Tactical Preview: Man United v Man City + underlying data buys

0:00The Athletic FC Hello and welcome to the Athletic FC podcast with me Kate Mason. It is tactical preview time which means we're getting you ready for the weekends games with a helpful dose of data and analytics. This week, Pistomant is the Derby. Joining me in this studio is former England goalkeeper Rob Green. Good morning. Hello and tactics right up for the Athletic. Tom Harris. Hi Kate. Hello Rob. Hmm. You've had a busy week I understand. You embarked on a rare double header of Real Madrid versus Inter Milan on Tuesday followed by that away trip to Thought Park. Yes. On Wednesday any tactical insights to bring us from either? Well, I felt like going to Thought Park was a bit like the Champions League this season is that you turn up full of excitement and then you see the queue and you realise the

1:01weight that you're going to have to have before the really important stuff happens. But no, I think this is what the group stage is all about now is the big teams coming against against itself and Real Madrid versus Inter's two of the biggest. Okay. So we're preparing for a roller coaster here today on the tactical preview show. Speaking of thrilling twists and turns, it's the first match of the Derby in 10 years without Pep Guardiola. How significant do we feel that is from a tactical perspective? It's going to feel weird. But when you do get a glimpse of Enza Morecica prowling the touch line, you do kind of double-take and think, oh, Pep's back. Yes. Very similar of vibe and tactics as well, I think as we're going to get into, I think it's going to be very similar where we're going to have Manchester City, even though as that old Trafford, they're going to go to dominate possession. They're going to set up and really try and get Ryan Cherokee on the ball in dangerous areas. Manchester United are going to lean into that kind of counter-attack, they have, even though they're at home, they want a little bit more of the ball. I think the sensible thing to do here is to really rely on Bruno Fernandes and Brian

2:04and Burma to get them out of the pitch into Manchester City in that way. Yeah. You look at how teams want to progress and want to develop and kind of thinking, but this might actually be a case where they have to revert back to type and you revert back to Pep type because that is the way that Mariska is developing the team Michael, but carrot for a game might turn around and say, yes, I want to develop this midfield, the way that we're playing. I'm going to have to be the way that we have been for the last 10 years or so against Manchester City. Well, it hasn't just been managerial change for City of course within Soreska coming in, but an overhaul of them had failed too. We're going to get into that in studio shortly, but first, here's the athletics man City correspondent Sam Lee with the latest. We're getting more of an idea about how City's new look midfield is fitting together game by game basically. When Enzo Mariska talked about the three new signings, Fernandes, Buaddi and Anderson, before they came and in their first couple of days at the club, they talked about how basically all of them could be number six, they could be number eight, they can do a bit

3:05of everything as long as it all fits together, it'll be fine. It sounded a little bit wally and a bit like, well, how is actually going to work? But like I say, the more games that are going by, the more we can see that actually it is fitting together quite nicely. Mariska's plan is actually to use, Ellie Anderson as the holder midfielder, Buaddi as we saw against Porter when he put in a really mature performance. He's also really capable of doing that. Enzo Fernandes in his two games so far, he's played on the right of the midfield, he's played on the left of midfield, he does do a little bit of everything, he gets a bit forward, tries to make an impact in the final third, needs to play together, tries to play passes in behind for the wingers for Harlan. Anderson basically, he's been a revelation already, I know it's only early, but he's been fantastic. And then he puts out fires all over the midfield, wins tackles on the ball, he's great, I think he's made more progressive passes by a mile than anybody else at this early stage. I think he's going to be a huge player for City. And like I said, with Buaddi against Porter, he looked full of promise as well. So individually, they're all really interesting, exciting players and the way it all fits

