Liverpool v Real & PSG v Bayern top midweek Champions League billing

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0:30Bax Derby and Bundesliga as Bayern thump Bayern. We ask, apart from the word cut, is there anywhere the letter N makes such a difference? It's the Totally Football Show.

0:44Monday the 3rd of November and it's a Totally Football Show European edition. Julian La Ronz is back from holidays. Hello, Jules. Hello, Jimbo. Hello, everyone. Bonne vacances. Très bonne vacances. Oui. It looked nice. Very nice. Thank you. a lot of sun and heat and a lot of football played. Was there a special meal there in Fuerteventura? That's right, yeah. Good paella, very good paella, yeah, of course. Lovely, lovely beach with lovely transparent water. It was really nice. It was fantastic. The sun was hot, the water was transparent. Just too many lawrences in there, you know, that's my problem.

1:23Hard to imagine anything like that. Any surf? A little bit, but where we were in the south of the island, I think the north is probably better for surfing. So a little bit of way for the bodyboarding for the kids, but, you know, proper surfing was the other side. Lovely. Any Nandos in... Go on, Jesus. What's still going on? Great. Save the Nandos chat. I haven't introduced you yet. James is with us from... Is it Milan, James? Is it? I'm in Milan at the moment, yes. Okay. against the most featureless backdrop we've ever had on our various Zoom chats. This is the most industrial hotel. I can't tell whether it's actually intentional or not.

2:06The ceiling in this room does feel quite prison cell or video game in a sort of industrial unit. I'm supposed to shoot myself out of it. I don't know. All right. Woo. Excellent. Good acoustics anyway. Seb is with us from his cozy parlor. Hello, Seb. Yeah, I was going to say, if you've got negative comments to make, leave them because this is my house. All right. Okay. I was going to say something, but not anymore. Yeah. And as you heard, Paul Belouc too. Hi, Paul. Hello, hello. I am all good and happy to see that James has taken over me with the worst background ever witnessed in this program.

2:48Yeah. Seb, they're in his home. And when are Barcelona going to be back in theirs, Paul? Well, technically on Friday, because on Friday they're going to have an open training session at the Camp Nou. It's going to be the first time that anyone is going to be allowed in this stadium, apart from the workers. And yeah, this is being portrayed as a sort of a test by the club, just to let people in, let people out, see how everything goes and expect that there's nothing falling apart, basically. Excellent. Have they got a game at home this weekend? When would they be there playing, do you think? Yeah, so we still don't know when they will return playing.

3:23The hope inside the club is that they might be back after the international break. Now they played on the weekend in Bigo against Celta. So after the international break, they host at home Athletic Club from Bilbao. And the hope is that they have all the license sorted to host 45 ,000 people in there. If not, there's going to be postponed an extra week. But yeah, the plan that they have is that Athletic Club is the first team to play in there, which has started some debates, witty debates among Barca fans, just as in what if the first goal at the Camp Nou is scored by Nico Williams, but in a different shirt.

3:59Right, right. Excellent. Is it very different? Have you seen what it looks like now that they've done the work? I've been inside once when the club did a tour, and it felt a bit renovated in terms of the seats and everything, But the feeling I had was I'm just in the same Camp Nou, as in the views are quite broad. It's a really open stadium. So it reminded me a bit of the old Camp Nou with new seats and everything, of course. And the skyboxes. Don't forget the skyboxes. Yeah, well, the skyboxes are not fully finished yet, so I couldn't get the full grasp of it. But let's see, all the VIP seating.

4:35Can't wait for it. Let's see. All right. Well, time for a moment of the week, Jules. What do you think? Yeah, I think that's a good idea to start the show. Do you want to go for it? Should I? Why not? My one is Hans Ateboer. Do you remember him? He was once a good player, even a very good player. Not so much the last few years. Arendt didn't work out for him last year. Then he went as a kind of loan to Lyon after the transfer window closes. You can have those emergency loans as well in France. And it was his first start at the weekend away at Brest. And he lasted seven minutes. One touch of the ball, then a horrendous tackle.

5:09That can be a long time though. seven minutes yeah lasting seven minutes oh no no you no that's usually horncastle or richardson i mean i just couldn't call myself i looked across to check what james was doing yeah and i think that the thought was passing through his head but thankfully he he at least no no no he framed himself yeah usually it's one He didn't last very long. Not you, you're much better than that. Yeah, yeah. He had one touch of the ball and then he was sent off for a horrendous tackle after seven minutes. The game finished nil-nil. It was pretty boring. But I guess Lyon defended well.

5:49For Daniel Jou, the other funny thing is he got sent off, obviously. Then usually you take a striker off when you're the team that goes down to 10 minutes, especially so early. But Tanner Tessman, the American international defensive midfielder, was so bad. Paulo Fonseca, who's still suspended via Georges Martial made the change of taking him off after 15 minutes which was probably as Leky put it this morning the best decision that they took all game to take Tanner Tessman off after just 15 minutes because he was that bad as well good lord good lord Lyon have a big week coming up don't they yeah they have they've got Betis that's it Anthony's Betis and then they've got PSG that's it at the weekend alright Seb what about you with your moment of the week I am going to choose Mikel Cuisance's goal for Hertha Berlin so Cuisance is kind of like I suppose for all of us a bit of a guilty pleasure he's 26 now so I don't think he's quite going to have the career we all hoped he would he's playing at the Sweden Bundesliga level and he scored Hertha's first goal against Dynamo Dresden the weekend so the 1-2 on the edge of the box and then left the centre-back for dead with what I choose to believe is kind of double-touch deliberate piece of skill and finished into the bottom corner.

7:04Brilliant, brilliant goal. Every now and again with Cuisance, you get a little bit of a tease of what it might have been like. He's grown up. He's playing very good football. I would say he's been Houters' best player this season. He's not going to play for Bayern Munich or a big equivalent club, but he's playing pretty well. He's settled down, mid-20s. It's kind of fun to watch him sometimes still. Excellent. I've got to seek that goal out. Paul, what about you? I'm going to go to San Sebastián. I'm going to go to the Basque Derby. San Sebastián won the vast derby against Athletic Club, last-minute winner from Gorro Chategui after a corner kick.

7:38But yeah, it was a pretty not normal vast derby, if we take into account the last year, because both teams are in really bad form, really bad. I mean, Real Sociedad were quite lucky to win that game, because otherwise they would have stayed for another week in the relegation zone of La Liga, which is quite mad given the squad that they have, which is pretty good. And it was a make-or-break game for Sergio Fernando, the Real Sociedad manager, who was under several discussions. But then we have to focus on Atleti Klopp as well, because they are in quite a state of form as well, really bad. Out of the last eight La Liga games, they just won one.

8:15So Ernesto Valverde is sort of, I don't know if being questioned is the right word, but they are starting to be doubted around him. Plus, and I wanted to get to a dub, because it ended up like with some spice, with some tension with Ojan Sanced, Athletic Club star, going after John Aramburu, who had had a big dip with Ernesto Valverde on the touchline as well. They were all calling each other to see them again in some mames in the second leg of La Liga. So quite a spicy derby in a really bad moment for both teams. Real Sociedad make it in a crucial win for them. And Athletic Club, they are starting to worry a lot because of the latest form, because Nico Williams is not well.

8:56He was on the bench for that game. He's got a groin injury, which doesn't go away. And there were reports in Spain that he doesn't dismiss the prospect of going into surgery. So it's quite the state in the Basque Country for a game that was happy days for Real Sociedad. Indeed. Athletic club. We've had only two wins from their last 11 in all tournaments and are at Newcastle in the Champions League this week. Ay, ay, ay. James Horncastle in Milan. What you got? Well, James, when I was in Heathrow Airport on Monday morning, it was very early. And what started me with, they put the Christmas tree up already and they were playing Christmas carols, even though it's not bonfire night.

