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Are Man City behind the curve? What on earth is Villa's 'identity'? And hoorah for the return of long ball football!!
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Ken and Nick discuss whether Man City are trailblazers or behind the curve with their low block display at Arsenal. Villa want an identity, but what does that even mean? And long balls are back - a welcome return or taking soccer back to the dark ages?
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:06
Speaker
your daily soccer podcast with the Global Sports Podcast Network.
00:00:13
Speaker
Welcome, welcome, welcome everybody to the Daily Premier League podcast. It is the evening of Tuesday, the 23rd of September. My name is Ken Davis. His name is Nick Britton.
00:00:25
Speaker
All round good egg, football pundit extraordinaire. How you doing, Nick? I'm very well, thank you very much. I am very well indeed. It's great to be back as it is every day on the Daily Premier League podcast.
00:00:38
Speaker
It is. This is your one-stop shop for everything you need to know about the Premier League. on a daily basis. A very big thank you to everybody who makes listening to the Daily Premier League podcast part of their everyday routine.
00:00:51
Speaker
It is great to have you aboard.
Man City vs Arsenal Analysis
00:00:54
Speaker
There are three things I want to talk about today, Nick, if you don't mind. First things first, and we talked about this offline the other day.
00:01:03
Speaker
We both watched the Man City Arsenal game, interesting game. One of the most interesting aspects of it was after the City went 1-0 up, ah They had a very interesting formation, and I'm interested in your take on what Pep was trying to achieve there whether it was the right thing to do, whether this marks a change in the way people defend 1-0 Leeds.
00:01:26
Speaker
I'd like to talk about Arsenal, sorry, about Aston Villa. There's some breaking news on Aston Villa today in terms of their sporting director, their director of football, I should say. But also Unai Emery is talking about their losing of their identity at the weekend.
00:01:41
Speaker
part of their struggles in the early part of the season. This idea of football identity, yeah is it a real thing? It's something I keep hearing people talk about, here fans talk about it. The team has no identity and things.
00:01:55
Speaker
Is it a real thing? Is it media fabrication? So wouldn't mind talking about that. And thirdly, The return of direct football. The return of lumpy.
00:02:07
Speaker
Lumpy. And then someone nods it on. Someone smashes it in from 18 yards. The good old days that we all grew up with. um Is there a return to direct football? Do we think that we're moving away from the diggy-daggy-daggy-daggy style that we kind of got used to in the last...
00:02:24
Speaker
15 years or so. And is it a good thing? Is it a bad thing? So that's the agenda. I'm going to play a little sweep and then we'll get into it.
00:02:37
Speaker
Your daily soccer podcast with the Global Sports Podcast Network.
Deep Dive: Man City's Defensive Strategy
00:02:44
Speaker
Okay. So first things first, Man City won Arsenal. Well, Arsenal won Man City, won Arsenal. Manchester City go 1-0 up. Nice finish by Haaland.
00:02:55
Speaker
ah And then everything kind of changes formation-wise. Like they're kind of, well, we're just going to stand there and we're going to make you go through us. what What was your take on that? and what you Do you think it's a shape of things to come?
00:03:08
Speaker
It was certainly an interesting tactic by Pep Guardiola. It was really in the second half this came to the fore, wasn't it? Because Arsenal... Whether or not they started with their best team has been the subject of much discussion, but they threw on Sacco, they threw on Eze for the second half, and they just attacked Manchester City at will. And City just dropped into a shape which by the end was pretty much a 5-5-0 formation.
00:03:32
Speaker
And they were happy not just to clear the ball, but just to kind of kick it into dead space and the Arsenal goalie, Rea, would come and pick it up and put it back into play. And then Man City would boost it up the pitch and Rea would come and get it and put it back into play.
00:03:43
Speaker
It was just one of those. It was extraordinary thing to see. And Arsenal just had, what well, City had 33.2 possession, which is the lowest share of any Guardiola team ever, ever in his entire managerial career.
00:03:56
Speaker
It really was extraordinary. And it nearly worked, obviously. It very nearly worked. ah But I think this is this is a difference that City have brought to their plate, not just this season, but we we noticed, I think, last year, they started going a bit more direct. They started playing playing a little quicker. There was less of the kind of possession-based football that we've seen already. But this is, if I'm honest with you, this is Guardiola having to react to what the market is doing, what everybody else is doing, because last year they ended up trophy-less.
