Preseason Concerns Intensify

27:37Elliot:yeah i think it's a major part of our identity we're a team that controls territory we we suffocate teams and we play from there i think that's why the things that worry me are when we do win the ball do we get enough high quality shots off that's what worries me because if you have a style, which is basically we're playing in your half and we're going to hold you here, then you need to look at the things that hang off the back of that style. So if we go into wide areas quickly, we need to make sure we've got winger depth. Tick, we've done that this year. So we need to make sure we have more high-volume shooters to create shots from those high turnovers.

28:15Elliot:People are a bit more selfish. We've added two that can do that. Neither of them are fit. Anybody looking for transformation of the attack, They're not there yet. They're just not. So those are things that bother me. But beyond all this, in the last two, three years, we had a really good defense. And for me, defense stability is something that people ignore until you haven't got it. And when you haven't got it, you think, oh dear, we're 2-0 down. I can't remember. I'll tell you, Elliot's sitting there 2-0 down in a home game when the sun is shining. I can't remember the last time that happened.

28:46Elliot:You know, preseason or not. I can't remember the last time that happened. And I'm sitting there thinking, and crikey, this isn't good. And there's a crossfield ball into the right back area. Everyone's talking about Ben White. He's great going forward. Everyone's so focused on attack. We're looking at what the attackers are doing and how we can add to the attack. Great going forward. At this moment in time, when he's making those lung-busting runs forward, he's not quite as tight on his man defensively. And they're getting crosses in on his side. Back to my story about my boy at the academy. He's getting crosses in on his side.

29:21Elliot:that's got to stop. So that's, for me, a big improvement. That's a concern. I don't want to see flashing crosses going across our six-yard box without the man being under pressure enough. You know, so that concerned me. There's a few bits in the middle there. Maybe, I thought there might have been a foul in the box. I don't think there was from second view. Rare made a save on one of the goals and it just, good deflection right into the guy who roofed it. But we got switched on into our right-hand side and they got crossing on both. And that's a concern. on the last goal mate running through the prairie wasn't he big spaces there we didn't quite cover I think Gabriel may have tried to play play offside and but really should run back but he hasn't run back for four to five months so and so we have to allow that one to go and actually by the way he got better and better during the game so that's somebody that needs a game at the weekend you know so so yeah we've got a few other concerns there that you may touch on but defensively bothered me a lot more than the attack did because the attack was something that was trying we're trying to do it there were sparks going forward but in the end we could see three goals at home yeah well yeah okay we defend as a unit right but three goals at home that's not good at yet that isn't no i i think that there were issues with our shape pretty much from the start of the game and I guess it makes sense because Marino hardly played midfield for us last season.

30:51Norgard wasn't at the club last season and Ethan Wynary mostly played off the right last season and that was your midfield for this game and their distances were wrong. I think Ethan Wynary was one of our best players in possession in the first half but watching some of the game back and some of the clips that I've seen I'm not convinced he's fully aware of where he needs to be.

31:12Elliot:What we should say, his development area is out of possession. His talent on the ball is stunning. I mean, some of it, the way he receives it, flips around the corner, dummy front foot, to the back foot, flip out, drop a shoulder, burst past people, burst around people. I mean, it's stuff, YouTube highlights stuff. It's just unreal. But there is more to the game. And how's he going to learn it? He has to learn it by doing that. Of course. yeah he has to learn it by doing that and somebody's sitting down in the video room today and saying on this rather than rather than just stare at it remember i said to you a little while ago i think he stares at the ball a lot rather than stare at it drop drop in give yourself some time to think to assess the area before you jump out and press you know the only way you learn that is by playing he's 18 you know so i think if you name that midfield nor guard marino and even as a second choice midfield that's quite high quality you know that's really high quality not other not many teams can do a second choice midfield like that you know perceived second choice if you don't mean and and Ethan's having his first go in the number 10 properly at senior level and yeah he's got he's got stuff to learn boy boy I don't know many 18 year olds that don't right so um but his talent is screaming at me it's not far away he really isn't not far away well and I also think Ethan's profile what's interesting about it he wants to beat a man he wants to get a shot off he wants to dribble past someone it I think it does require the other eight to maybe be more of someone who's a metronome or gives the ball quickly or moves the ball at tempo because the ball does slow down a little bit when it gets to Ethan not slow down in terms of his physical action but in terms of it leaving him on time and quickly he's going to try to do something with the ball at feet so michael marino is just a very very weird fit in midfield in general but that dynamic between the two of them i'm not sure is the right balance you know no i'm not sure either i can say that now because we've seen it a couple of times right and uh and it hasn't looked great but he's tried it again and we need to keep trying it um i think i can the marino one is a challenge right so um i think he looks really good in some patches and then really poor in others he does like something that's nine out of ten or something that's four out of ten if he crikey can just give me something a bit steady i think he's a massive goal threat i think he'd bring it around the edge of the area his pass selection is good he's shooting he's good sometimes in the middle part of the pitch i always feel he's he's just one yard away do you know what I mean from the action and then I think he got better last year once he got fitter even when he went to midfield I thought he had some good performances so again it's pre-season so I'm holding back on him Ethan needs to be a bit more metronomic everything can't be a one-on-one it can't be a dribble you have to just knock it sometimes and and if also a team of flow I say it's about miles as well if I like after when we flow through the thirds when we flow through people quite quickly they receive it pass in front and they move when i look down i think i say when i see that flow through the pitch i think we're on to something when i see the ball stop and start and people organize i think we get the same game we always get which is us versus a team that's now got in and standing six yards from each other you know and they become great defenders when they're six yards from each other does i mean so we have to flow through to try to find the gap to try to find the dope in their back line that's not quite in position that's a little bit tired so we can pick on him go one-on-one to him to get into the areas we want to get to so i'm looking for flow that's what i'm looking for you know so when i see the ball stop with people too long just because i want to feel it i'm thinking no no no move it but again when you're not fit you get your head down on the ball you look at the ball you do your stuff when you're fit and you're sharp you can see all the moving parts around you and you just move the ball to them quickly you know so it's a different part of the year i'm afraid but we are seeing some things there which are quite clear regarding maybe stopping the ball not having enough flow in the team yeah and look we did have some great ball recoveries in this game both from norgaard and marino who used their physicality right the tools that they have to get the ball back those recoveries probably didn't lead to the things they should, and I thought this was an interesting stat, some Opta data that Billy Carpenter shared.