9:40And that made me think, wow, we are getting close to Christmas, even though not close enough in my mind to be putting up Christmas trees. But there are still four winless teams in Serie A. Four. this has never happened before now some of those clubs are beginning to sort of take action so genoa got rid of patrick vieira on sort of friday night vieira went to them and said like guys this just isn't working is it and they were like yeah we agree so it looks like genoa are going to hire daniel de rossi we'll see fiorentina locked in the training ground and a really nice training ground to be locked in in the tuscan countryside deciding what to do with stefano pioli is Fiorentina lost to Lecce at the weekend.

10:24A lot of protests around Fiorentina and Florence, banners everywhere. The sporting director resigned after six years. But Pioli's got this three-year deal that he signed in June, which is worth three million a year, sacking him very expensive. So they're wondering what to do. And then Verona. Verona looked like they were going to get a point against Inter, but they were undone in stoppage time. But to be fair, the real moment of the weekend was the opening goal in that game. Peter Zielinski's volley from that Hakan Cialinoglu corner. Just side foot placed. Magnificent finish. Magnificent ball from Cialinoglu as well.

11:18Inter have been scoring worldies kind of all season. Mainly Chalinolew has, but this one was right up there. Go and check out Zielinski's goal at the Bentacoddy. Goal of the weekend. Anyway, I think I'd venture. Excellent. Well, along with all of that, you've got Champions League in prospect. So lots for us to talk about today. Let's begin with some of the midweek matches. This is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. It's match day four of that Champions League. Five teams, Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern, Inter, Arsenal and Real Madrid are all on nine points.

11:56And Tuesday, two of them, Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern, face each other. The other three, Inter up against Kairat. Arsenal are in Prague against Slavia Prague. And Real Madrid visit Liverpool. Trent and Xavi against former side Klaxons. Also, three games in, there are some big teams currently outside the playoff places. Juventus, who now have Luciano Spalletti in charge, they host Sporting on Tuesday. Also outside the top 24 are Monaco, Ajax, who are somehow rock bottom, and Bayer Leverkusen and Benfica, who will be facing each other on Wednesday. That sounds big. Crikey. PSG Bayern, though.

12:38I did say at the intro, it's exciting, but they'll probably both go through anyway. And also, they're always facing each other, these two. This is the fifth meeting in two and a half years. Who's got the upper hand this time, Jules? I mean, I think the form is on Bayern's side. 15 games, 15 wins every week. We say they've won again. They're rested players on Saturday. I mean, I'll let Seb talk about them more. For PSG, it was another quite laborious, in a way, win against Nice on Saturday. Last second winning goal by Gonzalo Ramos. They had chances. They should have put the game to bed way earlier, but they still didn't.

13:15Ousmane Dembele was back, played the last 20 minutes, still had a bit of a pain in his armstring he will play tomorrow but not start probably but Barcola is not in great form Rascalia is not in great form at least some of the injuries like Fabian Rees and Joe Neves back which is good and it should be good and it's in Paris at the Paris de France so for that it's good for PSG but right now I would say that Bayern are definitely more informed than PSG are Desiree Douai who'd been perhaps PSG's form player now out how long yeah it looks a really bad injury that one Picked up in midweek, yeah. In that draw where Lorient, I'm showing this time, it was the calf that kept him out for five weeks, only, you know, last month.

13:59So they're thinking probably end of December he's going to go to Aspetar, the Aspetar clinic in Qatar for his rehabilitation. And I don't think we'll see him before January. Okay. As you say, it's been quite laboured in Ligue 1. Their last Champions League game, though, anything but when they took on another German side, Bayer Leverkusen and beat them 7-2. Because Bayern do seem to be a better team than Bayer Leverkusen, demonstration of which we got this weekend. Hey Seb. We sure did, Jimbo. Interestingly, after that game, Alex Garcia, who played against PSG and played against Bayern, said, yeah, Bayern are the best team we've faced this season, which given they conceded seven times at home to PSG, who were, by the way, absolutely brilliant.

14:39It's the first time actually I've been in a press room afterwards and a head coach for losing team has come in looking just broken by the experience. Kasper Holomund just looked entirely shocked, not disappointed, upset, just rattled by it. And Jules mentioned, obviously at the weekend, Bartham beat Leverkusen 3-0 without Kane, without Diaz, without Lise, without Upamecano. So they arrested everybody, still absolutely handled Leverkusen in a game that was never really a game, three up at half time and a really, really strong performance. Hey, have you seen Tom Bischoff's pass for Serge Gnabry's first goal?

15:14Just wonderful ball. Wonderful ball. Like Bischoff playing at left fullback. It's kind of describing the level of rotation that had gone in. Just carved this pass around Gerald Kwanza. Gnabry didn't even have to break his stride. Ran through a goal, beat Flecken. And it was, you know, it was never a contest beyond that. And I like Bayern. I think beyond, we spend a lot of time on the podcast talking about their individuals, Bakay and Diaz-Lise. I think the biggest improvement is overall in Bayern. I think they're just a much, much better side than the one that beat PSG 1-0 Allen's Arena last year.

15:45I think their pressing is a lot better. Their ability to prevent teams from having good quality shots against them. I looked up the average XG of each shot they've conceded this season, and it was down at something like 0.08. They're conceding less than two shots on target per game. And yeah, it's just really cohesive, really formidable Bayern at the moment. all that bion always have quality they always have individual strength but at their best i always find that bion have this sort of formidable team quality this heft to them um which they haven't had for a few years and it's now back and uh also if you you speak to bion fans they tell you it's the most attractive team we've had my stylish team we've had in three or four years now at least and i agree with all that i think they're great yeah i had breakfast with uh our good friend her Honigstein the other day and he was doing that classic Honigstein thing where he just goes Bayern wow but one of the lines of the weekend in Serie A was Maurizio Sarri was giving he's now the Lazio coach he's back at Lazio and you know his team's got a transfer bargain wasn't able to sign any players so last three games two of them have been nil-nil so he's been getting a bit of criticism like you know can you not be a bit more entertaining and in his press conference he said if you want entertainment go and buy a season ticket at Bayern Munich there you go which clearly Sarri in his little villa in Rome is watching what the company is doing I think what's interesting is because because Vincent Kompany arrived after all the palaver that came with his appointment after that summer where the early summer where this couldn't couldn't pull the trigger on a target it's kind of gone under the radar so the micro improvements to the team they've been gradual and there were some missteps I will remember that that absolute hammering they took in Barcelona their counter press was dreadful and they just got carved apart now this season a couple of things you see the pressing is very very good yes but also the addition of Diaz has been worth more than just the addition of a single player because Diaz really really good without the but also he's an attacking player that they don't have so there are there are similarities between Alise between Gnabry and between Diaz they're all quite fluid they like to interchange positions they're very aggressive footballers but they're all quite different so Alise is that sort of floating drifting playmaker Gnabry is more of a runner more of a direct threat Diaz is kind of the midpoint between the two and so from a summer during which Max Ebel was heavily criticized after not getting vits after uh not poning up the cash for voltamade actually it looks really really good in addition to the decision to appoint company everything looks absolutely perfect and clearly that's the kind of thing you say 24 hours before before psg ruin it for everybody but could not be more impressed so um i'm i'm fully with her honigstein okay four straight wins for by munich before the two teams met in the incredibly important competition, the Club World Cup this summer.

