S15E10 - Manchester Belongs To Tottenham

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1:16Oh, yeah, intense. Want to see if you can handle the heat? Then try me. With pickles or spicy mayo and jalapenos. Oh, and it's all just$4.99. That's a deal almost as hot as I am. Almost? Sweet? No. Spicy? See for yourself. $4.99 and only at 7-Eleven. Followed through 825-46. Participating stores only while supplies last. Visit store for full terms. It's the flight in. It's the flight in. Cock! It's the flight in. It's the flight in. Cock! A camel tottenham! We are the Yacht Shop Tottenham. we are the Super Spurs. Everybody knows we're the football connoisseurs. Shame that song doesn't get echoed around the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium but yeah, it is a shame.

2:12There were some other songs being sung at the Etihad at the weekend. Ben, you were there. I was there, yeah. Kudus' Can't Start a Fire. That's so good, that. It is. It is another. I don't knock a song when it's being sung. But Spurs are the best at nicking other people's chance, aren't they? Because I was singing that for Phil Foden in the Euros. In the Euros. Yeah, I forgot about that, actually. I knew it had come from somewhere, but I couldn't remember what it was. Shouldn't have brought it up. Shouldn't have brought it up. Nah, we are very good at nicking other people's chance. We make it better.

2:47To be honest, though, I feel like a lot of teams... I was chatting to someone about this the other day, and he's a Palace fan. I feel like a lot of teams are as lazy as we think we are. We're making stuff up. It's not just us. it does feel like sometimes you hear like uh when you get someone come to the lane or whether you go like go away or you hear it on telly or everything oh that's really good and then you speak to them it's like oh yeah we nicked that from so and so like it's we are but we are like perennially bad stealers of songs i think yeah but i think i think it's something you own in it you own it you own it really like you know we're the tottenham boys making all the noise everywhere everywhere we go well it's sheffield united doing that before us so who is it is it sheffield united or is it the Tottenham boys making all the noise.

3:26I don't know. Exactly. I noticed yesterday when I was watching the Fulham United game that United have nicked our, we sang it in France and we sang it in Spain. I've changed the lyrics to that, I'm pretty sure. I don't know what it is. And that's one, we probably didn't come up with that. I can't remember, but that's been going on for a long time. But that's very good. Is it something about being beaten in Bilbao? Is it something along those lines? Yeah, probably something like that. We own Manchester. Manchester is ours. Manchester is, basically the whole city belongs to us. whenever we go up there we just fuck shit up it's a fully functioning city John and then Tottenham turn up and it's just rubble it's just rubble the entire city of Manchester just rubble every time Spurs leave yeah we also need to dispel this myth you know like northerners like southern softies not anymore mate not anymore you smashed up your whole city mate don't matter red or blue we're smashing it we go up there you bend you over and slap your arse every time Spurs comes up someone's getting their arse slapped yeah no matter what manager every manager It doesn't matter.

4:24It doesn't matter who our manager is. As long as their manager is Pep Guardiola, we'll go and smash them up. It doesn't fucking matter. It's like sometimes London's going, fucking hell, that Andy Burnham's getting a bit, getting a bit chippy. Send Spurs up there. A bit above his station. Send Tottenham up there. What are they moaning they want some money for infrastructure in the north? Is that what they want? What they want? The border, their trams are they? Send Tottenham up there. Yeah. Show them what's what. Is HS2 still a thing? Yeah. Was that Manchester or was that Birmingham? I can't even remember.

4:52It's been going on for so long. 2-0, mate. HS2, yeah. Is it true that we're still getting our bit, but the whole thing getting theirs? Yeah. They're just stopping. So the whole point was, how do we connect the North to London? They went, I don't know, let's build a train, just stop it short of the North. Brilliant. What a solution. We spent all this money and they just stopped when that whole point nearly moving out. But do we really want to be connected with them, really? Because all the great stuff happens in London, doesn't it? And all the great, well, at least one great football team exists there.

5:22And that was weirdly exactly what I expected, in a way, John. Yeah, mate. I think when I was thinking about this game, I had this weird calmness for a couple of reasons. One, we always beat them. There's just this weird hoodoo now that's become this weird complacency. Loads of people said to me, I don't know if I've got the weekend. Is it real? I think it is becoming real. It's like a self-fulfilling prophecy. It started off as a bit of a myth, but it's now becoming a real thing. But yeah, lots of people are going to be, oh, you've got City at the weekend. and I was like, yeah, we always beat them.

