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Real Madrid pull clear, Højlund in form and Bayern unbeaten – Football Weekly
In this episode of Football Weekly, the panel discusses Real Madrid's strong performance in La Liga, the impact of Javier Londo's management, and the recent form of players like Jude Belling...
Real Madrid pull clear, Højlund in form and Bayern unbeaten – Football Weekly
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This is The Guardian.
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Hello and welcome to Guardian Football Weekly, a Europod 4, you part one,
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seriously to tell us how Javier Lanzo is settling in at Real Madrid,
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top of La Liga after the weekend's games to fight getting Wallet by Athleti the week before.
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Is he getting anyone to track back? Well, dude, Bellingham get back in the team,
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Barcelona hammered by Sevilla last time out that high line again.
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There's also La Liga and Serie A games overseas to discuss in Italy,
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Napoli and Roma lead the way, another for Rasmus Highland.
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In 2023, Pod agenda news, Christian Poulosich,
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balloons a penalty as Milan and Yvonne draw a nil nil.
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In Germany, some more Harry Kane is good as Bayern win the title,
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four points clear of the only other unbeaten side in the division for a Sierdortman.
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There's an incoming Nordic minute, a panelist's son spotted somewhere unexpected.
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Your questions, as always, and that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.
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On the panel today, Nicki bandini, hello.
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Morning. Hello, Lars Yvonne. Hello, Max.
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And welcome, Sid Lowe. Hello, just for part one, of course.
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Unless you want to stay. Good morning, Max.
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I was going to say, you know, you've now just assumed that it's all not one.
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No one even asked me if I can stay to part two.
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Well, if you would like me to, I would very in fact,
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I was saying before we came on air, how much I'm across what's happening in Wellet football at the moment.
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I absolutely didn't say to Nicki and Lars that I have no idea what's happening in any other country
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other than Spain. So I'm very valuable to you.
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Yeah. And you're here to learn as well. Let's start with you just in case you do buggerals
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in 20 minutes. So Lalliga looks at this.
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Real Madrid 21 points from eight games.
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Barcelona 19, Villarreal 16, Betis 15, Athletes Sevilla and Elchey have 13.
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Real Madrid, they beat Villarreal 3, one at the weekend, two for Venice's Jr and Bappa with them.
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They're not totally convincing, I guess, but how is Javier Londo settling in, would you say?
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Well, I'm going to point out how little I know by saying that before the Athletic
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Armature game last week, I was watching Real Madrid and I was kind of thinking there's a structure
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forming. They know what they're doing. There's an idea, there's clarity, they're well organized.
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And I decided that Real Madrid were probably going to become boringly good.
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And then they got what they went and got battered five to five. Let's go for
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them. Foringly good. I mean, it's excitingly bad, which is much more fun.
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This weekend was kind of back a little bit to the boringly good, but I think there was a bit more
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creativity than they've been in previous games. It was the best performance from Venice.
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It's been a huge debate around Venice's, whose numbers have actually been reasonably good,
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but whose performance level wasn't anything like it was. In fact, actually in a way,
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his decline kind of starts with that ball on door that he didn't win. And since then,
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his record has been nowhere near as good, but they played pretty well at the weekend.
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Again, not brilliant, but I do feel like there is a structure being built. And I think you're
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starting to see Shabby Alonso's hand. But what we're, I suppose the question mark we've all got
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is what happens in terms of the management of the players as people and the egos and the
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fitting together of the pieces. And the player, funnily enough, at the midst of that kind of
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debate, has been fedivale early, who said he didn't want to play it right back. It wasn't born
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to be a right back. And then at weekend, Shabby Alonso puts him on at right back.
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Right. And did he object or did he just get on with it?
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He was his best game of the season by Miles. And this is the one of the weird things about
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fedivale early. He actually, he's possibly a victim of this new structure because he's a player
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who loves to be able to maraud all over the pitch, have the space to run into. And what Shabby Alonso
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has done is create something a bit tighter, a bit more structured and with less room for him to do
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that. And from the central field, which I genuinely don't think is his best position,
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it's not really happened. Now he's only filling in at right back because Trent's out and because
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Danny Cardiff was out. But it was very interesting that he went so public in saying that he did want to
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play there. He was then left out of the Champions League, and then when he was put back in, he was
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put back in at right back. Jude Bellingham is what's happening with Jude Bellingham in sort of
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obvious English biased questions. Yeah. Well, I mean, actually it's a question that people in Spain
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are asking as well, so I don't feel bad about it being the obvious English question because he came
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back from that shoulder operation and went straight into the team for the Madrid Derby against that
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let's go. And it's not all about Jude Bellingham. It didn't play badly because Jude Bellingham
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played, but he didn't have a good derby. There was a very clear sense of almost everyone saying,
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this is too soon. He wasn't ready. He wasn't right. And actually Shabby Alonso was asked the question
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after the game of the weekend where he came on as a sabon as a sense now that they're going to
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use this international break that he's not part of England squad to kind of, I've done
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we'll use that cliché term, but I can't think of a better one. So apologies to use kind of a mini
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preseason, you know, to get him fully ready for it. And Shabby Alonso was asked the weekend,
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knowing what you know now and given the condition he's in and so on, would you have played him
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last week? And Shabby Alonso said, yes, without saying yes, he says, well, that's really a question
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where the answer isn't of any value. So yes, I think I think he had decided that maybe he'd been a
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bit premature. For all its worth, I think that Bellingham's shoulder operation was kind of overdue.
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And he had to do it, but they were trying to wait for a time to do it. So of course they went
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waited until after Club World Cup and he's really keen obviously to get back. And this was always
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going to be a slight risk for him. Is it if that Real Madrid got that structure right in his absence,
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you then have to find a place for him. Now he's such a good player that you feel like they will
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find a place for him. But the Derby was exactly that question was asked. Was there too much urgency to
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find him a place in a team that was actually functioning and they left out Mazdhan Tuanoh who'd
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been playing really well? My question, the interesting thing about Real Madrid or the, I mean,
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there were lots of interesting things about Real Madrid, but last year we were sort of saying,
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actually it's turning crows is the guy that you can't replace. And they haven't.