00:04:28
Speaker
they looked They watched the way Liverpool play, they played a fast-paced, direct football. and And they thought, right, OK, well, look, if that's the way the world is going, then that's what we've got to kind of do. And I think all City are doing ah are adapting to the new footballing landscape of how teams play. And you said earlier on in your intro, I'm not going to try and repeat quite how you said it, but is this the end of essentially tika-taka football?
00:04:54
Speaker
And it probably is. there's lots of reasons why. And we can get onto the reasons why later on and why more direct football is coming into into the fore. But to see statistics like that, to see possession statistics like that for Manchester City is extraordinary. It's not nothing that we've seen before.
00:05:12
Speaker
And but I think we might well see it again.
Aston Villa's Struggles and Identity Crisis
00:05:14
Speaker
but Actually, just and I will just put that in a bit but of context if people are wondering, well, is that bad? There have only been six times this season when teams have had less possession than that.
00:05:23
Speaker
Only six times or four of those side times have been with teams who have only just been promoted and you might not expect to have any possession. And even of those two, even of those four, twice it was because teams had 10 men.
00:05:35
Speaker
So that's the kind of ballpark we're talking about. Yeah, it's interesting. It kind of shocked me a little bit to watch the game because it it just seemed singularly unambitious for Man City.
00:05:46
Speaker
It wasn't a good watch. It just really became a attack against defence, really. It was a good watch because it was Can Arsenal. was intriguing from that perspective. You know, as a neutral, it was quite an interesting watch because of the setups.
00:06:02
Speaker
But, you know, was that a compliment to Arsenal that essentially Pep Guardiola had said, right, we've got our 1-0 lead. You know, we're going to defend that to the last man, but we have no interest in trying to get in the second.
00:06:14
Speaker
We think our defence is better than Arsenal's attack and we will keep them out and we'll settle for our one goal cushion and do everything in our power to do that. And we have no interest in doing anything else because that's kind of what it felt like.
00:06:28
Speaker
And that's kind of what it looked like because when he took her Erling Haaland off and he took Phil Foden off, you know, he took two of City's most creative players off. I think if we go back to a an interview that Pep did earlier on this year, I think the roots of it lie in that because by then he'd realised that things had to change. And he said, today, modern football is the way that Bournemouth and Newcastle and Brighton and Liverpool play.
00:06:52
Speaker
Modern football is not positional, i.e. it's not based on possession-based football. It's based on, in brackets, much faster, much more direct football.
00:07:03
Speaker
So if he's thinking about that nine, ten months ago, ah think we're now seeing the evolution of that thought process. Interesting. One other the thing, just as an aside, I didn't mention it to you before, perhaps should but I'm interested in something because it's something I've noticed this season. I've never noticed it before, which is the propensity of teams to boot the ball out of play from kickoff just to pin the opposition back, concede the throw in, if you like, deep into in defensive territory and essentially give up possession.
00:07:41
Speaker
Just, if you like, like a rugby kicking it out. ah just for positional territorial advantage. I've never seen that in football, but I've seen it a few times this season where teams seem to be playing for territory. if clearly You've clearly never watched Sunday morning football down on your local park because that's been... That's what my accent is. No, it isn't.
00:08:06
Speaker
the the the know The kick-off, boot it the corner, followed by cries of, box them in, lads, box them in, has been going on for years and years and years. It's nothing new. But listen, we all know that we all know. In the Premier League, it's new in the Premier League.
00:08:19
Speaker
We've been around football long enough, Ken, to know that football trends are based on one team doing it and everybody else going, oh, that looks good. We'll give it a go. That's how it starts's how it all
The Role of Identity in Football
00:08:30
Speaker
starts.
00:08:30
Speaker
It always starts with one team. And one team does it and it's successful. And then other coaches look at it and go, oh, yeah, we'll have a bit of that. And sooner or later, it just becomes the norm. That's all that's happened here.
00:08:41
Speaker
Yeah, that makes that makes perfect sense. Right. As we know in football, as Pep Guardiola knows, it pays to get your team selection right. And here at Global Sports Podcast Network, we spent a lot of time selecting our delivery partner and we chose Zencastr.
00:08:56
Speaker
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00:09:10
Speaker
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00:09:29
Speaker
Right, second thing want to talk about today is Aston Villa. Villa becoming in a bit of a recurring theme. I know when we raised the issue of Villa a few weeks ago, it was kind of, oh look at Villa.
