The FA Cup has reached the quarter-finals stage, the big clash of the weekend is Liverpool travelling to Manchester United.

Jurgen Klopp’s team have already secured the Carabao Cup, but could former Treble winners United stop Liverpool from winning a Quadruple this season?

Manchester City face Newcastle United in what is always a tasty encounter, and there is a repeat of the 2021 FA Cup final as Chelsea face Championship Leicester City.

Adam Leventhal is joined by Tim Spiers, Jon Mackenzie & Jacob Whitehead to discuss all the action, plus more Premier League fixtures and the reaction to the latest England squad announcement.

00:00 Intro
01:34 Upcoming weekend fixtures
02:04 Manchester United vs Liverpool
11:57 Match predictions
12:15 The fastest goal in an FA Cup
14:48 Manchester City vs Newcastle United
25:04 Consecutive FA Cup winners
28:05 Rest of the FA Cup action
29:33 Premier League fixtures
33:30 England’s team announcements
37:37 Final comments

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#facup #premierleague #liverpool

It’s good to be here once again I am Adam levental and alongside me we have rotated slightly we have a new member of the cast back once again I was going to say for the Renegade Master it doesn’t doesn’t quite fit with you but you can be the Renegade Master it’s Jacob

Whitehead how are you I’m good happy to be here mindly terrified after Adam has given us all the dictat to strict to stick strictly to football I sort of feel a bit I kind of can empathize with how Alan S maxman felt under Eddie how the end of his career sort of drilled

Down by discipline yeah moved away from a free-spirited game John McKenzie is here as well back once again what are you what are you wearing I’m wearing a nice little jump out there’s a guy in hebden Bridge who makes these um he screen prints them uses vintage jumpers

And he sends me new jumpers every once in a while guy called it’s born again Prince is the name of the company and we also have Tim Spears on the show Once Again Tim how are you once again yeah I know I going with with the ill Behavior

They say exactly you know what I actually performed in a fashion show uh dancing to that song when I was uh 17 years old footage there is footage oh my God yeah there is there is probably footage I’ll find it I’ll find it it’s on a video almost unbelievable no it’s

Not why would it be unbelievable I just I just didn’t expect any of those words to come out of your mouth fashion show a renade master there’s a lot of stuff that you don’t know about CLE yeah anyway right should we go through the fixture formation yes is slightly

Quirky this weekend obviously we’ve mentioned it’s the Premier League and the FA Cup so we have a minimalist Premier League fixture formation of just three1 on Saturday and Sunday um the 3 PMS on Saturday are Burnley against brenford Luton against Forest so sort of two relegation fixtures and then midt

Against Champions League chasing with Fulham against Spurs that’s at 5:30 all these times GMT if you’re listening around the world and on Sunday at 2:00 we’ve got um another battle of the Clarett it is West Ham against Aston Villa and then in the FA Cup quarterfinals this weekend Saturday

12:15 we have wolves against centry and then at 5:30 it’s Manchester City against Newcastle Sunday 12:45 it’s chelse against Leicester and at 3:30 it is Manchester United against Liverpool and we are going to go and start the show at Old Trafford so 17 points divide Manchester United and Liverpool in the

Premier League will the FA Cup act as a leveler what’s your gut feeling on this John do you think it will act as a leveler can it act as a leveler I don’t think so I mean it’s it’s obviously just a one-off game and and so I suppose

Anything can happen but um I think the the games where I expect Manchester United to cause an upset are the games where they’re playing against those teams who really lean into the control aspect of the game I just feel as though Liverpool aren’t that particularly this

Season so um I I would say that were this a game against maybe a man city perhaps where they can hit them on the break and they’ve got Rasmus holand back I believe so that that makes them just a little bit more of a prospect here but

Against Liverpool I think if the game becomes more chaotic it it it’s going to suit Liverpool as much as it is going to suit Manchester United so I do think that that means that it it probably still stays quite in Liverpool’s favor for me for Manchester United obviously

It’s their last chance of silverware Eric ten hog obviously a lot of pressure on him um with the the partial takeover Etc with inos and all that do you think if he were to go on and win the FA Cup it would be difficult for them to sack