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You know, by the way, they still have a hand. And so my question was like, what are they doing there?
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To be honest, if you I feel like the answer is probably nothing, which is a terrible answer,
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they haven't signed anyone for that position. And you know, everybody was looking at Filby Mende
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thinking, well, there's there's the man. There's the obvious answer to this question.
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A lot of structure has been to have Chermany and Valverde in the middle, neither of whom are someone
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who will dictate a game, but both of whom will kind of underpin him midfield and allow others to play.
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And so Chermany from a more static position, Valverde from pushing the press on the other team,
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not allowing them out and having some of the energy. But as I say, I personally think this
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title structure means that his energy kind of doesn't get seen because he hasn't got the space
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to be running around it. They've been trying to develop, uh, Arthur Gouler as a slightly deeper
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midfielder who kind of runs the game a little bit. And that's been as I would say a sort of
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maybe a qualified success. It's not entirely right. And it's certainly not quite that
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Tony Kruestyle player. And I think there's a belief that Dellingham's not quite that player either.
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He does some of those things, but he's not a guy that kind of runs the tempo of a game and the
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speed of the game. And so they kind of don't really have it, but they've overcome that a little bit
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by being a little bit more compact and having the line of three in front with Mastanteuana is playing
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well, Vinicius hasn't been playing brilliantly yet, but it's Vinicius and at some point will.
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And so they've kind of looked for an alternative because there actually isn't someone to play that
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role. Worth saying in that game, um, Villarreal had a man sent off. Very surprised to rail.
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So all thought of decision. Very, very surprised to see Robert Ridbenner fit from a decision given
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the conspiracy against them. But yeah, it's Vinicius massive dive, pretend to get hit in the face.
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And it's a second yellow. So I guess VAR can't intervene, but that's provoked part of the debate,
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which is about, you know, the way that the VAR rules are set up, you only intervene if it's direct
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red. And of course, the question being asked now, and actually it was being asked a little bit
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anyway, but being up, but you know, it's really focused. People's minds, the fact that it happened
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at the Bernabèl is should they are also stepping for yellow cards that that mean a red, even if
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they aim themselves a yellow, because it was an absurd decision really.
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Sid, I am curious. I really, really hope you have better things to do with your time than
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watch like Real Madrid TV all the time. But it always fascinates me when clubs are trying to
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sort of spin this conspiracy yarn. And they get a very obvious mistake in their favor, like how
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that is processed and how you kind of like, you just pretend it didn't happen. You just kind of go like,
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what? You know what, this, this is one of the things that always strikes me about round
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of the TV, because obviously you can create a video and you can create a video and provide the
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analysis or the images to support your thesis. And that's not that difficult, but as you say, when
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it comes in a game and it happens, well, what happens is that's what little I watch of Real Madrid TV,
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and I should point out that I basically don't watch any, but what, what, what Real Madrid TV
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have these unwitting, or maybe not quite so unwitting, allies in the mainstream media who pick up
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the Real Madrid TV videos and tell everyone what they're saying for all those people, which is
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basically all of the people who are watching it. And what they do is just ignore it, or just say,
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yeah, that's a red god and carry on. Yeah. I mean, that sort of works in the world at the moment.
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I don't know what I was saying, because I'll say that. I was thinking, this sounds kind of familiar.
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Let's talk about Barcelona. Second after a surprise defeat to Sevilla, at least it was a surprise
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to me. Three of Sevilla's goals were, you know, buses high lines somewhere in the opposition half,
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but like it was, you know, Levantowski missed a penalty at two one, a penalty given away by Adnan
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Janazai, yes, me neither. But that was, was that a surprise result? Yeah, of course, it was a surprise,
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although, I mean, it depends which way you want the analysis. And I've just been responding to
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people below the line on my piece about Sevilla, which is that I sometimes think, well, why does
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the analysis have to be about Barcelona all the time? How about his or really good team who
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managed Barcelona perfectly? But let's do the Barcelona analysis, which I think is really interesting.
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When Barcelona got a draw at Raiwai account, they got totally overrun and Janga,
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see how the goalkeeper made four or five really good saves. And after the game,
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Missy Palathon, who's Raiwai account is number 10, said that Inigo Mutti and if the coach had told
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us about the flick line, and I just love the fact that it was called the flick line. This is the
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plan to get through the front line. And essentially what Sevilla did was apply something similar.
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People running from a little bit deeper, going into the gap behind the fallbacks. There's a lovely
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bit of footage. The players come off for the drinks break, 30 minutes, 33 minutes at the weekend.
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And Mateo Salmela gets the players together, severe at this point, a winning one, they'll
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already be falling it up. And he says to them, do not let them think. And he says, and he has got
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a yellow card. And he's talking about the left back for Barcelona. And he says, it's touch,
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return, go, touch, return, go, touch, return, go. And then he says, and I love this. I'm not
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least because it sounds kind of almost doctorively says, liquidate this. Oh, good.
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You know, don't sit back. You've just got a keep on going at this slot. Now they scored three
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minutes later. So I suppose that part of the plan was good. You're right, though, that the second
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half Barcelona were better. Marcus Raskus calls a really lovely volley just people half time.
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They get a penalty, which they miss. And they had chances, particularly runny bargey, who had
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a couple of good chances. But then severe catch from twice at the end. But all of the goals
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are through that line. I'm going to defend flick quite a bit here because all the last season,
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it felt like we were obsessed by this high line. And at the end of it, you go, well, actually,
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you know what, they were brilliant. And they did this high line brilliantly. And so there's a bit
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of me that thinks, yes, we know there's a risk in the high line. And I'm sure flick knows it as
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well. And we know that comes with an environment in which occasionally when they get caught,
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they'll get caught badly. But when they get it right, it's fantastic, useful for them.
