Barça’s kids are alright and Dortmund give themselves a chance - Football Weekly Extra

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Coach, the energy out there felt different.

What changed for the team today?

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Play is everything.

Those games sent the team's energy through the roof.

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Hello, and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly.

Another brilliant Champions League quarterfinal, this time in Paris.

Barca on top, PSG coming back, then that Pedri pass, that Rafinha finish, and Barca win it in the end.

Almost every substitute made an immediate impact.

Barca's front three were great.

What a really enjoyable time.

Every quarter final still alive after Dortmund grabbed a late goal at the Wanda when Athleti probably should have been out of sight.

We'll look ahead to the Europa League, do a bit of Ruben Aber into Liverpool.

There's a Premier League preview as top three potential points drop watch continues.

Meanwhile, actual drops points watch continues at the top of the championship.

More tumble dryer news, your questions.

And that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

On the panel today, Lars Sividson, welcome.

Hello, Max.

Hello, Barry Glendenning.

Hi, yeah.

From the racing post, Mark Langdon is here.

Hello.

Hi, Max.

Let's start at the Parc de Prance then.

PSG 2, Barca 3.

Brilliant game.

Barca controlled the first half.

Lewis Enrique made changes.

They were quickly 2-1 up.

Only for Barca to counter it with their own subs coming on.

Pedri with that ball.

His first touch.

How can that be your first touch?

And then Christensen's first touch being a winning goal.

Lars, how do you sum that game up?

It was a good game.

Good, good game of football between two sort of good but occasionally slightly flawed teams.

I think it was really enjoyable.

We've had two nights of enjoyable football on the TV.

It's been very good.

I find myself, I know they lost,

but I find myself sort of accepting the fact that I...

through gritted teeth will have to say i quite like this this psg team i quite like watching them they're they're so much less ridiculous than they used to be and and and much more of a of a team maybe they don't have the sort of extraordinary game-winning superstar talents but they're much more of a everyone actually runs and and moves like a unit type of thing and um and and they could have won i mean i felt it felt like the result could have gone either way really and yeah uh

good good game of football yeah it was i mean many ways The things that I liked about PSG are not the things that you are talking about now.

I like the fact that they were ridiculous.

I mean, Barry Barca were because PSG started really well.

And then Barca, actually, for that first half, I thought were excellent.

And

interestingly, before the game, there was this whole thing about Louis Enrique saying, Look, I'm more Barca than Javi.

Javi's a bit, you know, direct.

And then Barca were really, I mean, not quite, you know, Tony Pulis direct, but they weren't getting the ball,

you know, up the pitch.

They launched Max.

Yeah.

Route 1 Barcelona.

Did we ever think we'd see the day?

But yeah, they sort of went over.

PSG kept hitting long balls to Robert Luandowski, who I think has been criticised for his poor hold-up play, but he was very good last night.

He was one of the best players on the pitch, despite the fact that Barcelona scored three goals and he didn't get any of them.

The ball was sticking to him.

He was playing it wide, letting the midfielders come on and bringing them into the game.

So that really worked.

Kind of weird tactics

from Luis Enrique to start

Asencio as a false nine and Marquinos a right back, but I think that was kind of out of necessity.

And it was interesting with Marquinos who who sort of lost the flight of the ball for Barcelona's winner from Andreas Christensen.

Very direct from Barcelona.

And

they were, I think they were worthy winners, but

PSG

wasn't a great performance from them.

Killing Mbappe did little or nothing.

He was well shackled.

And

while I think Barcelona were worthy winners,

PSG scored two goals, only lost by one, and they hit the woodwork twice.

So

I don't think this tie is over by any stretch.

What did you make of Rafinha's performance, Mark?

I think that is one of the best games.

I mean, I knew he was good, but he's sort of one of those players that can blow hot and cold, but he was brilliant for the 70 minutes or whatever he was on the pitch.

he was yeah um the jump from leeds to barcelona is a fairly big one and um i was surprised when he got that move and actually people that watched him at leeds weren't and would you know would would always say how how good he was and how special he was and i think at barcelona we haven't seen that enough um since since he moved there there've been moments um but this was a real complete 70 minutes um or so from him the finish for the second goal it's a brilliant pass from Pedri, as you alluded to, Max, but the finish

was still very special as well.

