The fine line between ‘it’s so over’ and ‘we’re so back’

0:22hello and welcome back to the stadio podcast i'm meisukwong i'm ryan hun Ryan, how are you doing? I'm doing alright, thanks man. How are you doing? Not as well as Jeremy Docku. We'll get to that. We'll get to that. Few people are. Absolutely flying, my goodness. Absolutely flying. We hope everyone's staying safe and well, wherever you are. And we're going to start today with some admin. For anyone listening on the free feed, we're not going to put the clips up anymore of the Patreon episodes. so if you want to listen to other episodes apart from the monday one go to patreon.com forward slash stadio we might occasionally put like a clip of if we have like a big episode or you know a big guest and stuff like that we might put one of those on the free feed but yeah from now on we're not gonna flood the feed with clips so on the free feed you'll just get the monday episodes in there every week as normal all free but if you want to listen to the rest of the stadios add free and in full go to patreon.com forward slash stadio you can sign up as a podcast member where you just get the podcasts or if you want to sign up as a stadio social club member get access to the stadio social club discord um you also get loads of other perks you get a membership pack if you sign up to the stadio social club for a year you get 15 off annual memberships for both so if you want to go to patreon.com forward slash stadio we're recording this on the sunday night not long after manchester city's win over liverpool in the premier league so there's still a few european games that are taking place tonight.

1:47So what you and I are going to do, we still are going to record that and do it in the second episode this week. Now we're in the November Men's International break. Might be worth taking a little bit of a temperature check on some teams, I think. Yes, absolutely. So we're going to do that for the non-Premier League stuff and we'll do that on the next episode. There's Women's Champions League this week as well. We might not be able to cover it this week, but we might cover some next week. So lots going on still. But today, we're going to focus mainly on the Premier League because it kind of did really feel like this weekend there was the thinnest line between being so over or we're so back and it felt like it felt like most teams in the league went through it this weekend they did yeah almost without exception almost without exception so um I think we're going to focus there today we might touch a little bit on Pep as well because he's now managed a thousand games.

2:47Yes. Only 54 years old, which feels young to me. Yeah, totally, yeah. But there is only one place to begin. Oh, no. It's a good one. We're beginning with Marta's run in stoppage time at the end of the game against Seattle Reign. Oh, I've not seen this. I've not seen this. So in the playoffs, Marta picks the ball up and just basically runs the entire life. Oh, goodness. And then Marta gets fouled in the penalty box and then gives the penalty to Luana to take it. It's unbelievable. Incredible. I've got to see this. They're doing it in a game that's significant. Absolutely incredible. Fine, I'll do it myself.

3:26Yeah, that is the best place to start. Yeah, yeah. Take that. Let's go to the Premier League. Let's do it. Shall we begin with Crystal Palace? No, not really.

3:40No shade. Not the most fun game of the weekend, Palace Brighton. Who would have thought that would be the quiet one? Kind of weirdly like the tactical equivalent of that gif of the two kids doing karate. Swing and miss. Oh no. We're going to start in Manchester. We have to, yeah. Manchester City 3, Liverpool 0. A statement victory. It was. Are Manchester City back? Did they go anywhere? I think they did go somewhere. They've still got somewhere to go as well, funnily enough. the way that they're going at the moment it feels it feels more and more sustainable with every passing week because they're sharing the strike now a lot much has been made of Erling Haaland's goal scoring burden but other players are now advancing their course Jeremy Docker as you mentioned earlier was sensational they won this game 3-0 but it kind of felt over around about sort of just before half time and just after you know would there be would there be a surge after the halftime break and there wasn't really.

4:45When Virgil van Dijk's goal got disallowed, it felt like that sucked so much of the confidence out of that Liverpool side because they had been outplayed at that point. You could see van Dijk and the team organising the corner and it felt like a very well-worked corner. It was planned. It seemed like a routine that they had. And I personally think the goal should have stood. Yes, I think so. I think it should have. I think it should have. Andy Robertson has stood behind Jeremy Docku anyway but I don't think either of them are blocking the line of sight. They stood outside of the line of the ball.

5:15Donnarum's not getting there. We've seen goals that could have been called way more than this one. Be allowed. Really felt that just kind of sucked all of the energy out of it. I thought they only had one huge punch. I thought they only had one huge punch in this game and so much of it, even before the second goal went in, there was a total lack of cohesion. At one point, Mo Salah received possession and I was like, my goodness, he's barely got him on the ball. Wietz, high industry, very high industry, but low output in terms of what he was trying to achieve. And the work ethic is there, but this was the first game where I felt slightly concerned for Wietz in the sense that Wenger just came out and made that judgment that the signing of Florian Wietz destroyed the midfield.

6:06The choice of words was pretty brutal, but then you put that label on someone, someone so respected as Wenger, and now becomes a thing where you go from being like the wunderkind to like, oh, you're a problem player in terms of tactically, at least. And the thing that I fear, the longer the difficult period of form goes on for Wiers, the longer I fear that he might forget what his best self looks like. Because confidence is everything. He's a great player and I figure they'll work it out eventually, but it concerns me. I thought he was okay today. I think he was good against Real Madrid. I thought he was...

