Mailbag - Will Anyone Be Fit To Start The Season? Plus Transfer Questions!

0:00Music

0:16It's Rice. What a goal! Declan Rice with an absolute rocket with a free kick. Arsenal lead 1-0. Cut inside. Saka! Sublime finish! He's back with a bang with Fukuyo Saka. 1-0. Unbelievable! England beat Croatia, and just like that, the English media no longer think that set pieces are destroying modern football. This is the Arsenal Vision Post-Match Podcast. My name's Alex Vithikovak. Hello, everybody. Welcome to the podcast. Hope you've been enjoying the World Cup daily. If you haven't, send your complaints to Paz, as always. If you have, please email me and send loving messages. Thanks to Michael Timms.

0:55Timsy, who has been helping out with that, will be hosting quite a lot of them. Rob Holding was on today, so you can check that out if you want. Talked about his dog and flying, but he also talked a bit about England too, don't worry. And we're playing with the timing. Sometimes we're going to record at night to try to get it out early enough that you can hear it before the next games. Sometimes we're going to record a few hours before kickoff so we can capture all the games. We're going to do what we can to keep that coming. Transfer dailies, my personal prison, will return in July. We did a scouting video of Christos Solis, which I think is one of the best scouting videos we've ever done because we broke it into sections.

1:27And the last section is just his games against Atleti in the Champions League knockout rounds, which was really illuminating. And I think it's an interesting player. And if you want the analysis of that, you can head over there, Saliba50s of Code, you get a couple quid. You can try it out all summer long. We're going to have scouting videos for, maybe for Alex Scott. That question may come up today. For Barkola, for Kruppi, there's lots of good names. Maybe Ayad Buadi. who we may cover and discuss today. So lots of fun stuff over there. We're going to be in Chicago, not this weekend, but next weekend.

1:57Tickets are sold out, but there's an overflow room if you want to come out and see us. There's information at chicago.arsenalvisionpodcast.com. And most importantly, I hope you're doing well because you, dear listener, and this is important, you are a champion of England. You are a champion. You won the Premier League. Congratulations to you. You are the finest in all the land. Another man who is a champion and the finest in all the land I have been reliably told is Clive. Hello, Clive. Hello, hello. How are you, my friend, my dear friend?

2:26Elliot:I'm okay. Yeah, doing all right. It's enjoying the nice weather over here this weekend. And I think it's Father's Day, so I'm making sure I get a nice little meal on Friday night. Sunday is Father's Day. We've got to milk that, Clive. We've got to milk it for all its worth. Trust me. I will be disappearing this weekend, going to the pub and maybe come back when I like. Yeah. Well, I think that's the only way to do it. Father's Day is about disappearing from your family and neither of you seeing each other until the clock ticks 12.01, midnight on Monday. We're going to do listener questions today.

2:57I know you're ready for these darn questions, these people who have questions. But before we do that, England played. I want to give you three minutes to tell me what you thought of England. Yeah.

3:09Elliot:Well, firstly, it's nice to see a manager that understands football, understands football players, understands different scenarios he's going to have and doesn't pander to the press and making sure he doesn't have too many clamours about certain players being in the team, etc. because he hasn't picked them in the squad. So it makes it really refreshing. And so the press packer got nothing to say because he's just got a team with what he wants and the players are really happy because they know their role in the squad. They know what they're going to be doing. They know they're paying millions for everybody and everyone's cruising along, which is really upsetting for the English press.

3:42Elliot:And then the game starts and I thought it was okay. In fact, they've very much paid like Arsenal or maybe two years ago you know we were single six and two eights pushing up and wide triangles and and a goalkeeper can look after the ball oh there you go something's wrong that can't really look after the ball and that's it and had 70 plus touches and that was the thing that was wrong for me in the first half and those that know me you know i'm gonna say i don't like when we play in the wrong areas too long without the ability to play in those areas we got picked tough a couple of times on the right hand side and it cost us issues they scored two great goals but it was our build out that was a little bit clunky and I felt we got too comfortable because I think we felt we were in charge and we ended up giving two goals away in the first half second half we just said sod this mate let's get after them get the ball into right areas counter press another attack one attack another attack cross attack set piece keep it in there second cross block shots just just absolutely monitor you know simple patterns on the right hand side out to fall back into center mid whip around the corner to to runners the right hand side was more effective for me and pleased for nonny because he shows i will say i am one i am a supporter of him i think when you see a player that can move like him and now he's developing he's running off the ball we got a player that's really really growing in my opinion and he's 23, he's young, he's not expensive, he's on low wages, I think he's a great buy for Arsenal and he looks really effective for England.