Him or do you think it’s completely irrelevant uh I think the question is relevant because they won’t win the FA Cup but yeah if he if they finish what are they six at the moment and no Trophy and awful performance in the Champions League atrocious then it’s difficult to

Survive that um no matter how long you’ve been in the job if you’re at Manchester United and he’s regressed since last season questionable selections questionable tactics bringing players in and out freezing them in and out dodging recruitment um yeah I know they’ve got a lot of injuries at the moment but

Everybody’s got loads of injuries this season like and other clubs have dealt with a lot better than he has I think you know uh Spurs had a terrible run of injuries so did Newcastle Liverpool going through one at the moment um so yeah that argument doesn’t hold much

Weight for me I guess perhaps in his favor is that inos look to be looking longterm with the appointments that they’re making and they may think that they don’t want to change too much in terms of their coach but tough isn’t it I think when you’re buying a new club

And the manager is someone who you haven’t appointed to feel as though if anything goes wrong there was the temptation to just get that manager out and say this manager who we brought in now is the one that we want to see oversee the project that we we view I

Think it’s always difficult to keep the old guy in because you always going to have that nagging doubt well this wasn’t really our decision it doesn’t really feel as they we’re in control of it so it just always happens right they they always move on the manager when when a

Big takeover like this takes place just feels like the equivalent of that though is happening with John M is almost that kind of possibly going to be that full guy rather than the manager in this case just because they’re already going for appointments like barard Dan as were F

Executive level but I think those people that they’re bringing in will look at the situation with Eric tenh and be like you know this what do we expect to happen for this suddenly turnaround like the direction of travel has definitely been from a high point last season down

From pretty much the caribel Cup Final everything’s just been declin decline declin since then I think it’s just kind of risky to hold on to the fact that maybe it will get better if there’s no clear indication that anything’s turning around I just think that the owners will be

Like and they’ve made a big thing of this right they are going to be a long-term project and I think when you do that you’re saying something along the lines of this is how we want them to play on the field and these are the people that we want to enact that both

In terms of playing staff but also coaching staff as well and I think it’s very hard to achieve that without just saying and this is the guy we think is going to be able to oversee it all with a new manager yeah and there’s enough evidence to suggest that he’s not the

Man you know in terms of their performance this season in terms of goal scoring and the shots they concede um yeah at first you might say the problem’s the system not him but now I think you look more at him okay well you mentioned about the goal scoring um only

Forest Crystal Palace Everton Burnley and Sheffield United have scored less than Manchester United this season only 39 goals um they’ve got a level goal difference um do are you in the position to to fight the corner of Eric tenh har Jacob would you say hang on a minute

He’s actually done okay in the circumstances they’re in still with a shout of getting into the the top five or am I handing you a hot potato that you want to hand back yeah I would particularly go for that argument because lots of reason why they’re struggling attack is to do with Eric

Tenh har signings and how poorly they’ve performed since coming in you look at Anthony you look at Mason Mount so far Rasmus hus has Rasmus hland has done well but that is a big reason to take Liverpool at the take the example of Liverpool at the weekends Liverpool have

Far more depth in their squads especially in those forward positions to despite spending nowhere near the amount on those positions uh that Manchester United have spent and part of that has to come that back to not just Eric tenh for wide recruitment team as well but he

Can’t be absolved of blame rasmas hland as you mentioned Jacob mentioned him there as well um back in the mix seven in six prior to his injury so theyve missed him for the last four games um we should say Manchester United they’re not in bad form but obviously they are

Unpredictable what will he ADD and can he give them a real sort of boost towards the end of this season maybe give them a greater chance of of getting into the top five yeah I think with Rasmus hland what Manchester United bought was a it was a project Striker he

Wasn’t the finished article and they they will want him to develop so I guess if you consider the the fact that they seem too far off the top five and and you know they may get knocked out against Liverpool in the FA Cup I would start seeing this at least for the

Owners as a as an excuse to see what what what they’re going to get out of some of the players that they’ve got in their squad and think about the future and I think Rasmus H’s a great one for that because we’ve seen he he came in wasn’t really being provided with the

