World Cup Daily - Martinelli Rescues Brazil, Germany Controversially Crash Out, Morocco Advance

0:25Michael Timbs:Hello everyone and welcome to the World Cup Daily Show brought to you by Arsenal Vision Podcast. My name is Timsey and today I am not joined by Elliot. He is a very busy man and I've been away for a few days but luckily we are joined by friend of the show, Lewis Ambrose. How are you doing Lewis? I'm all right thank you very much. I've got my breath back after a late night watching too much football and seeing too many bad penalties. Loads of bad penalties. I mean there's a lot to talk about weirdly even though it was far fewer games than we've been used to over the last like week weirdly it had the most action and the most fun world cup football that was seen in quite a while um so as usual i mean we got a lot to get through we'll kick off uh with some headlines lewis i can only imagine what your headline is going to be being based in berlin but i'll let you go yeah i'll let you uh kick it off yeah my Right, yeah, let's go with that then.

1:27Germany or the New England is my headline.

1:30Michael Timbs:Oh, wow. Okay, hit me. Hit me. Why is that? They just keep failing in national tournaments. So, you know, big country, big history, much bigger history really than England. Had a look earlier, right, from 66 to 2014, in all 11 World Cups, Germany were in the quarterfinal, at least. they were in the semi-final nine times out of 11 World Cups seven finals out of 11 and then since 2014 since they won it in Brazil they have not won a knockout game yesterday was the first knockout game they've played since 2014 and obviously didn't win so yeah they've gone from reaching the semi-final in nine out of 11 World Cups or the final in seven out of 11 World Cups to not get into the round of 16 three World Cups in a row which I just think is mad maybe a bit harsh to call them the new England bit hard like a bit harsh on England England usually used to go out in the quarterfinals at least now we're cut yeah we're actually decent now also I saw a stat I think it was yesterday after the game I think that Germany haven't kept a clean sheet in a World Cup game since the final of 2014 yeah yeah that's right again remarkable because it's three three World Cups what's a three 10 games three group stages and then the and the game yesterday wow yeah i mean it's unbelievable how how was it uh how's it been in germany what's the reaction been because the game itself was i say fairly predictable but i would i wouldn't say predictable but unsurprising by pari why who i can safely say say are like experts at shithousery uh as we would say in england because they are very difficult to play against um obviously took the lead with an unbelievable header from inciso and then our boy kai havertz uh equalized and could have scored another as well i mean germany may be a little bit uh unfortunate not to not to have actually won or taken one of their many chances but um paraguay obviously holding out and then uh winning on penalties but how was it uh how's the reaction been in in in germany uh yeah it's not it's not great nobody's very happy uh i think even before the game on um on like the national broadcaster over here uh before the game uh it was put to julian nagelsmann that it's like a game that you you you cannot go out to paraguay and he obviously was very like well you know you you sit national football and a world cup like you have to win every game and they were like no but seriously mate you can't go out to Paraguay and he was obviously trying to be respectful to to the opponent and but that was basically before the game that was already that was already that mood you could I think feel the knives were sharpening in preparation for this maybe happening because nobody's been particularly convinced by Germany uh in the group stage already and yeah he um I don't know if he'll keep his job now.

4:33Jurgen Klopp is going to be linked heavily with the Germany job, I'm sure, over the next few weeks. It's been like the very, very slow death of an era, I think, in German football, like that 2014 team, the Wonder World Cup, like you had Hummels got kicked out the squad and Muller got kicked out the squad by Love, and then they got brought back for the Euros in 2021. Then Tony Kroos got brought back for the Euros two years ago. And now after that, Manuel Neuer retired and he got brought back for this World Cup. Like they just can't let go of that whole team, basically. And I guess Klopp hasn't worked in Germany since then, since that era, that time.

5:18So, yeah, I don't know. It feels very like clinging on to the past. And I find it really difficult to see sort of Germany's future. I was just thinking last night, like you look at England and you've got like Bellingham, Kane, Saka, Declan Rice and France with Mbappe and Dembele and Alise. I don't think it's unfair to say Germany don't have any players really of that level. That's a worry, I think, for them looking ahead like the next few years.