35:53Arsenal forced 100 more high turnovers than Nottingham Forest last season and scored four fewer goals off them. We had the same number of goals from high turnovers as Crystal Palace, who had hundreds fewer. How about this? Here's another stat. 335 high turnovers forced. palace 252 18.25 percent of theirs ended in a shot 14.33 percent of ours ended in a shot we both wound up with six goals it's it's the fact that if a big part of your identity is going to be winning the ball high up the pitch and you struggle against mid blocks and low blocks which by the way everybody struggles against mid blocks and low blocks are hard to break down but when you have those high turnovers and there isn't a settled defense can you turn that into goals and it's what you've been saying, Clive.

36:43It is the case that the data shows we haven't done it enough and the eyes show we haven't done it enough. I think Yoko Ress is potentially a remedy for that if people release the ball to him early and quickly. He had some good pressing, by the way, which I thought was encouraging to see. One time, I think he forced the keeper into a bad mistake. And then the other time he took the ball off someone. And I think he thought about taking the shot himself at the top of the box, decided to try to slide Saka in himself and decide to slide Saka in and it didn't quite come off but I think that's going to be a positive part of his game as well I do want to talk about that point about is about this is a really key point like

37:24Elliot:I think we can we can read the information read the data so why are we not getting the shots why are we not right so I think there's two things go ahead sorry I thought that was a Well, I think there's two things. The movement of the players in the advanced roles to be available to turn turnovers into goals, but also the instinct of the playmaking players or the ball recovery players to release the ball quickly to those runs. You know, I think it's about the run that invites the pass and then the player being willing to release that pass, you know, instead of just recycling. Yeah, that can be that.

38:02Elliot:If I try to lift it up a layer, I think it's a level, sorry. I think we lack composure and IQ. Yeah. I think we turn into a teenager. We run it and we all just go immediately to 100 miles an hour. right and then like and we like my dog when he gets the ball i got the ball we need to win it first slow you've broken one line slow down slow down the heart fire and ice slow it down to find the right pass right so and i've again i use phrases sometimes so people can remember i think we've got i think we've got low iq around the edge of the box another phrase i've got i don't think we stand in the tulips enough right so that affects how we build because we don't stand inside the shape enough for me right we take the options down side to shape so that iq energy box i saw it again yesterday we want to do it almost too much and we're not quite in sync yet again i bring it back i think we're more in sync when we're more trained and do some some pattern play cohesive play as soon as we do that we're going to find these options a lot more you know and it'd be very very simple it's pattern stuff it's not all broke even broken play can be patterned so i mean but what we do and how we run i think the urgency to move forward and pass it forward it's a key message you should have a coaching message then you have a pattern play message and say right let's pattern this let's move this but focus on your composure it's not about talent about execution execution of that talent it's been a concern for a while we don't aggressively run through the last nine to create those little mini transitions those shots and i think sometimes we do silly stuff but i suppose every team does silly stuff do you know i mean but i i feel it more with us because i watch us you know i mean i think and the data is telling me we do silly stuff we don't get enough shots off you know we run into areas where we're not going to get a shot you know we run to our weak foot we're not going to get a shot on there you know we push ourselves wide so we need to be smarter about that that's got to be time we've got to train and work on this this preseason definitely i'm gonna get maybe stuck in a little bit after the ad break um about the left-hand side and about what ambition looks like as a football club to really win things to really want to win the big things i think we're going to need to hit 85 goals or more to win things and as it stands right now when we do our prediction episode next week, I will not be predicting us to get 85 goals.

