Tzolis Done And Hopefully Just the Beginning, Saliba Injury Confirmed

31:28Elliot:It stays there and it stays there long and people get judged by it really unfairly. unfairly i often i've said this word before i'm gonna say again i think wide players get so unfairly judged because when the ball comes out in the middle of the team where everyone's compressing central spaces and it goes into wide areas and it goes out to a wide player and he's got one on one and one on two and he beats his one man on the outside and his cross goes into goalkeeper's hands we remember that we remember don't do it one of my lines is lights camera action there you are i can see you oh my god you haven't quite crossed it to the right place i could see a man in the box you're crap i think it's so unfair and the thought process for me is gotta give gotta give him that ball six times in a half and you gotta work his full work his full back over like floyd medwell floyd mayweather would work you over work you over work you over and if i beat you once it goes to the right man that's all we need for a low scoring sport but you must encourage that wide man to keep going to keep going and sometimes he's going to be off and sometimes he's going to be on when he's on we win the game but we must encourage that that one-on-one ability that individualism we must encourage we must not discourage it because he's lost it on the first one you know just because we can see it so what we don't have the threat you can be defended against that's the key we must have threat so threat comes different ways intelligence and movements dummies shake and bake through balls like trossard did he stepped away from the front line receiving the pockets you have pocket threat you have last line threat and i think we need both in our in our squad right so when i was trying to manipulate rogers into the team in my own mind what do you think is going to be a pocket player or wide player probably a little bit of both but where is he going to do his most damage in the pocket on the edge of the area we've got as they can do something similar right so and solace do something similar and so i think sometimes we're really unfair on wide players because they're so easy to see they're easy to see when they do well they're easy to see when they do badly every coach will tell you the first play you take off is the winger first time first one he goes no matter what's happening he goes because you're gonna reach the high intense position and you need to double up on it so wingers really suffer but i think they suffer too much in our analysis because we need them the central access is hard right so you need that threat out there yeah and scott and i were talking about this though clive i think this is a really interesting opportunity for data to solve a question i've had you know your point about lights camera action that's when you can see the wide player and then cross it into the goalkeeper's hands and you remember that so on the one hand you could say wingers that try a lot of things get punished unfairly because we see the things that fail whereas wingers that just keep it moving and ticking over they're easier to miss because they're not trying those things that fail but i think there is a flip side to this if you're a wide player on a team like arsenal that likes to compress the space and push teams back and get them driven back sometimes counter press when you lose the ball sometimes sometimes okay you also bait people on sometimes okay but but but hear me out you have you have ball in possession right if you dribble out for a goal kick or cross into Rosehead or cross into the keeper's hands you tried something fair enough and you have to try those things but what is the value of that deep possession you might have had if you did keep it ticking over if you did make the simple pass if you didn't give them the reset opportunity to take a goal kick to relieve pressure to have the ball in the keeper's hands to get the ball out in a touch right so I think I agree with you that sometimes we're too harsh on wide players because those are the players that try things and most attacks in football don't lead to goals so wide players are going to have those things that don't lead to goals a lot but the wide player who tries a lot of solo individualistic moves and gets them wrong could also be said to be ending dangerous possessions alleviating pressure giving the the opposition a chance to rest and reset so that's a bit of an interesting balance in my mind i think of understanding the risk-reward profile there, you know?

