goal scorer Ian Rush 354 goals in 660 games for Liverpool Roger Hunt 285 goals in 492 games for Liverpool Mo Salah 250 goals in 415 games for Liverpool that is an incredible physical like durability it's been eight years it's flown it's absolutely flown it's wild right yeah yeah yeah but it's like the Thierry Henry level of like you know Thierry Henry like Cristiano Ronaldo these players that just like they're so durable what makes it interesting is the relentlessness of the goal scoring like do you not just get tired of doing this week in week out like at that level and knowing that people are coming up against you when you're like this is what makes players like that truly great we'll talk about greatness elsewhere right what makes it so impressive is like Michael Jordan scoring 30 points in a game it's not the average person scoring 30 points it's Michael Jordan so you're getting everyone's best defense everyone has talked about playing against you all week there are players in the NBA that score 20 points a game don't get me wrong they're amazing players but people are not going oh I'm playing that guy this week everyone's gonna be watching it's on network tv it's gonna be the big Michael Jordan got everyone's best shot every night for years on end and this is why i have some sympathy for mo salah having a struggle now it's because that man is getting multiple supervision game after game week after week where you're the guy and you have to deliver and he's just been doing it lights out for what eight years straight this is why i will always have some sympathy for people that these dips in form because at that level yeah yeah yeah everyone's coming for you everyone's coming for you.

16:18Hey, speaking of the NBA, Pacers won their first game of the season. Oh my God, the Pelicans. One and five. One and five. Pelicans, 0-6, still suffering. Goodness me. Couldn't be me. Built different. My single win. Anyway, anyway. 0-6, 1-5, 1-5, man. Couldn't be me. Built different. Elsewhere, very quickly, Napoli draw nil now with Como, an Inter's win over Helis Verona, closes the gap to a point on Napoli. A couple of big penalty saves this weekend actually in Serie A. Vanya for Napoli against Como. Then Money Mike against Dybala. Yeah, very big save. Not as big as Zielinski's volley though. Grinter.

17:05Which I think is probably the goal of the season. Already. I'm not giving up yet. I think that that's the pace setter. I think justice for Fleming. I think the Fleming actually Fleming's volley the one that he the volley the floated 60 yard pass that he sidefoot simply edge of the box on the volley is like that to me is technically out of this world that's like it's not going to get any shouts but that for me is like I think the aesthetics of the Chalinole driven corner and then the Zealandski just sidefoot volley it's like a training ground goal it's an incredible goal it's so good it's an incredible goal because off the laces as one thing but to side foot it i think that's my favorite goal is there's something so ziel in this because it's like it's completely in keeping with the understated nature of what he does like that level of technique is ridiculous i was talking to a friend of mine um years ago he was in the sheffield wednesday setup and he said that dan potrescu had the best technique he'd ever seen i could and there are there are some of these players who like have low-key incredible technique and it's like they're players who are like footballers footballers like i bet zielinski is the kind of player who comes up all the time when opposition midfield is a bit like um musa dembele he's kind of like that like these players that like people looking at loki that's the guy and so if anything i'm glad that he gets this spotlight so actually i've got i've got the chops it's like yeah it's a hell of a it's ridiculous strike and when i saw that it was a side foot because i heard about it i was like what like volleys from corners they're incredible we've seen when skulls did it again it was off the laces but this was this is arguably even harder to control technically it's arguably even harder side foot volley as opposed to yes side foot volley with that power as opposed to laces well you just let the ball do the work man yeah but the thing about the laces the laces you're putting more of your body behind it the angle of your body there's more surface area meeting it um and there's a flatter surface area and it's a swing that's more natural a side foot volley is like i think the thing about it is that just because you're trying to generate energy it doesn't mean you actually generate more energy it's not generation of energy it's not it's not i don't mean that i don't mean that i mean actually you can stroke um it's the the natural swing it's like a uh in tennis right it's like a forehand as opposed to a slice when you're An open forehand is just surface area.

