Closing Thoughts and Future Shows

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Starting at just ninety nine cents. you can shop same day delivery or order online for pickup in store and they even do free helium inflation on Sack Balloon styles. Michael's everything to celebrate anything, visit Michael's in store or shop online now This episode of the TFo Football podcast is sponsored by Boss, businesswar provider for the US men's national soccer team Long before kickoff, the performance has already begun. For the players, the crest is not simply won, it's earned. The Boss understands what it takes to build something worthy of a crest. cononstant refinement, precision in every stitch. And as the US men's national team steps into the spotlight on home soil, Boss is outfitting those who wear the badge, empowering them to step forwards with confidence Express their individuality and be their own boss in relaxed, lightweight and breathable tailoring from boss performance. And soccer fans, Boss has you covered too, whether you want to look and feel as sharp as your heroes in boss performance, or show your pride from the stands, in jerseys, polos and jackets in national colors and badges. Own the moment with confidence discover the boss performance collection as worn by the US men's national soccer team and the fan capsule of jerseys, polos, and jackets in national colors. Wear your passion your way and be your own boss at boss. com or at your nearest boss store Hello and welcome to the TFo Football podcast. I'm Ruben Pinda and today I'm delighted to be joined by Alex Barker Hello, Hello mate John Mackenzie, Hello, And Kya Kineak. Hi. You right? Yeah, you've said you're in a bit of a hurry, so I wanting to talk a bit slower. Are you guys hungry? I'm not Yeah I'm all right. I've I've got some nice lunch, actually. I made a Butter bean and chorito stew. That's notice. I don't know what that is, but tell me more about.. Why do you order it that? Why have you ordered it that way? But butter bean and choritao? becauseause would be like say chorita, butter butter bean I don't know. I feel like On today's show, I try to he back from jumping straight into palace As we reflect on the sacking of Annna sllot by Liverpool. Cheers guys, ready? ruined my holiday. Kaya makes a reductive comment about the quality of the questions posed to the panel But he was proven wrong in the end. Wow, rightight? I remember that. Right Ste. they were on the same side We stay on Merseyside to discuss a reportedly imminent appointment Vandon Iriola. as the new liver forool manager and how they might. fit together or not h thenen we play arondo which I found very difficult So to give the viewers a kind of teaser to what it's about. I kind of feel like I have forgotten every fixture from last season already except for Crystal Palaces Victorious confference L league run. After the Rondo, we move on to the actual European Champ The other European champions. Paris A. Are they building a dynasty in Paris to rival Napoleon? Wow. What a comparison, that Luc Enriice, congratulations. People are saying what do you think of that? We touched on whether the chapter' Lague is easier to win now compared to a decade ago, and I'm finally allowed to talk about the palace at the end. by I mainly focus on the average service provision in the city of Leipzig.et it was genuinely not good U At least the weather was nice. I didn't want to cut your flow, but when you're in Leipzi, did you have any German Denerab or did you sort of? Yes, did you like it I love Adonic nice. It was like the only place on near our hotel miles not miles away, but like a bit out of the city that was that was still open. Well, I think it was nice. Yeah. just as a Turk, I don't v it as German Dun, Ive just gotta get that in there. Yeah ye. So you never eat at GDK. No, That's offensive to my culture. I went to a Turkish restaurant yesterday Did he? Yeah, Tas J on the cup in Water Lea. Oh nice. Tas is nice, yeah. Gally nice. Yeah. I had a chicken chish. Very good. It was lovely. Yeah really nice. And I was sat outside in the sun and at every moment of the two hours we were there arsenal fans We're walking past. Those are the perfectays. I could always see an arsenal shirt The perfect,. Crazy. Yeah Good vibes immmaculate vibes. Well well done arsenal You're never more than six meters away from. And we were going to talk about new rules for the World Cup, but we ran out of time so maybe we'll get to them closer to the tournament. U On Thursday's show, we have John Not Ka and a new guest. Thanks for that correction in the script, Steve. Am I doing all this again Oh normally I put it in both places because Joe will get one out of the two. Okay. All right. so But why not? Why not tell the audience what we've got brring them as the season for Tfo football podcast specifificically come to a close, let us know what's going on. As the season draws to a close, we know live stream this coming weekend. and a final TFo foootball podcast before we go into Well cut mode and the show changes a bit will be next Monday and and that's the show I'll count you in S London forever Where else to begin, of course? Crystal Palace one, Rya Vayano Nil in the confonference League final. Okay, that's how my system will come back to no steers have mistaken the scripts. No' h. No Well, we will come back to it, mark my words And the first, of course Liverpool have sacked on a slot Despite the messaging coming out of the club for a long time was that they were going to be really patient with him and probably go another year. the decision was taken by owners Fenway Sports Group after Liverool finished fifth in the Premier League with just sixty points and I was reading in One of the many athletic articles yesterday that season included twenty losses, including the community shield which is quite a lot. and quite the fall from grace, writes Steve for the Dutchman with his dismissal coming just over a year after leading Liverpool to the Premier League trophy and So as Steve writes, where do you think it sits between Sot merely continuing Kops's work and not being able to put his own stamp on things? or him being a better manager. currently perceived but just being in a bad situation. That's the epitome of it's bit of both clies from as most questions are. As James Pierce writes in the Inside Read on slot sacking The Salus spat didn't cost a lot his job Much more significant in the final decision was his inability to find solutions to the team's glaring weaknesses blanket of negativity descended. during the run in with performances so lifeless and disjointed So I mean, it seems to me like quite some of those performances were probably connected to the fact that the players didn't seem confused by his methods anymore, John on? Yeah, I think the opening question there is an interesting one because it's hard to to really decide where you put slot on that continu in between Got a bit lucky to take over yogen cllops final team at a point where they were starting to peak, I guess. And then on the other side of the continuum, you've got he was given a squad that, you know, has proven not to be successful this season. There was nothing he could do against it. There's all kinds of external aspects to why the club might not have done well this time aroundound, not least the death of Joe Gogiotta as well. So I think it's a really interestnteresting question because I think We always like in the football media to boil things down to like nice neat summaries and be like, this guy is good, this guy This went, well this this didn't. It's one of those ones where I think it's pretty clear that there are plenty of layers and there's a lot of gray infinite levels of gray between the black and white. And so yeah, maybe that's the conversation that we should have here. Um becausecause I guess I I'm asking myself the question like what do we think of slots? off the back of his time in the Premer League becauseuse it's like incredible success followed by a largely incredible failure in the second season. and it's hard to know which one of those you pick as the dominant factor and where you come out on top. I don't know what you guys think. Well in the same way that like a lot of players, so like say Vz, for example, hasn't looked as good in his liverool team as he did at LaveQeues and which earned in the move, players need functional environments to look their best and managers need functional squads as well. So it seemed like it was kind of Just lots of things not quite right and accumulative effect of that was that everything looked quite wrong. Yeah, I actually felt that the clop slot did slot sort of benefit from clop argument is a little reductive