Sabah Ranks as Fine Champions League Victory

0:00This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. Well, Manchester United returned to the Champions League, a four-neil victory over Sabah at Old Trafford. I made here to discuss it with Mr. Love a Man himself, Thomas Mortimer. Mr. Love a Man. Sabah! Sorry, everyone's made that joke. I apologize, I couldn't help myself. How's it going? I've actually seen you in person since. Yeah, she's kind of mad considering you're living Seattle. So Tom, before we get on with the pod today, I am obliged to say,

1:03if you're listening in the app, press follow and then you'll get this in your feed, but especially on YouTube, hit the subscribe button, leave us a comment, it really does help the algorithm work out that you like this stuff and helps the channel out. Tom, you've been on your holidays. Not out to anywhere exciting to be fair, it seemed my parents went to Scotland, went to Edinburgh, French. No, very nice. French is a bit mad. It is quite a while since I've been to the festival, but I lived in Scotland for a while. I did love it, but on day three, it was like, oh, this is a bit too much. I'm not used to the manicness of that, I do a job where I'm one to one with people, I barely see that many people, even though I do even burn me. So it's really busy. But that is just every street corner you go around is that, oh, this is great for a couple of days, and then if they're dirty, I'm sick of people a little bit, but it's so good. I mean, I kind of left. It was the first time I've been to French. And I left being a hard work on back next year. All right, well, good stuff. I'll

2:04traffic today. I guess we didn't expect to, sort of a particularly tough test. They were, the Sabah were ranked 2 and 44th in UEFA co-efficient, starting their campaign. They've risen a bit through the qualification process, but they've played four ties to get here. I guess we're more used to Carabag from the Azerbaijan, Lee Garnes, a new and financed by a local, you know, wealthy businessman. So it's not exactly a, a, Rags to Riches, Ferritale story, but a brand new opponent in a very fetching black and pink kit. But what did you make of United Today then? Four-Nill, win, pretty easy, good reintroduction to the Champions League? Yeah, it's one of those where, it's difficult to kind of impress properly impress. And you think in first 25, I don't, I was listening to the TNT commentary. And after 25 minutes, there would be, it was obviously Fletcher, of course, they were just the worst. They are the worst couple imaginable, really. And

3:10they would get, especially Fletcher, because it's just so opinionated. And he was getting night, oh, this just isn't good enough from United. And then like, and then when the United is for their first 25 minutes, which is not exactly late in the game, that he was like, oh, it's taking them, it's taken the 25 minutes to get this first goal. It's like, have you ever seen these types of games before? Even when United were playing these kind of teams on DeFurk, it wasn't exactly like we were blowing them away and being, they were meeting them all 10 nil. It's, they're difficult games to play because the crowd's really flat and just expecting the players that like, we know we should be beating these. They're kind of set up in a, in a lower block. And they're really excited about playing. So they're going to be hunting and really working overly hard for the first half an hour or so. These games aren't particularly easy. And I think the fact that we'd killed the game at half time was just perfect. Like we could have been, we could have done, we could have been doing this podcast at half time really because the game was completely dead. And I feel like

4:15there's been so many times where we've had this kind of game. Maybe it's in the Europa League or in the Champions League in the past and we've just taken an, an age to potentially kill it. And these, yeah, they're not a great side obviously, but you mentioned Carabag at the top of the show, Carabag, they're easy in the Champions League or the Europa League aren't they? They're usually about some, these boys not them off the pitch. I see that Carabag won 11 of the last 12 titles until that season. So they're no bugs. And then genuinely, they're not going to be like horrendous. They had, like you said, they had to win four qualifiers to get in. And therefore, it's not, it's not like it was going to be a difficult game, but they're going to be stubborn opposition and they're difficult to get by. So I was like, I was really kind of, by the negativity, coming from D&D initially. And then I had a couple of texts being like, oh, we're going to be so bad this season. That's a break. And yeah, we, we killed the game half time. I don't think it's

5:17you can really ask for much more than that. No, I think I think that's all fair. They, they gave it a good shot of making competitive for 20 minutes, didn't they? And that sounds really patronizing. They do play in front of crowds about 1300. I mean, they, yeah, I mean, this wouldn't, yeah, they are a village team, basically, and not in from Baku, they're from outside who've been financed at this point. They've got some players who've played in decent levels, prior to this and they get a good shot. What did you make of the United team then? Because a few changes, Cisco came in, our front, Kenya went out to the left. I should rotate you to the bench. No, Luke Shaw is feeling a tight hamstring. Apparently, the irony of him getting hamstring, twang, the week off the, the transfer window closes. Doug, you left back, which is the first time Michael Carricks moved in there. I mean, moved the, I borrowed to right center back alongside the Sandra Martinez. Do you interesting choices? Yeah, I was excited to see Cisco just to have that

6:23proper number nine. Obviously, he's always a threat when he plays. He makes some bizarre decisions and he made some bizarre decisions today as well. But he has that air of arrogance about him that, like, when he missed that, he took it really well, actually, with his left foot and he can repent to him afterwards. And he just looked like completely unfaith, completely unbothered. And it was it was it was it was it was like not even a quarter chance. But I was just thinking like if that was hoyland, I can just imagine kind of seeing the pain on his face like and whenever Hoyland made a bad pass or a mistake, he just kind of see all the emotion in him, like maybe in his body language and in his face, in particular, especially towards the end of the time, his time at United and the kind of all the color drained from his face where he's seen sesco, he makes a terrible decision and he goes to his face and he's like on face by it. And

7:23I think I mean, I'd like to see him make better decisions. But I just love that as a striker, it's kind of he's got that almost ebra him of it, chest kind of mentality where he wants to try things and he has that. But in a belief in himself that I will be there, I will do the right thing. I mean, he's there again and I only took it round the key point with his supreme confidence, like completely unfazed and I really like to see him there. I think it helps from a structural perspective. I think he is a good presser as well. He's a smart presser who knows what to do. He's maybe not always on the front foot to do it, but I think growing up and playing in a red ball system helps with that as well. I think it's potentially underrated part of his game. And yeah, I like that. I think Cuny's so much better on the left compared to through the middle as well. And I was excited to see Dorgue. I think it's the perfect game to start with.

