The Parrot and the Goat

0:01Phil Kitromilides:This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome? That's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required, compatibility and availability varies 18+. Every game day, you show up for your team. Now, it's your time. We Go V! We Go V! Ask your prescriber about We Go V.

0:39Phil Kitromilides:Semaglutide Injection 2.4mg, a GLP-1. Call 1-833-4-WEGOV or visit wegovy.com to view the medication guide and to learn more about We Go V. Why wait? We Go V! 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 Crocs 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. Walk out ready for whatever's next. Visit your nearest Crocs store today.

1:33Hello everyone and welcome to this week's edition of the Spanish Football Podcast. I'm Phil Kittramelides. I'm joined by Sid Lowe and not Sid Lowe's dog who interrupted the first attempt of recording of the podcast. So this is the second time of asking. Hello, Sidney.

1:48Phil Kitromilides:Hello, Philip. Yes, we have moved her out. She's actually going out now. I hope she doesn't talk on her way out, but she's on her way out now. She's a very chatty dog. She is. Very vociferous. And specifically when we're recording podcasts. She doesn't bark. She just kind of makes this weird sort of noise. Like she's trying to talk to you. Which is sort of unbearable if you try to record a podcast. There she is barking. Yeah, but she's outside now. So she's gone, or at least I hope she has. She's probably telling us all about Troy Parrott, isn't she, Kittre? So, Troy Parrott scored for Rail Betis on Friday night.

2:23he came off the bench, scored his first goal for his new club against Real Madrid, a terrific moment for him. I was telling you off air that my son asked me, you know, well, what happened in the game? I said, oh, Betis scored. He said, Betis won. He said, who scored? I said, Troy Parrott. And he thought I was making that up. It's like, that's not a real person, is it? I'm like, no, no, Troy Parrott. He made me Google him. It was like, yeah, right, Troy Parrott. I've never heard if you've just made that up. But I hadn't made it up. And the Irish striker with a dream moment for him. So good for Betis and not so good for Real Madrid.

3:01More on that in just a moment. Elsewhere on match day four, Athletic club beating Atletico Madrid 3-0 at San Rames. The first home win for Athletic this season. And I was going to say they're flying. Back-to-back wins and looking good under Edin Terzic. which. Rayo got their first win of the season, a massive 3-2 win over Racing Santander. Sergio Cameo, not sure what's going on, but he's turned into an unbelievably good striker. He scored two brilliant goals, brilliant goals. A player that I don't vociferously, overtly criticise my own players. I try to go to football matches and not be abusive to anyone.

3:42But the person I sit next to at Rayo knows my feelings about Sergio Cameo and his inability to seemingly control the ball very basically last season but he's brilliant now I absolutely love him yeah you've got us for Cameo.

3:55Phil Kitromilides:Has it occurred to you yet that the two stars of the weekend are a parrot and a camel? It hadn't occurred to me but that is very nicely put uh the parrot and the camel uh what is uh Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in terms of uh he's the goat surely he's a goat because Aubameyang scored in his fourth consecutive game at the start of the season for Deportivo Acorunia. They had a big win, 3-2 at Villarreal. He's just playing so well and a really good assist as well in this game. Villarreal's very disappointing start to the season continues under Inigo Perez. They're winless in their opening four matches, but a really big win for Depo.

4:31Then on Sunday, you were at an absolutely roasting Mestalla to see Barcelona beat Valencia 5-0. They scored 5. They could have scored 10. It was that kind of game. Alaves also scored five. A hat-trick for Lucas Boyer. And Mariano Diaz also scored. What on earth is going on? They beat Osasuna 5-2 and were second in the table, which is an extraordinary start to the season. Malaga and Levante finished nil-nil. Malaga missed a penalty. And Espanyol against Sevilla finished 1-1. Two late goals. It looked like Sevilla were going to get the win, scoring in the 86th minute. Lucas Stassin on his debut.

5:07But then Espanyol equalised in the 98th minute. Sevilla had had a player sent off with around 35 minutes left in the game. Monday night, football, Getafe, Celta. I'm commentating that. Yay. And Elche against Royal Sociedad afterwards. Now, if you're listening to TSFP, good choice. Well done. Thank you. But do you want more coverage of the best league in the world? Yes, is the answer. So come and join us. Of course it is. Come and join us. Patreon.com forward slash TSFP. It's€4.75 a month. That's what it starts from. patrons get the monday and friday pods with no adverts plus the q a pod on a tuesday plus a bonus pod on a thursday there's the new tsfp daily rounding up all the headlines access to our discord and whatsapp community as well um so come and join us it's uh it's money well spent and if you're watching us on youtube make sure you're subscribed to the channel and drop us a comment drop us some likes as well we're we're reading all the comments although maybe we shouldn't be

