Will Reinforcements Arrive for the Derby?

0:16It's Rice. What a goal! Declan Rice with an absolute rocket with a free kick. Arsenal lead 1-0. He's cut inside. Saka! Sublime finish. He's back with a bang. It's a close sack of 1-0. Unbelievable. We are going to exclusively reveal which players will be available for the North London Derby on this very podcast. And to save you having listened to it, I'll tell you now. Some of them, all of them, or none of them. This is the Arsenal Vision Post-Match Podcast. My name's Elliot Spirthing. You can find me on Twitter. That's right. Some of the injured players will make a return in the North London Derby.

0:49All of the injured players will make a return in the North London Derby. Or none of the injured players will make a return in the North London Derby. I promise you it will be one of those options we will discuss all of those options in the Northlander Derby in this podcast because the international break is over I must say congrats to Kieran Tierney what an insane moment for him and for Scotland and to our Irish friends congrats you know I am a little bit cynical about international football but there are times when it delivers something that makes you remember why people keep coming back I can't quit you a few things to tell you that are all very exciting pretty soon you're going to be seeing me wear avp merch because we've got merch we've got a merch store now shop.arsenalvisionpodcast.com and because i am only partially an idiot and not totally an idiot uh some of the great early birds over on patreon who did check out the store said hey i noticed that like when i try to buy something because i'd like to support you and buy your merch because it looks good uh you're charging me four billion pounds for vat and shipping and i thought hmm uh that wasn't the plan not a lot of customization options in this store platform we chose but there was uh buried deep in the settings with help support a place where i was able to correct what the uk and eu shipping and vat stuff was so now everything should be aligned and ready to go so we'd love for you to check it out get in touch let us know what you think of the designs more will be coming the only thing i'll say is again because there's not much customization scroll down a bit like one of the best mugs is at the bottom of the page i don't know how to move it up the page there's there's lots of cool stuff we've got the clive mug where it has our badge on one side and says it's just football mate on the other we're gonna have the bingo uh mug back soon um there's gonna be a paul mug it's just um it's just his face it's just his beautiful sweet face it doesn't say go and f yourself it says f him f him yeah because you know we are a family podcast here yeah lots of good stuff there uh and we did a podcast with scott yesterday detailing breaking down all the data all the ideas around how odegaard's return and reincorporation will change the way we play what we've been missing what he's great at uh and what the future looks like with martin odegaard back in the fold and it will be good to get him back so if you want to check that out you can friday night clive tomorrow with clive over on the patreon as well and most importantly here now is clive hello clive hey lona and paul hello paul woohoo clive are you gonna go you're gonna get some avp merch man gonna be dripping in avp merch when you go to the emirates the shorts the hoodie the t-shirt the wristband the headband and a mug sitting there

3:17Elliot:full kit full kit wanker at the emirates i'm not one for colors in games we've got socks maybe the last game of the season when it's sunny i might do that you know but um let's see let's all be full kit wankers at union chapel that'd be brilliant we want to be careful though because the players in the premier league trophy and the champions league trophy will be actually the won't be ours yet okay okay all kidding aside um let's get into it and and clive i will just ask you like do you want to try i hate doing this because like parsing news on a podcast that where the news might be old by the time you listen to it isn't always the best but it it seems impossible to ignore so do you want to parse any of the injury news and just give me your reading of the tea leaves oh the injury news okay and it's very difficult to do that in one in one swoop shall we say yeah i think what interests me more than the injury news is our reaction to it you know as a set of people i think um we can't sit here and say we got the best squad in the league this is our time and then we lose one player and we lose our minds because what you're really saying is i i've got we've got a great squad but i really want all of the best players to play all of the time do you mean and um and we all do quote me back to me we will we would all want a great squad but really want all of our best players to play all the games we want them to play because that's the best opportunity we have to show our best version of ourselves if you all want to see so when we when and if we do win something no one can say anything to us say there you go that's how good we are bosh well actually before we started i was just looking thinking back to the the old day which i tend not to do and you know if you look back to the old invincible team now Ray Parler played a lot of games that season you know Eddie played a lot of games around that time you know and they weren't in the team shall we say that we could all name and it just goes to show you that we just need to remember that football is a squad game right so um so I think it's very when when we when they hand out the medals at the end of the season and they have that little platform there and somebody's important and hands out the medals to all the players.

