McGinn starts, sticking with Watkins & taking a point at Old Trafford

Hello and welcome to the Claret and Blue podcast, Astana Villa of one a game and everyone is in a much better mood, I'm sure.

However, Manchester United at Old Trafford is on the right in our next game. Does this give you the jitter's Kendrick?

A lot of the way you've set that up there, it's like winning the lottery isn't it, on one day and then having a tax bill

that's twice as big as your lottery win, the following day, pesky bloody mancunions, you know, waiting to trip us over again.

Does give me the jitter's yeah, I mean, you can probably run the VT from the last time we played at Old Trafford when I was the one who was saying,

we're going to slow this, we're going to blow this and we blow it.

I don't know, I don't think I'm going to blow it this time.

Well done, youth, don't forget in the prediction right last time.

I was speaking to John actually, obviously he's traveling back from Leo, hence why you're doing a fan zone.

We did the post match last night as well, so we've kind of dealt with Leo, now it's all ours, I'm Manchester United.

And we were me and John were chatting and the narrative I think is and I still probably do feel like this way of,

we never win there, we're always terrible, however good or however bad they are, it seems to be that they turn into the best team in the world,

get all the decisions, we always lose.

But actually, baby, do fans just from somewhere, I don't know what it is, is it the blowing faith that we just won last know it,

so I just feel like, how we can beat anybody, all of a sudden, even though the performance wasn't like that at all,

I just feel like if we can go in there and there's a question about what results would be, would we be happy with,

but even if we get went there and got a draw, I'll take that now, I think just keep the momentum ticking along a little bit and not losing Old Trafford.

He's a, he's a winner. That's so desperate.

Yeah, I mean, I hear what you're saying, yeah, we always get to Old Trafford, you know, we've got to, we're not always going to lose.

We thought that about Mollin, you didn't make a couple of weeks ago, we always lose there and lo and behold, we did.

I probably would have prepared if man, you know, he hadn't ever lost a new castle.

I know there was still, you know, that sounds strange, but so we could give him a bloody nose,

but listen, if Amarin was still in charge and they were 17th in the, in the Premier League, I'm probably still be going there,

thinking, oh, here we go again, but it's, you know, it's double bubble now, isn't it?

Not only if they beat us, do they put a bit of daylight between us?

They deprive us points and the points that they get matter to them as well, don't they?

Yeah, yeah.

So it's, it is a particularly tense one.

You said that, like you said, we won the game.

You know, we've been yearning for that in recent weeks and Super John McGins back,

and I'm clutching desperately for reasons to be positive ahead of Sunday.

Yeah, I think everyone will feel the same.

I began to know early doors in this for when this video goes out and this podcast goes out.

What people's not score predictions specifically, but, you know, win lose or draw, what is the general consensus?

I still do feel like it's, it's going to be horrible and it always is.

And I ain't many know it.

And whatever they, whatever they do, they always seem to find a way.

But I think maybe this time is the, I don't know, maybe this is just me.

Is there a shred more of positivity somewhere?

The issue is that not only is Aspenville history against us.

I know that's not always a deciding factor, but when you are as kind of battered down as I am,

that is a big, big concern.

And we record them.

He's a shock hit as well.

We have beaten them obviously.

We've beaten this season and we beat them in Emory's first game.

And now we're 100 wins later on 99 wins later as well as technically.

So we have beat them and we can beat them.

But our old Trafford specifically, yeah, the record's terrible.

And absolutely nobody needs reminding of what happened there last season.

It's mad as hell.

I'm just looking at the lead table now and I wasn't really concerned about them at one stage.

And now the level on points could go through your head, obviously.

If we can go through your head of them though, and obviously at the moment,

it's through your head of Chelsea and Liverpool.

And if they were to drop more points, you know, to beat Leal in the first leg,

to go ahead of Manchester United, hopefully progress against Leal next Thursday.

And then you've got West Ham before the international break.

And again, it's back.

Teedermans is back soon.

That would feel completely different, wouldn't it?

Going into April.

However, I can see the cogs in your brain going.

Well, if we lose the money, not it lose the Leal and don't beat West Ham.

