Arsenal Steal Eze From Tottenham

38:12And even if Nani Maduike is fantastic, which he could be, there'll be room for him to play. But for me, this is a player whose talent demands being on the pitch, and I don't see why that can't be at left wing. I agree I think he could comfortably play on the left for us and also one of our biggest issues with Arteta and this system is that players are too fixed to their roles too fixed to their zones too fixed to their areas so why do we have an issue now when we have someone who's willing to come in and combine drift away from there I know typically if you have a winger of this style on the left you you have an overlapping winger more like a Kieran Tini or a Nuno Tavares you can go beyond him but it doesn't need to be that he's just a good player who does good work in attacking areas and we need to be more comfortable having good players you know even now it's like is it going to stunt the development of ethan what about max where does this person play what about martin and trossard honestly i don't care i really really don't care the way i see it the the more good players we have the better we will be and it's up to them to fight for the shirt and who's going to start on the weekend and and the manager will know that the manager will see that and what what we really need in particular is first of all more shots which you alluded to earlier which he brings there is a nuance to his game in terms of how he slows down speeds up where he likes to travel with the ball i don't think he's a Martinelli stretcher for example but he can easily go in behind palace play counter-attacking football how often do you see him running beyond Mateta with Ismail Assar on the other side, even Munoz going down the right.

39:48This is something that he knows how to do. So if we do need to stretch the play, he's more than comfortable doing it. It doesn't need to be a Nico Williams rapid winger for us to be able to do that. It's more about timing, how you cover ground, where you run. Because I think if you looked at the rewatch, a lot of our running once we were in transition was really bad in terms of providing an option for the person on the ball. So it's just another attacking option that we've needed. And regardless of whether Havertz was injured or not most people if you ask most people they would have said can we can we do one more can we do one more whether it's a true winger a two-sided winger a wide forward that can play at center forward we needed something else it just it just so happens we've done the groundwork on Eze we've signed Eze now and I I think he won't have any issues settling into this team good players find a way and you find a way to fit good players in and that's just how I see it.

40:43I really can't put my head in that space where you're doubting the deal. And I realize this could look very stupid, but it's just how I'm choosing to see it. He's been one of the best players in the Premier League for a few seasons. And a couple of those seasons I get were with Olisei and you could say, well, he wasn't as influential without Olisei. Well, first of all, yeah, you're not going to be as influential when you don't have as good players around you, but he's pretty influential in their run to an FA Cup. He did the thing that star players do. He won them the FA Cup. He really did. His goals and goal involvements on their run to the FA Cup won them an FA Cup.

41:20He's now going to be playing with the best collection of players he's ever played with. So, you know, this is going to be a really exciting moment. I think we should nail some more colors to the mask. The mask is going to be full of colors. And then we do need to get on the Kai stuff and leads and some stuff like that. But, Paul, I'm just going to ask you. I want you to predict his Premier League starts His Premier League goals And his Premier League Sorry not goals His Premier League starts And his Premier League goals plus assists Wow The numbers aren't going to add up here If I compared him to Like I'm I got everybody playing all the games I would say he's going to have like 23 starts Seems high And yet I think once seen He won't be unseen Goals Goals and assists You can just do goals and assists Goals and assists So you said 23 starts huh?

42:19Yeah 17, 18 18, I'm going to go with 18 18 goals and assists That would be I think we'd probably take that Phil what about you? Starts, goals and assists I'm going to go 25 starts And 15 goals and assists okay I will say and obviously all this is fitness dependent I will say 30 starts and 21 goals and assists take that yeah I mean I don't know what to tell you once I tell you I think he's our second best attacking player I think he's our second best attacking player and I don't know why you leave that guy on the bench The other thing I will say is, too, there may be starts where you say Odegaard's off it or Odegaard's injured and Rice moves right and Odegaard and Eze plays left eight.