6:01Phil Kitromilides:uh but we might yeah youtube's a dangerous place down there isn't it it's really quite grim I would say it's the most dangerous place of all the social media comment sections. The ones on YouTube are the most interesting. But there we go. Come and subscribe, at least, to the channel. So, Sid, only one place to start. That's at Mestalla, where Barcelona absolutely dismantled a really dismal Valencia. Like I said, it was 5-0. I mean, it genuinely could have been 10 or 11 or 12. But, you know, Valencia could actually also have maybe scored a goal themselves had they managed some of the situations that they had a little bit better.

6:41But goodness me, Barcelona look frightening, don't they?

6:44Phil Kitromilides:Yeah, they do. And the interesting thing for me is that this was a slightly different type of Barcelona performance than the ones we've seen so far. So we've seen that hyper intense, very aggressive, very direct Barcelona side so far. This was a Barcelona team that was all about control. in a way they didn't have the opportunity to do, to have the kind of approach that they've had in previous games because there wasn't the space behind Valencia to run into. You know, we've seen them so far just pouring through teams. That wasn't the case with Valencia because they dominated possession so much.

7:15Phil Kitromilides:They were so high up the pitch anyway that there wasn't really anywhere for them to go into. And Valencia, I don't know if Valencia necessarily chose to wait for them, but in the end were forced to. I'll give you a point, genuinely, I promise I'm not exaggerating this. so I was sitting pitch side in what was essentially the Barcelona left back position so I was kind of in line with where the Barcelona left back would be I promise you it took me half an hour to realise that Xavi Espart was on the pitch because he was never there he was always up the other end of the pitch somewhere and it was it was just the dominance was complete now obviously I think the contextualisation of this of course is that that Barcelona score with their first chance they score with a second orbit is then ruled out for offside.

7:55Phil Kitromilides:But right from the start, it all kind of fell into place. And one of the things that most struck me about Valencia was how little they had to react. How little character, personality, all of those cliches that we're talking about. Completely fell apart. Totally soulless. Yeah, yeah, they had nothing. Now, they had nothing against a brilliant team. And we, they're obviously for ESPN. We spoke off again to Harvey Elliott and his kind of analysis basically started with, well, look, it's Barcelona. They're just amazing. They are just brilliant. And obviously that's true, but it's difficult to judge that with the response from Valencia, which was so poor.

8:33Phil Kitromilides:As I say, I think the thing that's interesting for me is the way that this was a game where they played the game around the edge of the Valencia area instead of pouring into the Valencia area from deeper. And so I think what we saw was something quite useful from Barcelona's point of view, which is a clear indication that they can do it both ways. that maybe, you know, one of the things we were talking about with Raphinha being a false nine and saying they haven't got a number nine is that's fine. And having all of those wingers up front is fine if you're pouring into space. If you're not able to do that, have you got a way around it?

9:06Phil Kitromilides:And yesterday, I think, against admittedly, Valencia, I thought they showed that they do have that. I thought the movement of Luminium R was really, really important. And when you're closer to the area and it's not just about running through people, I think Luminium is important. I thought Fermin was fantastic. Fermin was the best player on the pitch for me. Absolutely brilliant. And then Danny Olimo came on and was fantastic as well. And so they have... Rodri. And Rodri, I suppose maybe it would be oversimplistic to do this, but maybe when we're saying that yesterday was a performance control, it's not entirely chance that that's on the day that he starts for the first time.

9:41Just going back to Fermin, I mean, he started the season like an absolute madman, Sid. I mean, it's just incredible, isn't it?

9:47Phil Kitromilides:I mean, he was good last year and then he missed out on the World Cup and was desperately unlucky to have missed out on the World Cup. And I think desperately hurt to have missed out on it as well. And he has started the season fantastically. And what I like about him, or one of the many things I like about him, is that we're seeing, again, to talk about those two different approaches, a player that can do both things. He can stream into the space. But yesterday, what really struck me was how good his footwork was in tight spaces around the area. and there's the one that he puts just wide, which would have been an absolutely brilliant goal.

10:18Phil Kitromilides:He gets it on, I suppose, just inside there or just on the edge of the area and it's a two-footed little shimmy and he goes through a couple of players and puts it wide. He didn't put it wide. It was saved by Dimitrescu onto the post. Sorry, he saved it. Sorry, he saved onto the post, yeah. And he's brilliant. He's brilliant. And yet, you sort of look at him and you think, well, I guess if we're looking at this purely in terms of technical quality, he's not the best player on that team. Well, no, he's not because there are some very good ones. But yeah. Exactly. And also, I think the technical level is really high, and it's perhaps higher than we thought it was, and it's perhaps increasing as well.