5:52I honestly was very nonchalant about it, kind of half-joking, but there is a part of me that's like, I don't fear them like I do with other teams. But also, it's Frank. It's what we wanted from him. It is Frank. It is. What we've been saying about him and what we wanted from him is this flexibility in approach and the ability to be able to adapt to the opponent and adapt to certain games and certain events.

6:24but might be and that is something that everybody is aware that he is really good at I heard Cal saying that in the coverage and the build-up Joe Cole basically said that the signing that's gone under the radar this summer and the best signing has been Thomas Frank to Spurs and that he really thinks that people have undervalued how much of a brilliant coach he is and given a let's be honest a bigger and better club with better players he'll be able to show what a brilliant coach he is and look it's super early right like I'm not getting too carried away but I can only base it on what he's done so far.

6:52And I'm getting carried away. I'm getting carried away. He's already showing how much more... Flashbacks there. Yeah, how much more competent... Let him dream! Just how much more competent and... That's all right. Yeah, how much more competent we are, how much more structured we are. And already it just makes... It elevates us as a team. The individuals suddenly all look slightly better. and we look more of a cohesive unit when they're playing together and so it just makes us look like a much better team and obviously we went there was it four nil last year with yeah with ange right and but it was chaos in that game and when we were good under range it was chaos it was like we'd smash someone but it would just be it would never be like comprehensive in the way that in some ways that game was yesterday right where we actually just executed a game plan and felt really structured and confident so i i was really confident yesterday but i was kind of uh happy with how it turned out in the sense that this wasn't just a smash it didn't feel like a smash and grab 2-0 it felt like a we've executed a plan perfectly and we got exactly what we deserved out of that game and there's going to be so much more of that to come i agree with you i agree with you it just felt it felt comfortable it felt deliberate whereas like you say and it's hard I'm really loathe to keep referring to the Postacoglu era at Tottenham, but it's difficult when you have a new manager of a different approach not to do that.

8:21But it felt completely deliberate. And don't get me wrong, the display in the Etihad last season will go up there as one of the best I've seen from a Spurs perspective. It was sensational. But yesterday was sensational for different... Sorry, I keep saying yesterday, and you said it. It was Saturday, right? Saturday morning. It was... What were you doing yesterday? It completely disappeared, John. still celebrating it mate yeah yeah of course of course um so so uh yeah it was completely deliberate and and that in a way made it more satisfying like i don't know when you started to become comfortable with that win ben like when when how likely you thought it was going to happen um but i was saying i said this on the patreon which is like our instant the preview we do a um an instant review of the game straight after it literally was about 50 minutes from full time and um me and Cal had a discussion about how we immediately feel and that's generally for every game we we do so if you want to become patron do so patreon.com um but yeah the uh we we were in in in a situation where for me at 84 minutes I was like right now I think we can win this but it was in reality when you take your the the fact that we're Tottenham and we've seen this go against us so many times.

9:39The reality was that we were in control pretty much, more or less, from the start of the game. There were a couple of spells at City, obviously they would. I felt in control. Yeah. Yeah, I did as well. I think naturally when... We've been 2-0 up at halftime at the Etihad before and we've gone on and won games. We've also gone on and lost games. It's funny that for the second goal, got major, major flashbacks to when... I think it was in 22-23, where we went up there under Conte and like that rearranged game in the middle of January and Kuliszewski scored and the second goal we scored happened in exactly the same fashion where we pinched the ball on the edge of the box when they were trying to play out and scored right before half time as well.

10:20It's like, oh, we're two new up at the Etihad and it's like we've kind of seen this turn a different way before and you think with the quality they've got and how good they looked last week against Wolves but when we come out in the second half it was just like, it was a team so... I think, like you said, the game plan was so deliberate but also sometimes when City are naturally going to get on top of you with the quality they do have and the way they're able to kind of swing the momentum in games they had moments but that's when you've kind of got a fallback on the principles of just being strong defending your box and with the players that we've got now to go and win tackles and go and win jewels all over the pitch or put the bodies on the line and want to do it there was a few blocks that were going in from like Paulina that shot from Ake that happened like quite early in the second half van der Ven like near the end of the game and it was that kind of that Paulina one I was just like actually i just i don't i back us to can like even if we concede i kind of back us to hold firm here like they've obviously got a lot of quality but they kind of caused us less and less problems as it went on and i think there was even a moment in the i think it got to like halfway through this we were able to like regain a little bit of territory i was saying there was a there was like a period like we rode out a little bit of an early storm like in the second half of a couple of blocks and stuff in in the box and then it kind of got to like halfway through the second half where we started gaining the ball a lot, nicking the ball off them, kind of in the middle of the pitch and then getting a bit of territory back in their half and just imposing ourselves on them.

