Last-gasp Liverpool take a point, after shock defeats for Villa + Man Utd

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0:39Then take seven days to think it over. That's it. No haggling, no hassles, no pressure. Get all the details and a real offer today at CarMax.com. Want to drive? CarMax. Opening weekend of the new season and already with more rash assessments than a skin clinic when the plagues hit town, it's the Totally Football Show.

1:08Hello, if you're one of those joining us for the live experience. Us tonight being myself, Colin Miller, here in the studio. Lovely to see you, Colin. Lovely to be here, James. Talk us through the shirt, Colin.

1:22Daniel Storey: Yeah, so I'm wearing what can be described as a Technicolor shirt, which has been inspired by, I should say, the sort of early to mid-90s Premier League goalkeeper tops, which, as many people of certain vintage will remember, were slightly more experimental than they are today. But this is a tribute to them, a tribute for the Premier League being back. And, yeah, I thought it was a good time to bring it out. It's a magnificent tribute. Brilliant. Thank you so much, Colin. in a rather more understated but no less pleasing Italia top. Here's Duncan Alexander. All right, Duncan. Hello. You all right?

1:56Very well. Lovely to see you again. And we've got our headphones on because joining us from the world of football is Daniel's story. All right, Daniel. Plain white T-shirt for me. All very boring, I'm afraid. Good evening and all the same. Wow. You're going to bring so many highlights from what's been a busy weekend for you in particular. You were off at West Ham yesterday for what was the biggest crowd in the championship? Talk us through the start. Yeah, they really pushed that before kickoff. 60 ,000 people there to watch West Ham lose their opening championship game, home game of the season to Charlton.

2:36By the end, it did feel like maybe they'd prefer 15 ,000 people in there to see it because everybody was incredibly angry in that sort of way that only West Ham fans can really do, five minutes before the end, screaming the C word to anyone who has the ball. So very enjoyable stuff. Plenty of angry fans, of course, of big sides because it was a remarkable opening weekend. Does this happen every season, Colin? Do I just forget the number of big sides coming across?

3:05Daniel Storey: It feels very pronounced this weekend, doesn't it, James? I think that we saw Manchester United, did obviously in the early Saturday game and you kind of said, God, they look really undercooked. And then you see Tottenham later in the day and that takes it to the next level of they're really not ready. And then Aston Villa thought, well, we've been inspired by that. So our performance at Brighton being four goals down in half an hour. I think there's just a lot of teams who aren't ready for a variety of reasons. Like a lot of teams are short in terms of their squad, are short in terms of players who aren't there.

3:32Daniel Storey: But I think with the managerial upheaval this summer, I think a lot of clubs just maybe aren't anywhere near hitting their stride. I think a lot of them still look like they're in pre-season. But it certainly led to a lot of really interesting outcomes, I think, throughout the games and a lot of, I guess, surprising results. But I don't think any that were really surprising based on the actual games themselves. I think Hull's win was deserved and Brentford and Brighton were excellent too in their wins. None of us won. Oh, sorry, can you go? Well, if you want to put a raw number on it, who wouldn't?

4:04It's the first time since 21-22 that two of the big six have lost on the opening weekend. Is that right? And we've still got Chelsea to play tomorrow. So, yeah, it is relatively unusual. Nobody wants to make pronouncements about teams' form until at least, I don't know what, 90 minutes of football being played. But it's really tempting when you see games like the Hull, Man United one, or Spurs away at Brentford. Daniel, is it not tempting to make some sweeping pronouncements? Yeah it absolutely is what's the point of doing this right if you can't make yourself look stupid in nine months time and yeah particularly in the case of Manchester United and Spurs they are clubs who in our pre-season preview pods said really need to start quickly for different reasons to kind of show that the rot has been removed with all the new signings in the case of Spurs which didn't look like it had and to show that Michael Carrick can work as a permanent boss rather than just an interim, I'm not Ruben Amarim, but I am wearing a T-shirt saying I'm just not Ruben Amarim and that seems to have worked for the first four months.

5:14And they both got off to a horrific start doing it and it kind of offered evidence that they're certainly, as Colin says, they're certainly not ready yet. And I don't really think there's any excuse for that. You know, you look at Brentford and Brighton, who are incredibly well-run clubs, and you think, like, every month of the season, every game counts the same as every other. So if you can get a start, if you can steal a march on bigger, richer, supposedly better clubs than you, all power to you. That's how you should do it. Absolutely. Let's have a quick run through the results on Matchday 1.

5:45Friday night, it all began with Champions Arsenal welcoming Coventry back to the Premier League with a 3-0 thumping. Daniel was there. Bigger story of the weekend, probably Hull. Pre-season favourites for relegation, beating Man Utd 2-0. Oliver Glasner became the seventh Forest manager in a row to lose on his debut. 1-0 Forest loss to Leeds, thanks to Anton Stack, spectacular late winner. Glasner's former side Palace off to a similarly losing start under Pierre Sarge, beating 2-0 at Everton in front of UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham. How about that? Ipswich, another promoted side, also got off to a win.

6:272-1 against a very pink Sunderland. Saturday evening, New Look Spurs tumbling in very familiar fashion. 3-0 at Brentford. Sunday, there was a stunning win for Brighton. 4-0 they triumphed against Aston Villa. City were 1-0 down to Bournemouth with about five minutes to go, but turned it around thanks to two assists from late sub Ryan Shirky. And then there was that Liverpool-Newcastle game, Newcastle-Liverpool, which twice saw the Magpies in the lead. But Liverpool earning a point with a thumping penalty in the 99th minute from Dominic Slobber's line. I guess with Chelsea to play Fulham on Monday, it is with events at St James' Park that we will begin.