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At the Bernabéu Lach and the first Classico, they caught Madrid offside 12 times,
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Mbappe, eight times. And this is working perfectly. So I think part of what's happening now is it's
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not working as well. It's not just that they do, you know, the fact of doing the high line, it's
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doing the high line really, really badly. I think the absence of Inigo Martini, who was the one that
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led the line last year in the timing, is really important. He's gone to Saudi Arabia. I think they're
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and yeah, the weekend, it looked absolutely, absolutely awful. Sure. And I guess idiots like me
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can spot this as opposed to teams conceding other goals that's just slightly slightly different
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or slightly more complicated. This is the other part of it. So the other part of it, there's been
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a lot of discussion about how, well, opponents have worked this out. Now, obviously it is you say,
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and I'm not pointing you now Max, but any idiot can see it. Because it's such an obvious and
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an identifiable characteristic of the way they play. But of course, there's a difference between
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seeing it and being able to play against it and working it out. Because as I say last year,
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they loads of our sides, their timing was brilliant. I think what's happening is other teams
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are working out ways to get in the timing right at exactly the point at which Barcelona get in
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the timing wrong. I was just wondering because it's like one of those weird things where you can
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easy, especially in the season, read too much into some of your numbers like this. But
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well, I was, I mean, a good answer to this morning. I did think to myself, there's not a single
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team in Spain in the league, anyway, and there's conceded fewer goals than played games. Is that
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just the moment the league is having a little bit that there's not really anyone who's defending that
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well or even trying to play in a more cautious way? Do you know what? That's not something I'd
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noticed. It feels like Real Madrid, maybe a little bit, not cautious, but organised and they
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structured better. The Ariala team that I think are well structured and play large on the break,
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I must admit, I hadn't realised they didn't see that many. I think it probably is about the
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way teams are approaching it. Elcha, I always feel like a very well structured and well organised
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and don't receive many. But yeah, it's probably something about them, they're not defending that brilliantly.
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Cavalier League. Steven says, Dimax and Barry, who isn't here, can you please get Dr.
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Lowe on to talk about their league of staging matches abroad? Does the good doctor think this is
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a turning point in football or simply a gimmick? Also, is this barcer pulling another lever out of
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the air? This goes for you as well, Nick, isn't it? Vilaray or Barcelona will be played
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in Miami, which will be Barcer's home game and then Milan have been permitted to play Como in
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Perth in Australia. It'll be Barcer's away game, but it will feel like that.
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Right. Which is obviously obviously part of the debate about this. Whether this adulterates
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the competition, whether it be... The purifies it. Is that a real word? The purifies it anyway.
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Whatever the word is, it is now. It is now, yeah. Did you see the UEFA rolling on this yesterday?
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Yeah, when I said it reiterated, it's clear opposition to domestically matches being played
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outside their home country. However, given that the relevant FIFA regulatory framework,
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currently under review, is not clear and detailed enough, the UEFA executive committee has
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reluctantly taken the decision to approve on an exceptional basis the two requests referred to it.
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And I think UEFA's fear really became his piece is that if they tried to... If they said no and
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they've been illegal to make it, it could have like opened the floodgates and this is UEFA's
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web saying, yes, but no. But yes. I thought it was very striking the way it was expressed and you've
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just read it there. That idea of yes, but no. Well, first of all, if you're really opposed to it,
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you can say no, but as you're... You're absolutely right. I was talking about talking to someone
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about this yesterday. It's about the fear that actually they're not on very good legal.
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They haven't got good legal support to be able to say no because then they'll find a legal
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challenge. So they would rather effectively be working behind the scenes to get some of those
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legal... Or would you call it legal... That legal framework in place and maybe even have a challenge
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on the law and allow this to happen and be ready to stop it next time. But there was the other part
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of their statement which said this doesn't set a precedent. I thought, by definition, it does.
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Surely. The statement made me think that cheffron either doesn't have children or is not heavily
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involved with raising them because it is this sort of thing of like, yeah, but just this once,
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I'm completely against this, but I will permit it now is like, no, then there's not work.
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This is not you. When you've opened the door to that, you're done. The one time I let a dog sleep on
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the bed and never stopped again after that. It's done. So, yeah. What's the reaction? So,
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in Italy, it's because the Winter Olympics is happening at the San Siro, is that right? That's
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the reasoning they're using. I mean, that's a good excuse, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah, I think it's
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reminding me a bit of the discussions around when the Mesopoli talk was happening because I had
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a lot of British-based editors and producers that time asking, well, you know, the Italian
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fans sang these English ones because of course we saw the soup, but it was a big response in England
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in terms of fan protest. And I do think there's a slightly different air about the way Italy responds
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to these things where it's not positive in lots of cases, but it's almost like this air of
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resignation about this sort of stuff happening. And I think it was voiced actually even by Max
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Allegri who's the Milan manager, where he said essentially they tell us we have to go to Perth,
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um, we'll go to Perth. And he specifically used the word,
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what's the problem? Unfortunately, this is the way that football is moving. So, he's not saying,
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he's not being a good company guy and saying I'm so happy to go to Perth and do this. He's going,
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yeah, it's a bit shit, but that's just how things are. And I think that's a very Italian,
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um, view on this stuff. I did think it was interesting. Carolina Moraccia, who said former
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playoffly Italy women's team and who, uh, is now a, I think a member of European Parliament.
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I saw she was saying, um, a point that I hadn't been discussed so much, which was, she said,
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I think some of the people who are making this decision have never been to Perth in February,
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because people with these players are going to be going from a Milanese winter, which is
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pretty cold to nearly 40 degrees to play a football match. And people haven't thought that through.