just because A large part of Hawai thankks Steve doing a hand gesture to me there through the window. I'm just trying to prompt a conversation. Yeah it works. it works. I think it' was a very tongue twistter, by the way, what you just do you want to try say have slot clock Also, what gesture did he make? I don't know I see. I don't know if it's repeatable. but basically a big part of why Liverpool won the league last season was Ryan Graberg being moving to midfield. That was him Jogan Clock hadn't figured out Ryangraobert as a player and it felt he was going nowhere at Liverpool Also, M Sala has spoken about how The reason or one of the reasons he had such an amazing season last season is because he was given license to not defend as much and people forget that Towwards the end of Yngen Clock's time, him and Sala were at loggerheads a bit as well. I think there was a game at West Ham where They're having an argument on the touch line. that's when Salad did that if I speak, there'll be fire or something like that So I actually think Slott did a really good job in his first season and The interesting thing is, you know, if Man City hadn't falln apart in the way they did and if other teams hadn't had injury crises in the way they did Would it have been a more compelling title race wouldould they have strolled the league so easily? That's something we'll never know. but The fact that he put his team in a position to be able to take advantage of that deserves credit. And then I feel from a bit in the second season and I think he's made a lot of mistakes But I think the local transfer strategy was such a mess last summer I don't know if too many managers who kind of could have molded that into a better scenario. They've also had lot of injuries this season. like I think the amount of time that In the inside Read it said the amount of time that ETK, ESAC and Vita play together is less than ninety minutes and that's their three big signings. So designed to transform the attack. I still don't quite get how you fit all three on the pits together, but they haven't been able to get on the pitch together because of fitness. So you feel for for slot in that sense. but having said all that, I think it's It's pretty damning for him that in that Chelsea game where Chelsea lost to Liverpool That was the first game where Chelsea, I think had outrun their opposition in the entire season. So that suggests that players maybe weren't playing as much for him anymore and a lot of the noise coming out of the campps suggested it was an unhappy place. I think it's the right decision I just think you've got to be careful of kind of dismissing the first season that Sot had because it was really good, but this season has also been really bad. Yeah and apportioning him maybe too much blame. Yeah for this one. Also to that point the team that Slot inherited wasn't winning the title. Yeah Like the city had won Two in a row at that point, maybe? Three No three W it four? four aow? Four in a row that was broken. Right. There you go. So you know, clop clop wasn't dominant in a way that that's yeah. I do think though, I mean, I'm going to push back a little bit here on a couple of points. I think what on the one on the one hand with cl if you actually look at the cycles of squad building that they have They they obviously have that bad season in twenty two twenty three And then they bring in a bunch of midfielders in twenty four twenty five Liverpool. And it's almost like in twenty five, twenty six, they've had the benefit of being together for a season and that whole group then comes through at a sort of peak time in in the swap's first season Um And then the other thing I'll say is that actually the data doesn't look very favorably on slots. So I've got a graphic in front of me, which I know is not great for audio listeners, but it's just a viz from Spencer Mossman on his beyond ninety football video that he's just put out talking about slot and Iirola and it's a great viz because it shows you the rolling expected goals. so, you know, just giving a good sense of where where where Liverpool were at under u under slot And he's got like a line drawn, which is like above this line, you're sort of doing fifth fifth place points per game essentially. So this is the level you'd expect to be if you're going to be getting Champions League essentially. And Liverool only really creep over that in the first few months of slot's tenure, so by January, February, they're putting up Champions League level form. But actually in the second half of the of his first season, their numbers do drop off quite considerably. And then through the whole of the course of of last season then they're sort of putting up a much lower performance level. And I think it's kind of interesting because Um That suggests a few things. One that Liverpool's League title last season was was sort of very momentum based. they got where they got halfway through the season were able to carry that home But the other thing is that performances this season are still well ahead. If you look at their points per game, they're well ahead of why the the underlying performances suggest they should be as well. And I think that will be what the Liverpool decision makers will be looking at, saying, you know not yes, if this guy is putting up consistent you know, Champions League finishing. u numbers then then we' probably we probably bear with them. but because those numbers are a bit lower, I think, u, it probably prompted them to move on. So yeah, it's it's a really tricky one to determined as well, because we talk about the squad building as well Most of the times when we say that a manager has been served badly in squad building by the recruitment department' because they've not spent money, right or they've they've bought the wrong kind of players. whereereas if anything Clive, they spent too much Yeah. If anything they spent too well. No. And you know, that's that's not me saying that I think the squad is well balanced or anything. And I think that's a fair criticism. I think you can say, does this squad work for what he wanted to do? And you can you can also make the argument that they they sort have plumped on the old meta a little bit in the players that they've signed and then the game has gone in a different direction and that's part of the problem as well. But Part of me still thinks that if you're spending the amount of money that they spend Last summer on players. a good manager should still be able to get an knock out particularly because the hardest thing to do in football is to create and score goals when you have a really front loaded attack. I still think that a good coach should be able to find a way of being able to provide a defensive base for those attacking players to work And I think that probably is a mark against them as well. But that on that note as well, like there are so many things you can talk about with a manager and why they failed. L I don't think there's ever going to be one reason you can point to even though it makes good for the soundbes. but like One thing that I think stood out to me was Sot thinking about him as when I just try and think of what makes an elite manager work at the top level is a evenven though it's a smaller sample size, often how well they do against elite oppositions in the Champions League. And I just think This season's a bit of a caveat because when they face PSG they had injuries and PSG have been champions two years in a row. But if you remember last season, right when they played PSG in the Champions League, the game plan for slot, despite a check as well, the starting level is largely first choice, the game plan for slot was just to sit back and basically cling on for dear life, right? They played about five right is I think that was this season. last season. it might have been it times it was like a back six if I remember used to again that Harve Elliot scoutedate went when they were ro under the caut. Allison had the game of his life. and I think at that stage I remember watching that and thinking, well Liveroolall going to be Premi Leue Champions. Yes PSG were the super team building at that point It goes to what you're saying John, right?ike you should be able to use the players you have who are the best players in the Premier League at that point and come with a better plan than just I'm going to cling on for dear life here. I think that was just one little warning sign for me. I don't know, I think losing your penaltyies to be a can happen to anyway. That. But the back five game that you mentioned that was this season. I think that was a really red flag to a lot of Liverpool fans this season thinking Well, he doesn't plan to use