And Barry nicked what I thought was going to be an original point about Lewandowski, because I haven't seen Lewandowski's build-up play be as good as that for a long time.

And he kind of linked everything together and got the wide players going.

And I think that helped with

the wide players.

It was also the fact that they were

missing their normal right backs, PSG.

I think Barcelona saw that as a weakness down that side and Rafinha definitely played his part in that.

Really enjoyed the game.

Of the four matches that we saw, this was actually the one that I thought was probably the best of the four matches in the Champions League.

A grew Barry, don't think it's all over.

But that was as for Barcelona, you do wonder now whether Javi might actually stay on.

He has said he's leaving.

The club would like him to stay.

There aren't loads of managers out there that suddenly come in and sort of would be of the required standard, I think, that Barcelona would be looking for.

Just wonder how far they go in the Champions League.

Could that determine whether he stays or not?

I think he has been asked, you know, is there any chance you'll change your mind?

And he has said no, but you never know.

But now that they are playing Pulis ball, they could just get Tony Pulis.

Nothing would be greater pleasure than Tony Pulis managing Barcelona or just Neil Warnock.

Just one last go, go on then.

Is it Sharon?

Sharon's devastated.

You know, Sharon's just knees me out of the house.

So I've, you know, I'm now living on last Ramblas, just getting it launched.

It's interesting, Lars, that for so many substitutions to be so important.

So Enrique does it at half-time, right?

And Buckler coming on changed it for PSG.

And actually, for that few minutes, they were brilliant.

Yeah, and it's a funny one because I think

in the big picture speaking, I think Luis Enrique deserves a lot of praise for the way, again, he's turned this PSG team into more of a unit and how he's managed all that.

But I'm not, I think it's not unreasonable.

I don't love sort of backseat tacticking because obviously he knows more about this stuff than any of us do.

But it's not unreasonable to suggest that the starting lineup for PSG was not the best one.

It didn't work quite as intended in this game.

And

the substitutions and the the changes he made at halftime clearly made a pretty big impact.

I was a little bit...

I mean, surprised is...

I feel like it's...

With Mbappe, maybe it's unreasonable to ask him to be amazing and do all the things in every game.

But I found him frustrating to watch in this game.

And it was such a strange...

Because very often with PSG the last few years,

team iffy, Mbappe very good.

And I kind of felt like here it was the opposite.

I think Mbappe made a lot of wrong decisions in the game i think he didn't take up the most logical positions quite often and there were a few times where he just seemed to

to want to do a lot of things on his own and and you know the best move of the game from psg the the the second goal uh had nothing to do with mbappe and i don't think that's kind of coincidental and i guess for him in the second leg i think the key would be to involve him a little bit more and i actually think like he does like to obviously wants to start out on the left and come inside like that's kind of his move.

But when you look at the Barcelona back line, you have Paul Cubarci, the very, very young center half, who did really well.

I have to say, remarkable

for such a young player.

And you have Rau Conchello at left back, who's like not a defensive genius.

Clearly, you kind of think the right side is where, if you have a sort of global superstar, it can do some damage, but he seemed to

Bapa seemed more intent on doing the things he usually does when he's up against Araju and Kunde, which is probably a little bit harder.

So I just thought they could have done more to get more out of their star man there.

But for sure, Luis Enrique maybe didn't hit 10 out of 10 with the starting lineup, but made impactful changes, no doubt.

I mean, actually, you mentioned that second goal.

The pass from Ruiz to Vetinhaus is so perfect, isn't it?

It was a lovely goal.

And Dembele hits that incredibly hard.

I couldn't believe Mike.

That's only his second goal for PSG.

Has he been a flop?

On the UK commentary, it said it had been a difficult season for him.

And I think numbers-wise, clearly it has.

He plays most weeks.

I think he does a lot of good things in terms of carrying the ball,

dribbling and beating opponents and sort of in those one-on-one situations.

You'd want more goals from somebody that doesn't have that much defensive responsibility.

I also think that he's inconsistent with his delivery and cross, and that makes it quite difficult for the centre forward.

You're never quite sure if he's going to chop back and want to beat that fullback sort of for the eighth time before he puts the ball in the box or sort of deliver it early.

I wouldn't criticise him too much, though,

for the season.

I think it's all about the Champions League and I think he's impacted in Champions League games reasonably well.

Sort of picked up on Mbappe.