6:40I thought he was good and then ended up okay. Doku's figured out he is, what's that thing they all, the phrase about Pauza, like when to pass, when to cut. Yeah, he's got his time in life. It was the time. I think Doku is now, yeah, I think Doku is approaching defenses with a much clearer plan than before. I think he's so gifted at improv that I think there were points when he first arrived in the Premier League where it was like, actually, I've never really needed to. He's got the tactical chops and strategic chops. Of course, we know he does. but I think he had to sort of step back and go okay actually I can beat a player two times out of five but actually in the times when it's not always about taking the five on it's actually about me being such a threat as a playmaker that I can hit the byline I can cut in and no one knows when he's going to do it I can split a double team and I thought this Jeremy Dock is best game for Man City it's it's certainly up there it's certainly I struggle to remember a better one in a game of this magnitude.

7:39I've seen him play incredible games, but in terms of this and the importance of it, and again, like you say, the statement. Yeah, Liverpool, I think you look throughout the team and obviously, I mean, Mamad Ashford actually wasn't bad. No, I mean, do you want to go through the... Yeah, of course, let's get into it. Yeah, yeah. It was the penalty first. Yeah, which he concedes, but he's exposed for that. I actually don't blame him with him for conceding because he's so exposed. Yeah, well, the fault for the penalty comes from Canate, who just gets involved. This was pure, like bradley kind of had it under control and i was like whoa what you do yeah i'm right here yeah that just completely caused chaos and caused that whole like doku just wriggles through i have some sympathy with mama dashi just because the chaos it was unanticipated because that should have been dealt with so all of a sudden you're like i'm i'm off my line when i shouldn't i should be thinking about this going why the hell is this guy getting through yeah but then you know you see the moment of justice because holand's penalty wasn't wasn't particularly good right well i think I think that's one of those penalties that sometimes they get awarded, sometimes they're not.

8:40If it hadn't been awarded, I don't think it would have been Howler. I mean, well, it wasn't actually awarded, was it? And the only reason it was awarded was because Bernardo Silva. That's the first case, actually, I think I've seen. It must have happened before. Bernardo Silva just boots the ball out of play because he knows that they're going to get a review. Smart, very smart. He looked good, actually. He looked good. So the penalty from Haaland, it was strange. I mean, obviously, we had the view from behind when it was taken in terms of the camera angle. but it looked like in terms of body language pretty clear from the moment he well he's warming up where it was going mamadashvili like won the best shot stoppers around so a really good save from him but credit to holland um he stayed busy kept cutting kept making very good movement and got rewarded for an open eye with the open eye but regardless of of the touches and the order touches the header you know it's confusing with canati um yeah the failure to contest the failure to make himself a real presence in the air.

9:33A fantastic footballer, but just having a difficult time of it. You know, the amount of space you have to cover, the ground you have to cover, you're really exposed in that back line if you're not on your game. And it feels a little like... Do you remember, like, certain players have struggled with that style of defending? And Kanata has looked so assured, but some of the struggles, they're not as dramatic, but some of the struggles remind him a little bit of when Dejan Lovren lost a bit of confidence. Yeah, yeah. A very good footballer, but someone who when it wasn't working for him he went through it and I think he's kind of going through it um Liverpool are suffering hugely from just not having really another option apart from Joe Gomez at the back yeah that's a real challenge for them I think that's right yeah because then the rotation is an issue um and there's just so many games at this point you know you look at the Champions League that's up and running in fact Liverpool have been really quite good in the Champions League so yeah that was that was 1-0 uh and then of course the Van Dijk header which was brilliant and disallowed and just the energy when that went in.

10:33The energy when the goal went in. It was a neutral. I was just, this game's going to get up. Wow, this is on. Yeah. Especially with all that Van Dijk's been dealing with on and off the field in recent games and the conversations he's had. And it was almost like that statement, that statement of like, I'm not only just locking things down at the back, I can get forward and cause damage. And when it got disallowed, it was like, you know, it was almost like, this is just our month, isn't it? You know, they get their second, the deflected strike from Nico Gonzalez. And of course, it's a deflection of van dyke if he wasn't unlucky enough and i just thought this really the perfect summary of like when things aren't going for you they're really not they go into half at 2-0 and you know docker's looking superb and he's also coming centrally at certain point as well like his movement his goal well this is the thing before he even scored it like what he's doing now is he's popping up in all these unconventional places right you know the thing that Jackson Ervan said when he spoke to him about how Murciala takes up these ridiculous positions where he's just all over the place you don't know where he's going to pop up and I think what Doku's done is not just his unconventional positioning off the boards him receiving the play and the build up on a right wing like playing a 1-2 then cutting and then all of a sudden it's like oh this isn't the Doku of I'll hit the byline then cut it back no this is I don't know when I'm going to cut and so it was the Iron Robin thing of like you don't know when he's you know he's going to cut inside at some point to shoot you just don't know when well i think jeremy doku this season it's kind of like when a skater starts landing tricks and then they just can't stop amazing perfect yeah yeah and all of sudden you're like how like what is that trick oh that's so funny you should mention yes this is exactly it's funny because i heard a similar thing there's a great beatboxer mc zander shout out to him and he said look if you're gonna be a beatboxer prepare to like not be good for a long long time yeah yeah like for a long long time and not that don't get me wrong doku like when he joined City to be clear all docker enthusiasts no he was good that's the thing like you could see it but you could just see those like those kind of just a bit too raw almost I mean like again to be clear he was like he was leading like Europe in like take-ons I think successful take-ons but in terms of putting it all together yeah that's the thing but I also have quite a lot of sympathy for him because he came into a side and I think it can be quite difficult to be a player like him to come into a side like Man City and we saw what happened with Jack Grealish they're different kind of players I don't think he's a selfish player but he is quite individualistic.