this very expensive squad. so he's relying on numer defensive numbers he was quite critical as well of teams who do that, right? He was he was he spent the whole season in the Premier League being like, what are we to do this season now that everyone's sitting deep against us? It's just not football and then they did the exactly the same thing against PSG. And again, like coming back to the difference between last season and this season, ye, again, I'm not taking anything away from what Liverpool did last season, but I think it was very clear toowwards the end of last season, the teams were are already finding ways of stopping Liverpool from being dangerous and that continued into this season. And on Sot's own admission. he said, you know, halfway through the season. he's like in almost all of the games we've played so far, we've had to throw the tactical plan out of the window at half time because it's the game hasn't gone the way we expected to go. And in the first season were they were getting ahead in games and being able to use that game state as a good way of being able to carry themselves through games. In the second season, it was the opposite, right? They were going behind in games and then finding it much harder to approach and break opponents down because of it. And that makes sense, right? Be A big part of his tactical approach was about baitating teams forward about deciding the moments when they were going to go direct. And when you're trying to go direct, you need to have space to attack. If there's no space to attack, then it's much harder to do. And yeah, I think that on top of the defense some of the defensive issues that they had they never really quite managed to to get their forty four sort high block working as well as it it could do teams found ways of manipulating that. And also the fact that teams realized if you went direct at their backline if you play the ball into the backline and then went for second ball. they were also quite fragile and did did that really well against. Yeah Exactly. And so you add all of that stuff together and it's kind of like It's this you're not seeing any sort of signs that this is just a sort of that's entirely unrelated to some of the tactical stuff as well. Yep, that's fair. Speaking of direct football And only Iriola is the clear favorite to replace him, according to the athletics, David Ornstein The forty three year old is the leading contender but Stutgockhode,eastian Hernness and Loln's boss Pierre Sj I get that pronunciation well, indndeed super are also being considered as options Iriola, of course, has worked with Liverpool's sporting narrator,ich Richard Hughes at Bornemouth and Is this the sort of appointment benefit them in this situation, Alex U I mean, John is our bornouth expert. Yeah, we just spoke for ages. it's my turn indeed. I mean, I have a question for John on it. I have my own criticisms, I think of Liverpool's managerial search and the way they've conducted things last couple of years and the noise come out of the club, we can get to a second one. Just on Eola to tee up you, Johon I feel like I look at him and I wonder desespite a Mbble of having a better season than Thomas Frank did at Brentford, and you know, having listened to you every hour every day. Badj yourot about how great Andoniola is. Thomas Frank coming into Spurs, I think I remember the narrative at the time was he'll be able to get them playing fast attacking football attacking spaces in behind. But I can't remember any manager arriving in the Premier League last five years saying, ye, I'm going to go to a top six club and yes, everyone try and load block us, but we're just going to play so far so frantically. they won't have a chance to load block us. I just can't remember that working and I looked at the possession numbers the Bom of this season. they play nineteen games in Premier League this season where they had over fifty percent possession and they only won four of them What would make him work at Liverpool? Why would that not necessarily be a hurdle? Be what's the stop teams just loow blocking and preventing Ariola playing the way he wants to Theres a couple of things to say. One is that I actually think that Gournemouth were Okay against low blocks. I think that what let them down for the most part was finishing So they did generate enough chances to win games Um and and because they for whatever reason, like a lot of their players are maybe I mean, again, and this is a quality thing, right? It's like when you're a club like Bornemouth and you employ someone like Aola, you're doing it off the back of the fact that you're going to have maybe a squad that isn't really suited for like heavy possession football And as a result, you have to speed the game up in order to sort of neutralize the tactical battle between the team that you're playing. That means that a lot of the time what you're doing is you're going to get into good goal scoring opportunities because there's a lot of space if you're playing quickly. but it may be the case because you're speeding things up because of the chaos because the quality of your play is slightly lower, your finishing will be lower So I think it's veryery justified to I think push back and say, well, what happens if he has those players who will be better finishers will that kind of sort of carrying beyond what is required. The other thing to say, I suppose is Um um that I think When it comes to like breaking downow low block stuff Often when you're doing that, it's because you're doing things right If a team is sitting deep against you, the odds are, yes, it's hard to break down low blocks. We saw that from the Champions League final And we saw PSG having having lots of struggles against Arsenal in the first half of the back of that But you are giving up initiative, right? You're giving up the ball and you're saying essentially have loads of chances. Maybe those chances should be lower quality chances because there's no space to attack. But you're still giving them like more likelihood of having chances than you're going to get in return And again, I think that that then just means well, you're sort of winning. you're sort of tactically winning that battle because they said you're better than us. we're going to sit back. So if he's doing that, he's doing something well. and then the only question is how well do they develop their ability to break down low blocks? And I think that's going to be the question with Iroola is going to be to what extent can he develop the ability to come out on top more often than not in those kind of games. U the other thing I would say is like teams just aren't loow blocking as much anymore, right? I think the game games are becoming much more open we did the me and Connor O'Neill, one of our data guys, do a vis which shows that possession is being shared much more by teams. So you know, Bournemouth just shaded into fifty percent possession, I think this season. But the majority of teams like the good teams who doing high possession stuff are in the sixties rather than the seventies where they used to be. and the teams at the bottom of the table are now in the forties rather than the thirties The other thing to say is that two of the top three teams per possession last season were Chelsea and Liverpool to teams who didn't actually have particularly great seasons. So I think the tactical meta is probably moving beyond the need for you to have to break down load blocks anyway. So all of which is to say I think there's lots of there's lots up in the air about what this is going to look like. but I do think that it's maybe less A lot of these critiques are less impactful than they would have been like five, ten years ago. Yeah, I guess maybe it' a way to think about just like on the back of that is Like say, brereaking down load blocks are doing something right. I think maybe when I start watching Ariola and Lveverpool if he does indeed go there If if he's struggling to break down low blocks like you say, probably doing something right. If he's struggling to break down mid blocks like Frank Czzers where that you couldn' progress the ball for, that's where I think the alarms bells will start. It's also worth saying the slot got the whole season of like teams not well, at least half a season of not having to face low blocks because because it seems ever worked out that they were shit. Yeah, right. It's a bit of a it's a bit of a like, he's a bit more of an open You're not going to go, oh, we're immediately going to low block against Areolas Liverpool because no one knows what they're expecting. So you give them you give them half a season and they get to do the football they want to do. Then the question