5:47Michael Timbs:It has, I feel maybe just from the outside looking in, it's like snuck up. It snuck up on them the fact that they don't have that much depth. like I even the way like I've said it a few a few times but like having uh Sané on the right wing and even though he's in and out of the Galatasaray team he's obviously still a very good player but he's not the sort of player where you would think he would he's almost like the go-to guy on the right hand side and there's no real other options and so it's it's a bit of a weird one where they haven't as you say like during the the group stage they didn't like the world of light at all like that i mean obviously their their their game was it seven seven one against was it curacao yeah yeah yeah and but then it's curacao and then moving forward it is almost like the the first time they had a proper test and even then it's still paraguay as as nagelman would say like it it was a yeah not uh not a surprise to see them kind of come up short like they were they were it was a weird one because watching it like obviously i was partly just wanting kai to score and then i'm not really fussed about germany advancing at all and so when he did score great very happy it was a shame he didn't get his second header that i think i mean he had a few other chances as well but mainly it was those two headers the one immediately following his goal as well which he could have maybe done a little bit better at maybe but but even that it's not like they created loads of chances or anything yeah it wasn't there was no they weren't peppering the goal obviously they had the majority of the possession paraguay kind of made it i guess difficult they just sat back and like a lot was made especially on the coverage uh now that i i get to watch the itv and bbc coverage i i firmly prefer the british coverage to uh american just because that they they kind of go into maybe it's a bit trite to say but like they they go into a bit deeper analysis of just like proper tactics whereas fox i guess have to appeal to the wider audience and like explain slightly more basic stuff but like within the first i don't know i think it was 30 40 minutes they were just saying look at look at how deep their banks are like they're just not allowing anything and like it came down to just a whipped obviously it was a very good cross by verts but of course it came from they weren't creating anything else like on the ground or through the back at all so it was always going to be like a whipped cross in and a flicked header that was kind of going to get them any sort of joy.

8:19Michael Timbs:And then obviously, I mean, I feel bad because, as I said, I feel like they did enough, weirdly, to win. They were unlucky with the tar disallowed goal in extra time. I thought it was such a soft foul. I know the standards of refereeing are maybe a little bit different in the World Cup than they are in the Premier League. But I think if that was also given in the Premier League, you're going to be if that's your team you're going to be fuming because it's yeah there's barely any contact the keeper just goes down and bearing in mind the keeper's two meters tall um and yeah i just thought that was a little bit a little bit harsh but then when it gets to penalties you just think right germany i don't think they've ever lost a penalty shootout in a world cup and then maybe they are inspiring the the the history of the the english because it was such a shame to see Kai go up and do that stutter thing and for Arsenal I'm so confident I just think like maybe it's a different level of pressure and he's just more comfortable taking it in the Premier League when it comes to a Champions sorry a World Cup knockout the stutter and the penalty wasn't good I was like oh of course it was our guy who missed luckily he wasn't the only one they were all terrible so uh it didn't it took took some of the uh the limelight off of him which was good but yeah paraguay's penalties though great very yeah mostly mostly good penalties of the four teams that of the four teams that went into the shootouts last night uh they had the the fewest shocking penalties like if i can put it like that maybe yeah yeah and that's with them missing two chances to win it still again like they missed the two penalties before yeah which is just a crazy shootout as well to see that like i think when when they have two to win it and then don't score either then you obviously think well germany all the pressure's told and germany all sort of settle themselves now and then tar just sticks it over the bar it's mad sticks over the bar is very generous by the way it was it was the the one of the worst penalties I've seen but then again he's a centre-back he's a centre-back why is like Leon Goretzka standing on the halfway line watching a watching a centre-back wander up there it's the same old story I guess this is probably the first true shock of the tournament that that matters this right because the group stage like Spain it's like it doesn't it didn't matter in the end it didn't it didn't cost them anything did it I guess yeah yeah yeah I would yeah I would definitely say so who knows if we've got more to come over the next few days but yeah the first the first proper one yeah first now it feels like we're in a world cup i know i know the first two three weeks are very much the world cup because the most all of the teams are playing great drama nice subplots and stories of little nations and stuff but now it's got to the knockouts now it's like let let some giants fall and it's all on the line well yeah yeah it's it's proper it's do or die like it's you can't you can't slip up anymore because your world cup's over and yeah like like it is for germany yeah so um yeah paraguay through uh after a great game they are now going to be heading through who are they going to be playing they are going to be playing france the winner of france norway okay no no france sorry france sweden it's france sweden yeah so paraguay unless they cause an even bigger shock their story's done now but you never know i yeah i imagine france are gonna i like i imagine there are gonna be germans at the weekend watching france play paraguay thinking you know what it's probably a good thing that we didn't have to go up against france because that could have got embarrassing for sure and also on a final note of this before I head into to my headline it does make me think that the attacking performances for most of the big teams they've I think they've been fine obviously like some outliers but there are there are a few teams that I feel like are have a a reliable and effective like way of attacking in international football at this World Cup like so it's more I think if a team sets up against someone and just has a solid defense or is like super ratty and like Paraguay as well just waste time use all the tricks in the book to just disrupt and just make it as hard as possible like I think few teams will find that we'll be able to find like a consistent way of breaking those down like at the moment the ones that come to my head anyway france look obviously ridiculously dangerous going forward but even then have sometimes like taken their time to find their flow and then argentina who could very well be the two finalists but those two do seem the most like comfortable going forward is it just like is it just moments of magic is it just having having mbappe and messi basically but maybe i don't know maybe i'm i'm obviously i'm not an expert at football so i i wouldn't know but it just seems from from my point of view that like i haven't i haven't really been impressed by by many teams going forward of thinking like they know how to they know how they want to play they know one they know how they want to attack or how to figure out whatever defense they're coming up against everybody's struggling against that low block that everybody can't quite find a way unless it is you know yeah that moment of brilliance from somebody exactly there's there's germany just lobbing the ball into the box over and over again yesterday basically hoping and they obviously did lead to a goal but the other thousand times they lobbed the ball into the box it didn't lead to anything exactly yeah so i mean shout out our boy kai greatly scored shame he didn't score more and obviously a bigger shame that he didn't convert the penalty and germany are out uh leading on to my headline which i'll leave the big one for for you i will go with uh brazil knocking out japan and i would say deservedly so even though talking of teams that kind of know how they want to play and how to attack i feel like japan were one of those teams where they're such a solid outfit uh with no i mean like superstars or special players and they just they have to rely on their system and their way of playing and like they can be super dangerous and they're just very persistent in the way they play.