19:41The surface area of the laces. You've got so much more margin for error. No, I disagree. I think when you're actively moving the boot for the laces towards a moving ball, I think you have less margin for error than you do if you focus on connection with the side foot because you're just using the energy that the ball is coming towards you anyway and getting a good contact with that. For example, when people try and swing at it with the laces, how many times do they essentially just not make great contact and that kills the energy. It's like kind of going after, it's like trying to swing a golf club too hard.

20:12This is so interesting. So if you middle it out of the golf club, that is where the sweet spot is. There is a sweet spot in terms of contact and especially when you have the energy of the ball coming towards you, you don't need to swing at it. This is interesting because I've always felt, I thought what Zianinsky did was even harder than what Skulls did. So I think in terms of getting a good connection on it, I don't think it's harder. I think it's smarter. I think a lot of people try and whack volleys and I don't think you need to. I think that if you think about it, you have all of the tools coming towards you.

20:43You have a ball that is carrying energy that's being driven at a really, really suitable height. So you don't have to do a lot of body readjustment. What you do need to do is make sure that the contact, the actual, I think the real danger in my opinion on something like the Zielinski one is actually being too casual. if you're too casual on a side foot you just it's whatever but I think that if you if you go after that trying to whack it you probably can hit it way harder but the margin for error I think is way bigger when you're trying to kind of like whack one on the laces because you're you're just letting the ball essentially like come onto the foot and use the energy that's already generated to go in right exactly exactly exactly and I think this is it like the he places it in the corner he is something about the thing i love about some of the football we're seeing is i'm seeing because the game is like so much more technical now like everyone's got a ridiculous skill set you look at like o'reilly the other day and what is he really he could be a left back he could be a left wing he could be a i'm sure pep will move him inside at some point just because that's what pep does and people are finding new ways to like innovate like so even name my the other day at the weekend name i did a thing where he dummied the free kick so he dummied it so the wall jumped and then as it's sinking he took the free kick that was the thing you wouldn't have to do before because defenders would just jump then defenders were like oh they might hit it under the wall so they put someone lying there so they've they're looking for like gaps they're having to look for gaps that that are smaller than smaller and this i mean this guy can you imagine when they first suggested oh yeah we're gonna do like a corner routine like this they must have been training really are you going to actually then of course it's chan and all who can put a ball anywhere and i wonder if there's a few people who were like oh can can piota really put it there and then well clearly he could i mean there's a lot of talk about pus gas already there's a lot of talk about goal of the year and it's a lot of people's favorite um it's it's unique i don't think we'll see another goal like it this year i mean we might but i think that the the pure execution of the i I think just how, because the ball from Chalinole is amazing.