10:52I was talking about him being a madman because of his energy and the way that he's tearing around the pitch in 35-degree heat yesterday. I don't need to tell you how hot it was, but the energy that he shows in every game is something that we almost take for granted. That's his sort of defining trait, this extraordinary, relentless, voracious energy. but the skill level and the technical ability that he has as well is impressive and it's developing and growing as well.

11:17Phil Kitromilides:Yeah, and how well he sees space, how well he sees the players around him and what the right part sees. And obviously, look, I realise that this is a kind of almost a clichéd thing to say about Barcelona because if there's anything that defines Barcelona in theory, it is about that decision-making and he is a Barcelona player. But in some ways, he's different to Barcelona players, yet he has that element as well. Maybe not with the same finesse that Dani Olmo has. Maybe not. But he does it really, really well. He does. Who else do you want to talk about, Sid, from this Barcelona performance? Or what else do you want to talk about?

11:50Because something that I wanted to highlight was Hansi Flick in the post-match press conference said a lot of things. And one of the things he said struck me because he was saying maybe when we're 5-0 up, we don't need to tear around the pitch as much as we were doing. Yeah, which is the opposite of what he previously said, isn't it? Yeah.

12:07Phil Kitromilides:And I think, again, not to labour the point, but I think, again, this maybe brings us back to this idea that what he wants from his Barcelona team is the tearing energy, but he wants the ability to control the game as well. And that this fits with the arrival of Rodri. Now, Rodri, there's no doubt about it, is a guy that basically improves pretty much any midfield. But I think one of the things that, and obviously on the face of it, at least, he's about the most Barcelona midfielder seen in the Barcelona traditional way. of all of the midfielders out there that has never been at Barcelona before, that wasn't developed at Barcelona, that hasn't played at Barcelona admittedly, has played at Villarreal, who had a broadly similar approach in their youth system, has played with Pep Guardiola and naturally has that view and plays in the Spanish national team with lots of these Barcelona players.

12:52But I think what he maybe does is he gives them or helps to enhance that ability

12:59Phil Kitromilides:to take the sting out of a game, to change the tempo of the game and to control it and to maybe protect that very high defensive line. To maybe protect them, not necessarily by doing the defensive stuff, although he does some of that. Mind you, yesterday when he did do that run back and did that defensive thing, he then gave it away completely. It was an assist for Dan Juma, I think it was. But that sort of protects them through possession. That chance that you're talking about actually came from a despiste, a little lack of concentration from Jules Koundé, who had to come in to replace Eric Garcia.

13:30Phil Kitromilides:Koundé hadn't been on very long at that point either. He hadn't. And he is the one player that, as they say in Spanish, leaves me doubts. But yeah, I don't want to be too negative. But if there is a player who needs a bit of a step up in performance levels, I think it might be the French right back. Yeah. The other thing about Rodri, just by the way, I mean, obviously, I know people have watched him for years. And so they say, well, yes, obviously. He's curious because he looks like he's slowing everything down. But he can also speed the game up without seeming to move because of the way that he's so keen to just play the ball first time, every time, when it's, well, not every time, when it's the right time.

14:09Barcelona, absolutely brilliant, taking apart a really woeful Valencia who not started the season well, Sid. Just one point from the opening four matches.

14:19Phil Kitromilides:And yesterday was very interesting because obviously, look, I think everybody knows how much we love Mastaya. It's a brilliant stadium. It makes a lot of noise. Yesterday, there was a real sense of just depression about the place. the resignation that's the best word for it resignation there was a protest on 90 minutes some of the fans who had stayed out came in on 90 minutes to protest when the first Barcelona goal went in they turned to the director's box and started whistling and shouting abuse when the second goal went in it was similar there was a real sense and I actually you know funny enough in purely footballing terms I actually think that reaction is a bit exaggerated I don't look at this Valencia team and think you've had a terrible window It's true that on the final day, they didn't get the two players they were after, which was a striker and a centre-back.

15:04Phil Kitromilides:But you look throughout the team, that's not a terrible squad. They finished last season. I actually must confess, I hadn't realised this until I was going through some of the stats for this game. They were the third best team in Spain in the second half of last season. They very nearly got into Europe. Yeah, I had no idea that it had been quite that good. And so I look at this and I don't think it's that terrible. But of course, it's the cumulative effect of, I think it's seven seasons now without getting into European football. The cumulative effect of feeling relegation getting closer and closer consistently over the years.

