World Cup Daily - Argentina Break English Hearts Again

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2:00look there's no other way to say it england are out of the world cup and i'm sure i'm thinking what all english arsenal fans are thinking right now burda where are our signings this is the world cup daily hello england supporters and welcome to what hopefully will be a catharsis although I can't promise that. I am sorry for you. I have a lot of friends who would have been rooting for England in this game, and I feel bad for those friends. And I will say that I may have friends that were rooting for Argentina. I'm not aware of them, but if they're out there, while I am sort of happy for them, I have to admit, my rooting interest here was firmly with England.

2:34It's heartbreak against Argentina in a semifinal of the World Cup all over again. It looked at one point like it was going to go so well, but it felt a bit Arsenal, didn't it? clinging on to that one goal lead, knowing that the quality wasn't quite there, that the opposition was creeping in. And in the end, it was ultimately Argentina who go through. We're going to discuss Thomas Tuchel a bit, I think. That will probably come up. We may talk about one or two performances at both ends of the pitch for England that weren't good enough. And we may even give you an MVP of the day. But all that aside, there's a one club on Patreon if you'd rather go hear about the Arsenal women and their huge rebuild that they're working on, Clive.

3:14tim uh put that out we'll have a player ratings pod for you tomorrow not of england but of arsenal's 25 26 campaign tune in for that but for right now i guess i am happy to see the heartbroken

3:27Michael Timbs:michael timms hey timsey how you hold me oh hello mate i'm okay how are you like i'm sad so if i'm sad and i don't actually care you must be pretty down especially because i went through it in have passed like if you were just two nil down after 30 minutes and you could be like oh we're bottlers fine whatever it's over we're out you can get used to it but yeah to to be one nil up and then in the last 10 minutes of regular time and a few minutes of stoppage time to fully watch it you know torn away from you that's a hard way to go out this felt like it was just there that's why that's why this is more painful than that i mean the comparisons are italy in the final in 2021 when we took the lead and then it was just kind of a slow pegging back and then eventually and no one likes a slow pegging let me tell you no no one likes it even me who likes a slow pegging doesn't like one like this uh and then wow we're learning all kinds of things about you tonight carry on it was also similar to croatia in this in the semifinals of the world cup in 2018 and just a very a little bit we've been down this road before and we and we unfortunately know what it feels like and it doesn't get any better and in fact i think this might be worse because we you think you'd think we would learn our lesson with a new manager and you know with this group of players it's like no this is different we actually played better in the start of this game than we did in the those two kind of similar games and it finished in the same way and actually more cruelly also you know the whole thing of oh i hope if we do lose i want the person the team that beats us to to go on and win the world cup i do not i know that to happen we're on mccalmarino tonight i want spain to humiliate argentina because i i despise this argentina side they're great they've got the best player ever i like messy the rest of those players can just suck a fat one yeah you lot would say i mean i don't say that but i'll take it i'll take it from you i guess just suffocate them in this boring way they do that they have done this whole tournament and i hope it ends up in it being a boring 2-0 um yeah i don't i don't know say some things earlier yeah Yeah, well, so a few things.

5:55First of all, I will say, as a quasi-neutral, the first half was one of the worst halves of football I've ever watched. It was, everybody was trying to be argy-bargy and tough, but without being so tough, they got carded, which produced.

6:06Michael Timbs:We weren't. That was Argentina. They were horrible. And the ref didn't, I thought the ref did fine on the whole, but the first half, he mismanaged. He let them get away with too many fouls. It was actually a bit ridiculous. And the fact that we ended the half with more yellows than them, crazy. it's always a tough one for a ref in a situation like that which is do i use my cards early then make a rod for my own back when i inevitably have to send someone off later or so be it don't don't make so many fouls in the first half like yeah the first 10 minutes were ridiculous they were just they were foul and it was dreadful we've been here so many times this isn't me going like poor england are we we got but it's like they they weren't even making like attempts at the ball They were just fouling us.

6:49Michael Timbs:And it's fine. You want to get into them first five, ten minutes, sweet. But you can't keep doing that without eventually getting punished. And it just took too long. Worth saying a couple of big decisions. Argentina went for Simeone. And you wonder if it's literally them trying to get an English head because it was a Simeone that got sent off. It was because it's not for his footballing ability. No, it wasn't on display. And then England went with Rodgers on the right, which I guess tells you what Tuchel felt about Nani's performance the round before. But this is, it's fair to say, the first good team or really good team either of these teams have come up against.