Sorts of chances that he thrives on um but his has still really started kicking on and um making a big difference for the team so I think that yeah the the rest of the season for him at least should be a good chance for him to just

Showcase what he can do um develop his game and um yeah I I expect to see him being touted as one of the best number n in the world in the next few seasons so quick word on um Mason Mount who is back in the mix and we’ve obviously mentioned

The the sort of um questions over the quality of some of the signings that that Manchester United have made is he a bad signing or is he just in the wrong place at the wrong time uh yeah he’s been he’s been a little bit unlucky with injuries and

Whatever but yeah what was the plan when they signed him you know him and Bruno Fernandez like to be in similar parts of the pitch and uh I don’t again with a lot of United signing I don’t really see what the plan was you know they let

Sergio regon go in January when they haven’t they haven’t got any left backs at the moment they’re playing Amat there and Lindelof there just smacks again of of rather poor planning and a lot of money spent on a player who um yeah his career’s really hit the what’s it hit hit the skids

Skids it has hit the skids yeah and you know I assume he won’t well probably shouldn’t talk about the Engish Squad assume he won’t be in the Engish squad for the Euros this this summer um which which was almost Unthinkable a couple of years ago and shows you how far he’s

Fallen let’s talk about Liverpool um they’ve already got one trophy in the cabinet for this season they’re going for the quadruple um it was a great game against Manchester City and they showed great character in that last um game do you think that it’s fighting on all fronts that’s that’s really sort of

Taking out of this Jurgen Klo side or do you think conversely it’s actually inspiring them especially considering it’s his last season it’s like come come on let’s just let’s just do it for for me for for us yeah I think it’s a very sort of Open Season right this season

And I think that suits teams like Liverpool where they do they do not they don’t fly on fumes but they they they they sort of they’re place we talked about this a little bit last week in the episode about their play style is benefited from from almost being considered underdogs or having having

Adversity against them right so this season they’ve used more under 21’s players than they’ve used for years and years and years um in part that’s because the of the way the modern game has gone with with you know the amount of fixtures there are and and the amount

Of physicality that’s required to play and um Liverpool have have come up against that problem and they’ve they’ve sailed through it by the by by using these development players that they can that they can put on the pitch for senior level games and still get the

Same kind of upside out of so I think that it’s one it the current situation is one that will they will thrive in they’ve got that context of Yogen klopp leaving at the end of the season um and they’re still challenging in the Premier League despite the fact that last season

They were nowhere near the level they’ve been at before they’ve brought in a whole new Midfield effectively um and we weren’t really sure about how it was all going to work this season but they’ve they’ve just carried on going they still they keep their momentum up just through

The intensity and the physicality and the and the emotions and The Vibes and yeah they they just don’t ever look like they’re going to drop off even when they’ve lost players to injuries they still retain that level okay so quick predictions because I’ve got got a

Little bit of a quiz for you once again uh Tim Man United Liverpool away we go 2-0 to Liverpool 2N Liverpool 2 Liverpool two Liverpool 2-1 to Liverpool okay well we will see late consolation late consolation so immaterial it doesn’t really matter okay fine um right

Got a bit of a quiz for you and it is FA Cup themed and this one you can all jump in we’re not doing the sort of round robin uh thing this time last season saw the fastest ever goal scored in an FA Cup Final who scored

It and how long did it take g g one yeah correct answer after 12 seconds correct very good wow was it to seconds huh was it to it was 12 seconds yeah just ran for it in my head like a like a Droid yeah it was fantastic well done well

Done to you um for a bon Point uh who previously held the record for the fastest goal in the FA Cup Final was was it Louis ahar yes this is good how long was it N9 seconds I’d say it’s more like late I’d say it’s more like late 20s maybe 20

Let’s go for 27 25 seconds Lis a half Everton against Chelsea and Everton lost 21 any other fast goals in the FA Cup Final come to mind Roberto Deo yes when 97 yes for Chelsea against middle spray how many how long did it take uh eight seconds no 43 seconds say current Chelsea

Goalkeeper coach Ben Roberts was in golf for that I believe very good so very good get back to that the FA Cup preview later that’s quite an is um and there was one other one which do you remember do you remember Aston Villa against West

