THE LAB | How De Zerbi Got Spurs Playing

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0:27Harry Brooks:They say you should learn something new every day. Like how you should only drink Jägermeister at zero degrees Fahrenheit. Ice cold. Like those frozen cavemen they find. Which makes you wonder, what would a caveman think of Jägermeister? Well, if you served it warm, he'd probably throw it in your face, say, Oonga Boonga, and storm off. And nobody wants that. So drink it cold or not at all. Jägermeister. Damn, that's cold. Drink responsibly. Jägermeister liqueur. 35 % alcohol by volume. Imported by Masked Jägermeister. U.S. White Plains, New York. in this episode of the lab we're joined once again by harry brooks to break down what roberto has already changed at spurs from the shifting mentality and the confidence to the tactical details behind the win at aston villa we talk about buying accountability composed aggression pressing traps risk control and why this version of tottenham hotspur suddenly look calmer and braver and more connected enjoy the show

1:33Hello and welcome to the lab, joined once again by coach to the stars, Harry Brook. Hello, mate. No? Yeah, yeah, we'll take it. We'll take it, yeah. You should take it because it's true. Yeah, we'll take it. I'm looking at the, I mean, no one will ever see this because I'm looking at Harry's beautiful face, but I'm also looking at the players that he's coached behind. How many of them do you recognise out of interest? I can't say. You can't say, but obviously there's one you recognise. Of course. I would say three. Three. I'm going to guess, obviously that one. Yep. He's pointing at the different shirts.

2:10That one? Yes. Oh, that one? Yes. Is that because of our good friend? Yes. But no, it just goes to show the amazing work you do and how valued you are in this sport. And I just thought who would be better to talk about and try to understand what the Zerbe's actually done in the last four weeks in order for us to go from a team that just couldn't buy a win to one that's won two on the bounce and look super impressive against Aston Villa. And Aston Villa side, however, many people have considered the B side of an Aston Villa. If that's the B side for Aston Villa, what Spurs are is a C side. But it does something crazy to people, Tottenham Hotsky.

2:50Spurs, as Ash Poster-Cogli said. Yeah, I didn't really know before if that was actually like, oh, just like Spurs fans saying that. But I do actually believe that now for whatever reason when... I think it's because what they represent is hated by everyone. Because for ages now, they've been that club that are in the top six, but they maybe haven't won the trophies as the top six have. So the other top five hate them. Then the ones below that are jealous of them and thinking, why are you there? So they're just in this weird world in their own of like standards so that's so true villa fans feel exactly like that about spurs and i feel this right when i when i when i do things like the overlap i have to spend time with other people you feel it when they're talking to you or talking about your club villa fans have an issue with us newcastle fans have a big issue with us and not as fans but as as how we are viewed as you know we are at risk of getting relegated and still considered to be a part of the big six when in conversation i mean i still don't even know what that means like is Is there like some like book somewhere that defines what a big six club looks like?

3:53It used to be a big four and then they sort of extended it to a big six. Yeah. I mean, I think the most obvious way to categorize it is how many eyes are on your club when you play and Spurs and the other members. Well, it's really interesting, slightly off tangent here, but obviously where I work with different players at different clubs, it's really interesting. Some players I work with that are saying the under 21s for their team. Yeah. And they perform exceptionally well. Seriously good footballers. At big clubs, but I said to my colleague the other week, imagine if he played for like Tottenham 21s.

4:29The noise around him would be huge because the eyes are on him. There is just this thing where the people are going to know, you are noticed more if you play at one of those, what people call traditional big six clubs. Well, I mean, look how many, for a team that has won very little, how many capped English players that come from Tottenham? I don't know if we still hold the record in terms of most capped club players. Yeah. I mean, listen, they are a huge global club. It wasn't... It's a while ago now, but even in the 90s, it wasn't ever a period where Spurs had won the most FA Cups out of anyone.

5:02Yeah, 91. There's different records of the first British or English European trophy, whatever it is. The first team to do the double. Of course there's... I think probably people... The problem is when so much now is online And when Sky got the rights and so on, and obviously the Premier League became the global league, Spurs perhaps were the struggling, weren't at the top. So that's what people's perception of the club has been for so long. Yeah. I mean, it is. I mean, if you go anywhere, you go in America, we're everywhere. We've got supporters clubs absolutely everywhere. So it's not about who's the better team or how many times Villa have finished above.