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43:51Which, again, is helpful. It also means, my guess is, with it being August 7th, it's unlikely that we would face Sesco at Old Trafford, because the last thing we want is the Oakress-Sesco narrative that quickly, that soon. Maybe he gets 10 minutes at the end of the game. It's not that I'm scared. I mean, it's enough already. It's going to be something we hear about all season.

44:13Elliot:What if Newcastle decide to give Chelsea 80 million for Nicholas Jackson and then Izak go to Liverpool? I mean, Izak could still wind up at Liverpool. I mean, that's just something we have to accept. And you know the funny thing? You want to hear a really hot take that I think I believe, Clive? Just between us? Not going to put it in the pod? Yeah. I mean, maybe. Here's the hot take. I'm pretty sure Nicholas Jackson is better than Benjamin Sesko. And I think he will. if he goes to Newcastle and Sesco goes to United, I would put a pretty large sum of money on Nicholas Jackson scoring more goals at Newcastle than Benjamin Sesco will score at United.

44:52Nicholas Jackson is in that category of player where he does dumb stuff in the final third that makes for good highlight videos, but he also scores a lot of goals, gets a lot of assists and creates absolute havoc. And his current readiness for the Premier League is beyond what Sesco's is, in my view. But that's not what we're here to discuss. I did want to talk about the left-hand side and true ambition. And Clive, let's face it. We've done some really good business this summer. We've also prioritized deals that we knew we could get done efficiently and early at a good cost. So we went for Nani Meduake.

45:23He can play left and right, 52 million pounds. It was easy to get it done. We got him in. So, you know, he cut his holiday short, by the way. Kudos to him. He got a really nice ovation when he came out onto the pitch. I loved seeing that. We prioritized Yoko Ress, wanted to be with us. A deal that's a good value. we were able to get it done in relatively quick time frame where as you could see sesco is making this a basically reality tv series about who's going to get him we prioritize deals like that we obviously had zubamendi done for ages nor guard nice easy quick deal get it done but there's a level of ambition you know liverpool went for verts and eketike two great moves i'm not saying our moves haven't been great those are two great moves but it's that next step further they want to go to be a dominant force in Europe in the Premier League.

46:10It's the best striker from the Premier League last season that they are pushing to get. And for me right now, if our business is done, I don't think we are showing the kind of ambition that says we want to go far enough in the market to really push for everything. And I think the left-hand side exemplifies that lack of the final real push of the accelerator. You've got Nani Medueke, Leo Trussard, and Gabriel Martinelli as your left side options. And I think all of them are players I rate, but I don't think we have the real ambitious elite talent off the left that can bring that side to life. And there will be people that disagree, but that's where I'm at right now, Clive.

46:56And I feel, look, I said this, so I can't go back and take it back. with no more signings we can win the league i've seen us go to 89 points before we had any of these signings so we could but the really ambitious move is to go further to to steal man that that possibility from the left do you do you think that i'm off base there not really um i think it doesn't

47:18Elliot:take a genius to see where which side is our better side yeah so that that's why that's why i'm able to see it yeah and um but then we then it's how you contextualize and frame that right So you framed around ambition, right?

47:35Elliot:And that's one way you can frame it. You can frame it, okay, we've had the most spend this summer already. We've only made six million in sales. You mean net spend, yeah. Yeah, so we're the heart. So it's probably a bit of work to do there. There's a couple of players out there, right, isn't there? Let's just say it as it is, right? So Eze and Rodrigo, the two players are out there. and are we going to do something? And for that to happen, we need one or two sales. That's where we exist. That's us. There isn't other teams. Manchester United are firing dinner ladies. Next week, they bought three strikers for over 200 million.

48:17Elliot:Right, so that's them and they're not in Europe. Right, so, and so they're going to fly out the league playing once a week. Right, so, and they're having to recover from a really low position point. Arsenal, for me, are trying to recognise what went wrong, try to fill holes so we can sustain four competitions. But there's one thing left. How do we lift this? You know, by sustaining and filling up gaps in the wall to allow some of the star players to stay on the pitch longer and be competitive and in condition in winning time, which I think is a key factor. When the trophies are handed out, that you're not limping onto the pitch.

48:58Elliot:you know that's key but the next thing is are we ready to upgrade are we how are we able to do that they'll pull they get is that if they they sell darwin they sell diaz they sell harvey elliot and they could potentially bring in etikike i get it wrong i got you uh isak but there's three major major major upgrades all at good ages right so but they've recovered funds to enable that and that's where they are and they are doing better at selling we can question some of the sales there maybe one particularly two Saudi but let's not go there on this podcast but they've still done it and that's their that's how they operate so we're a little bit behind that life cycle but we're to see what we look like now Now we come into sale, we've got Vieira, we've got Karl Hines, we've got Zinchenko, potentially Trossard, potentially Martin Lely.