8:23That's back, isn't it? Where are you not doing any defensive work? But he was up and down. So what was so well, and he's got that obviously in him, like that engine to just never start back and forth, never stop back and forth. He obviously did that left wing back as well. And he got into some nice tidy places. I think that he did crop. I think he's a syscot, maybe a deflection on the way through, but yeah, I think he's a really good person to be there. It's just obviously didn't get tested defensively tonight, but I like both of those changes. And with your own as well, I think in these games, I think, Ferg, you've potentially sometimes became a little bit unsucking in these kind of games, but I changed in too much. I think we've done that put in the past as well, where you just changed too much in these games and you upset the balance too much. I think three changes in those three changes, one obviously a bit enforced, but I think it was a really good set up, but really it's not way to handle the game, obviously, with the city coming in mind, it might have changed a bit too much, but no, I thought you did

9:24the right thing. Yeah, I agree with that. I mean, let's see, Sysco there. I don't like the double false nine or double tens, particularly Kanya and Bruno getting each other's zones all the times, you know, there's just hanging football at the players, make the system. And in that system, they're all in the same space. Kanya still does a little bit of that off the left. He doesn't start as wide as Rashford. Yeah. He still wants to come inside to those half spaces, slightly awkward for such a talented player. Don't take this as a criticism, but he's a slightly awkward fit in this micro-charac system. Yeah. I think he's definitely helped by having a second fallback. So you saw how often Dorgu went on the outside. He's a better athlete than Luke Shaw now. I mean, maybe then Luke Shaw ever was. I don't know about that. I think when he was fit, Luke Shaw could certainly get up and down. He offers that physicality, or he didn't get tested tonight, was a defensive side, as you said. And then in the final third, a little bit untidy. I mean, he's obviously got the

10:26assist, but he had a few opportunities before then. We didn't quite. The quality wasn't quite there. That's the concern, I guess. Where's he's sealing as a left-back? This won't tell us anything. Really? I don't think, but it was good to see him there because we need another option, right? So both of the options are MS and Dorgu tonight. I presume Shaw will come back. It'd be funny, interesting. On Sunday, I'll do a preview later. If Shaw wasn't fit, what would Carrick do? Because I suspected Stikmas Rowy out there, not Dorgu or MS. And that might be where... It might be a little bit inside Carrick's head, but it might also be where he thinks the best options are right now. I'd really love to see Dorgu play. I don't want to see him particularly play there on Sunday,

11:30but I want to see him tested. And it's part of me from an intriguing perspective going, I kind of want to see him play there on Sunday just to see how good defensively he is. Because we've actually not seen him play at left-back. We've only ever seen him play at left-wing back. We've played him seen him play at left-wing right-wing. Maybe did play at one game at left-back towards the end of the season, but I don't think he did. I saw some people putting clips out of the Brian game, but I don't recall him playing at left-back in the Brian game. I thought he'd play right wing or on the wing in that game. And therefore, we've not seen him properly tested in that position knowing that, knowing the space, knowing the gaps, because especially when you, when you're not used to that position, getting the ball in behind you or through between you and the set and the left center back is so easy to have. It's such an easy thing to happen. But I think if he if he is actually a really good defender, which is to be confirmed really, even at Lecce, I don't think

12:33he played left-back much. Not a lot. He played all over the place, but not a lot of left-wing. Yeah. And therefore, I kind of think I kind of see it and be like, actually, I think that will be really useful. If he's a really good defender and then like the amount he can bomb forward, he's not going to be able to provide the quality that sure can provide the fight for it. But I think it's an option ahead of Maserawi. Maserawi is really good and tidy on the boys really smart, but he doesn't have that burst. Not Doggo has or the athleticism that Doggo has, the ability to beat people like Doggo has and the strength that Doggo has. Like Doggo has so many attributes that are fantastic. It's just it's just a big question. What's the power in men both? I mean, there's obviously online there's going to be a lot of chatter that he's the next Roberto Carlos after this or Doginio will be calling him and let's call out yet. I hope he turns out to be a brilliant player for United. I'm pretty certain he's not a forward. But I think Eric profiled him right there because it exposes fear of his like I'm guessing defensive weaknesses, but we are

13:38guessing because we haven't seen him there very often. I mean, left wingback certainly he went wandering a little bit sometimes, but and then it's harder to tell whether it's the player or the system. Yeah. The first goal United could see the against Everton that we can was absolutely mess. I mean, go watch it back again. I've seen about 20 times now. Like there's there's at least seven mistakes in there from United. I mean, firstly, McGuire gets sucked in. Right. LeSandro Martinez gives the ball away. McGuire gets sucked in. Doggo doesn't track back from his left wing position as it was. Luke sure comes across looking at the ball, not the space and Tyrick George is completely free for the simple ball that goes across it. And I'm just like all of you. It doesn't need to be in the video room going what the hell did you do there? The point being like Luke sure's making quite a lot of those mistakes where the balls in the space in the channels and that's pretty worrying. And so it might well be by the end of this season. We're going well, like what does it matter? Like whether Doggo's defensive qualities and great