is going to be if that works out well. he's been doing it well If that works out al right for them, then the load blocks will start coming and then the question is how well will they do with that? I wonder how well the players that they currently have will take to this. Like it'll probably suit some of them way more than others. but I suppose with that with Salar out of the way that is oneess as one less problem in that regard. Yeah, yeah. I mean there was a lot of talk about Liverpool's midfield, maybe not having as much legs as it did certainly in the days of Yogen Klock when they did the Heavy metal football that Mcallister especially has come under cour Yeah There's a lot of midfielders at Liverpool in bad form last season. and it'd be interesting to see if they've got the legs to cope There was interesting about them concealing a lot of late goals, maybe speaks to a lack of fitness so maybe different training methods with Iriola will tweak that and Maybe maybe they'll start to figure it out. I think they were I know we had a really bad season, but I do think like losing Konata on a free and a year after having lost trent on a free It signals something about the of joined up thinking in terms of the long term planning as well. Yeah, yeah. I mean, we speak a lot about Liverpool being This club who are so good at strategizing and They get a lot of credit for their transfer dealings and the Lis Diaz deal when they they brououghtght him in as a long term replacement for Sadiia Mane, for example, was was seen as a really good example of that. but I don't know, Alex, you' say some stuff about the coaching, which feels like it's Yes sign that maybe that joint I'm thinking isn't there as much. What are you're talking about bundles into it as well, E exactly what I feel the exact same way you do. like the last few years. I mean, there's been books written about how smart Liverpool supposedly are and how How how to win Premier League? How to win the Premier League Yeah And like the idea, you know when Klop arrived it was all data driven and the data department were warring with Brendan Rogers and they were actually signing the right players and Brendon Roggers was signing terrible players. And this is great story of data winning out in football, right? And I think the last couple of years paying attention to Liverpool. I'm just seeing so many things where like it feels like the data can only go so far For example, with the coaching stuff right? in twenty twenty four in may twenty twenty four, The athletic released a piece on how Liverpool hired slot and it's essentially very data driven. And that's because in the prior months there'd been links to the likes of Rub and Amram, for example. And basically in the metrics they used, apparently Amrim was really high, but slot was top of the top And it doesn't go into so much detail about the metrics, but a lot some of the things mentionred are things like playlaystar wheels and the XGO performance and things like that. It's kind of a question throughom. I just don't think this is a great way to measure how suitable a coach will be. It comes with the caveat right. It's basically impossible to get the perfect coach. There's a reason why they only last like two years and only a handful like Areto lasting a decade just look at it through the data prism. For example, at the athletics, for example, we have play style wheels and they can be informative, deffinitely, there's no this to the work done there. but I'll look at a playstyle wheel for PSG, for example and be like, well, you know, I get how the data' come out here, but this is not informative to how this team will play. There's just so many things that you can't grasp through data still in football that you have to see through playing. Like the way a team presses for example, like which players will push up or how different players are used. There's just so many things that I just find it really difficult, I just would love to see what the data actually looks like because at the moment in the reporting that's coming out, it seems like Liverpool are looking at Andoni Areola who plays this very chaotic style of football. Pierre Sarge Lons, who's very much more mid blocky counter attacky and even th then I think there's been a massive overperformance there in France. I also don't even think his English is particularly good. so I was really surprised to see his name up there. And everyone Sbastian Ernest, who's I guess a bit more of a He's a bit more of a tactical mix in a lot of things, but I'd definitely associate him more with like patient possession based football For Liverpool to come and say we want to play this more heavy metal style football It just there's so many things in my head that it doesn't make sense. And you bundle all of that in with the signings they made last summer, whereas John said, it feels like they sign purose of the old meta, despite their data saying, yeah, we're predicting the future here. We know what's going to happen. Am I right? It feels like Liverbool aren'tart any. Yeah it feels like they were. So like having read that book, the signings that they made, like telling Clock, no, no, we don't want Gereta, we want Marne, trust me They made so many brilliant signings. There was a period of time when I was like, when was the last time they made a bad signing? It's like Katater sticks out. but from that era, basically everybody they signed worked The footballling worldld has caught up with them And now Like I remember at the start of that book, it spoke about o, Breadan Rogers wanted Ben Teke just because he always used to score against Swansseie But we insisted on signing whoever, like forin or whever Um it feels like now they're doing the He's obviously really good l'ess with less consideration of like fit and, you know, I think it's just also worth saying as well Football data sphere is so young Like foootball data basically emerges from like twenty ten onwards. That's like fifteen years ago And I think One thing we don't talk about a lot is how so many of the ideas that we use when we're using data and the models that were built around it were based on a formmer football that was being played at its height ten ten, fifteen years ago, right? So I think that when they when you come in and you build these models on the basis of this high possession, high control, high territorial game football, then suddenly all of these like, yeah, all of these nice examples of like what that might look like started popping out. And I think we're now in a position where, as you've said, when you get that tactical shift The models don't shift as well, right? So to an extent I think the models will take a while to catch up with what the modern game looks like a little bit. and as a result, we'll get these weird scenarios where You can make the argument that happened last season with Liverpool where they You know, they're signing players like Fln Vis who in my head is a sort of like absolutely incredible final, third low block breaker, which I don't think Slot really knew how to use him, but you can make the argument in the Premier League It's much harder to see how you get his upside out or you need a very specific type of coach and approach to make the most of that as well. So again, it's all of this to say you constantly have to be reinventing your ideas about how data works as the as the game evolves too. Yeah, just like to really ham in this home, a lot of the time I've spent in this job has been watching football with John and looking I look at a manager who comes up in the European market. this guy' really good. This team's really fun. M Mram will sit down to watch them All the days for his great And we will go for all their goals across the season right be like, well that was a bit lucky. A lot of these goals are coming through set pieces or through like transitional moments. There's like a high degree of concern of how you how this manager might adapt to the Premier League for example, on the data street, that will just come up positive. And it feels like obviously Liveboool not just hiring the manager off numbers, but it feels like there's a greater reliance on numbers than maybe there should be I quote Rob Mac owner of Wrexham and of course, Star of Alwaysay Suny in Philadelphia to quote his character in that show. Science is a liar sometimes. Alex, just to save you from some pedantic comments, it's been Aretta hass been in charge for about seven years, not ten. Oh ye. well back He's going to be really hardot to cut your flow there. To be fair to him, he said, managers who've been around for ten years like Arteta. He's been seven years. Yeah but he's making the point that it's To avoid pedentry, we