Last week of the holidays

19:57Phil Kitromilides:And I'd love to know what our listeners think of it as well. Mourinho made the point that he doesn't want him to be effectively a left back at times like he was last year. Another left back. In other words, I don't want him doing those runs that tire him out. I want his area of influence, if you see what I mean, to be different and to be forward looking. So he picks the ball up maybe deeper in midfield and he bursts into space and he bursts out people. And that goal he scores is a great example of that. Admittedly, we don't always see that with him. I was talking about this the other day when he tends to burst forward and then play to someone on the Echera and then try and get in the air.

20:26This time he went in on his own, which we don't see as often.

20:30Phil Kitromilides:But he's really, really good at that burst. And the bit I thought was interesting is this. He said last year, I thought that was a little bit of a dig at Alonso and Arboloha, maybe, or at least a tactical suggestion that, you know, you were kind of wasting him last year. But he said last year when I was at Benfica, in truth, we took advantage of that when we played Real Madrid. Now, I thought this was interesting because I'd love to know what he means by that. I'd love a little bit more detail on that, because normally when you say we take advantage of a player, you tend to mean it in terms of there's a space that shouldn't be there.

21:02Phil Kitromilides:You tend to mean it in terms of there's a weak defensive link. And you would almost think, wouldn't you, that take advantage of Drew Bellingham would be the opposite of here's a player who's too much at left back. It would be, we knew he wouldn't track back, so we went into the space that he would leave. And so I'd really, really like to know, and hopefully we'll get the chance to ask, what exactly Mourinho meant by that. And the other thing to say, the caveat here is, or one of the caveats here is that Alonso too talked about trying to get Bellingham to cover less of the pitch and more effective parts of it.

21:32Phil Kitromilides:And Bellingham is clearly playing with freedom to do some of the things that he wants to do. And I think it's in particular about encouraging him to do the things that he enjoys doing. and that was one of the things that Ancelotti had done in that first season was essentially what Ancelotti did, and he explained this really well, was sit Jude Bellingham down and show him a video of those moments playing for Dortmund when he was bursting into the area as a number eight or a number 10, depends what you want to call this position, right? Arriving in the area, scoring goals, and obviously what that did was that video was chosen deliberately to ignore all the other things that Bellingham does and show him these bits and say, look how much fun this was, this is what I want you to do.

22:07Phil Kitromilides:Of course, that broke down when other players turned up. And what Mourinho is trying to do, I think, is kind of re-establish that. Speaking after the game, Jude Bellingham has said the following, I feel more free again, more free to decide when to track back, when to stay up or when to get into the box. I think that this is the best position for me, the one which allows me to show all my qualities. I'm really grateful to the manager for having the confidence in me to play this way. So there we go. That's it. And I thought there was a very interesting choice of words. Now, I don't know. Maybe I'm over-reading this film.

22:40Phil Kitromilides:Maybe I'm kind of trying to see meaning. But I thought it was very interesting that what Mourinho said is he didn't say, I've decided that this is what Bellingham's going to do. He said, I have made a pact with Bellingham about what we're going to do. We've agreed it. And so I think you can hear that in those words from Bellingham, which isn't just him saying, oh, the manager's put me there. The manager believes in me because there's been a conversation about what it is he does well. and you know it's always helps to win over a player if the thing you ask him to do is the thing that he wants to do yeah yeah absolutely all right let's move on sid and tell the people who this episode of tsfp is brought to you by it's brought to you by our friends at nordvpn phil certainly is obviously new season new faces new managers but one thing hasn't changed and that is we do a lot of traveling covering spanish football we certainly do it feels like i only just got back from the World Cup.

23:32Phil Kitromilides:This weekend, I went all the way to Alba Fete to watch Real Oviedo, which is a similar level, you know, Spanish World Champions and Alba Fete and Oviedo. When you travel, the best way to make sure you've got access to all your content from back home is using NordVPN. So for football, TV shows, for football, basically. NordVPN allows you to access your subscriptions back home no matter where you are. It's really easy to use, which is important if you're not very tech savvy like some of us, i.e. me and Sid. Yes, like some of us. It also improves your internet security, which is also important if you spend a lot of time using public Wi-Fi at places like train stations and airports and hotel lobbies.

24:09You connect with just one click. It's one of the fastest VPNs around and you can use up to 10 devices with one account. For more information, you need to head to nordvpn.com forward slash TSFP.

24:19Phil Kitromilides:And as a 30 day money back guarantee, you also get four extra months completely free. So what's that link again, please, Phil? Find it in the show notes, nordvpn.com forward slash TSFP. All right, let's talk about Gabriel Jesus signing for Barcelona, a signing that none of us really saw happening at all. It's come out of nowhere, but it's happening. He's landing in Catalonia today for a medical. He's going to sign a two-year deal. He's going to cost 10 million euros, the 29-year-old. I think this is quite an interesting bit of business from Barcelona. So do I. If you can stay fit, I think it's a very good bit of business.