14:40because neither is Luke sure at this moment. When he has to bomb on because clearly in this system he's got, couldn't you all retro do both like to drift inside? He's got to, right? Yeah. Yeah. And I'm not as down on sure as others. Sure has his own private hate club and it's pretty, it's a pretty big one. It's just observation about what he is. I think some people do hate it. Some people in my head I can see a few people online. Quite big accounts. And this isn't you. I do see some people and be like, I think you'll be in a bit too arch on him. But what I sugar with is is lackeys are cool at times where like the ball goes out to a right winger. Any kind of door doors over and then he sticks a leg out is it just doesn't have that intensity about him that you want that you expect from a top to a fallback. And I think I wonder if Doggo can potentially bring more of that intensity to the to the position. But then you get like the short, the short

15:42across the Sheshko's goal at on Sunday, you won't get that quality from Doggo. No. After well, you might do, but it's going to be hit and miss. That's the problem. Exactly. It's just got hard feet doggo. And that's why I think you can play in those top positions either. It may be in a game like Sunday to be fair because in his best two games, I think for you in a United shirt, it was against City and Arsenal characters. Big spaces, you're a presser, you're closing things down, you're kind of causing an innocence on the break with your physicality and pace. And he eat, I mean, obviously, it's called a wonder goal in the on the Arsenal game as well. This is harsh on part G. But a part G song has played to play in those big games in that position. All right. A player who is a forwarder is Mateus. Can you, he's got the opening goal. It was a really nice move. Wasn't it from, you know, through through midfield out to the out to the left wing, good cross, nice finish from Konya, bounced it into the keeper and in.

16:43If that was Sonna Lamons, there'd be 900 accounts online, calling for him in to be dropped. Comparinate to De Hea and oh De Hea would have saved us. Yeah, well De Hea would have saved that one with his feet, wouldn't he? The one that went in the top corner from Tyrick George that is, come through kicked it out. Anyway, nice move, nice goal. Good for Konya because I think he's had a slightly tough start to the season. I mean, I just don't like him at number nine, even false nine, although he played there for Brazilian, the World Cup didn't he? But I kind of felt like he needed that goal, you know, kickstart the season. Yeah, and he's I think he's much better in that position. I think like you say with, with Konya, he was brought for a different system. Awesome at being. And same within Bumo, as well, I feel like in Bumo, sometimes more effective than Konya, sometimes not. There was a moment in the first half, I know we're supposed to be talking about Konya, but I just, there's a moment in the first half where, and Bumo had a chance to kind of break away. And I guess maybe be a winger of old and counter attack, but Bumo's not that time player to kind of just pace on the outside or

17:48burn someone on the outside just doesn't have it in him. He's a forward. He's a forward who happens to playing wide areas. Konya's a number 10 though, who happens to play in wide areas, right? Yeah. So we've got this kind of system today. And what is really good at those, I guess those three in the system today is that when they come inside and they play off each other, they're fantastic. Like the one touch football can be amazing. And that's, I think that's the reason why this season, I don't, I'm not too high and I'm not too low on this because I think, I know, amazement flaws with this squad and probably major flaws with Kary, just generally. But that's not to say we were B teams, we may be not expected to be that's not to say we'll do really badly this season. I think the quality that those players have, even if they're not potentially right for the system like Kuhn, Euron and Bumo, just being able to link up and just

18:49be having moments of ingenuity. I think that's what they bring to the system. And like I say, when I think they come in and play off each other, obviously Bruno's got that in abundance. But I think the other two have it in their own, in their own way as well. And yeah, it's obviously important for Kuhn to get this, to get the goal today and to kind of maintain that confidence because I think I think he's had that confidence almost from the start. I mean, he was a bit slow to get any numbers at the start, but I think he was still playing well. And he just, he does seem to have that as the kids will say, Aura, did they still say that? Probably. I have a 10-year-old side like, yeah, yeah, they sometimes say Aura. Aura farming and stuff. Yeah, maybe last year. Skibbidi Riz. Yeah. And Bumo has that as well. And it's just fitting Kuhn in to the system. I think in Bumo, to a certain extent, it's all quads, but they still all bring their individual quality and collective quality as well when they play together. I think so. I think there's a

19:53kind of thesis amongst some of the tacticals that Karek is not doing enough automatisms in this final third, right? And he's leaving up to the players individual qualities. I don't think that some kind of massive flaw in Karek's system and that somehow he doesn't know how to coach forwards. That's obviously nonsense, right? I've seen over six months that he's instilled, you know, a pretty clear pattern of play from back to front in terms of how United build up, move it through the final thirds have been quite targeted about the type of type of players they want for that. And then the final third, they are allowing individual quality a little bit. And we've had four games so far and nine goals. Four games so far, nine goals. Obviously, it was four today, but like five goals in the first three game, first three Premier League games, and we didn't score any in the first one. That's not the aware of the alarm bells are coming from. It's not. I think it's over again, a little bit. I mean, the thing is, when you're very, very strict about having the kind of positional approach to in very forward areas, you cut the ceiling, right? And we've got some brilliant individual

20:56players. So we'll see where we get to that. I think there's a lot of premature freaking out about what Manchester United are. If you want better evidence of where Karek wants his team to play, go back and watch Middlesbrough. Like they were hamstrung. Karek was hamstrung, but the fact that they just sold all these best players from underneath him all the time. But it's, you know, I think things fairly instructive last season, very pragmatic, slightly cautious mid block and countersuit the players protected Casimir and Maguire this season, trying to move it on. It's step by step, there would be some teething problems. I imagine they had four starters against Hull that had had basically no preseason. I four came off the bench as well, and people are going, oh, they look really leaky. Honestly, I just think like the reactivity, I mean, I know it's our social media world, and we're supposed to react all the time, but there you go. So I'm not that worried. Today won't show us much about anyone honestly, but I mean, totally right, he's trying to fit.