5:26Elliot:They don't hand out 11. See what I mean? You have to remember that. They don't hand out 11. It's so important to broaden our minds to realise that our favourite players won't play all the time. What we have to avoid is the operations we had last year. Four-month injuries, operations on the hamstrings, because the longer you're out, the longer it takes you to get back to your top-level game. We can't afford that this year, that level of injury. So it's the time we have to be worried about. I heard you talking all day about Havertz earlier and actually you really said something that triggered my brain this calendar year he has not played a lot of football you know I think he went out early Feb came back looked amazing pre-season looked amazing in the gym one 20 minute game he gets a bang on the knee his foot is plantain and he gets a bang from the Garte and he's done his knee and we haven't seen him since that's a that's gonna take a while for him to get back we have to we have to remind ourselves of that that's the thing we need to worry about those sort of injuries that length of time that length of inactivity and our expectations what we want to achieve versus that that's my secret fear amongst many things i'm scared of i have a lot of secret fears i mean spiders uh exposed heights but yes i mean one of the one of the things that i think is hard for for supporters sometimes is you see the name on the back of the shirt and you expect a certain level of performance.

6:53Well, if that player hasn't played competitive football more than a handful of times in 300 days, you have to understand that there's a glide path for them back to form. I mean, there is such a thing as being fit enough to play, but there's another thing like being match fit, right? And being in form. And that's going to take some time for a lot of these players. And, you know, that's where you'd rather have a fully fit player that may not be your favorite out there versus a player who's not all the way ready to go. And Paul, that is sort of my question for you is if let's say we had everybody back, how do you, how do you think he's going to balance?

7:35Let's, you know, thinking about the Derby, right? Like, let's say Martinelli's back. He hasn't been out very long. You know, Nani Meduake is back. He's been out a little bit of time. Let's say Anodegaard is back in the fold. how would you as Mikel balance wanting to get something out of those players in this game while also being cognizant of the fact that they may not be able to give you the the top level right away um I'd be scared to try and get anything out of those players in this game um apart from a little kind of a psychological support for the team on the pitch I mean And of course, the manager, our medical squad, etc., will know a lot more than we do.

8:17But unless these players are well and truly in the safe zone, I'd like to see them be part of the squad, be part of the team, maybe form a little coterie on the bench. But let the players who are fit and who have been playing, let them do the business. Obviously, if there's a solid 15 minutes in one of them, because there's nothing wrong with them. But mainly I'd like to see them just become part of the squad, become part of the bench. Like we should still have enough to beat Tottenham who have had their own injury concerns along the way, probably more than anybody else and more damaging than anybody else.

9:01And I think I'd say unless we have some challenges generating steam in the attack uh leave well enough alone go what you got uh trust the players but uh yeah if you're if you get if we're not in position to see the the game home um who's fit have you got a bit of martinelli to throw on have you got a bit of martin odegaard to throw on late would love to see it but i don't think it should be a big factor yeah if we have a goal lead late for example and we're in a Sunderland type situation, it would be nice to have the speed of Martinelli or the speed of Nani Medueke to scare Spurs about how much they're able to commit to chasing the game or to punish them if they do.

9:51You know, it is a shame in a way that we have such big games one after the other after the other because ideally when you have players returning from long-term injury, what you'd like is to bring them in in a low intensity environment. Not that the Premier League's ever low intensity, right? But if you have Wolves at home, which is coming up, for example, and I can't wait to be there, maybe you've got a two-goal or three-goal lead with 20 minutes to go, and that's how you reintroduce a Martin Odegaard or Kai Havertz, and that's a very different situation than the blood and thunder of the Derby, especially if it's close late.

10:21We'll get into actual Spurs of it in a moment because I have a theory that Spurs aren't good, but I can make an argument why they might be a bad matchup for us. So we'll come to that in a moment because I want to get both of your thoughts on that. But Clive, one player that we know won't be fit for this game is Big Gabby, Gabriel Magalias. Have you thought a little bit more about what you'd like to do? I mean, assuming that Calafiore is fine and that seems to be what the reporting is, we do have a lot of options, a lot of ways to go. We can play notorious Paul Pogba fan, Myles Lewis Skelly at left back and Calafiore at center back.