35:40Elliot:That's part of the working over, right? If you're working a player over, teams are not, you know, not every attack is going to succeed. Now, for me, the things I look for, which I'm a lot more harsh on with wingers and Nonny's in your mind, I don't know why you end up talking about Nonny all the time. It's like you're trying to prove a point with him. I just don't get it. But Nonny's a player that I criticize when he doesn't recognize what's on offer for him. right so if a team goes high and a fullback's running towards him with the ball and the space is getting closer and closer and closer mate that's going to end in disaster disappear disappear so recognize the space in behind just make the run anyway make it just make it because you're going to open up space for your fullback and you might get the ball on the ball goes inside and it comes back out to you on a triangle and you're in behind i think his movement off the ball needs to improve right so players that are really good one-on-one players that that lose four dribbles out of six whether you like them or not i think they're important to the team but where they when nonny needs to improve for me and when he had some of his better games is when he's off the ball running is much better and so there's a lot of season review stuff going around at the moment i mentioned the other day but i watched the ballman for way game classic game classic game for us i thought one of our best games of the season by wake i thought born for a really good side of the way they turned out to be really good i think after we beat i don't think lost the game for us this season and so i think that 3-2 game first mate first dribble nonny had i don't know where it went it was like it was like not very good but the first goal came from his dribble into the box back back post end up back both gabriel schools right and and then the second one of the other goals odegaard in that right hand space chopped it back to um to rice he scores and the last goal little one to Odegaard in a Saka Saka does what Nonny did in the first goal and because he's come on back to Rice 3-2 win right so what that game showed me is exactly what Arsenal squad is you need both of them to work over the full battle we worked over 90 minutes all the goals came from that side that is tick to squad building tick to what we're trying to achieve right so um and there was a sign for the future in that game because Krupa's gone from 25 yards out into the into the bottom corner into side netting and you thought oh he's quite good and that made it 3-2 we had an edgy end of end of game that to me is the game we can always improve our cohesion and our movement and we should be looking to do that that is development I use the word cohesion there something that Liverpool lost this year when they went into the summer we saw their signs we went oh my god the season's over it's over they're gonna win the league it's gonna be repeat what did they lose they lost cohesion they lost relationships they lost balance they bought two of the same players for me Neketike and Izak they didn't have enough physicality midfield didn't have enough fullback physicality their fullbacks weren't as good as the one the couple from the year before and they lost their speed in attack and directness in attack Salah took a step back physically and all of a sudden I don't know how many points they end up finishing behind us it's like over 20 maybe right so and that can happen so let's not lose our cohesion let's not lose the system that we have I want the left side a massively I wouldn't mind a central attacker I like the idea of a centre mid coming in whether it be Alex Scott whether it be Bruno I can make a case of both could that upgrade us in that area if Norgard moves on we get an upgrade there and we protect our 68 game Declan Rice you know 5 ,000 minute Declan Rice we protect him but I don't want to throw away what we have because what we have is really really quite strong yeah we must remember that yeah and I think that's very well said look I I think look there'll be a lot more time to talk about these kinds of things over the next few weeks and certainly as links strengthen to certain players we can see we haven't you know talked at all about Bruno Gimreich and Alex Scott today.

39:43Those will be players that will be on the agenda, assuming Luke Edwards thinks it's respectful for us to approach Newcastle.

39:52Elliot:You're having a tough time. You're having a tough time, mate. Well, look, he is the arbiter of what is respectful when it comes to approaching Newcastle. And I thought you and Tim did a beautiful tribute to Kevin Keegan on Monday, but it was undermined by the club, theoretically, maybe, having made an approach for Bruno Gimreich. you know that's look what can i say clive we have to have some class about what we do some decorum please um we got to talk about william saliba's back uh and i don't mean he's back he's not back because of his back i'll make that make sense after i tell you about some brands and really there's only one brand i'm going to tell you about and that is nordvpn nordvpn is the security app that does two things for you on your phone on your tablet on your computer it lets you browse the internet use your subscription services worldwide wherever you go so when there's a video you want to watch when there's a subscription service you already pay for and you want to access it you can not to mention that it protects you from the threats that you may encounter on the internet and from being tracked around the internet things that may happen especially to football supporters when we're watching games on let's just say less than official websites and so you can get nordvpn you put the app on your phone your tablet you just say uh browse in england browse in the uk in the US, browse in Australia, and you're there.

41:08And you can even pick targeted areas, metros, things like that. You get a discount. You get four bonus months. You get 30-day money-back guarantee. All of those things. Discount, four bonus months, 30-day money-back guarantee. When you use NordVPN.com slash Arsenal Vision. That's NordVPN.com slash Arsenal Vision. That is NordVPN.com slash Arsenal Vision. Do not go. That number. Indeed. Okay. Saliba's back. Except he's not back. We're talking about his back. The other side of him. How about this? His spine. Clive Saliba's spine is not doing well. He played on an injury in the World Cup, and that injury is bad.