14:58Michael Timbs:Maybe slightly unlucky to go out but obviously Brazil winning last minute 2-1 thanks to our boy Gabby Martinelli as well. So a weird day for us because I feel like as Arsenal fans we took some of the headlines for better or worse. We kind of dominated yesterday's football. Martinelli scoring in the 95th minute to break Japanese hearts. Obviously very happy for him. Actually quite sad for Japan because I thought, I always like it when Japan get through. I think the last two World Cups, they've got to the round of 16. So they've obviously failed to do so this time around. But Brazil probably edged it, I guess.

15:40Michael Timbs:From the second half onwards, they were the better side. they created the better chances Vinny obviously almost scoring one of the goals of the tournament Casemiro levelling and then Martinelli with a great finish which we've seen countless times but very weirdly we've seen that quite a lot from him but inconsistently if that makes sense. Yeah yeah I know exactly what you mean. Like he saves them for the big games he saves them for the big moments like he's got I always think he looks quite dangerous against like City and Chelsea see in liverpool he's got decent records against them in those sorts of games uh and then obviously now in a world cup like you know they're dying minutes of a of a world cup knockout game i was so happy for him like i feel like he's had such a people talking about his form and we need a new winger and i like he i think he's had a really hard year or two uh sort of for form and consistent like you say consistency in the arsenal side so it's really really nice to see him have a big moment and it was just like just looked like pure instinct like he had to take it so quickly he just the ball fell to him and the the quick first touch and then quickly got the shot away he was so rapid to to quickly get it done and yeah really really happy for him like I say yeah for sure and uh Ancelotti sang his praises as he should have because he was the the match winner saying this This is the first time I'm doing a quote.