12:53But that's his strength. You could tell that there was clearly so much ability there but it seemed to not really fit with the rest of the side. And what's happened now, and I think this is largely down to him and also down to just Pep and the squad freaking out, is that it's not an either or. There's just another way for them to break through defences. It's an Oni Maduroke thing, isn't it? Yeah, that's exactly it. In terms of a player who's got incredible skill sets who can combine. But I think he deserves a lot of credit for that because it can be quite difficult to strike that balance at a place like Man City because it can be quite different for players like that.

13:27And I think, yeah. We all know that. We know how well, we know how much Pep de Manso is wingers, right? Look at Pedro, from Pedro at Barcelona onwards. And you get caught in between tactical obedience or no, tactical discipline, let's put it better, tactical discipline and self-expression. And most often players have erred on the side of discipline because if you get loose it doesn't work so Savino Savino's quality going forward didn't save him you could argue that Cancelo was a playmaker going forward it didn't save him all these things and what Ducco has managed to do is have that discipline that quality and we're now seeing like it's having the it's having the patience especially as a young player it's really impressive all the more impressive the patience to kind of put it all together and now this version of City we see the next iteration of what Pep's trying to build.

14:17And it's no coincidence, Nico Gonzalez, who's the face of the new city. Actually, if you look at it, this is the next gen Man City. In his thousandth game, you have the core, a core. You've got Rodri there, obviously, with the injury, but I think Nico Gonzalez has not just been signed as a deputy, I think he's been signed as a successor. He's an exceptional player, always loved him at Porto, always was a bit surprised by why there wasn't a greater clamor for his signature. But in terms of an attacking core, a defensive core Doku Haaland and and Gonzalez as the three scorers as kind of perfect as Pep's next Pep's next stage so yeah great great performance from them the clean sheet too and looking looking kind of scary and even watching Donnarumma float some of these passes are always not so good with his feet and I'm like what?

15:06My man's floating perfect bombs to the halfway line what are we even talking about?

15:13just so yeah donnarumma's just absolutely sending it city not looking i would say city not looking their final form but looking ominous no there's some chat in the in the stadio discord about oh arsenal fans are you more worried about city now after watching this performance i'm not i'm i'm personally not any more worried than i was before city have started to look much better in the last few weeks but they've also had hiccups they had the villa game yeah they have those moments in there where I feel like at the moment and this is just at the moment obviously a lot can change that Sunderland game for Arsenal was the sloppiest I've seen them for a while but that feels like that was a game and I think that this is this is one of the things that also felt like a bit of a theme this weekend kind of around Europe actually was that a lot of teams had this down as a weekend but it felt very much just like look this is a weekend we need to get through and get to the international break right yeah because they were felt like a few teams but we'll talk about it on the next show but like you know Bayern at Union for example scrappy actually this has felt like the first time that teams have started to feel tired this season already I think Liverpool looked quite tired this international break is quite key for a lot of sides to bring some players back in and so you know a point away at Sunderland for example for Arsenal is not like the worst thing in the world it's a result it's so funny isn't it funny like that given the start of the season every few expectations but it's a result I think you know what it is I think a point at Sunderland for Arsenal will return to City-Liverpool, but just to sort of put a pin in this, it's a subpar result, not a disastrous result, and also a result that will age well over the course of the season.