7:28I mean, Switzerland are decent. England hadn't faced... Let me take that back. Norway and Switzerland are decent, but these were big hitters.

7:36Michael Timbs:This is the top-level teams, yeah. And they were feeling each other out for the first half. And I think that's, by the way, that's often the case in games like this. But let's actually do the format because I think this game sets up well for the format because there's some big headlines that are going to write themselves. There's some stocks that really fell and stocks that rose. I'm probably going to want multiple swings at stocks falling. I've got a few. I'm sure you do as well. I've got a few. I'll let you hit the headline from, unfortunately, Argentina 2, England 1. um my headline will be i still don't know how good this argentina side is and i think 90 of their prowess and their kind of winning ability comes from just the crazy belief that it's destiny you've gone full sour grapes headline here you've you've made it about Argentina vibesing their way through it's not vibesing it's like it's it's vibesing with with but it's like vibesing is a placebo this was like a legit belief they've since since they've won the world cup it was like it was this destiny that was fulfilled in the last world cup right where Messi is too good not to win the world cup is meant to be eventually at some point they then do it and now it's like no this blind belief that it is meant to be and it we have this special relationship with the world cup because it's been proven to be true it's now given them more belief and i feel like that has obviously that has not been the main reason why they've got through they've got through because they're a great side they never know when they'll be blah blah blah but it does have a part to play and i think it does fuel them into this it doesn't matter what happens five minutes to go 10 minutes to go we're one nil down sorry against egypt we saw against england like we've got a chance one we've got alien boy on the pitch who can just do things no no other people can do but also it's like no it will happen and it keeps their kind of morale up and it and it maybe helps them keep playing and keep believing because they they know in their heads they have this sick belief it's like we we're winning the world cup because this is what has to happen it's really good i also think that and this is sort of weird but i think there's a huge advantage to being the team that's been chasing the game versus the team that's been defending a lead if the team chasing gets an equalizer because it's very hard for the team that's been defending to break out of that mold they probably made substitutions to lean into defending and the team chasing has put on a lot more attacking talent probably to chase the game so you finish the game in this weird dynamic of one team is already defending deep and doesn't have the options to get out and the other team has brought on all their attacking talent and has a few minutes to really make that pay i think if england can hold on to extra time they had ways that they could have adjusted and been the more balanced side in extra time yeah and and we'll come on to why that didn't happen um do you think that makes sense yeah all right no i think it definitely does as in i mean we can speak about it now but i think it does make sense for sure okay let me hit my headline because my headline is going to incorporate things that'll probably wind up in the stock section but here we go what's the recipe for england disaster it's a tablespoon of terrible management and two teaspoons of really shitty individual performances because it's going to come out like Tuchel screwed this game up.

11:18And by the way, boy did he ever. What's going to probably be lost in that is the individual cock-ups that had to happen for this to go down the way it is. And to be fair to Tuchel, he came out of that game against Norway and said the mentality was there, but the performance wasn't good enough. And this was just an extension of that. So what I mean is, he got everything wrong. But I don't know how Pickford lets a ball go in the center of the back of the net from 25 yards out. I just don't. And I don't know how Lataro Martinez with 35 defenders on the pitch finds himself unmarked five yards out.

11:52Those things shouldn't happen. There were a bunch of really poor individual performances, but they all rightfully will be overshadowed by Tuchel getting it wrong. And this is something I want to ask you about. Well, come back on that because I have a big question for you about Tuchel's tactics that I want to get into. did you did you want to say something about my my opening salvo there yeah yeah yeah yeah

12:13Michael Timbs:a great headline great headline um yeah i i would say that i think that tuchel will rightly get criticized for this because they were it was it was bad management from him i think even he will probably look back and say i didn't get that right and i think the massive the the huge change in approach from one where we didn't dominate the game but we of all the whoever was more comfortable it was us and whoever looked more threatening was us so we had the the i would say the majority of like good possession and who looked more threatening on the ball it was us over them like we did a really good job on Messi we didn't allow them too much space we wanted we they we kind of allowed them to play in the areas that we wanted them to play in and it was fine they didn't really get us on the back foot and we weren't really reeling and we defended when we when we needed to 1v1 we defended really well but I think the thing that might undo Tuchel and that will rightly outshine the maybe individual errors is that I think to go from that to a massively defensive strategy and take off key players and replace them with very, very defensive substitutes.