41:55The news is that he is not going to get surgery. By the way, Rodri needs back surgery, so the fallout from the World Cup continues, but this is an interesting one because basically all the rumors that I hear four or five even six months rest and recovery for this injury for Saliba I mean wherever it lands whether it's four months or six months or somewhere in that range he is in my view the best central defender in the world he is the identity of how we defend and he makes all the partnerships work and he plays 100 passes a game. He is our six in possession. I mean, he's everything. There's no replacing Saliba.

42:34There's only living without him. I think it requires a signing, and I think it requires a rethink in some areas of how we play. So you want to start first with just what we lose with Saliba's absence, and then we can talk about what we might do to cope with that.

42:50Elliot:Yeah, I don't think we've coped very well without him, full stop. Our win rate without him is not great. Yeah, I think almost from the moment he came in and settled into our team, everything changed. Everything became like glued up. Okay, we had the Zinchenko and Jesus period, you know, and we had our centre-mids with good and Gabriel Sliba together and Zinchenko confusing everybody and Ben White charging around. It wasn't just about Sliba, but Sliba was just, it just all happened for me there. And when he doesn't play, I think we are more rash. you know i think we we chase after the ball i think he almost identifies he's our identity defensively but when he's not there in a strange way gabriel tries to do almost too much you know and then we become defined by him which is different but when they're both there together it's perfect right it's you know it's just perfect to turn them together and um and so then you have to ask yourself how do you want to replace because the back situation earlier it could be it could be 10 weeks could be 12 weeks could be 14 weeks we don't know right so i've heard as low i've heard that it doesn't matter what i've heard what really matters is when the club says ready to play again and it's quite interesting they put a statement out that statement to say look he has injured his back in the world cup which means fifa pay us my money for my player that you that you've ruined you know and um and so there are reasons for things like this that may be more regulatory but we have a situation now where we need to say this before we go into the market and no doubt they've got targets in mind then you can ask yourself what type of target do you want to replace someone like that and their options are from the different from the from the john stowes a sort of age to the concert to ball players you know and um and i i'm not sure is that a name look lacroix lacroix you know what all these signings they end up finding their right home.

44:54Elliot:I really wanted Rodgers to come to Arsenal, but I've got to be honest here, tactically, he might be a better fit at Chelsea. You know? Liverpool are looking at Barclay. What are you looking at Barclay for? You need a right-sider. Now looking at Akilouche from Monaco, he's a right-sider, left-footer from the right. That seems to fit. Barclay seems to fit Arsenal a bit better. They did Liverpool. Liverpool got loads of left-siders. They got Verts, they got Gakpo, Eketike can do it. even Isaac can stand out there on the left hand side don't need another left sider they need a right sider to replace Salah you know they've got Fring Pong midfielder but do you see where I'm going though sometimes the signing finds the right home it finds the right home you know I'm with you on Nico Williams but if he's end up at Arsenal we are a good tactical fit for that player we are a really good tactical fit for a player if you don't rate him fine but tactically the fit is really really good by the way we play the way we press the energy the skill level the goal scoring it fits the choir for me feels like it feels like chelsea you know i just as we're recording something just flashed up on literally as we're talking the choir to chelsea and maybe disazie to crystal palace you can sort of see that move you can see that that sort of swap over and um so yeah i i i like the cons of links i'm wanting to view i i just like him as a player um i think he's one-on-one jewels are incredible that's what we need because we defend in wide spaces and we ask our defenders go man for man if you can't do that you can't play for arsenal similar to that because we need to keep our plus ones further up the pitch you know so got to be able to look after the ball and pass it he can do that we can also go into right back so I like the idea of it 40 obviously Arsenal at 40 people don't want 60 of course they do and hopefully something can be done at a decent price he's a London boy 28 he's got muscles it makes sense it's an easy easy easy sort of move I saw I saw a player that we linked to today from Sporting Lisbon actually called Zeno De Bast and I look around at him today from Sporting there's loads of loads of clips been passing through to your quiz that make you really really happy Elliot because he's a passing centre-back and I thought oh and again he was offered to the club so he's just a little thing that come out today but I thought as I was saying to you last week there's always players I had a little look at him today he looks okay Belgian player again I think there's some value in Belgian players at the moment Belgian player again really good on the ball really progressive there's a young player at Chelsea called Josh Ashipon really good player more of a fullback at this age with good Ben White moving side I thought Tim made a great link between how the women have moved Steph Cattley from left back inside, or we do the same with Ben White later in his career, moving back into centre-back and by a more dynamic right back.