4:07together for me is even more exciting and we're getting our answers on that as we go along. Yeah, City with a completely new unit in midfield with Enzo Fernandez, Ellie Anderson and AOP Addie all arriving, over £300 million spent Tom, what have we made of City's new midfield? Yeah, it's been a promising start, as Sam mentioned, I think against Porter in midweek, they kind of, they went without Ellie Anderson, which I thought was interesting. Ryan Cherokee, Buaddi and Fernandez with a three. And I think on paper you look at that and think there's not a lot of defensive kind of appetite there, but they control the ball really well and they didn't really allow Porter to get into the game. But against Coventry, I think that's where we saw what it's going to look like kind of more long-term, the kind of general plan. You've got your three centre backs building up, you've got Ellie Anderson just in front of them. And as Sam said, he was absolutely brilliant against Coventry, I think it was 136 passes, which is amazing. He just dominated the kind of the build up. Then you've got your wingers high and wide, Cementio down the right and in Jai on the

5:08left. And having those wingers wide allows Jusquil Gradiott to come inside, it allows Enza Fernandez to come inside and attack those kind of inside channels. And then you've got Ryan Cherokee alongside Erling Harland. As Citi build up, you know, they moved the ball side to side across the defence, they've been able to find Anderson past the kind of two Coventry strikers and all of a sudden that pass has opened up into Ryan Cherokee. And that's what Anderson was really good at and that Coventry game I thought was being really positive when he got the ball in space and firing those passes between the lines. And when you can do that, when you can find Cherokee in those little pockets of space, that's when you've got the likes of Harland Enza Fernandez filled the flow and when he plays nearby for those little combinations that you can get at the back five. Do you feel the, you look at the loss of Rodri in the introduction of Anderson? The shape seems pretty extraordinary that they've gone from Rodri the best in the world to Anderson who is wonderfully gifted, but to say actually possibly more responsibility

6:09on Anderson on the ball. Yeah, I think that is the big risk that Maresque has taken. And I think it is why Citi do look a little bit vulnerable at times. I mean, even on the porto game, they didn't consider shot on target, but there were little moments where they just Citi lost the ball and Porto were able to get away really quickly. And I think that's because you've got one midfielder and Elliott Anderson patrolling a lot of space like with to with the pitch. And if you get out, you can draw Anderson out and then you can switch the ball, then all of a sudden you're bearing down in the back three. And I think that will be United's game plan on the weekend to really try to isolate Elliott Anderson in those positions. Yeah, the interesting part for me for looking ahead to Sunday is, is can you risk a wide player staying forward? I rationed. Just keep him a little bit half a half a hard more than half a hard obviously, but that half a position sort of an out ball immediately on the wing because that's the space. That's where we see on the, you know, the Anderson cannot cover the width of the pitch. That's what you touched on that allowing someone like Rashel who's clearly got the yards

7:13who's got the speed to hurt them and has done it before. Go just wait, just wait that little bit further away. That'll be that'll be an interesting point for the weekend. Yeah, Brital stat that Anderson made is 136 accurate passes against Coventry. Coventry as an entire team made 154 accurate passes. Well, Frank Lempard after the game said we could have got something and should have got something to rob it. Yeah, you have to agree. That's not just managerial positivity, was it? No, no. And they had a game plan they could just couldn't execute it. Of the three newcomers, Fernandez already with experience of working with Maraska, of course, you'll, you've noticed that he's already making the same kind of runs from the midfield at city that he did at Chelsea. Yeah, there's obvious reasons off pitch reasons why Fernandez wanted to go to Manchester City, but there's one on pitch. Is he's got that freedom to just go and go and do it again and he's looking continually over his shoulder at where some anywhere is and some annual received all those passes that you talk about from Anderson, some annual seed one out of 136 and it was a crossfield ball

8:18and he's been told not to risk it just that's clearly something that is in the parameter for him control the game. Do not risk it with big switches. So Anderson's going to be looking and looking internally, but also Fernandez, whilst the game is going on is continue looking to Semenio and the fullback to say, is that space between the fullback or wingback and the center half there for me to make the run and he makes this run that we saw him do time and time again under Moresca at Chelsea in between the center half and the fullback and he just goes and now we're saying, are these clever runs or is he just doing it by weight of numbers and against Coventry, he did three in the opening two minutes. It's incredible amount to do initially, but he's setting his stall out to spin back the Coventry defence which creates a space in midfield, but also if they don't go with him, they don't track him, he's in. So we're saying, oh, we played a really good game against Coventry.