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So I think there's going to be some stuff that continues to go with that. I think, um, of course,
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there's likely to be at least something, uh, from the altruist, but I expected it'll probably come
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more in the form of, uh, grumbling banners than, than the sort of hugely angry protest that, um,
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we got with England and the Super League. And the reaction in Spain is, is what, apart from the sort
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of fan, you know, the, it'll be a barcer home game because, unsurprisingly, there are more
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barcer fans in Miami than Villa Real fans. But, but aside from that, is this a kind of,
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is there panic here? This has been coming, uh, for such a long time, that it's kind of, there's
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an inevitability about it as well. Exactly the kind of, um, scenario that Niki is explaining in,
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in Italy, happened in Spain, the Super League, no, not really. And there was a bit of, there was,
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there was a little bit of complaints about it, but it would never have been stopped by Spanish
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fans the way it was, by English party, of course, because the nature of Spanish football is
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different and the polarization of it and the fact that it's dominated by Madrid and Barcelona,
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who are the two partners in that Super League project. In fact, there's been suggestions this
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week that Madrid might be about to, about to be on their own in that, but Barcelona is starting
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to, to seek a bit of reconciliation with UEFA, which I think is always what Barcelona wanted,
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that the Super League would, to use the Portus River word, be a lever, which would gain them a
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little bit more traction with, with UEFA and, and a bit more power there. There was something,
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the other week or so ago, which really, really struck me on there at this and the CEO of VRL,
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I can't remember, I apologize this, I can't remember the context of the question, but his response
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was to say that it was about the, the, the Federation of Supporters Club said something about it.
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And he basically said, well, that lot, you know, generate 22 million a year or something,
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everything in the, or sorry, 22, 22, 220,000 anyway, he gave some figure, he said this lot,
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generate this much a year. And whereas going to the US is worth this much and our schools and
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the US and our academies in the US and all this stuff, generates this much. And he was essentially
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saying, you can sod off, you're irrelevant compared to us going to the, to the US. And the thing
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was so striking, wasn't so much the content of what he said, because you know, in a way, we were
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all confronted with a reality, which is an uncomfortable one, which is where the money is generated,
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is where the money is generated. It was the, it was the totally dismissive tone of his fans.
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Yeah. Yeah. And, and those fans then became quite those, I'll then back down and said, oh, yeah,
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or then, which I was really struck by. And it was, as I say, for me, it was the tone of it.
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Then there's a whole debate here. We could be here all day and I sort of don't want to be,
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which is that I don't know about, I'd like someone to explain to me in very simple terms,
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because I'm quite a simple man with colors, drawings, if they possibly could, maybe a pie chart
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and stuff. How much difference this actually makes, taking one game to the US in terms of
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development of football in Spain. You know, so for example, you get the, the CEO of Viet Riosing,
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look what we generate with our soccer schools in the US and our academies and so on. Okay,
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but you've already got those. You go into the US for a home game against Barcelona, in which the
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stadium will be full of Barcelona fans. What's the tangible impact of this? Now, I'm perfectly prepared
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for someone to be able to demonstrate to me what it really means. But there's a bit of me that
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thinks in the grand scheme of things, how much difference is this actually going to make?
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And if that's the case, then how many games have to go to make it worth it? You know, exactly.
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And I don't know what the answer is and I'd love to know, for example, the NFL figures,
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how much difference it makes bringing games to Europe. You know, what the actual tangible impact
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of that is and it might be huge, but it's a bit of a thing. Is it really because the people
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who go are already supporting you? Yeah. So yes, you get that game, but you get a one day of massive
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ticket sales. But it's one. Does that actually make a difference? I think just to jump in on that,
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like, because I used to cover the NFL much more and like from the NFL's perspective, it's,
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specifically, they really feel like they're pretty close to tapping out as much as they can make
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from American fans. Right? That's, I mean, obviously, like, there's always like a new technology,
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which might give you something else, but they've got as many fans as in America as they can get.
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So if you want like, like everything in capitalism, you have to keep growing. Everything has to be
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bigger every year. And if you physically can't do that, the audience, you've got any more. It's
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the only other place to look. And I think there's some replication of that. Obviously, it's a bit
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different with European football because there's not just one country you're targeting to begin with.
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There's MLS. There's the A league, right? And I don't know how the London Monux are doing, but really,
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you know, it is slightly different, even though if I was a, you know, the Cleveland Browns are playing
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the Vikings at Tottenham Stadium or Wembley, I forget which, you know, if I was, you know, you don't
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get that many home games in American football, I'd be furious if I had a season ticket and it,
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and one of them went away. But it is slightly different because there isn't like a competing
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sport on the ground that someone goes, well, I'll go and watch Basem that are out. And I won't go and
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watch Into Miami. Perhaps a bad example of it or, you know, Perth Blurry because I'll go to this game
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instead. And so that doesn't feel sort of, it doesn't, it certainly feels completely wrong to me,
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but maybe, you know, younger listeners. I mean, those are, there are those kind of moral questions
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and what it feels like and whether it feels right and to me, it doesn't, but I'm more, you know,
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why I'm more kind of interested in in sort of challenging the assumptions that this is even a good
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thing in terms of the business model, like that this necessarily makes a really big difference
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because ultimately what drives, well, Lalliga, for example, and Premier League and everyone else
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is the TV rights. So the fact that you take a game and play it in Miami, one, a season does that
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actually impact upon that fundamental basic economic model? And I, as I'm perfectly prepared for
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cleverer people, and there are a lot of them out there to say to me, this is why and this shows it
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and this proves it and this has an impact. The other thing that should be noted, I think here,
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given the starting point of this, we were talking about the super league and how England was
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different and so on. One of the things in this and what Nicky was saying about Italy, you've sort of
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got to try something is that there is a conceptual belief, which they don't want to admit,
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which is the fear that the Premier League just runs away with everything. And that Premier League
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becomes a defect of super league and so you've got to do something to try and counteract that.
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Sid said he didn't want to be here all day, but does he want to be here for the next half hour?
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Find out in just a second.