47:51Elliot:It's an option. There's always ways, but I do think we need to really protect Williams-Lee, regardless of what happens when he comes back. We want him to stay back. That doesn't mean three games a week for 25 weeks. It means we have to rotate him. So rotate with comfort with a player that can really do that job and not just a make-do merchant so yeah that's why i'm with it yeah i mean i i think first of all we have to be realistic there's only one william saliba you don't replace him just by going and finding what's in the market you can trust christian mascara to some extent to play there or timber or ben white you can alter how you play to try to cover for that position.

48:38You know, you're losing a lot in and out of possession. You're losing a lot in the partnership with Big Gabby. I don't think you want to buy a player you don't necessarily feel you need and want to commit to for what is, at least in theory, a partial role for a particular period of time. That's why the John Stones things makes a lot of sense. But he's got to be good enough, and he's got to be able to stay fit himself. Two things that are an open question. I see you shaking your head, so you don't like it.

49:10Elliot:Yeah. Hey, the idea is nice, but I just worry. We've just been burned by injury so much, right? Even in this World Cup, he played the first game, couldn't play the next two. You know, just couldn't play the next two. You know, and then he came on for a bench roll in the fourth game, I think he was, and then he ended the last two or three games quite strong. We just need more. We need more than that, in my opinion. and look, I love John Stones. I love that player. He's just a fantastic player. I can say that now. He's not a Man City. Fantastic player. Fantastic mentality. He's got all the medals you like.

49:44Elliot:He's got 80-odd England caps. This is not a scrub. This is a top, top player. I don't know why I'd say I'd let him go. I'd let him go because he's injury prone. And that's it. So yeah, hey look, I'd love him to come in and just play 15, 20 games and not be injured. Sign me up. sign me up for that straight away because his style is great um but i just think sometimes when it comes down to it what are we built on we're built on one-on-ones off the ball intensity aggression get the ball back we'll be quickly for the third that's what we do regardless that's when people play against us even the solid scene of you he said i played against arsenal we lost three nil it was very difficult to make a chance against them and i like that identity I don't want to be soft I don't want to be seeing you can make chances against I loved it we had no shots on target loved that period we had a shot on target I remember the game with the Emirates a shot away on target it was like a spooned up shot on the goalkeeper there was like a groan oh that's a shot on target that is you know just where we were we were that good defensively as a unit I want to go back to those days that's step one get back to our solidity step one and build from there and so players that can come in that can add to that are great if people are thinking well that's a lot of money for a player that's not going to play all the time mate this is football there's too many games mate there's too many games someone's going to play you know how many times does Saliba play with an injection earlier last year that we weren't aware of you know so there's always there's always games I mean look like the thing with John Stones obviously is it's just sort of the easy button right he's free he's played in the league if he can stay fit for half a season you play him and you know you hope Saliba's good for the second half of the season and you go from there and you give him to scare some minutes timbre and ben white whatever you do um there is and by the way you know you can move in capier or califiori into center back and move things around there's everybody who plays fullback for us can play center back so it's like you know take your pick but then there is like a consa and i think one thing that's really unfair about the way people talk about consa is they watched him play for england they weren't convinced like this guy stinks consa has averaged 3 000 minutes in the premier league the last five or six seasons 3 ,000 Premier League minutes and he's played at Champions League level for a Villa team that all along the way has been pretty darn good by the standards of what that club can achieve so he's no scrub you can't be a scrub and play 3 ,000 minutes every season in the Premier League and play in the Champions League for a team that's finishing top half and in European positions he's also in the 80th percentile for the number of passes he plays per 90 in the 100th percentile for completed pass percentage 95 % of his passes are completed so he's comfortable with the ball at his feet at some point you gotta stop picking nits.

