A Win is a Win, Right?

35:59I will say, Tim, I, I felt from a remove that you could hear the Emirates trying to be supportive, trying to stay behind the team, trying not to let the nervousness extend from the crowd. There was a bit of it during the short corners early, but where you said you didn't, you didn't see it spilling over with Yolkress, the one time I felt it spill over with Yolkress at Franklin Hall, and I don't know about the Emirates, is the moment late in the game where he breaks away and he has the chance to feed a very easy ball into two onrushing Arsenal attackers. Of course, of course. And I should say, I've been to Franklin Hall as well a couple of years ago.

36:29You're right, fantastic venue. You met some great people there. But yeah, look, during games, as I've gotten older, I'm generally good at keeping a lid on it in terms of expressing my frustration towards the players. Usually it's the referee that gets it. You know what I mean? It's all in a knot in my stomach. And then as soon as the referee doesn't give us a throw in, he's the one that bears the brunt. But listen, at that point, I'm in the front row of the upper tier. If I had the gear, I'd have abseiled down. Do you know what I mean? I'd have been on the pitch. On the pitch. And also, that's like the dying moments of the game.

37:10You can put the seal on this. Definitely win it. It's quite an easy pass to make. And the goal difference thing, which, look, I don't think it'll come to play, but it could. It could easily. Clive, I do think that people's opinion of Jokers' performance in this game is heavily shaped by that moment, obviously, because it's really bad. I think Martinelli had a similar one against Liverpool a couple of seasons ago, and I still see screenshots of it going around where he could have played, I think, Saka on the counter. But I think Saka would have scored from there. I think it would have been a wonderful moment.

37:39reminder of the United game where Jesus scores at the end and add a little padding to the goal difference and change the vibe in the ground. So do you think that that moment unfortunately winds up infecting the analysis of Jokers? What did you make of the change when Kai comes off, Jokers comes on, and what you thought of the overall contribution besides just that moment?

37:59Elliot:Yeah, so when Kai's on the pitch, I feel we have more build-up confidence. That's for shot, we go into him, he's a technical player, played in midfield, played 10, can play 9. so he can look after the ball no matter what angle it comes to him he understands his space around him he understands where his defender is he lays it off with a pass appreciation he can win it in the air so he can turn ugly passing into a good one and in the last couple of years he's developed a lick of speed as well sometimes he spins I spoke to some Man City people pre-game and they were saying who were at the City game and they were saying basically Kai Havertz was man of the match that day he was running all over them and they were shocked at how good he was if he'd have scored that goal at the end he would have been mad at the match not Bernardo and so sometimes hearing that from the opposition you realise how good he can be I saw people who don't like him right now I was saying Clyde but he missed his chances and yes he has missed his chances but he's a good centre forward for this Arsenal team where we are and I must admit I did not feel the acuteness that some people felt when he went off I was more worried about his injury he looked quite distressed you know and i didn't see that as a line in the sand as the game changed but i think i'm wrong you know because i think other people have felt that but i didn't feel it and then but straight away you know what i'm thinking in my head i'm thinking okay you got jokeres on now he must have the um because he missed out on a game previously against city so let's see what you can do and he's you can tell with him how he's moving first couple of challenges come and he's not quite there you're thinking, okay, are you moving well?

39:34Elliot:But for me, look, I'm not trying to say we've got Hernan Crespo up front. We haven't, right? So we've got a player that's quite limited in some aspects, right? So his hold-up play and link-up play is 50-50 at best, right? And he does certain things quite well, but you have to play to him a lot to get those things to show up. And we are not prepared to do that as a team. We are not vertical enough. We don't do that. We are not prepared to defer all of our play to one man and being that guy because we're not sure he's going to win his races. And that's the truth. It's not all on the other players.

40:15Elliot:Some of it's on him. But he's working off seven or eight passes a game. And a lot of them are ugly. So for me, if you have a player that's completely different to the player that's gone off, you have to change how you play for that player because it doesn't matter if you like the player or not you have to you know and if you've got a if you've got a slow left winger you play it to feet you don't stick it in behind and say run after it you know you give it to feet if it's a dribbling carrier if you've got a player that wants to run into channels change your patterns get your winger off the touchline to come inside and leave the channels for the player to run into so you can show him what he can do.