50:02If we do those things, and potentially Rhys Nelson, if we do those things, there's opportunity there to do something.

50:09Elliot:And that's how we work. And it's not to everyone's liking when you see other teams do really well and buy who they want and buy five players and sell four players. but that's how we operate and so whether it's ambitious enough or not I don't know but yeah I'm just hoping that we are the upgrade bit Ellie is the bit that I really want to see, I want to see and say to ourselves yeah let's upgrade here I know these players are good, I know they're nice I know they're part of the Arsenal family if there's an opportunity to upgrade I'm sure we would take it but there needs to be an offer first isn't there?

50:48Elliot:There does. And you make a fair point in that it's easy to be a little bit envious of some of the other business you see or think that we need to match it. But that business is fueled by some major sales that we have not been able to make. And that it wouldn't be honest to not acknowledge that. I do have to say, Manchester United were in 16th. They have no Europe. They have financial problems. They have goal-scoring problems. And Sesko, Mbwemo, Mbwemo, Cunha, whether you rate the players they've targeted, they went out and they signed three big attacking players to try to fix an attacking problem.

51:26And Liverpool know there's a future without Salah. Trent was their creative driving force. They had a very good player in Diaz, a player who I think is useful in Darwin Nunez. They said, that's not good enough. We're going to turn that into Verzec, Etike, and Izak potentially. And that is a sign that they want to go all out to win everything again. And so the question becomes, you know, I like the players we brought in. We're a team that could use a little boost from an attacking standpoint and certainly off the left-hand side. We brought in Jokeres and Nani Medueke. And the question is, are we forcefully addressing the issue that I think most of us believe is where we could be held back from achieving our goals?

52:06And at this moment, just where I'm at right now today is someone who's thinking about what am I going to predict on this podcast next week when we do our season predictions. I think it's on the razor's edge. I think we're a little bit on the razor's edge of that. And as I watch Gabrielle Martinelli, you know, play against Villarreal, and again, it is just preseason. I can't help but think, you know, there's a lot of eggs in the Nani Mendoake being good off the left basket if we're going to get there. One thing that has been a bright spot, though, this summer and was again yesterday and is an addition we made and was a critical addition is Zubamendi.

52:44And I do think, Clive, that he has had a fantastic summer to the extent that your number six ever really pops. But I think he is fantastic. I think he looked fantastic again against Villarreal. And I think he's going to make a big difference for us this season. Have you been equally impressed by him?

53:00Elliot:Yeah, I have. and he's taught me about that position a lot really and I think you can learn a lot about football if you watch those players and that's all watching him has just been he shouldn't be that good but he is that means his brain is top he shouldn't he's just really really good I can't just he's just very good at that position he knows what he's doing he's very comfortable in that role there's none of this he can just do it mate the ball comes in it just goes it goes where it should go so when you're watching a game from a good vantage point your next pass is there do it in one does it in one okay you need three touches because they've closed you down turn out turns out three touches off it goes you just make so many right decisions it's just like slipping out have you got the camera where i'm sitting i mean you can you see everything and he does it at a hard pace and suddenly he just quickens the pace up just runs through a line, boom, boom, boom, through that line, off it goes, straight away, to give it to somebody else to do something.

54:03Elliot:So the behaviors... You even flashed a good shot in this game again. The behaviors he has are so intelligent, they're so correct, you know, and I really like that. Yeah, very impressive him. Looking forward to seeing him on the weekend, seeing him start. I don't think I've seen him starting Rice and Early Guard yet properly. I didn't really look at it closely if I did, if they did start in Asia, but I'm hoping to see him at the weekend, but not too long. I don't mean like his analyst looking too close, right? So get him off at halftime. That would be my thing. There's been a bit of an epidemic in our neighborhood of the 15-year-olds in our neighborhood playing Ding Dong Ditch, which is a game where they run up to your doorbell, they push the doorbell, they run away.

54:51That's what the 15-year-olds in our neighborhood are doing. The 15-year-old at Arsenal... is coming on and starring every game. And it's the kind of thing that you find yourself wanting to say, let's not take this too seriously, let's be mature about this. But football's a meritocracy. When you step on the pitch, you're defined by what you do. And he keeps doing really incredible things. On Max Dallman, Mikel said, he continues to impress without a doubt the impact he had in the game again today, the efficiency that he shows in every attack and action. It's incredible. He deserves to have chances, and if he continues like this, let's see what happens.

55:31We got two goals in this game. They're both from dead ball situations. One was a corner, well delivered for what it's worth by Martinelli and headed in by Norgard. The other is a penalty, once again won by Max Daumann. He's going on holiday now because he hasn't had a break. It sounds like it's just going to be for a few days. But Clive, I'm running out of ways to caveat the praise and the analysis of this player. He's stepping on the pitch with men and he's playing better than them. It's that simple.