52:29If you want a player that's got a ton of Premier League experience, sits in the heart of his prime as a center back, and has played in the Champions League, and can play 60-70 passes a game at a high percentage, this is your guy. Ezri Consa. That's your guy. Now, can you do a deal with Aston Villa? I don't know. Can you get the price right? I don't know. Because Aston Villa, right now, are engaged in what can only be described as the most fair of fair transactions possible. The most above-board, legitimate transactions possible with the king of above board legitimate transactions, and that is Chelsea Football Club.

53:02And if you've not been following this, Chelsea Football Club signed a player named Morgan Rodgers for about 117 million pounds. Aston Villa have signed a player from Chelsea Football Club named Garnaccio, heavily sought after. And it's been widely reported that this was driven by Unai Emery and, I quote, not related to the Morgan Rodgers deal. Now, some are saying that my not related to the Morgan Rodgers deal t-shirt is raising a lot of questions answered by my t-shirt. But, Clive, when Villa then get Nico Jackson for$65 million deferred on a loan deal, and they get Garnaccio for$50 million deferred on a loan deal, and Chelsea get Rodgers for$117 million, weird.

53:46They both book$117 million in profit in consecutive seasons. Nobody is the wiser, because obviously no one could latch on to this, because they told us they're not related. Of course they're not related. Come on, guy. Hey, don't be so cynical. Don't be so cynical. Come on. They're not related. Hey, hey, I'm just a nice Chelsea football club. Well, I wouldn't do a thing like that. I wouldn't sell myself my woman's team. I wouldn't sell myself a hotel. I'm just Chelsea football club. Just trying to be good. Clive, why is everyone so cynical?

54:16Elliot:I don't know, Elliot. I don't know how people can think that way. They're just trying to do their job, just try and play the football for their fans. Leave them alone, man. Leave them alone. Amen. just a nice little club just nice club doing nice stuff come on uh it is worrying seeing that stuff but like this this is a bit interesting and i look we covered this saliva thing i think cons is an interesting signing but it seems like right now chelsea and villa are figuring out the machinations of how to make the the rogers fee wash with what villa need and it and by and by the way like if they can do it they can do it but what are your thoughts on all this you know you See, Elliot, that stuff is out there.

54:54Elliot:There are smarter people than even me and you that are going to write this up and make sure everyone knows. And make sure everyone knows what's actually gone on and how they've circumnavigated the rules, etc., which they seem to do quite a lot, don't they? But you know what I'd like to see? I'd like to see us, and I've felt this for many years, by the way, just have some really positive relationships across the Premier League. I sometimes feel I've said this before I sometimes feel that we're the most hated club in the league by all the other clubs and it's like there doesn't seem to be much opportunity to really I think Brentford like us maybe Bournemouth are not too bad I can't think of many that we have a really strong relationship with you know and Chelsea and Villa and Newcastle they're all they're all mates together and doing deals I think you know everyone likes to be liked everyone's gangging up on us to make sure that we can't do a repeat I do think Arsenal win the league has hurt a lot of people and much like when Liverpool won it if Liverpool can win it we can win it it hurts when a team that organically grows and does things smartly goes and wins a league and then has a great parade it hurts people they want some of that you know it's achievable and so there's been a real thirst to reset when you start the league up you start it from zero mate everyone is exactly the same you know and uh in our first three games we have chelsea and villa in our first three games you know they're going to be tough games you know and um and commentary new team first game on a friday night kick off the league that's you're going to get the best of coventry whatever happens we don't know what that's going to look like you're going to get the very best to them and so as soon as we the ball starts running on the grass we're going to soon see where we are and then we're going to stop thinking about gambles on this player gambles that player we're going to want the top boys that have done it before and we may have to spend a few quid to get them but i do think to protect ourselves from people wanting to stab us in our back and take our trophy away from us we need to think about our resilience and you think about that wide attacker to really change our offensive perception to rest in the league yeah well said i think it is an interesting time because clubs are starting to engage in all kinds of activities that once upon a time were a bit unique but we saw swap deals between clubs seasons before uefa came in and had the 45 day sort of moratorium on dealing between clubs to try to deal with this so they've switched to loans we're seeing a lot of i would say troublesome deals happening at the academy level in ways that academy players are being poached the transfer market is no longer some rubes buying players from each other with no business savvy there are smart spreadsheet familiar people you know people with multiple accounting degrees mfas or whatever it's a whatever your MSC, what's the thing?