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Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly. Hey, Sid. Hello. Let's do Serie A.
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Nabilitope Serie A. Roma level on points with them. Everyone's played six.
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Mieland 2 points, Pinal 13 and Inter and Yuve 4 from 5th. I suppose Yuve and Mieland
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seem about the biggest game of the weekend here in Nicky. Kristen Pudis, it's ballooning a penalty
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over the bar. Lovely ball by Luca Modrich in the build up to that and Lloyd Kelly bringing down
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his man. How's Luca Modrich doing? It was just nice to see him there setting up Liar for a
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lovely chance. That cliche that the pace of the game will suit him. How's he getting on?
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He's doing really good. I mean, it's so fun to watch him Max and Sid knows this,
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because he's been covering him for how many years. But getting to call it work when you're
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watching him play football is one of those things. I'm like, this is just great. I really enjoying
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this. He was absolutely magnificent in the gaming against Napoli out. If we could go my sense
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of time, it's all wonky at the moment. I don't know which one I'm facing, but yeah, the last round,
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he absolutely outshone Kevin De Bruyner and I suppose that head to head between the two big
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slightly older or a lot older in Modrich's case, the stars who arrived in the
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summer. Yeah, I think the thing with Modrich that shines out obviously all the stuff about what
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he is as a technical player for things he can do on the ball. That's a joy to watch. It's not new.
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I think what stood out for me in this first part of the season is how absolutely evidently he
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is not done competing. I think you see in the way that he puts himself by the pitch. You see in the
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way that he celebrates, you see in the way that he genuinely is reacting to results as if they
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mean everything to him. That's the thing which you just don't know with someone when they're
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at that point of their career is this just going to be a little farewell talk coming to Manan and
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getting to live in the city and have that experience. It very clearly isn't that a talk for him.
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It very clearly is he's here to try to win something. Honestly, this knee-land team might just
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Max Allegri has come back with a fresh version of the old theme of Allegri Ball. I mean,
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it's it's be tight at the back and trust your very good players to be very good going forwards. But
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one of those players is Luca Modrich. It really helps. I think he's moved to put Christian
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Pulasik closer to gold in that central role is paying dividends right now. I know he missed that
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penalty, but he's a great start to the season. He looks really sharp there at the moment.
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And this team was getting results at the start of the season even without Rafael Liao who's injured.
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So when you put all that together, remember they're not in Europe, which of course again is maybe
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a good thing for for Modrich playing a little bit less even though I'm certainly once we're back in
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the Champions League. It feels like a good recipe there at the moment and yeah, Modrich is
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brilliant. And I actually think watching him right now, you think yourself, he's definitely going
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to be there next season playing in the Champions League and isn't he's going to be there.
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So good. I'm just on Max Allegri and this is self-indulgent and them going to Perth,
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which I should have done in part one, but I left my air pods in a plane,
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quantus plane in Perth. And I can see them on find my, you know, on my app, but you have to go and
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get them in person and they're at terminal four in Perth. So just in case Max Allegri listens to
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this when you do get there, could you go and pick them up and send them to me? Napoli. Max,
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why do you think it's Max Allegri that has to pick them up or not Luca or Rafael Liao?
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I'll take any of them. Any of them. Any of them. I mean, I don't mind which one. Yeah,
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if Liao wants to pick them up, totally fine. Given, you know, Christian push, maybe he does.
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Maybe that could be the rap wash more between the pods and Christian push.
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And Napoli atop, Rasmus Hylian getting another win at last. I'll bring you in as a nor,
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a nor Dick man. How is so great to see him, you know, it was another proper sort of center
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forwards goal that he scored. Yeah, I mean, I think I said it on the last part of us on. I just
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think the key to health and life and happiness is to leave Man United. It's to the point where I
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think it's worth trying to go to Man United so that you can leave it and get the postman United
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bounds. It's like a therapy, isn't it? Yeah, it's like a detoxification clinic. You go there,
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you can do really horrible cold turkey, but you come out of it. So I have a friend who went to this
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sort of detoxifying like fasting thing in Thailand where you just don't eat anything for a very
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long time and you have constant like, uh, colonic irrigations and they try to get all the stuff out
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of your body. And he was completely shocked by all the crap very literally that came out of him
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and he decided to never eat certain for that. I think that's like what Man United could become.
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Maybe this is what they could market themselves as like just come in and then when you leave,
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you'll be very happy again. Uh, no, I think it also just like I'm being super flippant, but I
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was to think on a human level. It's nice to see these guys having this much fun. It's tremendous
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to see McTominay become like an actual superstar in one of the coolest like football cities around.
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It's tremendous to see Rasmus Hull and Smiling again, you know, it's bringing joy to the world,
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Nikki. It's a little bit tough with McTominay at the moment. I mean, first of all, just on your,
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your United Point, like even just seeing him at the presentations in preseason, like obviously
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he did win the Serie A MVP Award last season, which is going to give you a bit more like confidence,
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a bit more swagger, isn't it? But honestly, like I'm looking at him in pictures, I'm looking
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at him on video and I'm thinking, is that even the same person? Like he suddenly looks like he's,
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he's had like a physical glow up. He looks like he looks different. Like it is changed him living
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there. It's it's really like striking. I think if you look at the just as simple as looking at
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pictures of him when he arrives from United and what he looks like now, maybe that's just the years
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or whatever else that he looks like he's a whole different person. Having said that,
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McTominay hasn't heard as great a starter season. He hasn't been bad, but there is this now
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slightly weird dynamic in the structure of that team because you have got to brine there.
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And they kind of do their best work in the same space and Conte has tried to accommodate that by
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shifting to this sort of 4141 where you've got that I guess line of players just behind
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Hoiland to have all got licensed to get forward and get back, but because you've got
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to brine and anguiser is the two central pieces in that puzzle. McTominay's pushed out to the left,
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whereas before he was coming through the middle and attacking in the central space a lot more.