40:58Elliot:For me, I'll say it, this is a coaching thing as well as him. Like I said, he's not Crespo, so I'm not trying to pretend that he is, but when you've got something and you put him on the pitch, use him appropriately. Make sure you give him the ball when he has made the runs. And that's why I am with it, and I am a bit sympathetic at the moment because we've got four games. And let's not talk about goal difference. If you're not prepared to feed in the player who's our top scorer, then what are we talking about here you know so so yes i know what we have and in the summer there's a discussion to have about whether this is the style of center forward that suits this team there is a discussion to have my personal opinion is i would like to see two players in the nine and ten almost like double false nines you know and i'd like to have my goal scorers in wide areas you know wingers that's that's what i like and have an essential two but you can't have what you like all the time you know so but once you have that player you've got a feeling like i said i didn't feel the acute change in game but i spoke to people since a lot of people felt like tim felt that there was a there was a change in the in the in the game i just think the problem is you wind up with that martinelli nani and yorkerast front three again and how can anyone be surprised when you have a relatively low technical level front three players that don't want to drop into midfield that aren't as comfortable in central areas, and suddenly you struggle to control games.

42:21I don't think that's a surprise. I don't think that you need Kai over Yoko Ress, but I think if you're going to have Yoko Ress, you need Leo and Saka. You need players who can come into central areas, who understand how to play the ball with the right tempo, two feet, tight spaces, turn between the lines and feed the next ball in. Not even Dweke had no successful dribbles in this game. Martinelli didn't try a dribble in this game. They're not beating players off the edge. and you know without Eza you're basically left with Odegaard as your vertical passer Ben White had some good passes in this game and Incafier was probably man of the match but he's not a passer purely speaking so you don't have Cal Fiore's ball progression and you get back to that point where it's Saliba and Gabby with the ball at their feet it's Raya with the ball at their feet no one wants to play back to goal in the front three so what do you do what do you do and I just think that technical level doesn't work and I'm going to say this we should just be honest we aren't playing well at all and we haven't for months it's a problem for next season right now Mikel should have the freedom to find creative solutions you want to put a front three of Jesus Leo and and Nani out there do it you want to put a midfield of Rice as an Odegaard out there do it he should have the absolute freedom to try things now because it is up to Mikel to yoke a performance out of this team with a group that doesn't look like it has that in them and Clive, like, I would just say fundamentally, the idea that we can put Nani, Yokares, and Martinelli out on the pitch and expect different results is madness.

43:47And so it should be freeing for Mikel that he can, I think, experiment with something else. And you can say, it's not the time for experimentation. You know what? It's not going to be the time for experimentation when he tries Nani, Yokares, and Nelly and gets bit one more time. Then it'll be too late. So for me, there should be a freedom here to try a different approach because I just think the technical level is causing us to not control games. And Newcastle had more of the ball in this game. And that's not our identity. It's not who we are.

44:16Elliot:Yeah, so let's wind it back a little bit, right? Because we all said this was the team we all would have selected to start this game, right? Yeah, two of them wound up off the pitch. Two of them wound up off the pitch injured. We lost two substitute windows. who knows what we would have done if we allowed those suffrageic windows to come back so let's not let's wind back to reality a little bit there for me mate I'm not sure where the experiments are I'm not trying to come up with a solution here I'm just telling you that at the moment we're not optimal and how we play we're not playing to the players that we have on the pitch we're not changing if you had Robin Van Persie at centre forward who is basically a mixture of Kai and Jokerez he can kick it like Jokerez and he can control it like Kai you don't change your game because you don't have to because he's top quality right he can do everything when you've got a center forward that can that can only do certain things right then you you have to change right and it's the same for kai we play a build-up game with kai so you need your striker play to come from other people because maybe he's not so good at that so for me for me it's intention and play style and how you are playing i i'm not with the trossard jesus thing at the moment i'm not i'm not got enough recent history from them to say you're going to do it for me right so nothing from trossard this year and barely anything from jesus this year one little cameo towards the end of the sporting game from jesus thing that encouraged me uh martinelli you know i you know i can't see him i struggle to read him i don't know when he's going to play well but he's got 17 goal contributions i think this season right and he's and he scored goals you know so um and so I can say I can see why the manager reached for him in this game I really could Noni a backup player that's playing far too many minutes with bandages on you know as simple as that if he can he's the player that should have allowed Saka to be fit at this particular time that's what he was bought for now Saka's just coming in and we're judging Noni as a starter and mate he's dragging a caravan in those legs he's dragging it he's dragging his leg around like a he's got a suitcase honestly he's dragging it and um and so for me i can see that happy he's not sharp enough anymore he's not quick enough anymore he's he's at 70 but then saka comes on and it's like the sun come out even more didn't it it was like it was obvious and um my mate in whatsapp group was like it was like an angel had just like ascended descended from heaven he might as well he might as well not come on from the bench he might as well have like come on from the sky like with wings on his back because the first time he got the ball you're like oh that's what that's supposed to look like honestly honestly we're watching nonny with the ball you got dan burn go on sam go on go on didn't really happen it really happened no saka comes on just jogs on and just just runs forward five yards and uh gets a shot he's willing to step into the half space and receive it there as opposed to just hanging out on the touchline and all of a sudden you've got the ability to drive the ball into those positions.