21:57Like he might want slightly different styles of players, he's obviously not going to get them, you know, but they are brilliant players. He's just trying to ensure they fit in the into the system and give him something and they compliment each other and there's enough interesting options throughout it. I do think there's a lot of players who want to play in the same space, which is a slight problem, right? But you're working out. That's why Dorgu today was interesting because like if you're going to have a lot of players in zone 14, right, the centre of the pitch, then you've got to have some wit from somewhere and Dorgu can provide that. Yeah, yeah, I was singing exactly the same thing as well when the game was going on. You like, I don't know, where is Dorgu almost playing here because he was so high up, but I think and that's what he's again, he will give over sure is that he's just going to have that engine to just get up all the time and just provide that, especially with if Kudner is going to be the person who does play mostly on the left, it's going to be obviously between him and Rashford,

23:02but I would like to see Kudner get the nod more, more often. Sure can do it to a certain degree, but I guess Dorgu is just going to be that person who potentially will give us more of a more wit on that side and I guess also like why Dallo has to play on the right because Maserar we just hasn't quite got that engine that Dallo has on the other side and then both would both those fallbacks are going to lack quality in the final third, but at least they will give us some an extra attacking numbers and you think back to what life was like on the Rammarim where we would only barely basically have three players in attack at any one time really, and now all of a sudden you've got so many numbers and it's just that in itself is just going to create a little bit more, a few more questions to ask at least. Yeah, word for midfields, I mean, Kobe's come on a lot over the side and play Fingland over the summer. The thing we were asking for him to, you know, was getting involved more, more touches the ball, he can loads of

24:07touches. He was 94 at the weekend didn't even play the whole game. Yeah, exactly, you know, like he's a kind of player that you've run 100 passes or 120 passes through him every single game, he connects everyone else and you're a Teelemans just with the one ridiculous pass where he's basically looking the wrong way and cut through the entire defensive day. He's brilliant. I mean, he probably should have the yellow card for a pretty good social conjure actually, right? He's put down a, it was a bad one, yeah, that was orange that one. He probably just got fouled. I was a bit worried I was like, Vars is going to call this back. I thought that, yeah. Yeah, the line breaking passing from Teelemans is brilliant. He's combative, he's not quick. I think that's probably the only weakness. But the passing is brilliant. And it's taken responsibility off Bruno. He doesn't have to come deep all the time now. Yeah, yeah, Kobe Manu was so good in that first. I think he misplaced one pass in first half. And it wasn't like he was just kind of, this I was going to slight bus gets them, but like,

25:09it was in like you kind of just doing those five-year passes. He played a one delicious chip over the over to Bruno actually and Bruno maybe could have done a little bit better with that pass. But he was a really good person, isn't it? Oh, it's so beautiful. And then he played a few very keen long ones as well. And I think, again, on TNT, they were being really annoying. They were saying, oh, yeah, Kobe's rage of passing. Which it is. And he's such a good passer. But he's also so smart of no, it's most so smart in knowing when to pass as well. And like just maybe just delay in a second be like, I'm going to wait till that person gets in the right position first before playing the pass. And he just has, he's always had this just amazing composure and calmness on the ball. Or this to be like, yeah, you might be calling for it. Yeah, or you might be wanting me to move the ball a bit faster. But I know that if I wait a split second, I can play the right pass here and that can find you in a position where you're going to be making. And what's also so good about

26:11him as well. He doesn't just pass sideways about a quality makes those long raking passes. And what better man it is to have really. I know Curry did at times get blamed. The crab. Yeah, the crab, the Ray Wilkins of his ever zero. But yeah, what better person to have to, from a game intelligence perspective. And like you say, Tillum Tillum is, it's going to be interesting to see how that duo do on Sunday. I think they're both playing on Sundays. It's kind of interesting. I don't know. I just think Andrew Santos was so bad against always. Like, are you going to put him in? I'm not going to hate on Andrew Santos. 83 passes today from Kobe. 81 out of 83 passes. He completed. And they're not all four. They're not all sideways at all. They're only a line-breakers, you know, six out of six long balls. I think he's really added an extra piece to his bow. He runs a lot. He's always near the top of the running charts. Oh, combative as well. He jules. He's got, he's always had good jule numbers. I mean, the only criticism I think you can make about the perfect

27:15sort of connector profile number eight is that maybe he's not super quick over the first 20 years. But he's got Carl's blabber beside him. He's not going to need it. Yeah. All right. You know, in certain games, blabber's going to solve a lot of problems for the United. I mean, I, it's, it, forget the form from last season. I think it's the profile of player. He's top 1% in defending channels. Speed over the first 20, 30 yards. Julling, tackling. You know, it's like all the stuff that missing from the profiles of the other players. We're interested to see where Andre Santos lines up in like how many games he gets this season. Because I like him because he's very neat on the ball. He gets the ball, plays it forward. Like, and he can do Julling, but he's not as quick as blabber. He doesn't make as many tackles as blabber. So I mean, we'll see horses for courses, I guess, but yeah, he's interesting profiles. Yeah, it's a long season as well, isn't it? But like, I think with, with Belieber as well, I,

28:15I'm bright and obviously not, and nowhere near a bad team. But I also think that potentially Belieber playing at Brighton. He maybe has to do a little bit too much, you know, an attacking perspective. And he obviously is technically talented. And he is good. But I think in United Seamom hoping that he doesn't feel that need to be as progressive as he potentially is at Brighton. Or he tried to be at Brighton. Whereas, you still want to see him be progressive. But you've got, you've got like these short little passes that you can play into people around him that you can can can make us tick. And you can do kind of concentrate more on your, like, keep it tight. And keep it knee play forward when you can. But, but kind of do the more defensive, diligent stuff, which especially against bigger teams is where exactly what we need to happen. And to just plug that sentiment sentiment field gap, because that was still an issue today, that they would consider and how lowly aside they are. They were still getting at our