22:59It's unreal. It's the perfect height. It's the perfect pace. It's, you know, it's not deviating off its trajectory. It's like, and that's why I think it's just, it's so lovely to watch. It's like when people, I don't know, like skimming stones on lakes or like going across a frozen lake or something like that. And it's, you know, it was like a football equivalent of watching. I know it was it was aerial but it was like watching curling yes yeah it was it was you know that Harry Kane pass they keep replaying the Bundesliga on the one that he when he pings it across the pitch there are some times when I think footballers do things and I'm like did you do that just because it looked nice like you know Tony Crowe certain times you'd be like you'd hit a pass and be like okay I know that's the best available pass but there's a party that must just also just enjoy watching that and I'm sure you know like uh we've been seeing a lot of basketball players who started to play golf recently and we watched them really enjoy the swing you know they're like you know you hit the swing and then you're like you look you're holding you're holding the club and you're walking after it you know like you know it's a sweet gotta hold the pose that is actually a technique though that you sometimes learn in golf no no you you start with the finish and then you work your swing backwards because technique that they use to train the body because the thing about golf which is kind of wild is it's like it's why they talk about visualization of shots a lot of time because the brain is so powerful that it will subconsciously drop your body into like position to try and do that execute that thing which is why i imagine like visualization of like something like the zielinski goal yes but it must work in the same way right that's why people visualize stuff in sport because the i think if you visualize it and you have mental images already you've already essentially seen it your brain is subconsciously getting yourself into a position to execute the thing that you've already essentially sane yes yes yes i see that but you know i think about all the time actually on visualization because this is relevant to something uh look at us though yeah but no but visualization right so you know the david beckham goal he scores in the halfway line against wimbledon yep and there's a there's a moment there's there's literally david beckham's career is in two parts it's before and after because he scores that goal and he goes from being a very promising england player who you know he's got the boy band looks and the striking ball striking technique and he he scores that goal he becomes a mythical figure right and like visualizing that that there are some goals that people score like elite footballers score they elevate them out of the pack of everyone else that's in their class and you look at like all those great wingers they've come and gone all those great players and a lot of them they have a lot of promise but they never quite ascend you need a moment when you ascend and like david beckham visualizing that even even the confidence even the what's the word the self-belief to be like i'm going to do this because it's not like he did that again in his career or he attempted again his career it was like this is a thing that i have to do once in order to elevate me so i'm going to do it like on re doing the flick up and volley against united it's like i have to do this one thing and once I do this no one's going to like this is an interesting conversation that we weren't planning right but do you think that this is the difference between good players and great players because I think good players try to recreate that moment I think great players don't try to recreate the iconic things that they've already done before yeah like the second like you don't try to do the same album twice evolve you evolve I think there's another thing I think the good the good players don't dare to attempt those things most of them don't the very good players most of them don't dare to attempt a goal like the Beckham one if you do pull off disagree actually I think they do but look carry on no yeah the point you make about trying attempting again and again I think it's because you're afraid that that's the only thing you've got that's the only trick you've got I think maybe that's the element of it like you look at someone like Leo Messi what makes Leo Messi remarkable is that I've always said he and talk about visualization he does the things that i have never seen before yeah that i think is what makes him consistent the amount of football that i've watched and i i've just seen him do things that like i said i i've there's there are certain writers that i talk about like i don't know k tempest elif shafak certain writers that do things where i'm like i don't i didn't realize you were working with the same set of letters because i'm a writer and i look and i try to arrange words for a living and I don't I have not arranged letters in that order I didn't know that was possible and he started complaining they've broken the rules or something and I think like you know Messi I'll never forget Messi volleying a throw-in cross field to start a counter-attack who does that and he never did it again he did it once it was the perfect thing to do and he never did it again he just never he just came short did a side foot volley switched it and then that was the counter then he just jogged off again like it was nothing i think that's what makes the the truly great players who they are is it's the it's the visualization actually yeah you were going to say about like attempting stuff again and again yeah see i think this is a good difference between good and great as well in that i think um good players are like in a professional sense because obviously everyone who plays professional is like really really good at football but yeah yeah i think sometimes we underplay the decision making aspect of football and sometimes i think general discussion around football is focused on ability i think ability well i don't think it's even i think i think it's a fact ability makes up a certain percentage of what makes a footballer great decision making is the other aspect of it and knowing when to do certain things and when not to do certain things because we see so many really really good footballers trying to force stuff and i think that those decisions stop them from being great and that personally that plays into a lot of like my favorite footballers for example like i think we're seeing a shift in that conversation though i think we are yeah the appreciation for modric the appreciation for modric and pedri and rod and rodry is new i think those are decision made that those the those players are elevated yeah maybe i mean there was like a cult of pierlo a little bit which pierlo seemed to be for me maybe the turning point because yeah yeah yeah yeah i think so perlo for me i think was seen as maybe like the first millennial hipster footballer or football hipsters footballer if that makes sense because you because javi and iliesta were too too everywhere they put so many people on notice right that everyone was just like what the hell and perlo essentially was just like in the background and And then it wasn't really until the early 2010s that it felt like Pirlo's real emergence globally started to happen as like a rep.