17:11Michael Timbs:I'm like, I'm a proper journalist here on the show. Usually it's just, you know, I just say what I see, but I will say Ancelotti after the match said it was, he brought him on to mainly bring a bit of freshness to the field. It's a very, very important change because when he comes on, he's always at his best and he helps the team by scoring goals. Not too much insight there, but still, you know, it's enough praise where at least he's being recognised because as you say, like he is, I say he is, he can be so decisive i think maybe the main frustration for brazil but like i get certainly for arsenal fans is like you always think that play is always in there and that potential is always in there we've seen it especially in the the champions league with the season we've just had how important he is because he's just something so different to what we've got and it's almost that theo walcott ish vibe where like the the less time he has to think the better he is as a player you just the the but then there are times he has I just think he's he's great he's a great player and maybe just gets a little bit unlucky with game time but whenever he's whenever he comes on it's it's I'm never annoyed whenever he either starts or comes on just because I feel like there's the attributes he has very few of our players do have and he he is almost yeah not not in any way like discouraged or put off by the occasion whatever that is and he's always a threat so I'm so so happy for him I'm glad also uh big Gabby as well the two Gabby's big Gabby's sending that cross in as well so getting the assist for there was a lovely there was a lovely angle on Martinelli's goal uh it's like from behind the other goal and as the camera pans as the ball goes in you just see uh big Gabby just falls to his knees yes it's a really nice really nice shot of him uh i'm sure no one on the planet who isn't an arsenal fan even realized it was him but it's just really nice seeing it's in him like as martinelli's putting the ball in the back of the net big gabby uh enjoying the moment as well and yeah we've lost havertz in the tournament but which means he can put his feet up and have a nice little holiday now before he has to get back to to colney uh but uh the two gabby's go on the two gabby's go on yeah for sure i mean look i've I'm so happy for them I'm obviously I always feel bad when any of the Arsenal boys go out I even feel bad for I mean one of the headlines we're going to talk about now but I feel bad for Durian Timber being at home and still being sent home I'm watching his watching his brother miss a penalty as well exactly it's like that must be so hard terrible yeah but I'm sure God's on their side they're so really they're going to be fine they're going to bounce back they're okay so another yeah another amazing world cup game it was always going to be you saw that before when that when that came through in the in the fixtures brazil against japan just name a more typically just great world cup game that looked like the game of the round before before a ball was kicked i think like as soon as the group stage ended and you look at the fixtures this that was the one where i was like i really want to watch that game and yeah brazil like obviously i didn't know after they went one nil down if they'd um if they'd have it in them and they because they played really poorly I thought in the first half as well but they they dominated that second half I don't know if Japan obviously Japan are missing a few important players like Mitoma and Endo aren't there but Itakura the defender and Kubo was out as well and I don't know if it was just a step too far without too many of their regular players but I thought they looked a bit tired yeah in that second half yeah it's weirdly like some weird mistakes they don't usually make like losing it in the midfield and being out of position you're like and then there's the there's the pressure as well right I guess the playing playing not just at a world cup in a knockout game but playing against brazil and and i don't know if they maybe played the badge a little bit and and brazil brazil got took the initiative from there and and i thought after a really awful first half from them pretty much um they definitely i definitely thought they deserved to win by the end of the game so yeah and then do you i mean how how far before we go on to the final headline how how far do you feel like brazil could make it because obviously they're on the side of they play the winner of ivory coast Norway they then play the winner of possibly England Mexico but they're on the more favorable side of the draw yeah they avoid that they sort of avoid the the biggest the France Spain if you want to check Portugal in there I think France and Spain semi-final so yeah so I think Brazil could I think by the way those games Brazil against Ivory Coast or Norway like I think that's another opportunity for a really really good game uh whoever they end up playing uh i think ivory coast norway will be a good exciting game as well and then yeah i wouldn't have brazil sort of as the underdogs if you like in any of those games i think they can i think they can absolutely beat one of those sides they can beat england um the idea of a brazil argentina world cup semi-final is mouth-watering so tasty and imagine they had that in mexico as well for example like if they if they spread the games out still a bit more as they got into the latter stages of the yeah it would have been so good so so good um but yeah so well done to brazil um through to the next round and uh we'll go on to our final headline unless you've got more than one loose like this no like no i for for our third game i guess i'll just say uh like you know we've got contenders from africa which is really really nice really good uh like morocco didn't just win but they i know it took until penalties but they battered uh the netherlands yeah i think after the possession the possession stats i saw uh it was like even basically at halftime uh from 45 minutes to 120 minutes morocco had 80 of the ball yeah which is just mad like i and i think sometimes times you have loads of the ball because you're a goal down and the other team is sitting back but the game was even for almost all that entire time well it was it was even aside for maybe 15-20 minutes when when the Netherlands were ahead so pretty much entirely even game state and they dominated Netherlands couldn't keep hold of the ball couldn't get out of their half I thought their best player was Verbruggen in goal who kept them in it and got them two penalties there was a save late in extra time like a one on one from point blank range last minute against the number nine I forgot his name I don't know how he I don't know how he reacted he's like a bit like a bit like Raya's save at West Ham because the shot came from so close you just think there's no there's no way that he managed to get his leg up he just managed to yeah get something on it and yeah he was brilliant and the Dutch I don't know what the opposite of total football is but that seems to be their new minimal football the least amount of football possible is their new philosophy incomplete incomplete football is possibly the new philosophy I can't remember the last time that they went to a tournament and didn't just play like defensive sufferable yeah and And it's really weird because obviously you grow up and all the Dutch legends and the way that those teams used to play.

24:45You just don't, you can't square it with, you know, the nation of Cruyff and Van Basten and Hullet and Bergkamp that they now just sort of cling on every single international tournament for as long as possible. But Morocco like fully deserved it. And yeah, I don't think we've had maybe an African team as likely to go to the semifinals and really fight for the competition as this. I know Morocco made the semifinals in Qatar, obviously, but it was a shock run that they managed to get there. They're now a team that can go toe-to-toe with pretty much anybody else. and it's really, really exciting to watch.

25:32And I hope that they keep playing this way and manage to do themselves justice because they're good enough to do it.

25:40Michael Timbs:For sure. I think, to be honest, they're so fun to watch because they've got plenty of exciting players. Obviously, Saibari, great. Hakimi, great. And I would have to say I was thoroughly unimpressed by the Netherlands. I would shout out one, Verbruggen, two, Somerville because he's like just the lone light in that team going forward. Yeah. They seem so devoid of ideas and they're like slow. But him, especially he found quite a bit of joy down the right-hand side and like over the top, which they've lacked over the last few games. So actually seeing that, he was at least threatening pretty much the whole time he was playing.

26:23Michael Timbs:But yeah, it just wasn't enough. But it was such a good game. like there were there was so there was so much drama like last minute just scenes and then going to the to the penalties as well um morocco winning 3-2 even worse penalties than the game which yeah was hard to believe including one of the ones that was scored as well the for brugham was really unlucky yeah it came off and then went under him and yeah hit the back of his heel as he sort of landed from his dive. Yeah, I don't get it. Especially these starter penalties. I've never really had like a massive issue with them. I think if you've got your process, fine.