10:54We can go a number of different directions if you don't get that reference. Then that just means you're at a healthy level of not being too online. uh but but what do you think we could do in terms of the the back four yeah so you have to decide

11:06Elliot:what you want to what message you want to send right so and i can't go over the fact that when skiba went out again i think he might have been west ham when mascara came on i didn't know this and that means that physically he looks the part to me you know so if you want to take away physical vulnerability i think he is the best option you know and i think spurs are a little bit like what Arsenal are perceived to be they do lots of things with throw-ins and free kicks and etc and and i just want to take that away you know so i think for a european game i have a different view and i do think there may be horses of courses on this but i think for this first game i just got a feeling for mascara there's also a flip side to this i'm not saying i'm not sure if he's going to play in this game in kudos for example spurs do attack very much on their right hand side they go down the sides so i do think having a really strong fullback that's quite aggressive in those one-on-ones is important um and so that's how they progress they don't progress through the middle because their midfielders are like water carriers right they don't want the ball much like myself when i play don't want the ball from an angle i can't see everything but when it's in front of me absolutely fine i'll go and deal with that you know and try to keep people in an area and that's what their Armyfielders do like Paulinho and Bentecourt.

12:24Elliot:They're fine when the ball is in someone else's hands. I need to go and do work. Armyfielders, you can play through them, right? So, and they're going to try to stop us in there. So, I do think our ability to be really tight in wide areas, to be really aggressive and turn the ball over and create unstructured play is going to be important. This game, I've got a feeling for Muscara, but I'll be honest with you, I can make a case for every single one of the options that we're going through. And that's a good thing. I think you can make a case of Califuri. I think he'd be a fantastic centre-half, which would be vulnerable to pace on the outside if he becomes an outside centre-half.

12:58Elliot:Does the balance of Califuri require a different left-back? He'll say maybe a Hinkapi on some occasions. Do you swap it around? And maybe if Odegaard comes back, suddenly the unit of Timber and Saka is broken up. Timber can be a right-sided centre-back, full-back. He hasn't got to go forward as much because Odegaard's there. Suddenly, Hinkapi's a great outside left-back. in wide spaces, right? Sorry, outside centre-back in wide spaces. And suddenly the game comes back to Miles. You know, we know the game's back. The game comes back to Ben White a little bit more. We've got all of these options and the balance will change.

13:31Elliot:This is what excites me about these next block of games. The block we've just seen, wipe it off, mate. Wipe it off your mind. We're going into a new block with a new set of players and how they affect how we look is going to be interesting. What about you, Paul? How do you think about that? Yeah, so I started off thinking about it, thinking we have many good options, and then, as is normally my case, I fell into one option I feel very strongly about. So I think you've got to keep our left side intact. For the first time in a long time, the left side of Arsenal functions really well. So I think you've got to keep, as I call him, Mikel Arteta's new favorite toy.

14:17You've got to keep Calafiore doing Calafiore things from left back. Declan Rice, obviously, on that side in midfield. Trossard on the left. Now you've got a functioning left. We know what to do on the right. Eze floating around the middle to the right with Saka. That's all known knowns. You keep the left center back thing simple. To Clive's point, if you've got Kudus coming down our left, then maybe mascara isn't the worst thing in the world a right-footed center back meeting uh kudos as he comes infield to try and get off a shot he's just had a little bit more airtime playtime yeah that's for sure yeah yeah and you see his the shoulders on him that i'm a little swayed by the shoulders as whatever photo i saw yesterday i'm like jesus christ the guy standing in front of him interviewing him you could have three guys interviewing him you still wouldn't cover it was like us all crowding around michael arteta on stage at the union chapel you know it's like i he he seemed quite intimidated by uh my broad shoulders and and i i didn't know how to help that i i just wanted him to relax and be at ease but indeed i'm intrigued by your fear of exposed heights sorry to get off topic here but i'm like so like i'm not afraid of heights in the sense like if i'm in an airplane i'm not afraid of heights right but it's just you have such an advantage in that apartment that department by start with any closer to the ground yeah i mean even if you fall 300 feet i think you're going to be fine your eyes are used to being further away from the ground whereas i am used to being closer to the ground so the the higher up i am the less natural it feels to me yeah but need to be close to the ground do you understand indeed i do i do But Elliot, let's stay on the topic here.