5:41It's who's watching you. Yeah. And then that's it. And that's it. I mean, hopefully we won't have to figure this out because De Zerbi's come and hopefully saved us. But we'd probably still be the sixth biggest team in, I'll say biggest team, sixth most watched team even in the championship. Maybe, we'll see. No, we won't see. We'll never see because De Zerbi has come in. And Harry, when De Zerbi walks into the dressing room in this kind of crisis, like relegation pressure, no confidence, different managers already gone this season, what do you think is the first thing he has to fix? Is it tactics?

6:14Is it belief? Or is it trust in him and his coaching staff? I can't remember. I think when you got me on a podcast a bit ago, it might have been when Tudor got the job or just after he left. I can't quite remember. Yeah, we probably had a similar conversation. We had a similar conversation. I said, the first thing you've got to do is you've got to make players realise and believe again how good they are. You've got to show them the actual reality of what they are. So you need to show Matisse Tell. You are someone that got bought by Bayern Munich at 17 years old to play in the first team squad, right?

6:44You've got to show Christian Romero. Well, his confidence probably never wilts, but, you know, World Cup winning defender. You've got to show, I don't know, Solanke 19 goals. You've got to do all this. And to be fair, that's what Deserby, all the players have come out and said that Deserby's been doing because they were underperforming. They just were. Now, whether people think that the current squad are the level of what Spurs expect, that's a different kind of conversation. but they are certainly better than 18th, 17th in the league, right? In comparison to what else is out there. And so much of football, again, I've said this to you before, 80%, 70%, whatever number you can choose, it's mental.

7:27It's making players realise who they are, who they can be, and giving them that belief to be that best version of themselves on a football pitch. Yeah, I'm with you. and that manifested in his press conference before. About why we cry and stuff. Yeah. Loved it. That's one of my favourite press conferences or sections of quotes I've seen from any manager in because it is spot on. It is spot on. What are we crying for? Get on with it. All this woe me stuff. It doesn't do you any favours. It doesn't mean that the reality of the situation has changed. So the reality is whether you like it or not, Spurs are where they are and they've got injuries, they've got, people say referee decisions, blah, blah, blah.

8:11Okay. But there's two options. You either look at that through a negative lens or you look at that through a positive lens. Why would you look at it through a negative lens? Who does that benefit? It just creates an excuse culture. We actually say to players all the time, even if you are completely in the right, let's say that, you know, it is not your fault as to why stuff is happening to you, blah, blah, blah, blah. Still don't look at anyone other than yourself because the second you start blaming others you get into a very slippery slope of why always me why not my fault someone else and you've got to take you can't be successful unless you take ownership of your own standards your own um ways of doing things and i thought was a brilliant press conference and he's spot on what are we crying for he nailed it didn't he in the way that thomas frank couldn't nail a press conference he nailed it you know people talk about the injuries right okay yeah fine and yet obviously the club would rather have madison kulachev ski etc available but okay let's look at that front three that played at the weekend richarlison brazil was number nine for many years he's got a lot of goals for brazil um again matisse tell brought by munich at 17 years old to be a first-team player kailo moany played in a world cup finals brought by psg for 90 million euros or something two years ago these aren't bad players right let's you know so yeah bit of perspective so so just i'm sure everybody's listened to this but i think it's worth reading out again this is before the villa game this is what deserve he said listen i want to be clear one time the most important challenge now is the silence of voice inside of us inside of the players the staff the fans this voice produces negative thoughts and the voice that voice says we are unlucky we have too many injuries we lost savvy simmons and he was one of the most important players for us in the last two games our medical staff is not good enough our stadium pitch is not good enough.

9:53Our training pitch is not good enough. Winning two or three games in a row, no, because we hadn't won a game in 2026. It's all negative things and it's rubbish. I want to keep my focus on myself and the quality of my players. We go to play one of the best teams in the Premier League at the moment, but if Tottenham win at Villa Park, it's not a miracle. Maybe we lose, but we have the quality to win this game. We have to be positive because we are lucky to work in a big club. If Xavi and Solanke are injured, we can play Kohler, Moani, Tell and Richarlison. These are not bad players. We have Porro, Van der Ven, and he lists more.