have sparked more pedentry. It feels so much longer to be honest. It does. It doesn't feel long enough. Should we have a break and then a rondo? Let's do it Say after the break Hey, Pablo Torere here. As a sports journalist, I've covered global sports for many years now And there is one thing that I can promise you Nothing compares to the World Cup And this time it is even better thanks to McDonald's, You have the chance to take home one of nine legendary cups when you order the FIFA World Cup meal The cups feature some of the biggest legends in football like David Beckham, Teron Ree and Ronaldinio, Christian Pelisick. Laminia Mal and Alfonso Davies. Right now, get one of nine Legendary cups when you order the FF World Cup meal only at McDonald's participating McDonald's only for limited time, while supplies last, All rights reserved, copyright twenty twenty six. McDonalds at the FIFA World Cup, twenty twenty six This is Cat and Nat from Cat and Nat Unfiltered, and this episode is sponsored by Michaels, your destination for all things birthday parties. If you've ever planned a birthday celebration, you know it goes from cute idea to full on chaos real fast. The party shop at Michaels makes life easier with over forty thousand five hundred partarty supplies in sixty plus themes like Bluey, Rdeo, soccer, rainbow, and more. Starting at just ninety nine cents. You can shop same day delivery or order online for pickup in store and they even do free helium inflation on Sack Balloon styles. Michael's everything to celebrate anything, visit Michael's in store or shop online Now One second, you're enjoying your day off. The next, your phone buzzes. A window's been broken at home. You're miles away. In one second, everything can change That's why ADT's professionally installed security systems monitor your home twenty forty seven. They're backed by the most company operated monitoring systems in the industry, so you're always supported during an emergency. When every second counts, count on ADT. Visit ADt. com to learn more Mmm, what a lovely break that was right now. It's time for a Rndo all of us in here consider ourselves worthy champions of this game. I don't think we're going to have A JJ. I know I know he did excellently in the England Rnde recently with absolutely no help. But I think we all fancy ourselves for this one Alex, you've got a one for one record, right? I have indeed. A little lucky at points, but I did get a bonus one of naming every championship club me and John. We got down to like last four, didn't it? I think we missed three. We missed Bristol City. I still lighte awake thinking of. And of course, John won recently, but it wasn't about football. It was definitely a football related one. It was definitely not science and the periodic table And you seem to always win when I'm not around. We seem to We've not been put up against each other. We seem to trade the crown Yeahes not you're not involved in this one I am. You're involved in this Amazing.az As if I would say no, I don't want to play If it's before football in twenty ten, I'm going to lose. if it's after I've chanced myself winning. Well, Alex, you're very lucky because it is incredibly recent incredibly recent this Rondo, becausecause as we've touched upon and as James Pierce mentions in his inside Liverpool piece, Part of the reason Arnest Slot has been removed from his position as Liverpool manager was the nineteen defeats in all competitions this season. and twenty, if you include a community shield which we are because Today's Rndo is nameame or twenty opponents. Oh God. Liverpool have lost to this season. And the tricky point here for you is Repeats are included So if there are multiple instances of this happening You can mention the club again So if. And so beside def feetated Liverpool multiple times, they can be mentioned multiple times and that has happened in this set and that's all I'm giving you. However, if you mention them one time too many, you're of course out. Okay. So for those of you who do not listen to what other people say, come that's been my downf. real, real In life and in this podcast. Exactly that. So that's the trapdor'm laying for you. Okay. So I'm going to start Hen't been generous with Ruben. So Liverpool's twenty They lost in all competitions including the commommunity shield, which is really walking you towards the first time And we're allowed to six teams to w than once. And you have to, ye, because eventually you will probably run out. So Ruben, you first. Crystal Palace in the commommunity shhield. Excellent. That is of course correct. Alex Barker. Chelsea Correct, Joh Mackenzie. Manchter City in the FA C Yes, that is correct. Oh is it all compoms? All Coms. I said it about five ye they're not listening thing. Kya Kineak. Manchester United in the Premier League. Excellent. Okaykay. Now you again, Ruben. I kind of just want to look at the Premier League table? no no no no no get's cheing. You finally get someone to get who's the compet.'s it's down. All right. who Everyone beat them, but who actually did beat them? We're getting close to Dithering now. We're getting Bntford. Correct.. you were circling the drain in the room Just to be clear, Alex. Bornth in the Premier Leag U Crect Galatassara in the Champions League Correct. Kia. That was mine So let's have a think. let's go for Paris St. German in the Champions League. Correct. is who I was gonna say. Ruben ristop Pallace in the Leaku. Correct Alex. Manchester City in the Premier League. Correct. He'll be so locked in. John Um, Full in the Pmier League I'm afraid not, John. I'm afraid not No It was a last minute equalizer from was it an equalizer Yeah. Was that the Harrison Re? Yeah the goldens never score his life. I'm afraid Fulllam were one of the few teams Liverpool didn't lose to this year. you were out, John. very sorry. I thought that was a winner, M We're wearing white and black today as well, so Cool game V in the Champions League? Oh very good. Yeah like for one, didn't they? Corct Yeah. in the league phase much more about school, but yes, they did lose two them. So good. good Good answer. Ruben I'm looking around the photos try to give me some inspiration. Bright and get a result against him Is that your answer? Yeah. Correct. Oh, come on. Alex, they're good for one. You just nicked mine and I was going to specify wrriting in the Premier League. Damn you. Thats fast to fix drament U We have six more def sorry seven more defeats in the Premier League, one more sorry, two more defeats in the Champions League. Yeah Is' that Alex sor. That's okay. chec it out No watch your mic? I watch my mic just I' stalling time. I'm gonna to have to press you now, Alex come on. Crystal Person in Premier League. Correct The re mentions of the Crystal Palace, beaten them three times this season. So the cararibabel Cuutw has been said, yeah. It has been said. Good goodood just checking. Vill in the Pmer League. Correct. Yeah. Their final defeat of the season what is quite recent. We are starting to run out there, Ruben Yes, we are. let's see Who was down the bottom? but kindind of okay. Oh Forests No. Yeah, fuck it. Forrester Anmfield. Correct orest in the Premier Lague. M Riff was Anville, but Forest did beat it was. So we've got F more remaining answers Everton in the Pm Lag I'm afraid not in that. Big bge again last And at first Hill Dickinson meride Derby and then they didn't brin the other one either because Everton never beat Liverpool Right? You you' out I'mfraid. Alex so it's down So Rubin and Kaya, Kaya next up. Yeah. Okay having a think U so they drew with wolves, didnn't they The last minute most solidalty against Burnley Who was the other te thing that went down? West Ham Westn Let't beat them kind ofer repeat aking his time.. I'm going to have to rush you. I'm going to rush. Ribm got way more time than this. Ribm's also on his laptop Yeah, Ribm's googling the teames this is. I'm gonna trust R I'm going trust. Come on, countountdown needed. Cd down. I die fish she. four I'm sitting in the Premier League again Correct. Yes Complete guesswork now. Yeah, four more left. two in the Champions League. Oh Okay And I want to Yeah, and then the rest in the Premier League of what remains And actually both aren' two answers in there Uh, repeat Th three answers in there repeat. I can't remember anything that happened. C can't be three repeatated if there's only four left. There's I no No no threeree repeats, one, four n answers left. Yeah. Oh repeat already So which teams do you feel like you should repeat and one novel answer to come This is time. You need to get a handle on time, Steve. I had like a referee. He was let almost off Jon. I didn't anticipate their