It's a terrible international break.

Yeah, I think initially you would outline the theatre of dream scenario.

And then my fear is the theatre of nightmare scenario.

Who knows?

Who's still going through Dean Smith's old contact book?

Have you got anyone got a number of Courtney Hawes?

I think you could dig about.

I don't know, Dan.

I actually, I hate doing this because whenever I've started predicting things

in the last, in the last group, I've said I'm not misting megal.

So I'm not predicted them well.

This is the point I'm making.

I'm not going to turn into mustard armors.

But I started predicting things.

It kind of backfires and jinxies things.

But I actually think we'll draw on Sunday.

But now I've said that.

I know that we'll lose 7-0.

I think a draw would be okay to be honest.

Coming out on the heels of that winning Leal.

You know, making sure that we don't give hand to them

which you know, advantage to unite and keeping everybody calm.

And the little glimmer of positivity going before we play the second leg

in Europe next Thursday.

I think you said earlier a draw would be a win.

I'm not sure it quite would.

But it wouldn't be a loss.

Somebody in the comments, Rob Henry said,

would a draw be a good result or are all three points,

the only measure of success?

I mean, to go to Old Trafford and Win,

that would be a big statement, I think,

given the form that I've been on and given the form that we've been on

up until literally last night.

And let's face it, the performance was hardly swashbooking

and I think it's already in, but a win is a win.

If we were to go and beat Old Beat Man United at Old Trafford,

that would be a big signal of Arcade Villa.

They stumbled a bit in February,

but they've started March OK,

McGinn's back, Teelemens is on the horizon.

A big point ahead of Man United.

Their third again, that would feel completely different.

However, I do think a draw is a good result

because it means you haven't lost any ground.

I think I saw somebody suggest,

and this might have been on our social episode,

that we play Man United and Liverpool.

Obviously, we've just lost a Chelsea in the last league game.

We're probably going to have to win against one of those opponents

to try and finish top fire,

because you can't let both of them game points on you.

I suppose by the same definition,

you could draw both of those games,

but you've got to pick up your wins elsewhere.

So if you could beat Man United or Liverpool further down the line,

that might be the game that kind of helps you over the line.

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Yes, whether you glass off full or off empty,

if you glass off empty like I normally am then,

it causes you double the damage to lose the game.

If you glass off full,

you tend to play that role more than me.

It gives you double the success, doesn't it?

Because you're depriving them.

I'm not sure.

Listen, it's helpful if we're going to get X amount of wins

to get us over the line,

then it is helpful that we take points off those around us.

But they still, how many games have you got left down?

Nine.

Regardless of how we get on against those,

we blew it against Chelsea.

We've got Liverpool and Man United left to play.

Even if we do lose to both of those,

we've still got enough win on the other side.

Well, well, yeah, it's silly as it sounds,

but those games have run out soon, don't they?

So I'd rather us get those wins on the board early and by early.

I mean, four o'clock on Sunday afternoon.

Yeah, okay.

Let's go into the mailbox then.

Firstly from Recruit.

Hey guys, I rarely have dreams full stop.

But the other night I had a dream that we would beat United

one nail with McGinn scoring.

My question is, have any of you guys ever had a dream

about Villa or football?

Are you a dreamer, Kendrick?

Am I a dreamer?

Am I a dreamer?

Am I a dreamer?

Not very often.

Mrs Kendrick snores so much that if I can get 30 seconds worth of sleep,

I'll take that to be honest.

I don't know.

I probably, what do I tend to daydream about Villa?

Okay.

So, you know, if there's something not really boring

while I come in meeting, I don't want to be in the ball.

When I used to be a young choir boy and there'd be a boring sermon,

I'd be dreaming about scoring a screamer that...

I mean, playing those daydreams.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But I've never had a premonition really or anything that certainly

gets man-united until living nightmare isn't it?

With Villa or against man-united, but what about you?

I do dream full stop, yes.

I do have dreams.

I can rarely remember them.

Oh, I'm not really thinking.

I don't tell you now, oh, there's a great dream a few weeks ago.