There are times when he's lazy and selfish and I think it can be quite difficult to manage when somebody like Mbappe is so good.

but maybe isn't perfect for the team.

And so it could be argued that they're not going to be a better team without Klin and Bappe.

But I will be interested to see how PSG can evolve when he's not there because they just look to him all the time.

And I'm not sure that that's the sort of right thing.

It feels risky saying things like this because that's like a second leg hat-trick incoming.

But I mean, he's because he's obviously so talented.

He's brilliant.

I'm not saying he's not brilliant.

But no, but I agree, you're absolutely brilliant.

I've really enjoyed PSG's sort of gradual transition into becoming more of a team and less of a guest list.

And he feels like, as good as he is, he can feel like a last remnant of the sort of

Kendall Roy's wedding era of PSG, which we're now moving away from.

I'm just getting all these jokes in now because I have to retire them very soon, I think.

PSG is sadly turning into an actual football team.

So I can't make fun of them anymore.

It was Kendall Roy's, it was Kendall Roy's birthday party, wasn't it?

And it was an absolute

amazing party.

Butchered my own team.

Oh, my God.

It's an amazing bit of

bit of television.

All bangers all the time.

Don't worry.

It's meant by my best joke, and I butchered it.

That's terrible.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I actually snuck that into the book.

If you listen to King, that is in the book, that line.

And

one of the first sort of readings after I sent in the first draft, the publisher were like, not sure about this.

I was like, no, no, it stays.

And actually, there was one comment when I was writing about PSG in the book.

Feedback from the publisher was once this comes across as a bit snide question mark.

And I was like, no, no, snideness is very much

intentional.

I was just thinking it would be

quite the week on Football Weekly if, in the space of two podcasts, we wrote off Erling Howell and Kennedy Mbappe as being not all that.

I do want to say, I'm not saying that at all.

I'm just saying you can be selfish.

Yeah,

it is interesting, though, with someone like Mbappe, who's clearly so good.

when you look at the elite players who deliver, right?

And of course he delivers.

But

I always think about that Liverpool front three of Salamane Fermino, right?

And how hard they worked, right?

You know, you could see Mane just never, ever, ever stopped.

And maybe that's because he wasn't quite as good as Mbappe.

I don't know.

But like...

What you want is to get the absolute best players to do all the work as well, right?

Which is, which is like the, I suppose that's brilliance of the best managers, right?

You know, and, and, and that is the hardest thing, I guess, when you have one of the greatest players in the world.

Um, how do we feel about Donna Ruma?

Uh, I'll go to you, Mark, as you puffed your cheeks out expressly.

He's a big lad, isn't he?

He's a big guy, and he could probably go and get that corner, is what I thought.

Yeah, and the other two goals as well.

He was, he played his part in those.

Um, the first one from Yamao's

cross, I didn't think he dealt with that particularly well, punched it to Rafinha.

The second goal, while we've already spoken about the Pedri and Rafinha moments in that, it's Donnaruma that gives the ball away with a poor clearance.

And the third goal, Christensen's headed it from like three yards out, almost bending down.

I felt like Donnaruma, who'd come for a couple of corners earlier on and not been successful with them, was then stuck to his line for that one.

Yeah, while we're slagging off big names, maybe we can go two-footed on Donnaruma as well.

He is one of the world's top goalkeepers, but I do think in the Champions League, he's made a number of mistakes in recent years for Paris Saint-Germain, and you can't get away from that.

If he's dodgy on crosses, oh no, he's, I was about to say, Tony Pulis is not going to not gonna like that, but Tony Pulis is not managing PSG.

I should get this right in the fictional world in which we now live.

Barry, we briefly mentioned Kabasi and there's Yamal as well.

And it is quite extraordinary how composed both of them them look as children playing this game.

Yeah, and they are children.

They were both superb.

Cubarsi

did more than his part in keeping tabs on Mbappe.

And you look at

Barcelona from their academy, Yamal Pedri, who's a comparative veteran, obviously.

Paul Cabarci, Ferman Lopez was on the bench.

I don't think he got on.

And then you Alejandra Balde and Gavi, who were out injured, I think.

And you wonder if some of them might not be involved if Barcelona weren't in such financial dire straits.

And, you know, how much is that those names I've just listed?

How much are they worth between them now?

You know, you're talking must be 100 million each minimum, is it?