potentially need a high break. You time the final referee is gone to pot. I have no St good job. Low half timee on his corner. Come on come on Rubon, come onid. Gamadrid. theyate them. knew they play Can I get the other one? oneon to retain your crown from the live stream over the weekend, you have to name one. I'm going for a gamble because again, I'm not proper been listening to everyone else. Yeah, okay. I've said PSG already once, but they lost both legs didn't they They did indeed k as you are indeedlys under their a r. We b the kak comean. We missed spurs, didnid't they be D didn't spur No, they drew spurs I think they were like Eagle ch only point was. have one or draw. Ganataserai was one. There we go. There werepeat two No, no. There were two Ganat Tasaoi beaten twice this season. Of course. ye. And it was right in the lag phage. knockout phase. Yeah, first leg Yeah. I doubt him my. That was the one that I was talking about the knockout phase. I was thinking of the league phase. And then another of course, Main United doing the double Over Liverpool this year Yes. Yeah you never even mentioned that again then obviously Kai is one, but just for fun. who is the final one the final solo, not repeat. Yeah. veryery, very unexpected victory this time around a time that we thought they might. call for survival. Cvery Wolves. There we go, Wolves. Yeah Yeah What be them? Yeah, I thought they drew. No, no, no. No, no. There we go Well there we go Good Rndo Steve, good Rndo. Thank very much. Thank you. The perfect Rndo because we didn't run out, but we nearly did. Yeah, that's why I was pausing so much I was trying I was like, I need a tie breaker. I don't have them what the hell do I do? So anyway, thank you Kayi and Ruben for making sure we didn't need one. That's all right. worry about it, Ay to be of service. Okay, right, on with the show Okay, now let's pick up on the final breadcrumbs of the Champions League final. I'll let you I'll let youve for a bit and I'll go to Alex first. I's going cry on a. Alex. we thought We should focus a bit more on the winners of the competition on today's show because obviously the guys about arsenal at length. U Parjim C anybody missed it? They they went on penalties And Alex, you watched a lot of PSG over the years Was this their hardest game of the season? Right, Steve Right This It was a penalty shootout so on the surface. ye, it's the hardest game. but I mean, I must say I didn't get to watch it live at the time because an unnamed Wroadpan provider had failed my new house. so I had no way to watch the Champions Lague Non provider ye. Non provider indeed. they will be named if they do not fulfill N on this show On this show and on live everywhere But having been able to watch it back, I think The thing that stuck up to me, I think As will probably the hardest team PSG have had to break down. I mean PG have had a weird season, right? They've lost games in Lager B's generally been down to heavy rotation, less so like coming up against really tough opposition and they've just been taken off guard. They've had a weird first half of the season with injuries as well Yeah, I think Arsenal when they went one they up, they were an incredibly hard team to break down. I was just paying attention to that every run was followed by PSG. like every one v one duel was just a complete mission for all of their players like Cach Skellio like play a little tournament watching on the left hand side. Even he was just struggling to get any ground I still think the hardest opponent PSGA face this season was probably Be and it's just because Byen carried the attacking threat that Arsenal just don't, I think at the moment. It's not to say Arsenal's attack is bad. it's just Byen's Eise, Kaine and Diaz Obviously PSG when they played in the five four game, they race into an early lead having gone one nil down But I feel like that game could have gone either way and I think that was a game where PS she would genuinely fearful of like the threat on the attack. And I think what stays in my mind as well, PS she lost to them in the first half of the season in the group stage. and Like I said, there were some caveats for PSG at the start of the season, but I remember watching that game thinking Yeahah, Byingag going win Champions League. That felt very much like a crown being passed over. PSG was just completely outclassed. So is I mean, credit to them. they stepped up in the second half once again to win the Champions League Arsen were incredibly hard to break down, but I think that buy in game in the semifinals was the one that decided it for me inm. Yeah, that did feel like the real final at the time I did. Come on, this were five goals. Oh goals are good Um It disgusting. It stood out to me that was that the exact same star in eleven that started? last last year's Champions League final. mayaybe minus the goalkeeper? Yeah, probably minus the goalkeeper. Yeah. So I wonder where they might evolve if they're going to go for this three peak because they don't seem to really have any weaknesses, do they Maybe a bit more depth the right back beyond Lukeemia if he's out or just more depth generally. But then if they're barely playing in Lig gun, then you don't really need depth to. Well you can play in Lun. that's kind of been the magic of PSG. That easy. Yeah. sorry. I meant the starting line that who played in the Chama Z ph are often being rotated, right? Yeah The depth isn't as necessary Yeah. I mean, they've often run like a second eleven in the Lague earn then the first eleven in the Champions League. So I mean,s there's room for death. It's been really weird. like Izo Barni, for example, he signed at the beginning of the season. I can't remember watching him. That's how little he's played in like games that matter that's also because he's not being particularly great but he's been largely bentched. I mean, yeah, you not the same for Beraldo who came on the Champions League at least he's barely played I think. Yeah. he kind of feels in like wherever he's he's the league. I think he we mentioned this on live stream. it felt like he was a penaltyption because he took the final penalty for them as well. So it felt like they were just getting one of the better penalty takers on towards the end of the game. They played he's obviously usually a centre but they played him in midfield six as well. Yeah. the last time he played in the Champions League, I think was when the last time PSG got knocked out which was against Dortmund in a twenty three twenty four campaign, I believe and really cases first season at Berrad,o remember was just outmuscled, I think for a header in that game probably against Fallcrew. And since then it's just been used like they say like filling in fallback or senseback when needed. The interesting thing about the final for me from a tactical point of view from PSG's angle because we talk a lot about from an arsenal point of view, but They were obviously very nervous about Arsenal's transition threat because because they, you know, they really weren't trying to Um get through the arsenal block, right? They a lot of the players were outside the block. They were they, you know, they were trying to get Nona men's forward, but they were dropping Fabian Ries out. And in the second half, they obviously went a bit more aggressive with that. They were getting men's forward and keeping Ries in midfield and it was that it was that combination, obviously in the wide area that led to the the penalty because they were able to commit players forward. but I think they made the task a lot easier for Arsen in the first half precisely because they were worried about the the counter attack threat from Asenal in the second half. I think they just went for it a little bit more and they were like, fine we're not going, we're not going to keep three players in the backline all the time. We're going to push one of them forward and try and create some of those some of those tensions. And I think that that's kind of interesting, right? becausecause I guess in my head, I just sort of thought they won't worry about that at all And in many respects, Arsen did struggle to generate a huge amount of transition threat U the goal itself obviously came from them putting up it was basically a turnover of the ball really, right? the ball is played off Trossard and goes in behind and they and and PSG are sort of pressed quite high. they they did manage that other have its chance, right with a bit of nice interplay in the wide area on the right. But beyond that, I mean Arll put up less than half an expected goal over the course of the game. and I guess in the second half, it was just more PSG well like, okay, fine a go down, we've