25:00Phil Kitromilides:I think obviously, look, it's a response to a new reality, a response to a reality that wasn't what was planned and about seeing that, OK, Julian is not going to happen. And I think what that also tells you is if somehow they found a way to get Julian done, they would still do it. This doesn't say, right, that one's gone. It's about having a profile as an alternative, about feeling like you need that player that can play that role. and I think Gabriel, if he's fit, and obviously Al can probably tell us a bit more about him than anyone else, really. It's a big if. If he can stay fit, and it is a big if, exactly.

25:34Phil Kitromilides:But it's about having that profile. Now, I suspect that we will see that he doesn't start that much, but it may well be that if he gets into a rhythm and he starts to score goals and it works and people can play off him, because I don't think it's just about him playing and playing well and scoring goals. It's about how well the pieces around him fit and how well he can do some of those things that flick wants, which aren't just about scoring goals. In fact, I would say primarily aren't about scoring goals. It's about the intensity and the pressure and so on. But on the face of it, this seems like an eminently sensible move.

26:02Phil Kitromilides:Because you know what? What's the worst case scenario? The worst case scenario is he really doesn't play very much. He gets injured a lot and his contribution is almost nothing. That's the worst case scenario. To be honest, at 10 million euros, you take that risk anyway. And at 10 million euros, if that doesn't upset the balance of the rest of the team, then to be honest, yeah, it's completely logical. No, I'm quite excited to see how it works out and where he is in the pecking order as well, because let's face it, there aren't any other centre-forwards in the squad apart from Hamza. Rafinha started the season so well that Hansi Flick might think, you know what, actually maybe I found a centre-forward here in Rafinha, but maybe bringing in Gabriel Jesus and if he is fully fit, I don't know.

26:47I think it's an interesting move. It makes sense.

26:49Phil Kitromilides:I think you're right. I think you're right. I think he's a player that isn't a starter. And I think that doesn't matter. And I think if he comes with an acceptance of that, but if you like a determination to at least compete for that position and to be fit and to be ready and to be able to contribute when he does play, then I think he can contribute. At the time of recording, Sid, and I'm just checking here, but it feels like Barcelona haven't been able to move on the players that they were looking to move on. They did sell Hector Ford to Real Sociedad, but Marc Casado's still there. Yeah. Yeah.

27:23Phil Kitromilides:I think he's a I also think he's a very good footballer, Mark Cossado. And I think he stays. He's going to play very little. And so I think actually it's not a bad thing for him to move on. I suppose if you can't get a permanent move and therefore the money that you want, almost certainly with a buyback clause of some sort, then maybe you try and do a loan deal. And those kind of deals can be done a little bit quicker than permanent deals often, which is one of the reasons why you so often see loan with an option to buy deals is because actually what you do is you then take out the uncertainty someone thinks well i'm not sure if i want to buy well here's an option to buy and you kind of kick the can down the road you can deal with it in the future but a club is but if you like buying itself the chance to have first choice that's essentially what's happening uh but not taking the risk that goes with it because most of the time those options to to buy aren't aren't um obligatory when they are obligatory it's really about not paying for him now.

28:18Phil Kitromilides:It's really about, listen, our bookkeeping means we can't do this just yet. So, I mean, I'm not ruling out a move, but as I say, it wouldn't be a huge surprise, would it, if that move was alone? I mentioned this the other day, and obviously a lot of people got quite sort of angry because that's just the nature of Twitter, I guess. But I'm interested in Bernal as well, because I think Bernal and Casado are both really good footballers, and I think Bernal is even better. And obviously he, I'm doing the speech marks things for those of you who are listening to the podcast not watching it. He is the loser, if you like, in the arrival of Rodri.

28:49Phil Kitromilides:But I actually think there's an element there which is really interesting, which is he may not have expected to pay a huge amount of minutes anyway, but perhaps the most immediate loser is actually Frankie de Jong. And I just wonder what happens with Frankie. Not immediate, because he's injured. Of course, yeah, yeah, not immediate, but he's the one that, you know, like right now, who loses out to Rodri from last season's team? Probably Frankie. And then the other thing, obviously, is Bernal is young enough that he can, and I know this is a slightly sort of airy-fairy way of putting it, but he can learn from Rodri.

29:21Phil Kitromilides:And I think one of the things that I think we talked about this in the summer, and I certainly have talked about it quite a lot, is that Rodri has a very clear sense of his own leadership from a position of maturity, if you sort of mean, from a position of almost paternal. Now, I don't mean paternal necessarily in a kind of I'm going to be your friend kind of way, but paternal action are kind of like, this is how you do it kind of way. And so maybe Bernal can really benefit from that. Yeah, listen up, son. I'll tell you how this works. Now, obviously, it's easy when you're a kid to think, oh, God, here comes that pain in the arse again.