10:23All these things, I don't have too much time to hear these things, he said. It's like a breath of fresh air. You read that, you hear it, and you believe. I believed. It changed my feeling towards the game. Well, it now holds everyone accountable, because now excuse culture doesn't wash, sorry, it doesn't wash, as long as that is also the environment that's being set, which I'm sure it is by him. so now you can't be blaming the world well now you only have one option you look after your own standards you know and you try to raise the standards and you hold yourself accountable and when people have to hold themselves accountable there's now no excuses you can't have an, sorry you're not allowed an excuse so now you either be good or you don't and we're not going to look at, you know or we're not going to accept if he did this or they did this or ref did this no, sorry, now it's just on you so now be the best you can be and that is it and actually life becomes a lot more simple when you just control the controllables.

11:22Huge phrase we use with players. Control the controllables. Be as good as you can be. Do what is in your power and the rest will take care of itself. You can't control that because, okay, another day, because this is how football works, Spurs could have played the exact same way and Gallagher's effort hits the post, Richarlison's header gets saved and Aston Villa get that last minute goal and it ends up being 1-0. All right? Because that's football. That's life. But, okay, you control the controllables you're not necessarily in control of if the ball goes into the back of the net but you are in control of are you trying to arrive into the box are you trying to press at the right time are you trying to do these things now if for example Gallagher goes and makes that press and I don't know Tillemans just gets the better of him because he's also a good player well that's life and that happens but if you're not even there in the first place to try and do the right thing then that's on you and I think that's what deserved be is listen very early days but that's the evidence you've seen potentially so far of holding people accountable, of controlling the controllables, do what we can, and results and things like that actually is tertiary the word, but that's just a product.

12:31You can't actually control if you win a game of football. Do you know what I mean? Because anything can happen out of your control. A hundred percent. And it's where commentary on football, analysis on football, from podcasts up to ex-pros, so much of analysis is based on result rather than performance. Because you're right, a goal can go in, you might get lucky, you get a deflection and have the exact same performance, but you will gauge that game completely different based on the end result of it. Obviously, that's not to say that points and wins aren't the most important thing in football. Of course they are.

13:03But if you're looking for how the processes, the processes are put in place to achieve those wins, even when you don't win, you have to acknowledge the performance and it doesn't often happen. Well, you can't be results focused in terms of how you approach it. obviously the result is the thing you need to achieve most, but results process doesn't mean anything. We need to win today. Well, okay, what does that mean? Like, okay, but there's another team, they can play well, or you, again, you could hit the ball and it could be spot on and God decides it's going to hit the outside of the post and go wide next time.

13:34It might go in. Those, but you have to, it sounds, you know, you, you can only be process focused and then trust that if we get the process right, overall, it will lead to the results we want to lead to overall. Absolutely. And as fans, we don't see that, right? We don't see the, we see the product of the process, right? And we have to assume that that's happening. But what we see is 90 minutes on the pitch. We don't see five days on the coaching field or whatever. and that's why and that's why in my opinion right whether you know he people think he's an elite manager or whatever manager he's their cup of tea or not I don't think that if you've got the Zerbi over the course of the entire season at Tottenham I don't I think without it being literally impossible you can't get relegated you can't be in the situation they're in right now because certain he is the kind of person and manager that you know certain environments and standards have to be set and as long as they are set overall over the course of a season that will see whether it gets Tottenham top four, top six, whatever it is, but it won't allow a relegation fight.

14:36The thing you said about accountability really sort of struck me because if you hold people accountable, you cannot hide. There's nothing, yeah, yeah. There's nowhere to go. And I think perhaps where he has been abrasive in the past to other players is that some players like hiding. They like wallflowers. They like to not train hard, but play. Gareth Bale I'm looking to play football again myself actually next year and I played five-a-side the other day for the first time for a long long time and I went mad because there was someone a player and you get this stuff all the time and just held on to the ball for so long end up losing and the lyric I hate most when you play football I'm sure you've had this where are my options I'm like oh I cannot stand that you've got in five-a-side four other teammates on in a Premier League game or 11-a-side you've got 10 other teammates there's always options and it's just again it's this instinct of like Like this thing of like, and it's what people, it's the environment you set in, it's where management is so important.

15:32You could be the best tactician in the world, but if your environment allows an excuse culture, allows people to not take accountability, allows them to look for other reasons instead of themselves first and foremost, you can't be successful overall. You just can't be. Why do you think we saw buy-in on Sat Frighter Villa? What do you think? I know you mentioned accountability and whatnot, but we saw a change in decision-making, the intensity, the willingness to be brave and press. It was given us in the press. Well, it's like anything, you know, like I said, 80 % of football, and I guess life is mental.