7:11All right, so Newcastle 2, Liverpool also 2. Pre-game, wonderful tributes to Kevin Keegan from both sets of supporters. Post-game, very much one set of fans with head in hands. Thinking, how do we let that slip? And they were, of course, the home supporters after Slobber's Eye's admittedly pretty special penalty had rescued a point for Liverpool. Newcastle, first of all, we all saw this game. Given the pessimism of recent weeks, there was a lot for them to be positive, even proud about in that performance.

7:46Daniel Storey: Yeah, James, absolutely. I think that for Newcastle, the players leaving the club, obviously the managerial change. They're probably the club who's had more upheaval than anyone else. the players they've brought in are largely, certainly from a Premier League point of view, they're unknowns, right? We're not really sure what their style of play is. Obviously, they're younger players that have come in from the Eredivisie or from the Bundesliga in Germany. They might take a little bit of time to adapt, and I think we all thought that, that maybe this is going to be a real transitional season. I actually said on Friday, I thought Newcastle might be outside qualifiers for European football this year.

8:18Daniel Storey: Why? I think that the coaching change was one that they really needed, actually. I think last year it got pretty steel. I think we'd mentioned that quite a few times, that they were predictable, that the same things kept happening to them, whereby they would maybe make good starts to games and they would tail off and they wouldn't really find a way back. That kept happening over and over. Matthias Geisler has come in, who, again, a bit of an unknown. But I think that those unknown quantities are actually helpful. I think those players in the coaching setup, I think a lot of their opposition teams don't really know what Newcastle are.

8:49Daniel Storey: And that is actually a big positive for Newcastle. we saw today that quite a lot of the players that had struggled last season were reinvigorated Was Florian Wirtz one of them? No, I don't think so I mean look, from a Liverpool point of view Florian Wirtz and Alexander, he's like obviously huge players this season I mean look, it's a tough game away to Newcastle but I don't think either of them looked like they were anywhere near the form that Liverpool thought when they brought them into the club You were referring a little bit more to Wisser and his tremendous performance and Anthony Elanga as well Didn't score in the Premier League all season last year and then within five minutes of this season, there you go.

9:27It was good.

9:27Daniel Storey: But Joe Willock, who didn't score at all during the Premier League last season, came on and within three minutes scored this season too. So it seems to be infectious. All right. So Newcastle, for all their many departures, Daniel, a very rosy picture. It's certainly a different picture. I think the two themes of this weekend were teams that we know what to expect from. for better or worse. So it's the same Spurs, it was the same Liverpool, it was the same Brentford and Brighton and to an extent born with how they played at City. And then there's a few teams who we have got absolutely no idea what to expect from.

10:04And I would put Villa in that camp and I certainly had Newcastle in there. Yesler said he would play this kind of vertical direct football and it really worked against Liverpool because they had a back four, they had nobody in front of that back four and it made Van Dijk look really slow. I think Liverpool's full-backs are awful defensively. They have been since they joined the club. They don't seem to have improved over pre-season. They just get caught really high at the pitch. So it worked perfectly for Newcastle. We saw that with the goal. Ilanga loves space to run into. Willis Sula loves space.

10:34Whistler loves being able to run at a defence and then play passes. That's what he's really good at at Brentford. So it did feel like the perfect fixture for Newcastle in a way with how Liverpool played. But yeah, they needed that. They needed to kind of dissuade some of the noise from inside the camp. They and Villa are basically the complete opposites. They shed the squad and they changed. But with Villa, the fans are trying to stay on the side with it and say it'll be fine because of the manager. Whereas in Newcastle, we've seen this internal panic from supporters about what's happening. They absolutely needed that.

11:08What do Liverpool need post this performance? I mean, they don't... I don't know. It's exactly the same as last season in that you had Jacké in for Canate not exactly like for like but so near in terms of what it offered there's damn it I think Jacké's probably a better pass from the ball but he still got caught a couple of times and then it's just exactly the same it's if Ryan Gravenbach loses it then Florian Wurtz and Dominic Schroberzweiler are just so little out of possession that you can just fly against them and suddenly you can have a three on two without really trying or just with one of your wingers getting forward as I say the full backs really want to attack but they're not good enough in attack to justify them being that high up the pitch.

11:50It's not Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold. So when they do lose the ball, again, they're really poor defensively, so you get caught out. It looks like a team to me that nine or ten of the players are far more comfortable having the ball than not having the ball. And that's not good enough in the Premier League against teams that want to counter-attack against you. I watched my own team do that at Anfield last season under Sean Dyche when they won 3-0 there. It just looks exactly like one of those performances. apart from the fact that Liverpool got really lucky and grabbed a point at the end.

12:23But I think if you surveyed anyone in that away end, they'd be like, I'm more worried than I was at the start of the game. Never mind, we've got a point. Right. Will South says, I don't know which is quicker, a languor on the counter or journalists disregarding their pre-season narratives. I, for example, was excited by what Liverpool might be able to come up with this time around, but it's the same old, same old Duncan. Yeah, I had them out of my top four, I should mention. You did, yeah. But that was now nine goals conceded from counterattacks since the start of last season, which is more than any other team.

12:53Is that right? And two in a game for the first time since Irrera Liz Bournemouth did it on the opening weekend of last season. So he knows how to exploit that problem. Now he's got to try and fix it.

13:04Daniel Storey: Right. How does he fix it, Colin? Well, one of the things he says he's not going to do is design a specialist sort of holding midfielder who can help stop those counterattacks in theory. So we kind of think, well, it's not really a personnel issue and we're going to keep pressing on with this. I think with Andoni Areola, his successes at Bournemouth and at Ryo Vicano before that were being with a club who could approach matches in a certain way and almost take opposition by surprise, even though he was there for quite a while. But it would be a case of people weren't really used for Bournemouth being so expressive and expansive of their play.