47:26Do you know what that does? It means there's closer relationships between all the attacking players, closer connection. You're not 20 yards from Yolka Ress. You're three yards from Yolka Ress. And I'll say this. What we've wound up doing is we've wound up putting an unbelievable amount of pressure on our defenders who deserve immense respect for what they're doing. Because before the 80th minute of this game, all right, in the second half, down a goal Newcastle had one shot from 35 yards out worth.02 xg that's it they wind up with one half decent chance well more than half these really decent chance in the second half we find ourselves going what's happened to our defense nothing's happened teams concede chances city conceded hatfuls of good chances to Burnley and they got away with it 1-0 but they also created about three expected goals my point is the weakness of our attack is causing us to put so much strain and pressure on our defense to concede nothing, to give nothing away.

48:20And I just think it's so unfair. You wind up with Incaffier having an insanely good performance here. Our defense was quality throughout the game, but they conceded a chance. One at the beginning of the game and one at the end. That was it. And that could have cost us. And so, yeah, I get it. I mean, he doesn't have a lot of options, but styles make fights. And for me, Jesus off the right or Jesus off the left or Leo off the left and Jesus off the right, if you've got to play with Yoko Ress, I think you have to have players who can do what Saka did, step inside come to midfield combine receive the ball with the back to goal i don't think you can keep playing three sprinters in the front three because you're going to keep having more games where you have 45 of the ball and you're firefighting and you're not creating much that's kind of are you saying that martin ellie sub was the wrong sub is that what you're saying

49:00Elliot:for this game because i hate we didn't start we didn't start with those three that's all i'm saying we didn't start with those well let's put it this way i assume the reason leo didn't come on is going to play in spain i assume that michael had a spain lineup in mind i do think If we remember the Bayern tie in the Villa game, I've mentioned this before, Odegaard came off for Emil Smith-Rowe in that game. That is not a sub he would have made if there was no Bayern. I think some of the decisions around who he played against Newcastle with the lead were with an eye towards who he wanted fit and ready in Spain.

49:29Could be, yeah.

49:30Elliot:I don't know where Trossard is with his injuries as well. He hasn't looked to himself recently as well. He doesn't feel part of the group at the moment, does he? He doesn't look himself. We all, you know, that player, we all know when he's on it, and he's not on it at the moment. Hey, mate, I wish these… When he got a bollocking from Mikel, what game was it? Was it the city game? It was a sporting game. Sporting game. It was a cute rollicking. But hey, look, we don't know where they are. Your point could be really, really valid. And your point is valid. I just think in this game, he tried to put out the top boys and the top boys walked off the pitch.

50:01Elliot:And that's all that happened. Yeah, and you got players like Rice clearly playing through something where they're not feeling their best. Look, I want to talk about the Saka cameo just a little bit more and the impact of him being back because that could change our lives. That could be it, right? That could be it. And I want to preview Atleti a bit. We're going to let Tim go, and we're going to talk about brands. So, Tim, thanks for joining on this one, and we will talk to you on the next one. My pleasure as always. Thank you very much. When Arsenal fans talk about every pass and moment mattering, it sounds a lot like playoff hockey.