16:04It's how you approach everything. Can he set an environment where he has this thing about him where he is viewed as an elite level coach, right? Fair pay to him and the body of work he's done. So plays are probably even subconsciously or even consciously going to be like, oh, right, we've got the Zerbi now. This is great kind of thing. Do you know what I mean? He could say the same thing as another manager, but because it's a Zerbi, people will look at it because he's got that body of work and how people view him. So he's going into that with almost like a plus one in that stage. But, you know, that's a short leash if the environment you set, the work you do doesn't work because, you know, that doesn't hold anything unless it actually works.

16:46But then you've got that early buying a little bit, likely. Of course, yeah. But then what you do is obviously you just set the environment where players, again, they know what they have to do. They feel good about themselves again. And again, it's like football is a game of 1%. It is, you know, millimetres and milliseconds. And it doesn't take that much to be a team that can be top four to a team that could be fight and relegation. No. And it's not always about quality of player, which I've found this season. You're not too good to go down if the environment you're playing in is no good. 100%, because especially nowadays, the quality is so even.

17:26We've said this before. I said before earlier about the Zerbys Tottenham wouldn't be able to get relegated over the course of a season. Well, I'm probably even being too strong on that. Of course it can if those 1 % aren't there because you haven't got players now that are vastly inferior or superior to what else is around them. You know, Spurs players aren't vastly superior to Bournemouth players and so on. you know there is a perception that we are right that's how people view the club but it's not based on reality of what modern football is and then the reaction to getting beat by Bournemouth is more significant even if the reality and the truth is there isn't much difference in fact on paper Bournemouth have been incredible this season you look at Evan Nilsson and you look at Ryan and you know Alex Scott class absolute class midfield you create the right environment the right messaging and the belief in themselves, then any team in the Premier League can do well.

18:22And then, again, we'll go back to the mentality. Now, for example, let's say Spurs have been in a genuine relegation fight for maybe at least six weeks now. It's been certainly that way or heading that way. But now Spurs are in a world they don't know how to exist in. So now it's like every bad result becomes a disaster, you know, and now does that rob from the players? doesn't mean when the player is now in game, is he now, you know, you know, subconsciously slightly more hesitant, you know, because of the pressure around it and being in an environment he doesn't know how to be in. So now that, you know, tiny percent difference of hesitation could be a millisecond difference between, I think I showed you a video before, didn't I?

19:04I've done a piece of analysis I've done with a player. Did it be skimmin? No, no, no, no, no. It was one of my players. and it was a really good pass. But if you actually just freeze-framed it as to when the pass left his foot, the defenders or the opposition players tackle or try to tackle foot was like an inch away from him, isn't it? Yes, I remember. So that's what I mean. Football's a game of milliseconds and millimeters. Now imagine there's that percentage, tiny percentage hesitation in his mind because of the environment. Well, now that gets intercepted. Now there's all these other things that play into that.

19:39And that is, again, why the environment is everything. You cannot be successful if the environment doesn't constitute success overall for what you have. So you talk about environment, and that's obviously determined by the temperament of the manager. And that could be calm, that could be explosive, it could be abrasive, whatever it is. You've seen all kinds of temperaments amongst all kinds of top managers. weirdly perhaps not weirdly what i was least expecting was deserved to come in and be the calming figure the beat come in and speak slowly be speak calmly and he's really it feels like he's he's he's he's toned everything down whereas he's known for this explosive character sending kone off the pitch or no sending him out of the football club you know screaming and jumping up at the touchline we've seen a bit of that during the game when we're winning but generally how he spoke it seems to have calmed everything down he's sort of like there's a panic here don't worry we can do this because of x y and z have you noticed that yeah 100 but that's like what good man management is it's not just he's sorry he's been the arm around the shoulder that we thought redneck would have been it feels like that like yeah because that's what management is right good management is understanding who you've got what the current situations and how to get the best out of them.