5:14Elliot:And you could not imagine Cole Palmer running after those balls or Phil Foden running after those balls. And it just goes to show you a manager that understands a team. If Harry Kane's your centre forward, you better have legs all around him. Very, very simple. And he's made those decisions. So really, really enjoyable. ball nothing super exciting from a tactical point of view but there are tactics and there hasn't been a case in the past we're going to pick this player pick that player and see how they all get on you know and i think it was really really refreshing and come away from it thinking i think they had the most shots on target of anybody they they could have scored six and they weren't playing a dog and duck they were playing a decent team you know i think they're number 10 in the rankings i think we might number eight or something like that and um i may have those numbers wrong apologies if i have but they're in that they're definitely around that sort of read you know rating croatia so this is not a rubbish team and we really may put them to the sword so yeah really really promising despite the odd issue right which is always is saka assist rice assist nani creates the penalty a good day for the arsenal boys i I don't know that Saka looks like he's fully up to speed.

6:32You know, and I guess that is a thing that we're going to be thinking about for a while probably is just Saka. And so I think this is a good entry point into the questions. And this one comes from J underscore Kaz. Should we consider giving Raisalib and Saka extended breaks, even if it means losing some points early, but being fresh for the business end of the season? And I mean, I think all clubs are going to be dealing with that, Clive. But what do you think about the need to do something like that if we're going to run the course this coming season?

7:05Elliot:Yeah, well, it's in our minds, isn't it? What we don't know is who's going to be in a tournament and when and when they're going to leave it. Right. So we presume that France is going to go deep. After what England did, they're going to go deep. So we may miss them. I don't say miss them. They may come back for their first friendly, maybe the Community Shield. you know and then you go from there don't you and so but by the way i'll stop you just for a second say fixtures come out tomorrow and i do think this question is going to only be able to be fully analyzed through the lens of how the fixtures look because if you've got city away liverpool away chelsea away in august you're not resting your star i mean maybe you still have to i don't know yeah we have to wait and see how people are how they're feeling it's quite clear that Slieber's managing something, Rice is, some sort of neural issue in his back.

7:54Elliot:I know that feels at the moment. I have something similar. I personally thought he looked stiff late on as he came off. I didn't think he was moving freely and maybe it's because I'm looking for it, but he looked stiff to me towards the end. He called it. He told the manager and the manager said, all right, then you're coming out. And then after the game, he said, I'm all right, I'm all right. I think he's thinking, well, look, mate, he gave the ball away once right in front of the dugout. I thought that doesn't look like you but hey look there's lots of games ahead and I'm quite pleased to see him come off he was really really good second half in particular I felt you know I don't really like from a personal point of view I don't like the the lone six although I thought Anderson was absolutely brilliant I don't like it so much because when it breaks down it's like a race to fill the middle you know so what was happening was Anderson's in the middle there between centre-backs John Stone's a little bit weak to me reese change i'm not sure he's a right back anymore you know and um i think he's a midfielder honestly i think his body's changing and i think he's a midfielder could obviously play right back you know but rather than a right back and play in midfield you know that's what i think it's turning into for him um nico o'reilly loves to be free but in this system he needs to be pinned to the sideline a little bit more yeah and so he wasn't quite as effective as he can be but still really good for first quality you know first competition game so yeah interesting really interesting it sort of reflected a change i'm seeing in football a bit as i watch and watch this world cup and psg aside it feels like football is getting more transitional more direct long balls over the top less midfield involvement because there just wasn't a lot of build through midfield england went into the channels and up the wings and they hoofed it a bit and they won second balls but like you know what i noticed and this is where i really appreciate david raya when you don't have a keeper who can play the ball then you don't have the overload at the back to build play and suddenly consta's trying to play balls under pressure and you know wasn't looking particularly comfortable doing it and some of these guys are under pressure they wouldn't be if you could just give it to pickford and let him play like an extra outfield player without that it's very hard to build play from the back you know yeah so pickford had too many touches earlier because we kept going back to him in the first half so yeah but he can't he can't do it as the problem well he can't do it with quality he can't do it with quality that's the difference there's the quality angle that Raya brings and a comfort he brings.