27:05But now I feel like there are so many players doing them. So many players seem to be missing when they're doing them. And all I keep thinking when I see them now is a penalty isn't like a 50-50 thing. You're expected to score. eight out of ten penalties do go in yeah like when you're with these starter penalties it's like turning it into a mind game a battle with the keeper you're trying to trick him like taking a penalty isn't about beating the goalkeeper like in mentally it's about hitting the ball

27:39Michael Timbs:solidly into the side netting like this like send the keeper one way and then you only have to roll it towards one half of the goal it's not working for yeah it's just it's not working too often and these players are unbelievably gifted and i think a lot of them would have a better time by focusing on sticking the ball in as far into the corner as they can 100 instead of doing the the like staring contest with the with the goalkeeper like i'm gonna wait and see where you go and then i'll go if they actually just went up to the ball and decided to i'm not giving advice to professional footballers but no you are do it i'm okay right well this is my advice that i'm nowhere near good enough to do the i thing so i just look at the ball and just go i know where i want to hit it and it's gonna be bottom left and hit it like a hard pass and usually it goes in sure i'm playing against horrible keepers but imagine what they could do as world-class footballers yeah you can just you don't even need to look at the goal you don't just you know where it is just hit it some of the somerville one he he actually didn't look up and the keeper had already moved to one half of the goal and then he just hit it at him yeah it's yeah yeah i don't i don't get it i don't get the like i say i've never had an issue with it really but now there are so many players doing it and like there were guys like Eden Hazard used to do it and it worked every single time and he perfected it basically that's him yeah and he'd perfected it right but that doesn't mean that everybody should be doing it like that and yeah it's I think at some point it's gonna have to stop like I say I feel like the players are in their heads about the goalkeeper rather than striking the ball as well as they can strike it yeah there was also i saw one thing i saw sort of related to it but it's basically after the whole day's worth of of horrible penalties and someone tweeted saying it might just be me but is there a correlation between the taller the player is the worse they are at penalties and it did it did make me think i was like looking at thinking about the worst penalties that we even saw today like havertz's wasn't good voltamard was awful yeah terrible tars was terrible and i'm they are big guys they are obviously they are i'm guessing there's a there naturally there will be some sort of relation because the taller the player is usually the further the back they are on the pitch so they're going to be a defender and defenders are probably less technically gifted than a forward player but it did make me think like there is this there might be something there i'd like to see i'd like to see someone run the numbers on like you use that graph you know whether They have all the dots.

30:27Yeah, penalty success rate and height plotted on a graph. Yeah, definitely. You never know. You never know. There could be something to it, yeah.

30:36Michael Timbs:So Morocco are through. I would say it was another giant killing, but as you say now, I don't know what sort of incomplete football era we are in with the Netherlands, but it's less of a giant nowadays than they were. Historically speaking, yeah. but I thought I thought Morocco would win this one I would have backed Morocco I think to win this one so yeah and I'm glad they did because I was one thing I was thinking during that Germany Paraguay game is Germany I didn't think really they were the better side but they didn't do enough to deserve to go through but I was thinking towards the end of it I really don't want to have to watch Paraguay again and the same with this one like if you if you were going to ask me who would I like to watch again it's not the Netherlands like give me Morocco every day of the week So for that side of it, I'm glad they've gone through as well.

31:26Michael Timbs:For sure. And so moving on to, I mean, I guess before we move on, Morocco play Canada in the next round, which again should bar a giant killing. That should mean Morocco go through. And then it's the winner of France against Paraguay. So it could be a tasty quarterfinal. France against Morocco will be insane. insane in the boston stadium which i can say from experience it's not that fun a stadium to watch football in but it's by the by uh it's going to be a great great bit of football to watch so uh that's going to be fun and we'll move on we'll breeze through some stock rising i mean we kind of we've covered a lot in those headlines they are the the broadest headlines going but we'll we'll breeze through some some stocks rising stocks falling uh so i'll i'll give the first stock rising to to you lewis whatever comes to you um uh i feel it's a bit i'm not going to do it as a stock rising but just quickly first because it feels a bit um churlish to say it as a like a stock rising i just wanted to say that cody gack post scoring was really nice yeah no no and the whole the whole bench coming off uh like everyone coming off the bench and celebrating with him was uh i thought it was actually really emotional like yeah after the the week that he's had with his his partner losing their unborn baby.

32:47So yeah, I just thought that was really, really nice. Apparently, he really wanted to play. You could just see the second he scored, all the emotion come out. I mean, he didn't even take a single moment to celebrate.