got to go for a little bit more But I thought it was really interesting because so much of the conversation going into the game was BS you can just, you know, they can just attack, they can attack, they can attack and they'll probably come out on top. Whereas this was very much a different type of assignment for them. It was very much it was a tetchy game. They had to defend a lot and then Arsen, I think in the second half of the second half started doing that thing that actually I think is a good way of playing against BHG if you're chasing a game is just shelling the ball at the backline and then trying to win second balls off it because similar to Liverpool we' talking about before. they think that's why they made those sus, right? Yeah, right to give just a little bit more coverage in those sorts of areas. So yeah, it's a really interesting that so much of the conversation has been about this like meta conversation about Oh, you know, teams like PSG and Bay and now are just at the forefront of what you can achieve tactically. and I thought this was a really good game to to show that actually if you do take a different approach, All arsenal, then it does force these big teams to have to play a different way as well and often that can force them into playing a kind of football that doesn't really suit them. When I watched it and I know this kind of came off on the live stream a little bit. It did feel exactly like the twenty twenty one Eururos' final. Hm whereere, you score a little bit early And as we've discussed many times on the FC channel, show over this season. they play so much more risk averse when they're wanding up. And it's probably our Tetta's dream like, oh, great now we've got a lead to defend. we don't have to leave as much space. You could literally just worry about the defensive aspect, right? Yeah But then it's just such a long time and eventually something is going to go wrong. Yeah and This is Louis Henry's third Champions League title n his first in twenty fifteen, eleven years ago Is the Champions League easier to win now than a decade ago, right Steve Are there fewer contenders who can realistically win it compaare to twenty fifteen. Are there a few yeah, I guess there are fewer contenders good I feel like it's not necessarily easier because when Barcelona won it in twenty fifteen, I guess they were They were firm favorites and Juventus gave them a bit of a game in the final, but I think they were was four was? Yeah, something like that. And I think this season, it's maybe felt like that because the draw was so top heavy on one side and the other half was quite weak. So it's kind of felt all the big teams played each other relatively early. So by the time he got towards the The latter stage of the competition, I'm willing now to admit that Ath did benefit from some kind draws. So I don't think it's easy. I think PSC is just a brilliant team. I think also again The rotational aspect of it that they can do that in their league. that Byen can kind of do a bit in their league as well has probably played a lot into how they can continue to keep going until the last stage of competition I think realal Madrid as well, despite the fact they're a bit of a mess at the minute, they're kind of only ever a a few give transance opening contenders again. those teams now can just see themselves as Champions League teams who sort of play a league around the edges because I think that definitely impacts the Premier League rest of the world element to to the Champions League, right? that Yeah Becauseuse you can't do that then you can't every Premier League team has to be. I think this is part of the le most. Maybe that's the next phase. I think the reason the question Stuve has that question, other people do it is the Champions League is because of how Premier League centric we are now in Europe. Like go back ten years ago, the Champions League favorites would have been Juventus By and like Raldid and Barcelona and then the Premier Lague team sort of after that. And we're in England looking out and being like, look all these fantastic teams. And the climate now or last couple years very much has been well Barcelona have had financial issues. They're not in their strongest place around Madrid around Madrid. they've been winning it But Biden also had a bit of a wobble until companies really found his way and PSG have always been kind of a joke and SR with Jventus fell off massively. So I think when you're in England youre looking at you're suddly looking at the European climate thinking, well, these teams aren't actually posing much of a threat to us. And maybe like you say the next phase of that now is Now Biden has definitely found their feet. PSG have clearly found their feet, these like top European teams. But I feel like these two teams in particular have really focused their process now on We don't need to worry too much about the league, almost using the league as like a preparatory space for their Champions League form, right? And I think that makes them very always, I think, in my head now going forward if they play their cards right favorites to go deep and probably hit a final you can't do the same thing in the Premier League, I guess is my point. It's that you can't use the Premier League as a sort of preparatory space to to give you the best opportunity of winning the Champions League and so And I think that's a good thing, right? I think it's good that the Champions League won't become just a sort of another foregone conclusion for Premier League sides because we find the rest the other two European competitions are Yeah, right And it's almost like a nice kind of corrective to that in many respects. But I do kind of find it interesting that idea that actually Byon and PST actually consider themselves to be what is their challenge at the beginning of every season It win the Champions League rather than Win the domesticup Yeah that was a league. That was a default Yeah It's like in FIF for careareer mode where you're like you're twenty twenty eight and you've had some great spells at like this you you've worked your way up to a PSG. you have some great spells and then you're like, you know, I really don't care about the league. I'm just going to simim every single game. I'm just going to play all the games in like if Yeah exactly in the Champions League. That that's basically PSG in buying now Great evidence of this is that Usmanembelle has played madeade eleven starts in Liga this time. He still one Leiga player the season, I think. Yeah. Yeah, that's outra I mean ten goals to be fair. That's not bad is it. He's not even top score at Lepool one scored like was it ninety or over twenty playaying for Rennd. Oh well, fair play for him first time that they've had a non PSG top scorer since twenty fifteen and who which striker was that Kya O, There's a reason I'm asking you. lose you lose this Tocarz? You lose the Rondo if you get this question Gh, o. Aleanda Lacazette? Yes. Yeah. Don't come from my crown So even when Leil won the title, it was still like in Bapay or whoever. Yeah, Barack Kila scored like fifteen golals, but also like one of the best seasons I've ever seen a striker happen. So that was an amazing year and Steve has now highlighted the words victory parade. Arsenal ended their evening in Budapest and were whisked away The next day back to North London For the Premier League Victory parade, the North London sky was red with smoke from flares As Asen fans and players alike were able to cure the wounds Cure the wounds? What you do to a wound? Heal, heal. Yeah of Champions League Final defeat with the sweet soothing balm. of a victory pro. I don't know I want arm to be sweet. I feel like that's going to cause a lot of pain in the long run, isn't it? You lick your wounds, don't you? Yeah, you don'till. Yeah. either way. Either way, beautiful pros, Steve. Kai, I presume you went. I went. Yeah. I did. yeah. It was nice. I think it could have been a lot more bad vibes given the result on Saturday night, but it was it was really nice. I think everyone was going into Saturday's Champions League final, regardless of what happened saying we're going to have a good time on Sunday at the parade. And that's what everyone did. I got there about so I watched it in Cliss Old Park, which for people who don't know North London is kind of a bit away from the Emirates Stadium, but The main bit where you probably would have seen all the videos is on Holloway Rad and around Finy Park and that was absolutely packed. It's a bit less busy in Clissol Park, but Even still I got there about eleven and people were, I mean, there were tens of thousands of people there, just just having a good time. and yeah The