18:52If you watch that game, it would be very similar. The pressing would be massive on the two sides and it's the team that will cope the best with that press and beat it as much as possible. That would then end up winning. Okay. And on that day, where was it? Atlanta, that game? I think so. Sounds about right. Sounds about right. Yeah, I think it was... 2-0 to the Parisians. Yeah, there were some great moments. in that game. Of course. But Bayern had chances. Bayern will have chances tomorrow and PSG will have chances and he could well finish again 2-2, 3-3. James Horncastle's delighted. The pair of you just like, the Club World Cup, when was that?

19:34Where? Did it happen? Is it memorable? Atlanta? Charlotte? I mean, says the guy who spent three weeks in Miami doing nothing apart from, you know, chilling, really. exactly few articles there and there but not much each side you know seeing Messi that was a proper cup competition though yeah teams getting knocked out I would like to see it every year instead of every four years I liked it other key games this week in the format we now discover that's been apparently borrowed from a Chilean competition yeah worth 20 million dollars 20 million dollars Leandro legal action ahoy other key games anyway well on Tuesday there's also Liverpool Real that's at the same time Slavia Prague hosting Arsenal Tottenham at home to Copenhagen after the weekend they've had that could be interesting on Wednesday then Man City welcome Borussia Dortmund which should be fun should be lots of goals in that one Carabaig is the destination for Chelsea and Newcastle as mentioned hosts Athletic Club de Bilbao well we'll look at some of those fixtures as the show progresses but next up with James there trapped in his featureless box.

20:49Let's get some Serie A information.

20:58This is the Totally Football Show, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. The Athletic is the only place you can read articles by Daniel Taylor, Amy Lawrence, Phil Hay, James Pearce, Olly Kaye and the very best football writers around. Hey James, two rounds of football since we last spoke. and two managerial changes as well. As you mentioned, Big Pat Vieira no longer in charge at Genoa at one end of the table and kind of near the other end, Luciano Spalletti in at Juventus. Luciano, who's had notable success at two southern sides, Roma and especially Napoli. How has his arrival in the most northern of the northern sides, not geographically, but you know what I mean, gone down there?

21:40Well, I think Juventus feel they've made the best possible appointment they could make. It was quite interesting. His first press conference, he didn't shy away from the task. I think a lot of the media there, having sat through eight winless games and three consecutive defeats, thought that he would play it quite safe and say, look, just got to get Champions League qualification. and Spalletti credit to him said no there are 29 games still left we're not outside of the league leaders you know our objective is to to win the title and after his first game in Cremona where Juventus won 2-1 against a newly promoted Cremonese side that had only lost once so far this season against Inter he was asked about the title and he was like oh god I've already put my back against the wall haven't I I'm a condemned man I'm a prisoner by my own sort of my own ambition but Juve played really well I felt for an hour against Cremonese already you can see Spalletti doing different things with the team so like Teon Kukmein is the midfielder that they spent an awful lot of money on for Matalanca last year big flop instead of playing him as a midfield player he's basically looked at what he did in the past before he came to Italy you played for the national team at centre-back.

23:01You played for your club in Holland at centre-back. Why don't you do that for us? And Kupmeinen has looked much better than he has done at any stage in the Juventus shirt. So just one of the little details that Spalletti is doing to sort of turn Juventus around. Lovely stuff, James. Well, a 2-1 victory in his debut game. The one for Creminesi coming courtesy of hotter than hot Jamie Vardy. And what a lovely Vardy goal it was too. Yeah, it was a classic Vardy goal, really. Sort of ball over the top, 1v1 against the centre-back. Bullies by the 30, whatever he is, 36-year-old Jamie Vardy. 38. 38-year-old Jamie Vardy.

23:40Yeah, and, you know, Federico Gatti, a man who used to work on a building site. You know, again, exactly the sort of pro that Jamie Vardy would play against when, you know, he wasn't a pro. And, yeah, just sort of tosses into the ground, goes for all we've on. very clinical against Michele Di Gregorio and then that's now two goals in a week and two goals against prestigious opponents as well you know his first goal came against Atalanta and his second against Juve so Vardy very much up and running Spalletti with his back to the wall then after that big talk of the title but even though they're only six they are only four points off the top right now because it is naturally so tight in Serie A the top four separated by just one point You've got Napoli in pole position and then behind them Inter, Milan and Roma all level.

24:31Just a point behind. Juve, a quick mention for their Champions League midweek. After their spirited defeat away to Real Madrid last time, they're going to be at home to sporting. You're looking for further improvements from Lucky Luciano. Yeah, and also, I mean, he left out Kenan Yildiz and the great Lloyd Kelly. That's such a shame. The squad against Cremonese. I mean, Lloyd, to be fair to him, scored against Borussia Dortmund, scored against Inter. But it was Kupminers who took his position. So there's definitely more to come. And I think excitement at seeing what Yildiz can produce under Spalletti.

25:08Yildiz, who is their most talented attacking player. And also, you know, I think Spalletti's always been someone who's got lots of goals out of the strikers, which is something that they really needed their new coach to do. he's had four top scorers play under him in Serie A, Totti, Icardi, Ozymen, Dzeko and I think Vlajevic even before Spalletti came was showing signs of life I thought he played really well at the Bernabeu so yeah let's see how they get on sporting a bit of much of a much Italian games in the Champions League the one I'm looking forward to most is probably Atalanta against Marseille.

25:44Kind of Juric against Deserdbi. Atalanta, who finally lost their unbeaten run. That incredible sequence of draws that they'd been on. They were beaten by Udinese by a single goal. A goal scored by our old friend Niccolò Zaniolo. Nice to see him back. He scored 3-4, no? He scored against Juventus as well. Zaniolo kind of, you might say, trying to assert his candidacy for a place in the Italy squad next week with that big crunch game against Norway coming up even though if Italy win that the goal difference is so great that it probably won't matter anyway but yeah Udinese I think they're eighth you know Udinese this time last year started well under Kostya Runiaic and again they've just got a classic kind of potso team of Watford or Notford players, Polish players, random South American players.

26:43And I think Runiaic, to be fair, has shown himself to be a good coach so far in Italy. But Atalanta, I mean, they've had some really good performances in that run that you've mentioned, James, where they've been drawing too many games. But this was not one of them. And it's the case where, you know, if you are just drawing, drawing, drawing, and then you have a really lackluster a disappointing defeat like this one. It makes everything else feel much worse than it was. And I think that's not great for Juric, particularly given all the scepticism that surrounded his appointment in the first place.

27:21Okay. The other teams in the Champions League, Inter, are going to be against Kaira. Are you going to that game? That's on Wednesday. Is that why you're in Milan? No, I'm going to Turin tomorrow. But I'm not going for a Champions League game either. I'm going to the... You're going for the kebab, is it? Yes. The kebab mixed with the Huntsman pub. No. No, I'm going to the Golden Boy Awards. Ah, nice. Excellent. That's for the best young player, in case anyone's not understood what that was about. Apart from the jury, too. Like Horny. No, really? Who have you voted for, Jules? Am I allowed to say Horny or not?

27:58This won't go out until tomorrow. I don't think it's going to change the outcome. Okay, fair enough. I do know what the outcome is, but by the time this comes out, it will have already been decided. How many people are on the jury? I don't know. It's a good question. Who did you vote for, Jules? My top five, because you have to vote five. You're top five. Yeah, it's five, yeah. I went for Desiree Dway as a number one. Nice. Yildiz as a number two. Nice. Guller, number three. Mastantono, number four. And Hoyssen, number five. Nice. Not Poccuarci. Please, let's be serious. Once he learns how to defend, then I'll have him there.