55:58Elliot:Yeah, he is. And how do I say this, right? When his name got announced yesterday, there was a massive cheer. Absolutely massive. From young and old, you know? And it was like, I'm thinking to myself, crikey, he's no secret anymore. Literally everyone knows him. and um yeah i don't think i think it comes down to um youth development i'm afraid you know he's still a young man i'm so glad i heard arteta say again that he needs to go away for a break because sometimes you need to take someone out spotlight he's got his whole career he got 15 25 years of career ahead of him can i put in perspective for you he is currently eight years younger than Bikai Osaka.

56:46Elliot:Well, and he looks incredibly bright. The way he bounced that touch and bought the penalty, that's not a 15 year old. That's a wise man. He suckered him in and just bounced it past him and hit the ground. You had to give a penalty. It's just beautifully done. That just shows the wisdom. The talents are clear, Elliot. It's unique talent. his unique brain, as well as technical and physical talent. The thing that brought Bakaya to our minds, I always felt he makes the right decision. Decision-making brought him, so that sort of makes him older. And the Max got the same thing. He knows when to pass, shoot, cross, dribble.

57:29Elliot:He just does the right stuff. And he really has a desire to impact a game of football. This isn't real football. It's pre-season football. But you can't deny what you're seeing. and maybe maybe he's changed some of the transfer dealings we were going to have because he's forcing decisions you know he's changing timelines you know and these probably discussions are being had right now he's changing timelines he's changing players careers down the road when and that that and that happens that's the game right so so rather than focus on the now the now will take care of itself it's really preparing for two three years down the road and what are we going to be and who's going to be here and where's he going to play you know that's what a true pathway is and you have to look at people's contracts where they are and make sure that he has the room to grow at the right pace because we have a we have a supporting responsibility to look after him to make sure he reaches his potential we really really do that kid's been involved around an arsehole since i think i want to say four years of age i'm sure if that's true but very very young and that that took a long time to get here and we just got we can't get over excited i know i sound like a boring bloke on this just play him just play him trust me you won't be able to hold him back but i'm cautious still i'm still cautious i mean the funny thing is for him to even make a match squad with the size of our squad right now if he wants to make a match day squad we're gonna have to leave a senior professional out someone like marino or leo or mascara right like someone's gonna have to miss time um because just listen to starting 11 and write down a bench at least in the premier league and you'll see what i mean it it's a pretty crowded group right now so sales are probably important on multiple fronts you know i think and we just we're just discussing hand between me and you i think you think about miles for example right grew up as a six maybe played eight couple of times for england and stuff like that left and right eight so center midfielder opportunity potentially was opening up in the left back area they looked at the way we were playing left back which basically means you're playing in midfield and he had attributes to so about two years ago they started to play in there in the youth team so i thought what are he doing he's a midfielder that's what i thought and now he's changed position and he's just up for the young ballon door today for being a fullback and potentially will be england's fullback in the world cup i tell you now if i'm ethan's agent i'm saying mate you need to get yourself onto that left-hand side a bit more and potentially be that player think about your position you know think about how you can develop on the left half of the pitch because there's a crowd scene on the right half of the pitch developing and you need to be positioned and and the way he's physically developing if he can develop that off the ball side of things there is no reason why he can't do it and that's what and that's how you develop your squad right that's how you grow your school that's how you develop people so i think it's a really important year for him to be multifunctional and be a bit more versatile inside and out left and right why not you know why not that's how you have value you know so so those sort of discussions i want to these are sort of things that are in the back of my mind i'm worried about bloody villarreal losing free two and gabriel can't run i'm worried about that you're not just just not worried about it because he'll be running in two weeks and no one's going to outrun him does i mean we've got to keep in contact but there are there are development opportunities in the squad and And the only way you find them is by throwing people in together like this.

1:01:16Elliot:And it looked, Elliot, I know I'm not, I am not hand-waving this. I sat there and I said it on the AI last night. I had this awful sick feeling in my stomach when some of the pastors were going astray, etc. I could see people getting run. I didn't like it. You know, so I had the same thing. But then you have to think about what could happen and what we're learning while we're doing this. And I keep seeing the press conferences and he keeps smiling because he's learning. And he knows what he's doing. And that's why it comes back to whether you trust him or not, whether you trust his group or not.

1:01:48Elliot:And if you don't trust it, then that worry turns into criticism. And that criticism has different volume associated to it. I have this little knot in my stomach, but I trust, I've got PSG and Madrid in my mind, and I knew the level that we hit only a few weeks ago. I trust that's not disappeared particularly when we've added to the group I trust that's not gone backwards if it has gone backwards let me say I'm saying something to you now it's going to be quite shocking if it has gone backwards that means something's disconnected in the group then we have a different discussion while we're preparing for the season and we're loading our players to reach a physical level for 60 games I'll hold until we see a game with three points on the line I have to laugh though because the way we do the instant reaction we do it live and then I put out the audio version and obviously you're recording when it's home games you're recording from the ground so I haven't heard it so we do the instant reaction live and I do something like alright and now we're going to turn it over to Clive and I give a little break for me to put that audio in after and then I come back so after that last night when we did the instant reaction I went oh well he's calmed me right down so that's helpful anyways, right?