43:16You know, there may be games where Odegaard's just not having a great game and he comes on from there or he moves from the left wing to the eight and we bring Nani on. I mean, there may be games where we finish a game with Saka, Jokeres, Nani, Odegaard and Eze. There's a lot of really exciting things we can do now. It's a good point about Odegaard because he essentially has the creative burden. With Bukayo Saka, he is the creative guy in our team. So not only are we helping him by supplementing him with another creative player, but we're also giving him a chance to sit down occasionally. Why not at home against a relegation battling team?

43:54Can we play all of them? Can we not do a 4-1-4-1 and put Zubomendi or Rice as the holder and just let all of the attacking guys go on? we don't need to be wedded to this 4-3-3 all the time we don't always need a box crash or we can mix things up and think of the man city teams that that sort of destroyed us over the past few years they had a midfield three of gundawan de bruyne and bernardo silver would you class that as a traditional midfield three in england but they're all really good players so they won games yep so So I think we just need to open our minds a little bit. There is one rule, I believe, more than anything else in football, and that is that by and large, the best talent wins the most games.

44:39And this is one of the elite talents in the Premier League. So I want to get a rating of the window from you guys too, a little bit on the owner's backing, and then we've got to talk about the Kai injury. But I do feel a little bit of a sense of responsibility to the listener who now has no idea what VPN to use. that's not right. Is that right? Do we just talk about Eze the whole pod and we don't talk about what VPN use? The football season is well and truly upon us and you need a VPN so that you can watch your football when you're traveling, so you can watch those Geolock videos. What if you went to click on the funniest possible Spurs reaction video to the Eze news and as you're trying to click on it, it says not available in your area.

45:22Heartbreaking. I don't want you to feel heartbroken in this moment of unbridled joy. That wouldn't be right. So you're going to use NordVPN. You're going to go to nordvpn.com slash arsenalvision. You're going to get a huge discount off your Nord plane in four months on top. That's pretty wild. But you know what's more wild? That you're going to get the ability to access anything you want around the world because nothing will be geolocked anymore. That's right. You put Nord on your iPhone, on your iPad, on your Mac, on your PC, on your Google phone, on your Android device. Doesn't matter. You put Nord on the device.

45:55you tell it where you want to browse and boom you're browsing there. That's it that simple. That's what you do and once you do that you also have threat protection because Nord has world class threat protection so that when you go on those dodgy links you know the ones I'm talking about. It's a big part of being a football fan from time to time. You got to do it but now you can do it in safety. So NordVPN.com slash Arsenal Vision. NordVPN.com slash Arsenal Vision. NordVPN.com slash Arsenal Vision. Do it now Phil. Is that enough of that? Indeed. Paul. rate the window out of 10 uh nine and a half yeah and and do is is the is the half you're leaving based on outgoings that never materialized or is it more that you still think there's an incoming that could have been more what we need like what what's the what's the half point that we're being docked i have higher standards than you elliot i'm not going to 10 i think that would be hard not to have yep yep um i'm not right oh by the way i'm not rating our outgoings that'd be a whole other score yeah we don't really have any so no no no we've we've gotten three million for carl hein there oh very good tell roger you go we're on the way warm up the plane florentino we got some money we get the plane halfway there and then we've run out of that money on the fuel but that's okay we've got to even get to the runway with that yeah so yeah nine and a half on the window nine and a half from the backing of the club probably close to ten actually in terms of how the club has like any more than this and I'd be like a bit worried about what's going on there so fair play to them recently you know don't get me wrong I've still got the pitchfork and the placard ready to go for when they turn on us but last last few years you can't really fault their willingness to go big on players or windows um it is interesting that there's like this four-year cycle in a lot of things economics stock market this that the other uh it feels like a four-year market here a four-year cycle here where we bought six players four years ago um we bought six players already with sa as it'd be seven but one of them's a backup goalkeeper no offense meant those are important and all but not quite a six players who are going to play a lot for you during the season so this is four years later it feels cyclical that we've gone and gone big again this is the next big push the next big wave clearly we already know it's a win this season type approach and they've gone big And when we had a blip with Havertz, they did not hesitate.