50:30In the Stanley Cup playoffs, there's no room for coasting. Every shift is packed with energy and pressure. NHL on TNT has the best coverage, with a studio crew that makes every game feel bigger. Paul Bissonnette brings laughs, and Wayne Gretzky breaks down the action so anyone can follow. The panel's chemistry adds to the excitement, just like a tense match at the Emirates. Watch the Stanley Cup playoffs on TNT, TBS, True TV, and HBO Max. Huge opportunity for me to tell you about a VPN. I'm just a boy looking at a VPN, asking it to love me. Anyone? No? Nothing? Fine. uh nordvpn it is an app you put it on your phone you put it on your tablet you put it on your computer and it lets you browse as though you are on other places that means when someone sends you a video and says you got to watch this as i was not available in your area it is now if you want to use the subscriptions that you desperately love and pay for from all over the world you can it gives you internet security and protection and if you're a football supporter you are inevitably uh yeah on websites that leave you vulnerable and this will make you not vulnerable you get the idea.

51:39It protects you. A couple of things I love about it, by the way, the speed is great. I have tried various VPNs and I stuck with Nord in part because I noticed that the internet speed was good. Like I don't want to use a VPN and then wind up with less speed, especially if you're trying to stream sports and also simplicity. Like I don't want 8 million steps to get a VPN. I set it and forget it with this one. Leave the VPN on, gives me protection, lets me browse where I want to browse. It is convenient and is fast and is powerful and they have a great bonus offer for you. So why don't you take advantage of that?

52:09Because that would be really smart. NordVPN.com slash Arsenal Vision gets a huge discount off your NordVPN plan, plus four additional months on top. It's completely risk-free with Nord's 30-day money-back guarantee. So again, four bonus months, discount, 30-day money-back guarantee. NordVPN.com slash Arsenal Vision. NordVPN.com slash Arsenal Vision. NordVPN.com slash Arsenal Vision. Do it now, Clive. Is that enough of that? Indeed. All right, Clive, look, I want to stay on the sack of things for a minute because it is unfortunately the case that when you have a lot of injuries and you haven't seen your best players on the pitch you wind up starting to analyze football in a tortured way because you start looking for answers beyond the obvious nobody likes obvious answers nobody likes hearing about injuries so you start going to other things but it turns out the good players are good and the good players make you look better and i'm not going to say we all of a sudden look like 82 brazil when he came on but you can see what he gave us that we don't have without him and i do believe that if you can get Kai Havertz and Ebrecha Eze and Bakaio Saka and Urien Timber on the pitch, Shakur, Mikel Marino, things are going to look different.

53:10So what's your thought on seeing Bakaio back? It was a joyous moment just to see him come on at Franklin Hall. Everybody went nuts when he got subbed on, even when he started warming up. Must have been a huge lift in the ground, and I think he didn't disappoint with showing his impact pretty much right away.

53:26Elliot:Yes, where the subs warm up, I get to see them. I'm in that corner of the ground, and they warm up towards the North Bank. And when he came out in the first half, the ground just erupted. And he looked good, actually. And I thought, okay, he looks okay physically. And then he came on, and he just makes football look really, really easy. And he'd reach a level now where even when he's warming in on a 20-minute appearance, he looks better than everybody else. And you can just see it all over the ground. So basically, the first time he gets it, he dances, gets him in his heels, comes inside. He was going into the corner earlier, because I could see that clearly.

54:01Elliot:he got a deflection went for a corner and then he receives it in a half space next and again the difference the big difference is when you say that oh he comes inside yeah but it's knowing when to come inside you know there's not a criticism of Nonny because I think he has a lot of chaos and a lot of direction when he's fit he's not that he's not that at the moment people are saying is he good enough that's your choice but I've seen him in my own eyes right so but at the moment he's not doing it but sometimes I'll tell you what he is doing, is that his positional understanding is not great. So sometimes he's inside, and he shouldn't be, and then you want him outside, you know, and vice versa.

54:42Elliot:With Saka, when he comes inside, he gets the ball. And is that an us thing, or is that a him thing? I don't know. But I think, and then what happens then, people think, oh, but Kyle's got it, so what I'm going to do, I'm going to get closer to him for combinations, because I know he's going to keep it. So they gamble more positionally, they creep up the pitch, and they get closer to him. So again, Odegaard had his shot for the game. When did he have it? When Saka's got it. Why? Because they've got three men to stop him and he drops it off and Odegaard's in space, gets his shot. So the knock-on effect is significant for having a quality player in these areas.