16:46It's all over, we're so back, it's all over again. Totally, yeah. That's the thing, that's what I'm saying, everyone went there. Is there anything more from the City-Liverpool game that you want to talk about? Do you want to say anything from a Liverpool point of view? I don't want to overanalyze this result because it doesn't surprise me hugely in terms of the outcome. I was slightly surprised by the I thought there'd be a bit more energy from Liverpool a bit more cohesion but they're still shuffling the pack so no this is kind of where I thought I was slightly surprised by the size of the scoreline if I'm honest I was expecting maybe a single goal margin or a double goal margin I wasn't expecting three I think the third goal I think psychologically I think it didn't certainly help them what was surprising the last thing I'll say is looking at the stats you would have thought that City had more of the ball but they didn't they had 49 % possession it just felt like they always had the ball they didn't but it felt like that so they had so much of the quality ball basically but yeah that's it I think we mentioned it either on the last show or the show before but the way that the league is so condensed from Chelsea in third to Everton in 13th there are five points but the gap between City and Chelsea is only two points but it feels like more it's the thing on games it's so weird all of it's so weird then again you know Chelsea are third you know a pretty routine win over Wolves just in terms of the golfing quality is obviously is substantial but then Everton with a really good win but they're still only 13th like it's just it's that was a really good win actually it was really good and then Newcastle Newcastle contrasting the Champions League form and their Premier League form it's yeah they're struggling away from home aren't they I think strange run strange run two back to back three one defeats away from home in the league Brentford were really good though Yes Newcastle were also unlucky to catch Nuno like getting getting everything to work his way and obviously like West Ham looking quite interesting now with the win over Burnley so that I think Newcastle were unlucky to kind of be caught by Nuno coming into form because before they had a really good win over Spurs so you can maybe like you know they got caught by teams running hot at the wrong time and teams they struggled against then maybe they'll just again don't know they can't over interpret these results Worth saying as well though it was one all when Dan Byrne got sent off.

19:03Yeah, that's huge. And then they lose 3-1 in the last, like concede two goals in the last 20 minutes or so. Maybe the theme of all of this, unless you're Wolves, of course, is like, just don't panic. With Forrest picking up points against Leeds, you know, all of it. We might have to talk about this though, because this Rob Edwards to Wolves thing. You know what concerns me about it? You need, incidentally enough, you need a Nuno type manager. You need to shore things up. And the problem is like, Luton were many things when they were, when they were in the Premier League, but they weren't the best at shoring things up.

19:33And that's just my concern. You need someone to make it boring. And look who you've got above you. It's no coincidence that you've got Daesh and Nuno directly above you in the relegation zone as appointments that were made. That's no coincidence, actually. Yeah, I mean, I know that because Rob Edwards, he obviously played for Wolves and he did an interim manager stint, didn't he? I like the emotional fit. I'm just not sure I like the tactical one. I think taking the job, like leaving mid-season to take the job of a side who is bottom of the Premier League, who has not yet won a game and is seven points adrift.

20:05And that gap, by the way, is the single biggest gap to any club in the Premier League. Like there was no bigger gap between Wolves and Forest. I think it's so risky. I think it's really, really risky. Ryan, the heart wants what it wants. Oh God. and maybe we need to like this and maybe we just need to be more in the end it was all about wolves yeah we need to get spiritual about it we need to yeah it was all about wolves well listen all the best all the best to him and all that's the wolves look whatever turns around turns around and i look it's um there is some of course there's some logic in the appointment um it's bold and actually the middlesbrough side you know he's coaching they have been maybe he's got a case you know what it is I think it's unfinished business so actually I can lock things down I can run this back I've learned from these challenges the challenge that Rob Edwards is going to have is not that he's not a fantastic coach it's that the teams above you are stacked the quality above you in the Premier League at this point it's hard to see how they break surface tension well obviously surface tension is the other direction but it's hard to see how they break out of that bottom three not that they're not a side with some decent players.

21:19But if you just look above them, you know, got to keep pushing. Got to keep pushing, man. So we bigged up Forrest for their win over Leeds. Great win. Yes. We bigged up Bremford for their win over Newcastle. Great win. Palace, like we mentioned, Palace and Brighton wasn't a classic. Surprisingly so. Let's do Sunderland. Sunderland 2, Arsenal 2, the early Saturday tea time game. Which was, I think for neutral, was probably quite fun because it looked like Arsenal were under the cosh a little bit. If anyone's in any doubt, by the way, Sunderland are really good. I was very, very worried about this, especially after when Ballard gave Sunderland the lead.

22:01No muted celebration. No muted celebration there. I love that, though. I love that. He never made a senior appearance for Arsenal. And yeah, man, drink it in. Yeah, and he was in the 23s as well. so he really like gave it his best shot and great opener and the place was you know absolutely rocking and I thought Arsenal did well to come back and take the lead you know look I think they're they're pretty much the best team around at the moment like in terms of Arsenal being a complete side but still suddenly gave it to them for them to come back and the Trossard strike oh my god well to both goals actually really good really really good the Saka finish was very very good indeed there isn't anywhere that he can really like but also the pressing pressing for the Marino the way the way that they the Arsenal pressed Sundland to win back the ball oh my god brutal and when it comes to Saka like the way Saka just shields yeah shields the ball from there was no there was no other there was no other outcome there with his wrong foot as well so good so good and yeah like you mentioned like the Trossard goal was just like that's a didn't you say didn't you say that every goal he scores is like passive-aggressive.