48:44And suddenly they went big and spent$67.5 million or something here with add-ons and went for it. So what can you say? And, you know, there's the players and there's the vibe. And they managed to leverage the vibe, crank it up, and do the ultimate kind of Saul Campbell tribute with Eze. So, yeah, can't really fault them. Yeah, I would say this. I did a pod with Tim just yesterday before any of this news broke, and I said the dooming around this window and calling it a 2 out of 10 because we've left one position slightly underpowered felt ridiculous to me. You know, any way you look at it, and I said this back as early as April, so I have to say it again.

49:34I didn't care which striker we bought as long as we had one we identified as the right target and went for it. So we got Mascara, Kepa, Zubi, Jokeres, Nani Madweke, right? Important players across the board, Norgard. We filled two important midfield spots, one with a midfielder who was sought after by every big club in the world, the most prolific striker in all of Europe. We got a winger who was probably Chelsea's best wide player last season to cover Saka and play off the left where we needed to strengthen. We got one of the brightest backup defenders in Europe, in my mind, in Mascara, while Liverpool are looking at huge money acquisition to try to pry Gehi away from Palace, which now may be harder because Palace is going to have a lot more money in their pocket and may be less inclined to sell.

50:20You know, we've left ourselves with very few holes, but the one hole was a little more creativity, a little more goal scoring oomph, that joker in the pack. And now we have that. And oh, by the way, it's the vibes lifter of all vibes lifter, a player we all wanted. for me it's a 10 out of 10 and if you don't see it that way maybe that's because you don't regard as a as a left wing I do so that will do it but Phil I have it as as a 10 out of 10 all the areas that need addressed and addressed with the one cherry on top which is the player I've most wanted from the league over several years so for me personally I love it I think it is also to to Paul's point an astonishing backing by the owners because I don't for a minute think KSC sit around obsessing about whether Arsenal win trophies they'd like us to be competitive sure but they They said you don't buy these teams for that purpose.

51:04And if you look around the league and look at some of the sales our rivals have made, candidly, there's just been better business done by our rivals in terms of their ability to generate cash from player trading. We have not done that. You know, we have not moved Vieira yet. We have not moved Sammy La Conga yet. We have not moved Kivior yet. We have not moved Zinchenko yet. We have not moved Martinelli or Leo, and in fact, given Leo more money. And now we're going with our hands out saying we need 68 million pounds for Ebrecha Eze, and we need it right now and we need a lot of the money up front.

51:32And they said, okay, here it is. Not who are you going to sell or how are you going to execute on getting money in? So I, you know, look, nobody likes to hear the hooray, the billionaires spent a little money. I'm not trying to lionize them. I'm simply saying they would have probably been within their right to say, nah, I don't think we balanced the books appropriately. There's been a lot of reporting saying they want Arsenal run more efficiently, right, more self-sustainably. And this summer does not seem to indicate that. So again, just so we're clear, I'm not celebrating people who have limitless money investing, but I'm saying they didn't have to.

52:05And we've been fortunate that they have in light of the lack of outgoing. So 10 out of 10 for me, and I think at least a slight, let's call it a attaboy to ownership for letting us go for this one last big move. What about you? I'm going to go nine. I think for me, a true 10 would have been an elite center forward, and that would have been Alexander Rizak. and that's no slight on Victor Jocheres I'm very happy with him and that we've gone for him and that we were decisive in doing that but a 10 out of 10 is like faultless and I don't think it's been faultless Can I stop you for a question though and just ask you a question about that Would you have been comfortable if we were sitting here currently with no striker trying to get Izak done Do you regard the risk reward profile of going for Ezek and maybe missing and not getting what you need worth it?

53:02Or do you think it would have been too big? Set the money aside because you could argue if we got Ezek, we could not have done all the other deals. Set that aside, just the risk-reward profile. Would you regard the risk of not getting a strike or worth it to try to make Ezek possible? Or do you think it was correct to go for what was doable and have all of this stuff done now? which approach would you have preferred?