10:18Elliot:And to see Pickford have that much sort of influence on our play, which wasn't great in the first half. And what it does, because he's a really good shot stopping keeper. I've seen him, I've disrespected him on TV, but I've seen him at Arsenal do a nil-nil. And trust me, it's very hard to beat sometimes when he's on it. I've also seen him do the two nil last season. So I've got a level of respect for him. but when he's too involved i don't think he's calm and i don't think he needs to be too involved when he's just focusing on saving shots he's good so focus on that mate because he waved a couple in that first half you know and um yeah and so yeah pickford's key and i i actually wish james trafford is a very very good goalkeeper but inger not about to drop pickford but it won't be long if that guy gets to play james trafford he's gonna he's brilliant on the ball he's stronger taller more athletic he's a really good goalkeeper potentially but i'm not going to do anything right now but it's what it is right yep yeah look everybody's going to be dealing with this injury issue but another question that came up and it came up a lot and this is from friend chismo underscore let's just get it out there on a scale of one to ten how concerned are you about saka's injury record and recent form um injury stuff do you want to pin that to a scale of one to ten or should you leave that to me i know yeah i know you don't want to i'll do that because it's because it's just how can you scale it right i mean we're all worried about him we all want him to be super sharp but i remember the fulham game when he came back and he felt pain-free and was really really good right so um and and then of course he looked a bit dodgy in the champion league final i thought in the game against croatia he's come on with a bit to prove and i thought he looked really quite sprightly you know really sprightly made an impact that's for sure massive impact because he's competing and the manager's managing him really really well so hey look if he can get to a well cut semi-final he'll be playing you know without a doubt you know but it's the first game and nothing's lost on the first game and so they looked after him i'm pleased that he's going to manage him they really you know for us some fans are thinking well should he even be there you know and that's another you know that's a valid point right they literally say you can't play 90 you can't train every day and but we wanted to stay and be here and he wants to be there the manager is a bit more pessimistic on him than zachary's on himself listen to his press conference he feels fine but that's a player that wants to play right so i thought he came on and showed enough when he came on so let's see what happens two more games come up garner and panama you know should be fine do it a lot with them games right if you want to have a little bit of encouraging news Thierry Henry suffered from debilitating chronic Achilles tendinopathy in both ankles uh bilateral Achilles tendinopathy he spoke at length about this later in his career and after his career but we're not talking about just when he was an MLS he claims he had it in 2004 in 2003 in 2005 um and I think and I don't remember but I think Thierry Henry had a reasonable career uh so you know and was known for pace known for explosiveness you know yeah yeah we just don't know where he is and he's obviously on some days he's playing with more pain than others i think we can spot those days can't we based on performance and involvement etc so to scale it is very difficult let's just let's just hope he can get the time he needs to to rest it so we see the better sack out we don't see the sack he saw in the championship the final because he wasn't quite good enough yeah um okay i i think that's enough injury talk but since it was a one to ten question i'm going to say i'm at a five in the sense that i think with rest bakayo saka will get back to the absolute best bakayo saka we can see without rest i think it will be a constant management pain management issue where he isn't able to get all the way fit And that goes back to the first question, which is, can Mikel Arteta afford to say to Bakaio, you sit down till early October or mid-October and you get right.

14:26You know, we have a strong squad. We have a big group. We are defending champions. We know how to run the course now. I think you need a Bakaio Saka who is fit. I think rest is going to be the key to that. So we'll just have to see how that plays out.