29:55Phil Kitromilides:But obviously, when he's that good and that successful and actually speaks that much sense, then I guess you listen. Yeah, if your dad was the best footballer in the world. Well, exactly. You'd listen. It's one thing listening to you and me rabbit on about it. But if it turns out, he actually knows something. Mark Casado isn't in the matchday squad for tonight's game against Arae Vallecano. Alejandro Valde is, although he might be on his way out as well. So watch this match next 48 hours or so. I was very struck by, with Valde, very struck by how bluntly and openly Flick spoke about him. And I think that tells you, obviously it tells you something about the situation for Valde, but it also tells you about the situation in terms of Flick's authority and his ability to do that and to be confident that it won't backfire on him.

30:42Should just talk about a game. Yes, the game that I wanted to talk about was Real Sociedad against Espanyol. And both goals being set up by Mikel Oyarzabal. Baranechea scored after three minutes. Oskarsson scored after 60 minutes. Roberto Fernández, Barb Fernández, had scored for Espanyol. But what was interesting is that Oyarzabal was played alongside Oskarsson, sort of just off Oskarsson. And I wonder if this actually might be the way forward for La Real this season. We've made so much of Oyartabel being a number nine, being a centre forward, but actually deep down, not necessarily traditionally being a central striker.

31:22He loves to drop so, so deep. But if he does that with Oskarsson there, when he drops deep, there's someone up there anyway, so he can help link up play. But also there's someone, if there's a big Icelandic centre forward, fijando, you know, fixing the centre-backs. Obviously, he's got more space to operate on. I just think, and you know, the headline in ASK, the match report was, con hoy Arzabal, todo es más fácil. With Hoy Arzabal, everything is easier. When you've got a footballer, and we've gone on and on about him, how good he is as a footballer, with his footballing brain, his footballing ability, he's just exceptional.

31:59And I think this actually might be the way forward for Real Sociedad this season, playing them both together.

32:04Phil Kitromilides:Well, Matarazzo agrees with you. And he was toying with this idea last year. He tried it out a couple of times. Yeah, he did. And he was very, very conscious that this is where he wanted Oya Thaval, if he could make it work, if the pieces around it could work. But he wanted a structure in which Oya Thaval was on the ball as often as possible. Do you know, at the weekend, Oya Thaval reminded me a little bit of Gerard Moreno. You know, that striker that's sort of almost too clever to be a striker. Yeah. Coming into the pitch, wanting to play, making other people play, making everything else better around him.

32:39Phil Kitromilides:And I think one of the things about the World Cup, and this is when we're talking about, yeah, well, he is a number nine. At the World Cup, what we were seeing in a way was it's not so much that he is a number nine, it's that he has the intelligence to be a number nine. And there was this very, very interesting discussion that he came up with in Chattanooga in the first phase. And it must have been after he got the two goals in the second game, wasn't it? that he's gone twice. Yeah. And he was talking about one of the key things that you have to do as number nine is kind of not get in the way and to accept that you're not going to touch the ball.

33:09Phil Kitromilides:And of course, we'd come off that statistic when he'd not touched the ball. Was it in the first 30 minutes in the first game? Not one touch. And he was talking about how as a forward sometimes, particularly one who wants to play, you have to accept that it's not coming and choose your moments and know that and read it. And I think that actually, in a way, the willingness to accept that you can't play is one of the reasons why he's so good when he can because he understands those movements and it is about reading the game and intelligence and being undemonstrative at all times. I also, by the way, loved this before the game when he was honoured as a World Cup winner and he came out with the trophy.

33:42Phil Kitromilides:Mikel Agataba, the man that makes even holding a World Cup up look a little bit understated. He managed to look sort of not bothered by it. There's a little bit of a backstory there. The fans behind one of the goals with a very strong basque nationalist feelings were on strike and not happy about honoring a spain a world cup winner and they held up a big banner in favor of the basque national team rather than the spain national team so that was maybe why he was coming out a little bit like a little bit maybe a little bit but it was also very like him wasn't it it was very much in character even even if it was playing not fussed about any of this stuff he just just let me play football i've not i could not get And it's really genuine, you know.

34:24Phil Kitromilides:I mean, I've spoken to him lots of times now. And you could try really hard. And, you know, and he's lovely, by the way. Like, really personable. But it really is like, no, why? What for? It's like, all right, fair enough. And I like that about him. Yes. All right, cool. Cool, Sid. I'm glad we had a little chat about Oyarzabo. It feels like we should have a little chat about Aubameyang. I mean. Oh, we should. He scored three goals, but they're three brilliant goals. He's so good still. And he's still quick as well. He can still run away from defenders. That's unbelievable. That's the key element.