11:42It wasn't like we just retreated. It wasn't like we just dropped back into our own box and kind of let them come at us time after time. There were times where Paulinho would just get in there and win tackles in the middle of the pitch and then we'd turn and have chances on the counter-attack. And it just felt like we were, despite maybe conceding more of the ball, it just felt like we were the ones actually in control. I know obviously we had the lead we had a 2-0 lead but it was it felt like we were the ones that were kind of dictating the game it didn't just feel like a smash and grab where we'd nicked two goals on the break and then we just kind of sat back and let them come at us it still felt like we were in total control of the game plan and what we were doing it was like like you said it felt like both of the goals I think were like such deliberate executions of how we wanted to play the game like we still played out from the back but we kind of baited them into pressing us quite a lot and then we'd try and play that ball over the top we did that quite a lot and it just didn't quite work there was a few to kudos paolinia tried to launch a few over but it all came from us enticing the press onto them to create that space and we know that that he's biggest kind of like the kind of chink in their armor or like the kind of their biggest almost like what's the word i guess it just it's always their biggest kind of weakness i guess is leaving that space with how high they push up and then we exploited that and then we knew as well if we were aggressive enough aggressive enough in our press we could force mistakes as well so it was like both goals were such deliberate executions of the game plan that work super well and like i said second half it wasn't just a case of sit back and invite pressure there was a little bit of that and i think you have to show city respect there's going to be times where you have to suffer with the amount of quality they've got on the pitch and players that can just produce a moment but like i said i think the moment where i just it just kind of got to like halfway through the second half and we were I was like, actually, we're the ones in control.

13:25But it just very much felt like that. It wasn't just a case of sit back and soak up pressure. You know, so you mentioned about Marmouche, or you mentioned about quality players, and I was thinking particularly about Marmouche on that left-hand side for the first. You know, while the first half was relatively balanced in terms of our ability to defend and nullify Manchester City, but also create problems, Man City had periods of possession that made it difficult for us, and we had to be super switched on, none more so than Pedro Porro, who I thought generally had an excellent game. again um but dealing with Mamouche on that left-hand side was a was a massive test and I guess what I'm trying to say here is that against in the Premier League you're going to have these 1v1 battles that are outside largely of the tactical plan of the manager and it's in that moment where you have to take the responsibility to do your job and Pedro Porro despite like getting pulled pulled this way and that by Mamouche early doors actually shut him down and I think probably the injury to Ait Nori has had a massive impact on that because you just you didn't have to worry so much about the attacking threat coming from him when Ake took his place also Jed Spence throughout the evening throughout the the game took his responsibilities his 1v1 responsibilities the bit where you had to show your class and your ability to manipulate the game to your will on top of this really rigid and an effective sort of defensive block combined with an aggressive press combined with this attacking a counter-attacking prowess all those things combined individual performances tactical plan when they all come together we're going to be really difficult to beat this season and and um i'm just i'm just quite excited about that and i know john bass you've been banging the Spence Drum in the hope that you'll be right at some point for about two three years what did you make of his display again?

15:18Nothing that I wasn't expecting to be honest I've been saying in three years based on you know a couple of performances I saw at Nottingham Forest that was enough I just used the eye test flag always have done no my point around Spence at the time which is now like fortunately being proved correct is you're only going to know if these players are capable if you give them a chance in games like I don't really I never really believed at the time that he wasn't capable of filling in for us when we were playing having players like Matt Doherty playing and struggling and just really playing terribly that he could be any worse and again the only way to find out was to play him I I really didn't realize how good he is was going to be obviously because how could I because I couldn't base it on anything.

16:02But then when he has played, I think that anyone who was trying to be at least fair could see that there was a real talent in him. And I think now he is being able to show the talent that he has and perform at a level that really is getting people very excited. I did say at the start of last season, I expect him eventually to replace a doggy as a starting left-back. And I now think I'm correct because I do think he's a more effective and better defender and better going forward. now that's not a slight on a doggy I think a doggy will also have plenty of games this year that will add a certain level of quality and I think he's another good player but I do really feel now we're seeing how good and how valuable Spence could be the thing is the one thing that's always been my point around any of the fullbacks or any of the players in the team is it doesn't it doesn't really it doesn't really matter necessarily whether or not you think someone's amazing you can get more out of them if you coach them well right and I think that's what we're seeing with both you mentioned Porro and Spence in terms of their performance but they were set up in a way that also gave them the best chance of performing really well and I expect them in fact all our fullbacks to like perform really well this season because I think Frank's a really good coach and I think he will get the most out of them and also just quickly to go back on your point around Marmouche and some of the performances one-on-one I think there's this like sort of prevailing theme certainly from the TNT commentary team that this was somehow we can't believe how bad City were today what happened they were so brilliant in the first game I think they're massively missing the point that there's this massive thing called Tottenham Hotspur that got in the way that upset that rhythm that made them not not perform very well because actually in moments they played really well City it wasn't this they were just awful it wasn't a performance no it wasn't like they they were forced into making errors i mean the second goal palina's goal that was a like error that we forced because we were putting them under pressure and they didn't really know what play out and they got caught and our press was exceptional and you know as ben said it wasn't just a sit in dig in hope for a counter-attack like we at times we pressed them really high other times we sat off them it really upset their rhythm that was a tactic that was a plan from frank to do that and put that in place.