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And it has pushed him wider. It has changed the way he interacts with the team and he has been
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less impactful and it's very early to season. So it's also really easy to to overstate that and
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and to read too much into it. So I think it's avoid doing that, but I do think it's an interesting
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dynamic to watch and see how that continues to play out. Came from behind to win this game.
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Genoa's goal was set up brilliantly by an Englishman called Brook Norton Cuffee who may be familiar
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to Lincoln, rather than Coventry and Mill War fans. So it's quite interesting when you see
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English player. I mean, I don't know how many there are and you know, lots more Scottish players
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going to Syria. Yeah, I did. The Scottish thing, I think there's like at least a little bit of
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the thing that happens all the time in football, which is copycat stuff, one club sees another
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club do something successfully and things all. Have we been missing that? But it was definitely a
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moment that that came a bit out of Covid and lockdowns and I think scouting, moving a bit more to
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by Mandarin, Teryley, moving to different methods and people relying on tape and video and
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whatever reasons these things just led to different avenues being looked at. And there was this
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kind of collective realization that Scotland was, I had to become a place where you could get players
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who weren't necessarily valued expensively as ones from just south of the border perhaps,
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but who still might have had those experiences of playing some European football,
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young ages for clubs in Scotland. And I think some of those opportunities started to be developed.
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And then I think there's also like on the other side of it, absolutely a network of players who
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talked to each other and say, hey, life over here is pretty good and that has a knock on impact as
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well. But yeah, obviously there's the Scottish contingent, Shea Adam scored at the weekend as well.
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And Terynoh's three-three draw against Latsio. Hasn't been starting so much this season because
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to me, he's been taking that number nine spot there, but yeah, I got the goal. And then perhaps even
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if you want to widen the net, Irish as well, Evan Ferguson, Roma, who's looked really promising
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to start the season, the problem with Evan Ferguson is he doesn't score. He does everything
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else really well. And I think everyone has been pretty impressed with how he started in team link
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up, play and everything, but he's on a really long run now of games where he just isn't scoring
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at all. And I think that's a question that needs to resolve him. But yes, the Scottish group
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are mostly thriving, I think, different, differently, different places. Josh Doig is starting a
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big game at Saswala, Ferguson, at Ballonia, in just a season, but back in there and capturing
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them at the weekend. Billy Gilmore isn't really in the starting of 11th Annapolis, but you
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but he gets to play and when you listen to Conte, he talks about how much he loves him in training.
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And I think that's almost something that Conte is going to value a lot, even if you're not the guy
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who is going to be deciding on Evan every week, having players in the squad who he trusts to make
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everyone else work their part of in training that might as well. So yeah, lots of success stories
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definitely. We should talk about the Italian national team who are second in their group.
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Do we have to? Well, I mean, just the thought of the missing three-world cups in a row is too much,
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but that was a massive win in the last international break, wasn't it? Probably having in
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qualifying now is that it's almost impossible for him to get past Norway unless Norway leaves
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to someone else or drop points to someone else, I mean rather, because the goal difference is so
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out of hand for Italy now, Italy needs to win everything and hope that Norway
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chuck it somewhere, I think, which isn't looking especially likely at this point in the group.
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And if Italy don't do that, they go to a play-off again. Yeah, I think things have been
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very messy. My confidence in Gatusa as a tactician is not the highest, but I also think that
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international managers don't necessarily have to be their tacticians, and if Gatusa can do the
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thing which is kind of the brand he's coming on of bringing back that sense of unity and shared
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purpose to the team, then that would be something. And I do think international football is very
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fibrous space. This is the thing I talk about all the time. I'll talk to it on the podcast a hundred
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times, I'm sure. And I think if he can do that right, that would be something. And there was some
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spirit if nothing else in the last couple of games. So fingers crossed. Yeah, I think the key game
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in this group then for the key moment for Italy is this next international game when Norway
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plays Israel, because after that, I mean, we've got the Italy game again, which we could lose,
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but the gold difference is so much in our favor. And we've got Estonia, which I don't think we're
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going to screw up. But this, but this Israel game is a little, you know, Martin Erdogos put
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up pulled out of the squad with the injury. And the Israel game is an awkward thing for Norway,
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because as you might be aware, politically, the resistance to Israel's actions in Gaza is extremely
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strong in Norway. I think Norway is one of the countries in Europe who are the most upset about
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this. And there's a lot of people in Norway who I think feel this game shouldn't be happening at
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all. So there is a there is a framework around that game that just adds a little bit of extra to it.
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I do think Norway should be fine just because Erling Holland is just back in complete freak mode.
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And you just think that over 90 minutes against the not very good international team, he will get
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a couple of goals almost no matter what happens. And that should be fine. But I guess if you're one
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of the people who are listening, who's a big if we found this is the game to really look out for in
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this international break. I do think just on honestly like the other positive for the I do feel
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like there is a current interesting moment of some younger players starting to shop a bit like
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Mateo Kancheli area at Latvia. It was really strong that weekend, but it feels still like we're
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clutching a bit for these these players who are not yet at the level they need to be. But there's
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some good stuff happening. I always think Moisa Keen has really like pushed on again this last year
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and a bit for Fiorentina and him being showing some of that for the national team. And of course,
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Riteki even though he's gone away to Saudi coming back and scoring goals for national team, I think
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there are some good things in the international team, maybe not as many as there need to be.
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But yeah, the situation in the group is just it's just so hard to unpick in this in a snowy
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throw it somewhere else basically. Yeah, Moisa Keen scored a nice goal then the
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back to feet. Fiorentina's defeat to Rome. And we're saying that we're doing a pot on Friday after
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England played Wales. We're joining Lou and Philippe and Barry and we will talk about the latest
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Don Uof as possible ban on Israel and on Israeli teams in European competitions as well. And
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actually we had a message from a fan saying that we didn't mention the minute silence at Manchester
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United and Brentford Manchester City in solidarity with the Jewish community in Manchester and
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we probably should have mentioned that and we didn't. And so of course our hearts obviously go
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out to anyone who is a victim of any terror attack and the three injured as well in a serious
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condition after that attack at a synagogue in Manchester and we send our love to all of you and
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we'll be back in just a second.