35:01So this goal, you know, there are differences, of course,

35:05Phil Kitromilides:but this goal was similar-ish to the one against Elche. So it's a ball towards him. He's at the top of the pitch. The first touch is good. This time there's a little bit of a ricochet. He's a little bit fortunate that he runs on. But he has the pace and the stride. Because it's not just the pace. is it's the couple of strides away from the defender. And then the clarity in the finish against El Chibet, this one even more so, to clip it over the goalkeeper, was brilliant. And yeah, this is a guy that went to Deppor, and actually his goal-scoring record has been really good throughout his career.

35:34Phil Kitromilides:But you couldn't help thinking, is this just a step too far? Is this one of those where he kind of turns up and thinks, oh, this is nice, isn't it? But no, no, he's up for it. And he seems, you know, the other thing that I like, and this is almost the opposite to Oyathabal, and I like this in him as well the enthusiasm, the funness the sense that actually you know what, I'm having a good time Yeah, absolutely he does seem to be having a good time, the Depo fans absolutely love him, this was a big, big win for them as well, Arriathor against Valencia, who they've got a long-standing rivalry against as well, and you messaged me, Sid, saying are Valencia going down?

36:12Phil Kitromilides:I don't know if I said are Valencia actually really not very good I'm not sure if I said they were going down, but I mean, it's not impossible that they go down. I think if you listen to, well, just briefly, let me mention the Celta manager, because he was asked if this was the worst performance that he's seen as Celta manager at the weekend when they were beaten. And he said, well, I've seen some pretty bad performances. Anyway, the manager, Carlos Corcoran, was asked basically the same question. And he said, for the first 45 minutes, I felt ashamed. He said, I thought we were, that's the worst I have seen.

36:44Phil Kitromilides:um you know i he didn't actually make changes so you know when you've seen a bad first 45 like that you might take everybody off he didn't um but they they were really really poor really really poor i still look at that team and think there's enough decent quality footballers in there that they shouldn't go down but things aren't great i i also think that there's a slightly there's a conditioning factor to this which is that there seems to have been if you like a complete disconnect between Corberan, the coach, and if you like, the social mass of Valencia fans, you know, the noise around the club, the media as well.

37:22Phil Kitromilides:And, you know, I don't like following what they say too much, because I actually think sometimes, particularly in Valencia, I think that can be more pointed than it needs to be. I think it can be more self-important than it needs to be at times. You know, you've got to go, you've got to get rid of this guy. It's unbelievable that he's still there and that kind of stuff. Well, you know, you can have that opinion, but sometimes, if you like, the certainty of the opinion, I find this sort of a bit distasteful, to be honest. But anyway, and also a little bit difficult to sustain. But that feels like it's broken down.

37:53Phil Kitromilides:It's very clear, even though no one will say this publicly, that there are some players within the squad, at least, with whom the relationship isn't particularly great. But the club have backed him. Now, it might well be that in three months' time, we say, brilliant move from the club. Back the manager, say, no, no, no, we're not going to undermine his authority. He stays. We renew his contact. Like, we keep him in place. Things will come good. And I certainly think there are things about Corbett and that suggest he's bright. But how do I put this? It doesn't feel warm, does it? It doesn't. There's zero warmth.

38:22Phil Kitromilides:It doesn't feel warm. For him as well. Like, nobody. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Let's see. Same old story with Valencia. Keep saying it every single season. Is this the season they go down? They probably won't. But again, it doesn't look like it. But they flirt with him each time. And they get very, very close. They do. All right, before we go, this is what happened in the Segunda División. Oviedo actually scored a goal in a game of professional football. See, I wasn't at the wrong match. However good that Levante victory over Betis was. And by the way, it was good. And they were absolutely fantastic and I didn't expect it at all.

38:56Phil Kitromilides:I still saw Oviedo score a goal, so I'm happy with that. Nice one. Three points for Oviedo, 1-0 win. Albacete, El Sued, Girone beat Las Palmas 5-2. And at the top of the table, it's Granada, Leganes and Sporting, all with seven points from three games. That's it for today's edition of the Spanish Football Podcast. Remember, we are over at patreon.com forward slash gsfp for all your Spanish footballing needs. There is loads of content there. It's the best place to keep up to date with everything that's happening in Spanish football. We're doing a big Q &A podcast tomorrow, so make sure you send us your questions and we will try and answer as many as possible on tomorrow's pod.

39:32Thanks for the support as ever, and we'll be back on Friday. That's if you don't want to become a patron. We'll be back on Friday with a free podcast looking ahead to what's coming up this weekend.

39:42Phil Kitromilides:Adios. Cheerio.

40:07Thank you.