29:52Go back and look at his early stuff when he was a number 10 and then look at his evolution of his career when he dropped into a deeper role and just see how... He's not stylistically the same, but there were elements of... There were Cruyffian elements to Pirlo in the sense that he never looked like he was in a rush. Never looked in a hurry, right? Yeah. And I think that there were elements of that with Frankie De Jong. but I think Modric was also a lot like that as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think the game has now become so technically high and I think that fans on the whole are way more like…

30:26They're more discerning? Or more appreciative? I just think there's just a lot more knowledge, a lot more information and data out there for fans to… I think fans are way smarter on the whole than ever before. The understanding of data and the understanding of tactics I think has evolved. right and and i think that maybe that means that because of that fully going on about how good someone like pierlo is has become less and less of a hipster take over the last however long because people just have people are more privy to that kind of stuff i think also the margin for error in these games is so much smaller that people have to appreciate decision making more because i think you could just overwhelm you could overwhelm teams with sheer force but even that there's a conversation about oh it's physical now but i don't think that's necessarily sustainable like the only reason man city can do what they can do is because they have erling haaland you couldn't do that with marmouche as the nine right not because marmouche is not incredible like a great yeah the very specific character well he's this is the greatness of erling haaland he's probably the only the only modern forward i could think of with the exception of maybe like an alan shearer you could do that with to play that specific type of game where you're just like so physically overwhelming that everyone's afraid of you because you're such a good finisher and he can you can do some of the build-up as well like it's he's kind of like it's kind of like if you if you merged like alan shearer with rude van istroy no i was gonna say like mario gomez oh my god i mean like so physical then also faster like he's yeah like he's he's almost like there's a there's like an i know we're talking about him earlier but there is like an on re-element to that as well because if you look for example the goal on sunday it was so inevitable there's only one outcome um ellen corner reminds me of this uh wide receiver he reminds me of carven johnson megatron this wide receiver for detroit lions incredible like unbelievable physical proportions of the incredible feel great hands great movement like just a physical specimen but also incredible movement and just unstoppable as close you could get to and I think Erling Haaland is basically Megatron.

32:34That's who he is. Just this, well, I think he wore this visor as well. So he looked like a transformer. And I think it's kind of the aura that Haaland has. We talk about aura a lot, you know, but it's really something he's got that is unique. Erling Haaland. You think of all the football we've watched and you try, you know, we love to draw comparisons like Sergio Aguero, Romario, all the way. but Erling Haaland he's kind of in a a box a category by himself I certainly can't think of a player who since Alan Shearer has taken on so much of a goal scoring burden we'd seen elements of Haaland before but also it's like oh like this is not like that they're really they're really oh my god they're really going to they're really going to give like they're really going to just put one defence midfielder there and they're really going to have like a right back who's not really right back in Nunez and they're really just going to feed us that diet they're really going to go through Cherokee and just keep running in the same play again and again oh no they're just they're just going to do that like when they are really just going to keep running that play they're like well what you need to stop it look you look at the goals that Arsenal conceded right this year and it's no coincidence that like I was the first open play came against um Erling Haaland doing what he did and that is against an incredible an incredible answer and I think this is a thing right because I think a lot of people forget how good Erling Haaland is in transition because people don't play that higher line against Man City that often because they know they're going to get cooked Dortmund days Dortmund days it became a bit didn't it Sancho Haaland goal Sancho assist Haaland goal Sancho assist that break where Dortmund would get the ball around the edge of their own box and it would break and Sancho would be in that kind of inside left position in that pocket and he would play that little through ball in stride down that channel to Haaland who would finish it was like how many times have we seen it we'd seen it so many times he's basically turned I mean Pep oh my god what a hot take Pep's turned City into Dortmund but in a sense yeah like we never thought he was going to get a racetrack like that in the Premier League basically Dortmund was well this is what makes it interesting about Bournemouth though and the sign of how confident Bournemouth are yeah few teams have given City like the only team that I think have given City that kind of space this season has been Arsenal yep really Bournemouth had a plan as well I mean that's another conversation altogether but shout out to them because I liked a lot of what they did against City.