15:34Phil Kitromilides:It's just that sense of abandonment. This is the last season at Mestaya. And yesterday, all the way around the ground, it was just flat and resigned. And I think that, without doubt, impacts upon the players. And I think the performance level is likely to be lower even than the talent level, because I think the context is so bad. And then you can add the more footballing elements to that context, which is, of course, a very clear disconnect between fans, club, manager players. And it doesn't look good at all. That's Barcelona beating Valencia by five goals to nil. Sid, who is this episode of TSFV brought to you by?

16:15This episode of TSFV, Phil, is brought to you by our friends at NordVPN. Certainly is. It's a new season, but one thing hasn't changed. We, and probably, I mean, Sid, does a lot of travelling covering Spanish football.

16:27Phil Kitromilides:It feels like I only just got back from the World Cup and this weekend I was in Valencia and today, in fact, very, very soon I'll be heading back to Madrid where tomorrow night there's war games There are so many war games and when you travel the best way to make sure you've got access to all your subscriptions and content from back home is using NordVPN For football, TV shows, movies For football, for football, let's face it NordVPN, whatever you're watching lets you access your subscriptions back home wherever you are It's really easy to use which is important if you're not tech savvy like some of us.

16:57Phil Kitromilides:It also improves your internet security, which is important if you spend a lot of time using slightly ropey public Wi-Fi at places like train stations or airports or hotel lobbies. You 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, head to nordvpn.com forward slash TSFP. And as a 30-day money-back guarantee, you also get four extra months completely free. So what's that link again please Phil. You can find it in the show notes nordvpn.com forward slash t sfp. Every game day you show up for your team. Now it's your time.

17:41Phil Kitromilides:Ask your prescriber about WeGoV. Semaglutide injection 2.4 milligrams a GLP-1. Call 1-833-4-WeGoV or visit WeGoV.com to view the medication guide and to learn more about WeGoV. Why wait? We. Go. V. This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome.

18:21Phil Kitromilides:Check responses set up required compatibility and availability varies 18+. 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 Crocs 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 Walk out ready for whatever's next Visit your nearest Croc store today Right, let's talk about Real Betis beating Real Madrid by a goal to nil on Friday night This is a game which Real Madrid will feel that they certainly shouldn't have lost probably shouldn't have won definitely should have scored What was your assessment of the of the Real Madrid performance and how they managed to lose this game against Betis or how Betis managed to win?

19:21Phil Kitromilides:Yeah, I thought the second half performance from Betis was far better. And I thought they, at that point, they probably will feel like they deserve something from it. But I agree with you, Real Madrid really shouldn't have lost this. They probably should have won it. They created sufficiently good chances. Mbappe unusually missed a handful of good chances. There's a couple of very big Vinicius misses as well. And I think in that sense, while it's Real Madrid and the analysis is always very kind of dramatic when they lose, there's a bit of me that kind of thinks Madrid's best mindset here would just be to move on and say it happened.

19:56Phil Kitromilides:Because I actually didn't think there was too much wrong with this. No, I tend to agree. Real Madrid clocking up an XG of 3.46 and 1.96 of that was Kylian Mbappé, who missed a handful of chances, including a penalty. So it was just not his day. No, it just wasn't. And the penalty was pretty poorly struck. It was interesting listening to both Mark Barthra, who's the player who gets into the area and clears. And now there's a whole polemic and controversy about whether he was in the area. But the thing that was interesting for me was him talking about knowing the rules and knowing how to use those two to the advantage to get there first.

20:35Phil Kitromilides:And also listening to Alvaro Valles talk about the way that he prepared for Mbappe's penalty. And I really like that. I like players giving us insight into how they prepare and how they try to give themselves an advantage. And the preparation from Vias, he talked about how Mbappe had gone the other way the last two times. And so he felt that he was likely to change. But in particular, that he'd been talking to Tony Doblas about waiting. Mbappe in his penalties has a slight slow just before he strikes the ball, which is designed to induce the goalkeeper to go early. and therefore the choice of size for Mbappé, he will have a choice in his mind, but the choice of size is dictated by the goalkeeper going early.

21:11Phil Kitromilides:And so his determination was above all else, don't go early. Don't let yourself give this. And actually, I think that's probably applicable to a couple of the saves he made in the game as well, of trying to be there and trying to be big for as long as possible and not make it easy for Mbappé. It wasn't a good night for him, for Mbappé, the way that he played, or at least the way that he finished. I thought actually if we are going to look at this from an analytical point of view and ask some questions about Real Madrid, actually the player that you'd say is there an issue with is Vinicius. 100 per cent.