🔵 ARE IPSWICH TOWN DOING AS EXPECTED SO FAR?? | Midweek Blues

0:00This podcast is proud to be part of the TalkSport fan network. TalkSport powered by fans. Why can't we get AI to production? Our competitors are already out of the key data secure. AWS AI cuts through the noise. With ready to use agents and the broadest set of AI tools, stop overthinking. Start building. AWS AI is how. A vacation rental shouldn't come with surprises. It should come with verbal care and 24-7 life support. If the hot tub's broken, that's a verbal care thing. If my teenager starts calling me Leslie, that's a family thing Leslie. Verbal care and 24-7 life support. If you know, you're verbo. Terms apply. See verbo.com slash trust for details. Well, nobody said it would be easy, but it won't be the games where the half and half scarves are most prominent, which will define our season. This is Blue Monday, and it's Switch Town podcast. Hello, and welcome to the midweek blues, a chance for us to put the previous weekend to bed once and for all.

1:17And to take a look at the bigger Premier League picture. And coming in your ears alongside me is Craig Finbo. How are you Craig? Yeah, or good. Thank you very much, Mikey. Good to see you again. Been a while. Yeah, it's been a little while. I got my toe in. Is that expression? It's not. I got my toe in with some pre-game previewing with Henry on late last week ahead of Liverpool, where I predicted a Liverpool win. So I still clearly know my stuff, really got my finger on the pulse. Let's get into Friday night first things first, Craig. With your good, the bad and the ugly. Yeah, well, as we said, this is something that our new cult following is hopefully going to get hold of as well. And we said, Henry and I, when we were on last time, said to people if they can think of some as well, to let us know and chuck them in the comments.

2:19And that was putting the onus on the host there. And I knew I was going to be hosting this one. And make it as tricky as possible for the host and negotiate all the various buttons and bells and whistles he has to. It's quite an obvious one, maybe. But my good is the burgeoning centimid field partnership of Palacios and Lukic. We got glimpses of it. I don't think it's anything like the finished product. There were, I think, maybe some teething issues given, you know, when do we play many, many on the Sunday, didn't we? And Liverpool on the Friday. So if you think we've traveled on the, on the back of that, they probably wouldn't have been on the training ground too often together. But I think with their experience, they're know how they're now. I think it's something that we can, we can look forward to and build on from, from here on in.

3:20Arguably our best ever Premier League centimid field partnership with all due respect to the right Williams and Steve Palmer. And, you know, obviously more recently, your vintage mic, either Holland, you know, permed two of any four of Holland, Midgleton, Miller and Jameen Wright possibly as well. But I think in terms of what could be and what might be a season defining Trent two transfers there. I'm hoping that they will form a full crime to what hope you'll be a relatively successful season. So that's my good is that that that buds the, the early buds of a good centimid field partnership yourself. Yeah, I had Palasios written down as well, but I'm going to change it to Emerson, Emerson being being fit. Because that was a little bit of a scour, wasn't it? That knee injury at Manchester United, but also wasn't an easy game for him on Friday night.

4:24But there was a moment where Van Dyke went in really hard on him. And the first time he got an opportunity, he put Van Dyke on his ass. And I think that that's that's a really good sign for young center for not being intimidated by the opposition. He feels he belongs at this level. And that's a really important thing. So I'm going to go for the big man up top, Mr. Emerson. Yeah. Well, and as you say, I think it's easy to forget just how in it's, you know, we're talking about the two centimid field as being experienced. It's easy to forget how relatively inexperienced he is. And he is still learning on the job. And I know Gary O'Neill said he's a project, but he really is, you know, learning in the most high profile, high pressure job. There is as a footballer. Yeah, absolutely. So that brings us on to the bad craze. Shall I go first on this one? Yeah, go on, mate. Yeah, you go. Confession, I wasn't at the game on Friday night. Difficult one for me because of work and family commitment.

5:25So I was like most Liverpool fans, sat watching from my sofa in the south of England. And the bad for me was Chris Sutton being selected by Sky Sports as the co-commentator for an Ipswich home game. Just absolutely no need for it. And that was on Sky, was it? He was at the company. Yeah. Yeah. Sky Sports Premier League, they had loot chambers alongside Jamie Rednapp. Probably the best looking punditry duo of all time alongside Kelly Cates. And they were excellent. Obviously Jamie Rednapp leaning more to the Liverpool side of things and loot chambers filling the men on Ipswich. Great to see him get that gig. Obviously, ever present on Ipswich. Yeah, ever present on EFL coverage. We're good to see him get the call up for a Premier League game. And I'm guessing that's probably helped by the fact that it was a Friday night. So they do tend to mix up the line up a little bit more for Fridays and save the usual crowd for Sunday.