53:31If there was a way to get Isak into the club I would have tried to get him in but I don't have any issue with what we've done now which is basically creating more danger more goals, more carries, more speed I think we've done that really well I like the profiles we've brought in but if there was any way to have signed Isak I would have liked Arsenal to explore that and if they could bring him in if they could bring him in I think I can't say all that stuff about Eze and good players being comfortable with good players and and all of that stuff and then not want to go for ISAC so that would have made it a 10 for me but it depends at what cost because if we spent 150 million on ISAC and didn't sign a wide player and didn't sign the number 10 then obviously not but if there was a way to maybe get one plus ISAC, then I would have done that.

54:21But obviously we're finding out that this is a very difficult and drawn out situation. So I have no issues with what the club did. Just from a purely talent perspective, it's a nine for me, which is still incredibly high by the way. No, no, no. That's actually, it's a great point and totally fair point. I was just curious if you think that the 10 was essentially doable in the context of the order of operations and how it would have had to happen. Can I ask a question? And what score would we have given it without Eze? I said, I mean, I literally recorded a pod yesterday morning where I said this, so I can't change my opinion now.

54:58I would have given it a 7 out of 10 because I would have said it's all the key areas of need addressed. And I think addressed pretty effectively without the one nagging area of need, that one nagging issue, right? That extra drip of creativity, that extra left-wing dynamism, that extra attacking midfield creative player is not in there and that could hold us back. And the irony, of course, with Eze is, as I've already stated, I think he can fill the left-wing position and also be the attacking midfielder that we sometimes need but don't have. So, yeah, I had a 7 out of 10. What about you, Paul?

55:36Yeah, probably a 7, but kind of a 7 minus because, while you say nagging, it's almost glaring. that something needed to be done on the left. Like, I kind of think, what would the opponent, what would a good opponent, what would PSG think about our lineup when we come up against them? They'd be like, world-class goalkeeper, world-class defense, world-class midfield, world-class right, top-level striker. Oh, we'll be okay on the left-hand side. That we can handle. Yeah, and you know what's interesting? I think PSG are a great example because their Ballon d 'Or winning star player is their striker who's never been a striker until they played him at striker.

56:21I just think positions are fungible if you're smart and if you're talented. Ismonte Dembele is not a striker, but it turns out, oh yeah, he is a striker. The other thing is, if you look at some of the best teams in the world, like PSG, they don't have a dime-dropping 10. That's not what their midfield does. They let that creative influence come from other areas and the intelligence of their forward players. So I think there's a lot of ways to skin this cat. Phil, I think we should move on from this. So you've gone nine. I'm fine with that. I think that's good. We can move on from that. Let's talk about the negative news from yesterday, the Kai Havertz injury.

56:59I think there's a number of angles that this needs to be addressed from, the most obvious of which is just, first of all, the news. He has some kind of knee injury. We don't know exactly what. I have heard from the people that tell me stuff on WhatsApp and in DMs that it could be around a 12-weeker, right? Three months. So you're looking at September, October, November. You know, back early December-ish time frame. Not good, but not as bad as some of the rumors which are ACL and that's the end of his season, right? I've not seen Arsenal be good. That's hyperbole. I've not seen Arsenal be great at any point in the last two seasons when Kai Havertz wasn't playing.