35:01But it's funny because you've kind of got Ryan Cherky, who's back now, thank goodness, from injury. You've got him in the kind of Sancho-type role. You've got him doing an easy handoff. And the thing about Sancho that was so good at his best was the speed of the release, the timing of the release, and just understanding the movement. And all of it looks so easy. And people talk about this, you know, I will say this in defensive, people talk about this, oh, long ball football, direct football. That stuff is not easy to coordinate. it. They make that look so easy, coming through those gaps, punching it deep, into feet, turning and moving.

35:36That stuff is so well coordinated. Because the gaps look huge once they emerge, right? Like, you know Mason Mount's pass for Kai Havertz, his winner in the Champions League. The quality of that pass, the way that curves through a gap. And Havertz is in so much space by the time he runs onto it that it looks like, oh my god, they're in loads of space. No, it's like it's just an unbelievable piece of execution um i don't know a lot of people are quite sour on the the directness of the premier league but again i i love it because it's problem solving yeah it's not going to last forever yeah people yeah like i think we talked about this maybe last week but you saw how new uh barcelona just dealt with newcastle in the champions league and there'll be a team that emerges that plays that way because they can't get the physicality side of it locked and they'll just like cause loads of teams loads of problems in the premier league yeah um where did how do we get are we got here because of zielinski's volley yes he took us down a rabbit hole but um it kind of leads us on to the other thing that we wanted to talk about very quickly which was yes what is the best league to watch at the moment and so basically limit it to the top five men's leagues in europe so what's the best league to watch at the moment in Europe.

36:50And this doesn't have to be definitive. It was just because I was thinking, well, the reason for that is that the title race in Serie A again feels like multi-clubbed. And if you look at who's won it over the last couple of years, Serie A has been the more interesting in that case as well out of anyone. I mean, everyone kind of going on about long throws in the Premier League, a little bit of a follow on from the last episode. But I wanted to see if you have any thoughts off the top of your head. I would go with Serie A only because Bayern, look, of all the Champions League football, of all the Champions League favourite teams, and I would say there's about five or six in that category, Bayern look as accomplished as any in the Bundesliga.

37:30Premier League, Arsenal seem like the team in the top five that have their act most together. you look at Ligue 1 you've got like Monaco doing something quite interesting but PSG are kind of just on the they're kind of like ready to pull clear it feels at any time and I think actually I think and La Liga is basically like the Barcelona Real duopoly because of their squad depth I do agree with you I think it's Serie A I just think that's and because Serie A it's not just the closeness right it's the individual stories within the top four or five that make it so interesting now the thing that might be thrown at Serie A though is the lack of goal scoring comparatively so I did I looked into some numbers and I basically did the top five European men's leagues plus the championship and the Svita Bundesliga just for a laugh or like a comparison right because they're very very big leagues that are well supported and big clubs are in there goals per game 24-25 so for last season out of the Premier League La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A, Ligue 1.

38:38We can save the championship and sorry, Bundesliga is a separate thing, but out of those five, who do you think have the highest goals per game? Bundesliga. Is the Bundesliga. What about second? Second? La Liga? Serie A? Nope. Ligue 1? Ligue 1. Interesting. So it goes, Bundesliga 3.13. I see that. Liga 2.98. Premier League 2.93 La Liga 2.62 Serie A 2.56 Now interestingly the Championship was 2.45 and the Bundesliga and the Svita Bundesliga was 3.02 so the Bundesliga if you were going to chuck them in there Bundesliga top Svita Bundesliga second Bundesliga's wild yeah Goals per game this season that's been a big drop in the Premier League 2.69 currently it was actually lower Opta wrote an article I think after five games trying to explain the dramatic drop off in in goals in the Premier League this season.

39:37The Bundesliga's gone up. It's 3.17. La Liga's gone up ever slightly, 2.67. Ligue 1 has gone up 3.07. Serie A's gone down 5.3 of a goal a game. This is where the nil-nils this season, as a joke comes from. The Spite Bundesliga's also down 2.88. And the Championship is up ever so slightly, 2.5. So this season, still the Bundesliga out in front. Still league in second. Gladbeck are responsible for most of the Bundesliga goals. So it's actually still the same, but just in slightly different tweaks. And also the other thing I was looking at was how close the top six were. Now, obviously for some leagues, there are only really three teams who could probably win the league in La Liga.