33:00Michael Timbs:It was like almost... He just fell to his knees. As soon as he hit it, he was almost on his knees anyway. And then it went in and it was just, yeah. No, it was an amazing moment. That was lovely. Yeah. And you know what? that does rise his stock anyway so that that counts yeah i just didn't want to i didn't want to lower the tone by giving like a stock rising um yeah yeah so my actual stock rising i'm just gonna say low blocks you you touched on it before yeah nobody can break teams down even like morocco even when they did this for brogan behind you stopping everything you throw at him but yeah I think I guess it's it's been relevant for for us as Arsenal fans as well all season and all this like focus on set pieces and it's like yeah because teams are more organized than ever players are more athletic than ever and if you've got that organization and that athleticism in combination even for the best players in the world the best teams in the world it's really really hard to break teams down and to create chances consistently so yeah and we're seeing it again and again i think yesterday you know brazil dominate that second half but japan for almost all of it stood firm paraguay for basically the entire game you know their players play in argentina and in mls and they're up against florian verts and kai havertz and then musiala comes off the bench and kimish is spraying balls around and they had no answer germany they couldn't they couldn't crack them at all and and then again with morocco trying to break down the netherlands yeah for bruggen was behind behind everything we've seen it all tournament like you you touched on earlier you know england have struggled badly in in a couple of games in those situations and i think i guess i guess it makes having those teams be so organized even when they've got less talent and and they are the underdogs in games it just makes upsets more likely like yeah you don't really look at england for example and after the the ghana game and the panama game i think whoever england come up against you're kind of looking at it thinking oh they might struggle against them like it almost doesn't matter who they're playing against as long as the team is sort of pretty well drilled defensively uh they could give them a few a few problems and yeah it's obviously it's done for germany as well yeah i i maybe it's a thing of when when it comes up against like a low block i think the tendency is with especially with the the bigger teams that have maybe the more talented players to it's like there's just this presumption to that we need to play good football and we need to like when it when it gets to the final third we need to play intricate stuff and score beautiful goals maybe we're as england we're not as marred by like or there's not as much pressure from our history of like the beautiful gioco bonito of Brazil or like the beautiful football of France or Tiki Takara Spain I don't know what England's version of that is so maybe we're like the way we scored even against Panama for example it's like we're perfectly happy just scoring sort of weird set piece goals and like getting just getting a foot on stuff and I think maybe like the fact that we don't have to hold on to that like football identity might help us against those low blocks because you say like the Netherlands and even germany and stuff like that they play historically they have played really good football and now that they don't have as good players who can play that football maybe they're just when they come when it when they come up against their low block they're just so devoid of ideas and they're like well we should be we should be playing this way but we're not finding much joy but we need to keep playing this way because this is what this is what we do whereas maybe the whole arsenal approach of like we have our way of work like trying to attack if it doesn't work we're just going to find another way maybe that is the the route to go i'm not again michael arter i'm not saying he knows everything but there there might be something there where maybe teams just need to adopt a just accept early on it's like if if it hasn't been if it's been 30 minutes and we haven't created anything maybe let's not go 90 minutes of trying to do that and just go to like well bring on a big bring on Volta made earlier on and go well screw it we're just going to lump balls into the box and then just have to deal with huge blokes you know there's definitely the set piece thing I think in these in these sort of situations I'd almost go the opposite way I think to you okay and Lee I feel like there's a tendency to try to play like around the block yes oh they won't let us in the middle of the pitch so that you get that you shape and the center backs are just passing it to each other and you're going out wide and you've got blind alleys.

37:52I'd like to see players, the most technical players, the ones who can turn quickly and use both feet, Eber Echize type. Musiala didn't start for Germany last night. I'm like, no, play into the block. Play through it. Try to get in those gaps there and try and tempt a defender out into a challenge and then play a quick one-two, look for that movement. I think there's a bit... I don't know if teams don't want to go into the block because they don't want to give the ball away and they don't want to risk losing it and then you can get hit on the break. But I think I'd like to see more teams sort of take that.

38:28Like England have barely used Eze so far. And then you've got sort of Bellingham and Rodgers and they're more sort of runners for me. They're players that sort of excel in bigger spaces, more physical and they can sprint incredibly well and they can do it over and over again. But what about Eberich's Eze's hips and dainty feet? Yeah, yeah.