57:39So whatever your evaluation of the player, a great arsenal the last couple of seasons has involved Kai Havertz playing striker. Now we just so happen to have a new striker and maybe that would be fine. We will miss Kai. There's no construction of this where we don't miss Kai. But Phil, I'm curious in light of what we have at our disposal now, how you regard the significance of this injury and what we might do in his absence. yes it's bad news for Havertz first of all having worked so hard to get fit over the summer consuming his body weight in creatine on a daily basis but it's also bad news for us because like you said regardless of what you think of him we have played some of our best football under Arteta with Havertz leading the line or even in midfield on occasion and if we have genuine hopes of competing for the league and for the Champions League we need him available and obviously we're still in the dark about how serious the injury is so I'm not going to go to doom and gloom without the relevant information but even if it's not that serious for a knee injury we'll still miss him because I like the fact that we had both him and Jocheres to suit different days and game states you know we've seen how the both of them play differently we can play differently with them we can play with both of them so it gives us options gives us a bit of variety and now one of those options is gone so from a Havertz perspective it's it's really awful and I feel sorry for him because it's just not what you need at the start of a year especially when you've spent the last four months coming back from an injury or hamstring surgery but I do think it's a good thing maybe for Jokeres now to feel like the guy and I think Tim made the point you made the point yesterday in the Patreon pod there might have been a a lengthening of his transition period and that he would play some games sit on the bench for others come on for half an hour in some games get some cup appearances as well but now now we don't really have that luxury so he needs to learn and he needs to adapt and quickly and I think for him that's the best possible thing because he'll be playing every game we need to learn to play with him we need to know how to platform him and I think you can see it happening slowly you know I don't think we're the best team in transition by any means and I think you can see that in some of our play over pre-season and also at Old Trafford which is just really really bad in terms of final ball execution things like that but we are looking more open to not having to play a hundred passes before we shoot which is good so it's really bad I'm a fan of Kai Havertz I think he gives us a lot but if we do need to play without him for a little while we're just going to have to pull our sleeves up learn how to play with Jocheres I think it's a really good thing for him that he has that freedom and the ability to play and make mistakes without someone breathing down his neck I think Mikel Moreno can play there if needed even Leandro Trossard can play there if needed Mikel has spoken about Ethan playing there so we have options and it's why I'm glad that we didn't go for a centre forward to replace Havertz because we would have just had too many afterwards once he came back to fitness so I think it was the right thing to do to get someone a bit more either a bit more typical wide player or a number 10 E player which we did with Eze so yeah it's a shame but I think there are silver linings we can take from it and as long as we can supplement some goals and assists in other ways we should be able to to get by without him although I'd much rather have him in the team obviously yeah so so first thing first I just said how important Kai is so please don't take this as undermining that point but we signed a proper striker this summer if you have any belief that we signed the right guy Him playing a lot now, Phil, and you just said this, is great.

1:01:24It's not great that Kai is injured. It's great that our new striker plays a lot and our team learns to play with him. Because I do think, as good as Kai has been, Kai is a tweener player, and I think he can lead the line, and I think he'd do really good things from there. But in terms of doing some running and doing some goal scoring in ways that we have not been able to do in the past, Yocrest can do it differently. And, you know, God forbid, if we do need someone who just stands there stiff as a board but can kick the ball in the back of the net and bounce passes to people, we've still got Miguel Marino on the team.

1:01:56Leo Troussard's also a false nine. So we've got some options. It's not good at all. I do think Jokeres knowing the position is his for a while just means he can concentrate on playing his football. He's Arsenal's striker for the next three months at least. and by that time, look, we bought a 27-year-old. You don't get a season to bet in. You got these three months now. Go prove that the position's yours, and I hope that's what I'll do. By the way, I think the hardest thing for me with this news is just the bad vibes from last season coming flooding back, right? The one thing we all thought is, just give us a little injury luck, and we can maybe do this thing.

1:02:36Just give us a little injury luck. And so to get something this bad this early just felt like, it's like that movie The Perfect Storm, where they think they're going to get out of it, And then he looks up at this guy and says, it's not going to let us out. And that's how I feel a little bit. Is Mikel going to get the luck? Is his team going to get the luck where it can at least go show whether it's good enough? And this felt so bad from that standpoint. So hopefully it's not the worst case news. I will say, by the way, Liverpool suffering some injury news of their own. It looks like Jeremy Frimpong is out for a month, so he will not play against us in our game at Anfield, for better or for worse.

1:03:08Paul, your take on the Kai injury, the knock-on effect for Jokeres and anything else about it that strikes you? yeah look the the positives would be there's maybe a little more clarity in terms of who'll be leading the line and what we need to lean into and in practice they're going to know what plan a is um so that's part of it it makes life a little simpler for yachoresh coming into the club and kind of settling into the role and everybody knowing what the plan is week in week out the other positive is and maybe this is copium and maybe maybe i'm reading it wrong but 12 weeks you say we're looking at 12 weeks and i'm looking at the international interlull calendar we have six weeks of interlulls if i'm reading it right phil you can correct me but september 1 to 9 october 6 to 14 november 10 to 18 we might have the best part of six of 12 weeks being interlulls or at least a very, very good chunk of that.