6:30Looks like a couple of people agree with me about Chris Sutton. I don't necessarily mind him as a co-commentator, but it's someone that's kind of made a part of his career winding up Ipswich town fans. Probably just didn't sit right with me him being in that position. That being said, he wasn't overly harsh on Ipswich at any point. But yeah, you could you could you can just tell that at the earliest opportunity he was bringing up the net spend and things like that. Yeah, he's a pantomime villain though, is he? I often by virtue of driving to games on Saturdays and more importantly driving away from games on Saturday. And he's more often not. He's on 606. And I think if you sort of take a step back and take it for what he is and what he's trying to do, I don't mind him. I think he's good value. He's very dry. He says the right things. He winds up Robbie Savage, which isn't a bad thing as well. But yeah, I think in terms of a co-commentator on an Ipswich town game at Portman Road,

7:34you probably could have found someone maybe a relatively more neutral potentially. Yeah. And weirdly, I really didn't like Chris Sutton going back. This is going back to around 2018. So when we were in the doldrums and the championship and Norwich were pretty good, really had it in for Chris Sutton. And when I started at Premier League Productions in 2018, I think the first week I was there, I got to interview Matt Holland and then the second week Chris Sutton came in. And I very nearly said, I don't want to do this one. But I'll get given the benefit of the doubt and also just do my job that I'm paid to do. And he really blew me away by not just how nice he was and how friendly he was, but also by how unlike he was on the radio, when he's deliberately an interview for the world's world service, completely different to what you hear on the radio. And that was the day that I learned actually,

8:35this is a bit of a performance that he does and he's very, very good at it. But yeah, preferring on 606 to Sky Sports, co-commentary at Ipswich at least. What's your bad, then, Craig? Well, my bad, it's probably a bit harsh to be fair, but it's the use of dies in my eater at the moment. And I appreciate this, probably needs must with regards to the teams that we're playing. I just don't think currently, and we're probably still working it out to a certain extent and Gary O'Neill's working it out. And also the players that around him are working out as well. It's our use of him on that left wing. I fully appreciate that the work ethic he does, you know, he's up and down, he sprints around the pitch. But he is getting into some very, very good positions invariably to create that space for leaf Davis to go bombing down the left. As we've seen before, that the left midfielder is very often a Trojan horse. I was going to say a Japanese equivalent of a Trojan horse would be. But a decoy for that bombing on.

9:37And obviously, leaf had already scored and all had a decent chance, didn't he with his head on Friday night, that Fatawi was crossing the ball in from us where I sit above the tunnel there two or three times he got the ball. And you could tell it was a tactic to get it passed over the centre halves to the guys running in at the back post, which is very big Davis. But as I said, more often than not, it's my either who stood bang in the middle of the goal, six, eight yards out. He's making those runs time and time and time again and hasn't quite yet. No one's quite yet pulled the ball back to him to slot in. So I don't think it's going to be time until such time that he'll get a goal or two. So if he starts to match on Saturday, my 50p is going to be on. I think we're going to have worked on it enough that my either would have, yeah, they're going to find him in those positions. Those cutbacks are eventually going to drop to him

10:38and he's going to score because the poor sods haven't... Once he's done that run and made that run, and standing six to eight yards out in the middle of goal, invariably there's a big gap on our left hand side because Davis is always there as well. And he's having to sprint like Biliow to get across and cover the right back or the right wing, whichever of the opposition is going to get it. Yeah. So an early prediction there, Craig, is that your bad for this week is going to be the good for next week. That's the glass half full. Let's move on to the ugly. We've already spoken about Chris Sutton. What are you going for for ugly, Craig? I'm going for... I don't know if it's the right terminology to use. Clumps of goals. Obviously two in three or four minutes on frights, on the back of, as we know, three in 10 or 11 minutes whether it was an old traffic.

11:39I've read somewhere, forgive me, I can't remember if it was on Discord or if it was on Twitter or if it was on those with the days. T-W-T-D. Apparently last time we were in the Premier League, it happened 11 times that we conceded two or more goals in a 10-minute period. And you could have thought that it was a completely separate bunch of players and a completely different coaching staff and manager that might have been knocked on the head this time around. But early signs are, and it's very, very early signs, and it's a very, very small sample size. But I think it's something that we've got to knock out of our system very quick because you can't afford to go bang, bang, or even bang, bang, bang, bang in the Premier League. You give yourself such a big hill to climb getting back into it. So I think between now and the international break, I'm hoping that that's something that we can... Well, hopefully between now and the international break with it being three games, we'll get some sort of whole renaissance and defensive stability