28:35no it was just it was him or Hoyssen Paul for fifth place and I don't know I fell Hoyssen with the season he had with Bournemouth in the Premier League I thought okay I'll have probably Pauw at six but Hoyssen at five Jules when was the cut off for what's the period you're allowed to vote on so I think it was you had until maybe October 20th something like that okay alright James you went what with Marilyn Pjanic number one and then

29:05world-class Pianic midfielders ever been the same since Mirolem Pianic got swapped for Artur Melo I thought Jules would actually go for some more PSG like Senny Mayulu I mean this is like you know I have to I have to be serious on this kind of stuff alright well James who did you go for? well I went for Yildiz because I'd like the it's in Chiren I'd like him to win and he won so many things as well last season with Juventus didn't he? Yeah. Mastantois because I saw his Superclassico for River against Boca so that's more of a sentiment. Because you saw his goal then you put him second. Okay yeah that makes sense.

29:48I had Dean Hoyssen as well. Nice. I put Desiree Due just because of his performance in the Champions League final and and my my final pick was I think it was Arda Gouler. Okay. So it's the same five but in different order. Different order. All right. Any names that the boys have forgotten? You want to name a player that the guys have forgotten Seb or Paul? I had a Dwey moment in Leverkusen. So he scored his first goal with the touch and the hit from the edge of the box. And the stadium had that little moment of just quiet appreciation before anybody kind of bothered with the frustration of being whatever it was like 3-1 down at the time.

30:28It's so sad that he's hurt because he was just To see him live in person, absolutely privileged. Brilliant player. Paul, you've been complaining in the background. Yeah, exactly. And also, you can't vote for Lamine Yamal because he's won it already. Just before the listeners start complaining. Are you only allowed to win it once? Yeah, yeah. So, no, no, I knew that you knew, Paul. But for the listeners who maybe didn't know the rules and saying, why didn't you vote for Lamine? I didn't know that. And also, in three of the last four years, bar supporters have won this award. So, yeah, yeah, no, no.

30:55So, you didn't know it, Jimbo. But you didn't wonder where Lamine was. But now you mention it. It seems a bit strange. But you said those players, and I'm thinking, yeah, that's a good player. Yeah, that's a good player. And now that you mention it, I think, well, that's also another player. And you could probably mention some others that I'd go, well, hang on a second, surely. But anyway, it's not me that we're here to discuss. James, just one last thing before we move on from City Hour, and that's Napoli who only drew 0-0 with Como this weekend, which is another fine performance by the boys from the lakeside who've beaten Juventus, now drawn with Napoli, beaten Lazio, drawn with Atalanta.

31:35That band you everybody has. This season, it's the first time that Napoli had dropped points at home in almost a year, and they very nearly lost as well had Milikovic-Savic not saved that penalty from Alvaro Morata. But the question I'm trying to warm up to is Napoli this midweek are back in the Champions League taking on Eintracht Frankfurt. Their last outing saw them beaten 6-2 by PSV Eindhoven. Has that defeat fully been kind of digested, absorbed down there? And what are they looking like ahead of this now pretty crucial looking clash with the German side? Yeah, I think Conte said he would settle to win this game 6-5.

32:20and looking forward to it because you know they were talking about how many goals Antrax score how many goals they concede as well it's one and five are the answers to that in every single game one way or the other I mean yes they did put it behind them James because they they had that big game against Inter didn't they a few days after the 6-2 against PSV Eindhoven what did they do They beat Inter. They beat Lecce. They were very good in the second half. Conte in sort of phlegmatic attitude in today's press conference, just spitting stuff back. Like, you know, your strikers aren't scoring. And he's like, what the hell are you on about?

32:56Like, we're top of the table. Like, you know, too much criticism here. You know, you always see things like glass half empty. The injuries that we've got, man, come on, like, give me a rest. Give me a break. but you can tell today he does sense the importance of this game against Eintracht particularly given they've only won once in the Champions League so far that was against Sporting at home at the Maradona I think Conte felt that they were unlucky against City to go a man down when they did he was very proud of his players after that because they could have conceded six at the Etihad they didn't, they just chose to do that in Eindhoven instead Eintracht Frankfurt who had a 1-1 draw against Heidenheim at the weekend in the Bundesliga set but it is remarkable how each one of their Champions League games so far has finished with a 5-1 scoreline Yeah in a way it is, in a way it is and I think you can see the problems they've had from quite a long way out defensively weak in the middle of the pitch lack a little bit of experience also they're going to be missing Janne Zun for this game and for quite a few weeks he came off early against Heidenheim with a bit of a muscle injury not quite clear when he's gonna be back but that means here comes mary gutzer he's kind of very much playing this sort of the maestro role now in his career and uh the pace is not really there anymore but still like a wonderful playmaker but yeah and to not have janet zen for for probably much of the rest of the year yeah big blow i also think that um it's a strange thing like i and we've talked about this with leipzig before i remember speaking to jules last last season and you have that point with these developing teams which especially in the champions league you think you just need your grizzled players through the middle through the spine just to anchor some of this potential and so yeah like it feels sometimes when and the champions league's been the best example of this when things don't go well for eintracht it gets worse quickly and then it might do if you had a granite jacca if you had a 33 year old six foot four elbows everywhere guy at the base of your defence.

35:02Kind of the same thing against Heidenheim. Went 1-0 down and they did come back to 1-1, but it was never quite the same. And they have difficulty re-establishing rhythm or changing the momentum in games. All right. Well, I would ask you further, but that game's probably about to kick off because it is the 5.45 game on the Tuesday afternoon. So, tell you what, let's move on. James, are you off to do business in Milan or are you going to stick around for the rest of the show? Well, I thought you were going to ask me about the biggest game of the weekend. Yeah, come on, Milan-Roma. Milan-Roma on Sunday night.

35:31Yeah. Yeah, well, we were talking about other things, so I thought we'd move on. I thought, that'll wait, you know. It was a 1-0 win for Milan. Let me check my phone. I'm sure I can hang around. All right, then. James is going to check his phone, listener. Let's move on to La Liga. What happened to your extensive Serie A round that you do every week for an hour? You know what? It's so tight there, and it's going to be so tight in a week. And Milan faced Roma, and it was 1-0. And it could have been 1-1, and it wouldn't have been a disgrace had it been so. but Paolo Dybala returned to the jealousy side, saw his penalty saved later on.

36:05Magic Mike, yeah. Yeah. But yeah, it was a fantastic save by Omanian, wasn't it? Yeah, it was very good. So I thought, you know what, has this moved the needle from where we were last week? Inter looking probably the strongest side because you have Napoli and that goal-less draw with Koma, which we did mention. You had Milan and Roma facing each other and Inter, who James was saying last week, and you remember this, don't you, listener, are the strongest of the bunch, looking the strongest of the bunch with that victory over Verona with the magnificent girl from Zielinski. So I thought, you know what?

36:31It's going to be the same chat as last week, isn't it? Same chat as last week. Okay. Yeah. Done. I mean, Fiorentina is quite interesting. Yes. Did you not do Fiorentina earlier on? I mentioned that they were considering, they're sort of trying to convince Stefano Pele to resign. But if you really want to look into that in detail, there'll be an article up on Tuesday as this comes out about the crisis of Fiorentina. You won't believe what Fiorentina are planning amid their crisis. Something like that, yeah? You won't believe the five things Fiorentina are doing. You won't believe which man Fiorentina are considering.

37:11Something along those lines. All right, James, how are your messages? I'm okay for another half an hour. All right, then. Enjoy a bit of La Liga, then. Next. The Nando's La Liga.

37:31This is the Totally Football Show, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. La Liga, top four all won. So Real Madrid is still five points clear of Barcelona. Then you've got Villarreal and Atletico. And Real Betis have moved up into fifth place. Paul, you told us already about the big win for Real Sociedad in the Basque Derby. Athletic club, as we mentioned, are away in Newcastle, who, after their opening day defeat to Barcelona, have beaten Union San Gilroy 4-0 away and then did Jose Mourinho's Benfica 3-0 at St. James' last time out. They're not the only side from La Liga to be playing in England this midweek because Real Madrid are at Anfield.