1:04:10So in a way, he's missing six weeks. Yeah, I mean, with our hard start, obviously, you wouldn't want to go into battle against City and Liverpool and Newcastle without Kai, if you could avoid it. You'd want him off the bench. Don't get me wrong, but 12 weeks, if I've got it right, 12 weeks could collapse to six weeks in terms of footballing time. but yeah you of course we want him yeah um well i mean do you do you think it's a again not a positive but do you think it's a chance for joker s to to just get the feel of playing in this league week in week out and be leading the line for arsenal in some instances every three days or do you think it's important that we not overburden him uh no i think like this is he'd be licking his lips that it's clear that we know what we're training for during the week between games everybody knows the plan you know there will be movable pieces with Eze or whoever on the left with our options in midfield but they'll all know like it all comes to a point and you kind of need to know what that point is I mean City don't alternate Haaland and not Haaland that's two very different ways of playing um and i do note here that odegaard plays with holland in the norwegian team so he's quite used to finding a striker a a scandinavian striker so now that everybody has the map as to what you're aiming at getting the ball to the striker it's very simple to know what we're going to be focusing on in training for the next 6-12 weeks to get really really good at that and then Havertz comes back we already know how to play like that and we can alternate between different styles and approaches Havertz can come in and play a second striker at times so ideally you want Havertz around you want him off the bench you want uh options you got we'll get to two games a week all that good stuff but uh apart from you raise a good point we're playing some of our toughest fixtures fixtures but we probably want to start those games with the Akoresh really in any case so it is what it is we have to make the most of it but the most of it could be pretty good and uh if it is 12 weeks maybe it's really more like six weeks yeah any final thoughts on this phil before we turn our attentions a bit to the leads game before getting out of here no i think we've kind of covered everything it's just uh the transfer window is always difficult mentally as a fan because you're always in that space of what if you know can we do something late on have we done enough but I think once it's closed once we know more or less the prognosis of what's happening with Havertz we can look at the season a lot more clearly with a lot more clarity but I think yesterday has sort of finished things off for us and now we can look ahead for the rest of the season so a big shame to lose him but it's not like we haven't got anybody there who can who can pick up the slack so we'll welcome him back with with open arms when he's ready do you worry at all about squad harmony as I look at it with Eze's arrival and granted Kai's departure for injury means it won't be as much of an issue imminently but we do have a situation as Mikel called out before the United game where good players players who expect to play not only won't play they won't be dressed and it is hard to keep players happy we've tried to keep Leo happy by just giving him more money to stay and regardless of my opinion to that.

1:07:49He's now making more money to stay. And it wouldn't surprise me if there's the occasional match day he isn't dressed for. And if it's not him, then it's going to be Martinelli or it's going to be an Ethan Winery who just committed his future to the club. You know, we want Max Dalman to get chances. Are you going to leave Mikel Marino out of the squad to make room for Max Dalman? Those are the kind of choices confronting us. So as much as we want two for every position, I've always said on this pod, two for every position is not exactly realistic. and a big squad can sometimes wind up being worse for two reasons.