23:16Yeah, it's not full anger with Trossup, but it's almost just like every goal he scores it's almost like he's saying this is why I should start. I'm still here. Do you know this sounds like a weird comparison, but I used to live in East London in Hackney and the look on his face after he scores so often reminds me of the time my housemate forgot to let the cat in and the morning after the cat comes in that morning it's just like, oh yeah, oh yeah, really? Oh yeah, I still live here. Hey, remember, your job to keep me alive. That's exactly the energy.

23:52But Broby, but you know, something kept, kept pushing after them, the, after Arsenal went ahead and credited them. And Broby had two really good efforts attempts before he scored his final goal. Yeah, yeah. Caused Arsenal some problems. His movement for the last one. Yeah, you might, you might argue that his movement should have been anticipated, but he got there ahead of Raya. Raya, who made three very good saves from him actually. it thought i had a personal deal at some point right it was i think i said this in the stadio disco but ryan very much with the energy of someone who hasn't had a lot to do for a month and then a middle manager that all of his staff have called sick on the same day and was just like whoa i am like i am so out of practice guys i'm like where are all these shots coming from what's happening he said like he was loving it he's like he's really loving it living his best It's like, finally, finally.

24:38I've been so bored for six weeks. What the hell? This is a curious one, right? Because I think that Sunderland deserved the point. I think if Arsenal had won the game, I think Arsenal would have deserved three points. Do you know what I mean? Who would have thought that Sunderland would be the first team to score two against Arsenal this season? Yeah, I think that that game, it felt like seeing that be a 5.30 kickoff was just like if there was ever a game I wish was like a lunchtime kickoff or like a three o 'clock kickoff just a three o 'clock kickoff and just don't put it on TV and it's just no one wants to see this especially me please just let let's just let's just have this one of those really boring like let's last on match of the day 1-0 Arsenal I'm fine with that it's you know there was a vibe about it where I was like this could be the one that we the Arsenal come unstuck in a little bit especially before the men's international break.

25:38I know what's going to happen here. It's going to be a defeat and then we've got two weeks of like, it's so over. Will Arsenal finish in the Champions League spots? Well look, where it's talking to the Champions League spots, Sunderland are in them and all likely they'll be ahead. They've got a difficult run of games now actually. Bournemouth, Liverpool, City, but then they've got that derby against Newcastle. That's going to be absolutely wild. The bragging rights. I mean, it's going to be... Geordie, it must be unbearable at the moment just hearing them yapping about it. But yeah, far ahead of them in the table.

26:11And that's going to be a hell of a fixture. One negative from an Arsenal point of view. And it's been a while since he's done this, I think, Mikel Arteta. But I think he kind of got the, well, I was going to say subs, but there was only one made in the game, which was taking off Eber Echeza and bringing on Christian Mosquera, who like two minutes from time. And I thought this was a bit of a weird one. Like I know he was, he wasn't exactly blessed with options because there were a lot of players out. Yeah. I thought Arsenal were fine. They were kind of doing okay. I get why some games are fine to do this.

26:45I think this was one that if he could have a do-over, I wonder if he makes that same change because I did think... It's just the small margins, isn't it? Right, right. Yeah, I don't think Arsenal needed to do that, actually. I don't think they needed to sit back and absorb. I thought they were quite, Like, they had a couple of moments, but they were fine. Yeah. Unnecessary retreat. Points dropped. Yeah. So it's a disappointing outcome. But yeah. But I don't think that's the worst. I think that we're... These results happen all, like, every season. Yeah. And this is not a bad result. Like, if you get a point away to the side that is currently fourth in the Premier League, like, yes, they've just come up, but they beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge a couple of weeks ago.

27:26This isn't like... This result actually qualifies... This result... almost confirms the quality of that performance, if that makes sense. But yeah, so Sunderland, look, again, like full credit to them. Slightly below them. Yeah, sorry. I was going to say, how have we got this far without talking about Spurs and Manchester United? Because I'm trying to duck all United conversations this year. Why? Because this was another one of like, this was a kind of glorious draw. It was. You know what? It's a really good point for United. It's a really good point for United. Spurs going 2-1 up in the... You were laughing about this.

28:00Spurs going 2-0 up in the final minute as soon as Richarlison took his shirt off I knew United I knew it Delict loved loved loved loved that they equalised fingers to the lips such a statement I think because it just felt like oh you're egging everyone on with this celebration look United with a good point two good draws actually you might say oh well they lost the winning streak but to draw at Forest and to draw at Spurs I'll take that at this point and as you say they're not in the worst league position we're seventh and i would have taken that after the defeat to grimsby it's all about context would have taken this yeah lomond's great again for us just looks so assured and there's so much the thing about the united team that i enjoy is that i say enjoy it's a strong word but i do enjoy is i see there is so much to come not only from players that started but you can see the direction of travel now yeah i still think there's a couple of players who should be brought in, who should be signed.