Brom back in 1895 you know a villa don’t you no I don’t actually believe they were timing the game in 1895 I think it was just sort of like random you can play for as long as you want but anyway it was Bob chat 30 seconds Aston Villa

Against West Brom I don’t even know who he played for do you know who he plays for no those are the days where they did replays right and it would you would never have penalty shootouts it would just be if you drew at the end of 90

Minutes you do another replay and do another replay going exactly um let us not keep going and going and let’s move on to another big game in the FA Cup this weekend that’s trivia that’s this here we go so let’s turn our attention to the FA cup holders Manchester City uh they

Beat Luton 62 at kennworth Road in the in the last round erling Harland scoring five Newcastle they were taken to penalties by Blackburn at Ewood Park um there have been some tight games between these two sides this season uh one nil win for City at the Etihad Newcastle

Knock City out of the carabal Cup by the same score line and then it was 3-2 at St james’ Park Kevin De bruyne inspired uh comeback etc etc for City in January um does anyone feel like this is anything other than a City win can anyone make an argument for for

Newcastle I’m looking at you Jacob because of your sort of your recent history of covering Newcastle just feels like this is just regulation City win and advancement into the next round Yeah Eddie how’s size often seems to play quite well against City without coming away with a result so I think the 1-nil

Win in the carabal early of the season was the first time that how had beaten uh a man city side I think I think ever I might be corrected on that um they’ve kind of I kind of just get the sense that they’ve already gone to the well

Twice against City theyve put so much into themel so much into it in the 3-2 game in January where they still had designs on European competitions the one-nil win in the carabel cup was obviously really big emotionally they played pretty poorly at theti Hado uh in

The second game of the season and that sort of started off a little downward spiral they had I just get the sense with Newcastle that yes this is an important game but with how thick and fast they’ve kind of having to be they’ve had to deal with

Stuff this season with kind of all of the different tribulations they faced it’s still kind of difficult for them to move away from the league for city um I guess you know we’ve got the international break coming up but they do have in the back of their minds that

After the international break they’ve got a really really important game against Arsenal uh in the title race um in the league do you think that this will have any impact on on how Pep Guardiola approaches this game in terms of maybe thinking well look they’re going to have quite a heavy workload

When they go away I might try and ease them off going into this International break considering I don’t want them to be burn out for when Arsenal come I mean or is it is the timing too too broad to think about that game yet I think the noises that we always hear from

Manchester City players when they’re talking about this the fixture stacking up is that they are taking every competition seriously so I’m sure that there will be an impact because there will be they’ll they’ll plan for the the eventualities that that you know you have games close together big games

Close together um I I I guess with this with this game I find it interesting because the the weak spot that that the city have this season is um defending counterattacks and Newcastle are a team who score counterattacks and we saw that in the in the 3-2 game recently two of the goals

Came through um Kyle Walker’s area of the pitch with I think it was was it Anthony Gordon and um esack scored as well right from the same sort of area um so I don’t I don’t necessarily think that in terms of the in terms of the

Players that you have on the field that there is going to be an issue it’s not it’s not that you’re like what’s the Tactical breakdown here going to be Guardiola knows exactly what the breakdown is going to be I think he’ll play his regular team and the the the

Threat will be make sure that we defend these counter attacks well and then we’ll we’ll be okay um so I don’t think we’ll see like a weaken side um but that doesn’t mean to say that we won’t see Newcastle win whereas with the Arsenal game I think there’s a there’s a lot

More tactical aspects riding on that he’ll have to make decisions about who is or isn’t on the pitch in a way that I don’t think will impact the the Newcastle game so much with Newcastle um now sitting 10th in the Premier League after such a an impressive season

Last season where do you sort of where do you feel that they are at at the moment and obviously everyone will you know I would have thought a lot of Newcastle fans will think look we just want to win a trophy it’s been how many years since 1955 they haven’t won a a

Major trophy we could have just really done without not having City in the in the FA Cup and at least have a little bit of a chance because now it’s it’s it’s like well we’re probably going to go out against City we’re going to finish mid-table and we’re not