55:17Elliot:We're still two right-sided buyers for me and Eze's number shows that. That's a team thing. I'm not sure how we're going to fix that. But when he comes on, the light comes on, mate. Everything comes on. the sun comes out everything just looks beautiful and you start to question you know you question yourself and tim's point earlier about the coaching jobs that's being done here it's probably been done for quite a while with the attackers that we have but then there's a criticism there why are we buying so many defenders when we need to upgrade our attack when we talk about these attackers earlier i'm not hearing too many options that are obvious that we've missed out on i you know i i don't see any it's you can always drag out a name in hindsight someone playing well do you know we can we can all do that but i don't think it's a crazy obvious thing that we've done missed out on for example but maybe this is something with two three years in the making and i think it needs addressing and it's obvious what you're doing this summer yeah you know what's telling clive and shows how hard this is, go look at any list published by a major media outlet of top 10 transfers of the summer that's published like September 1st.

56:31And all you can do is laugh. All you can do is laugh. Because nine out of the 10 are bums that you wouldn't want to get right. This is really hard. It's hard to get right. My thing about experimentation at this point is simply that I think the identity of the team is a little lost right now because our identity has always been under Mikel for the last several years. an insane dominance in field tilt, right? And field tilt is, again, the percentage of the final third touches that you have versus the opposition, right? So tilting the pitch. And what that does for you, when you have the ball in the final third, when you lose it, you can press.

57:07If you're losing the ball, if you're just booting the ball at the pitch or you can't keep control, but you also can't engage your press. And I was watching us in our 4-4-2 out of possession. And we're just deeper. We're just several yards deeper than we want to be. and so you know can you get that back with a little more control of the ball go ahead

57:23Elliot:yeah i don't want to do this but it's frustrating it's frustrating right um with with your this is my superpower teasing this is this is frustrating because if you if you're going to have people who are ball dominant closer to your goal guess what you're going to do you can be ball dominant closer to your goal yeah yeah so do the maths right me and tim talk about this all the time with the women's team last season the two best players were the double pivots and they played with the ball in front of the goal and we can see the goals moved it changed it a bit more direct much more purposeful bring a russo into 10 and give her the ball earlier and the women are flying we have to think about what we're doing where we're playing how we're playing we've seen it in a week apart it's not as if we haven't seen it before we saw it at city that's how you play so for me it's selection obviously makes things better but your intention is what really matters and if this game felt a little bit like the brighton game we scored on nine minutes went one nil up is away from home so i sort of brushed it off a little bit because we're away you know and um but we're at home the sun's out the sprinklers are on mate we've had a week's rest this is like come on this needs to be We need to be more purposeful.

58:44Elliot:We need to be more purposeful. I have issues with our ball-dominant players not playing correctly, not driving the team forward, just playing. It's not good enough. It's not good enough for me. We have to be more... We're going to get caught, and I'm just petrified we're going to get caught out. But we can change this with messaging and coaching. This is on us. It's not any... The players are there to do it. It's about playing directly, playing vertically when the opportunity is there to play not giving it away and standing there but if you are going to give it away get after it and counter you know but we gotta we gotta have more intent and more purpose because right now we could win the league and i won't care if we win the league but it's a bit of me thinks you know what let's win the league showing that we can play a little bit you know i've got to be honest here let's win league showing we can play a little bit more than this.

59:38Elliot:That's where I am. It's an interesting time in football. Leicester in 2015-16 was the last time a champion scored fewer than 80 goals. We're likely going to have fewer than 70 goals for the second consecutive season. There's a chance we go over 70, but it could be our second consecutive season with fewer than 70. No one's won the league with fewer than 80 since Leicester, but City aren't going to get over 80 either, almost certainly. It is a little bit different. I do think it's a hard way to win a title. that it puts a lot of strain on those nearly moments. They have to go your way. And this season, some nearly moments haven't gone our way, by the way.

1:00:13There have been some gut punch moments late in games. But they went our way in this game. The whist of miss was a big one. I want to ask you about a couple of moments. One that I think we can do quickly, but there was a red card not given to the keeper. For me, it's got to be a red card. And Mikel, interestingly, said it's a red. He also said the one in Manchester was a red, which by the way, I am so glad he did not say that after the loss. And he made that point. He said, we lost. We didn't do enough to win. I didn't say it after the loss. I'm just telling you, I think these are both reds. So I'm glad he waited till after a win to say that, just from a messaging standpoint.