29:21back for I think too much more than I would have liked. It wasn't dominant as dominant as you would hope for a big team against the small team in that respect, I think. I think it's the transitions that have been a problem. Haven't they, you know, we've flood players forward and like, so what do you do? A lot of what Michael Carrick did last season was like, okay, make sure the rest of the fence is good. Yeah. Make sure everyone's in their right positions and then out position mid block, right, 442 mid block. And just try and take some of the pressure off still conceded way too many goals as a result. The people making a lot comments about Sunnall Amman's like, conceding long range efforts. There was some analysis that you may have fan now the BBC did on him conceded. It wasn't a very big data set. I've got to say, but you can see the lot, but it can see a lot of shots because United are not, like, not defending those transitions properly still. I think that's why Belieber they decided to pull the trigger on that one. That one, and they couldn't do the deal for all because we always have to trade off

30:26everything all of the time this club. But I think that's part of the reason why they're so keen on Belieber to stop some of that because we do have quite a slow defense if it's Miss Sandra Martini's and McGuire a lot of the time and like, just to stop the pressure and stop the free shots basically. We haven't really talked about the rest of the game right. Fernandez scored again. Another one, it will see over the course of the season, but he's going to believe really high a lot. He's going to get a lot of goals because he's good finisher. I can't believe he's still paid the whole 90. I know. When we took somewhat off a half time or so, I think it was him. What? Yeah. Absolutely no need, but I guess he just won't come off. I know. That is it, isn't it? Then there was thinking, you never get sent you anyway. That's probably 32 next month. I was probably tempted and faked by thinking that at the time. Further time is going to catch up eventually. Those injuries might start creeping in. I hope not.

31:26So let's go. Lovely. You don't see this enough. Why has Striker going around the keeper gone out of the game? Yeah, I know. It was a perfect thing to do there as always, and I just had such calm that it's like in his face when the camera kind of pan to him. It's like, yeah, no sweat at all. Why? Obviously, maybe it's the game that's partly that, but yeah, I just really like him. I think there is so rough around the edges, and there was so many times today, but again, I'm going to call out to see for some of the commentary. But like Alima Koi said, oh, I don't think Shashko would do that one day. I'm like, if you ever watched this guy before, it makes some of the most bizarre decisions I've ever seen. He knows where the goal is. He's a great finisher. I think I feel like he looks so coachable. I feel like there's so much about him that he's like, yeah, he's really broad, but he's got so many of just the ingredients have been a top number nine. His link up play at time is really bad. I think with other people, it would frustrate me,

32:30but I just see his ability to just put the ball in there, and I'm like, I'm going to forgive you a little bit. I knew you're... Yeah, I think he's got really high ceiling. Yeah. Little rough around the edges. Sometimes he does really good stuff in link up. Yeah, he does. Yeah, why can't you do that all the time? So that can be a little frustrating, but if he can stay fit, if he plays a lot of games, he's going to score a lot of goals. I'm just sure of that. He's because he's got so many tools he can score off either foot. He's a hunter, he can score scrappy goals, petted goals as we saw that weekend. We haven't seen a lot of the long-range shots, so he was known for it. I'll be like, Sig. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's got loads of bangers from distance. He has got pace. He can definitely run beyond defenders. Yeah, I like to see he's bolted up a bit. He's muscling some of those defenders today. Yeah, it's not a slat-hat, but there are slat-hat kind of... I bet when he grew up, he was like, admire, he's that, and it feels like that kind of that and modeling my game on this guy and my whole temperament on this guy a little bit.

33:32And I love his black-hat the weekend. He kind of played the ball off and had that desire to just sprung into the box and be like, I'm going to get on this. I think again, to like comparing that to a hoydon, he just didn't have that about him. He just didn't want to be in those areas or didn't have that desire in the same way. He kind of look at this guy and he's like, this guy does the love-scoring goals. He really does. And every time I love it when I play a look like he absolutely loves scoring goals. And this story was like that. I just... Insagi was like that. It was the Insagi celebrate like a two-yard goal. It's like he scored the best scream of the decade, isn't it? Insagi has Fergie called him born off side. Born off side. Yeah, I have a lot of hopes to say, Scott, I'll be really disappointed if he doesn't work out, but I think it will. I think there's a lot of him. He just needs to stay fit because it was such a stop-start season last season. Obviously, the shin injuries taken an awful long time to get fit. There's a weird piece in the Daily Mail today, which was basically based off, I think,

34:33a Slovenian TV commentary and some Slovenian Twitter or whatever, right? It was not much to it. I don't buy a subscription to the Daily Fail. I used to pay walled by pass before anyone. Says, hey, why are you reading that stuff? It was basically like a, why isn't he playing kind of piece? Because he's not fit. That's why they've had Kerry explained, like on Friday, I'll say, sorry, not Friday, Wednesday, when he had this press conference that they've just had to be careful with his recuperation and he's been working up to full fitness, right? So he played an hour today or something like that just over an hour. He's been building up and maybe he probably won't start the weekend. But the next one, after that, he made, I think that's, I can't remember that. Full of more Brighton or whatever it is. We've got a few before the International Window. Maybe he starts that one and plays the full game, right? He's just building up and building up and I think it'll be a real asset. Oh, yeah. And it doesn't look like in any respect. He's like, I don't know, cheese stuff about being on the bench right? If they did. I have such a, I mean,

35:39with judging based on what we can see from afar and what we hear rather than actually knowing the bloke, but this seems like such a great mentality about it. And that's why I dislike about him so much. And I thought we were always going to see him today because I have to not see him in the side any of the first games, but you're like, yeah, this is this is kind of what I wasn't seeing. Don't know about Saturday. I mean, I think maybe his first start was it when it was a way to man city last year and he just everything kind of bypassed him a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. And maybe it isn't the game forum at the weekend anyway, because I think when we have maybe those four, they just can keep the ball a little bit better. And and you look better on a counter attack, but yeah, I think against the lower level team, like say, in that whole game for a skin at season, I think you would have loved to see him there if he was if he was fully fit. Yeah. Um, running out was Los Angeles Martinez. What the mess of a mess of a goal that was, but he