Let's face it, who really cares about other people's dreams,

certainly nobody.

About football specifically, Villa?

I don't think so.

I mean, I must have done at some point.

I'm sure you probably are, but again, who remembers them.

But I'm not in this sense, like I won't go to sleep tonight

or Saturday and be dreaming about the camera against Old Trafford.

I might be able to well now spoke about it, you know?

I do have this dream once.

It was about these two characters, Walter White and Jesse Finklin.

Is there another one on the theme of dreaming

from Jemba Jemba's day dream, funnily enough?

My dream for Sunday and has been for a while

is that Villa go to Old Trafford and absolutely stink the place out.

I'm talking the absolute worst Gerardira level performance here.

Man-united doing sparkling Fergier reform from start to finish

and have the ball in the back of our net multiple times

but ruled out time and time again through the most tubious fear our decisions.

Old Trafford and Bruno Fernandez in particular,

berate the referee for his awful performance

with the game culminating in the 100th minute

with the softest penalty award ever.

Oh, yeah, good luck with that.

Hamburg against Fernandez, when the ball clearly hits him,

smacking his little whistle face on his hand.

I didn't vet these, by the way.

The decision's given by Villa, and the penalty from Watkins

ricochised off the crossbar back off the keeper

and into the goal to win it for Villa.

Would anyone else enjoy that?

Or do I need to seek help?

Yes, I think you might need to.

I would enjoy it, though, would you?

That would be brilliant.

What a post-match show.

That would be for me and whoever's doing it with me.

I thought they were going to annoy the referee so much at the referee.

It was going to score the winner.

It was like a diving header at the strep for the end.

But I do like the ball smacking him in the whistle face.

I like that outcome better.

That might be one of the better Malbec submissions we ever had to be honest.

I'm glad I didn't read the whole thing till we were on air, so to speak.

I've read the first line.

My dream is to go there and we stink the place out and it'd be horrible.

I thought that would be kind of full stop.

I do quite like the idea of that.

I'm okay if you know the results are positive one.

If the game is a stinker, we're in the kind of the business end now

where the result is the only thing.

We could have played well against Lille and drew 2-2.

I'd rather win 1-0 and it'd be horrible.

It's just about winning at this stage.

But I'd probably like that to start the season.

I'd probably take 38-1-0s.

Real spawning 1-0s.

If Bruno and Anders got smacked in the face even if he wasn't there every week,

that would be a...

We just need to avoid defeat.

I'm not saying go there and play in a timid way that we don't belong on a big stage or whatever.

But we just need to avoid defeat.

So if we are toughless in attack or you know,

it's not the most swashbuckling performance then.

And so we just...

We can't have them putting in any daylight between them.

Yeah.

Start a different question from Tammy Abraham's num bum.

Love the pod.

Long time listen, that first time male bagger.

After this week's Champions League first legs, my question is,

if all or most of the English teams go out in the round of 16,

what effect does this have on the coefficient and the fifth place Champions League spot in the Premier League?

I'm pretty convinced that it's as good as done top five in the Premier League.

I think a lot has to happen and very specific permutations for England not to be one of the top two nations in the coefficient table.

I think it's Germany and Spain and maybe Italy at the top four.

And for two of those countries to overtake us,

I think it's the top two get an extra position.

This has to be such a certain set of circumstances that doesn't seem likely or even possible that it's pretty much done.

So yeah, all the English teams could go out and villa by the way with the only English team to win in Europe in this in these first legs,

which is nice for us.

Okay, let's say all the English teams go out German and Spanish teams will play each other in the last ages of the Champions League.

Both countries can't get coefficient points if that makes sense.

So I'm pretty certain fifth will be fine.

And to forget all that, let's hope we just finish fourth round.

You know, all these coefficient nonsense.

Yeah.

The utter woke coefficient nonsense.

Does it surely because people have had that worry because we were the only team to to win in Europe and everybody else lost or drew.

That's not decided at the midpoint.

You know what I mean that that will be complete.

The coefficient is going to change what if three clubs get knocked out.

Yeah, every every specific win in a match, so villa beating Leo earned you a certain amount of points.