13:35Daniel Storey: I think with Liverpool, it's a little bit different, right? And the personnel he's got are different. And at both Bournemouth and Ryo, it took a little bit of time for those methods to work. and if that's going to be the case with Liverpool that could come under pressure pretty quickly and I think we've got to look beyond him and what he's got as a squad and I know Daniel ran through a couple of them there but at fullbacks you've got issues obviously the midfielders, there's issues but you look at the bench I really don't see many options they have bringing on we know that they want to sign sort of fast attacking direct wingers and maybe they will get one or two in before the window closes but you kind of think throughout that team and that squad there's holes and I don't think it's a squad that's capable not just of a title challenge but even being really the top two or three at the minute I think it's short of that and I just I don't know there's something about this Liverpool team that we talked about before it's an Isaac and like they're they're the guys that have to take that mantle now but I'm just not sure they work together I'm not sure that they that they're comfortable in this team that doesn't really seem to be that cohesion and actually the best player today I thought in a Liverpool shirt was Cody Gakbo and the talk is that he might be moving to Tottenham and we don't know if that's definitely going to happen but there's interest there and Liverpool would consider selling him in order to bring in different attacking players so again I'm not sure how much it adds up, Liverpool seem to lose one or two experienced players every year and not properly replace them.

14:56Well it is only the first game and it was a point apiece, as you mentioned Eriola did make a particularly slow start at Bournemouth but then came so very good, slightly different levels of patience perhaps at Anfield but let's move on because there's so much to talk about from this opening weekend not least what happened earlier on on Sunday afternoon a game that Colin you were watching and I think Daniel you too as Brighton faced Aston Villa Villa who last season were wildly outperforming their numbers and responded to that by selling all their best players how'd that work out for them Daniel So Villa are the one club who which I will before offering the hot take and to follow up Duncan's very hasty boasting I picked Villa I said on the previous show I think Villa could finish in the bottom half yes um and so I've kind of slightly invested in that opinion anyway but they did start last season really really slowly and then roared back we know that so that's a caveat but this is the most undercooked I've seen a team in their own half at the start of any Premier League season I can remember they just looked like they'd woken up and assumed it was day one of pre-season.

16:10Taking so much time on the ball, literally being pressed for two of the four goals in the first half. Brighton could have scored seven in the first half easily and it not been in any way non-reflective of the pattern of the match. I don't know what's happened in that dressing room at the moment but we know that Ollie Watkins wants to move to Saudi Arabia. We know that as Reconce has gone, we know that other players villa wanted to sell but they didn't really want to sell those two and there is a there is a real danger that an undercooked squad without senior players takes quite a long time to get settled in it doesn't help when jar gomez produces like an absolute jonathan will gate for the debut but condenses it into 40 minutes so he he's booked for waving an imaginary yellow card he then commits a foul which i think should have been a second yellow after about 10 minutes later He then gets robbed on the edge of his own box and falls to the ground to try and win a free kick, doesn't concede to goal, and then kicks someone in the chest on the floor to get a straight red in the first 40 minutes.

17:11That to me is, like, Gomez is a good player, so that suggests he is absolutely not in the right frame of mind to play that game, but he's having to play because nobody else is there and nobody else is ready. So, yeah, I'll let Colin be nice about Brighton appropriately because they were brilliant. Okay. Yeah, Villarro rank. One reinforcement apparently on his way to Villa Park is Lian Goretzka, formerly of Bayern. As for Brighton, Colin, tell us all about them.

17:39Daniel Storey: Yeah, I thought they were really, really good. I mean, obviously, it's easy to say that, right, when you're four goals up in 31 minutes. But I kind of think that was the reflection of how Brighton played. And yeah, of course, Daniel's mentioned it, but the Villa errors were pretty tragic. It has to be said. Pao Torres just passing when he was under pressure to the Brighton attacker in the box. And then for the third and fourth goals as well, the fourth in particular, the Joao Gomez giving it away in the edge of the ball. He was dawdling on it and Brighton were on him. And they pointed and they scored straight away.

18:08Daniel Storey: But that very much was Brighton throughout the 90 minutes. And we kind of thought that there's teams who you don't want to play any day of the weekend. I think Brentford are another one. But Brighton are in that sort of little group of clubs, aren't they? They're so well run. They're such a sort of seamless machine in a way that there's not really a transition period with them. They're always planning in advance. They're always planning for what players are going to leave before they do. So they come into the season and they just hit the ground running, right? And that was good. I think Bradford are six points out of six in League One as well.

18:39So the theory holds.

18:41Daniel Storey: Incredible. And Jack Hinslow, by the way, who scored two goals in this game. Within two minutes. Within two minutes. And I want to mention him for that because this is sort of his moment. But he is a guy who's really versatile, who's clocked up 80-plus Premier League games. As I said, he plays in multiple positions. He's scored 15 goals, I think, in the league as well for Brighton, which isn't too shabby. And he's somebody that is one of those guys who's been one of the constants at Brighton. But he's only 21, and you sort of think he never gets really linked to bigger clubs. But Brighton just seemed to have ways, not just of signing these players, but unearthing them from their academy too.

19:14Yeah, at the end of last season, Daniel, you were predicting huge things for him. this time around. I think you said Hinshaw would just score 12 goals this season. Do you want to revise that upwards? He's already on two. Well, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think I said, I'd kind of heard the whispers that Brighton were going to try and move into this advanced role. And look, there's an element of kind of total football to how Brighton try and do it anyway. So defensive midfielders and centre-backs do often end up high up the pitch. But yeah, they basically think he can play higher and higher up the pitch.

19:45The only position he hadn't really played was striker, although he'd done it as an emergency role, but his finishing is excellent. His composure in the box is great. Yeah, I mean, I think I said 12 goals in an England call-up. So, yeah, I don't think he's far away from either of those, to be honest. Excellent. I mean, we should point out, Brighton didn't score for the last hour of the game. Are they in crisis? I mean, it's a sort of law of football that if a team races into an early lead, everyone's like, well, there's going to be 10, 11 goals scored by this team. That was the 42nd time in Premier League history that a team has scored four or more goals in the first half and then added none in the second half.