16:11So, yeah, I'm kind of drawn to Mosquera. He's had more airtime. He could play that left. But either way, what an embarrassment of riches we have for that one aspect of our game. You know, we've got 12 games coming up before the end of the year or something like that. So I'm very nervous about missing Gabriel just because he's a big factor. And my how narratives have flipped. I can remember us talking about it. I think certainly over the summer, the end of last season, the most underappreciated defender we had, the most underappreciated player in many ways was Gabriel Magalhães. and the world not just Arsenal who I think underappreciated him in an overappreciated way but the world is suddenly like is he the most important player at Arsenal is he the best defender well he he may be the best defender in the Premier League um you really appreciate somebody by their absence yeah um the thing with Mascara and look it's not that I don't thinking Capier is going to be or is a great player.

17:23I'm not as sure about Califiori as a center back. We just haven't seen it much. But I do think Christian Mascara has played at Anfield, at St. James's Park, right? We've seen him have to step into those cauldrons. And granted, this will be at the Emirates, but obviously the Derby is a heated environment. I worry a little bit with Incappier, who already has a reputation of being very front-footed, very aggressive in the challenge. And, you know, we've seen that about his style and dropping him into such an intense environment. You know, maybe I'm speculating a little more than is necessary here, but do you want someone who's already predisposed to a very aggressive approach to their game, coming in for their first start at center back for Arsenal in that kind of environment?

18:08The Calafiore thing, I would trust him. I would, but would we be as comfortable then letting him roam and do the things he needs to do to hurt the opposition. So big decisions. In my book, it has always been the case that if you can, make the fewest number of changes when you have an injury, right? So if Cal Fiore's are starting left back, leave him at starting left back. Leave Saliba right center back. Leave Timber at right back and just bring in, whether it's Mascara or Incappier. I mean, Ben White could come in and Saliba could move over or Timber could come in and White could play full back.

18:40There's a lot of options, which is the good thing. And look, ultimately, as much as it hurts to lose, Gabriel, like we have a lot of defenders and so we are going to have to rely on the squad at times i know there is a tendency and i am the chief person to lean into this tendency to to kind of flip out about injuries they bother me the most because they're the thing that gives you the least ability to really evaluate what you're about as a team but it also does give you a chance to validate your squad building and the extent to which you brought in the right additional players so we're going to find that out um i think clive i'd like to spend a little more time though on the tottenham of this as as much as it gives me no great pleasure to do that i i think you can make a credible argument that they're not the best matchup for us overall i can expand on that a little more in a moment but i'm curious what you think about that hypothesis the idea that there are certain things about them and what they do well that maybe aren't ideal for us especially without Gabby one of which is that I ironically turns out you can be good at set pieces if you work on them and they've got a coach in Thomas Frank who's come in and worked on set pieces and they are quite good in them last season when Gabby was out our defensive set piece record in particular was very poor so that would be one area I'd be looking at an area that has been a strength for us potentially being a weakness in this game and I wonder if you see it similarly

20:07Elliot:yeah i think we can cope um funny enough that we got players to do it we got carrie fury we have mosquera we have saliba during timbers no slouch and we've got michael marino and declin rice we we are we are made for this all right so last year we you know we had miles left back we lost havertz as a center forward option and so we we just got more players focused on this now and and so I'm not going to see I'm not going to worry about it too much they're quite good at it and so are we so they do out-swing corners Mickey Van der Venner scored a couple of goals against Everton he's a decent player they make room for him like we do Gabriel so we get copied there another compliment to the manager and they're okay but I don't see anything there that we can't physically manage obviously on the set piece one half step out and they win the first contact and you could be in a bit of trouble and we are we understand that totally you know I remember the goal that Liverpool scored against us last year in the 2-2 near post flick Van Dijk just scored and you know what Elliot those set piece goals against they really hurt you know you're in control again you give away a corner and they just do that and suddenly they're back on terms in a huge game it really hurt me and I watched that and I sort of understand how we damage teams psychologically by scoring these goals it really does hurt and they feel as though it's not fair it's a free one you know and um and so but we are tuned to this so if we are worried about this what the rest of the league doing then because i don't think there's anything better than that they put it towards our goalkeeper he takes it you know gabrielle is a standout aerial player but we have others and if i'm in that dressing room i'm saying to myself if i'm playing i'm gonna make sure i don't lose one single challenge in the air and if you watch back some of our games michael barino is superb defending in our box.