00:09:40
Speaker
They've had a slightly dodgy start to season. And now all you see now... in football commentaries and football analysis at the moment is what on earth is going on at Villa. Now, we don't want to do the deep dive in that sense.
00:09:55
Speaker
But one of things that Unai Emery spoke about this weekend after the 1-1, I think it was this this this weekend, so hey, they scored a goal, is the team has lost its identity.
00:10:09
Speaker
Now, I keep hearing this, and I've heard it now for a couple of seasons, from fans, from managers saying, oh yeah, we have a particular identity. Our team has an identity. They're not playing with their identity.
00:10:21
Speaker
um so Do teams have identities, really? and Or is that just a media, because you're a media person, a media kind of fictitious fabrication?
00:10:33
Speaker
I think it helps managers to talk about it because it helps them try and get across. to supporters and to other people what they want their team to do. So when they talk about their team's identity, it's more about the style of play and what they want their team to do. And they use that term to help supporters perhaps understand what it is they're trying to achieve.
00:11:01
Speaker
I remember Gareth Southgate was very big on this when he took over in England. he wanted He wanted England to have an identity. And I started digging around because I knew we were going talk about this on the podcast today. And I came across something called social identity theory, which is a well-established psychological practice.
00:11:17
Speaker
All right. It's about how individuals define themselves based on... their kind of group memberships and their self-esteem by how it improves, how they if they identify with ah ah groups of people and select something.
00:11:33
Speaker
and And if you and if you if you ah bridge that across to what Gareth Southgate was talking about, he wanted England supporters to be sort of part of the England set up, if you like, and therefore they would be more supportive of the England team if they felt included. Does make sense?
00:11:50
Speaker
It does make sense. It's a very interesting sociological theory. So what it's saying is the identity, ah okay, might be defined by the club, but it spreads outside the club. People can buy into that identity.
00:12:02
Speaker
Well, I think that's it. And i remember and then then my kind of thought process took me to, obviously, yeah as as you know, a big Derby County fan, it took me back to something that the former owner was talking a lot about. Mel Morris used to talk a lot about what he called the Derby Way.
00:12:16
Speaker
And what he identified as the Divey Away, nobody's quite sure. But I think think it's it certainly didn't involve financial collapse, relegation and administration. And not winning after Christmas. i think that was the thing. But I think what it what it what essentially meant was something that the supporters could buy into that they should expect there to watch their team playing in a certain way, which was all around, as far as Mel Morris was concerned, all around bringing youth through to the academy. He wanted...
00:12:45
Speaker
He wanted the the the academy to provide a a very clear pathway to the first team. He wanted players from the academy in the first team. And that the Derby way was promoting youth, getting the players, getting good football, attractive football and allowing the supporters to buy into that to create that sort of oneness of club that involves player, manager and fans.
00:13:07
Speaker
Interesting. Yeah, i it's just one of those annoying terms that I think people are using quite lazily now. it's just kind of and And reporters just suck it up. They kind of, oh, yeah, okay, then.
00:13:20
Speaker
Instead of saying, what do you mean, identity? Which I really wish they would sometimes. And then we'd really put them on the spot. do You know what the other you know the other term is that drives me nuts at the moment, that managers are always coming out with, is the word moments.
00:13:35
Speaker
Moments. You hear all the time. It was not our moment. We but you know with you we we we we just didn't have enough moments. Where's where' is his manager from?
00:13:46
Speaker
ah
00:13:50
Speaker
You'll see there's no in this manager. So it's it's always, yeah, we had a very good moment. We had a very good moment. And then they had a very good moment. And we couldn't create any more moments.
00:14:02
Speaker
No, listen, what that refers to. and they're and And they're right. Look, when this when this popular phrase came out, and we're talking about a season and a half ago now, where suddenly people started talking about it, and you know what the football language is like. It just stuff gets introduced out of nowhere. yeah and rap comes Yeah, very much part of the football language.
00:14:21
Speaker
And that when i when that first came out, I'm thinking, yeah, I don't really know kind of what they kind of what they mean, but not quite sure. But then when I looked into it, and indeed... I coached a lot of football, and i had a team that played at weekend.
00:14:34
Speaker
And I suddenly realized that actually they are right, because when you watch a game… Did you start using it? No, I never started using it, no. I may have used it once. I bet you did. I bet you did. We had a very good moment, then they had a big moment, and then we had a more moment.