Necessarily back to square one but we’ve still got a lot of work to do to get us where our owners will expect us to be I mean how do you unpick all of that yeah and then you look at the money they’ve already spent right and they what do

They do spend the same amount again which they won’t be able to do because of ffp and they’re in potentially bit of trouble this summer in terms of having to make player sales it’s hard it’s hard to crack that top six almost impossible over certainly over two or threeyear

Period um well sorry certainly over like a a short to midterm period so yeah um there’s a big decision to make this summer in terms of Eddie how obviously Dan Ashworth is going they may have a player sale to make and they obviously overachieved last year but now now

They’ve underachieved this year when you look at how much money they have spent and the squad that they’ve got I know they’ve had injuries but um they should be higher than 10th in the table and if has expected to go out of the cup this weekend then the pressure will probably

Start this question keeps coming again and again at the moment is Eddie how under pressure and the answer seems to be no but it will it will become yes over the coming weeks because if they if they keep sliding down into the bottom half of the table then it really doesn’t

Look great for him he should be under pressure I think because the issue that they have is with control and last season they were able to control games because they were so intense out of possession that they were causing teams problems in in their own half and able

To sort of control the game in that way but this season they’ve they’ve obviously the intensity has had to drop off they’ve had injuries and it means that they don’t have have the ability to control games out of possession which means they need to control games in possession I talk about Liverpool early

Jurgen Club Liverpool as a as a sort of analogous example of what happened with with with is happening with Newcastle what word did you just use then analogous is that the wrong word is that as an analogy as an very good sorry now carry on I was just interested to hear

Yeah so so with with we talked about it I think on last week’s episode as well when Yogen Klo came in his teams were super intense they were trying to control games out of possession they were trying to generate chances throughout possession but it very quickly became apparent that

They weren’t able to challenge the teams at the top simply playing that way so they had to introduce some elements of control not necessarily the full elements of control that you see from Pep Guardiola teams but they became able to possess the ball not always having to

Attack directly being able to um keep the ball for for longer periods and and make sure that teams weren’t able to just you know if if you make the game if you make the game really direct then the danger is that you lose the ball and

Then it comes straight back at you right so you end up with these sort of basketball games the ball goes forwards and backwards a lot and it just raises the chance of you conceding goals that’s what was happening to Liverpool whereas what we saw um klopp introducing as time

Went on was the ability to just possess the ball in such a way as to be able to defend with possession not not allowing the opposition chances to attack and I think that’s the move that the Newcastle need to make and if Eddie how can’t make those devel those tactical developments

Then they have to bring someone else in I think Jacob do you think that the owners of Newcastle think like John McKenzie and they think about the detail and the you know the devil being in the detail about how Eddie how um plots out his master

Plan or do they think do we not just need a bigger name manager and a little bit more Stardust sprinkled on things using your Insight you know you know inside inside the the club what do you think they are thinking and does does Eddie how sort of we’ve spoken about it

Before when you’ve been on the on the show his sort of lower profile status does that will that always work against him I love the concept of Amanda stavely having the interior monologue of John she Rings me off all the time facetimes me and we discuss the Tactical nuances of Newcastle yeah what

Image that is um I think the thing is that there’s an element of the Unknown about newcastle’s ownership because for large 80% of the ownership is PF who have not had to particularly be active in Newcastle anything apart from providing funds for transfers we’ve generally left most of the uh sort of

Almost day-to-day footballing operation size to stavely and her husband murag gadusi who are big supporters of Eddie how PF ultimately though do hold for controlling power in that and could make a change um all the indications of Eddie how is going to get well I mean for

Summer sound soon but he will be in charge over the summer unless anything drastic happens but that doesn’t stop all kind of minations happening in the background there’s lots of speculation around because uh Jose Mourinho was video chatting to Yasir arayan at the Saudi Grand Prix this past weekend I

Think though there is an understanding at both the kind of almost excuses which Newcastle have had at their door not just the injuries but also kind of to address what John was saying yes there’s a recognition that they need to evolve uh as a style but the speed in which

They have moved from they started a lot lower than Liverpool they were basting relegation so they’ve almost had to go from a yeah we had to go from a team batting relegation and trying to create chances for out of possession to an elite out of possession side to then suddenly