20:22They'd also had a goalless draw on Thursday night against Tromso in the Arctic Circle. That was in the Conference League playoff. They've got the second leg back at theirs on Thursday. But already looking like they're firing on all cylinders are the Seagulls. While all that was going on, Duncan, you and I, were watching Man City's remarkable escape act against Bournemouth. What were your thoughts on that? Yeah, it was a strange kind of game. I mean, obviously the big news pre-game, well, there were two things. Erling Haaland's had a haircut. Yes. Which, biggest haircut news in the Premier League since David Beckham pre-Leicester in 2000?

21:06I'm going to say yes. Yeah. He looked different, obviously. And then... And it was a total surprise, wasn't it? This was completely under wraps. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Although he did ring, on the YouTube video, he rang Pep Guardiola, FaceTimed him to show him, which I thought, that doesn't reflect too well on Mareska, does it? Like ringing up your old manager and saying, look at my hair, gaffer. But anyway, what Mareska chose to do was put Mark Gay in midfield, which was possibly a bigger shock. And it kind of did and didn't work. I mean, he actually ended up being one of the most influential players in the game.

21:41In the second half, he missed an absolute sitter. Open goal, keeper nowhere, headed it wide, 0.77 xG. But then got the equaliser six minutes to go, again from across from a corner, and actually did all right. I mean, it's not a long-term solution. It did feel slightly like Mureska was like, guys, I need a central midfielder. But it seemed to work for much of the game. And then Gavardio popped up in injury time to score the winner in a sort of very Gavardy-ole, you know, a bit like Calafiore is one of those sort of defenders who can actually finish like a striker. Indeed. Both the late City goals were set up by Ryan Scherke, who'd come on after the hour, to a chorus of Torjusos from City supporters who were saying essentially that he needs to be starting.

22:32Yeah, I think Phil Foden didn't make a great case for himself on the lovely touch earlier on. Lovely touch earlier on. Yeah, that was very nice. But that was about it. And Semenyo didn't do that well on the left. I think he's better on the right. Obviously, Marshall by his former teammates pretty well. So, obviously, Doku will be back. They're hoping to sign other wide players as well. I think it was actually a good game for City in the sense that a draw wouldn't have been a disaster. But they actually played okay. I think it was easy to see them trailing for so long and be like, uh-oh, City, you know, the hangover continues, but they actually played pretty well and, you know, won comfortably on XG.

23:15So, yeah, I think it was against a team that can be pretty tough. I think it's a decent start. Okay, very good. Daniel, you went along on Friday to see Arsenal open their title defence or title attack, as I believe it's been dubbed, against Coventry. What were your big takeaways there briefly? Yeah, my big takeaway is they're going to win the league by 10 to 15 points. They, you just look at, Colin talked about Liverpool's bench. Look at Arsenal bench and it had five of the outfield players they signed last summer. Everybody is fit, basically, bar William Saliba. And Mikel Arteta has chosen or now wants to choose to try and bring in those players from two years ago who had a bit of a sticky season last season in Havertz and Erdogan and Bikai Osaka, who had started one Premier League game with each other since December 2024, ended up being the first three goal scorers of this new Premier League season.

24:15And that felt incredibly fitting and also incredibly terrifying for everyone who wants to be able to challenge Arsenal for this title. Because you look at the players they're bringing off the bench and they are as good as the first team as of, I think, any other club in the Premier League. yes it was a promoted side and it was at home although Manchester United showed what you can do against a promoted team but they were just really really efficient and I think that it looks as well like there's going to be a new-ish role for Declan Rice where he's not asked to do quite so much of the roaming while Erdogan's in the team allow that midfield to look a little bit more balanced yeah it's really worrying for everybody else they were so good it was it was basically like you just you know you hadn't been to the emirates for about four days it just looked like last season all over again but i should say without any of the angst in the stands that was there between january and may so you've also got this kind of you know there's champions branding everywhere every arsenal fan's got champions 26 on the back of the shirt they're just sort of cheering the passes out from defense whereas before it was making the wince just it's like a club completely at peace with itself which is yeah to add to the list scary for everyone else the one wrinkle being the injury to Bruno Gimaraes what's the entity of that do we know Arteta says it's not too bad probably a week or two alright then Arsenal off to a flyer we'll hear about what the other promoted sides got up to and they did rather better when we get on to such matches as Hull City to Man United nil next

25:59Hull City predicted by some to go down they're already out one pundit said Duncan what? oh one other pundit was worrying about them potentially breaking Derby's points total in 2006-07 7-08 7-08 they might have been break the 06-07 might too yeah yeah I mean Derby's record safe Hull aren't yet you do need you know a few more wins well the thing is that Hull have done this before no yes the Phil Brown days that extraordinary beginning to the season they had the Emirates won away at the Emirates I suppose yeah all that all that but is there something about the way that they performed in this match which suggests that this is not going to be just a although we should put they did stay up that season very good point very good point just yeah but But all in all, you can have these promoted sides catching a big team by surprise.

27:00But the way they performed in this game looked absolutely sensational, Colin.

27:03Daniel Storey: I think it probably provides a blueprint of what it's going to be like all season for Hull. So last season, and I know this has kind of fueled all the skepticism over them, is that they kind of got promoted almost by accident in the sense that they defensively were dreadful. I can see the 66 goals, which is the 20th highest in the championship. but actually the XG that they should have conceded was a lot higher. It was 83, which was the second worst in the league. So they clearly had a lot of structural issues, but they played a completely different way, right? So now everyone was saying that they're going to finish bottom of the league.