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We're going to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly. Sid, you're right. Hi, Max.
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This is what happens. It's exciting, isn't it? It's good for you. It's exciting. I've been watching
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the background in your room trying to work out what everything is. That's assigned. No,
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it's not signed but it's a frame picture of Ian Colbert House. I thought it might be Colbert House.
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I'm not going to ask you the obvious question because when it right do I don't get an answer.
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No, no, you can't. By Munich, top of Bundesliga or 18.6 wins in a row, Dortmund to 14,
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then come Leipzig, a point behind them, Stuttgart, a point behind them, Leverkus and a point behind
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them. Colne, the point behind them, Frankfurt, a point behind them. I'm not going to read any more
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of the table. Look, Bayern beat Frankfurt Lars the weekend. They scored after 15 seconds.
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Harry Kane broke another new sort of tenuous record. The first Bundesliga player to reach 11 goals
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after six games has 18 antenna cross-all competitions. I mean his goal was brilliant and he had
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another one to allow for just an effortless centre forward play. Yeah, he is remarkable, Harry Kane.
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And actually that goal, it's worth looking up. If you've just seen it from the normal angle,
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I'm not sure you really appreciate how good it is. There is a video doing the round
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where you can kind of see it film from behind from the stands and you can see it's kind of hit.
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He starts it outside the post and kind of serves it like, I'll say this because Harry Kane is
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such a big golfer, it is like a punch three iron like with a bit of a fade on it. It's a punchy
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three iron fade, maybe even two iron, just sort of with a swath after that. It's such a beautiful
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strike. I do think like maybe he gets enough credit. I don't know. I do feel like maybe since he's
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gone to Germany now, he's kind of disappeared a little bit from the national conversation about
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football in England. I think there is a slight under appreciation for just what Harry Kane has
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done and how many goals he scored in Germany and how what an impact he's at and what is,
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I think it was Andy Brassler referring to it in the big paper as initially a marriage of convenience,
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but one that has grown quite a lot closer and he's someone who seems to because he's such a calm
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and uncomplicated guy, he's perhaps even more appreciated at Bayern, a team where there's often
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like quite a lot of chaos and combustible characters and a lot of drama, you know famously
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referred to as FC Hollywood. Harry Kane, there's not a lot of Hollywood about him. He just works really
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hard and behaves himself and goes about his job and scores a phenomenal amount of goals and it has
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been a real success story for him. To the point where he's now opened the door, I mean he's been
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surprisingly forthright about how when he first went there, he had half an eye on maybe coming back
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to England at some point because he does have that goal scoring record still in his sights,
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but he did say now recently that he's maybe now thinking less about individual awards and
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possibly what they can achieve as the team because they are going very well at the moment.
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And I suppose can you make a case for anyone to challenge them? It is early in the season I guess.
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No, no, no, no, it's kind of and this weekend I think brought a bit of Claire, I mean I'm sorry,
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but I think it six games in so maybe it sounds ludicrous, but they've been so good. I mean six wins
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out of six, okay, but they've scored 25 goals and conceded three like that. And they were playing
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Frankfurt, Frankfurt are having a bit of a weird one at the moment. I mean really you do just make
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an effort to watch Frankfurt's recent games and therefore last four games coming into this,
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they beat Galtas Rai 5-1 in the Champions League, then they lost four three to Union Berlin,
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then they beat Gladbach 6-4 before then losing 5-1 to Adelaide Cometrid. So like there's a lot going
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on with Frankfurt right now, but they are one of those teams that on paper should be capable of
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maybe potentially given by a game, especially at home. And then the game starts and by and I won
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up in 15 seconds, it's just ludicrous, they're very, very good. And that's without Jamal
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Moussella, it's without Alfonso Davis. Are they are they Champions League winning good? That's the thing,
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that's the thing that's very difficult to judge. I think with Barcelona having some issues that we
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explored and sit explored in part one, I think with Real Madrid, maybe not being the best version
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of themselves just yet, I think with Liverpool having some issues betting in all these new signings,
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I think there's a case to be made for Bayern being the strongest looking team in Europe right now,
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but the caveat being they're not being pushed domestically, they don't have strong opponents
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domestically. And that's kind of what I want to mention in this segment before time runs away from
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us. It's almost more, almost more interesting than this game was Bursa Adortman playing Lipsy this
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weekend, ended up at 1-1 draw, because with Bayern LeVacus and having stepped on a bit of a landmine
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in the appointment of Eric Chenhaag and having to rejig their whole season and start over again,
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they're not expected to be a factor in the title race, I don't think LeVacus. So you look at
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Adortman and Lipsy as the ones who you're hoping will challenge Bayern. Now that was a 1-1 draw,
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and there wasn't a bad game of football, but neither of them looked like they're on the same level
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as Bayern really. Adortman and Nico Corvax have stabilized and Nico Corvax is an experienced coach.
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He came in last season and really kind of went back to basics, put in a back three,
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really hardworking fullbacks. Adortman kind of having had two really bad seasons in which they've been,
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I think, respectfully with 25 and 27 points behind the league leader, which is not good enough.
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Like if you're Adortman, you can say it's hard for us to compete with Bayern. Sure, but you really
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should be the best of the rest. You shouldn't be miles off and they have been, and they really
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lost their way, I think, as a club in a lot of ways. They used to have this thing of always finding
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the next big thing, whether that's Berlin Hammer, Rosemann, Tembele or Arling Hall or Jaden Sandro,
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it looked like for a while. And they combined being this elite finishing school for European
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talents with having a solid framework around that. That only works as long as you keep finding
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the next big global superstar, and they just haven't for a little while, and the framework
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around it hasn't been that strong. Under Kovacs, they're now quite a quite gritty hard working team.