36:39looked very happy, didn't he? Was the exceeding. He came on today like, what were the club doing keeping him? They had an office for me to leave. He turned the down because he was waiting for you ventus. You ventus went in different direction. Yeah, that last minute offer from Everton with that like clusterfuck at the end of the, you know, 1159 at the end of the transfer window with Fiorentina Everton Chelsea United, Zerke C Balagan, Lumin Camara, you know, it's like, it makes gun standoff, wasn't it? But they now got a play that it didn't wanted. He doesn't really fit. He plays in exactly the same, but he wants to play where Bruno plays and couldn't your place. He's not a number nine. Like, and he came on his foot and he did some nice things today, but his first touch was in the center circle. Like, exactly the fucking problem. This is why you're never going to play. You're not a striker. We got 97 of you in the squad. So good that Cheetah will be gone to Bill M but like, I'd rather keep Cheetah will be then. And not that Cheetah will be anywhere near

37:43the finished article and, or anything close to that. But I think just in terms of having a number nine, I'd rather have him than Zerke C because Zerke C, he always say there's a couple of nice things and you're like, oh, like that. That was that was small. That was flurry and he's got so much flaring. Oh, that was cool. Kind of thing. But it's like, they're kind of nice, like, little ooze to watch when you're three nil up against the Azerbaijanese. I know. It's like anything. It's the most unserious football, I think. It feels like he'd rather just be, you know, lying around on a sun lounger, drinking my ties. Like while doing KPI's or something like that. I got told off, yeah, with Cheetah, I'll be going to apparently will love. I said, not really. I were. I always saw him feeling. I couldn't film spy on a podcast and apparently, like, someone go, they're not German. They're Dutch. It's will love me. I may be getting that wrong,

38:44but I'm hoping I'm close to it. Of course, we know there's some history there that Germans did try and take over the country. So, you know, they're very nearly speaking German. Cheetah, it's interesting. He really needs this to work for you. Loads of goals at youth level, Arsenal came to United, big transfer. All of that took weeks. It's not months to arrange with all the safeguarding stuff. School playing goals was to kind of thrust into the first team a bit too early, because Hoelin was shit and all injured. Yeah. He'd have probably played that Europa League final, wouldn't he? Probably shit out of the, honestly, if he'd been allowed to. Yeah. And then it couldn't be worse. And then, like, kind of a little bit of regression, they tried to remodel his game a little bit. They tried to get him to do more off the ball work. And this is a big moment for him, because he's still only 18. He's not watching everything like that. But playing proper football at, you know, a mid-ranked Dutch club.

39:46Alexander Ezek went there and then went in from Dortmund at one point. It's totally worse for him. Like even the goal. Why are you not dispassionated? Why are you waiting so long and then doing little back heel? It's like, it's like that player when you grow up. They're a decent player, but they're instead of just doing the simple things. They're always doing step-overs or they're kind of thinking they're a little like one of those African flamethrowers where they have to do tricks to get the crowd to cheer or whatever. He's like that. He's always doing the most complicated thing. Anthony was a little bit like that as well, wasn't he? Well, Anthony was even more of a meme. So he'd make a good five side footballer, I guess. I always think it'd be a great five side football. That way he held off that guy today. It's so strong. Just not killer. No. He can't really kick the ball that hard either. He tried to shot it in. It was like a pass back, wasn't it? Again, why didn't he pass that? You know, you have a really tough group and this was a good victory. When the draw came out, I think the presiding opinion, it seemed to me, it's not bad,

40:52but I don't like this is really tough. You've got some really good sides in there, especially the away games that all can be incredibly tough. Then we've got buy-and-coming to you know, I'll be like, see, I don't know how good they are this season. Did they lose to Koma tonight? Yeah, and they weren't that good. In the Bundesliga last season, even though they came third, they're still trying to rebuild, I think, obviously all the players get pinched off them. It's part of the model. But buying our trappers as tough as it gets, let's go away. Again, Koma away. Koma, good. Again, not a fairy tail. Net worth of the two owners, about 50 billion euros. They're doing all right. They're not begging for change these guys. I thought they probably win the Sarriaro at some point. I imagine. They had to do some emergency work on the ground out of the summer to get it to UEFA standards, still only 12 or 15,000 or whatever it is that can get in there.

41:53Amazing, with the Lake Koma and the mountains and stuff, very picturesque. But yeah, just really tough unite. It was really important they got the win today. Because the next seven games are going to be extremely competitive. Nice and off job. The fact that it was done at half time just makes it nice and easy. Nice and relaxed in that second half as a viewer, but also ahead of some days. You could be just such a cliche, but you couldn't have really asked for more to be honest. What else would you have wanted really? No, it's perfect. I guess loads of intensity for the 90 minutes and Smash M6 or 7 would have been wonderful, but with Sunday in mind, two days fewer rest than city as well. Of course they're going to make a load of changes and of course intensity drops, so understandable. Yeah, and it's nice for Shushka to get a goal, nice for Kunis to get a goal. Before we move on to Sunday, I would for the youth team as well. Ah, yeah. They also won their UEFA Youth League opener against Sabah at the

42:58least sports village. JJ Gabriel, the man just keeps, we're like, keep the hype down. He's only 15. Let's chill out. Yeah. Gabriel like back healing cat tricks in by the week. So a hat trick for JJ Gabriel today on his UEFA Youth League debut is scored and many insist on his Premier League 2, so his under 21 debut is definitely outgrown in the 18s, although you know, 15 that would be his natural place. He is on the extended squad list for the Premier League, so he didn't have to be registered. So in theory, he could make his debut. I think there's still the the rule around he has to be 16, right? For the Premier League, I forget next time. One paid a 15. Yeah, maybe you did. Maybe it's the FA Cup because there's one reason he couldn't play in last season they were talking about anyway. I can't remember. But yeah, just a word for him, just making hype. Kiss the badge as well at the end, which I like to see because every single club in Europe is circling around him at the moment. Yeah, I really love the UEFA Youth League and it's