27:35Daniel Storey: Everyone's been saying that, and that's reflected in everything that we've seen ahead of the season. But if they're going to play like this, they're going to play without humility that they can just sit back, be reactive, play five at the back instead of four at the back, which was the way they set up last year. and they've signed a couple of players who've fitted into that. But they played with a structure that was just defensively so, so solid. The five at the back thing is interesting because Djokovic says, the manager says that they specifically did that because they'd seen Man United having problems in pre-season and, of course, last season.

28:09Bruno Fernandes came out and said they played a full pre-season with a back four and then went with a back five against us, as if that's not allowed. But I think it is.

28:18Daniel Storey: But that is, it is true that that's what Manchester United lost against AC Milan. Obviously, Ruben Amarim, of course, who played that system unsuccessfully, it should be said. And also last year against Leeds at Old Trafford when Leeds played that wing-back. It's clearly something that's an issue. But I think the way Hull set up, it really suited their players, the signings they brought in. Nobel Mendy, who's a club record signing for 21 million. And I kind of had seen him a couple of times by Rayo last year. and Raio probably couldn't believe their luck to get a 21 million transfer form because he'd only featured 26 times last year.

28:51Daniel Storey: He was sent off twice as well. He's quite a young defender. He's raw and he can make mistakes, but in this he was very, very solid. He clearly fitted that back three, back five system being on the left. He made 12 clearances in 64 minutes. So obviously he scored his goal as well, but it was a real sort of like backs to the wall performance for those three defenders that they just didn't allow any space. and the Louis Coyle and Ryan Giles, two players who, the two wingbacks, who pretty much have zero Premier League experience. Like Giles maybe played 10 or 11 games for Luton that year, a couple of seasons ago.

29:22Daniel Storey: But virtually these are players who spent their whole career in Championship League 1, but they played with such energy. And that actually, it kind of came from before kickoff with the pre-match Hull City announcer, who was, I don't think I've ever heard a PA announcer be so enthusiastic ahead of a match, but it really whipped up the crowd. It really whipped up Hull. and look, I mean, they got their two goals from set pieces and that just allowed them to play the game that they wanted to play and Manchester United weren't, to me, didn't look much ready, much fit. There was just something completely off of them.

29:54Daniel Storey: Did they want it, Colin? This has been a thorny question. Hull's owner says his boys wanted it more. Michael Carrick reacted angrily to the suggestions that desire was something lacking. It's hard to measure desire, but what you can measure is how early in a season you spend the last 30 minutes with Harry Maguire up front. Right. And this was game one. Right. Harry Maguire, who uniquely was actually marking one of his own men for... Did you see this? I think on the second of the Hull goals. Yeah. There was also a point where Uri Tielemans had the ball and he just took it off him. I mean, Tielemans didn't play well, but Maguire was just like, I'll have this, thanks very much, and press forward.

30:32So, yeah, it was wildly disappointing from United.

30:36Daniel Storey: I think that desire thing, and I know it's such a clichéd way of saying things, it is true in the sense that the key moments of the game, the whole players were reacting quicker and they were chasing down balls that with such energy and with such a level of effort that might not be normal for a match throughout a season because it was such an important game for them, whereas it wouldn't be for Manchester United in theory. And I don't want to go full Jurgen Klopp, but championship teams are very used to playing at lunchtime and I do think if you're a big six team, kicking off at 12.30 might be the worst slot.

31:08Interesting. That's just a theory. OK. I'm sticking with it. Podrick offers a counterpoint. The Hull game nowhere near as bad as being made out. Clearly not great. This is from a United perspective, I think. But some things were fine and Hull did nothing apart from two set pieces. Need to fix a few things, but is not the 4-0 Brentford in 2022, Daniel? young. If one reaction from this game is that someone at Manchester United realises they need another central midfielder pretty damn quickly, then it can be a good thing because you can just run over them by getting in their faces that midfield. Thielmann is really good, but he needs John McGinn around him or Boubacar Kamara around him.

31:50He doesn't just need one André Santos doing everything else. Is Carlos Buleba the answer?

31:57Daniel Storey: Yeah, well, that's the theory, right? That's a stylistic fit that Manchester United have been going for that they've been missing. But that Casemiro exit was that he obviously provided a huge goal threat last season and a huge attacking threat really, but that really left big holes in that midfield. And I think that was something that Abnerim really struggled to correct throughout his time there. Michael Carrick did to an extent, but you could always see it within games that it was an issue. So yeah, they've overhauled the midfield this summer. I think Balebi will come in and I think he should, in theory, make an impact.

32:28Daniel Storey: He didn't have a great year last year, but that's probably impacted by his own question marks over his future and form goes up and down. He's still quite young. I would say that for Manchester United, it's not just a Michael Carrick thing, although it is largely a Michael Carrick thing. It's the players they've been signing. They're not flashy players. They're not big name players, maybe which has been the case in the past. So hopefully that temperament, and I think this is a big reason behind Carrick's appointment, was his temperament of not getting too low over results. and I think, to be honest, if you could say one thing about Ruben Amram is that what he said after games, after defeats, couldn't really have generated much of a positive feeling.

33:04Daniel Storey: So I think just like put this behind you, you have to prepare for the next game and you're good enough to go on and run results. So that's the theory for them. Okay. Where are Hull going to finish this season, Doug? 20th. All right then. Brentford beat Spurs 3-0 Saturday evening in front of John Bon Jovi, although Pixie Lott might have been the more appropriate audience member for Mamadou, if you recall. Yeah. Because Mamadou Sangari, what a signing the bees have made there. Who wants to... Yeah, I'll jump in, because I did say it again in one of my... All right, a brief one, Colin, because we just heard you, but yes.