flares were there. The sky was red with smokes, Steve is right on that one, even if he's wrong about the wounds. There great There's a great photo of was at Hybry in Inddington Tube station with all of the people on top. Yeah ye. I mean's an incredible picture that is. It looks like it's sixty it's fifty years ago. I know, it's really good. I mean, there's loads of amazing moments ass Ben White throwing Martin Erdegard's sunglasses into the crowd.en They all seem to involve Ben White all of. Yeah. Yeah. someone throwing a burger at him and him eating it. And then there was another one where I saw someone throughrew their phone the person Nicola Jomee catches it and then starts filming himself and then filming the guy sort chasing the bus along being like give my phone back. He's going No, no no. So yeah it was a good moment. I think it's a moment that Arenal fan hass been waiting for a very long time in terms of the League title parade Yeah, everyone Eone had a really good time. I don't think I've seen too many bad stories coming out. They must love praise because you can just see them unlike other people Oh I see what you mean Be my height, yes, yes. that doesn't really matter around you must hate you. Yeah I get pushed to the back a lot, but that's the side. see somebody carrying a chunk of a bus shelter that said Hybury corner on it. Oh yeah, there were people on the top of bus stocks around about ten in the morning. And three people fell down from a tree while singing, what do we think it taught them? So I hope they're okay. I saw a lot of complaints about casual singing that chant, which is now about twelve years old And it gets quite boring. O what do we think a top them? I mean, it's the go to if you don't quite know what to saying, but it's okay. Yeah, we don't get a parade. Did don't get a parade? No. We one face of a European trophy don't get aarade Yeah. We had one last year for the FA Cup and it was a bit rainy but so I found it quite underwhelming, but yeah They had like a party on the pitch with the stage afterwards and whatever. But I believe we don't get one because our players have to head off to the World Cup. Okay. that's a shame. But I mean, our final was before you so we probably could have done. Yeah, you had the Well, this is the thing when you have the Arsenal fan base is much, much bigger, right? So you a million people three million fill the streets of North London Stave wasn't even there I think every single palestine in existence was either at the game in Lip or at the Arsenal Pro or Or watching the game at Sellhurst Park So you got to wait for everybody to get home J. And you know, I didn't get home until Friday evening because we flew home via Prague, which is a much nicer place than Leipzig, I must say. Speaking of We seem to have arrived at Christian. It's always in. Rubre has scribbled out break two or the. We're just going to talk about palace now. Can we have a quick break, please Ruby? Of course, yes. have some adverts Hey, Pablo Torere here. As a sports journalist, I've covered global sports for many years now. And there is one thing that I can promise you Nothing compares to the World Cup And this time it is even better thanks to McDonald's. You have the chance to take home one of nine legendary cups when you order the FIFA World Cup meal The cups feature some of the biggest legends football, like David Beckham, Terry Hon Ree, and Ronald Dinio, Christian Pelisk Laminia Mal and Alfonso Davies. Right now, get one of nine leegendary cups when you order the FeF World Cup meal only at McDonald's at participating McDonald's only for a limited time while supplies last, All rights reserved, copyright twenty twenty six, McDonalds at the FIFA World Cup, twenty twenty six One second, you're enjoying your day off. The next, your phone buzzes. A window's been broken at home. You're miles away. In one second, everything can change That's why ADT's professionally installed security systems monitor your home twenty four seven. They're backed by the most company operated monitoring systems in the industry. so you're always supported during an emergency. When every second counts, count on ADT. Visit ADt. com to learn more This is Cat and Nat from Cat and Nat Unfiltered and this episode is sponsored by Michaels, your destination for all things birthday parties. If you've ever planned a birthday celebration, you know it goes from cute idea to full on chaos real fast. The party shop at Michaels makes life easier with over four thousand five hundred party supplies and sixty plus themes like Bluey, Rdeo, soccer, rainbow, and more. Starting at just ninety nine cents. you can shop same day delivery or order online for pickup in store and they even do free helium inflation on Sack Balloon styles. Michael's everything to celebrate anything, visit Michael's in store or shop online Now. And we're back from the break. While there was disappointment for the writ Steve Arsenal last weekend, Crystal Palace joined Astonville in a successful European venture for an English side All three of Palis' trophies in their hundred and twenty year history have come in the past year or so U So I'm really glad that you kind of took last week with JPB to get the whole all the Premier League's too strong. This is ant actually Barocks out the way. So oh, the question is Golden then Ruben, how was Leipzick? We, as I alluded to, the city itself quite dull Criticisms, Table service at bars, where there are thousands of football fans Not ideal You stand in the rail wait for too long And the takeaways need to stay open beyond midnight Hm there was a twenty four hour McDonald's a train station, which the first night we got there early because we discovered that would be the place to go And we got we got some some necessary food. Did you get a good table service there? Well ye, was the classic you know, readout they yell out your number situation. I enjoyed how Kai's experience was was right and yours, well, the start of the big bang. But then the second night, once everybody's clocked from the first night, that that's where you have to go to eat after eleven PM. On the way out of the game, absolutely no chance. We headed toward the station P peopleople came out going it's now al long c. you don't bother. Oh my gosh. I saw a pict of Metta at the McDald's. was that real Yeah. Yeah, he was actually there Yeah yeah amazing. Some of the content that came out after his game is just amazing. My favorite being Strandlars and hoisting Pino up in the air like a trophy. that It wasas a syllable away from being something very different. Okay.ry sorry. I don't even I heard it. I couldn't know anything. Something got cup. I don't even know what I accidentally almost say You guess you find a good f. Did you guys watch the game? I'll stop blabbing. Yes. Yeah. I don't know about you guys. mayaybe this upset roub. apparently you' got some of this JPB P too get away. I watched it and it felt like, you know when the small kid at school, he looks quite innocent and he's actually the bully That's what I felt like I watching Palace. like ye ye, exactly that. Watching Palace I was like, Th the fans in the stadium feel like there's's jeopardy or anyone they up and I was watching it and I you've watched lot of Rio V Al Canor,. I never at one moment in that game felt V kindan of going to win this. It felt like the quality difference was so clear. Yeah. Yeah. they had like one shot that was deflected wide fairly early. they probably had a coveron war, but and it never felt like they were going to score. Yeah. No and you know, it was notable, I think that that Riot just didn't have anyone who was just going to be able to take the game by the scruff of the neck could do something with it, whereas And it's funny because the first half was quite poor in many respects. It was just a sort of standard tetchy European game, but then In the second half, you put up to expected goals Yeah. and F from just a just a few sort of dangerous attacks. and that's what Palace do, right? But I think against against a team like Ryo, it just like like Barker said I just didn't ever feel like it was under any kind of threat. Yeah. Was it nice wasas it nice to watch a game from that perspective, didid you feel nervous or did you just kind of feel like you really? L genuinely? No, but for all these like talent advantage Premier League Money reasons that we've established. We have we All of us who went like have great respect for Rio and their fans because they're essentially the Spanish version of Palace. L the small team in the capital city with less money than their local rivals But then relatively we are The giants compared to them because of the points we've established but no