00:14:50
Speaker
No, what it means is that – and you'll see this. You go out and watch – Go up and well go watch watch watch any game on Saturday. I know that you and I will be watching the same game on Saturday. Go on, Rector. But from the sides of the sofa.
00:15:02
Speaker
and Not that we live together, but you know what mean. Don't put that on. Let me just make that perfectly clear. But no, what it means is that football games, are ah particularly at the top end, Premier League particularly, they are so close.
00:15:17
Speaker
And you can do all the tactics in the world. And this is perhaps what, you know, tie this back to what's going on at Villa at the moment. You can have all the tactics in the world. you can You can do as much work on the training ground as you possibly can. You can do as much work um in the classroom as you possibly can.
00:15:31
Speaker
But actually, when during a game of football, Everything comes right until one moment. And it's one moment where a striker either does or doesn't put it in the back of her net. It's one moment when a player does or doesn't pass the ball to the right player to allow them to score.
00:15:46
Speaker
It's one moment when a goalkeeper pulls off a worldie. That's what they mean by moments. and And often games are decided by that. Now, you have to create those moments. You have to be able to supply the ball in the right areas for that to happen, but actually at that critical thing.
00:16:04
Speaker
And it is those home those tiny little moments in football, those sliding doors moments where Haaland puts the ball in back in a net, but Sesko puts over the bar, that decide games.
00:16:16
Speaker
That makes sense. i feel I feel that you've answered my momentary question. So thank you for that. I'm very good. I think Ruben Amarin would be a perfect person to talk about that at the moment because fortunate at the moment yeah ah prior to their win against Chelsea, obviously we talked a lot about them on this podcast.
00:16:36
Speaker
And as well as the fact we talked about the chaos and and general kind of stuff that's going on at Manchester United, we'd also talked about last week about they are creating loads of chances and they're right at the top of the Premier League for a number of touches in the board in the in opponent's area.
00:16:53
Speaker
They're right up there in terms of opportunities and chances created, but they're way down there, way down the bottom the league in terms of goals scored. So that is that's what I'm talking about here. They create these chances. They have these moments in games.
00:17:07
Speaker
But their conversion rate is low. Exactly, yeah, where they should be scoring in they don't. That makes sense. But then you can't blame the fact that the conversion rate is low on everything else because actually you can say to the other players, you're doing really well because you're doing your job. You're like you know you are creating these chances for players.
00:17:23
Speaker
You're doing exactly what we ask you to do. It's just that at that at that moment in time, things don't work out. Very good. what it means for you. Very good explanation. Every day is a school day on the podcast.
00:17:36
Speaker
One final thing before we leave Villa. ah News. Villa is director of football. Monkey. Monkey. Goalkeeper as well.
00:17:47
Speaker
Not his real name, by the way. Real name, Ramon Verdejo. But a key ally of Unai Emery has left his position today.
00:17:59
Speaker
ah expected to be replaced by Roberto Alabe, who's the Sporting Director of Real Sociedad. Monki, bless him, obviously has paid the penalty.
00:18:11
Speaker
Obviously, they thought Monki might be taking Villa to the Championship.
00:18:17
Speaker
That's very good. That's very good. For you, particularly. Thank you very much. So actually, the question, the serious question is, is the loss Monkey actually damaging for Emery?
00:18:33
Speaker
ah And does this start to add even more pressure on Emery? And we all know that he's under increasing amounts of that. Well, it might have him swinging towards the exit door.
00:18:45
Speaker
I don't know. We'll have to wait and see. Do you think this will be a banana skin? It may well be a banana skin for him. Look, it's it's not ideal because he's an ally of Emery and Emery's under enough pressure already.
00:18:57
Speaker
So it doesn't help when youre those people who have influence in the boardroom and the decision makers depart. So it's look it's not ideal, but equally, we all know what the situation is at Villa and we all know what Unai Emery needs to do. That's just to win a couple of games and then it'll all be okay.
00:19:20
Speaker
He'll find his identity
The Resurgence of Direct Football
00:19:22
Speaker
again. He'll find his identity yeah I don't know what the Villa identity is. Is it is it just being rubbish and not scoring goals? At the moment it is. At the moment is. So, brilliant. Okay. Global Sports Podcast Network has partnered with Bionique, the world's most personalised supplements, because your body, and believe me, both my body and Nick's body, are extraordinarily unique at the moment.