22:03Elliot:And he's going to play in this game. And it's going to be a game where we're going to rule territory. And he's going to have a massive impact in both boxes, in my opinion. And I think he's my player to watch for the weekend. So you're quite right to have the fear, because the numbers tell you to have the fear. But if we can't do it, who can? I think we're best suited. Yeah. Paul, any thoughts on that? I agree with Clive, as always. Where's the point of that? My concerns are more the attacking end. That's where my worries are. Not because our starting XI won't be decent or good or whatever, but it's not a lot of depth.

22:43He doesn't have a lot of tactical swaps to come off the bench. He basically has what? Ethan Winerian, if anybody else gets fit. And look, Ethan's a great talent, and some games suit him more than others. Maybe this will be a game where it suits him, but you're going to start with an 11 who better be in form. There's been the international break. There's fatigue. You wouldn't be shocked if they weren't quite on it and if we needed a goal in the second half. And like, where do you, like one of our strengths has been at times, the bench strength, and I just don't think he has a lot of options. It's a big ask for the players who've been playing, who then went off on international break, who then come back to this, to the cauldron, as you call it.

23:28might be a little overstatement I heard there's a Tifo we're going to have a Tifo let's hope they've learned a bit from the PSG tie I see it more as a maybe a fondue set rather than a cauldron and so we're going to be going with our first 11 hoping they're up for it the energy of the crowd all that good stuff but not a lot of options and you know we need those players back quick because we could very soon why while i feel why i feel okay is where the players are coming back is in the attack and we desperately need that so the gap between our expected goals against and expected goals for increases larger margin of error beat them with our bench we won't have gabby for a little while but we'll make up for it you know we haven't had that bench for a while now and we've got this far if we can add to the attack maybe that compensates for missing out big gap gabby and some and we can just create more difference up the attacking end and kind of see home a lot of these games before big gabby gets back yeah i i just first of all i mean i think it's worth mentioning even though you know again i i don't think this is dispositive but But Tottenham are top with Arsenal in terms of away form in the league.

24:53They have not lost away this season. They have four wins and a draw. They have 12 goals for and three against. I mean, they have the best away goal difference. They have the best away record. Do I think that means anything? I mean, not necessarily because for what it's worth, they have 5.8 expected goals away. They've scored 12. They have 6.9 expected goals allowed. they've conceded three so you know if you like that word variance they have footballed some teams on their travels let's just put it that way okay and if you look at their away performances I mean there are some impressive results there there's the win at Manchester City but let's be fair they always win at Manchester City for some reason the other ones are West Ham they won Brighton, they drew.

25:44Leeds, they won. Everton, they won. Right? So it's not exactly a murderer's row. I just think, Clive, that, you know, we are a team that can struggle to find ways to open up the opposition. We are also a team that is excellent defensively. And so I think sometimes when we come up against a team that is not particularly good in attack, but is well organized and can defend, sometimes that's almost worse for us because nobody's going to batter us. Liverpool aren't going to batter us. City aren't going to batter us. PSG aren't going to batter us. We're not going to concede four, five, six goals. That's just never going to happen, right?

26:32the worst case scenario for Arsenal is we lose a game in a jammy 1-0 where we had the better of the XG but they found a goal and we couldn't find a way through and I think that's why Spurs worry me a little bit is just because they are not going to test us that much defensively but no one really does what they are going to do is they are going to be organized and they are going to leverage set pieces and they're a team that I think is well suited to play the nastiest, grossest nil-nil you've ever seen and hope they get something from a set piece. Now, there might be neutrals who listen to say, well, you've just described your own team.

27:07And to those people, I would say, please stop listening to the Arsenal Vision podcast. But like, do you see what I'm saying? That they are a team that is happy to create nothing, have nothing happen and try to edge it on the margins. And I weirdly think that that's a better plan for trying to beat us than a team like Chelsea, who we play next weekend, who will come for you and play front-footed football and try to attack, and they're going to find no joy against our excellent defense, and we're going to find ways to open up their crappy one. Spurs are the opposite, and I think the opposite is actually a harder matchup for us.