38:15Paul, what can you tell us about Real Madrid going into that? They look in pretty good form. I can tell you that they look pretty good. Last week, my colleague Mario Cortegana did a really interesting story about Madrid's dressing room not being really in good sync with Xavi Alonso and the big guns of the dressing room. We are doubting a bit the figure of the manager, but that has not been that much translated into the pitch because if we look at the classical last week and at this past weekend, the Madrid players are in the best form this season so far, possibly. Jude Bellingham was outstanding again.

38:49Kylian Mbappé, I mean, he doesn't even need to be mentioned either because he's like in this top form that he's scoring just goals for fun this season in La Liga. And everything seems to be put together in a more of a soft way, basically. All the Vinicius tantrum at the Clásico was softened throughout the week with a statement from Vinicius in which he didn't mention Xavi Alonso. Right. He mentioned everybody but Xavi Alonso. Exactly. Is it almost better not to make a statement than to make a statement in which you mention everybody but not your manager? Well, apparently that was his intention.

39:23That was totally deliberate. So if that's his intention, I guess that it has a point to put out a statement just to clear out that he is in one side of this club. Fair enough. Given that Real Madrid are doing so well, perfect start in the Champions League, five points clear, top of La Liga. Where are these tales of dressing room on rest coming from? Is it kind of Vinny's people kind of briefing? What do you think is behind it? Or is there some genuine unrest apart from him? I honestly think there's a genuine unrest. There's more players behind that, as far as I'm aware. I think it comes from coming, yeah, from Ancelotti's reign, which he had a really good chemistry with the club and had a bit of a soft hand in some departments that he wouldn't care too much on being strict.

40:10And then Xavi Alonso comes in. Madrid signs him for the job that he's done at Leverkusen where he's been really methodical. Now he comes in a Madrid-Russian room that is not used possibly to that sort of methods. I think it's something that has been within Real Madrid for the years. I mean, it's been a sort of club policy to give that many power to the players and to bring in big stars, make them like the star of the show, of course. And yeah, having them carrying the biggest weight in the club, that's a bit what the Galacticos were like and what the era of Cristiano Ronaldo, Los Kakás, Benzemas, pretended to be like.

40:45And I think that there is a generation of players as well who won a lot of titles being really young. And that's had an impact as well in the way that the dressing room is settled right now. But as long as they perform well, fans are not going to complain. As you say, there's been no sign of it seeping into the pitch apart from Vinny's tantrum during the Clásico. The trip to Anfield then. One or two concerns. I guess the injuries would be a major one with Dani Carvajal and Antonio Rudiger and David Alaba all set to miss this one. Yeah, they will all miss this one. Trent is going to be available, but he is not expected to start.

41:21I think that the starting line-up is pretty settled. The only doubt maybe would be Kamabinga if he plays or not. But no, he will play because today James Horncastle and Julian Lorenz's golden boy candidate, Franco Mastantuono, has been injured. Yeah, he is suffering from the same groin injury that La Miniamad has. OK, that's a shame. So he's not going to play and potentially Kamavinga is going to step in in his place and then Xavi Alonso will play a bit with Bellingham and Goula. Some of them will play on the right-hand side. OK, we saw Liverpool bounce back from their recent run of defeats at the weekend when Liverpool having announced to the world how to beat them, Aston Villa chose to take the opposite approach.

42:03What do you think Xavi Alonso is really going to do at Anfield? I think that Xavi Alonso is going to try to beat Xavi Alonso. He's going to try to high-press, he's going to try to keep a bit the standards that have kept Real Madrid in this sort of form, trying to want the ball and being more possession-oriented than what we used to see with Carlo Ancelotti. But let's see how this unfolds against a really good side. I think that this is the biggest task that Real Madrid had ahead of the Clásico, to prove that they could win a game against a really big team. I think that we could see that in the Clásico, Barcelona were really far below where they should be in terms of form, physicality, injuries, a lot of players absent from the game.

42:40I'm not saying that Liverpool are on top form either because they are not. But let's see how they perform against a top team in a difficult place and against an opposition that has also a point to prove in the Champions League. Because the other time that they played a top team in a difficult place was the derby against Atletico and that went horrendously, 5-2 defeat. Sorry, Jules. It's a big contrast to the Liverpool-Real Madrid that we had last season because they already faced each other in the league phase of the Champions League in November where Liverpool were easy winners and Mbappe missed the penalty.

43:11I mean, he missed one in the classical recently, but he's certainly in better form than what he was at this time last year, very much so in his first year at the club. And this is also, like Paul just said, a very different team to the one that went to Anfield and lost last year. Right. What do you think then, Charles? I don't know. I'd be very curious to see what Slott is going to do in terms of his starting line-up if he goes back to what we saw against Villab, which is basically last season's team, apart from Ekiti or Isak, if Isak is fit. But you're back to Bradley and Robertson and Sobos Lai and Soviet's on the bench and Frimpong is injured, but Kekke's on the bench as well.

43:45And you just do what you did last season. And you, for now, park that kind of evolution that you wanted to go on, which is probably the best thing to do. And I think Xabi Alonso is going to hit them on the counter and try to use the pace of Vini and Mbappe up front to do that. Karmavinga has to start, I think, in a game like this, like he did against Barcelona in the Clásico, just for the midfield balance. Otherwise, I think it could be much tougher for Real Madrid. Did Florian Wurt struggle as much when he first joined Bayer Leverkusen, Seb, as he has at Anfield? Not really fair to compare Jim Böck because he was 16.

44:21But he did go through some adversity because, obviously, when he joined Leverkusen, he left Köln to go there. And that became a kind of a nationwide issue because it broke the gentleman's agreement in the region about signing youth players. He dealt with it. Also, he was known, he scored a very, very famous goal from the halfway line as youth players. People knew he was and knew the expectation around him. But this is really the first time there's been that kind of jabbing narrative at him and where people have kind of been motivated to find faults in his game. But he's had some difficult issues with the national team because I think also anytime a team wasn't built precisely around him, as it never was with the national team, because he would have to play with Jamal Musiala as one of those twin 10s, it became a little bit difficult and people would do the, well, where's your Leverkusen form thing, but never to this extent.

45:11Do you think that's the thing then, that Leverkusen were built around him and Liverpool surely aren't? A bit of that, but also Leverkusen was such a high-performing side in general. Like every part of that team, if you look at the forwards who were 9s and 10s, whether it was Schick or Boniface, they could combine with him but also be line leaders those two wing backs were brilliant Grimaldo and Fringpong good individual players obviously but also worked so well in tandem and presented such a threat Jacka behind him he was so good at splitting the lines and finding him in exactly the positions that he wanted to be in but also remember you know there's no point pretending otherwise playing for Leverkusen in the Bundesliga is a very different task to playing for Liverpool in the Premier League because aside from Bayern Munich but particularly in Wirtz's last couple of years in the league they were the ball dominant side they enjoyed great technical security against most teams they faced and one of the things he said to Sky Deutschland when he moved over to England was the pace of the game in England never lulls never never drops and so for a player whose game was based around working hard to find spaces all the time if you watch verse from the stands never ever stops he's always running now if you add a kind of an extra gear on top of that pace wise you're going to have issues on top of right well your teammate isn't performing particularly well around you so i don't think it's any one problem i just think he's a little bit of a he's stuck in a bit of a perfect storm he'll succeed he's too good a player i think but tricky and a kind of yeah uncharted territory for him really i see uh back to la liga and at least La Liga side's midweek clashes.