00:19:44
Speaker
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00:20:04
Speaker
forty percent of your first
00:20:13
Speaker
Your daily soccer podcast with the Global Sports Podcast Network.
00:20:20
Speaker
Right, final part of the podcast. I want to celebrate, I want to reflect on, and I want to embrace the return of direct football. I've never been a massive fan of Tiki Taki, eight billion passes ah ah in football.
00:20:37
Speaker
in a game for a team ah for no real benefit. And now it seems that we are starting to see the return of Graham Taylor, Wimbledon, Sam Allardyce era football.
00:20:52
Speaker
ah Someone belted up the field, little nod on, smack it in the corner, jobs are good. So Nick, do you remember Derek football? Do you love direct football, and do you think he's still got a place in the modern game?
00:21:07
Speaker
ah Yes, yes and yes, I think. I mean, i remember the days of John Beck at Cambridge United, who was absolutely just famous for, you know, goal goalie to in the opposition net in two touches. The first one being the goalie and the second one being the striker.
00:21:20
Speaker
Yeah. A whacking long ball up. So, yeah, it's... it's Everything has its place. I'm all for a bit of possession-based football if it leads somewhere. I mean, watching the great Manchester City and Barcelona teams of the last 20 years, it's a joy to watch.
00:21:36
Speaker
It is brilliant. But as we will as we knowt and as we have just been talking about on this very podcast, teams follow teams. So when Pep Guardiola, I mean we're going back to the days of Arsene Wenger introducing new things into the into the Premier League.
00:21:49
Speaker
Mm-hmm. that everybody followed. Fast forward to Guardiola, bringing in Tikataka possession-based football. Everybody just followed. The problem with everybody is that they're not Pep Guardiola and they're not Manchester City.
00:22:02
Speaker
It's Plymouth, does it? Well, this is my point. This is my point. And, ah mate, if you were I know you were in your hospital bed on Saturday, but if you'd join me at Pride Park to watch Derby and Preston, yeah Derby's attempts to play out from the back literally just had you looking through through your fingers, holding your breath, because...
00:22:20
Speaker
They're not, they just don't have it. ah So why do it, is my question. Well, we do it because Man City do it and it's cool. It's not really an answer, is it? I think part of the problem is, and we saw I mean, funnily enough, actually,
00:22:34
Speaker
actually One of the biggest victims of this, of this tiki-taka softball, have been Manchester City. Because if you think back to the game where they lost it to Tottenham at home 2-0, the first goal, I think it was, is it the first or the second?
00:22:47
Speaker
One of the goals certainly was caused directly by James Trafford taking a free kick and passing it to his centre-half who stood a couple of yards away from him on the six-yard area. yeah and within about a ball back to Trafford, and within about two seconds, the ball was in his own there.
00:23:04
Speaker
It's high risk, low reward strategy. thing you not the players i think the I think the issue is, when it was brought in, nobody really worked on what we now call, this just we're talking about this all the way through this podcast, aren't we?
00:23:18
Speaker
The kind of cyclical nature of football. now What we now call a high press didn't really happen. So you could get away with just knocking a ball short, building from the back, without a lot of pressure from the opposition.
00:23:30
Speaker
Now, as that tactic evolved over the last six, seven, eight years, what we've seen is teams push up on defenders, realise that actually, if we can win the ball, if they're going to do that, if they're going to pass out a defence and muck around with it in their defensive third,
00:23:46
Speaker
We can win the ball there. And if we can win the ball there, we've got an excellent chance of scoring because we'll be moment are attacking they'll be correct in a moment out of our attacking third. And so more and more teams now, combined with the fact that modern day footballers are ah massive athletes, can run and run and run at great pace, means that playing around it out the back and playing out from the back and all of that has become a real risk.
00:24:10
Speaker
It's become a real risk. And we've seen over the last two or three goals, more and more, sorry, two or three seasons rather, in the Premier League, more and more goals given away by teams who try and play out from the back and can't.
00:24:21
Speaker
And eventually somebody's decided, forget this, forget this. Why don't we go back to how it used to be, which is get the ball up quickly, try and win the second ball and play in the opposition half.
00:24:33
Speaker
It all goes back. I remember Graham Taylor in Watford. getting a letter from a fan. who, and this is well documented, who pointed out, he'd done a lot of analytics over seasons and seasons of lots of teams and said, do you realise, Graham, that most goals are scored with only three or less touches by the scoring team before the goal is scored?