Transforming into an elite in possession side and that is happening in roughly two 24 months and so yes it’s three four transfer Windows where they’ve spent a lot but it is still an absolutely rapid pace of control and I think that the leadership of the club does recognize

That okay um let’s get your predictions on this game John let’s start with you 2-1 Man City 2-1 okay another narrow win Tim I think it’s purely dictated by the team that Guardiola picks and if he goes for his strongest team they’ll win 4-1 4-1 and Jacob yeah well we haven’t

Mentioned is um Kevin De bruyne who tore Newcastle apart when he came on um in the F in the uh League match at St James’s Park um a couple of months back and he’s a doubt or he’s been left out for Belgium squads and so I think

Newcastle will shut it down but not do enough so one nil to City okay we shall see um I’ve got another little quick quiz for you are you ready for it yay okay that’s good um now Manchester City they’re looking to become the seventh team to win the FA Cup in consecutive

Years going back to the very first FA Cup Final in 1872 can you name the six teams to have achieved that feat previously um same format as last week um we’ll aim for 30 seconds and you can name the teams that have won backto back fa cups and we’ll

Start with John Arsenal Arsenal is correct they’ve done it twice they must have done it recently cuz they won it loads at the end of the venger area they well they’ve done it twice ni so I’ll give you Arsenal once I’ll give you Arsenal once Jacob he said went right

Back to the starts uh Corinthians did they win the first couple of years no they won the first one though I think Oh I thought won the first two no ah D you’re out Tim oh sorry you’re out Tim surely Liverpool no oh I win great I like

Thisiz can I say arsenal too the second so Arsenal did it 2002 and 2003 um 1 two and 23 uh and then 2014 and 15 do you want to know the other teams may as well man united must have done it man united have not done it really no

Wanderers yeah yeah I should have gone for that yeah W maybe they’re the team who won the first they’re the team who won the first FA Cup they’ve done it twice 18 1872 and and 1873 they won yeah sorry it was Fair EXA played at the

Overall I believe the first FA Cup Final yeah fantastic and they also won three in a row between 76 and 78 uh the other teams that have done it Chelsea have done it once 0910 um Spurs twice 62 and 82 uh Newcastle have done it oh 51 and 52 and

Blackburn did it three times in the 1800s twice and then 28 and 29 there you go really good quiz competitive really really competitive yeah you did really well thanks we’ll do it again next week right let’s rattle through the rest of the weekend’s action have to give you a

Word on uh wolves against centry one of the other quarterfinals yeah you word uh no I mean the the form that you’re in and the way that you’re playing huge favorites you’re almost sort of booked booked your place in the semi-finals you’re so annoy well come on

Come on you should be you should be strolling through this it’s not like you’ve got a soft underbelly and you’ll get done by Coventry like I I don’t I don’t see that you’re a well organized team under Gary O’Neal right no I’m not I’m genuinely

I’m not not I I genuinely believe it I genuinely believe can’t tell when you’re being serious I’m sorry I genuinely believe that you’re you’re a good side winning games and you should dispatch commentary yeah but the massive concern is that the front three are all out so

Quang K and I assume Netto is also out so yeah did his hammy didn’t he did his hammy so I don’t know who scores literally don’t know who scores the goals so it’s like back to the old school wolves who don’t score goals yeah exactly yeah which is a it’s always you

Know FA Cup it’s the biggest game of coventry’s entire season and it’s in theory the easiest Game of Wars the entire season so you know what that does to players Minds I’m worried Adam worried I don’t think you should be do you want to put a prediction on record

Or not absolutely not no okay no way fine um let’s with the the Premier League games um two 3:00 on on Saturday as we mentioned um Burnley against brenford Burnley have got the worst home record in the Premier League they’ve only got five points at home how is why

Has Turf M been so bloody easy to go to it’s always quite tough to go to in the past but anyway um brenford they’re Five Points above the drop I did want to focus on um Lon against Nottingham Forest Luton I mean yeah great fun to

Watch and everyone seems to sort of love them and and Rob Edwards is doing a great job and they’re competitive they’re sort of are they just a bit too like sort of Ian Holloway’s Blackpool a little bit too gung-ho especially when you look at the last Premier League game