18:19So yeah, I thought overall, like what we're seeing, again, going back to that, my very first original point is coaching. It's making a massive difference to individual performances, including Spencers. I think as well, like when you're at the games, the last couple of games, you notice it so much more on the touchline with Frank. And obviously they will pan to it and show you on TV, but like him, Matt Wells, Justin Cochran, like they're always, they're constantly up giving instructions to the players, kind of coaching them through the game as well like they're just so attentive to like kind of little minor details and just kind of it's just a very good it was just a very good or very well coached performance i think you could kind of see that in the players i think with spence as well like you said i think it says a lot that the player that i was most worried about throughout the game and i thought was city's probably best and brightest player was oscar bob and i still think spence won that battle like bob got past him a couple of times maybe or like made it difficult for him but i still think Spence came out on top and I think he was their best player and like you said it wasn't that City played badly at all like on another day against another team they might go and win that game they had a couple of chances obviously Vicaria made a good save from Marmouche Harland should probably do a little bit better with that header towards the end of the second half but we definitely yeah it wasn't easy but it's like where it's Harland I think that's where you kind of you know you back him you expect him to kind of convert those I think the thing with Spence that's like that kind of echoes throughout this team.

19:45And I think I saw a lot of non-Spurs fans talking about Spurs on Saturday realise it, is that we're actually just like, where under Ange we felt too easy to play against and a little bit weak and fragile, we look strong. Like Spence is a dual winner. Like he's so hard to get past 1v1. But also like the amount of times that we pressed them high, forced them to go long and then Spence would just win the second ball. Like when they would go long, he was the one that would win it. Romero would jump up, win it. like we've got such strong players all over the pitch paulina emphasizes that probably as much as anyone as well like and you've seen that in the the last couple of games against city and against psg um but we just look like really strong and there's loads of energy there as well like with sar and i think like with spence it's like you wingers like when you put that instagram post out after the game where it's like bring me your favorite winger i was like i think wingers are gonna really so like that'll probably come back to bite him in the ass at one point right you you might get you know what's gonna happen Saka's gonna get past him once when we play them and they're gonna go oh bring me your favorite winger it's like all right okay it's gonna come back to bite him probably at some point but that confidence to to back himself in terms of his strength like not many wingers are gonna be able to get past him like it is true and he's already kind of shown that as well he's got a very strong collection of like players that are in his pocket like even when Liverpool like when we beat Liverpool in the League Cup the home leg he was excellent but he was also really good in the one that we got battered in 6-3 at home like against Salah like not many not many wingers can get much change out of him so and also like that strength not just physically but it feels like mentally this this group just under Frank he just like he came out and spoke about it after the game didn't he where it was like I felt as soon as I walked in there was like a there was a good mentality and I think he's always going to kind of say things like that but it's not like he had to pick this team up off the floor you know all this stuff was made about when Ange got sacked or whatever what he was going to kind of have to do in terms of a recovery job but it feels like there's a lot of players in that team that really believe in themselves and really kind of believe now in what we're doing in the manager and I think the more you win football matches which was the thing we didn't have last season the more that belief is going to continue so we just feel really strong I think and Spence emphasises that so much Just on that point around the defence as well sorry Fab just on that point on the defence last year when we were conceding a shitload of goals I think like everyone on the pod if you'd have said where's our best player what's our strongest part of the pitch we just said our defense which makes no sense right because we were conceding a shitload of goals and we look really fragile but individually we were like van de ven romero you know a doggy at the time spence poro and vicario were like they were our best players and we were actually a bit like we need to get better midfielders we need to find better strikers but we didn't have problems scoring goals and we conceded a lot now we have a coach who wants to get the most out of the best players that we have available in the squad which is our defense and we've had like a couple of clean sheets immediately and we look solid like to Ben's point I look at it and I just think I don't think we'll ever concede a goal again like I really don't know how anyone's ever scoring against us like we look so solid and it's like we've got you know a centre back who can run a million miles an hour and he's a fucking lump we've got another one who's just a tackle monster and he's just so creative on the ball so so brilliant he's a world cup winner he's just a winner wins every final he's been in you've got spence who's basically like this really good attacking fullback who's just a dual monster and nobody can get past him he's a machine you've got poro i mean he's delivery from wide positions yesterday he put two balls in for a charlison that were fucking beckham-esque absolute class he's a he's a he's not the world's best defender but he hustles and he and he like fights and he's like prepared to get stuck in and vicario look again there's there's a whole host of reasons why he's not the best keeper he made some fantastic saves yesterday like kept us in the game i think our defense will be a massive reason and and the reason why most teams are successful is because they have a really good defense that is one thing that we do have and we just gotta expand upon that in the transfer window the last few days to kind of build out the creative side of our team but it's super exciting imagine buying your kid a toy only to find the batteries aren't included or buying furniture but missing the tools to build it.