13:39Michael Timbs:It almost absolves the individuals of their errors because it's like, what do you expect to happen if you just go with half an hour to go? You'd make loads of subs. You just go, we're going to go 10 men behind the ball, 11 men behind the ball and just sit back and soak this in that's what's going to happen and there's a way of doing it that doesn't allow them like really dangerous crosses as well so I think we just went about it totally the wrong way and so that was the first key mistake and I think the individual the individual errors are almost the consequences of that I would say it's you know the individual errors are that they were poor and they allowed them to score two you know heartbreaking goals but i think it's almost it becomes a bit of an inevitability when you do make such a drastic change to just sit back um so that's what i i would agree with you but i would almost say that it one leads to the other it's like well that's why i said it was it started with a tablespoon of bad tactics right and then it's a couple of teaspoons of the individuals because the lion's share of the culpability in my mind is is how Tuchel managed this game and he had as bad a second half as a football manager as you can have in my view he got everything wrong and was transmitting apoplectic rage and total head loss from the touchline as well which I get it you're upset with decisions and things like that but you've got to keep your head in the game and I will come to one of the most bizarre things I've ever seen and get your your feedback on it in a minute yes so let's start with this people get frustrated when teams defend deep there's nothing wrong with defending deep no nothing whatsoever nothing but yes yeah carry on you first already know i know where you're going with this keep going well so i will say there are a few things so one you must have ways to get out when you recover the ball you can defend deep but you cannot have it continue to just come back at you and maybe it's the hard decision to take harry kane off you need to make maybe you have to find someone other than Dan Byrne and Kansa when you take Declan Rice off.

15:50Maybe you have to do, you know, obviously the concept for Gordon's sub is abysmal. But like, so the first thing is you have to have a way out. Here's the other thing though. And this is a thing, when Arsenal defend well deep, you see two clear banks of four with space between them. So the great defenders, they understand who they're marking in the box. It's not congested for them. They can see who they're supposed to mark. They can hold their line. There's a bank of four that moves out, and Declan Rice is brilliant at this, by the way, as can be Odegaard when he's in there, as is, I think, Zubimendi.

16:22Marino would be good at this. But you keep that space so that you pressurize the ball, and then you've got those two roving guys at the top who are able to chase the guys starting the move. Now, if you want to play a 5-3-2 or a 5-4-1, fine. But what you can't be is a 9-1 or an 8-2. when the two lines collapse in on each other two things happen one free shots with no pressure easy crosses delivered in two no one knows who the fuck they're supposed to be marking when the ball comes into the box because you've complete lost contain and those late runners have a clear run into the box onto you and that's why you saw the McAllister header the header onto the post right the the the second man runs were eating England alive because not only were they going zonal with the way they were defending, but their lines collapsed completely.

17:13So they had no out ball. Their two lines collapsed completely and they couldn't press the delivery into the box at all as a result of it. So like, it's not that defending deep is wrong. It's that with the people he put on the pitch and the way he had them defending, that was never ever, that was like a textbook clinic

17:33Michael Timbs:and how not to defend deep in my view. Yeah, I totally agree. You almost sound English, by the way. This is great. I'm sorry. I'm feeling that. Don't ask me to do the accent because, because it, yeah. They should have done two banks of four. They should have done two banks of four. See, it's not good. It's not good. No, I totally agree. And for me. Four, four fucking two.