33:53Daniel Storey: Yes, Mamadou Sangari, 40 million Brentford's best signing but him and Shea Charles for Fulham he hasn't played yet but I think those two will be the under the guys that will sort of their stock will rise throughout the campion but Sangari was brilliant Brilliant Alright Duncan what did you make of it? Of the game? Him anything you want The game was I mean Well first of all you winced when I mentioned Jon Bon Jovi Yeah and I just it was surprising It was surprising I mean Was there a reason for his presence at the GTAC? I honestly don't know. I mean, it was a bit like when Sylvester Stallone popped up at a couple of Goodison Park games.

34:32Again, it was like, I'm not sure what's going on, but I'll go along with that. Spurs didn't know what was going on either. I mean, it was just, it was like being plunged back into last season. You know, you almost had to rub your eyes and check it wasn't Eagle Tudor down there on the touchline because they, I mean, yes, they are still ravaged with injuries. Yes, their front three was not the one they would pick, and Mikey Moore. But although they had four shots on target, and Mikey Moore had three of them, so he did his bit other than score. But they just looked absolutely... I mean, it could have been four or five.

35:05I mean, Brentford ended up with almost four XG in a game. Well, how good were the Bs? Brilliant. I think... I mean, this time last year, to show the error of making sweeping judgments, most people were like Keith Andrews is not really going to be able to replace Thomas Frank but he was arguably one of the managers of the season last year and he looks like he's gone again and they just everyone knows their job you know Kelleher in a cap which any goalkeeper in a cap you have to rate yeah they I think someone said earlier Brentford are a team where everyone knows their role everyone's happy with their role everyone's put in the same direction and that takes you a long long way in the Premier League and Tottenham may be closer to that now, but they've got a long way to go.

35:53And this last week in the transfer window is going to be interesting. Right. So they need to spend a lot more money. Is that right? Daniel, what do they need to do now? Which? I think we said in the previews last week, we said that the problem with Spurs is that they need a fast start because last season happened. And yet there's a fair chance that in some games they have a central midfield combo of Tonali and Fernandes and a central defensive combination of Van Hecker and Sinesi all of whom are new to the club none of whom have ever played with each other before it's so so hard to learn on the job to do that I know that they haven't got Europe so you get more training sessions but actually being on the pitch together against high class opposition is really hard to do that on the job and that's exactly what it looked like.

36:44So three of them started, Fernandes came on at half-time anyway for Lucas Bergval, who kind of showed Gio Gomez how to play first half. He was dreadful. And they're just, yeah, again, the answer has to be, I know, we need some more players. We need some more forwards because the forwards aren't good enough. But then that's just more new players to add to a system where nobody knows each other. And Roberto Deservi knows that he needs, you know, he isn't a broken man yet and it was only one game. But I think everybody was shocked with just the dysfunction within that team. And I just don't see how that dysfunction can get better quickly.

37:23They've got, they play at home to Newcastle next weekend and that already feels like a really big game because if they don't win that or if they lose that and if Newcastle, the team that have gone through their own flux this season are able to sort it out quicker with younger players, I just don't get it. You've got the highest paid manager in the world, in club football, we're told, spending£250 million and then seemingly the answer being, we need another£150 million or another£200 million. What if it doesn't work? Omar Mamouche, Savinho, the two players supposedly on the way from Man City. Daniel's shaking his head in disbelief at this.

38:04Tonali, you mentioned the flux at Newcastle, one of the players who'd fluxed off, as it were, was Tonali, who was there for Spurs, and what kind of game did he have? What's your reaction to the proposed moves for the City pair? But also, were you hearing Cody Gakpo from Liverpool? Is that right? I mean, yeah. I mean, maybe. I mean, Savinho and Mamouche are good players, but they're sort of seven out of ten players, and that's not... Is that going to help Spurs that much? I mean, to Daniel's point a minute ago, I mean, a Spurs friend of mine texted after the game on Saturday and said, who was the last big money signing for Spurs?

38:46Who was a success? And we were talking about it. And I was like, he probably is son all those years ago. And that's a long time. And to Daniel's point, I think it's going to take a few months to get this squad into shape. And then they could be mid to lower table again. I mean, what is it? They've won 79 points in the last 77 games. They're used to losing. The situation they were in on Saturday was far more, you know, used to that far more than they are winning games. And they need to break that habit quickly.

39:22Daniel Storey: I just think on that Savino deal, like we've reported a total of 85 million pounds and Manchester City fans probably don't really mind that he's leaving at all. Probably the same with Omar Marmouche. They just haven't met the expectations at all. Are they the guys that Tottenham are going to pin their hopes on this season for goals? I don't really understand those moves. I just don't get it because, yeah, they might be good players. They might have high potential. But the financial package involved is so high for players who might, who there's a fairly good chance they might not deliver the seasons that Tottenham need those players to deliver.

39:55Daniel Storey: I'm kind of a bit lost for words on it. I mean, Mahmoud had a very good end of 24-25, obviously scored goal of the season in the penultimate game and he was playing as sort of central at that point i think he could be a good player but we don't know that hasn't had that form he wasn't very good at the world cup but can tartan afford not to sign anyone they are medically addicted to buying players attacking players for quite a lot of money who are potentially really good in a in a system that's created to allow them to thrive and they're all bashed into this system in which even the most optimistic Spurs fan would say that the environment has not been and looks like it continues to be not one in which those players thrive and yet the one thing that all those Spurs fans would say is that maybe if we get a high class number nine and just try and service him with a load of midfielders and wingers maybe that will work maybe maybe it'll work with the ones we've got because we've tried everything else so they're going out and buying Mamouche who's a sort of a nine but not really he'll try and drift, they're buying Savinho who's a winger they've got lots of those players, at the end of the day they're going to get all these players and then someone's going to realise that Richarlison is still starting up front and he's not good enough and he hasn't been good enough for 18 months apart from for two or three games every now and then when Spurs need to avoid the absolute worst scenario which is going down, I just don't get it at all.