1:08:21One, it falls apart from a harmony standpoint. And two, you never really settle on the group that is the group. I think the teams that win everything tend to have a group of like 15 players, not 24. You know what I mean? So do you have any concern about that, that the squad feels a bit bloated at the moment? Oh, it's certainly bloated, but that is because we haven't sold the people that we need to sell. Yeah, and by the way, I don't even mean Vieira and Sambi and Zemchenko. I mean even like core players who now are on the fringes, you know? players are not dumb right they'll know they're standing in the squad then they'll know who's ahead of them they'll know who they're competing with they'll know why they're not making matchday squads and i don't think arteta is the type of person to shy away from those conversations i think he's a very honest guy he likes to uphold high standards he likes to tell people when they're performing well he likes to tell them when they're not so if that is going to be a risk or if that's going to be a risk factor of being at the club that you might occasionally be left out of a matchday squad then you either leave or you or you accept it so keeping players happy is a very delicate balance i think you know if you're a manager the dressing room is is 70 of your role right you need to keep players happy you need to keep the squad in a good level with harmony and you know however whatever shape they need to be in mentally to to perform at the highest level but if you are a Norgaard if you are a Mikel Moreno if you are a Trossard I think you might just have to accept that occasionally you will be left out and it's up to you to force yourself into that squad even an Ethan the club have shown a lot of faith in him by giving him a five-year deal they're now earmarking him for a central role but you need to prove to people that you're worth it and the way you do that is by performing when you get opportunities so it's a cycle and you know even Man City how much did they spend in uh in January 200 million the best part of how many matchday squads was was Kusunov left out of how many matchday squads was Nico Gonzalez left out of if you're not at the level you don't get in you don't play so it's a for me instead of offering people more money to keep them happy they should be using the potential absence in a matchday squad to just play better to perform better and um that's how i see it i think everyone in the squad now is mostly signed up with a lot of faith behind them so i i just think that they're not dumb they'll know what they need to do they will have had those conversations but for sure some people will miss out occasionally and it's up to them to to get back in yeah well said paul any thoughts on how we'll line up for leads do you think there'll be any changes um i could see leo coming in, assuming he's fit.

1:11:06I still think it'll be Calafiore, because I think what he did was important and interesting. But it could be Miles. I could see Timber coming in for Ben White. So a few changes possible. What do you think? Yeah, so I think Timber and Calafiore make sense for this game. I mean, White seemed to have a bit of a niggle, maybe, towards the end of the last game. So maybe it's Timber up next. from an attacking standpoint probably Leo just a little bit more of the well what about Eze? I mean can't he play this weekend? He'll need to have been registered by 12pm tomorrow so I think that's a bit of a stretch Is it?

1:11:57I mean I think it's possible but I don't think he would start either way so yeah yeah but and when i say possible i mean remote but i think it's possible but unlike because because this would be a good game for them so what i understand about our leads counterparts is they've gone for size and bulk uh they're more controlly 433 not as expansive as they were in the championship because they've done that thing before they actually want to stay up this time so uh they got a lot of physical size they got a new striker in from liel uh which i don't know too much about i'm sure phil does uh they brought in a left back um a mr goodmanson uh they they spent the money on that guy um he was five million more expensive than badmanson so they're obviously taking it very seriously um so i think they're going to be the classic sit back at the emirates tough test sitting in hanging in there and they will test the Yacoresh proposition, which is why I'd love to have Eze at least off the bench if we can get him.

1:13:02Because it could be one of those where we're struggling, if we don't get the set piece go, we're starting to struggle to kind of move it around. It'll be a good test for Zubimendi as well, switching the sides, picking which way to go, where to, the kind of, the two chess moves ahead kind of thing. It's definitely a very good test for what our, the challenges of our season. and Jokeres maybe had a tough time against De Ligt in his first game, and I've seen a lot of reviews about how he wasn't physical against the Premier League defenders against De Ligt, but like, again, pancake, throw that one away, give the guy a chance to settle in, get comfortable, but this will be a good test of the Jokeres proposition against the Oaks of the centre-backs of the Premier League minnows who defend in depth and crowd the penalty box.

1:13:58Some bad news for Leeds Ampadu, who plays in the center of their midfield and is very important for them, has suffered an MCL injury and he'll be out until after the international break. So he will miss. I just really, really pray Dominic Calvert-Lewin doesn't play because I've never seen our center backs have a good game against him. Of all the players, he's the one that troubles them. Yeah, he's been amazing against us. Saliba and Gabriel have been pretty much brutalized by him. I'd say, I don't want to say their careers were ended by him because obviously they're still playing, but essentially, like, they've never been regarded the same way.

1:14:34I'm kidding. But no, I'm not kidding about, I'm giving a little more stick, but I actually think he has been one of the toughest challenges for them that I've seen them face. They've really struggled against him, and obviously he's at Leeds now. Farka said he's getting towards fitness. I think he'd be tempted to start him, but I don't know if he will. It certainly gives them an out ball. That's the other thing about it it it is a really easy way for them to get an exit now to your point paul you said you expect them to sit back what's interesting phil against everton who they dominated absolutely dominated just struggled to find the breakthrough and then it was gifted to them with a soft hand ball penalty they pressed like mad they were very pressy if they press us which i hope they do this will be a very easy day for us i just don't think they will say that if i'm saying if they press us there's no way in the world especially missing one of their starting midfield pieces that leads are going to be able to press us at the Emirates and survive that.