14:39Elliot:How the squad develops, right? See how the squad develops. We'll all know if it can happen or not. I want to ask kind of a fun question to lighten things up and then we'll get into transfers a bit more and some tactical stuff. Some great tactics questions came in, as you'd expect from the intelligent and handsome and beautiful listeners of this podcast. This comes from 18S27K. Clive, links with Alex Scott seem to be getting stronger by the day. Parentheses, I'd love him to join. Close parentheses. But how do you both feel about his Spurs allegiances? He's a Spurs fan. and do you believe in tangibles like this really make that much of a difference at the very elite level your thoughts on scott and your thoughts on scott's horrible taste in football clubs yeah so not every player that plays for us can be a lifetime supporter like miles or iskelly so we have to get over ourselves yeah and we have to get over ourselves right it's a job um scott the player so there's a few players that really stood out to me watching the home games last year Julian Alvarez was very good in the athletic coming to the game, particularly the group game I thought he was excellent in that game and Alex Scott was excellent in the Bournemouth game when they beat us along with Truffaut, I thought he was really good really stood out to me and he was so the way he stood out was in a way that we don't normally see, so funny enough it's quite interesting when you see players dominate our centre so one of the other players have done really well against us a couple of years ago was morgan rogers remember that game at villa away when he just ran past our center mids on the day and everyone was worried about our center mids i'm thinking can you not see this player's actually quite good you know and um and so and alex scott did it in a similar way he's quite energetic and he did it in a way where he outran us but also just technically looked really really good and he was just omnipresent everywhere and um he's not the sort of centre mid that my eyes normally go to but you could not fail to see him and i think he's someone i just remember from england 21 days and playing for bristol city and i thought he was more of an 8 10 but he seems to have dropped back as the higher up the league he's gone and now he's just uh i'm more of a 6 8 you know an all-rounder in that way but maybe a bit more behind the ball and um i thought he he's got real ability and there's a few discussions out there about midfielders at the moment and what i like about him he's two-footed he's he's got true ability on the ball step overs the lot when he's in wide air he looks like a winger when he's in center midfield he looks like a passer when he's at the top end of the pitch looks like a scorer that's the sort of stuff that ticks all our boxes right and maybe to my eye he's not quite as physical but then comparing to zubmendi probably similar body to many maybe better defensively i I think that's underestimated what he does.

17:32Elliot:But on the ball, he offers a lot. But the numbers are so big at the moment, Elliot. Six million quid minimum. Bournemouth don't need to sell. They're in Europe. They don't need to do much. They're going to get their money for somebody soon, for whoever goes. And so, yeah, good player. Is he the one versus others? I'm not so sure. But if Arsenal landed on him, you could find a technical discussion that's to say why we should do it, without a doubt. Well, I will just throw my two cents in, not that anybody wants it. I think the fact that he's a Spurs fan can matter. Only at the extremities, only at the margins.

18:11But things like the Thomas Frank is a silver member song, those kind of things permeate the zeitgeist. And like, if Scott gets off to a tough start and Spurs fans are sharing out posts of him loving the team, and at the first derby they're singing that Scott is a Spurs fan, like, do I think it matters? Not, again, not in the bulk of the things that really influence football. At the margins, that kind of stuff can just start to become an issue if a player is struggling or not getting off to their best level. So, like I said, I don't think it matters. But I do think, as you saw with Ezzo wanting to join Arsenal and spurning Spurs to come to us, there is an extent to which the fan base wants to hold some players to their bosom and others they may be less willing to.

18:55So it's just one of those things. And that leads to the next question. Dara Golden asks, Buadi or Scott? Yeah, so my eyes go towards Buadi a little bit more.

19:09Elliot:Just personal preferences. I don't think I surprise anybody. You know, I like the taller players. He's a carrier. We do have quite a few of those. I was a big fan of Vieira. I was a big fan of Diaby. And then you asked me to compare Buadi. Tall player, floating around the pitch, dominating, just skipping away from Premier League midfielders. Yeah, I like that. I like that a lot. I don't really worry about what he hasn't got at 18. The fact you're playing your first World Cup game for your new nation, and you just stroll out there against Bruno, Paqueta, Casemiro and just make them look like geriatrics.

19:48Elliot:That's enough for me to say, you've got something about you. What's more concerning, if Elliot Anderson's worth 120 million quid, which he's a very good player, by the way, but 120 million quid is a lot of money. Maybe we have got to look at the Scots and Buadis and make them a little bit more, build them up a little bit more. use the time that we have with our current squad to build these players into those assets because we can't just rock up and pay 100 million quid for somebody tonali 100 wherever he is it's just ridiculous now the um kaisado rice summer has almost set a new market for center mids and people realize how important they are they're the heart of your team well and elliot anderson's going to do that again this summer obviously well he is right and um and he's excellent but that doesn't mean everyone else is is worth similar amount right so um so maybe we have got to look a bit smarter in this and we have got a chance to do that but what he is so interesting oh i've only seen what everyone else has seen i haven't seen i didn't know i've said this before so i apologize for repeating myself but i did watch the ass of the real game against leo and i watched it and i watched it purely watching him and i thought he was okay you know that's the truth i thought yep you look quite nice but you're okay i can see why we like you but then i watch him in the world cup and it's like oh my god if that's what you've done in a few months you've changed you've got better oh you we need to get you because you project forward and then you think so well what could he be you know and that's where we're at i i do worry i do worry a bit when we start to look at what players do in a world cup and i get that france or france i mean if you do that against france that's different than if you do it against south africa But like, you know, we have seen impressive international tournaments lead to transfers that have not been warranted because at the club level, the player is not able to do it to the same extent they can at the international level.