12:44and not concede a single goal. But if we do happen to concede one, I'm hoping that another one isn't coming straight on the back of it. Yeah, we also had a nasty habit last time during the Premier League of conceding quite soon after scoring as well, didn't we? And that's one that's wrong true here as well. Yeah, yeah, to try to win against Sunland anyway. Yeah, but it takes the wind out... Wind out your sails, doesn't it? You know, you've worked so hard to score a goal in the Premier League that you need to cherish it and look after it. And yeah, just protect it for a really long game. Now it's something that they all know these guys, and they're not idiots. But I say it's just that bang bang. It just knocks us... Knocks us stuffing out and kills us in these games what has done so far. Yeah, there's really no coming back when you go a couple of goals behind. My ugly is our shooting from distance. I think that was really poor on Friday night. We had quite a few good openings. And with some of the players that we've got, the guys that do like to shoot from distance and see so especially,

13:48he's been electric since he came back. But yeah, I thought some of our shooting from distance was powder puff at best. For example, and Jack Clarke when he came off the bench and got a tame effort from a good position as well. Yeah, hopefully that's something that we can start to get right in those games. Because against those top teams that can be a huge difference maker if you can just score something out of nothing. So yeah, that's the good, the bad and the ugly. And as we put this game to bed Craig, I ask you, what did we learn? Well, having extolled the virtues of our burgeoning sentiment field partnership, I think at the moment, are we still a little bit naive when it comes to being a bit open and a bit easy to play against through the middle of the pitch. And as I said, we've had another week on the training ground since.

14:53And I'm going to use more stats and facts and figures. And we can thank Dan for these over on Discord. He has found some stats. I don't know where he got those from, but apparently we have the highest number of breaks, fast breaks against us in the league. And we've conceded more shots on target than anybody else. Now, let's caveat this because, so far this season, we've played the team that finished seventh was Sunderland, weren't they last year and what were Manu third, fourth met with them in Liverpool. Yeah, they had it in the Netherlands. Yeah, so we've played three teams that were in the top seven of the Premier League last year. So maybe we can revisit it at the international break in three games time, but it's not a solid basis to have the highest number of fast breaks against you in the league added on to the highest total of shots on target. That's not a great combo.

15:54I don't think to have going forward if you want to survive. So again, caviating it with who we've played so far. And I say, maybe we can revisit again in three weeks time where it is when the international break starts because we are going to be the underdog in the vast majority, if not all, but two home games and two away games against commentary and hull in the Premier League. So we can't go toe to toe with these teams and we can't leave ourselves as open as we have been on occasions in the last three games. Is there going to be at some point potentially not in the next three games, but in some point, we have to just bite the bullet and go a little bit more obviously defensive. You know, the guys on Sunday spoke about or been spoke about potentially going five at the back or four, five, one at least just to sit there and find out what the opposition can do.

16:55Hull have done okay out of setting themselves up that way, albeit the stats, the XG against them, they seem to be recreating what they did last season in the championship in terms of outperforming their XG exponentially. It's a good habit to have those, isn't it? Yeah, it's not. And you hear people say, oh, it'll leave even the self out of the course of the season. Well, it hasn't even itself out of the course of one season and three games so far. Has it? It kind of did, it kind of did though last season, didn't it? They were falling out of the of the playoffs by the end and managed to get in there on the final day. Yeah, I didn't fall to 23rd, which is where they should have been set. Yeah, quite right. Quite right. Called the XG, but no, you're right. They they performed at both ends of the pitch as well. Didn't know they were outscoring and not conceding. So maybe it just gives the the credence to if you get yourself a very good goalkeeper, you land yourself in a very good

17:56goalkeeper, then they can make the differences. Hopefully fingers crossed our goal. You can start doing that ourselves for you know, make up for mistakes that are further up the pitch. Yeah, and XG is a funny thing, not not everyone likes it. And you can point to the XG on Friday night, as an example of where it doesn't always work particularly well because those two chances that EZAC got were actually good good chances because of where the goalkeeper was and XG doesn't take goalkeepers positioning into players, far as I'm unaware. So that that chance for the second goal, if you look where he's actually tucked the ball away from, it's a really low XG chance, but you look at the whole picture and he's got great chances scoring it. Yeah, and also we outperformed Liverpool on XG if you look at the pure XG. Yeah, but that generally happens when you've gone behind early because let's face it, Liverpool never had the need, but I also think our XG was just the pure accumulation of pot shots from

18:59distance rather than us creating any real openings. And that is a slight worry, but I'd say that one learning is that we do seem capable of creating chances and half chances against the best teams of the league because that's what we've done in the last couple of games. So just a slight positive spin on the learning so far. Let's get into the news now, Craig. And this is only the second edition of midweek blues and the first time that you could have just done an hour on the news, couldn't you? Whereas this time, I think 60 seconds would probably suffice quite a slow news week when the main things on TWT, dear Daro Shae talking about starting right back. That's it's still a bit of a, for example, a hot topic, a lukewarm topic. He's probably going to be there for the sea of the listening, Craig, because of how important it is to have a left-sided centreback in the back four. Yeah, I suppose it is, but then there were a lot of preseason games where