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25:19That's a deal almost as hot as I am. Almost? Sweets? No. Spicy? See for yourself. $4.99 and only at 7-11. Ballad through 825-26. Participating stores only while supplies last visit. Store for full terms. Yeah, you think about, you think about that defense. And you think about the squad as a whole. and you think about how people predicted this season might go, and I know we're early doors here, right? But everybody knew, and I kept banging this drum as well, that this squad is not a bottom-half squad. The squad of players that we have is easily a top-ten squad. And with the right coaching, the right methodology, and the right application on the game, it's a top-six squad, even without adding anybody.

26:05And maybe that's a stretch, because we have added Paulinho and Kudus, and we need to talk about Kudus again. But, you know, there was so much talent in that. And if Madison was fit and we had him in that tent, that, you know, we would be more or less close to where you'd want to be. Like you couldn't ask for much more if we had Madison there. The biggest sort of bugbear this summer has been that Madison got injured and we haven't been able to replace him for various reasons. And if we don't do that, then we are light. But the fact that the reality of the quality within our squad is significant and shouldn't be missed on anybody.

26:40We need players, attacking players, and ideally another defender, and I don't know if this is going to happen. And if we don't go into the other side of this transfer window without at least a couple more, then we're in the exact same position that we've been previously in terms of what the manager has available to him and the squad is incomplete, which is a conversation we've had over and over, ad nauseum for the last five years. the manager desperately don't really have sorry the manager doesn't have the players he needs to complete the project so it'll be on Daniel Levy to do that I actually sent a tweet out that caused Ruffles some feathers that said the players have done their job the manager's done his job now Daniel Levy you need to do your fucking job and what I meant people go the reason why Thomas Frank is manager is because Daniel Levy has done his job yeah fair the point I was making is that if we want to compete you have to act like the other club your job is to act like the other clubs that we're competing with here.

27:38And that means not letting players, a couple of decent players that have improved our first team, slip through your fingers like it always does, the dilly-dallying of deals. Anyway, Ben, you was in the stadium, right? They've built a new stand, but was it half empty? Was it right that there was at least 10 % empty seats? So many empty seats. like a lot you know like there's this kind of cliche thing about the empty hat and like people talk about City's fans or whatever it's like I've never really bought into that because I've always quite liked City's fans like they travel really well and whenever I've been there like the atmosphere is quite decent and whatever and you know I've never had a problem with them really but I was like maybe it just actually is true like for a first home game of the season like I know it's in August I know people might be on a holiday or whatever but like no there's no excuses no but I mean like sometimes you go oh like there's spares or whatever today because people aren't around and like they might sell the ticket on or whatever like that's one thing early in the season but first time i was like one they're showing no respect to the champions of europe which i thought was pretty poor like you don't want to turn up and see us which is you know pretty rude um second of all like they're like you said they're building on top of that north stand there's like um like there's like on the on the top of where the stand is there's like a you know where like the advertising boards go around it's like a big big thing that said something big is coming soon or whatever and whatever it's just like the the rest of that stand it's like they can't even fill it out for a premier league home game against like a top a big six team i was like why do you need those people and as well like i know there's always a conversation around tottenham and like tourists and whatever but there's a like that i'd noticed that a lot of city and that kind of surprised me quite a lot as well really um it's not a bad thing but i was just like it did it did shock me like a little bit.