17:59Michael Timbs:And for me, there are, there is a way of doing it. And we saw it literally yesterday with Spain against France. Spain go one nil up. and and look this is we're not as good as spain on the ball i don't expect us to be able to control a game as well as they do but they they go one nil up and they they maintain a level of course they're more cautious about conceding a goal they have a lead to protect but they do it in a way that doesn't just sacrifice a control of the game because we did boss them not not technically but just physically we were better than them and we didn't give them the space that they wanted and it was almost like kept them at arm's length we played our game we we we made them play more our game than their game and what Spain did and what we should have done is in the same way looked after our lead but in a way that still allowed us some form of control and some form of threat going forward uh even if you go back to what Tuchel did in uh in the game against Croatia right is that we took the lead we got pegged back had a bit of a rough patch but then everyone talked about the players talked about oh it was a great halftime uh speech from from the boss where he said look why are we so scared about losing a goal or losing a game if we're going to go out we're going to go out playing our way and he just totally went against what we did in the group stage that worked well and obviously this isn't to say Croatia are anywhere near the level of Argentina but even then we had a lead we looked good for the lead and genuinely up until the I would say maybe even like the it was five ten minutes into the like the second half we looked good Messi didn't do too much he still came up with flashes of brilliance but we kept him do you know as as under control as you can keep messy and then it we just retreated slowly into our shell and it starts with the substitutions and then and then it changes and then they get a little bit more control of the ball they get more comfortable then we retreat back even further and further and it's like this is totally going against what we kind of purported was was our method which was we're going to go do our way this is a new england team we know how to navigate through these these stages we're going to play our way because that's how that's going to give us the best chance of winning the game and that's what would have given us the best chance of winning the game is if we actually stuck to our guns and just brought on players that would help us protect a lead without just sacrificing the rest of our game because after that we looked tired when we did get the ball and try to break it was just nothing was working and that is as you mentioned as well about harry kane that's where the difficult decision comes on where if we are that deep and then chances are so few and far between about actually getting the ball and threatening as soon as you concede you're you're you're dead because now suddenly it's like well we've got kane we've brought gordon off uh we don't really have any wingers or any pace of what how are we get a goal then you probably have to take Kane off because then you do put you put Rathford you're not going to put Ivan Toni up there maybe you put Watkins and then you bring on Rathford but then it's like then it's just you're making up for lost time and you're wasting stuff because you're you're undoing the subs which he obviously did against uh Norway right it's like he and fair it worked but it was even more important doing it this time you have to be like brave in these scenarios and just go I got that wrong taking deck off was so silly and you're gonna have to undo your subs to then be able to get a goal again and and bring on you know attacking players for the defensive players you've brought on or defensive players that were tied so I think it's obviously very clear that Tuchel got it wrong and even though I know that the players will probably defend him and they will be the first ones to stick their hands up and say you know we uh we didn't do well enough which i would also agree with it comes from the manager and as sad as it is like i do like tutu i think he is a great manager but he just got it really wrong on this on this one he completely completely shit the bed like he just did i mean you can like him you can let managers get it wrong by the way they really do get it wrong like and sometimes they get it catastrophically wrong and it was it was like as someone who did not enjoy the unai emery experience it felt a lot like that when i am rihanna lead like no one loves to shit the bed like he does with the lead and there's so many ways you could do it you could say okay i've got this guy ivan tony he made his whole career at brentford taking long balls from david ryan heading them on to brian and bumo to run him behind so i'm gonna bring on rashford off the left and tony through the middle and i'm going to let pickford do because pickford can't pass the ball so i'm gonna let him hit it long onto tony's head i'm gonna bring nani on to run him behind or what i prefer bring the guys on who you just give them the ball and you know they will take really good care of it no one takes better care of the ball than bakayo saka so get bakayo saka on to take better care of the ball yeah there's a lot of ways you can go what why why for example did cobi not play a single minute you would think like and i'm not his biggest fan but even then it's like there was if you're gonna do this and you're gonna try to protect a lead you need people who are good on the ball who can protect the ball and then fashion something or start moves look and two things I agree with you two things worked against Tuchel I just want to say this so it's on the record because I want it to be fair one there is no universe where you want to take Declan Rice off none he must not have been able to carry on because literally he comes off and immediately they they get a goal like he they get a goal three minutes later and where does it come from it comes from the space that Declan Rice would have been jumping out to protect right two this is why having Rhys James in any team costs you this is why having players who don't stay fit costs you because Reese James can't keep going.