20:04Diopp was playing on the left from memory. And I know there's been questions or comments already this evening about, is it time to give furlough the chance? Because I don't think it's too much to say that Daro Shae is our best defender. So do you play your best defender in his best position? And work things out from there. It's obviously, I won't say it's a failing of our transfer strategy during the summer because we've done some amazing business, but we have, I think, left ourselves short at the back, left ourselves short at right back, arguably at left back as well. We've got cover, we've got people that can play there, but probably, maybe since Ben Johnson went, you've lost that versatility of someone who can cover it both sides. If Watarra can do it, I know, again, I know the guy spoke about it on Sunday. Can he do it? We don't know because he hasn't

21:05been tried there not certainly since the season has started other than the lead cup. Maybe he's the long-term idea. You don't, I can't imagine you're spending 20 million pound on a guy that can just fill in for the last 10 minutes wherever he's needed to during the course of a game. It seems a bit of an extravagance. So, yeah, maybe we do see him there, but then to your point, Mikey, what do you do? What do you do on that left hand side? Do you forego that balance by moving do up across? Do you move, keep grieves there and move a share cross? Then you've got the strong possibility that you've got four guys playing across the back four who were championship back four last season if you bring furling and haven't you? Yeah. Yeah, that's a little bit of a conundrum that we've created ourselves, but there was going to be one or two gaps in the end just because of the sheer volume of signings that we needed to make and it not being a piece of cake getting rid of the right players. Oh, absolutely. I think that's a very good point actually. It's

22:08being able to get what a horrible turn to use getting rid of players, but enabling players to leave the club to free up space for you to fill with who you want. But not of all the positions in the club or on the football field, I know which position you play predominantly Mikey, but of all the positions on the football field to be lacking in cover, I'd rather it be the right back than the centre-forward or the centre-midfield, I think. So, yeah, I think we could done as pretty much as much as we could when Joe and I did the end of the transfer window markings, there weren't too many marks below and A- to be fair and I think you still need to hand it to the team behind the scenes that got that volume and that hopefully quality through the door and there will always be gaps available or missing pieces of the jigsaw, but it was just one transfer window. As we know, we're playing

23:11catch-up, spending an awful lot of money if it's still playing catch-up. So, yeah, I think you need to appreciate that you're not going to close everything off, it's never going to be a perfect window. So, we'll have to revisit in January if we have to. Yeah, and I'm a few years old and now Craig, so I have moved back into my proper position of centre-back, just in case you're wondering. Our eagle-eyed social media guru Henry informs me, this is also in the news by the way that a number of our players visited Big Ben this week. What does that mean, Craig? Well, it's good timing, I suppose. They've got time on their hands, etc, etc. I did notice that yeah, in C-so and his other half were there. I don't know, do they take a photographer with them? Or do they set up a tripod? Because there was a very romantic photo of them both embracing in front of, I think it's the Queen Elizabeth Tower, not Big Ben, is it? Everyone knows, it's not Big Ben. So, I don't know whether they have, I say, someone who follows them around, or whether they propped it up on Westminster Bridge, who knows? Yeah, that would have been a

24:16prearranged meeting. I doubt that they've got on the Ratlet together with a content prayer from it, but yeah, that would have been a meeting that they had in London. Very important. Emerson was there as well. Another part of the world, not a common thing here. Emerson Rush in Russia, there was loads of people just having photo shoots at all times. It's just a perfectly normal thing for you to do, Craig. If you were a, well, maybe not so much for the blocs, but for women, especially going and having a photo shoot is as common as just going shopping. Well, we're both in the city, both in the city at the weekend, Mikey. Let's buck that trend. Was there a, was there a watermark on NC, so as one, maybe we could, maybe we could get the same guy? No, well, as you said, Emerson was in town, wasn't he, with his family as well? I think they just used the fact that they had a day or two off during the week to get into the city and never have a mooch around. And I up the palace, more of that,

25:21more of that to come. Let's talk about the rest of the Premier League and we'll start with palace, actually. They got off the mark, got a decent win at Fulham. Fulhamic danger is going forward, but still leaky at the back. Bit of a freak result, this, I think, for Palace, with three goals coming from left back. First one, an absolute stunner from Tyrick Mitchell. His second goal, one of the funniest goals that you'll see all season. And then the third one, element of fortune as well, the ball dropping for Ben Chil, well, remember him. And yeah, Palace, with a little bit of a spring in their step going into the game with us, although they are playing at the moment against Middlesbrough in the Caraville Cup, so that could all change. Yeah, it's a bit annoying that they managed to get a result out of that one, wasn't it really? So, especially within us having them next up, but yeah, as you say about Fulham, they look mightily open. We're saying that we look a little bit open going for the middle. They look