29:29I love the fact you had to add. It's not bad. No. But it's something I noticed. It just shocked me a little bit. I was like... When Ben goes into central London, he's going, just don't look like London anymore, does it? Yeah. I'm ringing up Tom Skinner just being like, what? No, it was just like, it baffled me really that there's that many empty seats and they want to build like a... It weren't half empty, right? There was like, I don't know, probably like 5 ,000 under capacity I don't know it's hard to judge but there was quite a lot yeah the thing is the thing is though it's like it's two words with Manchester City football heritage they don't have any right so like their fans like you said Ben their fans the ones who travel everywhere have been travelling everywhere since the 80s when they were shit right so they have got this like ferocity like central core of their fan base that's always been there and will always be there who have who have benefited massively from now this success and they'll still go every week and they absolutely fucking love it.

30:28The problem that they've got is they don't have the like sort of football heritage enough where they've had enough generations. They'll get there, right? Because now there's loads of kids who support City and then their kids will support City and it will grow massively in the same way as you've got Man United fans all over the country Liverpool fans all over the country. It will grow and they will get to a point where they always sell out because they've had this like sustained period of success. But they're in this weird space now where it hasn't quite happened and so it's a still a tourist destination.

30:56But if you're you know if you're just coming over to the to manchester and it's city or united just still go to man united it's still a bigger brand like it doesn't matter how much they've won they still don't have the pool um of a manchester united it's like if everton started winning everything for 10 years people would still prefer to go to see liverpool and they would and i think that's something that you just can't change overnight it will take decades to build that legacy and build that branding and that is i think something that they're just going to have to to get through also their fans are pretty smart because they knew they were going to fucking lose to us because they always lose to us because we have a lot of that's just done in a pack son Tottenham's coming to town just keep your heads down keep your heads down lock up your missus stay home this is a good time to remind you that the Fightcock is backed by NordVPN we have been backed by NordVPN for close to two years now which just goes to show how good NordVPN is and how good we are at selling NordVPN.

31:56Okay? So you buy it now because in everything we've said over the last two years, you know, and based on what's been happening in recent years, that NordVPN is crucial and inevitable. And everybody at some stage in the future is going to have a NordVPN on your phone, on your PC. In fact, actually, when you sign up to NordVPN, you can add it to 10 devices. So it's not like you have to get an account for your kids or for your missus or you just use one NordVPN across all your devices. at home and if you know you want to go nip off to the toilet for a quick uh you know tommy tank not like you know i'm a grown man i don't need to go to the toilet anymore i do it where i want not in public the um you you can quickly within seconds uh switch switch to a different country and access all the content you want to access okay uh so yeah like like it's like i say you're gonna get if you haven't got a nord if you haven't got a vpn already you're going to get one eventually and if you do use our link nordvpn.com forward slash the fighting cockney support the pod they've got a four month extra uh free plan on their two-year plan so if you get four extra months when you sign up to two years anyway cheers for that and uh thank you to nordvpn as well um in the stadium ben yeah when the ball was flicked on i think was from sar to richarlison did you you think on or off because when i was watching on television i thought i screamed he's on he's on my dad went nah he's off what would you what would you see in the stadium well the the so obviously where you're behind the goal like in that way and it's it's it's impossible to tell really but he didn't it wasn't like the gut feeling straight away when he runs through nobody i don't think anybody was thinking about the fact that he was offside obviously you could see him on the line so it was like tight the thing that gave it away was when he put the book when johnson put the ball in the back of the net the linesman obviously put his flag up the tottenham bench straight away all basically all of them ran over to the side of the pitch and were like clapping being like no like it looked like you're fine like pretty much straight away so i could like i clocked that and was like well they seem quite confident it didn't just seem like they were going over and saying oh unlucky like well played like like it's a you know we were trying to do that it's a bit unlucky didn't feel like that but they all rushed up like a sort of five seconds after and were like no he's you're on like sort of thing so that's the that's how i clocked it because from where i am it's like impossible impossible to tell you're not looking along the line but it didn't it looked obviously naturally straight away because of the situation of where it was it looked like it was going to be tight but it was impossible to tell but that was how they gave it away i think to be honest like i was watching that um i was watching the philom united game yesterday with all the like the var our stuff i was like we generally should just like keep semi-automated off sides and goal on technology and bin the rest off because like semi-automated like it's just like i was a little bit of a skeptic at first because i do think it did have its flaws like there were a few games where almost like it didn't work and there was a few i remember there was a few decisions in la liga i think last season where they had it before us where they basically got it wrong um but i think like it does speed up the process i know it was like it was a bit of a delay and whatever but for black and white stuff i think it's i think it's i think it's all right not i'm not sure just have appeals two appeals in a game if you get it wrong then you lose one so easy and then you don't have to fuck around because then when there's a goal goes in if if you just say to the center back do you think he was off and just go i don't know and you go right well we won't risk it because we'll lose one of our appeals and then you don't have to lose every fucking game every goal like half celebrating because you know it's got to be checked and yeah there'll be some wrong decisions where people didn't appeal or they ran out of appeals or whatever that's fine like we've always and we still do now they still make fuck loads of mistakes but now we can't celebrate goals so give me i'll take some mistakes as long as i can celebrate goals so i'm like let's just make it two appeals that's it go back to everything else is the same goal line technology is fine because that's just black or white there's no like you know determined by someone's opinion.