46:49You've got Atletico Madrid are hosting Union Saint-Gilois who've lost both of their last two games by four goals to nil. Villarreal have Paphos out of Cyprus. Barcelona are going to be at Bruges. Barcelona fresh from a 3-1 victory over Elche at the weekend which saw Laminya Mar. He's a good young player. It's not bad. He could win the Golden Boy Award. He scored. He can't, Jules. He's already won it. Oh, did he? I think I know this. Also in there, other good young players well, one of them, Fermil Lopez he got a goal and two assists and Marcus Rashford got another goal as well a hit ball

47:34Exactly, really good performance from well, not a really good performance from Barcelona I would say from Fermil Lopez he was the star of the show and then the attacking front the attacking trio Diola, Milla, Mal and Marco Tricicciolo did what they were expected to do. Barcelona needed a win. I mean, if they could play good, that was good as well. That was a bonus. But given the injury release, that Pedri is going to miss action for several weeks as well. He's not going to come back until the end of November, at least. So Barcelona needed a win here. They got it thanks to the firepower that they have up front.

48:04Elche is quite a daring team. They really pressed high, really offensive-minded. And they paid the price playing at Barcelona. where, yeah, I think that Fermin is the most informed player. Laminia Malfandane, which is good for his self-confidence. He's trying to get out of this groin injury, which he needs to play to solve it, and he's trying to get his form back. And Marcus Rashford, yeah, he capitalized again. He's confirming as a good addition to this squad. I have doubts of what will happen once Rafinha is back in form, if he will keep that slot in the starting lineup. But for now, he's more than useful for Hansi Flick and a really good asset in this club.

48:41OK. Atletico Madrid go into their New San Diego clash fresh from a third straight La Liga victory. They beat Sevilla 3-0 at the weekend. Villarreal were 4-0 winners against Rayo Vallecano. The other team that I wanted to ask you about is Betis, Real Betis, who beat Mallorca 3-0 at the weekend with Anthony now fully back in peak Anthony form. Yeah, no, just a stroll in the park. in Sevilla, Real Betis were really, really, really far better than Mallorca, and Anthony was the star of the show. Outstanding. Two really good goals, combining with Kucho Hernandez, and then he delivered the assist for the third goal, and the game was pretty much resolved by halftime, and Betis could have managed his load a little bit and saved players for the Thursday.

49:28Then they have, of course, another big game on the weekend. But yeah, Real Betis are now looking... I mean, I was quite surprised last week when they played against Atletico. they weren't that good and I was surprised because I think that they had a big chance to challenge Atletico de Madrid but yeah I think that they recovered a bit the feelings that they left over the past few weeks and all the best players are in top form Anthony two goals and assist Kucho Hernández really good Pablo Fornals I think he's an unsung hero of the season at Real Betis outstanding decision as well and yeah potentially I think top four team in La Liga this season Very nice and Leon this weekend.

50:08Yeah, I can't believe you're not going to mention Anton Griezmann reaching 200 Nando's La Liga goals. I knew you would do it, Jules. Yeah, okay, sorry. I knew you would. No, I was really close to mention the the sitter that he missed but I thought that I wouldn't do that. I mean, yeah, of course, really good record for Anton Griezmann, Atletico de Madrid. I think that they are like progressing to what Simone wants to do with these new signings, a lot of offensive players coming in, such as Alex Baena and all the players that have come in but the star of the show was Giuliano Simeone, Simeone's son, who's been the best player in the team for the last couple of games.

50:41He's been really, really good. He's thriving with this work rate and the high pricing and everything that he wants for the team in the final third. And he's delivered a couple of assists that have been pretty harmful for Atletico de Madrid and he's having all the headlines in Madrid. Excellent. Are the Simeone brothers the top footballing brothers out there? You've got the dueys. Who else have we got that we want to throw into that conversation? Oh, right now? Yeah. Yeah. Stan and Lars Bender. Yeah. Right. Lukas and Ternendev, I don't know. Yeah. Good shot. The Esposito's, always. One especially.

51:15The Götzes, the Schweinsteigers. Schlotterbeck. Hang on. Schlotterbeck's played against each other, didn't they? Who's the other Götzes? There's a Felix Götze. Felix Götze. And Mecha. There's a couple in the Mechas, yeah. The Schlotterbeck played each other, didn't they, on Friday? Augsburg-Dormand, yeah. Wow, look at you, Jules. I watched that game. I don't know why I wasted 90 minutes of my life. It was dreadful. Nothing's ever wasted. It was so bad. I mean, that game was bad, Seb, wasn't it? To start your weekend. Did you see what happened afterwards? So basically, Sandra Wagner comes on to Sky Deutschland afterwards.

51:48And the reporter said, you know, tough game. And also, obviously, you know, there were some fan protests, banners in the stands. And Wagner said, you know, I was focusing on the game. And the moderators just said, it's okay. I can read them to you or show them to you. and it was it was excruciating what did the balance say there were they were quite mild but there were a couple that said sort of big words no actions and personality cult because he's quite a brash guy you know what he says and the way he behaves and people have got kind of sick of it because his augs book aren't very good and he was trying his best but it was it just it was very german it was very direct and very confrontational and kind of it's okay i'm going to read them to you and all he could say afterwards was you read them extremely well well done nice hard hitting but yeah jules is right a terrible game of football absolutely awful that's a lot of liga chat then isn't it yeah yeah yeah a lot of them immediate hot yeah now yeah now i have time to dodge off and go to nando's yeah yeah yeah did you know that there's no Nando's in Spain.

52:56I'm sorry? Not yet. No, I understand why whenever you're in the UK, you go to Nando's. That's it, that's it. Your place to go. Is that right, Paul? No Nando's in Spain? Yeah, yeah, there's no Nando's. I had a chat like with a friend about that. Apparently, like the franchise, they had a study of if it was worthy to open here in Spain and they opted not to open like a franchise in here. So there's no Nando's in Spain. Wow. Yeah, yeah, a bit of, I'm just, throwing a bit of culture in there. Oh, yeah. On that bombshell. At times. We'll move on to Ligue 1.

53:36You're listening to the Totally Football Show with James Richardson. Now we do four times a week. Keep up to date with us on Insta and enjoy us in glorious Technicolor on YouTube at the Totally Show. Not just Lyon taking on Real Betis this week in Europe. You've got three French sides in the Champions League duels. PSG up against Bayern. And Marseille-Atalanta, James, looking forward to that one. And also Monaco heading off to the Arctic Circle to face Bodo Glimp. Monaco, who fell further off the pace this weekend in Ligue 1 with their first defeat under the new manager Pocignoli. They lost to Paris FC.

54:10Yeah, they did. And to be fair, they were not very good at all. And they were very good in midweek, where are not when they won and scored five goals. And this time didn't happen for them. And even Pocignoli was a bit after the game, I'm not really sure what happened there. I can't explain why we were so bad. Before James asked a question that he asked every week about Paul Pogba, he was supposed to be back for this game, but he picked up an injury on Thursday, ankle injury grade two. So we will probably see him after the international break. So that's done. But yeah, for Monaco, it's not good.

54:41And you could see what Pogginoli tried to do, not so much in this game because they were really bad. But before that, it just will take a little bit of time and a bit more consistency from his players, I think. concentration for them to do what he wants them to do. But yeah, that was a bad result for them. Very good for Paris FC, though. They move up to 11th place. Remember that film, Kaiser, all about that Brazilian player? I say player, but that man who managed to make a career despite never being a footballer, because every time he was due for selection, he would pick up an injury. That's what you think about Paul Pogba.