26:24open full stop. They looked open in that first match. Match against Chil, so you'll be at the nearly managed to get a result out of that one. But yeah, let's hope they're just that well. Do we want them to be just as open in the next couple of games because they might get rid of the manager by the time we get around to play in them. Let's hope they solidify a little bit, but don't win any games between now and the match after the international break. Yeah, I was saying to Henry, on Friday, we can't really complain about our fixtures this time, because we were playing Liverpool at a good time, really, although we ended up losing, but Palace, Everton, Fulham, it's not a bad little run, is it? Just going to leave you with hull craid while I go and switch off that light that's flickering away in the background, not sure what's happening there. It used to be the Wi-Fi, give me a she's now, it's just light bulbs. hull's defence first approach is just really rocking and rolling, isn't it? And they've rewarded

27:25their new boss with a new contract as well. Yeah, he's making hay while the sun shines, isn't he? I don't think he was going to be backwards in coming forwards in signing that particular contract. If you're going to jump on it, you'll jump on it after seven points out of nine at the beginning of a Premier League season, but again, we were talking about stats and we're talking about chances. I think Villa had enough chances, didn't they at the weekend to have won that game once or twice over, maybe. So yeah, I think we've just got to hope. I don't know what hull's next couple of fixtures are leading up to the international breaks over there. Yeah, they've got Chelsea. Chelsea. Yeah, pretty rancid fixture that one. Chelsea away. And then Newcastle away. So good. Yeah, it could do. If it doesn't, then maybe you have to start panicking and looking at

28:26other potential teams to finish below us. But yeah, you'd hope that things are going to even themselves out over the course of the next couple of weeks. And spurs and Villa just can't get going, although I think Villa might have beaten club bruge tonight and scored a few goals in the Champions League. So maybe there wasn't a goalkeeping masterclass in that one. Mikey, we're not going to talk about goalkeepers tonight. Are we? So we are when there are other people's dropping howlers we can. Okay. Yeah. So spurs and Villa in the Premier League at least can't get going. No goals for them again at the weekend. Thank you. Mike, yeah, they won three. So I think they might have been three in love at one point. But yeah, no goals at the weekend. Can you see a world craig where either of those two clubs are down battling relegation with the likes of Coventry. Can't can they? They can't.

29:31Well, no, they can't. Not even even though I love, I don't, I'm not a huge fan of talk sport as a whole. I watch Hawks being Jacob's and that's about it. But those social media clips of poor old Jamehara getting it in the neck from from Jason Kundy are absolute, absolute gold. I can't, I can't see it continuing. Can we we can't have the world's world's most expensive manager? Is he going to, he's got to turn it around soon or later? Like certainly can't afford to sack him. You wouldn't think you would, you would think eventually they will, they will start to click. Again, and with Villa having, having scored three tonight, albeit at least two of them being handed to them on a, on a plate, you would think that they're going to start clicking soon as well. There's, there is too much quality in those teams, I think, to be, to be hanging around, unfortunately. Okay, so that's the, that's the Premier League round up done. Let's now hear from our sponsors.

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31:32Whatever bike you're looking for from Mountain to Road, either pedal powered or electric, we've got what you want ready for super fast delivery. Quality gear at prices you won't find in your average bike shop. Bikes on line.com. Ride more for less. That was Rich Woodward on behalf of Atwells. Rich and Seb will return on Thursday night to look ahead to our huge game on Saturday. The palace, hopefully it goes better than last time Craig where that was that I think the day where I accepted that we were going down Celia's part last year and I know you didn't really get to see much of that game, but Yeah, so the back of your head didn't I, Michael? Yeah, but you were you were shielding me from what was going on in the picture for a lot of it. But it was just another one of those games, wasn't it that we didn't just quite have enough to get us over the line. We didn't play badly at all. We just came out on the wrong end of a very closely fought match of football and

32:36the goalkeeper had a bit of a man and the match performance didn't he for I remember rightly. And we just didn't quite have enough quality to put them away. So yeah, let's hope that that does it turns around this this weekend. Yeah, I think it's been a long I think it was Roy Key might get in charge the last time we went to Celia's park and I'm one in the league. I might might be wrong on that one, but I don't really remember too many and most people know that I have half an eye on Palace a lot of the time. So I probably would remember if we'd gone there and beaten them. George will be back alongside Henry to tell us all about the restricted views and best pubs in East Croydon on the on the weekend preview show, which will be available on top tier. And Dave and Joe will join Ben on Sunday nights flagship show on Sunday evening, usual place, usual time. And then also on top tier, there will be beyond the scoreline available on Monday. It's time to get into Ipster's choice now. And we are absolutely spoiled for