1:03:08Because I haven't heard it. So then I actually listened back to him. You were actually quite concerned. And I was like, well, maybe that's going to calm me all the way down. You know what?

1:03:17Elliot:Honesty is really important. You know, when you see things, you've got to be honest about them. But also my worry is I try to explain it for people. Maybe this happened because of this. And they say, well, don't make excuses. The manager's got to go. Oh, crikey. We can't, we can't have a conversation now. Do you see what I mean? And that saddens me because I like to have a discussion about what what there's some discussions not worth getting into yeah you know what i mean like and especially at this time of the year i i do think you know where max is concerned just as a final point on this because you made the point about miles lewis skelly moving position max downman as good as he is barring something completely unforeseen is never going to take bakayo saka's shirt and so you do wonder whether it's leo whether it's martinelli whether it's nani madueke you can't convince me that there isn't at least a shot max downman maybe not this season but in the future will be better than any of them um is there is there maybe an opportunity even next weekend in the final preseason game to or i guess this weekend i should say play play him off the left see what he's got over there see what he's got on a side that really does have some openings developing as opposed to only seeing him as a player who might play league cup minutes when sack is not on the pitch yeah i think he'll end up playing in midfield eventually um i don't i don't think he's more path to ethan then yeah i think so i i do i i think he's a he's a carrier for certain that's his natural thing you know sometimes i looked at him and i think oh i've all i i i really like robin van percy he said i'm gonna get criticism but i love the way he plays center forward i love what he did as a center forward how he played it how he could post up as a nine but took you into the half spaces and carry had a brilliant dribble and shape for a shot i love that style of center forward and and i often wonder if max developed he could he develop into that type of player you know van persie was a 10 that went to a nine and a half you know you never know once you see somebody because he's 15 so i'm trying to say he's 15 at the moment also wind up being seven feet tall and then he's playing in the nba he's 15 and um i don't know his parents i don't know how tall they are but maybe the club do you know maybe they've got a projected view on him and we don't at this moment in time put him on the outside of the pitch so he can see when the big bodies are coming towards him and protect his legs you can see everything he can stop the ball change and stop the ball he can start again and everyone's going past him into the into the seats do you mean and but he can see everything from there and that's good when he gets older he'll go into the interior where the boots are coming at all different angles but his body will be ready to take it let's see what he looks like the fun is he's hopefully he's ours we can watch him develop i'm not rushing yet though you know i'm not rushing that's where i am i'm afraid i'll get criticism now leave the rushing to me i got it coming uh quick thoughts on nani madwake i mean mikhail said basically he cut his holiday short and he's hardly trained i mean uh on nani madwake cutting his holiday short to be with the team he said quote yeah without asking about it he showed a lot of desire to come and join us from day one.

1:06:26And I think what he's done is remarkable. I think it shows how much he wants it, how willing he is to put everything that he can to make this work. I think the reception he got from our supporters was brilliant as well. Agreed. So great. Again, another one through the door that has the first experience with us. And on Saturday, he'll go again. On where he will fit in, by the way, Mikel said, quote, both sides. I think Nani, when you ask him, he's very comfortable playing right and left. So if we want to have inverted footed players, we can do that. He's a real threat i wouldn't want to play against him and we want to find something else and playing with natural footed players he's going to give us that solution today you've already seen a couple of balls that he put in the box the pace and the quality can deliver so great option thoughts yeah

1:07:06Elliot:he took a while to get going again he was very careful knocked it got it knocked it didn't do anything didn't try it did one run got a bit stumbled and then by the end of the game put one wicked left foot crossing and across the box and we weren't there so you saw enough in the in the 20 minutes i also saw you the biggest pair of shorts in the history of mankind and i'm thinking and like um obviously i had to go in for the headband now it's the size of the shorts but that's just a cool that's just a cool look that these youngsters have um you're showing all the right stuff and the crowd the crowd are really you're an asthete clive a man of aesthetics you like you like as good as i'm not having it you know me i didn't like smith row socks rolled down neither by the way so um i am who i am and so um so so yeah but he he looked fine again he didn't look fairly he didn't look sharp when you watched him play he's really quick really explosive yeah he took it he took a while and he sort of got there in five 20 minutes he sort of got there so again you just know he's just not ready yet and if you want to have a concern we're not ready and we've got manchester's night coming we've got a really hard start we're not ready but we could be ready.