21:45There's so many different dynamics that give into that. It is difficult, too, because as an 18-year-old, my biggest thing with teenagers, I think when it comes to football, I don't have teenage children just yet. But when it comes to the football, I think you have to expect inconsistency of performance. It's the hardest thing for a teenager to do in football, I think, is not play at the top level because the talent is there, they'll do it. It's to do it game in, game out, game in, game out like a Declan Rice does. And so if you're going to get a Boadi, I think you have to expect more vicissitudes of performance, right?

22:17More highs and lows than consistency. And that may be wrong. This may be the superstar of the future that you go get now. But this is the problem with getting the superstar of the future. if the superstar of the future is 40 million and you speculate to accumulate that's great if the future superstar is 100 million you're paying like they're already the current superstar and that's really the issue we bought Declan Rice for 100 million because he was the best midfielder in the best league in the world maybe the best player in the best league in the world other than like Erling Haaland but if you're buying an 18 year old for 100 million they need to be a star now otherwise what are they going to grow into you know what i mean there's there's no

22:58Elliot:range for them to move into let's extrapolate a bit longer right so okay only what i've read the scott number seems to be around 60 million by the way that could be 70 million really really quickly bradie's number was 60 million by the way that could be 70 million very quickly just based on a whatsapp right so um and so compare the two right one's played in England, just about getting the England squad, he'll be in there next after this, you know, cycles over, really good player, or do you go for the player that's 18, a lot of assimilation to do, super talented, which one do you go for? Then you ask yourself a question, what question are Arsenal trying to solve?

23:40Elliot:You know, what are they trying to solve? What are they trying to buy for? We send them, I'm not sure, Elliot, I'm looking at the names, I'm thinking we need one, because guard needs to go and play we need someone to make we need to work we we think we've got miles in center mid although miles hasn't played a lot in center mid deckham rice has got a dodgy back and plays i don't know how many games he played 58 games or something last season he's still playing um so and we know supermendy he played even more minutes than deckham rice in the league and so basically we're not sure what player we're going to get back that we lost him for a little while so it comes down to the point what are we trying to do here are we trying to have some insurance for rice are we well what are we trying to answer you know do you want somebody younger to be part of the next the next wave you know um i'm not sure yet on the question we're trying to solve for centermid so i mean what i'm doing earlier is reminding myself of what berta did last year which was present us with lots of players that we all knew that we could all go and do our little videos on them and I'm scouting and study and read all the data and read all the articles and I'm not committing emotionally to anybody maybe apart from one I've committed to because it can change you know and so but with centermids I'm not sure what we're trying to achieve there at the moment that's just my opinion you may be more sure right but I'm not sure yet I'm certainly not sure I think that is very unclear and it raises a question that comes from John Larkin in the Discord, Clive, that I think is really apt.

25:15We continue to be linked with a new midfielder following the athletic story this week that we're monitoring Alex Scott. With a new player being linked each week, does this indicate that the club are not going to pursue, I think it means proceed, with MLS in midfield? I think the presumption, my presumption is, Miles showed he can be that guy. But these links to Bouadi and to Scott, who will not be cheap, certainly suggest that we want more in the space that Miles would be playing, which again would raise the question of what his path looks like and where he is in the pecking order. So what do you think of that question?

25:51What does this mean for Miles?

25:54Elliot:I think we are, because of Miles' background and the fact that everyone loves him, he has something which I think is unique to all these players. He has a mentality, this is just off the scale, to what he understands what underpins the game, which is the contest of the game, and he's really quite dominant in those key moments. And for someone so young, he wants to impose himself on the opposition. Yeah. But when I say that, and you close your eyes, Elliot, and the ball comes into his feet, you can see him turning on a half turn, you can see him running through, you can see him knocking it off.