00:25:00
Speaker
So it actually makes sense just to lump the ball in there ah rather than try and play through teams because it's rarely successful because teams have got a chance to set themselves up Banks are four.
00:25:11
Speaker
It's going to be hard to play through them. He adopted it. The rest was history for Watford. And you see lots of other teams then pick that direct style up. There was a lot of debate about it in the 80s, that it was an unattractive, prehistoric, dinosaur type of way to play.
00:25:28
Speaker
But And it is, in a way, because it it hasn't got a great deal of of ah theory ah behind it. It's not sophisticated football in that sense.
00:25:41
Speaker
But you know what? It's effective. Do you think it's you think it's in good watch? Well, I think you have to disassociate direct football with long ball football.
00:25:52
Speaker
So direct football is, look at Manchester City's goal on Sunday, for example. It goes up to Harland, I think from the goalkeeper, although I could be... No, he was paid through from the midfield.
00:26:04
Speaker
Paid through from midfield, up to Harland. But he's still in his own half. Yeah, three touches and goal. Yeah, and he just lays it off and then turns around and runs and runs and runs and runs, receive it and goal. That was as direct as you could, yeah pretty unless unless's he's taking it straight from the goalie in final three. That's a direct. but if Martin Ellis wasn't that different.
00:26:21
Speaker
But equally, yeah, exactly that. yeah Yeah, Martin Ellis is a good example. Eze drops deep, receives the ball and then just pings it. Pings it over. it over the top. You need to have the players to do it.
00:26:33
Speaker
And I think that's very different. That's very different from long ball football where the goalie just whacks it up the pitch and it's a total lottery as to what happens next. i think And we see that a lot. We see that a lot in the Championship.
00:26:46
Speaker
Goalie clears it and you may get it, you may not. Who knows? Who knows what's going to happen? It's just a question of getting rid of the ball. and So I think if you're going to talk about direct football where there is a clear kind of aim and Arsenal's a great, you've you've pulled out a great example there and and that ball from Eze was directed towards Martinelli. He timed his run perfectly and he scored.
00:27:07
Speaker
that's fine. And that still requires as much skill and as much talent as any possession-based football you'll ever, ever want to see. For Eze to ping the ball to the to the absolute requirement that Martinelli needs to run onto it, and then for Martinelli to finish the way he did by lobbing it over the tower block that is Donnarumma, that's skill. People may look at it and not for the purists. I disagree. It is for the purists because it takes an enormous amount of talent to be able to do both of those things.
00:27:39
Speaker
Yeah, I wouldn't disagree with that. I suppose one day we may go to a football match and watch a goalkeeper receive the ball, roll it out to the end of his 18-yard box and kick it 100 feet into the air, like the good old days, for a goal kick. mean, it never happens now, does it?
00:28:00
Speaker
It's like he passes it out. He just kind of always just passes it 10 yards and they move it from there. I don't know. I don't know. No, I think we're seeing more and more of it. I'm seeing much more of it at kind of lower league level.
00:28:14
Speaker
It's good to see that teams... apart from the Derby example I used, and they've got to learn from this. Just just don't bother, lads. Don't learn next week. Learn the week after. yeah Well, no no, let's do it for Saturday.
00:28:26
Speaker
I think we are just seeing more keepers. But the Preston goalie, I think, on Saturday, from memory, didn't really worry too much about playing out. It went long. ah if you I think the rule is if you've got the players to do it, do it. If you don't, then just don't bother even trying.
Podcast Conclusion and Farewell
00:28:40
Speaker
That is a good place to finish the podcast. If you've got the skills, do it. If you don't, don't. That's why we do the podcast, because we've got the skills to do it. Hope you enjoyed that. That was the Daily Premier League podcast.
00:28:53
Speaker
Loved bringing it to you. We'll be back again tomorrow. And, yeah, ah enjoy the rest of your evening. If your team's playing, like mine is, in the yeah in the cup tonight. you Is Derby playing cup tonight? Oh, no.
00:29:06
Speaker
They got knocked out. It's a Mickey Mouse competition nobody's interested It's another game and I hope all your players get injured ah Saturday and and then we'll beat you on Saturday.
00:29:17
Speaker
How's that? Well, on that positive and brotherly note, we will bring the pocket podcast to a conclusion. Love to see everybody. Have a great evening and we'll see you tomorrow.
00:29:32
Speaker
Your daily soccer podcast. the Global Sports Podcast Network.