1:08:14Elliot:Do you know what I mean? We could be ready. We've got time, right? So we could be ready. We got to the Sunday and it's only the Thursday now, right? So we've got time to do it. So, yeah, he's interesting. He's what we said. He's going to be a dual-sided winger and that's the reason why he signed. Opportunities on the left, opportunities on the right. Come play for Arsenal Champions League. Try to help us win the league. Offer good cover for the right-hand side where we don't lose quality too much and still play our game but also being our long left-hand side rafina star done yeah by the way uh great to see gabriel migalli is back great to see you're in timber back um word is that um trossard and califiori have a chance to be fit for saturday great news on both of them obviously and potentially if we want to sell leo trossard to try to fund another purchase it's great news as well um Just for a second.

1:09:12Elliot:Trossard, Kepa, Gabrielle, Timber, Havertz. Who else has been injured this preseason? Even small injuries. I think that just about covers it, right? Yeah, I think so. And I think, again, caution. Oh, Califuri, the major Califuri? Yeah, you did. Caution, caution. You know, I think this injury stuff is on their mind a lot. honestly i mean mikhail said that's the big thing we have to change availability no risk at all which is why i want to just quickly mention you don't want to go over the top on this because you know it's not the sternest test but i thought christian mascara looked really good and it was nice to see that he could play fullback and center back i think he's been bright since he's come in that looks like a really savvy purchase in a position that you don't want to spend enormous resources but what you don't want in my mind is a 36 year old journeyman who's just on the bench to take up a squad position but someone who will battle for a place he looks like he certainly can do that yeah he yeah you know for my first time seeing him live mate he wraps his legs around you he's one of those defenders it's a bit gabriel like he just wants to tear through you and get the ball i love that you know uh yeah he's not losing races that's for sure so straight away we're also defending big distances around people on their own on an island sort of things when i played i'll be begging for help and support he's happy you know and um so i think he'll be fine and he he's pushing he's pushing hard yeah what's your space that's what you want i mean that that's what you want you don't like i said i've always said don't buy backups don't buy players that are there to just collect a paycheck and and end their career on a downslope um so then the important question here I guess is what is needed in the next preseason game coming this weekend against athletic club, the Nico Williams Derby.

1:11:07Maybe he can play one half for us and one half for for athletic. You know, Mikel Arteta said these aren't friendlies, they're tests. And when you say that, I think you invite people to evaluate them as such. Right. It is the last time for us to see Arsenal before we see them doing things like Old Trafford and Field, St. James's Park City at the emirates you mentioned it's a tough start it is a grueling start and this is the final tune-up for it so is it is it time to see the quote starting 11 is it time to see the group that's going to go out there at old trafford all play together do you think he'll keep that in his back pocket

1:11:44Elliot:i think this is why i am idiot so when we're getting all these signings in all the problems that we thought we had we're seeing them all fixed and our depth charts looks brilliant there was a level of oh it's really enthusiasm you know and um a similar game came along we looked pretty good and then the Asia trip sort of sort of got tougher as it went along and um then we come back with another tough game here right so then we looked around the market and we've seen other things happening at other clubs so that positive feeling has sort of dropped away a little bit and something I said the other day and I can say again I think Liverpool are developing in the market a real sense of intelligence but also on the pitch if they get all the players they want they're developing an aura about their club and that aura can win you points in the tunnel and City had that the year City beat us by two points I don't think they were better than us but they had an aura of winning previously that made other teams not play them and we lost out by two points because we haven't developed that aura and I think to get to get that we need to win and i look at arsler right now and i'm thinking right now i bet manchester united feel confident they're going to beat us at old traffic that's what they're because they've got that feeling back amongst them that enthusiasm back amongst them they get sesco in they're thinking they can beat us right so so that confidence in what we're trying to achieve maybe dipped away a little bit and so i don't when i say i know i have a bit of a dig at you about try to stay calm blah blah blah but i have the same worries you I have the same worries about that little thing.

1:13:21Elliot:Are we going to make that step forward? Are we going to really do it? Because I think it's a feeling we need to do it quite quickly because of the start. We're not a little pull of good front runners. We don't want them to get away. That feeling is around. It's like a cloud. We want to see something that breaks us out of it. And what the club are trying to do, or the manager's trying to do, is prepare for that first day. Prepare for that first six games because they're really hard. I've got to get us to a point where we can do well in those games. so the two things are counteracting each other don't make us feel any better you just want to see some passes and some goals thank you very much when we see that we'll be happy because we're quite easy to please you know i felt for the fans in hong kong i felt for the new fans there in the ground last night just want to see a result you know because lots of first gamers you could see it mate everywhere yeah and like i felt for them you know and um so i want a result first and just like everybody else i want a result to make people feel okay we're okay we're okay for that first game ot is hard enough but we're okay at that moment in time we can't really answer that right so so that's where i am in the moment how are i also going about that aura which direction are we going little paul seems to be buying the sort of forwards we'd normally buy there's pretty ballet dancers the dancers the movers the guys that play wing forwards inside and out they're buying them they're buying the the verts the number 10s that we used to buy they're buying them and also fans are thinking well we've got marina do you see what i mean i'm gonna extrapolate a bit unfairly there but you see what i'm saying didn't you so if i totally see what you're saying because i feel that yeah and that's fine you can do that comparison and then and then you're funny clive you could argue they need zubamendi and mascara more than we do and we need verts more than nature but again we've got we've got we've got odegaard and he's he's in decent form at the moment right and he's doing some really good things and but we need we need more to that don't we and i think that's that's the bit that we're all thinking about we need more than that one player because we saw what happens last year when he's not there then we're not there right so so yeah developing that or i'm a bit concerned about that but then if we're going to be that team if we're going to be that big strong team that compresses people suffocates people and should slash through people and get your shots off.