26:27Elliot:But I want to see more. I want to see him receive it with different angles. I want to see him play a little bit more conservative when he needs to. I just need to see more. And why wouldn't I say that? because we've only seen three or four games but i will say one of those games was against the best team in the world and he did not look out of place and so it's very difficult not to be impressed with that you know i've also seen him play when he's been hesitant and he hasn't had the same confidence because he's a young player right i've also seen zubmendi lose his way and become hesitant and pass backwards and sideways and he's not a young player so this is normal so what do you do in these in these situations i think miles is still to be uncovered i think he could do anything you know but it's all with him really and i think he's definitely one of the midfield options for next season and i think he's i think nor guard will go to create to create the the turnover in that space you know you think go to guard will go i think nor guard oh gosh wait a minute you can't just say that casually like oh by the way norgaard i think norgaard will go so we have three centimeters in there we need four that doesn't create minutes though right norgaard played almost no minutes so you're not your player going but you're not generating minutes of in terms of playing but you have to project forward don't you because the two players that played the most minutes are the two centimeters yeah and superman he played so many minutes that by the end of the season he didn't look like himself anymore yeah and so you have to project you have to project and say we can't do that to them again you have to learn and so we need to have another player in that we can move around them the number 63 is in my head 63 games last season we we we have to be smart about how we rotate there and we have to learn from that right every smart person has been saying i would be a future star for a while long before this world cup kicked off that's for sure what i will say is everything i saw him do against France I've seen Miles Lewis Skelly do against Brazil against pardon me against Brazil thank you I've seen Miles Lewis Skelly and I said France earlier by the way so I apologize for that earlier mistake as well uh everything I've seen him do against Brazil I've seen Miles Lewis Skelly do against the best club sides in world football and I've seen him do it at age 18 and 19 and Boadi is 18 Miles is 19 they're one year apart they're both very young players one we own, one we'd have to invest hugely in.

28:57I'm not saying you can't have both, but I'm saying if you're going to invest minutes into a teenage midfielder while trying to win the Champions League and the Premier League, I'd rather invest them in miles. Look, maybe I'm an idiot. Maybe I'm walking away from one of the biggest talents in world football because I'm wedded to an academy player, but maybe I'm an idiot. Maybe that's where the analysis can stop. We're going to do a scouting video, buddy, and we'll see what it means. But I'll ask you this then, Clive, because I do think it gets crowded in there, even with Norgaard out. So I will ask you a question that is a bit provocative, but this comes from AndrewDeer90.

29:38Would you consider a decent offer for Zubamendi or Jokeresh if there was confidence we could upgrade in either area? We are strongly linked with attackers like Kruppi. We're strongly linked with midfielders like Alex Scott and Boadi. Is a bigger outgoing, like a Zubamendi or Jokersh, something you'd consider if you had confidence in the upgrade?

29:58Elliot:I suppose, I think that's a question. It's a bit loaded. Of course it is, that's why I said it's provocative. Get some people going. If we could guarantee a better player coming in for almost all of these players, we would say, I would take it. You know, I would take it. So what you're really saying in that question is, I'm not wholly convinced by Jokeres and Zubmendi. So, no, I take a bit more of a pragmatic view. I don't think we win anything without either of them. I think they've been a significant towards what we've done this season in Jokeres and Zubmendi. We just got, it took a while with one and we lost the other.

30:39Elliot:And it's just been a long season. So let's see what happens. They're both the World Cup now. I would like to keep them. I think they offer something really, really important. I really like Zubamendi's game. I understand it from a field of point of view. I really can see it. We did lose him towards the end of the season, no doubt in it. But I thought we lost a lot of our play. A lot of our play was quite tense as well. And we had to find another way to build up. And we changed our system. And Miles came in and done really, really well. And you have to accept it. Someone's in better form than you, and I'm afraid they have to play.