28:59But I still think there's quality in that squad that we haven't seen yet. So yeah, I'm very happy with that. Very happy with that result. Villa, four Bournemouth, nil. Just on that, just to say, Villa, yeah, this is what we're talking about. This is what we expect, not expect, this is the quality that we know, let me put it better, this is the quality that we know Villa have against a very strong Bournemouth side, four different scorers. I think Villa have decided, actually it doesn't matter about the forwards not scoring. Let's just go and get the goals because even when they're not scoring, they do so much off the ball for us.

29:33You see fully why Morgan Rodgers is such an asset to Thomas Tuchel. His movement was superb throughout this game. Buendia with a great free kick, Grimaldo style to open. And they just, these are the levels actually. Villa shaking off whatever torpor disappointment they had from early in the season, failing to secure some transfers, failing to hit the heights they really wanted at the end of last season. But yeah, this is the level now. Two wins on the bounce. And actually three in the last four, including win over City. Like this is, you're showing us something. Unai's tooling up. And now Villa are only what?

30:16They're like one point at the Champions League spots after 11. Crisis, what crisis? Well, this has been like, it felt like a thing. like a lot of people have had really good starts or really bad starts and they've flipped this season. It feels like there's been quite a lot of those around Europe this season. I mean, the start was horrible. I know that sounds like standard, like, yeah, sometimes you start slower and then sometimes you rhyme quick, sometimes you rhyme slower. No, you beat me to it. You beat me to it. You beat me to it. Sometimes you start quick and sometimes you start slow. You beat me to it.

30:49Oh, no. I can hear it. I'm so annoyed at myself.

30:58So annoyed at myself. It should have been me, not him. Carry on, carry on. But it feels like this season, there were big stories of incredible starts or a lot of drama around catastrophic starts for sides where people are like, is this person going to go? Is this the right manager? To be honest, with the exception of Arsenal, it basically feels like free jazz. When I'm looking at it, I'm just like, This is, what is... Everyone's just waiting for a solo. What are we doing? Even the West Ham Burnley game. Like, what are we doing? Again, look, I'm with no prejudice to Bournemouth, who obviously, look, a day they'd rather forget.

31:35But I'm a happy fulfiller. Yeah. Because when I saw the 3-0 defeat to Palace, I mean, no Palace are a fine side. But that, like, after the start, that is sort of the third result they'd had. I was like, hey, this could get ugly. But the defence is decent. I mean, they conceded 10-11. It's not the worst. more goals can come will come but they've shored things up and now looking kind of interesting and i and i think maybe a credit to all those teams that i have absolutely no idea where most of your teams are going to end up i just couldn't tell you couldn't tell you yeah i said in the style discord that there's like a it feels like there's a cluster of teams that could finish any one of fourth to tenth but i could probably extend that out to like 11th maybe yeah in any order and you'd be like yeah i could probably i could probably understand where that's come from yeah yeah for sure you see the top four and then the top the top two then top four would kind of be like there would be a sort of there'll be a gap in maybe sort of consistent terms of quality if not necessarily points there would just be those top two would just have i think enough to handle these other teams in their current iteration and then below the top four another tier and that tier is like enormous that tier is like really big and extends almost down to the relegation zone what's the thing the strikes are you the strike in baseball the strike zone is getting big all the time.

32:49It is. It's out of the corner of my eye just seeing the highlights from the Brazilian Grand Prix. It's like everyone from third down to 13th is stuck in a DRS train. I love that. Someone needs to pit just to get some clean air. There you go. Shout out to the F1 heads. It is though. The Premier League's DRS train. You know what can I say is it's a good league. It's a good season. It's a good season. Well, it's a good league. Who knows? But it's a good season. It's a good season. It is a good season because I feel like it is, it's doing some good to normalise what normal form is. What normal good form is as well, actually.

33:30I think that if the Premier League can somehow wrestle itself back from being like, you need to get 90 points every year. Yes. You know, and actually, look, like Arsenal going to Sunderland and dropping points is not the end of the world. Liverpool losing the way that I think obviously Liverpool are in a really tricky moment but that's not catastrophic that result I don't think no no no having people taking points off each other so consistently through the league I think is actually quite a good thing for the league yeah absolutely all right so I know we're Premier League focused today yeah quick shout out for Pep who reached a thousand games as manager yes and uh you post you sent me a lovely video that they put on Sky where they had like other Premier League managers who had hit a thousand or managers who had managed in the Premier League who had hit a thousand games as well.