24:01And it's the need to take Rice and James off at the same time that I think breaks his brain. The Konza for Gordon sub is terrible, but Byrne and O 'Reilly at that point, when you've already done Konza for Gordon, is what kills you. But I got to say, this is where I knew Tuchel's head was microwaved. lataro martinez lataro martinez scores the winning goal 90 plus 2 90 plus 2 okay you've got all defenders on the pitch you are now down a goal at 90 plus 2 tony and rashford do not come on until 90 plus 6 those subs have to come on before the restart from the goal end of story end of like What are you doing?

24:49You've just conceded a lead in stoppage time. You've got all defenders on the pitch. You've got to, while they're celebrating, make sure, and maybe they weren't warming up, and that's on you if that's the case. Maybe he didn't know which attackers he wanted to put on in that situation. But, Timsy, am I going nuts? How do you have four minutes go by? And granted, some of those four minutes of the celebration, I get it. But how do you not bring those subs on at the restart?

25:14Michael Timbs:It's a comedy of errors, really. Like there are so many, it's like, the first thing is you shouldn't have made the subs when you did. And then five, 10 minutes later, there's another error of like, well, if you're going to make the subs fine, but then you've got to do this. You can't just have everyone just sit back. And then if you're going to do that, well, then you need to make more subs and actually bring on attacking players. And then, you know, it's just like, it just kept getting worse and worse and worse. And Argentina grew so into the game where they were suddenly just absolutely dominating.

25:44Michael Timbs:and I think maybe Tujol probably thought he could replicate what we did in Mexico because that was impressive but it's Mexico and like this is Argentina with really good players and we're allowing them into even more dangerous because we're even further banked uh into our box we're allowing them so much more space and in really dangerous positions in and around the box especially out wide and there were already warnings before the goal there were so many occasions where it was like oh we got lucky there oh that came off the post oh they just didn't get a flick on there like the warning signs are there and you can't there is an element of riding your luck maybe we rode our luck a little bit in in mexico to get the win and obviously every team does need a bit of luck to get to to advance but against a team that is one of the best in the world your luck runs out It just, eventually, you just can't get away with it.

26:45Michael Timbs:And so he should have made different subs. He should have made them earlier. When the goals went in, he should have made more changes earlier. And it was just, it was almost, I don't want to say that. Can I defend? Looking back, it's like, of course it ended the way it did. Of course it did. I'm going to defend the concept for Gordon sub in one respect. Obviously, Jude Bellingham is the star of this England World Cup. I really think Jude has so many sensational qualities. But I think when you play with Jude, you're playing with two men in midfield. Really, you're playing with two men in midfield.

27:21Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think when you're a team as good as England, you want to have some of the ball. And so what he did is he moved Jude out into the forward line, right? He moved him out wide. And he brought Rhys James into midfield nominally a little bit more. And I think there was an effort there to say, I need three in midfield. I need to be able to keep the ball there in that area a bit. And I understood, all right, really it's not a defender for an attacker. Really it's a midfielder, right? It's Jude to the forward line, James to the midfield. So he's trying to get a third body in midfield that will help him get some control of the game.

28:00Where he really lost it was obviously when he had to take Rice

28:07and Reese James off. and now you're taking off two guys that can help you keep the ball control the ball get the ball back and keep it and you bring on burn and nico o'reilly and you've conceded all of the game and so let me just give you some things that are kind of nuts here in the last from the time england scored their goal to the end of the game they had 21 possession yeah they had 11 men on the pitch 21 possession and just to put an extra fine point on it they because it is in my mind completely ridiculous that something like this can happen in this way. So from the 56th minute, they played 35 passes in the final third to Argentina's 180.

28:52Okay. In the second half overall, just the whole second half, Argentina played 230 passes in the opposition half to 33 for England. and I realize the data I've just given you, they don't completely line up, so it depends which data collection company is right. But the point is - We get the picture. You get the picture, right? 24 touches in the opposition box for Argentina to three for England, 21 % possession after they took the lead. Like there is defending deep and then there's that. That's turtling. That's waiting for the inevitable, you know?