31:11Elliot:And that's what we all want, don't we? We all want that. We don't want to see someone staying in the team because of his name. We want to see someone staying in the team because they're playing well enough. if someone's playing better and they get the opportunity they should play but i i would like to keep them i do like krupy i do like him um but i'm not sure i want to lose either the center forwards that we have you know in kaya and yokarez because i see krupy as more of a second striker and then you're now talking about the number 10's position and what that looks like i think that's the story of the summer i understand that one a bit more i understand the questions around that position did i do more sentiment because sentiment i think we'll understand what we're trying to answer based on the one that we land and who goes you know and i think at the moment time i'm a little opaque on that yeah i i will say that i think zuba mendy is probably underrated now based on how he finished the season and that has changed our evaluation of how he started the season we'll also say that who he is as a player is a bit different than I think what people's expectation was and I think the expectation of what he was is a player we still don't have except for maybe miles to be fair um Zubimendi has actually to me looked almost more like Marino in the sense of looking more effective, more advanced up the pitch, not the guy to start the buildup, not the guy to be the first stage of our midfield possession.

32:49I think we do this a lot and sometimes he is

32:55Elliot:and sometimes he isn't. And sometimes he's better ahead of the ball, sometimes better behind the ball. It depends on the system we want to play on the day. If we say, you know what, we've got two fullbacks we want to push on. so you just drop him between center backs and start the play and we have a back three and our fullbacks are up the road do you think he's good at that? candidly do you think because I don't yeah I think he's good at that I think he's good at that I think he's really good at that okay but what we do and I've done it when he drops him sometimes on occasions by the way sometimes he does it because there's no pass I know you're I can read your mind you're thinking about Manchester United you're thinking about when he made the pass and all he did was take a pass one touch before he should have done when he was leaning backwards and it cost us the game when you open the game up where you're never going to lose so people now say well he can't do that well of course he can do it right he's been caught twice once against spurs once against manchini and the spurs one was unbelievable goal and the main night one was another really good finish but it's a bad mistake just to defend myself a bit there though i'm more concerned that i think his instinct is wall passes back to the defender more than to turn and face and make the next pass up you know to the next line up in a way that Miles, for example, is much more comfortable doing.

34:02Elliot:Yeah, but I would say that, see, this is, I would say, tactically, Miles is not someone to stand between the centre-backs. Declan Wright's standing between the centre-backs, passing two miles, one lane up. This one talked about layers to the game. Alex Scott's stand between centre-backs. Miles is almost like a 6 '8", and he takes the first pass, turns out of pressure, and fires it into the forward line. Yeah. So Miles' layers, in midfield have really got we got to see more you know we've got to see a lot more i think he can play right eight i think he can play left eight high yeah i think he can definitely play left six definitely but we haven't seen it all yet you know we've seen to mendy play high up on the right we've seen him play low as a six we've seen him play as a double pivot we've all seen play taking crosses on his left foot by a left corner flag so we've seen more of him so we know he's got layers to his game and by the way he's 26 and he's played in euros final of course he's got more layers to his game but miles is the undiscovered piece and so people already saying well he's better than him because he does that at that point in the season we really needed that we really needed that progression to maybe become hesitant he'd become a little bit negative he'd become a bit cautious and he maybe felt the weight of a few mistakes on his shoulders and miles came and said, well, I'm going to take this opportunity.

35:24Elliot:And he ignited us in midfield. It doesn't mean he's more all-round. It doesn't mean he's better. It means he was in better form and the manager picked him. And that's all we want as fans, right? Yeah, and you know what I may be guilty of?

35:42Like, sometimes it's just about the way you think about a role, right? And Busquets, Xabi Alonso, Andre Pirlo, these regista roles, these sixes who distribute from deep even like a Jorginho could do it like we don't have a regista and maybe we don't need a regista and maybe that's just not a role that is needed in our game model and I don't I think maybe there was a sense that Zubamendi would be that and he definitely isn't that but that doesn't mean he again I want to be clear it's not about the value he has it's about what are the things that we need and we think about football in the way we think about it and i i admit there's certain profiles that i struggle to get away from and that that pierlo that regista right that guy who sits at the base and orchestrates that that isn't really who we are and that isn't a player we have and maybe that's not necessarily

36:32Elliot:we have that player and he's called william saliba right that's the player well that's a great point yep very very fair point and and by the way when you meet a player the first time i really looked at zizmendi closely was in the euros final and he came on for rodri who is that player and he came on and did that role. So if people think he's that player, that's absolutely normal, Elliot. That's absolutely normal. Oh, of course. It's just not who he is, though. Yeah, when we get to see him every single week and we realize he can do different things in different games on different requirements, you can see why the manager liked him because he can do different stuff, right?