9:20It was so many, there was an assist, there was touches in the box, he's going to get that just because of the amount of runs he makes. It's like you keep asking. Yeah, you keep knocking on the door or at some point someone's going to answer it. So I think there he's just, he's got that freedom, he's got that license and if he doesn't make it and they don't step into him, then he's got the freedom in them if he feels to play. Now it's not just in midfield where city of strength and of course in Iran and die a late arrival. Would you like to hear the interesting post-match comments from Maresque at a baton die after his debut against Coventry? Yes, please. He needs to understand how to move. Most of the time he was moving in the wrong way, wrong position, but he needs to learn and for sure he is going to learn. When Mark Gaye has the ball, he was dropping a lot and we don't need that. We need him in the last third so he can be a little bit more higher, that space was more for Jessica. Guardiol is the same thing this other side but it is normal and with time they will learn the way we want them to play.

10:20Brutal when you really help. I think I added a little tone to the comments of course that sort of artistic license there but. That was more of a teach of I, you know, then a coach trying to get his message across so I'd be heartbroken if he was in a man and a guy listening to that. I think so. No, no, from you, not from the manager. But yeah, you clearly are working progress. Yeah, is this the start of the jack greenification of and die? Is it all over for him already? Not just from my little memory. I think a lot of people reacted that way. That was the first instinct when they saw these quotes and I think it is Ender Morescar right? You know, there are two kind of schools of thought I think in football where there's a kind of more relationist principles where you have players are going to get into areas and they're going to kind of interact with themselves and there's less of a structure. I think you think maybe Real Madrid and the Carlo and Chalotti it's a little bit more. We're going to get our best players all in a space and we're going to kind of try and work through in those areas. Whereas on the other side is they're strictly positional and that was Pep Guardiola and

11:21that is Ender Morescar where everything, the kind of moving the ball is and generating spaces is to do with where you're placing your players on the pitch. And this is the perfect example of it right where ENGY is almost being micromanaged in this first game where it's like you've got to stay wide because if you stay wide you're going to create space for just go of radio to make that run. So you know, it's, it's, Pep did that as well. It's, you know, it's not anything new at Manchester City and I think you've got to expect from your wingers that you're going to be kind of operating on the restrict conditions. You're going to get your kind of your Ryan Cherkees and your Ender Fernandez to have a little bit more freedom in the centre of the pitch but I think the wingers have to be quite disciplined. And I think the reason why he said that, I mean, we look at the portal game in midweek. It was Antoine Semenio who played on the left this time, Robert and ENGY. So they kind of swapped sides ENGY was on the bench and Semenio kept that with really, really well. And when he did that, there were underlapping runs which led to a lot of big chances for City. The goal came from a situation where there was an underlapping run, Semenio played him

12:23through and then Harlan drips to drift to the back post, wins his header and then obviously they go ahead and Harlan had three header chances that game coming from that exact sequence of Semenio wide underlapping run, clipped to the back post header. So it's very rehearsed and I think if you're really minding Jai, you may be feeling a little bit after all those years playing for Everton where you've got a bit of freedom. It might be a bit, you're wondering whether you've made the right decision. But at the same time, when he came on against portal, he was able to make a few runs inside and be expressive. So. Yeah, it's an interesting balance that you have as a player listening or being told in such a structured way because you go one way in the Maresque away and you end up losing that creativity, that instinctiveness that made you such a great player and we saw that as you say, the grillification is kind of, you know, give it to Cancelo. That's all he did. They won the trap with it and he just went, well, actually, you know what, it's so bit.