21:00So not to relate it to me, but let's say, you know, I think I work with me personally, like I think it's 12 pros ongoing. Every single one of them is different. I can't treat them the same, obviously, because they've all got different backgrounds. They've all got different environments they grew up in. They've all at different stages of their career. They all react in different ways, some players, and that can change as it goes along as well. So, you know, one player at one moment might need the arm around the shoulder next time you might mean you might need a kick up the ass that's that's how you manage people you understand who they are and you can't that you cannot treat everyone the same it doesn't work that way because then you've got just some sort of weird dictatorship where like just you end up just having the same character all the time and like anyone gets out of line they're all treat the same without understanding human behavior is really complex people react in different ways you know some people so when i was when i was a young young player i wish i knew now what i knew i wish i know knew back then what i know now um my confidence would be shot to pieces if i was playing with good players and i did something that was a poor mistake and that's and i thought they now think i'm a bad player right so when you was playing at a higher level no no i was when i was a young kid right you were playing with good you're playing with good players right and i'm like them but then what that would need is that would need a coach to look at me and go okay i see how his mind works and i'm not saying that you have to like you know moderately cuddle everyone and you have to have obviously certain environments and they have to like it or don't like it of course there is an element of that but it is about because you know whether you like it or not let's say for example you're someone that um you don't like being told um when things are wrong well sorry no like you have to be at times right but then it's about my you know man management and my understanding of the person and how to give that in a way that It doesn't mean that we're just trying to wrap them in bubble wrap from life, but also trying to get the best out of them.

22:56That's what De Zerbi's doing. De Zerbi is not just trying to put them all in bubble wrap, but he is clearly, without knowing in depth what's going on, he's clearly someone that is just, again, just trying to make players feel good about themselves and remember you're actually really good footballers. And if you do these things, then we can have success. we we there's it's what had been reported that he was he spent a lot of time with Kola Mawani because we know Kola Mawani his career thus far has shown that he's an exciting good attacking forward done really well at Frankfurt and really well at Juve it was Juve yeah and it's that arm around the shoulders and trying to get the player out of it my concerns with Kola Mawani is his physicality and he just can't compete with a defenders like Bassey of Fulham he's not a bad defender but he schoolboyed him to a certain degree during that game so um it was it was encouraging to hear that deserve to pay this special attention because he needs him but it just made me think when you was talking there and certainly about an environment where players are calm and they react to deserve his calmness in this moment because you said you know hesitation at this level means you lose the ball any any millisecond you delay is a millisecond that your opponent can take advantage of and that's what i think delaying is fine slowing down is fine but there's a massive difference between um changing your mind you can change your mind a bunch of times as if you do it in a calm manner have a look at that don't like that no more no problem yeah like this no problem no don't want that that can happen a bunch of times of course it can but if there's a big difference between that and then going uh what now oh shit and then that's hesitation yeah and that and that it might not even be as long as that it can be a split second of just like doubting yourself and doubting what you do and again like a good man management it's not about you don't so when he said silence the voices right that's what it is you're not like zipping them up and pretending they don't exist the voices are there but you're not giving power to them that's the that's the challenge of mental things it's like everyone gets negative voices so let's say we're running up to take a penalty you're going to have a voice in your head about missing it about the consequences, but it's not giving that power about controlling the controllables and taking away that.

25:18you know, the Zerbi as so far, as we saw in the Aston Villa game was excellent at that. Wasn't so excellent at the, I'm not saying it was his fault very early days, but you saw the, the, the, what it can do if it doesn't work. No, sorry. That's the way you're saying it. you saw where they were struggling so much in the Brighton game. Yeah. Because that wasn't calm. And I'm not saying that's on Deserby. That was his second game. Yeah. That was like, again, that was the work that Deserby's needed to do. And you've already seen the improvement of that about staying calm in the moment because Spurs weren't calm in the moment versus Brighton.

25:54And that's why what people said was a good performance. I was a bit hesitant to because, you know, they conceded a goal in stoppage time in both halves. and not only that, they could have then conceded another goal in both stoppage shots. That is immaturity. That is panic. That is whether it's hesitation or doing the opposite and rushing through things. So what it looks like the work has been done, I'm sure De Zerbe would have realised that and appreciated that and has been doing work to get that. And that's why you saw a performance versus Aston Villa that was far more, yes, energetic, yes, on the front foot, yes, trying to be relentless and dynamic, but in a way, you know, the phrase I use is composed aggression.

26:38So it's being aggressive, being on the front foot, whether it's your passing choices, your touches, your pressing, whatever it is, assertive, aggressive, but not in a chaotic, you know, in a very composed way. And that's what you saw versus Aston Villa. That was the biggest difference between, for me, Aston Villa and Brighton. Brighton, it looked like there was absolute panic stations and childishness is probably too harsh because, you know, they are grown men and it's a very difficult situation to be in. But there's definitely immaturity there and not knowing how to handle the situation. Whereas Aston Villa, you didn't see that.