1:00:48But this one for me is a red. And here's what I would say for people would say, well, there's a defender back. When the keeper is out, it doesn't matter if there's a covering defender. It is a goal scoring opportunity, period. It doesn't matter if there's a covering defender, if it's an empty net. and it would have been an empty net. So it has to be read for me, Clay.

1:01:06Elliot:Yeah, I had a good view of this one. Coming towards my end and I could see, if Jokeres had got to the ball, I could see a clear pathway to him striking on the net and his right foot. So that's a goal sculling chance there. You know, Paul Merson sort of said that he stopped Jokeres. Well, he had to stop because Pope came out of his luck like Bruce Lee, didn't he, right? So he had to stop otherwise he's going to get his leg broke. So he then stopped, hesitate to jump over the goalkeeper if he missed it he misses it he's now about to sprint to the ball and he's got one thing he has got is a right foot that can kick a ball right so this is like a jokeres chance i'm thinking he's gonna score and suddenly the goalkeeper drags him down and then all hell ensued hey look i can take you now we've won um but it was a moment that missed the kuznop one that is interesting and i felt it was a foul but i just wish i had got a touch on the ball, if you know what I mean, in that one, because it made it an easy decision for the referee to make.

1:02:05Elliot:If he'd have just got a touch on it to say, I've got it under control, and then he takes the bump. But I think he wasn't allowed to have a touch because he was bumped off the ball before he got there. And you can tell by his face that it was a major moment. I praise Anthony Taylor significantly for his performance on that day, but maybe the best thing about his performance was he wasn't prepared to make big decisions, and he let the players play the game out if i'm gonna say that and he didn't make that big decision but he also didn't send off our player and he also let the players fight each other i thought overall the game was good enough a good good product a fantastic premier league game which we were a massive part of and if anything the bigger regrets i have is the five big chances that we missed and that's where i am yeah i think for me, one of the things that I struggled with at the end of this game was just some decision making.

1:02:59I mean, there's obviously the Yokorest moment where he doesn't make the pass. It should be made. It's a mistake, fine, whatever. But I think there was a lot of dumb football played in the last 10 or 15 minutes, including stop-shymed there, where Newcastle were pushing for a win. We could have either broken them open and scored a goal or at least just held the ball. Declan Rice played a 40-yard raking cross to nobody that went out for a goal kick. I want to say deep in stoppage time, which let them come back right up the pitch. That to me is where the stress and the pressure shows, Clive. It's the decision-making at the end game state when you've got shagged out players who are pushing beyond the pain and exhaustion tolerance who are so stressed that they want the win that they're just not making the right decisions.

1:03:40But was that frustrating for you watching some, I hate to say dumb football, but dumb football at the end of the game?

1:03:45Elliot:That's exactly the words I use in the IR. We're doing dumb stuff. And thanks for reminding me because I think this is the big thing that's happening at the moment. We're watching fans, but we don't know everything about the game. We're just... But this is the thing that shook me a little bit, actually, since the Carabao Cup final. I'm never too worried if we don't always play well, but I always think we're quite a smart team. Generally, we're quite smart. We've got smart coaches. They prepare really well. And most of our players make good, smart decisions. And they understand the rhythm of the game.