13:25But you kind of feel, you're speaking to, I spoke to my old writing when he was at Leicester with and he said, it's not a bit of a rude question. Is he boring playing under Maresque? And he said, yes, he's boring in training and he's boring to play and you can see that at times and you saw Leicester and he's completely counters to someone that I go straight away to the Harry Redner who didn't do any of that. You know, it was go and play, go and express yourselves. You walked onto a pitch, not quite sure of what was going to happen, but you then say, well, actually, we've got really good players on the pitch who can do that. Harry loves a gut, you know, a nico cranky, I, who just turned around and went, well, how are you going to play? I don't know. I'll find out when I get onto the pitch, that sort of thing. It lends itself to that. So you feel that there's somewhere in between is a happy medium, but Maresque wants it very, very particular way. Yeah, I think I mentioned this on the podcast the other day, but I think PSG under and

14:26Re-K are a good example of a positional side where there's lots of kind of structure, but there's also a lot of rotation, a lot of freedom and a lot of players dropping into areas. And I think that's kind of what you want because if you're a football fan, you know, you enjoy the entertainment, we're going to get to full them in a second half. You enjoy that entertainment at freedom, but at the same time you do need to, especially nowadays when teams are pressing better, pressing harder. You do need a little bit of structure. So yeah, it's about finding that balance. You go on other podcasts, dude. Yes. OK. When Maresque United have found joy in these games in recent years, they basically destroyed City on the counter. Alex says he wants to move away from that, but is that basically the best way of doing it in this game? Yeah, we touched on it before. It's, you know, we saw Fernandez against Hall and against Everton. He struggled a little bit because the spaces were more compact. He was trying to kind of control the tempo and Fernandez wants to be quick. He wants to be direct. We saw against Ipswich when he has those spaces to attack. He can do it really, really well. I think Brian and Burma leads the Premier League so far for runs in behind.

15:27He makes those movements really well. And as Rob said before, Rashford is a real threat down the left as well. So I think that's what they have to lean into, for sure. And if they're going to go without a number nine, an out and out number nine, it lends itself to that as well. He's going to be a diagonal ball. He's going to be a ball into the fallback areas of the Manchester City, fallback areas. So it's there for them. The blueprint is there. It's in the DNA of recent years. I understand Michael Carrick has all this money being spent on the midfield now. And yes, we want to play our own way and create our own identity. Just feel the little bit sort of, I feel like you might just for 90 minutes, river back to time. Pragmatism. That's what you're calling for. Winning the game. That's what you want is a player. That's what you want to build the belief as a team. And you know, they've had a stop starts sort of start to the season. So that will give it a real lift.

16:37This is the Athletic FC podcast. Time for a game. This is highest bidder. Well, I set you a question and you have to bid on how many answers you think you can get right. Today's question is there are 19 players who've scored 25 or more goals in a Premier League season. How many can you name? Who wants to start off the bidding then? You've not seen me play this. In two games, I've been managed to be wrong four times. Only in the answers, but in the amount that I can get. Okay. You're under absolutely no pressure whatsoever here. Smart how you're getting into his head by saying how bad you are. It's an interesting tactical approach. I'd love to say it's a bit reverse psychology, but it didn't really. He's just me being bad at this. I'll start the bidding at six. Okay. Six. I feel like that sounds conservative. You said you were going to go bold and then didn't.

17:39Correct. I know. Immediately go seven. Guys, I don't want to put you under pressure. I feel like if someone could jump into double figures, that would be a... I was 10. 10. Here we go. Go for it. Take it away. I feel like this is getable. Yeah. This is eminently getable. All right. So I'll start modern. Smart. I will go early in Holland. What? Yes. I've done it a few times. Hurricane. Yeah, very good. The Hammett Seller. Lovely stuff. So wait, that's three. Hang on. I have to count this on my fingers. Mm-hmm. Said you were a Guarro. Nice. Robin Van Persi. I know. And now I might go old. I'll go Alan Sheerah. Nice. Chris Sutton. Very good. That's number seven. Number seven. So you got three more. Three more. The Aerie on Rhee. Very nice. I think there's a couple of... There's a couple of big hits in there. I think people are going to be screaming at that. Yeah. Portwood devices. Did you do a duke? Did you do a duke? Did you do a duke? Do you do a duke?