40:28you could argue there was probably only three teams who could win the league in the Premier League currently I'd say but yeah so the points separating the top six in 24-25 Premier League was 18 points La Liga was 28 points the Bundesliga was 30 points League was 27 points but Serie A was 17 points and 12 points separating the top four and Napoli won by a point so I think in terms of a title race much more condensed unless if you want to throw in the Zweiter Bundesliga the Zweiter Bundesliga basically averages out as like the best league so we're kind of like totally it actually legit does like eight points separating the top six last season in the Zweiter Bundesliga there were 32 points separating the top six in the championship last year but Leeds and Burnley both finished on 100 points and Leeds won it on goal difference but this season already look how well those those teams have done since coming up exactly yeah so this season obviously the amount of games has varied so far but the Bundesliga sorry Premier League 8 points separates the top 6 after 10 games La Liga 12 points after 11 games and the top 4 is separated by 8 Bundesliga 11 points after 9 games Serie A 4 points separates the top 6 after 10 games Liga 4 points separates the top 6 which is interesting this season Liga way more condensed than usual that's after 11 games as well championship six points after 13 games Sviterbundersliga six points after 11 games so this season I think so basically I think it's funny right if you want just goals right German football is the one intrigue if you want like genuine kind of and I think this has been the case for a few years now Serie A gets a bit of a bad rep but I think that if you were going to go for the most intriguing, maybe not like their most exciting, but I'd say the most intriguing top five leagues to watch in order.

42:35I think I would put Serie A top. Well, look, here's the thing. And I think we said this last season. To support your point, right, Gasparini is over at Roma. He's fourth, doing some great things. Roma have scored 10 in 10, right? They're on 21 points. Atalanta, the team he left, is eight points back, having scored three goals more. that's absolutely wild and Atalanta not exactly shipping goals it was kind of like Spurs last season when Spurs were the highest goal scorers in the Premier League but they couldn't at one point but they couldn't defend couldn't defend whereas what Roma have done under Gasparini Gasparini like his teams are like freewheeling an attack but he's got them this real defensive discipline they could have got a point against Milan the reason they didn't was denied by an incredible penalty save from Dybala by money Mike Mignon on so he's almost like that's what i mean about seriat it's not just even the closest of the league which is one thing it's the individual stories content napoli mctomine running it back de bruyne um into just right at the moment yeah into into just goal heavy they're the team that kind of warping the stats with if if inter were not in that league it would base it at like late 90s seriat where like nobody could score no one could score um so inter bucked the trend and they they still are slightly my favourites just because Inter have the firepower to go on a run there was an amazing bit as well in the Verona game where I think they had a corner in the 92nd minute it was in stoppage time and it cuts to Christian Kivu who you would think a manager chasing a winner who's going for a title in stoppage time away at Verona and it's been pissing down with rain and it's like this is just like oh man like Milan and Roma are playing later and like Milan and Roma are playing later we can't drop points here you know and I think it was like a minute or so before the Owen goal that won it for them and it cuts to him and he's kind of just like smiling and joking and walking out towards the edge of his technical area kind of like very Ancelotti isn't it?

44:39very very chilled and I do wonder if that like aura yeah and having been there and done it for Inter as well I wonder whether that's going to be a factor that we maybe didn't like we talk a lot about identity don't we we talk about identity like Juventus struggling to get theirs Kivo Inter was it was always an appointment I was excited by I thought was such a great fit and you look at that league I mean what you look at basically that the top of that league is basically a peloton right and you got into right on the shoulder of Napoli and that's extremely dangerous because you fancy them at any point to make a run if you look at the other teams in that title race alongside Napoli Milan Roma Milan are brilliant in flashes they're still quite streaky they've got Rafael Liao who can just run away with an individual game but is that type of form sustainable over the course of a season but then again you've got Modric masterminding it and if any team if any team can shut down Serie A and score half the goals of the people in second place and still win the league it's a team where Luka Modic runs the midfield.