36:03Offsides are stupid if it's like literally a line where it's like, well, he's one millimetre offside. Then how can a player judge if they're breaking the rule or not? They literally have no way to control that. It's impossible. So make it back with the linesman and make it like much more like a normal way of seeing things and people can appeal it. Otherwise, VAR is going to continue to just ruin all of our lives. I fucking hate it. I absolutely let loose when the goal went in and then came crashing back down to earth as soon as I realised that VAR were going to check it. It was horrible. and then it was given and I felt nothing and what is the point of football if you can't feel something?

36:37Indeed, so what Charleson did do beautifully was just hold his run enough to give him that advantage and obviously he was just on his toes so he's always going to be able to latch onto that ball and also a key point, again my old man always moans about the fact that linesmen don't pull their flag up straight away that's why, that's why they don't because he's not sure it's close. He thinks it's offside. Therefore, you have to let the game play off. Otherwise, that goal would never have been given. And I had a geezer on Twitter, a Liverpool fan, going, why do you keep starting Brendan Johnson? What's your obsession with him?

37:13And obviously, naturally, the ball comes behind him. Slightly behind him, by the way. And a beautiful finish. And obviously, Johnson again. Ole, ole. Kudis' performance was sensational. again Paulinho brilliant in midfield there were solid performances everywhere Pap Sarr got man of the match and I don't have any issues with that, he's going to be so special that Kieser and I know Cal said this on five statements but Frank said I've sort of got to stop praising him so much because I'm running out good things to say about him, it's just across the board because of the systematic approach to it and the fact that we do have good players just you know it's easy for these just to give credit to these players but I did want to mention Kudus because when you're playing in this system you need people that can hold the ball up and Richarlison was very good in this game, he was really good but the ball was bouncing off him a couple of times and there weren't times when he could have done better in holding it up and that's not a criticism all centre forwards find that difficult when you've got Diaz up your arse but with Kudus though it's just different it's like not only does he get the ball he can hold it up but then with a flick he's away and he's found space and just think like it's remarkable somewhat bizarre that we've managed to convince one of our arch rivals in west ham to part with him 55 million and they thought some of them thought they were pulling our pants down if you saw that tiktok then it was the west ham fan going um talking about how they pulled it we've pulled their pants down you're like what Great deal for West Ham, I think, with the words.

38:52What was that, 5-1 on Friday night and 3-0 to Sunderland last week? And put us two assists last week. We had a question here. We had a question to say, what do you make of the links with Paqueta to Tottenham? They will lose. I mean, they were already losing their minds for good reason. You'd be furious if you were a West Ham fan. But if Pacquiao has just scored that screamer against Chelsea, or Pacquiao, I'm not sure how to pronounce his name, and he's also tapped the badge. If in the next six days we sign him as well, I feel for him to some degree. I would feel for him. And what did you make of the individual performances, John?

39:39Any standouts for you? Was it Saar? Was it Palinha? Was it Kudus? I think like we were talking right at the beginning I think this is one of those rare games where you could pretty much make a case for everybody being sensational in that game and there were a lot of standout performances I think Kudis just elevates us so much he is such a good player not just going forward as well, he adds a lot going back the other way works really hard for the team and you always feel like when he gets the ball something can happen and that is such a powerful tool personally I feel like Palina is a proper game-changing signing for us.

40:17And I mentioned before about we were talking about our defence being our strongest set of players, but we somehow were very defensively weak last year. And even with a brilliant back four and keeper, if you don't have a great six, like a really strong defensive six, you can see the difference between the top teams who have one and the teams that don't have one. In certain games, they will really struggle. And I think we've seen, particularly in the PSG game and particularly in this game, why he is such a good player and why he's such an important signing for us like going forward and you know I tweeted sort of bit tongue-in-cheek but kind of the laptop gorms of this world saying he couldn't pass was a reason why we shouldn't sign him the point I made at the time why I don't think that was even a relevant point is we're not asking him to be a number 10 right like we're asking him to break up the play give it to Romero or break up the play and give it to the central midfielder that's what we want I don't I don't necessarily need him to make passes and actually we saw that a lot in this game he didn't really do anything like obviously he scored his goal but he didn't do anything in terms of like really creative or going forward because that's not that's not his skill set that's not what we need him for but he was in front of everything he was winning every tackle he was just being so like destructive in that midfield that it just was like kind of like heartbreaking for Z because he's just everywhere and then when you factor in having Saar in the same midfield it must just be horrific to be in that midfield with those two like you just don't have any time and any time you think you've got time they're just there smash and they're straight into you and I think like in certain games we saw it against Burnley don't just don't play him you don't need to doesn't need to play every game and I think we've got to change our mentality as a as a fan base I'm not saying everyone but just you know my thoughts are we don't need players to play every game all the time there is no such thing as a starting XI anymore in modern football in the same way as when we were linked with Morgan Gibbs White and Eze where are they going to play?