44:01great to be back in it as well. I guess maybe you can play that I was thinking today is that especially when we're playing against the team, I think in some ways I'm like, I wish the UEFA league game wasn't today. So that for like a couple of, a couple more of their youngsters like JJ Gabriel might have been able to be on the bench. Obviously we brought on a C and we brought on a MASS and maybe Gabriel wouldn't have been in the squad anyway, but I just think, oh, in some ways I'd have loved to have seen him for the last 20 minutes today instead of you know, I'd love to see and they don't do it, but they do double headers in the US quite a lot. Right. And I know they'd never do it in England, so whatever, or churning up the pitch, they quite often do it. They might have the women's team on first and the men's team, all vice versa sometimes. Now that would be fun, wouldn't it? Double header. That would be such a great idea. That would be such a great idea. You're welcome, Manchester United. Jim, you could charge an extra fiveer to catch the, I didn't, I didn't watch it, but I said, Jim, to wait is just really good for

45:05you know, as well today. And I like you say, just run that high because he's already high, been, I just, I just want to see him as well to be fair. I know it's way too early, I still want to see him. And Giggs on the podcast going, he's a generational talent, it's just no stopping it. So he'll come on, he'll misplace his first pass and there'll be a million bought accounts on Twitter going, you rubbish, we told you, you're crap. All right, onto city on Sunday at Old Trafford. Very new look city, isn't it? At the moment, I mean, they sold a lot of players for massive amounts of money. They brought in Buaddy. He always really liked his great player. Great. Yeah, I mean,

46:06it was great. He was great in front of our season. It like everyone knew about him anyway. Ellie Anderson, who I think made 140 something passes the other day, who's very much being a tempo setter and enter Fernando. So, you know, best part of 300 and something million pounds on those three midfielders. Yeah. Very good. And obviously, just because they were sure of a player or two ill man in Jai from Everton, who started the weekend, I'm not sure which who they'll go for in their wide areas. And what have you made of city, Mariska city? I mean, it didn't look wildly different yet. No, but I feel like annoyingly good though. In my season preview, you know, just do a few mates. I was thinking, I think I actually got to see fifth or sixth. Bold call, bold call. Bold call, wrong call, but it looks quite wrong, quite a badly wrong call. I just looked at their squad in the summer and I thought this actually looks quite light. I think also there's a lot of overrated players that I think especially at the back,

47:10I think people like Kusanov and Gae as well to be honest. And even pay is like Shurki, who I think is really good, but I think under the wrong manager, I think could be Flaky. And I was kind of looking at a squad and being like, I think there's a lot of flakes in that team. And I think with a different manager without a pattern, without him is in Tensisee and the players kind of just kind of ready to die for pair. Even though he'd obviously dropped off a little bit with his intensity and he wasn't producing the same results, I was expecting a drop off. I guess there's in a similar way to Liverpool with club or Arsenal with Bengue. You know, obviously United with with Fergie, obviously didn't happen with club either somehow, but I was kind of just expecting that. And I don't rate my esquer either. And then, and the obviously got special loads of money on all this talent. And you kind of see them and if they have kept that, at least for now, they've

48:10kept that same mentality. They've kind of kept a similar type of style as well. And I'm a little bit fearful that they actually might be good. And they just, and when you spend over 300 million midfielders, you're going to have a reasonably decent midfield on you. So yeah. And you have for the attacking players in Cherokee's look good and hard and looks really out there, maybe even more so than ever somehow. Yeah, I'm a little bit. I'm not particularly fearful for Sunday, but I'm more fearful just that they are going to retain their level quality and level. Yeah. I don't know. Murruski's changing the template loads. No. And you could say, it might, it might look more like a 433. I guess. I mean, he's got Cherokee as his number 10 appears to be like full-time number 10. And then they've got, you know, like for like options in the wider areas. Harlan's obviously going to play every game. No point. I mean, if Harlan gets cropped, of course, it changes

49:13and really got a replacement because they keep selling them because no one's going to, yeah, Julian Alvarez asks a ball. Is this going to sit on the bench? No one wants to sit in my mood. No one wants to sit on the bench, you know, so Harlan doesn't get injured. So, like, it's a big if, isn't it? Yeah. It seems to be the plan is just control. Right. They're going to keep the ball because in Anderson, Baudi, End of Fernandez, I mean, even if they bring cover chit, cover chit, chin back in, they're all going to keep the ball really well. So that appears to be it. Anderson, he started, he played number eight a couple of times, played six in one game, he did a lot of very good work cleaning, tidying up those transitions, which is the thing, Rodry was brilliant at, you know, even saw some tactical fouls, which was a new one. I was like, ah, there you are. Welcome to city. It did do that a bit in the world cup, as well. I mean, I'm a bit of a put in a few on mess here. Well, I mean, the first thing that happened in that world cup, then finals, the End of Fernandez going through the back of Anderson with his elbows. I was like, I want to have trainings going. I mean, they do look super strong,

50:18in most positions. I guess that's, you know, that they're trying competing every, every competition, they want like for like replacements in every position. They can do it in most full back, they look a bit a little bit like. I'm going to play Gvardial, they're against Porto, didn't they, a left back, Ryan Aiden or he's not really getting any game time. Maybe should have taken that call from United on the deadline day. It's these good other ball. And then they don't really have a right back. I mean, Kusanovs played days and I'll write back. Nuno's playing days, not right back. Not really. They want all the games this season. So yeah. Yeah. What's the approach from United? I mean, if they do go with Konya Rashford Bruno and Bumos, your front four, I just haven't seen anything in this experiment of playing Konya as a false nine that's worked for me. I'd much prefer and Bumos through there. I would do if you will do that. But then what are your options? Rashford doesn't like playing on the right. I've never seen Konya play on the right.