1:15:41Elliot:But then let's be that team. Let's be better at that. Because no one's better than that. We're the best at that. If that's who we are, then let's do that well. Do you see what I mean? But in pre-season, to do that, you need to be really competitive in the collisions and the duels. What's the one thing that you don't do in pre-season? You don't smash through people and risk injury to yourself. Yeah, unless you want to injure yourself. that competitive edge to our game is not going to be there think back to psg we're a team that gets in people tackles people jewel monsters gets around and takes it off them and keeps people in spaces win headers and we crush through people you don't do that in preseason if you're stupid does that mean and so i'm holding back mate he said not holding back i'm holding back a little bit look you talk about being stupid i think it was on a pod maybe four weeks ago where i said well we're never going to see Mikel Marino at striker again and we've already seen Mikel Marino and he's actually quite good at it that's the thing yeah he's better at the midfield he could be better than midfield and I'll be talking to me on Ethan there's a spot there for you mate come on yeah go get it is the biggest takeaway from yesterday that Declan Rice should be our penalty taker I wouldn't want to stand in front of that howitzer you could I'd just get out of the way I'd duck I'd hide behind yeah I saw it I saw it from the side I haven't seen it going actually but what I will say is that I did find it strange that Nonny didn't come up before Gabriel to take the penalty because there's far less pressure on that penalty than there was on the one he had to take not there was much pressure around when he missed it just yeah i the dumbest thing about that by the way is it's preseason yeah there's no need for a penalty shootout but if you're going to have one let anyone take one don't make it just the players who finish the game because at least let the emirates crowd celebrate yokores hitting a penalty team in the back is he gonna be our penalty taker by the way he's gonna be our penalty taker right i love bakayo saka but you know well i think i'll do a couple of nice ones so um yeah it's got to be yoke rest man that that's all i've been hearing all summer is if you're gonna look at his stats look at all the penalties he scores i mean that's like literally what he does you live in the stats community i do that's the problem that's why i turned out this way look um we'll do some stuff over on patreon well friday night clive tomorrow and i'm sure we'll we'll have a little fun with sesco to united and what that means and if he's still going to move and if nico jackson is better than sesco because I think he is, on the fun narrative developing between the Yoko R.

1:18:06S. Sesko Derby. We'll talk about all that on the Friday Night Clive thing. I'm just going to put my cards on the table and say I think we are absolutely excellent. But I do think our left-hand side, unless Nani Maduike really is excellent on the left, and I'm not saying he won't be good, but I'm not sure completely on that front, I think there's one piece missing. And I think without that piece, I think we will be very, very good. Maybe we win the Champions League, who knows? But I still think in the league, there'll be those Fulham days. There'll be those West Ham days. There'll be those days where we're talking about, how did we have 80 % possession and 80 % field tilt and draw 1-1 or have a nil-nil?

1:18:50Until we can eliminate the nils, until we see ourselves right there by the top of the open play chance creation, open play goals, this is going to be the Achilles heel for this team. and I think we're maybe one piece away from solving that. But let's hold our fire on that. We've got a little time still to do that business and we'll see what happens. Obviously, it'll be an instant reaction this weekend to the Athletic Club game. And yeah, we'll just gear up for what will be a really fun, lighthearted start to the Premier League season. And Clive, I, for one, am excited to go on that journey with you and to see you with a glass in hand for Friday Night Club.

1:19:25Elliot:Well, now you said it, I better turn up. Flipping hell. Emotional blackmail there. Yeah, I'm blackmailing you into having a drink and talking about football. You'd be doing it anyway. You're just doing it in front of the camera. Thanks, man. Thank you very much. My name is Elliot Smith. Love you so much, everybody. Thanks for this. I think, you know, if we had just lost to Spurs at home in the Premier League, you know how to react to that. Everything is shit and you throw your toys out of the pram. When you have a performance like this in the preseason, it is that constant battle in your mind of, does it mean something?

1:19:58Does it mean nothing? Does it mean somewhere in between? and hopefully we're all sort of figuring that out as we go. We do have another preseason game to get really worked up about at the weekend, so that's a good thing. We love you. And we will talk to you after Arsenal's and Athletic Cup.

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