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Kovacs spoke in the summer about how he's had to rebuild their confidence a little bit work on that.
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But it is all very much like there's an element of going back to basis with it. You can stabilize
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things that way, and you can try to claw your way back to second, but you're probably in the state,
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the squad is in the way they're playing. They don't look like a team that can challenge Bayern
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plausibly, which leaves Abilipsi, who are just kind of remain Abilipsi. There's they've got a lot
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of hardworking, energetic players, but there is the sense that there is actually challenging for
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the title is a step too far for them. So that's a very long way of saying no, I don't think anyone
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will challenge Bayern for the title. And I do think they are a credible threat in the Champions League
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this year. This is a, Lars, this is a Premier League-centric question, but it is sort of Germany-based,
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and it's, you know, Leyva Kuznisch. AAF says, tell me everything is going to be okay with
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vits. And I think it is an interesting, I think it's one of the sort of fascinating questions
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at the moment in the Premier League is how Vertz is getting on. Yeah, yeah, it's, I feel like it's
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every time I'm on anything. Someone will ask that. It's the defining question of the nation at the
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moment. There's like, are we all sort of on Vertz watch? No, but I do understand because the
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price tag and because the expectations might take you stash, and then you don't even might,
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you can just watch his highlights reel on YouTube to see that so much of his best work is relational.
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It's about connecting with, it playing little quick passes around the edge of the box,
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playing little one twos, you know, making the players around him better. And I think when you've
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just arrived at a new club where there's a few other new players and people are not quite on
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the same frequency yet, and they're not quite finding each other, and you yourself haven't quite
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gotten used to the pace and the different opponents you're meeting in the new league. It becomes a
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challenge. I definitely think he needs a goal or something like this for just for confidence reasons,
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because you know, I'm sure it's not affecting him in that much, but I'm sure it's not affecting
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him either, you know, becoming the top, becoming the talking point of the nation is not great for
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your, like, your mental state. I don't think. But I'm confident that the talent's there. I'm
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confident that really any club in Europe, there's none of the top clubs wouldn't have made that
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deal if they had the money and the ability to do it. I suspect City were a little miff. I have a
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feeling city who are looking at him as a De Bruyne replacement and that was something they wanted to do.
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I'm pretty confident. He's, I know he's good, and I think it'll be okay, but I think it's a
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question of him and the team growing together and figuring each other out over a little bit of time.
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Finally, Lars, Makas says there's quite a thing about to happen in Altsvendskan. What's happening
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in Sweden, Lars? Mjelbe and this is such a, I mean, this is ticking so many boxes for a Scandinavian
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footballing underdog story. It really, so Mjelbe are a team from a tiny, tiny place in Sweden,
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kind of like a farming and farming and agricultural area. Nick Ames has done a big good piece on it,
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back in August and in the Guardian paper, you can look up if you want, but the sort of municipality
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has 14,000 inhabitants. It's one of those places that people drive through and forget about instantly.
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And they have a team that has been in the top division before, but they've been mostly like
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part-timers and they're heading towards winning the league and it's remarkable. And it's done
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on an absolute shoestring, no massive investment from abroad or anywhere else. That doesn't happen in
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Scandinavian football, really. The head coach is a guy who used to be a principal of a local school.
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Does that feel like you sort of Scandinavian footballing fairy tale checkmark? Yeah, that's good.
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It's not just to make it, I think, I feel like this is also important for a Scandinavian footballing
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underdog story. They've brought in a nerd and I say this effectively, affectionately. The assistant
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coach is a young Norwegian guy who hadn't worked in football at that level before, but has a PhD
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in visual perception in elite football. So they've got in one of these, the big tactics blogger
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energy from Karl Mavius, Axum, who's clearly a very intelligent guy and is credited with changing
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the way they play and making them like the more they're sort of high pressing. There's a lot of
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good stuff about the small community, local wholesome things and imported nerd from Norway
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and a team that is punching so far above their weight. It's extraordinary and they might be about
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to win the league in Sweden. Paul writes, while in Bangkok on a work trip this weekend, I took the
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opportunity to venture down to the fantastic PAT or PAP to stadium a few minutes from the
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central Bangkok to watch a tie Premier League match, Port FC versus Katchen Burry in Barry,
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where his Sergio Ramos playing category. To my surprise, playing in an advanced right wing,
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cutting inside to use his left foot was Andros Townsend, wearing the captain's arm band and
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cutting a frustrated figure on a bog of a pitch after an early sending off using VAR. Yes,
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it's reached Southeast Asia. Andros Townsend's Katchen Burry lost 8-0 to Port FC. Pictures attached,
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I'm not sure of Troy. Watches all his games, like he watched all his Everton games, but thank you
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for letting us know where Andros is. It's good to hear as well that Andros Townsend has evolved
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tactically and is now doing something totally different for him, for out his entire career. He's very
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much, you know, the better version of Iron Robin is how I like to see it. And that'll do for
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today. Hey, thanks for doing part three. Thanks for saying that thing at the end, Sid. So it was
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worthy being here. Are you proven I was still here and it wasn't just a picture? Are you growing a
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Jeff from Biker Grove or you just have a very grove beard? No, it's not. It's absolutely not a
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handlebar, Mustafa. It's just unfortunate. My beard color is that the handlebar bit is
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far from it. So it's pure laziness. And yes, Jeff from Biker Grove is not really a life ambition
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for me. Well, there's no better look if you ask me. Anyway, that'll do for today. Thanks,
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everybody. Thank you, Nige. Thanks. Thanks, Lars. Bye, Max. Thank you, Sid.
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Very, oh, Max. Thank you. Thanks for staying for the whole thing. Amazing.
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Football weekliest produced by Joe Grove, our executive producer is Daniel Steve.
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This is The Guardian.