51:18You could move Bumos to the right. It worked fine. But then Konya is your number 10. It's like, I feel like it would have been a straight fight between Konya and Rashford for the left-sided spot. If I had not got injured because he would probably wanted to play in Bumos through the middle like he did in all the preseason. Yeah. Yeah. It is difficult. I don't know how that fits up. I was asking you probably just sticks with probably Konya, doesn't he? Because it's not. It's not. It's not worked. But I guess it's not been disastrous. And we've still scored goals in those games. Yeah. I just don't think it's that you play such a good thing. Maybe he doesn't feel like he's fit enough. But I think also, I think he wants those ball players to just keep the ball. And especially if we don't have that much of the ball, you don't really want to just go do it. Is silly things that he is potentially capable of. And therefore he's a good option later in the game, especially if we're behind as well.

52:20I presume sure we'll come back in unless he's not fit and then met our roleplay. I think it may be doorgue for the fall because obviously it worked really well in those big games. I see it when he did do that. But I don't think he will. It could play doorgue on the right wing. They would balance it out. That's true. And he's played there a lot. But I don't think Rashford's been that good in the game. Stalky was terrible. Where did they let the wing against all the second half time. So that, that, that, she isn't that bad of an issue. I didn't mind Rashford against Everton. I thought he was one of our brighter players. Well, obviously the numbers, he's created quite a few chances. He hasn't obviously gone the end of anything yet. Yeah. He's been bright, but like, I don't think I'm droppable. And therefore I wouldn't be. I don't mean anyone's undroppable except for Bruno, basically. And maybe Kobe Manu, the way he started this season. Yeah. What would you do in it? I think he's going to go with Telemant and Manu. I mean, he took Telemant's half time, off a half time. And I know it feels a bit, but it's not like City have a super physical midfield now.

53:21Right? It's just you're worried about the transitions, I guess, but he seems to like playing with these sort of two eights in midfield. Carrick does. But I mean, City are going to play, they're probably going to play, well, the player Anderson and Fernandez and Fernandez is still coming back to finish. So they played Boade. I get they're probably well one and make it a four, three, three. Are they going to be that good in transition to the middle? I suppose you've got a Cherokee, though. He's going to pick up those pockets of space. And I feel like they did do that pretty well at the game. Well, Cherokee start. I mean, maybe Cherokee starts and it's not Boade and it's Fernandez and Anderson and Cherokee at 10. Yeah. They do pick up our teams in that middle, but I think if you have once we're set, I don't think they'll play for us. I think Telemant's in mainly a really good once they're set in the defensive. It's in that transition, isn't it? Well, that opposition is fine. It's the transitional moment. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So, and that's what I think is some respects, like, their setup lends itself to us to play well. We

54:25are last season. We were just set up the counter attack really, really well against teams. And I think I don't see why that would have changed. Despite us trying to plan the front foot in the first three games, but we're playing against lesser opposition. I don't see why it would have changed in a game like this against better opposition. And therefore, I feel I feel pretty confident in our in our settle no matter what we go with. It's just in those moments of transition, whereas where we potentially go too many people caught forward or say we can see the early goal and we go have to chase the game a little bit. That's when I've veered here for us and sit here potentially with all of their quality. Just play as off the park a little bit and take us apart. But I also don't see us being a team that is brittle or fragile. We've got a lot of personalities in this team. And I think I think we're going to be a team all season, which maybe doesn't win as many games as we should win game. But I think we're going to be competitive and it's any one of I think will be a lot of teams. We may be not expected to be and I think we'll drop a lot of points against

55:28teams we're expected to be. I think we'll just be one of those teams because of because of us being a team based on a lot of individual quality, but having a lot of flaws within the squad. And I think that would be the same on Sunday. I think it could really go either way because of because of the type of team that we are really. We're a team that rely on moments both defensively and offensively really. Yeah. I mean, he's definitely trying to move to a more systematic approach. It would be interesting to see how much of the ball we do have because we probably only had 30% in that game last year. But imagine it'll be more this time because we've got more ball controllers in midfield. It's how many players they get in front of the ball. How much do they flood the box or not? Which will be how much risk do you want to take at home to try and score versus the risk on the transitions? Back forward, I guess it's going to be down on my guard. Martínez and sure. I mean, they've all looked a bit rope. He's to be honest.

56:33Yeah. That's why I feel like we should just sit back a little bit more and give them that protection because you just don't want any of those people running backwards. Absolutely. They're all really vulnerable when the opposition has the ball because they're all staring at it as you saw against Everton. Super. All right. Well, United got the European campaign after a great start. That's what we wanted. I don't think you're gonna ask more than that. There's a big game on Sunday. If you want to get our extra show or you hate listening to ads patreon.com for slash and Qat pods. You can also find us on Apple podcast subscriptions. I turned on a 14 day free subscription. You want to try that without paying for it. There you go. Free stuff. So Jimmy's down his phone right now. Go, yes, it's free. How can I make money out of this? I think that's it for the weekly news and games. Tom loves to see you again. Yeah, I could be on. In your prison cell. If you're listening to this, you won't know, but Tom is against a blank wall.

57:35Do you want to show us the daily news paper proof of life video, I think? It's actually. No, it doesn't look very pink. Well, there you go. He's got the builders in. That is the excuse he's got for that. Sounds like a you for me. Yeah, it really does. Yeah. I think a woman would use it rather than that. Hey, whatever floats your boat. All good. Thanks a lot for listening. Everyone will catch you next time. Bye now. You