39:17Michael Timbs:There'll be something where we could devise some sort of... You know it's perfect. It's Olivier Giroud. He's the best of both worlds. Those little flicks around the corner. You can also lob it into the box for him to attack. What an underrated player, by the way. Obviously, I love Olivier, but just his record itself. It's ridiculous. Right. Great stock rising, by the way. I will go with, for my stock rising, it's actually going to be the salee goal of the day. because I know Elliot will be very proud of me here. The Saley goal of the day it's going to be an easy one but the main thing is Saley is an app that you can put on your phone obviously download your eSIM it means that when you're traveling you don't need to worry about SIM cards none of that physical SIM card stuff you don't need to keep changing from when you go to place to place and it's very it's a lot cheaper than using your international plan on your cell phone which is what i made sure i did when i went to new york um so saving myself lots of money plus it also has ad blockers other security protection so when you do travel is the only option for you make sure you get the salie app and use arsenal use the arsenal code uh arsenal vision for 15 off so if you use the code arsenal vision for 15 off uh on the salie app you will travel and save more money which means my goal of the day is from our stock rising gabriel martinelli i know we spoke about it before and there were a few choices for my favorite goal of the day as you mentioned gapo amazing goal um obviously meant a lot was very emotional i thought in cso's goal was great after a good passage of play yeah just a bullet cross and a bullet header to be able to react like that is obviously uh very good and he's a good player as well i like him um but i i have to give it to to martinelli because as we said like obviously we love him and he's always got that in him but also i think like the actual if you take the the the arsenal element out of it as well and you just if that was someone else to to score a goal of that quality like that ball from from Bruno was obviously great and hopefully you know if the if the rumors are true I wouldn't be I wouldn't be mad if he joined us as well but obviously after a great ball for the moment it was in the 95th minute with the pressure of like playing for a country like Brazil and it's a finish that we've seen from Martinelli specifically quite a few times I think it was always very similar to the Atletico Madrid one where was it when when MLS drove through the midfield and then played it off and it was just like you were expecting him to take a bigger touch or like a bit more time and he just hit it um so very similar goal and uh just for the the game what's at stake playing for that country uh not you know being maybe brazil's favorite player uh and delivering that moment i thought was amazing and him being able to celebrate alongside big gabby as well was a really special moment so I would say stock rising for him as well just because I think it's easy for Arsenal fans to sing his praises when he does loads of good stuff for us and I can say personally like my friends who support other teams don't rate him at all I don't I don't really know anyone outside of Arsenal who would rate him maybe as highly as as we do and so maybe for for for other other clubs and other fans to start to see like look this is this is something that he produces for us decently well like throughout season uh for arsenal uh i think yeah it's a it's a good thing it's nice that he's uh getting some plaudits because he's he's one a great lad and two i think uh almost an underrated footballer so uh he will be my stock rising uh any other stocks rising i know we've uh we've still got to get through quite a bit um and maybe running against the clock but if there's any stock rising i've definitely got a stock falling by the way but do you want to do do you want to move on to your stock falling okay sure sure thank you for teaming me up stock falling the spider cam view behind penalties oh yeah maybe maybe that i don't okay i know is unrelated to like on pitch stuff but sort of is on pitch i i prefer the old school way of watching it where it's still the tv broadcast and i like having the spider cam behind the player as they hit as a replay i don't like watching it as the first view of like because because it's almost like the there's not as much jeopardy for for the fans of like seeing it from our perspective it's like it's almost too pov it's too personal to video game to video game exactly is to what we're used to playing from fifa and yeah i'm not the biggest fan i think it takes a bit of the mystery and a bit of the it makes it too i don't know because also you know why because it's so zoomed in on the goal you don't see that many fans whereas when it's yeah the broadcast you get the whole you get the wider context of what's going on and it's like it feels i think a much more special moment which it should be it's it's well cut penalties like this means so much and when you zoom in on like the the spider cam one just behind the place it's like it could be quarters of the carabao cup you know you you miss that perspective um so that is my stock falling would be the spider cam behind i like that uh penalties thank you very much uh what would your stock falling be oh just just the nation of germany just the entire so when are you moving back home yeah well yeah good question um well because obviously i do i follow german football quite a lot here and i think like sometimes you go out in a tournament like this and it's and you can look quite easily and be like ah well that's an old team so now we can move on but this isn't really that old of a team and sometimes you got a new generation coming up but they don't really have a new generation coming up like ready to take over so I think it's a I think it's a long way back for Germany to sort of reach where they obviously expect to be in in world football uh you know like you mentioned earlier Leroy Sané uh but with with Lennart Karl injured there aren't that many players that maybe could have been playing on the right wing instead yeah and that's why Leroy Sané who can't as you as you said can't get in the the Galatasaray team regularly that's why he's still playing for Germany Jamie Leveling from Stuttgart was on the bench there's a couple of other wingers in the Bundesliga who were there are plenty of good players in the Bundesliga but not players that you're going to say yeah let's build the next Germany team around him and I think that's a real concern I think if you look at even the injuries Serge Gnabry wasn't available for this World Cup after a really good season but he won't be at the next World Cup.

46:40So where does the German team go from here? And I think that's a huge question that's going to sort of dominate European football and German football, obviously, for the next couple of years ahead of the Euros. You basically need Lennart Karl and Wirtz and Musiala to all kick on and be, in the case of Wirtz and Musiala, be where everyone expected them to be like 18 months ago compared to where they actually are right now. and it's the same pretty much all the way through the pitch. Kimmich is playing right back because there isn't a right back. There isn't a successor. And he's not solid anymore either because he's been on.