1:15:25It just gives us too much space to exploit in my mind. And I realize that could look very silly. But if you said to me, which am I more scared of leads pressing us at the Emirates or lead sitting back and forcing us to find the way through? One is the clear answer. So what do you expect? And from a lineup standpoint, I think, again, the decisions, Timber or White, Califiori or Miles, Leo or Martinelli or Nani could be Nani. what do you think I think Leo might get the nod for this one because my opinion is that Leeds will sit back a little bit obviously they did go for it at home against Everton but you need to look at the context around that game match day one opening night Monday night football fans were up for it players were up for it and they maybe would have viewed Everton as a as a peer as opposed to being an underdog which is what they will be on Saturday so I think what they'll try to do is just crowd the central areas they'll try to to crowd the wide areas and then look for dan james and non-towing behind this i know a okafor as well who's a who's a pacey front man um coming from from ac milan so that gives them an option i think joel pirou is more i want to drop deep and link so whether they have calvert lewin playing or okafor they've got options but i i can't really imagine they'll come here and press because it's it's very risky um And I'm sort of hoping they don't because it's a good test for us.

1:16:48A lot of the focus this preseason has been about how we manage in transition, especially offensively. We're having to adapt to Jochores. He can't really do the back-to-goal stuff, even though we saw a little bit of it against Athletic Club. But I'm really curious to see how we face this first test if they do sit back. Because as Paul said, they've got a couple of trees at the back in Pascal Strike, Joe Roden they'll they'll head everything away so do we have a bit more in terms of creativity in terms of our link play how we get through a stubborn defense then just looking for transitional moments all the time so I think we saw a little bit of the transitional stuff at Old Trafford can we be a bit more neat and tidy against Leeds at home do we want to be brave and play a more attacking formation with a with a more offensive eight I don't think so but um let's see but yeah in terms of the main questions about who plays, you're right, it's the left winger and both fullbacks.

1:17:44I think they'll stay as they are the fullbacks. I think it will be Califuri and White, but I could see Leo coming in for Martinelli. The biggest fear I have, and I don't even want to breathe it into existence, but they have this guy, Anton Stock, right? And he has a cannon of a right foot on him, an accurate, powerful shot from outside the box. And I just don't want one of these guy making a name for himself from 25 yards out against Arsenal things. All I can say is, Zuby... Don't worry. It's usually the goalkeepers, not the midfielders. Okay, well, just don't give that guy space to line up a shot from outside the box.

1:18:31That's all I'm saying. We've been going a while. I think we can leave it there. We'll have a Friday Night Clive tomorrow. and it'll be a bit of an essay fest. We'll have some clips lined up that we'll watch together and join us for the intro music because I really like it. But yeah, other than that, yeah, we should be good. So big game. Look, the one thing that can bring down transfer hype is the football. So let's see a good performance. I think if we show the best of ourselves against Leeds and we produce a good attacking display combined with what's just happened in the market, it's going to be a really good feeling going into Anfield.

1:19:12And that's where we want to be. Why do people get so hung up on the football? I mean, when you think about it, it's only like 90 minutes once or twice a week. Most of the time at the club is not during the game. I think we're a great club. I think we do really well all the rest of the time. and we do quite well sometimes with the 90 minutes too so it's a really great perspective thanks for bringing that to us paul always a pleasure to talk to you thanks phil thanks man soak it up soak up the essayness because it's it's very fun it is very fun it's been very fun for me i hope it's been very fun for you i'm sure it has we're gonna have a good season everybody strap in gonna be great we love you strap on no no strap in no we were so close people say that's for the Patreon pool I've lost control we love you we'll talk to you after our still 10 leads now

1:20:13We'll be right back.

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