27:16You saw complete composure and, you know, there would have been a lot of fans there tuning up after 25 minutes saying, oh, there's still a long way to go. But the players never, ever put that across. They never put that. They just done their job. And that is again where, you know, fair play to the likes of Bente Kürpilina. They actually do have that thing about them. There's experience there. There's know-how there. There's, I'm going to do my job. This is the responsibility I have. Let's not allow the context to, you know, deviate ourselves from the responsibility we have. And it was a very measured performance.

27:47They never allowed Asim Villa to get a breath in the game. I was very nervous, Joanne, throughout the whole game, but less because of the performance. I thought it was super... More because of the situation. Yeah, just the context of it. Of course it is, mate. Yeah, it's normal. And that's where you have to give so much credit to how hard it is and how impressive it is to be a professional footballer. Like, that is arguably, it is a disaster if Spurs go down. That is arguably the biggest game in Spurs' Premier League history so far. You know, and the players, yeah, okay, but that is also where the benefit in overthinking is a massive killer in football.

28:21So the game is very quick. So you're not, you know, you are in the moment more. there isn't always that time to overthink stuff, but they didn't allow the situation to get to them. And that is easier said than done. And, you know, footballers, they deserve a lot more credit for being able to do that as often as they do. I once interviewed a player called Rhys Weston. He had a sort of semi-decent career in league football, but he was at Arsenal in 1999. And we were talking about playing football at the level, at the Premier League level, and how it's different and so much more is it's about how strong these players are mentally.

28:58You know, there's great, great players playing League One, League Two, who don't have the mental capacity to handle the pressure that Premier League footballs do. They're borderline psychopathic, some of them. They're laser focused. And I was talking to him about how did you manage it? And he said, I couldn't manage it. I couldn't. When I would hear noise, I would hear groans. I would hear someone give abuse from the stands and it would kill him. And it was only when he played about 180 games at Cardiff after Arsenal. Walsall he had a decent career at as well. But it was at that top level he couldn't cope with the pressure.

29:40Yeah. Yeah. Which is always sort of fascinating because you just assume that they're robots and they go out there and they can just do whatever we've been asked to do. But it's just not the case at all. um in so did you see anything so so what we are right now providing we stay up what we are right now isn't anywhere near the final form of what the zerby is going to want us to be yeah but i did see some things against villa that were a nod to his very best periods at um at brighton yeah and it was the bait in the press was there the box wasn't i didn't see that much there was more like a standard uh number six who was picking up the ball uh but it may have been there but i just don't didn't see it when my eyes and like i say i was having a panic attack for 80 minutes a game so i couldn't properly manage you know you know analyze it but it it felt like baiting the press was there the high press was there but it was controlled and the possession-based football was there i think we had something like 480 passes to their 260 something like mad like that But was you impressed with the tactics at play?

30:50Yeah, I thought it was outstanding, to be fair. It was simplicity in a good way. You know, most of the things are simple, to be honest. The organisation and pressing off the ball was insane. It felt like there was always connections on the pitch, multiple connections, whereas sometimes it feels like before where players are just working separately from anyone else. So it looked like the pitch was massive for Aston Villa when we had the ball. But it looked like it was very small for them when they had the ball in a good way for us, is what I mean. So, you know, when we had the ball, it felt like every single player had at least a few connections off the ball.

31:36It felt like they were working collectively. And yet we saw certain aspects of where it's baiting the press, providing angles, which allows the quick one, two-touch combination football to get through the pitch. Slowing down, perhaps in the first phase, and pausing it until it's then there to speed up when you've got in behind them. So, OK, it wasn't completely... Well, it was actually just a very good performance. Most of the, obviously, progression seemed to come from, obviously, the overloads out wide. You'd often have Pelinia maybe dropping into an auxiliary or a fake full-back role, which would like, that would overload Aston Villa's left-hand side.

32:16And then, you know, a combination of football. And if they stayed off, then you'd see perhaps Tenshi Spurs switch to play. You saw Colin Mwani take responsibility to go 1v1. You saw Adogie, you know, there was just anything. I mean, I didn't know, I don't know what the data is, what the stats are. But again, just the perception, I've never seen a player run like Gallagher ran in that game. It was insane what he was doing. and then Richarlison, you know, fair play to him. They were all, they were all excellent to a man and you know, that the Paulina and Bensicourt provided a real composed, calm base of like professionalism and composure.