34:21And it was really funny, his reaction. It was actually quite sweet. Like his biggest reaction was to Tony Bulis. Who he's expressed great admiration for. I think some of it's stuff he hadn't heard before as well. Like he would have heard a lot of that from, he sees those people more than he might see. His path might cross like Wenger at like different conferences and even Klopp. Like it's very clear they're in contact, right? Like they are in touch. like he knows you know that or at some level so i think tony pulis someone he admires so much but whose path you don't cross right he's like one of those dudes you know there's in your circle friends like at uni there was always that dude that you wish you hung out with a bit more and you see them every few months and it would always be amazing you're like oh i wish i saw some more of x and then like to see him on a video and to be affirmed publicly it's something about it's one thing to hear similar to sam allardyce it's one thing to hear the praise privately but to hear someone express that in a form which you know is going to be made public it can be quite moving and i think what i love about it is the range of football the range of football managers who express admiration for pep yeah you know like on an honest level not as in oh he thinks he's too good for us like there's a level of actual connection and it's a it's a level of fellowship you don't often see among managers because it's such a solitary you know career yeah no i agree i think this is a quite a media invention this kind of stylistic battling of manager right it's quite like a media driven thing yes when pep first arrived well i mean arson wenger's had it other managers have had it but when when clop and pep arrived it felt like the final boss levels of this kind of stuff of uh you know the fancy manager who's come from x y you know like the philosophy manager who's now you know what what about our managers kind of thing and that's the media world because the media weren't giving credit it was more like yeah managers who annoyed at pep were more like we were doing this but it's not on pep to give us credit we were doing this and we would have appreciated it's really i think it's really interesting that people like allardyce and people like pubis are so like so and warnock warnock was a good one just basically just being like look you're you're amazing there's no resentment i think that's that's really telling when managers do that especially like in quotes proper football managers yeah you know i mean in terms of like oh the belts and braces like the people that you expect because the thing about manage managers and i spoke to um i wrote a book a few years ago about all of this and i i made a point of speaking to not only managers lower league managers people that don't have infinite resources people that have to like really shuffle the pack i knew difficult things and it was fascinating to see the admiration they had yeah they get the job done like like pep does and plays the football he plays it's winning football and he plays the more expansive game because actually you have to at that level you have to gamble you're not gonna It's not the mid to late 90s where you've got a back four, you know, like the Milan back four that's the greatest of all time, in the early 90s, to Sotti, Barisi, Costa, Curta, Maldini.

37:09You don't have that, right? And you can't sit deep. You can't. That year they won in the late 90s, the mid 90s, Milan, they scored, they averaged like a goal a game in the league, just over a goal game in the league. And they go 1-0 up and defend for like 80 minutes. You can't do that anymore. And so they really respect how Pep has worked with big resources because they're like, even if I had all those resources, could I really gamble like Pep does, like Ancelotti does? At the same time, I think what Pep does is, it's been really good consistently. He honours them. Like, for the most part, every now and then he'll get snippy that someone sits deep or plays a certain type of football.

37:40But do you remember the one time he went after Pep when Pep was like, the second balls, the long balls, and people thought he was cussing people. He wasn't. He was actually saying, no, like, we don't have the second ball thing in Spain to the same extent. And someone like Pulis is so good at it. And he was saying it from a place of like respect. Like, oh my God. And it's now become their thing. You know what I mean? pepper is obsessed like all managers are obsessed with the second ball yeah totally it's everything you know so really like i i just i really and i spoke about this i was interviewing um was it graham turner when he was over at hereford about like i said what kind of companionship is there among managers and i asked this like years ago i was like you know where is it like uh do you kind of meet up do you chat because no he's not it's not like that it's really such a lonely solitary thing because you're being pithed against each other and you're in your own path but you kind of there's nods after games always so meaningful when like you'll see that coaches you see them respect each other like you know where this is tough and it's only fleeting but very often you can see who respects who you can see the bond and it's just very rare and I love that video I just wanted to highlight it because it's just so rare you get to see managers who are still managing like just share the love you don't see it and to be honest it's got me thinking I would actually love more of that I would love to see players after players get like let's say a big award.