58:06The finance, I don't even know what the degrees are called. Yeah, but people with these degrees who are figuring out these loopholes, these workarounds, these transactions and finding ways to get things done. And so in order to be able to acquire the top talent and build the best teams now, you need not only the best scouts and not only the best deal makers, but sometimes the most creative operators to go and find how you can structure things to get deals done. And it just gets more and more complex as the money ramps up. So we'll have to see how Arsenal act. I mean, one thing I'll point out, it looks like Newcastle have found another midfielder that they're linked strongly with today, apparently already in Tyneside getting a medical.

58:45So does this give you any... The kid from Monaco, yeah? Yeah, yep, the Monaco kid. Does this give you any sort of sense of maybe acceleration on the Bruno Gimera-Ish thing? I mean, there's mixed reports on whether there's been any club-to-club contact. We know, obviously, it was incredibly disrespectful either way, but setting that aside, um you know what luke edwards thinks do you think that is going to start to ramp up now

59:07Elliot:yeah maybe um i'll go to you i am 50 50 on that one just personal opinion um if you said to me 75 million for bruno or 75 million for alex scott i think that's a really good debate to have you know i do um i've touched on bruno top class can he's the sort of player in two years' time, you could say, has his legs gone? You know, because he's not like, he doesn't look like he's moving that well, but his jaw percentage and his ability to make passes and understand where the ball drops, have assists and have shots, really top class. He's a top class player, right? Top five centimeter in the league.

59:49Elliot:I think he's a game changer for us personally, but that's just me. I'm not going to argue against it, right? You can argue against the wisdom of buying him at this point in his career at that money, but I don't think you can argue against what he could bring to our team if he's on his game. Yeah, but then you say what he could bring to our team. I think there is a discussion to have about his role in the team. If we have a centre-mid of Declan Rice, Bruno, and Martin Odegaard, we're going to have to give them three balls. Do you know what I mean? And how you can coexist is going to be really interesting.

1:00:18Elliot:So it's not just about Ryan. Why don't we just do that then? Yeah.