1:04:16Elliot:and if they understand when to squeeze in, to drop in, to mid-block it, low-block it, and when to go high and press. And I speak about us in a way that says we're intelligent, we adapt really well to different scenarios, and that's the way I comfort myself for the fact we haven't got 14 number 10s in our team. Do you see what I mean? I think we can do this in the modern game, we can play all types of football, on the ball, off the ball, set pieces, open play, the lot. But since that Wembley game, mate we must we i don't know what's happened to our brains you know we're just not as smart you know and it's all over the pitch it's everywhere you know a few i wouldn't say a few players are stepping up trying to recover their form trying to recover their clear thinking and this is why i said on the ir we need to be more basic and by that i mean just quite simple play forward run forward into wide areas set it back third half space run low ball across the box simple offensive patterns that we commit to that we've all seen before maybe with sack about we're more confident to go to into the wide areas earlier and he's better at creating lanes to receive it just get some simplicity maybe it's trapped in the players that we have a little don't who are not there but can we just get back to even two years ago just simple forward patterns that are all over the Premier League they're all over the Premier League why are we not doing it just get keep your 10 high receive turn get after it turn again just I can see it in my own mind play forward quickly one two touches maximum bounce get it back third man runs affect the opposition affect the box have more box entries have more box touches we can't have essay with five passes in a game we can't just can't happen you know and and so this is on us it really is on us and i hope they free themselves in midweek this week hey we got the win and i don't i'm sorry i'm sorry for being negative but i'm not asking i'm not asking for much i'm just saying can we just do what we did at city do that just do that you know it's it's declan rice's 49th game it's martin zubamendi's 50th game he came off earlier and threw up because he was sick he literally went to the side and threw up you know so that's where he is go ahead mate yeah i i just think you're trying to win everything.

1:06:53You're playing more games than players have ever been asked to play. And it's catching up with you, the intensity of the league, the intensity of the pressure and the football on your legs catching up with you. I think there were some dumb moments late, but ultimately, this is why you need to go out and score more goals because that means you can make subs, you can rest players, you can take players off and get them rested and recovered. If we can go out and score goals, we can make our life a lot easier on a lot of dimensions. And I will simply say though the beauty of this three points is it city played in the fa cup scraped through by the way they barely got past southampton yeah two late goals yeah they are they are now going to have two weekends where they don't play premier league which means they got two midweek games coming up when we play fulham they won't have played yet we can go six points clear if you do your job at home to fulham your six points clear but i want to use maybe 10 minutes because we're going to do a full preview of this with uh with the host of the end of the calderon podcast tomorrow on patreon the extent to which people just don't seem to be focused on a Champions League semifinal is strange to me and I worry it's also a little bit due to expectation that we'll just get through this yes they have injuries, yes they're not in great form they're a very good team with a very good manager of their own and we're going into a cauldron of the cauldron it's great that we have the return leg and I think Mikel can have Fulham in mind a bit if he wants because we have a return leg to recover but you've got to get something in Spain this is a chance to go to a Champions League final.

1:08:19And if you have the Champions League final on the horizon, I think that actually takes some of the pressure off in the league because you've got a big thing checked off already that you're in that final. So any early thoughts? I don't think you can rush the guys back who just had the injuries if they're on the brink. But I also don't think you can go out with Nani Yokores and Martinelli again unless you think we can just sprint away from these guys. So what do you think?

1:08:42Elliot:Yeah, I think we're not going to do that, Elliot. If we do, then we're going to have Elliot Smith of Minnesota chasing after them. Basically, we're not sure on injuries. Saka looks sharp. Will he play for 60 in this game? Not sure. I hope he starts. Kai's got potentially a little groin injury, so maybe not in time for Wednesday. If Yokre is going to play, that means for me it should be a Kaio Yokeres Trossard type front three. Sorry, a Kaio Yokeres Trossard front three. And make sure you've got people to look after the ball in those areas and have your one sprint and let him go. But if you're going to have a low touch center forward, make sure you've got high touch players everywhere else.

1:09:35Elliot:So potentially, if Eze's there, then Eze plays there and we go that way around. so the team will set itself fullback situation Hincapie emptied the tank again earlier again he emptied it I know it's in the ground a train session in the ground afterwards so yeah if it's a one for him or his day for them we'll see but we're going to need to freshen out the fullback areas Ben White did okay at the weekend but I would play Mosquera in Spain but if Timber's fit obviously he starts but we haven't seen him for a long time and so how he's going to introduce him I don't know I don't know when but we know by the press conferences on Tuesday so yeah the rest takes air itself right so Sleipa's right on his game at the moment really looking good so yeah Yeah I think it's tough because all the things I think about how we play in the Premier League have largely not been an issue in the Champions League we weren't sensational against sporting let's not pretend but we held a sporting team that's free scoring to nil away and we held them to nil again at our place.