Against Bourn you can’t be losing 4-3 when you’re 3-0 up can you yeah I watched I actually watched that game last night um yeah it’s it’s they they have their upside right luten they they’re very good in sort of playing directly and then winning set pieces and

Scoring set pieces they scored the first three shots against Bournemouth which helps um but they just again it it comes down to the ability inability to control the game if you can’t control the game against a team like Bournemouth um then then you are going to just face a

Barrage of of of chances coming back the other way so if you if you had Rob Edwards in here with you and obviously you you would want to sort of not really piss him off but but you said that they can’t control the game could they have done anything differently to control the

Game yeah and a lot of that comes to the Personnel that they have right so I feel a lot of sympathy for a coach who goes into the Premier League where you you know you’re coming up against a team like Bournemouth you’re scoring three goals and you think you know surely

Surely we can see this out and obviously it doesn’t happen often was the fifth time it’s ever happened in the Premier League but there’s there’s an extent to which there’s an inevitability that you are not going to be able to control um the ball for the whole time and so the

Question then has to be like how do you set up do you set up to sit deep just allow the opposition to have the ball whole time and and then allow them to arrive in the final third however they want to arrive and you know at that

Level the teams have players good enough to to generate chances and score those chances or do you try and control the game in the opposition half and say well okay let’s try and keep them away from our goal at least make it hard for them to to get into these goal scoring

Situations and then you’re playing against teams like Bournemouth who have good enough players to be able to play through your press and and move the ball through and there’s more space right because you’ve SP you spread the team out over much bigger um part of the

Pitch so it it’s it’s tough It’s it’s they they they are a team who probably shouldn’t be in in the Premier League they would I think they would they would admit this that even by their own um their own predictions for how the the the future of the club was going to go

They weren’t going to arrive at the Premier League this quickly so it’s it’s a really tough one because you you know you’re going to probably go down at the end of the season and how do you prepare for a season where you then want to go from being underdogs to being

Protagonists to try and get back up um and you think you add all of this together and we we talked about Burnley just a few seconds ago again the same thing here right you’ve got Vincent company who comes into the championship plays a really attractive attacking brand of football gets into the Premier

League and is still coaching that brand of football and then it becomes very difficult to think to to see how you’re actually going to maintain your position because suddenly you go from having the best players in the division to to not having some of the worst players in the

Division so it’s a really tough position to be in as as a as a young manager coming through and these these guys like get judged on on this right Vince Vincent company people will think not a good manager hasn’t kept Burnley up but what what do you expect him to do you

Expect him to come into the league play Da defensive football probably go down anyway and then have to play a completely different style of play next season back in the championship so yeah it’s it’s an incredibly tough Prospect to be a promoted sides coach and Villa

Will be hoping to bounce back from that when they go to the London Stadium to face West Ham on Sunday okay so that’s all the Premier League action uh we’ve spoken about the fa cup as well uh the England squad was released on Thursday um some of the headlines bran we from

Everton in you’re an Everton fan Jacob happy with that deserves his call up definitely just because his ceiling is so high he can do he’s a tall lad isn’t he exactly I mean he’s lit has he basically lives in a church we’ve had to put him voting yeah

Um it’s main fact he has the defensive fundamentals really down he’s quick he’s 6′ five but he can pass uh to both sides really really well he’s not necessarily been able to show the full range of his passing in this Everton side at the moment um but just as an overall

Prospect he um really does seem to have everything it takes and just slipping your Everton hat off popping your Newcastle hat back on Anthony Gordon in first call up I can start my Everton cap on made on Mery s side by the by the academy you can put it on top yeah

Exactly I’ll just of Stack it um yeah Gordon makes a lot of sense looking forward to the summer because he’s such a versatile player he’s done his best coming off the left and cutting in but he can play number 10 he can play on the

Right for the under 21s in the summer he was player of the tournament at the year as they won and then he was actually playing um as a force n um really quick good in transition um for any games in which England might be out of control