41:24Dominic Silenki will come in and score three games in a row and then be out for two months with a muscle injury. Yeah, I mean, really, you talk about medically addicted to signing attackers, but they were scientifically addicted to having the two best ex-Geo performers in Harry Kane and Son for season on season that got them out of so many holes. And they've both left, and it's very hard to replace them. On the subject of Man City, meanwhile, who are waving bye-bye to two more of their squad, that's a lot of players who've departed. and as yet i think there's one signing on the way at the moment that you'll probably be able to give us more details on but it does seem to be a pretty marked imbalance between the players that are heading out the door for a team with the ambitions or the teams with a sorry for a team with the ambition that city have been showing in recent seasons is there a shift going on at city in

42:19Daniel Storey: what they're looking to do? I think so. So Manchester City's sporting director, football, director of football, whatever his title is, is Hugo Viana. He essentially leads their transfer business and he came in, I think, before last summer. And some of the players he's brought in have already been moved on. Tajani Reiners was one, James Trafford was another one. They have had a massive turnover of players in the last two years, but their squad is quite small. Manchester City's, we're hearing Savino and Mourmouch obviously going as well. We think Bugatti, the Moroccan midfielder, from Lille will be signed at great expense.

42:52Daniel Storey: There's obviously been a lot of talk about Enzo Fernandez at Chelsea and that supposed deadline that Chelsea set that went past. We don't really know what's going to happen with that, but we do know from Manchester City's pattern of signing that they're willing to invest more heavily, both in terms of transfer fee, the other fees that are attached to those deals to get the players that they really want, who they think are starting 11 style players. We saw that with Semenyo and Mark Gahey. Pretty much every other club in the Premier League would have loved to sign them, but it was City who could afford to do it.

43:20Daniel Storey: So they've obviously gone for a strategy of a smaller squad with a higher ceiling per player. I look at Tottenham's squad, it's got 30, 35 first-team squad players in it, which is just far, far too many. And they're not even in Europe, so I don't really know how that's going to work. I actually think my one thing on Manchester City, and I know we covered them earlier, but this part of me thinks, could they actually win the league this year? Because everyone's sort of written them off. Everyone's sort of thinking, well, you know, look at Pep Guardiola leaving, but Pep Guardiola struggled the past couple of years.

43:50Daniel Storey: Obviously, there's a documentary that's come out about his quotes, which seem very personal, very passionate, but not in the best environment, I feel. But I just have a feeling that those players want to prove that it's not just Pep, it was them too. All right, Colin, you're on record as saying Man City can. Are they going to win the league? Can, can, can win the league. Of course they can. Yeah. Okay, it's just in City could win league. I think their ceiling is much higher than most people think. I mean, higher than Chelsea, higher than Liverpool, and higher than Man United. So I do think they're in the conversation.

44:23All right. Well, they did get a win today. Just on the subject of Brentford, a stat from Duncan Alexander, they generated more XG on Saturday against Spurs than Sweden did at the entire 2026 World Cup. Incredible. Incredible. Right, that's enough about all of that. We're going to move on next to Ipswich. Totally Extra came back on Saturday. Duncan, you were here, as was I, and James Horncastle joined us for a look back, a bit of a tribute to the very great Franco Barresi. James will be with us again on, well, it'll reach you on Tuesday, I think, for the first Euro show of this new Totally season.

45:10He'll be dialing in from Italy, where he witnessed John Stones participating in Inter's thumping victory in the opening weekend of City Affictions, and loads of other stuff. We'll be talking about that. Ligue 1, Ligue 1, you know the drill. Continental football, yo. Oh, Jude Bellingham on the score sheet for Jose Mourinho's Real Madrid. Huh. Now, far more exotically, in East Anglia, Ipswich beats Sunderland. Saturday afternoon 2-1, which means they've now won as many home games this season as they did in their last appearance in the top flight. What it did for them two years ago was that home for them.

45:54It was only Chelsea they managed to beat. But Beresi, as we talked about, 5 '9". Yes. Ipswich's goalkeeper, Kiel Sherpen, 6 '9". 6 '9". So he's one-footed him, as they say. Yeah. there's lots of people writing in about Ipswich James for example says really impressed with Ipswich how Brentford and Brighton this weekend would love the guys thoughts on Ipswich win and Wally I think that's early early thoughts on what they saw did you see much of this game Daniel yes yeah I watched it about this morning yeah they they were hard to describe this but they They played like a mid-table Premier League team.

46:36It wasn't the hull of, you know, everything needs to be whipped up into a storm and, you know, we're going to run harder and faster and better and longer and stronger. It was a really composed performance. The game was fairly even and a draw would have been a fair result, I think. But Jack Clark, ex of Sunderland's own parish, scored in the last minute to kind of give it that perfect start, which they do need after last time. I said in previews I think they'll be better under O 'Neal than they would have been under McKenna I think McKenna's a better coach probably than O 'Neal but I think the fact that they had a sort of fresh start O 'Neal can play pragmatically can dig in when he needs to also massive for Emerson getting the first goal because there's a lot on his shoulder very young shoulders to lead that line which aren't going to get another physical striker in and Julio Anciso was kind of busy really busy as well.

47:34I think Ipswich fans are hoping to get a different version of him. Last time he was there, it was as a low knee and he's slightly in and out of the team. He's now signed permanently, so they think that they'll get better from him. He went off with an injury, so hopefully he's alright. But, you know, just a really composed performance from a team with quite a lot of new players in it against a team who, at least last season, were a very established Premier League club in terms of form, particularly at the start of the season. Sutherland started the season brilliantly, so So, yeah, good on it, which I really wish them well this season.