1:10:42We only got one goal over those two legs, but we've just been so strong in this competition. I think it will be really interesting because this is a team we beat 4-0 when we played them last time. I think all the goals came in the second half and I think they had some decent chances actually against us. So it was a harder game maybe than the scoreline would indicate, but it'd be interesting to measure the distance between who we were then and who we are now. They do have quite a lot of absences, which I'll talk about with Jeremy tomorrow, but Clive, if Saka is fit, and you've got to manage him the rest of the way.

1:11:16For me, I think I try to get away without him away at Atleti and be guided by what result you get there. Because I think your first goal away is to keep us a score. So you take a scoreless draw away is what I'm saying, but you don't feel the same way.

1:11:36Elliot:No, I just think when you're going to these high-pressure environments, you need something where you can look after it. And you have people they're worried about. If I'm Bakayasaka in the Champions League semi-final on the offing, and my manager doesn't want to play me, and I'm fit, I'd have to jump with him. So I think he's playing, and that's why he didn't start the game at the weekend. end he came on as introduction see the reactions like if he had no reaction he will play you know so so and when he played we feel better Odegaard will be better because he has his mate he'll get close to him he's got his one-two merchant he can go off of he needs that intelligence around him it makes him look better and Eze just needs to be allowed and platform to be where Odegaard should be right that's where we need to allow him to do that to do that with our two in centre midfield if we got to give him extra work that's what we do you know because it's important if we want to be a threat that we have Eze, Bukayo making sure they can threaten the goal that's really really key and to create distractions for the centre forward to maybe do something and I know people are not confident at the moment I think Tim's point earlier on we're really really good we all know we're so close and we're holding back on the referendums on people you know for a little while yeah because we're so close and for those listening saying oh clive why aren't you why aren't you saying it as it is well i'll tell you i'll tell you how it is we're four games away from potentially being the first league in 22 years and we're two games away from being a championship final which i've only seen us in once right and so i can hold back a few feelings about whether the center forward can trap it.

1:13:25Elliot:You know, because that's not always the case. But that center forward might need to play a part that will change our lives going forward. And for me, supporting that player is the primary emotion I have. You know, it doesn't mean I'm blind, but I'm just going to prioritize the supporting angle. I think if you're feeling nervous in a game and you need to get to grips with it, the way you get to grips with it, as you've always said, Clive, can you get to five passes? Can you get to five passes? I think if you want to play Victor Yorchras, I totally get it. I see why you may feel that he's the right choice.

1:14:02That's not really the issue for me. The question is can you get a combination of players in the front three where at least some of the players in that group can help you get to five passes, can help you keep the ball, can help you turn the pressure from us to them with where you're possessing the ball and where you're playing so that Saliba and Gabby and Raya aren't doing a high wire act for five, 10 minutes at a time, knowing that one half-yard wrong pass means you're dead. You know, I do think that's the key. So for me, what I'll be looking for from Mikel is you don't want to go to the Vicente Calderon and have 32 % possession, right?

1:14:37I mean, could you win a game doing that? You could. I don't think you want to play that way. And I just wonder, can he find a combination? And that can include Victor Jokas, of course, but can he find a combination where there are players who can help Zubamendi and Rice and Odegaard, understanding that we might have Mascara and Piero and Cappier as fullbacks who, while I rate them and I thought, again, Cappier was sensational, they're not going to get you to those five passes the same way that a Timber and a Calafiore would. So that's what I want to see, just a little bit more on-ball quality so that we are not asking our center backs to do a high-wire act while having 35 % of the ball.

1:15:13But we'll talk to Jeremy tomorrow about that. You're going to hear from Mikel Marino, who we sat down and talked to for a little bit earlier today. And I'm going to put that out separately as well. He's very excited about the two big trophies. We can go try to win a little bit coy on whether we would see him back anytime soon, though. Please give to the fundraiser. That's why he spoke to us to celebrate what you all have done. We want to get these new pitches laid. We need about 20 ,000 more pounds. We're going to pick the winner of the Fulham tickets tomorrow. So, you know, we're really, really looking forward to wrapping this up and celebrating together a really remarkable achievement.

1:15:44Clive, thank you very much. Thank you very much. My name is Elliot Smith. we love you so so much big big big week ahead chance to put one foot in a champions league final and potentially go six points clear city with it over to them for their next game we'll see what happens we love you we will talk to you after arsenal 10 let you know

1:16:18I'm going to talk to people and I kill this against greatness. And, firstly, when games are enough, This is the one who savчи! You