33:41choice Craig. Where do you want to start? Well, before we go into our current and ex-players and what they've been up to, I must remember, we've got our Sassar Lukich Sam Morsi yellow card off. And at the moment, as it stands, Sassar's trailing 3-1 to Sam Morsi. Now Sam Morsi is picked up three yellow cards. And he's still got, well, three games including tonight to get to the international break. So yeah, it could be having an extended. It's normally the second it's the second suspension where he starts to walk the tightrope, isn't it? Yeah, he certainly hasn't been walking much of a tightrope so far in August and the first week of September and he gets here to say, I don't know how he's doing the seeding. I'll have a look in the second. See if he's managed to pick up a yellow card in the first half of the match they're playing at the moment. Ben Johnson apparently has got off the mark for Stoke, thanks to whoever shared that in the comments. Oh, well, in that case, you might as well talk about Stoke and

34:46After, my friend George. Yeah, let's talk about Gorgeous George got off the mark with Heather. He always looks so surprised to score a header. He always taps his head. I don't really, I don't know if that's the best. Yeah, it's like, he's like, last running with his left foot. He's like, really, no, shine my left foot because no one was expecting it. Yeah, but a good to unbelievable gain for Stoke. They always seem to turn up against Nathan Jones, according to him. But yeah, really a really good move that one and her's just Johnny on the spot. He's a confidence player, isn't he? So that will really get him up and running hopefully for Stoke. Harry Clark made himself a bit of a cult hero. I've seen on social media in Preston's Darby win over Blackburn. There's a true opposition player off the pitch, didn't you know, something? Yeah, it was which Blackburn player it was. It's doing the rounds on Tik Tok. I believe, Craig, I'm sure it's on Instagram as well. And Facebook, of course, for your generation.

35:50Yes, I did see it on Tik Tok, actually. Yeah, I don't know which one it is, but he did really slung that that chat, you know, around and off the pitch, didn't he? And he's all of a sudden he's Preston's next captain, et cetera, et cetera. But I don't think if you're going to beat a team, I don't think from Preston's perspective, it gets much better than beating Blackburn. Although, I think they are still second from bottom of the league, so they didn't start off particularly well. No, but up and running now at least, Gaston had me remember him scored two in a Cambridge draw at Burton, Marcus Harnest scored in a Huddersfield draw of Knott's County and Cameron Humphreys played 90 minutes and by all accounts, slotted straight back in there and played brilliantly. Henry put a few of these in. This one I particularly liked, rather a manager, Alex Bruce sent off in a defeat at Bristol Rovers. I'm sort of picturing he was sent off for squaring up to Steven Bywater, who just happens to be the goalkeeping coach at Bristol Rovers now. Yeah, and they both walked

36:54down the tunnel together, did they? Pointing at the tunnel, yeah, lovely stuff. And then Aaron Drinnon and Troy Parrot, who sent fours that we clung two for hope, they scored against slightly different opposition craze. The ray on the grid of North Essex, you mean? Yeah, after I think they were one no down one, they swindled them before Aaron Drinnon turned it around with a hat trick. He's been on fire again this season so far, isn't he? I think Henry and I spoke about the goalie scored last week or the weekend before last, you actually larred it in from about 30 yards into the top corner and yeah, followed up with a hat trick this week. And I think he was par of the year, certainly top score, I think, in league two last year. So yeah, he's carried on as he finished off last season. But yeah, Troy Parrot getting a winner against Ray Elmardrid. I can't imagine he's regretting his choice of moving to Ray Elbettis at the moment,

37:58at this moment in time. And elsewhere in Spain, the universe doesn't care in forms, it's that the lengths we've conceded eight in the last two. So he thinks that Kane Van Urvlin will get a chance soon, even though he can't say it was their goalkeeper having a nightmare. Yeah, it sometimes happens, sometimes it doesn't right when when a goalkeeper chips loads of goals. Yeah, it was Barcelona, it was near conceded five against I think as well. So yeah, I think, and as you said, I don't think he was he was throwing too many into the into the net. Well, we're in La Liga, actually, Mikey, he are two friends from last season season before, even last season and the season before, even as on came on for Gatafé, he moved to Gatafé, he came on as a late sub as did our Swedish friend Jens Kiyost came on towards the end of Malaga, Malaga's draw as well. So and the date for your diaries, everybody 20th is it? I got Sunday, the 20th of September, they are playing each other,

39:04the day after ever turn away, it's Gatafé versus Malaga, one o'clock on a Sunday afternoon. So while you're roast beefs in the oven, you can catch those two coming on as 85th minute subs for their respective teams live on premier sports. I think Henry's the only person I know that has that channel legally anyway. Legally. And I'm guessing that's it, that's Ipsas choice, although a couple of people are pointing out, I think we were picturing that every week in Ipsas choice, we just get to wax lyrical about Wes Burns and Connor Chaplin, isn't working out like that, is it Craig? No, it's sort of a double-edged sword because it's absolutely hilarious that it's not working out for Russell Martin as Trevor says there. But by the same token, it's got to be pretty galling from Wes Burns and Connor Chaplin's perspective that it's not working out for Russell Martin. There was a news item earlier in the week actually, maybe over the tail end of the weekend, that he,