So the more matches and English team wins, even if I can't remember the specifics of it of the Champions League.

It was Man City, right? They lost three in El Dorado Madrid.

If Man City win two in the next week, they go out, but they register some coefficient points next week because they win that game.

It will become a point where it's mathematically impossible for the other nations to catch England.

It would just not at that point yet, but we're very close to it.

Coefficient points should be like reward points, and then you should get like a little plus point.

We mentioned Tammy Abraham's numb bomb there.

What can starts again though? No, because he scored.

Probably does. So it would be very, very strange of emery to get the lad to play his way back into form.

And then say, OK, well, you've done it now.

You're a boy. No, don't.

You never know, dear. I think you'll, I think you'll start.

Yeah, I do as well.

Probably has earned the right to start as well.

Maybe you didn't earn the right to start in his previous ten, but he, but he has done.

I think that that was on a hawk on about it forever. I think that's still a big chance.

Mist in terms of his own confidence levels, you know, really, really rising.

And probably the villa, the villa faithful's faith in the villa on faithful's faith in you walk in.

I think people would have been a lot more comfortable if he'd scored that one.

Yeah.

As ever, while Tammy is, what was he? Tammy's numb bomb.

While Tammy's numb bomb is getting ever numb on the bench, it gives us a good option on the bench.

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Another couple from Dan's forehead. Nice. And John McGeeen.

Can we just reference how well Douglas Lee played against Leo.

And Bogard's really improved his one-on-one defending.

He's clearly been taught by his Reconcert as well as winning his fouls.

And I kind of wanted this to not talk about them playing well against Leo because we did Leo anyway.

But does that now give us decisions to make for Manchester United?

So McGeeen, if he's fit enough to start, does he come in for one of Louise and Anana and sit in the middle?

Or does he play further ahead of them?

And if cash is unavailable, then Bogard right back is obviously a no-brainer.

But if cash is 75% fit, do you play him or does Bogard retain his place?

What kind of a leaven would you expect, do you think?

I wouldn't play him if he was 75% fit, I'd play him if he was 100% fit cash.

But I take your point.

I would have cash and McGeeen in that team.

Yeah, it's dying.

Yeah, I still haven't forgiven cash for dying.

How he unraveled Old Trafford last time out, but you know, we've got to get over it eventually.

But he's proven himself time and time again this season.

So as well as Bogard played.

And I thought that was an interesting observation because he does seem to have learned the art of buying himself that foul.

He's from Ezri Conzer.

I think that's really useful given that how often villas fall back.

Fallbacks will find themselves in tight spaces.

So yeah, I thought he played really well.

My amount of the match, but I would have cash back in.

And in terms of McGeeen, you know, you could say you could bring McGeeen in the plane wide-right

because we haven't had anybody who has really grasped that in the last.

Well, well, two seasons, certainly in the last couple of months.

But I don't think he's the best, best role for McGeeen either.

Ah, just anywhere in the team though.

I think he, I think having it in the starting line of having his presence there.

It'd be interesting if he is fit, fitting off to start who, who does make way

because I thought, thought Louise and Anana probably both individually and collectively had their best games.

Yeah, probably since they've been, since they've played together really.

Yeah.

So they're ashamed to display that for changes sake, I think.

And I think the defense is interesting as well because if cash comes back in,

that's one change already.

It seems to be that when Torres plays, so does Dean.

And Mings and Matson sent him to the partnership.

So if you feel like Mings is the best place defender to play against, you know,

it's something you have to change Matson as well.

And then he made three changes to the back four, which feels like too much surgery for the sake of it.

I think Louise and Anana stay in there, Roger stays in there and I think Watkins plays.

And then I think the rest of it is Sancho, McGee and Orbwendia.

I would probably, I know I've just advocated change in bringing cash back in,

but I wouldn't, I wouldn't think of it with a back four more chapter after a, after a cliche.

We don't get them very often.

So yeah, I leave that side back four, other than cash for Bogart.

And if cash isn't fit, I wouldn't have any problem with Bogart staying in.