55:13That's so bad. Yeah, it just brought it to mind. Monaco are at Bodo glimped. Both sides are on only two points. after three match days. So it's a big one. Yeah, you have to win. Sassan Sufati lost a bit off track. He's there. He was a bit disappointed this weekend. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I've read something. Yeah, it's just, it feels like maybe, in a way, because he didn't play for so long, not much for so long, I think even at the club, they always felt that even when he was going to start to do well, there was always going to be a bit of a dip because he's just not used of playing so much anymore.

55:49Things like that. but he was yeah he was not great Aklius was not great Minamino when he came on was not great Bireth I don't know what happened to him not great yeah not great so it was difficult I think for all attacking players in this game for Monaco there you go since we last spoke about Ligue 1 duels here on the show there have been two rounds of football you mentioned PSG getting a win that avoided them adding to that series of draws they've had they are two points clear at the top of the table ahead of Marseille and Lens who both won Marseille were 1-0 winners at Ouzer while Lens looking good right now 3-0 against Lorient while Monaco, Lyon and Strasbourg all lost ground on the top sides Marseille, Angel Gomez with the only goal in a scrappy affair away at Ouzer

56:50Angel Gomez! That's a narrow scoreline for... Yeah, it's a bad performance too from them. They lost Ulises Garcia in the second half, a stupid red count. Geronimo Rulling goal was outstanding, saved probably three or four big, big chances. Otherwise, they would have never won that game. Dezebi was not too happy, changed the formation again, changed the team again, which starts to, I think, frustrate a few people within the club. He said after the game, I'm so glad that we won because otherwise you, the media, would have destroyed me because of all the changes again. And sometimes it's just a bit hard to follow.

57:21And for somebody, James, who was so, in a way, consistent at Brighton with the team that he had and the formation that he put out, certainly this season, I think he's three or four different formations already. He's a back three, he's a back four, he's a midfield two, he's a midfield three. It's just a bit hard to follow. And I think the players struggle a little bit at times to follow it. It changes a lot. There's no double pivot that really, he's got a lot of options in midfield. and there's nobody really that has been in his eyes good enough to keep their place so Vermeer he plays once or Gomez plays once or Riley plays once Hojbjerg plays once it's just it's just a bit difficult to follow sometimes and yet there they are only a couple of points but they were flying at some point this season the last few games that's not the case not so much no Lens though how much sustainability is there in that?

58:13they were lucky in this game too oh really? yeah really lucky 3-0, those? Yeah, but they were 1-0 up until the 77th minute. Lorient missed the penalty at 1-0. And Lorient were, at times, the better team in this game. So it was interesting because they lost to bottom-of-the-table Mets in midweek. And our friend Pierre Saj, the coach, you know, Stonewise, said after the game, like, I think we got carried away, me included, took this game for granted against the team that everybody expected them to win. So at least they bounced back from that. But I still think it's a little bit fragile, I think.

58:42Okay. next weekend Monaco yeah after their midweek exploits will be up against Lens while Lyon hosts Paris Saint-Germain yeah Lyon who should be signing Hendrik in January we think I think Paul probably has the same information it looks like Lyon are right now probably leading the race for the signing on loan of of Hendrik he has the same agents to Malik Fofana the Lyon winger and I think as much as Hendrik wanted the Champions League club which is fair enough and Lyon are obviously only in the Europa League. I think he knows that he's guaranteed to start in a team that plays good football in a manager that speaks the same language as him.

59:19All of that, I think, matters in why he might choose Lyon over maybe another Spanish club or German club or English club. Okay, that's huge potentially. It would be massive for them because really this team and it was a bad nil-nil draw for them because they were down to 10 for so long but it's a team that, especially when Fofana is not there like he's injured right now, likes a number nine, likes creativity, likes something up front. they could have played for hours and hours yesterday and they would have never scored so it would be amazing for them and for Ligue 1 to sign somebody like him for sure Lyon currently lying 6th but only 4 points off Paris Saint-Germain in top spot when's Fontega back from his ban?

59:57in 3 weeks time 3 weeks time crikey alright then just one last thing because this is the thing that everybody talks a lot in France there was a little incident no big incident sorry at the end of the the Toulouse-Le Havre game where Aaron Donham the Norwegian international put his hand in front of his face and wave the hand like that to say like it was a bad smell in front of Simon Ebonog, the Le Havre defender. Le Havre interpreted that very much as a racist. Dunham says that the Le Havre player had bad breath, and that's what he was saying, saying that it's not racist. To what Le Havre is responding now, it's still public humiliation that should not happen on a football pitch.

1:00:39whether you didn't whatever you were trying to say whether it was racist or not you still humiliated my player and that should not be allowed I think Donham risked a lot here and he will go in front of the discipline committee this week or next week I think and the maximum is 10 match ban wow whether it's racist or not or they will have to decide obviously it's his word against what they think or what they believe but if it's not racist it's just for mocking a fellow professional I think Didier Degard the low half manager made a really good point after the game when he said public humiliation like this you know you've got bad breath you smell bad you know whatever exactly Donovan wanted to say it's not acceptable it should not be happening on a football pitch and that could be also a long ban well it's not nice is it back in the day didn't grizzle defenders used to consciously eat an onion or something like that to make it uncomfortable for forwards Leonardo Benucci used to eat garlic there you go yeah that's right before games with the intention of then blowing on an opponent yeah yeah I'm worried now because we've been talking about Paul and Nando's are we going to get 10 match bans for humiliating Paul about his I mean and Spanish people in general there's nothing embarrassing about going to Nando's surely James well I even order garlic bread though ah that's helpful garlic bread is not French by the way because everybody in England thinks that garlic bread is French this just in the dish commonly known as garlic bread nothing to do with France we don't eat it in France stop saying like do you eat garlic bread in France no we don't you invented that in the UK do you eat garlic in France yeah but not garlic bread this is a British invention nothing to do with French boy I was today years old when I discovered that garlic bread

1:02:28no but it's like so they think it's French they also think it's Italian in the same way that they think I'd say it's strongly associated with Italian-style restaurants. And therefore, yeah. But it's not Italian, is it? No. They don't do it. They don't do it. But just own it, you English people. Just own it. Broussette is a toasted piece of bread with garlic rubbed on it. In much the same way as pan de tomate contains some of those elements as well. In France, I would not be surprised if somebody in France wasn't slicing a baguette in two and adding garlic for breakfast. We do a lot of other things, like snails, as you know, but not garlic bread.

1:03:03All right. Just saying. Yeah, I've just never thought of it necessarily a french dish when i have thought of it which is not often so i'm just glad i cleared this up i am glad you could if you ever think about it one day you've streisand affected your own culture jules no one was talking about this beforehand no but paul mentioned garlic bro somebody mentioned garlic bread and he came to my and i felt i had to say it was very important for me and my family it was a ludicrous level of sensitivity you know I'm glad we've cleared this up yeah to be honest the way Paul said that it was almost like I wouldn't be seen eating garlic bread you see right no I mean yeah good for you Paul good for you yeah yeah that's that's like a list now that's what was in our Ligueur roundup who knows what we'll be talking about when we address the Bundesliga with Seb next

1:04:07This is the Totally Football Show, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. The Athletic is the only place you can read articles by Daniel Taylor, Amy Lawrence, Phil Hay, James Pearce, Oli Kay and the very best football writers around. Seb, you spent the day with Philip Lahm. What was that like? Yeah, it was amazing. I got to see what it might be like, sort of, to have won the World Cup and the Champions League. I went to watch Philip do some coaching he's uh the assistant coach for his son's under 14s team so he talks a lot about grassroots football and what he believes in and why he thinks grassroots participation is so important why he's kind of his post-career life is directed towards making sure that you know people have access to amateur sports clubs but then ahead of the uh well during the the Borussia Dortmund Bayern Munich game at Alen's Arena I walked around the pitch with him and got to kind of see the way the fans responded to him in the stadium.