29:29Michael Timbs:Yeah, it is. And it's just, I think it's like, just it's not brave. it's not brave and I I'm I also think this is such a horrible way to go out because if we did go out swinging then you just it is easier to rationalize and it's easier to be okay with it because you just go so so be it we got beaten by the better side we're a lot of England fans and probably myself included at the end of the 90 100 minutes I was like well I don't even know if we've been beaten by the better side I think we're better than them but they're just they they were patient and they didn't make as many mistakes as we did and we just made some really really penal mistakes uh yeah it was just like yeah I would have been all up for the second half against Croatia effort we're if we're gonna go out we're gonna go out playing our way trying to score another goal and all and just protect our lead that way versus sitting back and just hoping for the best against one of the best attacks in in in the world you know uh it's yeah it's a it's a sad state of affairs um really and sorry for anyone listening that is is now getting re-sad because well i mean what are you gonna do you have to this was an ugly second half way to go out because because what's weird is right I can understand it in a way if you're playing a Spain and this happens and you're like look when Spain want to put their foot on your throat they can just keep the ball from you it's like when Mikel Arteta said how do I want to win of course I want to win 300 ,000 passes that's not what we were able to do you're not always able to do that first of all this Argentina team is not what I would regard as a a ball dominant team that can completely control you but when they start building up that head of steam to go for you I think they're vulnerable on the counter and you have to carry some threat the other way and anyone have too many good players not to carry any threat the other way and they're not great they're not great because we're not great and we could have very easily won that game there is just a a very annoying resistance about them that they never stop and we kind of invited that resistance and we gave them every chance and every you know possible possible chance of coming back but even then at least they did just keep playing and they kept finding good positions and uh yeah just wore us down really it was just it was yeah i don't i don't i don't know what else to say something else earlier well okay okay so let's get to the stock section then because I mean we can just keep doing this I just fundamentally like yeah we're not going to talk about NVIDIA and SpaceX by the way we're going to talk about players but still but fundamentally I don't think there's anything wrong with defending a bit deep to protect a lead I think there are ways to do it I think yeah I just think the way England did it the zonal approach the compressed lines, the way they couldn't pressure the balls into the box.

32:51And anyway, we've done it all. It's frustrating to watch because as it was happening, you felt it. You felt it slipping away. Okay. And by the way, the one thing that I think is tedious about England is the constant tribalism that infects the discussion about who should have been picked for the team. Should Cole Palmer have gone? Should Phil Foden have gone? but you look at this midfield and I do think there are players sitting at home that can get on the ball that can help move the ball forward that you know even if you want to put aside Trent and Foden and and and Palmer and the big names like that you can look at Adam Wharton you can look at an Alex Scott you can look at a Miles Lewis Skelly what would a Miles Lewis Skelly have been able to do you know to get on the ball to eat some fouls to yeah yeah well okay

33:40Michael Timbs:Ebbs with 15-20 to go, you know. Let's, and by the way, I mean, bring Saka in the middle. Get someone on who can get their foot on the ball. He must be. He must be. It's a little bandjacks. Well, he's going to play 120 minutes. He's going to play 120 minutes in the. Don't even joke. Oh, he is. Needless to say, the fact that Saka didn't play a single minute in this game when if we had a fit Saka, we would have, I think, scored two or three because Taglifico was there for the taking and there was so much space on the right-hand side but obviously Rhys James and Morgan Rodgers there's no chemistry there there was no like one overlap which was a half chance but even then Morgan Rodgers isn't really a right winger he would get it a lot on the right-hand side with space to attack and even Nonny would have attacked he just wouldn't have done much else after that but then Morgan just cuts inside on his right foot passes it back which I'm not blaming him but it's just that's what you that's what happens when you just don't put a right winger at right wing he's right footed like that's that's just that's what's gonna happen yeah um so yeah all right let's go let's do stocks and and of course that means and we can finally take a deep breath and do what everybody's been waiting for the nord mvp of the day the nord mvp of the day is a reminder that you should use nord vpn when you are browsing the internet when you are on websites that may be dodgy may have things on them that could damage your device they don't damage your device when you use NordVPN because it's an all-in-one security package.

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35:36All of that, if you just do nordvpn.com slash ArsenalVision, go to nordvpn.com slash ArsenalVision. That's nordvpn.com slash ArsenalVision. Now, Timsy, your MVP of the day is?