And really excited to see what he can do because I think 17 goal contributions this season which is more than the rest of his career combined and the two games we didn’t mention uh against Brazil against um Belgium during this International Break um Jordan Henderson

In of course he going to be going to be in as always first name um no Calvin Phillips though um I mean the where do you stand on on that bit of decision making from Gareth I feel I feel sorry for Philips do yeah oh well in on in a human

Human way rather than a sort of a football performance way I only speak in human ways and I I am really yeah no I think what I saw an interview with him this week where he said he consulted Southgate on where to go in January I think Juventus was an option and

Southgate sort of said look the Premier League is a harder League that’s where I want you and he’s struggled and he’s Rusty and he’s not played for two years and come off the bench and made some mistakes and now he’s out and I don’t want to you know keep on this argument

But Henderson is playing in a weaker League in over in in the Netherlands and yeah apparently had a shock shocking game at the weekend and and there he is as always so I don’t know I just yeah I feel a bit sorry for Phillips the way his career in itself though asking

Gareth where he should play taking your guidance off an international manager that’s going going to be loyal to you shouldn’t be like that should it potentially but if he’s got a couple option you should just be you should just be performing and then you get the

Call don’t make the call and check in with him and see what he he thinks I just don’t I don’t think that that’s how it should work no you’re right but maybe he’s thinking if I go to an overseas League will I’ll be out out of mind but

Then I guess you look at certain players going to Saudi Arabia um so yeah England not blessed with options in Midfield you know Trent Alexander Arnold and Curtis Jones who was sort of moted for a potential call up both injured for this one and yet still no place for for

Phillips but I you know I understand why but also James W PR who’s obviously never going to get an England squad again if you can’t get in at the moment um so it’s an interesting selection um other players sort of missing Ross Barkley was touted again if he’s

Obviously not going to get in now ahead of the Euros um uh especially after that dismissive look from Adam lar and um Dominic salanki again is someone who again in any other season would be surely he’s not even talked about as an option OE Watkins has sort of put that

To bed um looking at the squad list one of the most remarkable things about is that Ivan Tony’s only got one England cap he’s been talked about as Harry Kane’s backup for about three years now he still only played once for England so a big chance a big opportunity for him

To impress because Ole Watkins form I think puts Tony’s Place in the 23 in danger that’s all we’ve got time for Tim thank you very much indeed John same to you thank you and Jacob you can take your hats off and go home thank you

Thank you um IO will be back with you on Monday and we’ll have another weekend preview next week take care till then e

22 Comments

  1. The athletic sucks yous tried to buy it all up and be the kings of English YouTube content but u shoulda just let everyone do their thing

  2. I would expect to see Talksport slamming ETH, but not these guys. He's had a poor season, but a lot of it isn't really his fault. Were they anywhere near as down on Klopp when Liverpool lost Van Dijk and finished 5th? (I'm not even hating on Liverpool, shit happens).

  3. Trash podcast with dudes who know nothing. Tim spears looks like a clown and acts like one too. How is this the "Athletic FC" podcast but feature non of the people from the Athletic FC channel? (Besides Jon Mackenzie who is by far the worst, most bias and boring member of the tifo crew). I still can't believe you guys axed the original tifo podcast for this boring dross.

  4. Real miracle Newcastle dealing with injuries better than United whilst being behind United in the league. Great punditry.

  5. No chance.any utd fan..and im one…who thinks utd will win…is on another planet..this is 2024 not 1995-96.come on get real.

  6. I turned off when that punk said "THEY WON'T WIN THE FA CUP". This is just bad journalism. No team has a right to win the cup therefore every team that's still in it has a chance! No matter how small the chance, its still a chance. More so at quarter final stage!

    This kind of this got me listening to The Athletic less & less now.

  7. Would have appreciated some discussion about the England manager throwing one of his players under the bus and protecting his mate, but I suppose the world really did need another Man U/Liverpool video.

  8. United have had injuries all season and to key players – as Liverpool did last season. Wasn’t seen as an excuse then! 😂

  9. What a load of horse …. Liverpools forward line cost in excess of United’s! Did these ‘experts’ do any research?

  10. The first two minutes are legitimately the most awkward thing I’ve ever seen. Who are these total dorks

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