1:00:24Elliot:And Alex Scott now, again, I'm a bit biased here. I saw him play against Declan Rice he ran him off his feet mate ran him off his feet I'm not saying anyone else do that this season ran him off his feet no one get near him he was just superb now I picked today when we weren't great as a team Bournemouth won the game he scores a winning goal it sticks in your mind right so the spreadsheet side of me thinks 75 million for him he's 23 you know he'll be in the next England squad for sure you know and plays in a system by the way or your Iola that I think very aligned with what Mikel would like to do philosophically very I can I can make a disc I can make an argument for both you know so when I when I'm thinking Budapest I'm thinking PSG Bruno let's go back there with him next year and sort them out do you mean um if I'm thinking long-term sustainability of the club make sure we can have four midfielders that can coexist together I think Alex got on-board ability carrying shooting energy you know i like them both right so it'll be interesting to see what we do at the club there's an interesting argument i can make this way though which is alex scott's going to be 23 next month so he's already obviously over the age curve no i'm kidding but but this clive if you bring in bruno and you think i believe we can get two elite seasons from bruno maybe one good season from bruno and one low value season let's say that's your plan you're going to give a five-year deal and you know the last two years of that are going to be dicey and you know you're hoping to win things before then what you can also say then is you could say look during that period of time miles is going to be a player who plays but he's going to play in spots and here and there but after those two elite bruno seasons we really expect miles to be becoming at age 22 one of the best young central midfielders in football and he can move himself into that role and by the way at that point max is maybe moving into a midfield starting role at 19 years old whereas if you get an alex scott at 23 you're looking at a guy who is your future in midfield and then is it a future with miles as rice ages like it gets a little harder to see how those young pieces all come together again so like ironically i think bruno can make a lot of sense if you believe you have a diamond in miles but miles being you know is he 20 yet even is he still 19 19 okay so if you think miles is three seasons out from being really ready to play all the time at an elite level in our midfield maybe bruno makes a lot of sense in that world you know he he does and you can't help but when you watch the glitch you know he's he's good at it i mean listen to newcastle families the best player has been for four years you know there's not really a discussion to have they don't have many players left to be fair so yeah and um and so you know when i don't look him too closely because i thought you should come to us years ago but then if you have him we don't maybe don't go for rice right so you never know what happens in life but hey look there's a good argument for you i'm not i'm not saying he's a bad player i'm just giving you the two sides of that argument i'm not sure where i sit on it and tim did a great sales pitch to me this week you've done a great sales pitch to me today i think you know what makes a lot of sense you know i think you're making an assumption that mild is just going to hang around right and um football years is like dog years mate every year is that's how quickly you got to look at it you can't afford to just give up a couple years while you're bringing somebody and paying 250 a week and i've got to sit there and watch him that's not what i'm gonna do i want to compete with him and create your you know create your problem right that's the mentality you got to have and so this is all good things for us is competition etc and it make a great strong argument i've got a very one-eyed view with Alex Scott, I just caught him on a great day.

1:04:14Elliot:A lot of people say really good things about him. Again, it comes back to his role, how we're going to use him. You know, if you ask me honestly, I feel we're heading towards Bruno. You know, I just can't quite see the Alex Scott thing. I don't know why you mentioned this person a while back. He's stuck in my head. You know, and so I can't quite see it. But I do think it's a valid discussion and no doubt could be in the comments which one people prefer. You know, I don't think it's a slam dunk, but hey, look, the club made the right decision. And I don't think you make a wrong one in those two.

1:04:48Elliot:I really don't. Yeah. I mean, I think I'd be happy with either of them. It's funny. Everybody thinks we have to get better with scoring more goals, like creating more chances of scoring more goals. And the way you do that is you buy an attacker. But I don't think that's always the way you do that. And I think if you look at the World Cup or if you look at even club football, it is often the teams where their midfield is most coherent and most effective that they wind up dominating games and the chances come through that domination. Spain have one elite attacker, Lamin-Yemal, who I don't think even had a great tournament.

1:05:25And after that, I think they've got a bunch of functional attackers. I don't think Baena's great. I don't think Ayasobal is great. I don't think Ferran Torres is great. These are fine players. I'm not saying they're bad, but they're fine. But through their domination, their control, their ability to move the ball on time, their ability to understand where to be and where to be with respect to each other, they control games and that control leads to chances. Those chances lead to goals. Those goals lead to wins because they also don't give things away to the opposition. If you want to ask me where my biggest frustration was with Arsenal last season, it's not the lack of chance creation.

1:05:54It's that in the second half of the season, we did not control games the way I'm used to seeing us control them. We were much more on the back foot. We were much easier to dispossess, to get at. Teams were running through us more. That's what I don't want to see. And I do believe that both Alex Scott and Bruno Gimerajsh help prevent that. And we saw when Miles came back into the team because Zubimendi was shagged out and he wasn't at the level anymore. That helped a bit. But I think either of those players helps us get back to being a team that has more of the control of the game, you know, and doesn't get played off the park by teams like Bournemouth like we did in the home game last season.