48:05I really want them to stay up. Excellent. Nottingham Forest lost at home to Leeds at the same time Saturday afternoon. That was courtesy of Anton Stack's free kick. Excuse me. In the 88th minute, these teams will be facing each other again on Tuesday in the second round of the Carabao Cup. Yeah, it used to happen on computer games, that, and you'd be like, oh, that's just a code error. But there you go. Fair enough. any brief word on Leeds Forest Daniel? I mean again it was a nil-nil game that Leeds won late on Forest did look slightly undercooked they are going to have to make some changes at wing back because Nico Williams is brilliant but I'm not sure he's left wing back although he's going to have to play there this season so that means you really need an attacking right wing back and Oleraina isn't quite that so yeah a few teething problems but Leeds were good were exactly what we thought they'd be, which is same with Brentford, same with Brighton, continuation of last season.

49:05Daniel's point in the preview pod about Bournemouth only winning three games more than West Ham last season. These are the sort of games that if Leeds can pick up wins with no European football, they could finish quite hard. No European football for now. Jordan says, any advice for a Leeds fan in America for getting away tickets in Europe next season? Well, certainly not too early to be making that kind of plan. Let's see. Leads off to an excellent start. Everton, two nil winners against Crystal Palace. Wow. With Andy Burnham, a.k.a. the Prime Minister, watching on, what will he have seen?

49:49Daniel Storey: Well, he will have seen a match between two teams who I think are quite evenly matched, Everton and Crystal Palace this year. they both have not the deepest squads, it's fair to say. From what I've seen of this, I mean, Palace could have taken the lead quite a few times. They had to post twice. Jordan Pickford made one outstanding save. I think there's quite a lot going on behind the scenes at Palace that would concern me from their point of view. They've obviously, they have got European football again this season. We think Ismail Assar might be leaving the club. And then Jean-Philippe Mateta, he's sort of kicking up a little bit of fuss around his contract.

50:25A little bit of fuss. he's essentially taking them to if not court then a tribunal to say that his uh last year of his contract isn't actually legally valid and thus he should be able to what walk straight away or would it be at the end of this campaign no it would be now yeah it'd be right away because there was a an option to extend which the club exercised and i think he feels that he might have had a say in that? I'm not sure. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, but as you say, you'd be concerned as a Palace fan to see that.

50:58Daniel Storey: Yeah, I mean, there's quite a bit of melodrama around him last season as well with the Will He won't de-join, I think it was Milan in January and he sort of won back the fans and won in the Conference League. But look, I would be concerned with Palace, obviously Pierre Sajj, the new coach. I think there might be a little bit of disquiet at the club in general at the moment. So yeah, they need to sweat themselves out quite quickly. Everton again, I kind of always think, I look at their squad and I don't really have high hopes for it. But then Dewsbury Halls got a really nice goal. And their second goal came from Elian and Jai.

51:29Daniel Storey: Again, he provided the assist. But those are players who can make the difference for a team who are just sort of always well organised. You know what you're going to get from Everton. And then you have those players in the final third. So, yeah, I mean, it's good for them to get off their winning start. And David Moyes, he just seems to be such a good fit for that club and that group of players. so yeah I don't really think either of those teams are going to finish top half this year but as we were mentioning earlier if you can get a couple of wins together and potentially challenge European places because the league's so tight and competitive.

51:59That is the issue with Everton is that they were in a really good position to do that in sort of February-March and lo and behold just you know stumbled over the line and I think the fans for the first time since they've returned were getting a bit fed up with David Moyes and rightly so but yeah if they can their squad does look a little bit strong. I thought Hayden Hackney was good. But yeah, I think there's a lot of teams who I think probably need a couple more players between now and next week. And that's why it's exciting. Yeah, and there's a lot of football still to be played and we should probably 37 rounds.

52:35So things are going to change. You mentioned how things changed between spring and the end of the season. So, you know, from now. Well, do you remember my my ruling that players should not do knee slides until it's gone back to GMT Is that because of the dryness across the Yeah there was a couple of awful across the Premier League and EFL this weekend you could see the player running like don't don't do it oh dear and then just planting their knee into the hard summer turf it's not good Yeah this year more than ever more than ever Off to Stanford Bridge for you Daniel is that right? Craven Cottage Craven Cottage Cottage.

53:14Thank goodness you got the venue right. That would have been a very long evening for you. Yeah, and then some Carabao Cup action at Hillsborough between Sheffield Wednesday and Wolves on Tuesday. Is that right? Is that right? Why not? Why not indeed. All right, well, listen, thank you so much for being with us. Is there anything else about this opening weekend that bears saying? Well, it's not the opening weekend in the EFL, but it was a very memorable weekend for the EFL in several ways. Right. It was Don Ballard's magnificent sort of twisting with pike, back heel. Mule kick of a goal, you described that as.

53:50Yeah. If you look at it, there's a really good angle from the crowd where someone's filmed it, and he does just like a disturbed horse. He just rams it in at St Andrews. Fair play. And then there was a crew player who hid behind the post. Yes. and then nipped out and the goalie obviously as modern keepers do just threw it out with a bit of backspin so he could peruse where he was going to pass it to and stole it and knocked it in so yeah just wonderful stuff yeah Daniel can I add also from the FL Tranmere's Bobby Falconer who's an outfield player who went had to go in goal and kept a clean sheet in a one-all draw so big shout out for that as well very very nice very nice well Well, that all is excellent.

54:38And that's also where we come to the end of this Totally Football Show. We return Monday, Tuesday with the Euro Show. Then, of course, on Thursday, we'll be previewing, well, running up a bit of midweek action, but mainly previewing what's up in the second round, which will no doubt confound our early hot takes still further, the second round of the Premier League. For now, many thanks and safe travels to Daniel. Thanks to you as well, Duncan and Colin, for being with us. And to you, wherever you've been following us, do hope you have a super start to your week and we'll catch you again soon on the Totally Football Show.