42:09I don't know one week they'll play and next week they won't play it doesn't matter we've got to start thinking this way and I think Pelinho will be transformative for us in these bigger games like we saw against City I think as a defensive six you will struggle to find anybody better than him yeah his reading of the game is immaculate it was on Saturday it's not just we all love a player who can put in like a big crunching tackle but it's just the amount of times he just nips in their first he'll win the first one then and then go and win the second one as well and again it kind of comes back to what we were talking about earlier about having players that want to do it and like he's a player that just wants to do all of that stuff like i was one when we first linked with him that was a little bit unsure just because of that you know it felt like that squad was crying out for someone that could kind of break through the lines in midfield with his passing but i also very obviously saw the other side of it where it's like in these bigger games away at man city liverpool arsenal etc this guy could be absolutely phenomenal for us i think people the problem is is that people just need to get away from like saying a player can't do this like it's just like and and that is the reason that we shouldn't sign him or go near him maybe there was other options on the market that could have given us something as well and it would have been nice to spend big in that sort of position but just like just kind of ruling out the signing of a player because he like he can't do a certain thing it's like yeah but that's not what his job is either like you can definitely make the argument for this this squad maybe needing that like a passer in midfield because i think a lot of our midfielders are like break the ball up and then carry the ball forward but none of them are also like paulino where he just breaks it up and just gives it to someone else like it's it's it doesn't he's not that interested in driving forward the ball he's just there to protect that defense break up play and he's going to add so much value to the squad even if he wasn't the perfect like profile for what we needed and also like it's a even if he's only here for like a couple of years it's a perfect kind of stop gap to then go and get that guy who maybe can do that as well like and we've still got players in the squad that are defensively sound and also like with the structure in which we play now you just back these players to elevate a little bit more defensively anyway like perhaps I will go in there and win the ball in midfield Benson will win the ball in midfield as well but like for Paulina I do think you're right like in these in these bigger games and you saw that in the super cup like against bayon first game there he'd hardly played any football looked incredibly rusty and i think a lot of people went why on earth have we brought him in whatever it's like just give him a minute like just give him a minute super cup against psg he was phenomenal against what people were saying was the best midfield in the world like trying to put them on par with like barcelona of 2011 people talking about how good that psg team were and then he's gone and done it to the side that everyone was saying why has nobody pipped City to win the league last week after they beat Wolves I do think in those bigger games he will be transformative for us and even if he doesn't do some of the things as well of maybe what we do need look at what he does do and look at how much that's going to improve us and you saw that on Saturday he's so good We've got a question here from Paul Melville he said would we seriously prefer Savinho over Johnson Johnson does one thing that matters most which is score goals and Savino can't seem to do that.

45:23Paul has posted up a metric, sorry, both the graphs in terms of, who is it, Squawker. But it shows you everything they do, like shots on target, goals, assists, chances created, free balls, take-ons, take-on success, fouls one and touches in the opponent's box. I'm not sure this was the best picture to show, Paul, to get the question across because Savino beats Johnson on every single metric bar goals. so I guess the answer to the question is yes yeah we do if you can play Savino on that left hand side instead of Johnson probably yeah you should that's not to say anything away from Johnson that's just to say that maybe take both have both we need a squad that's capable of to just have them both let's you know just get them in if you can I wonder boys how you feel about that the Savino situation because the feeling is Man City doesn't want to sell Pep Guardiola doesn't really want to sell him Spurs keep going back and saying we really want him the player wants to move.

46:22We know there's a track record with Guardiola that he lets players go if they want to move I mean it would be completely Spurs-y if this was the time he dug his heels in because I don't know why he might do that but maybe because we keep slapping him up but did any part of you feel like we can get this over the line? Hey Chicago, class it up with Crocs. You know back to school is coming in fast. So why wait to find your new fave footwear? Step into a local croc store and step into your new look. Try it. Style it. Make it yours. Because the right pair doesn't just show up. It shows off. First day fits handled.