1:06:29Elliot:Yeah, I hear you. We can't characterize a whole season by that day because it's a dark day, mate, trust me. no but there were quite a few games that tail into the season like that you know in that march april time frame i think we started to scoreboard watch do you know what i mean by that yeah we started to scoreboard watch you know and um and the freedom went because the prize became nearer and nearer and nearer the city gang was looming we started to scoreboard watch and we were we were stuck in our own shadow bright and away school after nine minutes sit in our own blocks you know i mean didn't move wolves away that was ugly wolves away thank you took the words out my mouth it's an interesting topic you've triggered in my head right so you've got france and spain for me the best two teams in the world france a bit more like psg individualists up front for a front four that are just unbelievable wing forwards one-on-one merchants loads of speed loads of dynamics quick transitions can't take your eyes off them which one do you want i want any of those front four just let me have them let me have them right and then and then you have Spain but a bit more like us with one winger that's really quite sharp a front two that are really good pressing good pressing players a left sider that's in is it Bayena a bit more like Trosvala controlling playmaking left sider a really good strong centre mid and Fabian as well with Rodri and defenders that are really good on one on one but can handle the ball so the first phase of build up which really looked after.

1:07:56Elliot:When did we get back to ourselves? When we went to our 3-1-6 and we had our first phase of build-up back again after we lost it in the Carabao Cup final for two, three weeks. We lost our, we went from a 4-2 to a 3-1 and we found our first phase of build-up. We're looking at Bruno can do first phase. Superman can do first phase. Miles can do first phase. Declan can do it maybe from the behind the centre-backs first phase. And suddenly that first phase build-up is transformed. Now we're going to push this problem forward. And then, mate, we're going to want the attackers. We're going to want the one-on-one merchants once you break that first line of pressure.

1:08:31Elliot:Because now it's lights, camera action, onto the wingers again. And the game evolves that way. So if I'm the major, I want all these tools in my toolbox. I don't want to turn around and not be able to solve problems. And that's why I see the game going for us this season. Go ahead, mate. Yeah, and I'm going to put some vomit in people's mouths, but hear me out for a second. I think maybe, maybe the position on the pitch that has become among the most important in the way teams win games is fullback. PSG have Akemi and Mendes, and they are so important. And Spain have, and it gives me no pleasure to say this, Pedro Porro and Cucurea, two players I loathe, they were two of the best fullbacks in the World Cup.

1:09:14and I think if you look at Liverpool for example they gambled on two fullbacks that did not work last season I think it was a big part of why their season didn't work out if you look at us before the season started you did if you look at us when we lost Timber big part of our identity changed when Cal Fiore came out big part of our identity changed so maybe that is an area that we should be thinking a lot about in terms of how that informs what we're doing

1:09:40Elliot:I can't wait to see the comments Clive Elliott say What you need to do is get a couple of fullbacks in. Yep, yep. Well, all right. Let's leave it there. I think that's enough for today. We're going to do some stuff tomorrow. We're going to have scouting videos again. Jan DiMonde, Nico Williams, Alex Scott, Bruno Guimaraes. Now, we've already scouted Bruno Guimaraes. We've already scouted Nico Williams. We've already scouted Bradley Barkley. We've already scouted Julian Alvarez before. We'll do them all again. But if you go to the Patreon and go to collections and go to scouting videos, set some time, pick the ones you want, sit back and watch.

1:10:09This is not YouTube comp stuff. This is stuff right from a scouting platform. And if you mute my sections, you get a really nice outcome. So it's good. And we have the data now, a lot of Scott's data on those scouting videos as well. So check them out. See what you think. And if you want Champions50 is the code to get half off there. Clive, brilliant job as ever. And I look forward to jousting with you over these players when we scout them sometime next week.

1:10:31Elliot:Oh, yes. Can't wait for that. Can't wait for that. It's only just begun, everybody. We have a player in Solis. We have a player in Melier. Don't ever forget. and Melia. And we may have more by the time we speak to you next. We love you. And we will talk to you after Arsenal 10. Transcription 1-0-0.