18:39Lovely. And for the win... Malatissier. Oh my goodness. What a bizarre final call. But yes, absolutely. Oh, Chris, you know what now, though, is rushing this kind of feeling. Well, the other another is that, of course. Like, my career is over. The fact that Tom can't get me in this game. Lovely stuff. That means that so far in the game, Rob. You've got... 100% record of NIL. Yes. I mean, not here to make you feel bad about yourselves. I'm going to be very good. I'm going to be very franky. I'm going to be very franky. From the top, this is in historical order. Andy Cole. Alan Shira. Chris Sutton. Matt Latissier. Robbie Fowler. Les Ferdinand. Kevin Phillips. Reed Van Nissau. Terry Onree. Ronaldo. Did he a drug by Wayne Rooney? Yes, of course. Robin Van Perssey. Louis Suarez, as you said, says you're a Guero. Harry Kane. Romaly LeCucky. Salah. Ling Holland. OK. I kind of bookended the kind of, you know. Yeah, it was just thing, actually. I liked it. I'll take that. Yeah, I'll take that.

19:39Good game, everybody. Thank you. Right, away from the match to Derby, then it's time to look at three more games this weekend. First up, Rob, let's talk about Fulham and their trip to Anfield. We've talked about City's midfield unit and how that's all coming together. How is Fulham's midfield unit? It's all falling apart. Yeah, it's a really... It's a style of approach which has proven to be wonderfully creative and when it is free flowing, they have their footballing players looking so good and they've got two real footballers in the centre of the field in the double pivot in Shay Charles and Alex Awobi, which is fine, which is all well and good. If they're there and a lot of the time, they're not there and it's just proven to be so devastating on the counter that we're seeing goals being scored that Chris and Palace go from one end to the pitch to the other in two passes. The weekend, you looked at the shape and it was all over the place and you just feel...

20:45You touch on the pragmatism of a game, of a team, you just need that and it's a long way short of that right now. What can other... I'd rather look at to try and close the gap, Tom. Well, I think he's come into Fulham and look to be very positive. I think at Real Madrid, when he took charge, he was kind of fixing a few problems and I think maybe he's seen this as a chance to prove who he is as a manager. I think he's gone in with a touch of a Real Madrid about it where he's thought, right, let's attack, let's get players into attacking positions, let's outscore the opposition. To be fair, Fulham have created a lot, they look very dangerous against Chelsea, they generated a lot of chances against Crystal Palace because they're getting kind of wide triangles so you've got Robinson pushing on, you've got the nice triangles on the left, you've got also Timothy Castanio the right back pushing on and you've got those triangles to just King on the right and they're creating chances. But what they're doing, pushing both first the Fulbacks on, leaving Calvin Bassy in Yokey Anderson, two centrebacks really high up the pitch and not really giving them a lot of

21:48protection from a midfielder. We saw earlier on with Citi, they had three centrebacks and Anderson in front of them. Fulham here, I've got two centrebacks and Shay Charles, who himself is getting forward and sometimes leaving that post. It's just that that was a risk for Manchester City as a three in a one. Exactly. Yeah, it's very, very risky and I think even the first goal they conceded, it was 30 seconds in against Chelsea, they split the centrebacks, they go long and the three midfielder as well as the Fulbacks all push on and all it takes is a header from Laquire I think it was to get them back in behind and then it's a goal. So it's very risky, I think something that we need to do really is work on this kind of rest defences what we call it, they're kind of shaped left behind when they have a ball. One way would be to kind of do what Mark of Silver did last season and just took one of your Fulbacks in, don't push both of them on, took one in and obviously that does reduce your attacking kind of output a little bit but it does make you a little bit stronger in these scenarios because the centrebacks are just being pulled all over the pitch and especially when you've got someone like Yokey Anderson, no disrespect to him, he's not