40:06I think it was a talk sport news article as well, saying that his position was being understandably being looked at already this season because, you know, was that ridiculous stat about him? Was it three league wins in two or three years with three different clubs or so? And one of those being ranges in the Scottish Premiership. Yeah, he's, he somehow you must interview spectacularly well. But you know, you would think that that type of football that we all know, Russell Martin plays, you wouldn't think is particularly conducive to the way that Wes Burns likes to break and get forward and sprint past the fallbacks, but hey, he's named it pop up in the chat. Sorry, Craig, if you mentioned him and I missed it, but do we know if Amari Hutchinson has featured for me? No, I don't think he, no, I think they played Juventus. Yeah, I think they played Juventus at the weekend and I'm not entirely sure he came on. I think he was an unused substitute in that particular game. Definitely going to tune in for the Milan Derby this year with all of the English players

41:11playing for for Inter this season, but those of us that have forgiven Amari Hutchinson for free sore throat a couple of years ago, I'll put myself in that camp. Yeah, excited to see how he gets on over there. Right, things to look out for in match week four in the Premier League, Craig, there's no early kickoff. We've got the first. Actually, it's not the first. We've got Monday, night football and the first Saturday night game. So you can enjoy watching the 530 game in London after Crystal Palace and then you can get carried away and end up watching the 8 o'clock game as well, who would do a thing like that. But for all the excitement about their start, we could be within a point of how if things go our way and it's a huge game, I think, for Coventry on Sunday at two o'clock in front of the sky cameras. This is their sort of home launch as it were, the big sky event,

42:11hopefully less empty seats than their game against how big one for Coventry this game is bright and you feel. Yeah, well, as we know, home games are crucial aren't they? You'd need to pick up the vast majority of your points at home. You need to get that crowd behind you. But as we also know, if you don't start off well, then you start looking at the fixture list and thinking, well, where's the next point going to come from? Let alone, where's the next, where's the next win going to come from? And we have got that under our belt first game of the season this year, this time round. But Coventry haven't. And if you're a Coventry fan, maybe they are seeing what we saw two years ago, whereby every game is a tough game. You think you're coming up with a bit of momentum riding the crest of a wave and all of a sudden, actually, that momentum doesn't count for much when you're coming up against big strong teams with lots and lots of international's, not only on the pitch, but on the bench. And as I say, yeah, you said about earlier about

43:16playing Everton at the right time. I thought we played Everton at the right time two years ago. And West Ham, when we went to West Ham and we were playing West Ham at the right time two years ago, and neither of those two games turned out particularly well from memory. It was just that sudden realization that, you know what, it's going to be a struggle when these so-called mediocre teams, the teams that you're hanging your hat on, that you'll just be able to grasp and pull down towards you, sort of brush your side and carve you open time and time again. Brilliant. Let's do some questions now. Thanks to everyone that's joined us in the chat. I've been bringing up a lot of the comments, but the old-school podcast listens. I won't have seen them, of course. Martin Sharp asked us quite early on, does Matt to see we're getting to the side once fully matched fit? I think it's going to be hard for him, Craig, but you expect him to be in the match-stay squads. You would certainly think so, but is he now back up himself to

44:21Florentino? Obviously none of us have seen Florentino start in the league as yet, or indeed playing the league as yet, but you would think that in terms of pecking orders, he'll be one, two, three, four choice potentially, depending how noon is proceed throughout the course of the season. I don't think he gets into the side. We spoke about the very beginning, didn't we, in terms of what we foresee being our first choice sentiment field. If you play three in midfield, then you would think that Florentino comes in to solidify that and sit behind the two there. Then maybe he's your first choice, sorry, your first choice sub destroyer for one of a bit, without wishing to talk the role down. I do wonder whether he's quite got the physicality for the Premier League. We know what a Premier League sentiment field is like. It's an absolute

45:22male strum in there in terms of size and physicality and speed. I think you'll need to get up to speed as it were pretty quickly, but I think he's training with this, a training again, isn't he? But I think that operation he had at the beginning of the summer was quite a serious one, hence the layoff. I don't know how close he would be actually to getting match fit. Maybe we'll see him against Arsenal next week, who knows? Yeah, I think the Arsenal game comes to soon as a bit of a stinking fixture from his perspective because... Round after that, then, yeah. That's kind of what I'm alluding to is that there probably isn't going to be around after Arsenal, but if we do, he'll be a real benefactor of it. He needs some time on the pitch and to build some familiarity with his new teammates as well. I like this question from Jason says, the theme, who are the good, bad and ugly out of our expected Premier League rivals? How obviously the good, Coventry so far, the bad, who's it got a little bit ugly for?