47:17No, there's not a successor there for Manuel Neuer. There's not an obvious player, to be honest, to compete seriously with Kai Havertz to play up front. Goretzka's still getting games in midfield. Yeah, I think it's a bit of a weird one. it's a concerning time not in terms of I think there'll be a lot of talk about like Nagelsmann and if Klopp should take over but I think the biggest problem here is that Germany don't have enough top players and I think that's a a very hard road back to figure out how you develop more of those and yeah so stock I didn't think going into this World Cup after getting knocked out in the group stage in the last two that Germany's stock could fall much more but it's ended up falling quite a bit I think after this and there's going to be a yeah there's going to be a hell of a sort of reckoning and analysis and in the country over the next few months to figure out what the hell they're going to do next I guess Jurgen Klopp's going to get heavily linked with the job but like is it enough to have Jurgen Klopp take over if you've not got the talent to win things

48:25Michael Timbs:still yeah but then if I know Germany I mean you'll know better but crisis talks and when it when it gets bad that they they can fix it they can they can mobilize and make sure that they're better going forward and sometimes i feel like it has to get worse for it to get better like i mean even from you see like the france the france team in like south africa and how bad it got and the revolt to then be able to from almost 20 yeah from 2018 onwards just being like the favorites every tournament and just spawning these like wonder kids out of nowhere maybe their setup is a little bit different because of the street football in that country and Claire Fontaine and that sort of thing but but even then it maybe has to get to that point where it's so bad that they they they introduce some some new initiatives and and that sort of thing where you know but it will take time for that stuff to like take hold right I guess that's the thing is uh looking at sort of the euros in two years the world cup in four years it's going to take longer than that to to fix a lot of those problems i think so yeah i mean the the decline of german football goes on yeah right well stock falling maybe as a last one japan going out i'm very sad um because i really like them so maybe their stock has fallen a bit because they've they've they've failed in their their usual uh route to the last 16 um but it was a shame because i i like it when when japan are there and uh but then stocks rising as you say the african nation so that's good um moving on we've got uh just to wrap up the games uh happening today if you're going to be listening today the games happening today i've got some exciting ones uh as lewis said we have ivory coast against norway that's going to be the first kickoff then we've got france against sweden it's going to be Saliba against Giocares which is going to be fun and then Mexico against Ecuador so Lewis if you had to pick a game today the times at which you could watch them notwithstanding if you had a favourite game that you would watch what would it be?

50:38I think Ivory Coast are quite exciting Diamande is great they were really excellent yeah the Pepe Romantada they were really excellent against Germany in the group stage as well and Norway I'm just intrigued I feel like Norway I don't I don't know how far they can go obviously the winner of this place France in the next round and I don't I don't know if Norway are going to give if they go through if they can give France a proper game or not like yeah when you've got I don't know if they're any good right exactly but I'd like to find out and I'd so So that's why I want to watch them and see. Because I think they could be good, but also they don't need to be good.

51:27They've got a guy who scores two goals in every game. So you don't even need to be good. You just need to not let in more than one goal and you'll be fine. Yeah, I would really like to see Norway take on France. I've recosed to think they're an exciting side, but I think France would have too much for them. yeah they just when you have erling harland i think you have a chance against anybody yeah and the idea of sort of france knocking on the door against norway pushing bodies forward because they need to get a goal but knowing that harland's lurking on the halfway line i would like to see that play out in the in the next round so yeah it stinks of a uh

52:10Michael Timbs:harland breaking through and someone taking him down on the halfway line as the last man and a red card yeah i could i could see that happening um yeah okay fair i didn't even think about that so that's a good that's a good shout i would also say france sweden is one of those ones where it could be very interesting it could also be over in the first 30 minutes um so i will actually go with mexico ecuador because mexico again at home have been uh have been pretty solid and i would say ecuador have actually been quite impressive and they're they're potentially a very good side that could make it decently far because they're, yeah, I feel like I've been quite impressed by them.

52:46Michael Timbs:So that'll be a good battle. So I'm looking forward to that. And then, yeah, the winner of that probably plays England as well in the next round. Probably plays England bar an absolute shock against DR Congo, which I'm not putting past. No, we can't rule it out. Yeah, no, we can't rule it out. But the winner of that, yes, would most likely play England in Mexico City. So I think for the tournament, it's probably better that Mexico goes through because what a last 16 game that would be. But yeah, I would say don't discount Ecuador because I've been very impressed by them. And Hincapié is the boy.

53:27Michael Timbs:So amazing stuff. Right, well, we've been going on for a little while, so we'll call it here. But everyone watching the games today, enjoy uh three absolute top games i think coming up and um yeah we'll be back again tomorrow so thank you very much lewis uh for joining as always i appreciate you and your your analysis and your insight especially on the ground in germany post uh post horror show cheers have a have a very good evening uh afternoon watching the games yeah all right thank you so much uh appreciate you guys for listening and we'll catch you tomorrow

54:08Thank you.