I don't think you'd do this, but you could potentially, McGee and you could potentially

take Bwendia and people probably think I'm picking on Bwendia again,

but you could potentially play, play McGee even higher as a 10.

I don't think he'll do that necessarily,

but I don't think it'd be the worst option in the world.

Sancho on the, on the, on the right and Sancho and Bailey, you know, it's kind of...

Yeah, a flipper coin, isn't it?

I think I would, I'd quite like to see Rodgers and Sancho into changing left and in the middle,

McGee and off the right, because that's where he's played plenty before.

He's played off the left as well, McGee.

I think any of those three positions behind Watkins can play anywhere, really.

It kind of be a little bit fluid.

You need more from Rodgers, you absolutely need more from Sancho.

I think McGee's starting gives everyone a lift anyway.

Keep Louise and Anana together and hope that they can continue some good form.

Chuck Cash in for Bogart, which is a shame for Bogart,

but Cash is still your first choice right back and leave the rest of it the same.

I think, you know, you reference Bwendia there and that we're kind of picking on him.

And there's a couple of comments on the post match and in the mailbag

that I kind of are disrespecting how good he's been this season and stuff like that,

which I don't personally agree with, because it's my opinion that I think,

as I said before, I think he's a decent enough squad player who has had his moment

and thinks Sancho and McGee and Rodgers as a three.

I think those are our best players in those areas at the moment.

Can Sancho play?

No, he can't.

Good point, yeah.

I completely forgot about that.

Man, we can leave it.

We spoke about it before.

We spoke about it on Monday.

I think I completely forgot.

Yes, Sancho can't play.

So McGee will definitely play further forward somewhere.

So we'll Rodgers.

So we'll Bwendia then I think.

He probably will find McGee now at wardrobe.

Yeah.

Bwendia probably behind Wock in other thought.

Okay, let's wrap up with a score prediction then.

Would you take a draw if I offered it, you know?

Yes.

Yeah, me too.

I wonder how many other people think that in the comments.

It harks back to all those bad memories.

I think I spoke about this last year, but I can't remember many good occasions

when I've actually been at Old Trafford.

I probably went on a stadium tour once.

When I was a student, there was a version of Bobby Charlton soccer school

being held in some sports, all in smithic.

And the last day of it was a trip to Old Trafford.

It was probably my best memory since then.

Now, obviously, I was there when Gabby scored the winner.

Well, hopefully, I don't want to jinx it, but I'm hopefully there on Sunday.

So, oh, God.

In answer to your question, yes, I would take a draw.

I'm going to predict a draw, which means it won't be a draw.

I'm going to get for a 1-1.

Yeah, I also think 1-1, which is very boring.

But I'd quite like another clean sheet to be honest.

As I found out, even if that is a stinky nail nail, again, I'd take a draw.

So, that's fine.

My best old Trafford memory, I've not been there that often.

I actually went there with Stoke, would you believe,

when I was doing some work experience thing with Stoke years ago,

and I had a ticket in the way in with Stoke.

I think that I would actually, you know,

I could fact-check that when I can't be bothered with villas.

It wasn't Goldbridge, you are.

You're claiming to be a villa family.

No, you're not.

You're in a Stoke family all these years.

Don't start those rumors.

Well, me, hell, bloody.

Throughout the Goldbridge, you'll probably, if I'm not sure.

That was all right, actually.

I was there when they beat us.

Sorry, when they drew two all in 2019, in the year we got promoted,

and greed has been that one in from the edge of the area.

Oh, yes, yes.

Which was a nice goal and a two all,

as well as just decent when you're fighting relegation.

So, you know, that's my,

besides my stoke days, that's my best villa memory.

Right, that'll do, I think.

A little bit of nonsense.

As per, I will be back though, next on Sunday afternoon,

for the post-much show.

Not sure who that will be with at the moment,

but there'll be one five to ten minutes after the full time whistle.

So Kendrick, thank you for joining me.

Thank you.

That was very jordy then.

Thank you for joining me on this one.

Thank you for watching or listening,

and we'll see you Sunday.

Bye-bye.

MUSIC

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