45:48This is why I'm so intrigued by Serie A because it's probably going to end up bucking trends. It's probably going to be the kind of league table by the end of the season that kind of defies conventional analysis. So yeah, that is definitely the one to watch. And now, you know, Juve won their first game under Spalletti on the weekend as well. Spalletti at Juve is so intriguing. Jamie Vardy scored again though. That is a lovely... He looks fast. Like, he looked quick. this man accelerated they were 2-0 down against Juve's second goal now for Cremonese and he got a back he backflipped for his first one what is going what is going on 38 he's 38 imagine him doing it and then being like oh I just put my back out I was falling asleep in nightclubs at 38 when is he backflipping right god you know falling asleep next to the speaker like oh it's too loud I've got to go home granddad yeah no great finish from Vardy for that but yeah like so many stories in Serie A so we're saying that like out of despite you know it might not necessarily be because I think obviously the Premier League in terms of like how stacked it is for talent is like you know and it's the richest league you know I think if you want pure goals pure goals is you go to Germany I think Liga this season is kind of having a bit like hey don't forget about us absolutely but Serie A last few years I know we have we have talked about before but I just all of a sudden thought I was just looking around at the leagues and I was just a bit like hi it's doing it again yeah yeah it's on one and I think it gets quite disrespected Serie A I think the Champions League final last season I don't think helped I it did it it didn't help but I think like in terms of just like the common opinion on no totally although having said that I think their run to the final against City earned a lot more respect than they lost by the losing to PSG because I think a lot of people look at PSG and were like, actually that team just ran hot.

47:48Like if you look at, it was such a bad matchup that you had unbelievable fitness, youth. Well, yeah, I mean, sorry, you just, you kind of raised a really good point. Like, what is it? Two finals in three years for Inter? Yeah, I think, I think that did a huge amount. And I also think that's one of the reasons why Simone Ezzaghi dipped because where else could you take, where else could he go in Italian football? And frankly, in Europe, like what other jobs were out there? There weren't like, There weren't many jobs, I think, in Europe that could have offered Simone and Zagay the same kind of challenge.

48:20And to go to two finals with them, I mean, that's kind of wild. Yeah, it's unbelievable. Unbelievable. Anyway, there you go. Yes. Also, yeah, while we're on Inter, very quickly, so happy to see Petar Suicic doing his thing at Inter. A player I loved watching in the Champions League last year, and I'm super excited to see him push on. There's always room for United. Anyway, listen, enough from...

48:55Listen, you've got to put the feeders out there. Ryan, if I don't ask, who will? I don't know, maybe the director of football. People get paid quite a lot of money, football operations. Can you imagine? Petar Suchic is MUTV interview first interview as a Manchester United player so what what brought you to Manchester United Petar well I was listening to this podcast this guy called Musak Wongo was on there and he was just like come to Old Trafford and I was like do you know what yeah yeah like why not or maybe if I go there he'll shut up about it yeah extreme measures but I had to do it anyway alright shall we roll let's do it alright we're going to be back with a couple of Champions League podcasts this week so if you want to listen to them, go to patreon.com forward slash stadio, sign up as a podcast member if you just want the podcasts or if you want access to the Stadio Social Club Discord which gives you loads of extra perks as well, including a membership package to sign up for a year and they're going to be going out in the next couple of weeks.

49:57The first batch, patreon.com forward slash stadio. You can sign up as a stadio social club member or a podcast member and you can listen to every single podcast ad-free and in full. Until then, Don't forget to check the study out just place on Spotify. And speaking of which, we're playing out on Evolution Technology by, not Serie A, Series A. Which was actually not planned. I mean, it's a nicer... It's a nicer, it's a nice touch, it's a nice touch. We actually didn't plan that. That's quite funny. That's incredible. Oh, wow. What could I say? Anything you'd like to add, Musogwango? What can I add to that?

50:38Exactly. I will not be back flipping at the end of this podcast no you won't alright everyone much love back with you Wednesday see you then evolution evolution evolution evolution Technology

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