1:05:00And yeah, I've never captained Germany to a World Cup or Bayern Munich to a Champions League, but it looks pretty cool to have done both of those things, I think. Yeah, charming guy. Lovely guy. Oh, that's good. And you have a piece out. Yeah, I have a piece out, which came out last week. And it was great fun to write. And it was great fun to talk to a footballer about what actually matters to them. Not in a token way, but something, you know, the thing that they've dedicated their life to after playing garlic bread but it was it was also because like i think growing up watching philip lam growing up i'm 41 years old for goodness sake but i think he was one of those players i always imagined you go and be a coach or a sporting director or you would ascend into the kind of the bi-munic hierarchy and find a natural place there and he talks a lot about why he didn't do that and you know the coaches that he played with and why it wasn't for him I'm not going to take words out of the piece, but it was just a really, yeah, one of those days as a journalist where you think, guys, pretty cool to be paid to be doing this.

1:06:01Excellent. For me, that's every day that I'm here with you guys hearing about the fabulous football played around the continent. For example, well, actually. Augsburg-Dortman. Augsburg-Dortman. I was literally trying to look down on my screen. Augsburg-Nil, Dortman-1. Dortman, though, could be involved in a very attractive-looking fixture. this midweek as they visit Man City. They have been scoring no fewer than four goals in every game so far in the competition, have Borussia Dortmund. Is that going to continue, do you think, against the less than rock solid Man City, defensively speaking? No, I think because domestically their scoring form has become a little bit stodgy.

1:06:43They beat Augsburg 1-0 on Friday night, didn't create a huge amount, had similar issues when they played Cologne at home, a couple of weeks ago when they needed a very, very late Max Viya winner. It's kind of related to a little bit of a drop-off in form from Sarri Gerasi. Karim Adeyemi is not quite where he was about a month ago. So I think this is going to depend upon Dortmund being a little bit more solid, which is going to be tough because obviously they're coming face-to-face with Erling Corland again. Let's see how that goes. But Dortmund are still, you know, Dortmund are ticking long. They're solid.

1:07:18Given what happened last year, you know, significant improvement. in the first half of the season from last year. But it's tricky because Dortmund are in this awkward place in the Bundesliga where, realistically, not going to challenge Bayern, not going to challenge this Bayern because they're much too good for everybody at the moment. Even despite only being five points back, there is a little bit of muttering about style and whether this team are playing in a way which is true to Borussia Dortmund's ideological beliefs. I don't know. I'm not sure I buy that. Given how much instability the club has dealt with over the last couple of years, to be playing this solidly, to be defending well, to see individual improvements in players, I think it's splitting hairs a little bit.

1:08:01But let's see. I think they can keep it close. They're built to counter-attack. So if they can be solid, then we shall see. And this isn't a vintage Man City. So I have some hope. I have some hope. Okay. Bayern Leverkusen, meanwhile, are at Benfica. This is a huge game for both teams who are way down the bottom end of this newfangled Champions League league phase table. Benfica a third last, having lost both games so far under Jose Mourinho. Failed to score under Jose. Bayer, Leverkusen are one place worse off. Crikey. Having lost 7-2, of course, last time to Paris. Saint-Germain. How much pressure is there on Bayer ahead of that game?

1:08:43I don't think there's pressure because I think they're in a very interesting position now because obviously succeeding Xabi Alonso was an extraordinarily difficult task for Eric Ten Hag. But because he was dismissed so quickly, it was almost as if Leverkusen defaulted through that stage, the awkward moment afterwards, to a point where it sort of blew up the idea of a succession and everything became recontextualized. And so now in comes Kasper Hullman, who outside of coaching the Danish national team, had never coached outside of Denmark other than a really unsuccessful spell at Mainz, where he seceded Thomas Tuchel, not successfully.

1:09:21And so they've reached this point at which, right, we've got a lot of young players. We've got a coach who no one has a lot of expectation for. And so we're kind of starting again from zero. And so the PSG game was shocking. they were absolutely destroyed uh exposed technical shortcomings coaching shortcomings uh failure of leadership robert andrisch getting himself sent off again a really really difficult night and um they panicked you saw how much fragility there was in the team and how little personality they had and i think in a way kind of useful because they accept right well we're not going to challenge by munich this season we're not going to go through latter rounds of the Champions League and so Bayer Leverkusen now is about can we grow the good young players that we do have.

1:10:08Kavane is a really good player, Poccu is a really really good player like both of them up front. Can we grow to the point where in two or three years we can be competitive again and so I don't think there's any pressure if they get beaten by Benfica they get beaten by Benfica. There's not going to be any sacking, there aren't going to be any repercussions. It was just more about their prospects of making it to the knockout phases because both sides are a bit off the pace there, but it's still early days, early days. In which case, let's talk about a team that is facing pressure. But this weekend, so a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Seb.

1:10:43Yeah, hadn't won in the Bundesliga since March. March. And Igen Polanski, who is the interim head coach, Roland Fircus, who was previously their sports director, he resigned a couple of weeks ago after that terrible loss at home to Eintracht Frankfurt when they were 5-0 down at halftime. Ended up losing 6-4. Polanski stayed. Reuven Schroeder, who's previously at AirBee Salzburg, who's the managing director for sport, he's replaced Fircus and he's kept faith with Polanski. And out of nowhere, really, they won 4-0 at Sampaoli.

1:11:19Now, a bit of context, Sampaoli are in crisis. Off five straight, defensive standard from last season has disappeared completely. making so many mistakes and there started to be discussions about Alexander Blessin's future. Oka Gerdlik, the Sampali president, said afterwards, you know, he kind of battered away. He was on Sky over the weekend. He said, well, I hadn't even thought of Blessin's future until you asked me. I think given a few more bad results, you might have to. But yeah, Gladbach, a great moment for Polanski because he's been through it. It was his first Bundesliga win as a senior coach.

1:11:51So well done to him. And how much did it owe to them bringing Florian Newhouse back to the side after he was banished at the start of the season to the under 23s yeah i mean he had pretty good game for those who don't know neuhaus at the end of the season neuhaus was at a music festival and enjoying himself when he found himself onto somebody's uh video like a fad so he ran into some gladback fans basically and and was caught slagging off fircus um he refers to a don rollo kind of mocking his contract and renegotiation also referred to him as the kind of the worst sports manager in world football so it's pretty awkward just got tanked up basically he's just needed to say all due respect yeah went down to the under 23s fought his way back because no house good player he hasn't become the player people expected him to be hasn't played for the german national team since i think 2022 and it's completely out of the picture there's no conversation there but he played well rocker rights played well defense is pretty solid uh harris tobakovic up front was very very good simpali were dreadful but uh yeah well done polanski because it's been very, very tough for a few weeks now.

1:12:59Indeed. Well, they're still in the relegation playoff position, but some upward momentum perhaps for Gladbach. And I think that's where we come to the end of this Totally Football Show European edition. Seb, many, many thanks to you. Thank you, Jimbo. Thanks to you, Paul. Been a pleasure. Stuck it out to the end this week. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I could make it. Yeah. James Horncastle, living in a box. Nice. And Julianne Laurent. Thank you, Jimbo. And producer Lucy, of course, and most of all, you listener. We'll be catching up with each other next Monday again for a Tuesday drop. So look out for that.

1:13:44And I should mention as well that this week, being a Champions League week, we'll have an extra Totally Football show on Wednesday morning, recounting the events of Tuesday night because there's big games tonight to you, listener, tonight. Anyway, that's enough from me and everybody here. Have a great time. Speak to you soon. Goodbye. You've been listening to The Totally Football Show, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. For more great podcasts just like this one, including The Athletic FC and our dedicated club podcasts, search for The Athletic on Apple, Spotify and all the usual places.

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