27:44Elliot:Yeah, for most of my adult life, I've been watching these games, and all of those games, I have a fear about Spurs. And then the game starts, and eight times out of ten, we win them, particularly at home. And you go, lads, it's Tottenham. Yeah, and then I work. and I'm just not going to go there. Spurs always have the option of two results. They can beat us, they can draw and they still get victories on those two results. We have to win for the world to be right. So they can do things to get a draw and we won't be in great shape. We could only be one point ahead of the city every time we kick off.

28:18Elliot:So that fear is always in my mind. There are lots of teams in the Premier League They have the ability to mid-deep block, aggressive, get after people, and create a one chance. We saw it last year, and that's why we had 14 draws. So this year, we've managed to be really sharp. I will say, I did a bit of re-watching of games over the break, quite mistake-free, just in general play. the way we reduce mistakes but also cover mistakes that we do make by other people being alert is for me one of the most underrated improvements from last season and the reason why i know that is when rusty players come on and i see a mistake that leads to a corner that led to a a few couple years ago led to a 2-2 against full of my home against 10 men and we deal with that corner this time i see that that's what we used to do i'm saying to myself we weren't switched on that's what we used to do turn over and laugh third concede a goal have to fight for another goal you know and and maybe get a draw and we think we dominated the game but we were stupid got punished for an error i think we're doing really well in that regard and the sundown goals we conceded we all said you know what they were decent goals if anything if you want to start to look for things like i know you love to elio if anything given the performance in hindsight of gabrielle and sliver in that game it wouldn't surprise me if one or not both were in the red zone and that's why they weren't at their tip top best in that game and maybe the learning is if we know that do we take one of them out to make sure that they are fit now none of us would have changed those two center backs for that game and now i'm mad about carlo ancelotti playing gabrielle again thanks well you should be mad because the cattuso did exactly the right thing with Calafuri.

30:09Elliot:It's pure load. He kept him out for a Brazilian game at the Emirates. I'm afraid it's a different context and I have to accept it, but it's very frustrating that we've lost him for that. So these are the learnings that we can do. I got to add one thing to that too, and I'm really, really sorry. But Edder Militao, by the way, suffers a bad adductor injury having been played in two games, having come back from a long absence. It just seems like basically they have not taken care of their players appropriately. But anyway, I just had to bring that up because I think it validates any concerns you might have about their willingness to take risks with players who should have been handled better.

30:47Elliot:Yeah, and we are one plus one making it too, right? We're not medical experts. We're just both frustrated. If I'm a Real Madrid fan, we've watched that player not play for a long time, just getting back to form. Now they've lost him again for a month or so, right? Same thing for us, you know. We are being looked at as a favorite of the league. We've lost not just one of our best defenders, but probably one of the most influential defenders in the league this year. Not just what he does on the pitch, but his own emotional content of how he performs his job. And I think he's perfect for a game like this.

31:19Elliot:And this is very much an emotional game. I know, Elliot, you're a man of numbers, a man of detail. You're trying to look at the angles. I promise you, I promise you, when you sit down 50 minutes for that game, those numbers will leave your head. and you'll suddenly realize how emotional this game is, how you need to control those emotions to make sure you execute on the basics and fundamentals of football on the planet you have, it will just flood over you. And I think we're ready for it. I think this is a real test that I think we should be leaping towards. I have to be conscious of the fact that post-international break, we are never great.

31:57Elliot:We're never fluid. We're never great. so we need to be really emotionally in control and wait for our details to come back to us and it could be lumpy in it but if it is i still think we're way better than them i think we'll win am i wrong though in suggesting that the players were back a little earlier from international break this time potentially than they sometimes are you sometimes get players returning like on the thursday i mean england played on the sunday i imagine mikhail will have had them out on the pitch training by tuesday at the latest right so a little more time to work together a little bit more time and we also go into the sunday which helps right so um it doesn't help for travel on the way in by the way but it helps for the players right so um someone think of your training journey we've long since given up anybody worrying about the punter yeah gonna be a long one maybe the best way just to get into the gear early and have extra drinks which i'm sure everyone's gonna do it's gonna be lively you know 4 30s on a sunday good luck mate If you win, the local pubs are going to make a lot of money.