46:28It's got to be full of them, isn't it? They were the ones when I did our prediction league at on Discord. From memory I had whole Coventry and Full of them being the ones. They were the obvious ones weren't they? Have all those teams in and hope who we'd hope to be in and around as it was the new inexperienced manager, the lot of any experienced players they were signing that weren't used to Premier League. As we know, you do need Premier League experience if you can find it. I still think... I went for Brentford, so that's not looking good so far. Maybe on the ugly out of the predictions, but I think Palace have still got to play European football. Sunderland has still got to play European football. That hasn't affected them yet, but it certainly will do soon. I think it's looking like we're going to be definitely competing with a few teams this time. I think

47:30there'll probably be a bunch, maybe six, and then it will maybe go down to four later on in the season. Yeah, you certainly hope we're in with more of a fighting chance this time around. But to that token, you're saying about... It's about spurs and manny nights. We're like, our closest in the end last time, weren't they? Yeah, I can't really see it happening with Spurs for three years in a row. But you say about Palace, that's probably why it puts just a little bit more importance on this weekend's game, isn't it? You just got to try and take advantage of their slightly rocky start. Also, we're not going to get to play them while they're playing in those early games in European competition. As we know, it's a slog that Thursday, Sunday, thing, we're not going to get to take advantage of that, unfortunately. It's crazy that we know what it's like. Frenchy 55 would like to see Florentino next to Placios, provides some extra legs. I don't think Luke Hitches is short on legs metaphorically.

48:30No, I think he probably looked a little leaky at Old Trafford. But he's just, I think, maybe circumstance, etc. I don't think you look too leaky on Friday night against Liverpool. I think, again, as we said, you just got to caveat it against the level of the players that the guys are playing against at the moment and also that familiarity with the sentman field partnership. It's still getting there. But no, I can fully understand why Florentino said that. It may be something that we do because it might not be that it's next to Placios. If you know that Placios himself has had injury concerns over the last couple of years. So maybe he gets once Florentino's right up to speed. Maybe it's perm 2 of any 3. Yeah, it's a good position to be. We are looking super strong in that midfield position. We're going to have to be a little bit careful with how we use Placios as well, with his recent injury history. Right, Craig, you didn't get to do this last time because of all of the news

49:34and the Cup game that you had to talk about in the pilot episode of Midweek Blues. This is things we love to see and I've selected something for this one. It's the opposite of Room 101. This is something that we love to see in football, does what it says on the tin. And even in the championship, this is a bit of a commodity now. But in the Premier League, that even more rare, it's a Saturday, three o'clock. And we've got two in two weeks, Craig. Palace away, followed by Everton away, Saturday, three o'clock. They are a beautiful thing. And maybe we kind of enjoy them more now because they're a bit fewer, fewer number. Well, yeah, but, but, perversely, we probably get to play more of them in the Premier League than we did in the championship by virtue of our status in those respective leagues, because as you say, we are getting to have two in a row, whereas as we knew from the championship, it was, well,

50:38nowadays could be anything from a Friday night. I'm onward really, and those 12 o'clock Saturdays and late ones on Saturdays are a bit of a killer. So now I fully on board with that one. I do love a Saturday, 530 game, though. And I don't think, I don't think we had one last summer in the Premier League. We didn't have a Friday night game. We've had a lot of Sunday to o'clock. But what's good about Saturday, 3 p.m. Craig for you? Let's just, let's make it about an away and away day because the next two are away from home. Yeah, well, I think Saturday, three o'clock in London is a decent one to have for people's various entertainment reasons, I think. I used to like 3 o'clock games at home as well. You've just know your routine. You know what's on the radio as you drive to the ground. You know that sports report is going to be starting at 5 o'clock when you get back to the car. So yeah, everyone's 3 o'clock routine, really.

51:45But yeah, it's sporadic and few and far between. But so hopefully, I'll get a few more in the Premier League. Yeah, although when we're fighting for Europe at the end of the season, of course, we will start sliding in, sliding in here there and everywhere. Thank you, Craig. That was midweek blues. Thank you to everyone that's joined us for the second episode. We'll be back next week. I assume on Tuesday, no, it's match Tuesday. Yeah, so we'll be back on Wednesday. Or there'll be a post-match roundup, who knows? Maybe that will be the form of the midweek blues next week. But yeah, before then, a pre-match show with Rich and Seb. We can preview with Henry and George, flagship show on Sunday with Ben, Joe and Dave and then Beyond the Skull line on Monday. Thank you, everyone, for watching up the town. Music

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