35:51Michael Timbs:Oh, no. It's too easy to say Messi. It's too easy to say Messi. But he is. So if you pick anyone else, it's a huge mistake. Fine. Yeah, okay. Lionel. I mean, I guess you could pick Enzo, but if you pick Enzo, I'm just going to vomit into my mouth and then have to swallow it. No, Enzo deserves nothing. He deserves nothing. He, I'm going to say it again, deserves nothing. Thank you. Yeah, it's going to be Leo. Because this is the horrible thing, right? He's not Leo Messi of 10 years ago, but he's still Leo Messi. So even when we had him relatively under wraps, And I thought Jed Spence did an amazing job of shutting him out for the most part.

36:33Michael Timbs:Up until he kind of caught him and the Argentina side caught fire, there were just, again, just a few occasions where he showed the quality that he has that no one else has. These little flicks, these little turns and bursting through that ultimately came to nothing. but it was still it was enough to shock you into just realizing like oh oh yeah no we are playing oh yeah i forgot he can do that that's okay i forgot he was on the pitch because he didn't do anything else and then as soon as we made those subs we started to sit back it was uh it was a free-for-all and suddenly he was there he had more space he got more into the game and the crosses that he whips in from the, what I would say, the Bakayo Saka angle are frightening.

37:22Michael Timbs:There was only one that wasn't good that I can remember that I think maybe he hit the first man or he overhit it. And I think the rest were just like tantalizingly just... The right-footed cross for the winner is... The right-footed one is a joke. It's stunning, yeah. Ultimately, his quality shone through. It's just annoying that if we had a better game plan, I do think we could have kept him quiet for the whole game. I think he kept him quiet for the most part. Yeah, I mean, Rice and Anderson did a fine job with him when he was in the central spaces. It's when he moved out wide that you had no answer for him.

38:00Michael Timbs:It's credit to Alien Boy that he's so good that you actually need to be on it the whole game because his quality of everything means he doesn't need more than two, three touches or five yards of space and he can kill you at any point and it's just the fact that we did that for 85 minutes and then he just reminded us like you lot are a bit stupid i've done this before and you give me enough chances i will i will hurt you so well done alien boy you're in another final you are my nord vpn mvp of the day yeah exactly i mean i do love leo he's he's the only redeeming thing about that team and like yeah yeah yeah the the um he is i agree that when he moved out wide yeah there was just nothing you could do the other thing you see with messi is just nasty they give him the ball and very very very very rarely does he ever do anything wrong or bad you know and you need when you have players like that it's so nice it's that that comfort to know they're there when you need them you give them the ball they use it in an intelligent way he was brilliant i'm gonna give you my stock rising and his stock didn't rise because of that by the way i just gave him the mvp yeah right of course good point so i'm i'm gonna go with because first of all i don't know that there's an argentine player i can pick and feel okay about i mean like don't enzo is not a player that i'm getting gonna pick period end of story so i'm gonna go with uh leonel scaloni so great likable guy well and think about this for a they had to come back against Cabo Verde they had to come back against Egypt they had to come back against England you could say well that means he got it wrong to begin with but like I think managers show their class international managers I should say club managers it's all a number of things but international managers show their class with how they manage in game because club managers they have tactical they have plenty of time to develop their core tactics to recruit players they want to build lineups for situations international managers the most important thing they could do was in-game management and if you're constantly coming from behind to win that means you're managing those situations well and every lever he pulled worked his movement of messi out to the wing the the players he brought on made an impact lataro martinez scores the winner he didn't start martinez he switched to alvarez i thought alvarez looked pretty good but martinez comes on and wins it you know when he brought on montiel and odemendi i'm like oh these guys are like really but montiel little guy was like good and and rodrigo de paul like i don't rate him but he he he knows when to pick these guys and yeah and he does like candidly he understands his team he understands the the qualities they have i mean he started simeone there's no argument for doing that but it doesn't matter because he he makes the subs the subs make the difference and yeah he ends that game and i will say also when he gets it back to 1-1 right so it's 1-1 on 82 minutes now had they made all their subs at that point i guess they had so never mind 85 85 uh apparently oh yeah 85 85 minutes yeah uh but they had made all their subs i think at that point so yeah so i was gonna say he doesn't did yeah they did yeah so so he was kind of stuck with it But moral of the story is, he made the moves.

41:28The moves worked out. Kudos to him. Let's move on. Let's get to the stocks falling because I think it's...