22:51the quickest. If your a long ball goes over his head and you've got a runner in behind all of a sudden there's loads of space for teams to exploit and that's exactly what Palace did in the weekend. And Alexander Isaac with three goals and two games now, is he rediscovering his best form? Yeah, I think he is and I think it was really interesting actually after the Ipswich game when he scored twice, Iroi although we're speaking to I think it was Sky Sports. And he said he didn't mention Liverpool's kind of in possession structure at all. They asked him how do we get the best out of Alexander Isaac and he spoke about how they press. That was all he said he didn't speak about, we're going to get the ball in good areas, we're going to build up through Florian verse. This is what he said he said. Today we're much better at how we press, especially in the first half when we recovered the ball very high. Then we can connect with Isaac in good positions. If we recover the ball lower it would be more difficult to find him. So it's a matter of collective effort so that we can put on number nine in situations like today. So essentially you're saying the whole team has to press high, nick the ball, go direct.

23:52And if you're doing that against this full-on side, I think there could be spaces to get out for sure. Yeah, we struggle against Isaac is going to struggle against the low block. And therefore we can't play against the low block or we don't want to play against the low block. And if full-on go into it the way that they've been doing, they won't be. It's just not going to happen. It's open is exposed. And the difficulty is is when you when you're in these situations as a player and you've had that experience in your mess muscle memory and your centre halves are there and they know that they are exposed and they know that they're open and vulnerable. You second guess yourself and you just have that inkling to go, well I'm going to go step backwards rather than forwards. And from that point the pitch just opens up and you're looking at the centre backs in instances in transition where the defensive may feel you're throwing a blanket over five players who are all in a line. A lot up the pitch. It's incredible to see that you've got you know you're centre back, you're defensive

24:53midfield is you left back and you winger and you centre forward within the width of five yards and it's one pass sideways that defeats all of them. You've got Sandra Berger on the bench. He's he never shoots. He's a very very dull footballer at times but everybody needs them. He's a guy who stands and goes give me the ball you'll get it give back. Give me the ball or the opponents have it and I will be there and you can trust on me to stand in the middle of the pitch and that's kind of what they need right now. I mean fascinating that they've got Liverpool of all teams like you say who like to pick up our players teams on the break then Manchester United then the international break like does are below a survive this or does he get the chance after the international break when they play with three promote teams in a row that'll be interesting to see. You fear for them fascinating though. We're going to talk now about Aston Villa. They face nothing for us at 3pm on Saturday along with Spurs and Coventry. They are yet to score in the Premier League but we did see them put three pass club

25:56bruge last on Tuesday night. How do they fix their goal scoring issues and could then you keep it and Suzuki be part of the answer. Part of the answer yeah. I think the most impressive thing about their performance against club bruge was Nicholas Jackson making runs in behind. I think he was kind of partly involved in every single goal. The first one he makes a run in behind which isn't picked out but it opens the space to play the pass out to John McGinn. The second he holds the ball up really well after making a run and lays it off and the third is just a ball over the top to him. He just gives you it's not that he makes a run in behind is that he's so powerful because he's really quick and he's really strong and defenders have to go with him and that opens up spaces for other players to access. I think in their previous games especially the Bryson game it didn't really have that out ball. I think when you get that back into your team you've got someone like you are a man Zambi who can come in as well who play really well for Switzerland at the World Cup. He can be that kind of Morgan Rogers kind of drive forward with the ball as well. I think that's when we'll start to see them tick a little bit more but Suzuki was interesting

26:58as well because I think he played a lot of really nice passes out to the flanks. He's you know Emory is a lot more kind of deserving than we give him credit for in that he likes to bait the press as well. He likes to have his goalkeeper and lots of defenders nearby bring the opposition towards you and then play through that. We saw that quite a bit away at Club Ruger and having Suzuki in the team rather than Emory Martinez I think gives him a little bit more scope to do that and then hit quickly with a like Subjectson and Manzambi on the break. You know the game against Club Ruger he felt suited with Jackson a lot more than the game against Hull. He's his sort of game gives him space his touches a one all the time but that sort of moment where you've got someone like Gail Gomez making a run off the back of him into space and he can say well it's going to come off me and I can use you or use the space that's afforded to me than he does come into it and then compare that to Saturday against Hull.