33:01Elliot:That's all I'll say. I want to talk a little bit about the players that I think can be real difference makers in this game. And obviously, it's hard to do, given that we don't know who is necessarily going to be available. But let's do this. Let's knock out some brands. You know, I have been getting some emails from people saying, hey, Elliot, you know, it's all well and good that you're getting the brands in. But getting to the 45 minute mark without hearing about brands, sometimes like I start to worry, what if I don't know which brands to give my business to? And I hear you. That's an anxiety I don't want to be responsible for.

33:37So I will I apologize. I will strive to do better and make sure that you you do know which brands need your business and deserve your business. So my apologies for that. Let's get those in now and we'll come back and talk difference makers in the Darby. Imagine buying your kid a toy only to find the batteries aren't included Or buying furniture but missing the tools to build it Frustrating, right? Now imagine the exact same feeling but you're paying way more That is what buying business software usually feels like Fragmented, disconnected, and incredibly expensive Odoo completely changes that Odoo is a complete, fully integrated business suite where all your apps actually talk to each other.

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35:05There's a right side of the line to be on. So I tend not to think that these are games for, for example, like an Ethan, not because I don't trust his talent, but I just think that you want people that are experienced with this kind of game environment. I do think that Ezza is a great option for this game. I'm always going to think he's a great option because I think he's a great player, but I think he's a player who plays maybe sometimes more chilled out than you'd like, but very rarely overly fussed by the moment. I mean, as you saw in Crystal Palace's run of the FA Cup, I think he excels in the high leverage moments because his heart rate is like never above 50, no matter what's going on.

35:49Mikkel might like it to get a little above that, run around a little more, mate. But so I think he could be a big player for us, especially if we start to find access to him between the lines a little bit more. Leo's obviously in fantastic form, but I can't look past the man, Bakayo Saka, raised by the club, knows what this means, has the talent to win games, obviously had the sensational volley goal for England in the game he started against Serbia, I want to say. So how about you? Who comes to mind as a key difference maker in this game that you're really going to be watching closely? Saka is always a good pick, but I'd go with Calafiore.

36:30Assuming he is fit, obviously. I mean, we think he's fit. Yeah, yeah. He'll be fine. Oh, good. You've calmed me right down. You see, that's the thing. I can worry despite your attempts to assuage my concerns, young man. I'll find a way. Yeah, but I don't really want to assuage your concerns. I'd like to see you roasting yourself on a spittle. So it's pretty token effort there on my and Clive's part. Yeah, look, they're going to sit in this mid-block, stymie and stifeless. You're going to be frustrated with Eze because when he gets the ball, he's not going to have a lot of space to operate he'll have a few moments in the game i i think it's one of those people might be a bit frustrated in as unless he has like the magic moment but his overall game he they're not going to give him a lot of space here to operate that's specifically what they're not going to do they're going to do two things they're going to crowd that midfield and gives a hard time getting anything going and then they're going to bang it behind our vacated left back spot and try and hit it with kudus brennan johnson whoever they got float maybe both of them over that side of the pitch to crowd our left back area and and do some damage there so i think that's their play our play is to have califuri pop up in me you know michael marino is not the most dynamic attacking target running in behind but you don't say uh i'm i'm i know my audience and i'm playing to it elliot so you got trossard there you got that cleverness you got the dynamism of rice the battling in midfield turnovers you got the chaos agent in effect of califiori coming in as the free man into that midfield you need a free man as that won't be it they're ready for him they're marking him uh rice won't really be it he won't really have that freedom it's kind of down to califiori to stir the pot with the trossard's cleverness uh banging in crosses to miguel maria marino off knockdowns or knocking it in behind when califiori runs in behind runs through the midfield i get like he can't do that all day long because he has some some duties down the other end but i think if you're looking for different make difference makers i think that's probably it um otherwise we i wouldn't say we're predictable but everything else about how we play they can set up for it to some degree so i think i think califiori is your difference maker yeah califiori is an interesting one clive because we've used him in a lot of different ways how we use him without gabriel will be interesting to watch let's assume he stays at fullback and we go with an incapier or mascara at center back whether we want to deploy him in as advanced a role absent our rock at the back will be interesting um you know we've recently seen Saliba step into midfield more.