38:56Like, you know, when Luka Modric won the Ballon d 'Or, it was one of the most popular Ballon d 'Ors. I would love to get video messages, just like montages and just be like, oh, that Luka, actually, so-and-so, oh, here's Pedri. You know what I mean? It would just be nice to have a kind of a montage as well, I think. It's quite sweet. Additional extra. Like, just loads of old random Spurs players who played with him. Because the NBA is really good at that, isn't it? The NBA is quite good. I think American sport more generally is better at giving flowers during the course of a career and football was just not quite so i think it's you get you have the pfa don't get me wrong which is amazing it's great accolade but i don't know if it's as good as honoring people while they're around i think well i think it's good but i think there's more let me be more positive it's good but i think there's a level more that can be done actually but yeah i think it's cool yeah i think it's good it's just cool to see it yeah who was it who said it was it wenger felt like he died and he was seeing what people had said about him when he was leaving when you've announced your exit people then tell you all the great things and i think it's cool when you have people tell active players or active managers and that stuff you know i would love to i think that's stuff that a lot of them would never have heard before or imagined like you'd be surprised if you popped onto the video and i think as well i'd love to hear from players or managers like which accolade like surprised you the most in the best way if we interview other players we should actually introduce a segment which is like pick one player that you want to say something to do you know what i that's a lovely idea that's a lovely idea yeah let's do that like next time if next time we get to interview someone be like actually i want to just like give credit to you like so they can give flowers actually to each other that'd be lovely yeah yeah if you could pick any player you don't have to know them but if there was any player that you'd be like wow this player's amazing and i want to tell them how great they are oh i love that i love that i love that because you see it a lot again you see it in basketball all the time where players are just like we'll be like basketball is really funny because you'll have players on social media watching the games going oh wow like oh my god 50 points oh you dropped that somebody's head oh my god incredible incredible like props like in real time you see a lot of the nfl as well it's not quite you see a little bit in football you see it a bit but not to the same extent so it's like to see more of that um but yeah yeah just pep yes huge from calculations and who's changed football in every country every country he's been in we talk about this like the german league your godsons team playing out from the back was it your godsons team who was playing yeah yeah yeah yeah playing out for the back yeah doing the most that's all that's all pep's influence like you can see you influence the playground i mean it's not ultimate accolade yeah but really but in terms of in the modern yeah cool yeah in the modern era yeah yeah yeah who else can say they transformed three leagues like really like or the catalyst for change in three leagues i would say the catalyst and also national sides oh my goodness yeah he completely changed that he completely influenced the german national team which is wild yeah because you had to talk about pep you had to whether you liked what he was doing or not you had to respond to it yeah pretty unreal yeah yeah i have a question just you know not doesn't have to be well thought out or whatever but do you think he will sign another manchester city contract or do you think this will be his final contract to man city how long has he got left with this one 2027 so yeah the end of next season there's there's loads of stuff saying that he will take a break and then some he said that he will take a break and that he won't take a break so the most recent one i can find is from a couple of weeks ago it's on the premier league's website from the middle of October.

42:35Manchester City manager responds to former colleagues suggestion he needs to rest and regenerate. Pep Guardiola says in 2035 I will start to think about it. At the moment I have the energy with my players to simply make a better season than last season. This is my target. I'm pretty sure he said he has said before that he would take a break after the Man City gig. But who knows? I think Pep will be gone before. I think he says 35 so he just kicks the ball into long grass. But like I think he's gone long before that. and it's weird because okay i'm saying this with no no insider knowledge at all but um you know how like clop is gone and he's like gone gone like it's almost it's so funny how impossible it is to imagine clop ever standing on a touchline again it's impossible now it's funny with pep these are the kind of people who once you're out the the pressure of it you just kind of keep traveling and go and do some technical director thing are you just gonna play golf yeah yeah just just bounce from it all it would just be like an advisor to all of these huge sporting entities what's that thing with that movie soul when they go to the great beyond like he'll go and be like a golf course in the sky i don't know like he's like oh pep's a guardiola announces new consultancy gig with the la dodgers or something like that right yeah totally yeah yeah how you can turn back to back world series into back to back to back to back world series and the key thing for Pep is post-career just retain the aura actually yeah just like swan off and just like yeah go to Wimbledon a few times pop up at random places you know come on stadion and that's it yeah when it wouldn't be a podcast we'd be listening for three hours it'd be it'd be like oh because it's there's no one I'd rather hear talk about football more than Pep like he always he always says something interesting but in like a less traditional media sense if you get into really I would love to hear from a manager like that about the player that made things work in ways that didn't expect you.

44:30Someone that wasn't necessarily in the squad or someone that you played with, Brescia or whoever it was, that showed you a different way to interpret things. And you were like, actually, who is the most unsung person in your footballing journey? Who is the person who actually, or actually that person who did a certain thing or played a certain way or played out a certain way? And I don't know, I would love to hear that really because so much has already been said. By him, about him, to him. But yeah. Congrats on a thousand, Pep. Yes. Yes, many congratulations. He did not seem so excited by the thought of another thousand when Wenger said that.

45:02So we can assume he will not be managing another thousand. It's like when we hit 500 episodes, I was like, I'm not doing another 500 of these. I'm sorry. Although we might end up, actually, I looked at the numbers and they're flying by. And another one has flown by because it is time for us to bounce. Indeed. Time to say goodbye. but we hope everyone's staying safe and well don't forget if you are listening to this on the free feed if you want to subscribe and listen to every episode ad free and in full go to patreon.com forward slash stadio other than that we hope everyone's staying safe and well and don't forget to check the stadio archers place on spotify speaking of which playing out on a track called let's bounce by tiger jack anything you would like to add muzak one go nothing further all right much love uh we'll be back with you in a couple of days see you then

45:54To the sky

46:01To the sky You can do it, it's great to dance Just use your body and give it a chance Are you ready? Go hand, move down Just move your body, it's time to bounce Let's bounce Everybody let's bounce Just to warm your body Let's bounce Everybody let's bounce Now you got it It wasn't hard Now get ready We're gonna start Just grab a potter In your hands And skin your arms out Like rope bands Let's bounce Everybody let's bounce High up in the sky, let's bounce Everybody let's bounce Put your body to a less bounce Everybody let's bounce Let's do it, let's bounce Everybody let's bounce Everybody let's bounce Thank you.

47:52Thank you.