27:59I was at that game and I I can't remember it for long. It's one that you know they just really didn't have the tools there at the time to to utilize something in you feel the Emory's there going well let's go with the steady base first conversely to what Fulham are doing and then work from there go from a let's not be hurt on the counter and you saw Ross Barclay and camera just sit sitting the two six and just play between themselves and the whole team you could throw a bank it over them across the pitch in it's the width of the penalty area so we're going to allow the width we're going to just you can go there if you want because we know that you fall back to going to go there we've got you've got no wingers so the game is condensed to basically a 50 yard pitch and Matt and and cash are they're not wingers they're not going to beat the man how many times you actually see a wing a dribble up to a fallback and beat him is not very often so for a fallback to do it is going to be even fewer they didn't create the overloads

29:03that we talked about Arsenal doing so well on the white and wide areas they just condense the center areas and they wouldn't take that risk so whole were very happy to sit in club broke up weren't so much so you looking at saying tools that fit certain jobs Villa didn't have it on the Saturday they didn't have a gel comets with that creativity they didn't have the willingness in the right to go in behind and they were a little bit scared let's just not lose and you felt that that played into what was a very drab game at all yeah I think the context of Villa starts the season as well they obviously lost 4-0 comprehensively away at Brighton then they played the best defensive team in the world Arsenal if you want to call them that and then they go to a back five no space against whole and I think that you know that that kind of fear factor is there because they don't want to expose themselves to the break and then they've got forests on the weekend it's another back five so you know whether they run into the same problems again I think will I show them is his

30:06suspended well yeah but it's the same you told me right is it's about luring the press and these two defensive we feel as couldn't lower the press of whole even when they're in their heart yeah we're just going to sit in and sit tight so maybe they've got a bit more confidence maybe they go okay forest let's let's try and lure that press out of them sticking with whole city then they're heading to Stanford bridge this weekend as you mentioned last season play of winners sundan went there early in the season and one there's obviously been a lot of change at Chelsea since but is that still the blueprint of how whole should get a result I think they have to I think that that's what they they're very good at they've shown it and not conceded is going to be a whole different order after you watching Chelsea dismantle leads in the second half in the lead carpe they're unplayable at times and I think just safety in numbers is going to be the job for Holland and think you think someone like Balumi is you looking at talking about the Manchester

31:08United players who could hurt Manchester City on the break Balumi's energy and his ability on the ball cutting in on his on his left foot is someone you're saying we may only get one chance we may have to be so selective as to when we go because we just cannot afford Rogers Palmer Pedro well but whoever it might be on the pitch that sort of that space and that time to be creative so it's in their DNA it's their blueprint they'll go there everyone knows what's going to happen it's who's going to be able to really impose their game on the other you can control the game without having the ball yeah whole can control the game without having the ball they've just got to get it right so intriguing I actually really interested to see what they can do against Chelsea this is the athletic FC podcast

32:12all right then guys onto the breakdown now this is a bit of a dig into something that you've been working on over the last week or so after the transfer window closed anyway you wrote a piece on the athletic called the 10 data led transfers that have gone under the radar this summer I think only one was into the Premier League which I think tells its own story I think so it's very few though the first name that we're going to talk about is Bournemouth's new strike out of our Rodriguez got his first start in their caravan cup we're going to have a Lincoln on Tuesday night Bournemouth welcoming Brent for this weekend a battle of the data led clubs as they're calling it what should we expect for Rodriguez yeah I mean just before we get I've written this piece every transfer window now since while I've been here I bet it's not controversial I bet no one is like oh a list of transfers I'm always is controversial just like I was going to say is that I've really got into my own

33:13head about it because like yeah I make the rules like the criteria it's entirely up to me but I keep thinking oh is that player a little bit too well known is that player a little bit too niche is that player and what it's kind of become of the years is who's this kind of interesting standout weird player kind of thing who's you know who stands out in the data who will eventually you know because of these kind of attributes that they have might make it is essentially what has become and that's what Rodriguez fits into because he's actually had quite a poor start to his Bournemouth career he's only been off off of bench a couple of times but he's six foot four he led the line for L. C. Lassies and in La Liga who who narrowly avoided relegation he won a lot of kind of headers he was right at the top for that but he's also one of the best dribbler in in La Liga last season it was only killing an unbappé off strikers who attempted more take on than he did and he's really good when he gets a ball under control despite the fact that he's six foot four quite kind of slim as well he can just kind of jolt in and out of these positions so I think again the kind of profile

34:16that teams may look to in the future and think that's interesting maybe we can kind of you know take it take a gamble on that in years to come and I think that's that's what I was kind of going for with that one I think nice so we use that you're not being a cynic around about recruiting with data are you because that's going to be something that's changed throughout the course of your career certainly it's a lot yeah the it came in towards the end of my career that you're looking at players that you'd never heard of coming into a club and and it's it was a strange take for for clubs to move towards that model and it's very very hard initially to get the players on board so you're finding players and you say so hold on a minute we're trying to get results with guys that you are bringing in to say they're not quite there yet we're we as a senior pro as players you're expecting players to come in ready made ready fit to hit the ground running say no they're going to play but they're a work in progress and you know you I remember said Polter

35:22coming in at QPR and they spent a lot of money from him from from from Germany and he fits certain criteria apart from the I test and you said they're good he's just not very good a football and he he felt like that sort of risk that was being taken on players when the data wasn't quite there the the the parameters weren't quite set out yet that it just hadn't quite fitted into how it was going to work in each club now it's a very refined model and also players who are already there were brought in off the data model as well so they know the process they're already they're a product of it okay so it was it was very much sort of old hat now the old pros night setting sort of this new way of coming in but also don't new way of coming in not really working a lot of the time are we having a I'm going to get a rod before we having decent touch on the list it well that was my one bone of contention in there it's it's it's kind of you I'm not sure I know you write the

36:27criteria as you say but having a 37 year old in there might not be if I played against him then then I think we we've got a lot of data against him let me explain um he's moved to a team called an niche McGend hope for him pronouncing it all right for all our Dutch listeners in in Holland who finished third in erudivisie last season and they are an outlier because they play incredibly attacking football to the point kind of like full of where he's going to sign for our balloon exactly it's back and forth they score four they can see three I think they were involved in like the second most goals in erudivisie last season and do some tithech I was just having a look for his numbers and I think his late career after he less Southampton in 2017 18 he's he's basically double digits for goals and assists in every season since which is pretty incredible he got 28 goals and 12 assists in his first season for iax even last season at Fenderbach in the league it was 11 goals 13 assists so I'm just quite looking forward to again like I said before a bit of a quirky one looking forward to seeing how that kind of creative I kind of

37:30fits him with just an all out attacking kind of team and sleep from pierce to athletic he is I mean eight the data on that is pierce here a better team without him I don't I'm not sure where that fits in yeah what I found with with Kangin Lee is that whenever he plays he leads a lot of metrics for PSG players in terms of chances created touches in the attacking third kind of creative moment and getting into good areas even when he's on the pitch with Dembele Kroich-Skelya he was one of a lively players so I think it's it's looking at that and how that translates to an athletic on the grid side who press high they want a kind of a combative kind of forward who can kind of mix that kind of to nasty without the ball with talent on it and yeah I've just been a big fan of his throughout his kind of career so I'm looking forward to seeing that one as well you happy with any of that's interesting article yeah so I don't get on it and just agree with it as well yeah that's what we're here for to write things like that is there anyone else you wanted to call out yeah there's a few I mean Palacio's on my list at Ipswich I think he's he's a really brilliant player on the on

38:34the on the subject of kind of data outliers I was looking at high-sem Hassan he's moved to Celtic you know saw him in the World Cup and he's very good wasn't he yeah again it's Argentina he basically set up a goal and set up another goal which was disallowed but both of the times he basically ran the length of the pitch yeah so he's a fun one as well yeah just looking for these players who are a little bit different and interesting to watch good stuff gang thanks so much don't hesitate we're going to be back with another tactical preview show next week we'll see you then the athletic FC