And,

you know, Cabarcy's only just turned 17.

So

I'm not saying Barcelona's being in financial peril is a bad thing or is a good thing for them, but

it's all right when you can call up kids like that.

Yeah, and I'd go further, Barry.

I completely agree.

And I even think you look at some of the kids and what they can do, and you wonder, did they really need to sort of mortgage their future to buy some of these big names they bought in when they could have actually, you know, they've got such incredible young players coming through.

But that feels like a discussion for a different pod,

Um,

one reiterate as well.

I mean, I guess we're kind of used to Lami and Yamal being this sort of phenomenon now, but but Pau Kabarsi, I was kind of have seen less of, and just the idea a sort of effervescent, talented, technical, dribbly wingers.

We're kind of used to seeing maybe young kids play that role, but just having a 17-year-old at center-half in a Champions League quarter-final play that well just blows my mind a little bit.

Like, he was born in 2007, like this center-half should not be born in 2007.

Like, this is all wrong.

God, that's so bleak, isn't it?

The soccer and glorious had almost started.

This is insane.

Yeah.

This is completely.

Maybe he was watching it as a baby.

Maybe that's why he's so good at football now.

Wow.

Wow.

God, that's bleak.

Think about it.

I stare into the distance.

Anyway, that'll do for part one.

Part two, we'll begin with Athletes' win over Dortmund.

Coach, the energy out there felt different.

What changed for the team today?

It was the new game day scratchers from the California Lottery.

Play is everything.

Those games sent the team's energy through the roof.

Are you saying it was the off-field play that made the difference on the field?

Hey, a little play makes your day, and today it made the game.

That's all for now.

Coach, one more question.

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welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly so Athletic 2 Dortmund one so I think Mark Athletic will be kicking themselves a bit that this tie is still alive and actually by the end you know Julian Brandt I was not a lick of paint because it was quite solidly on the bar wasn't it but a lot of licks of paint away from it being 2-2.

Yeah, the penultimate touch sort of hit that the angle of poster and cross-barving that would have been a bit of a robbery really if Dortmund would have got out of there with a 2-2

but Atletico when they were 2-0 up and pretty early on in the game they're in control of that situation

I think Dortmund would have absolutely settled for a 2-1 defeat at that moment because it did feel as if the third goal would have killed off the tie and there there were sort of

the odd chance really for Atletico to maybe do that and would have been a long way back.

I was actually impressed with the way that Dortmund came back and grew into that game, though, because when the first goal is

defensive, howler, you know, trying to play out from the back and getting caught.

The second goal shouldn't happen either, really, because starts from a throw-in, two defenders, the centre-halves both went for the same ball.

It still needed a wonderful assist from Griezmann.

So good.

That was one of the moments of the midweek.

And

at that point, you think Dortmund fifth in the Bundesliga, like this is over for them, but they grew into the game, liked Sancho's performance as well.

Thought he had some nice moments, and Hallaire's goal.

Um, you know, the Champions League gets a lot of bad press, and kind of it's all about the money.

But that was a moment about the glory for somebody that's had such a difficult time with testicular cancer to come back, won the AFCON, and now scoring such an important goal.

Um, yeah, it set the tie-up beautifully as well for the return leg.

And crucially, Matt's, the coefficient.

I know everybody's got their eyes on the coefficient.

A good night for the Premier League going into Thursday's games with the dead level with the Bundesliga and the Premier League.

Now we're on this coefficient tangent.

I was sort of under the impression that England will definitely get the fifth place now.

It just seems so unlikely.

But since

neither Man City or Arsenal are definitely through,

is it less of a done deal?

Well, I think it will mainly depend on the Thursday action and the fact that Liverpool are strong favourites to win the Europa League and Aston Villa favourites to win the Conference League.

If sort of one of them goes on and sort of plays as expected, that would so Aston Villa can potentially do themselves a really big favor

by going well in the Conference League.

We're at a very tight spot in the coefficient.

Not that I'm sort of dreaming about it

at various points of the week.

Just watching this game, with yesterday's events, or it's not yesterday, it's the day before, Tuesday's events in mind, I thought the first goal should have been ruled out, because what we've learned this week is that you don't want kids' errors to be decisive at this level

and that this is a completely legitimate approach for referees.

They don't actually have to follow the laws of the game if they feel like a very bad mistake has happened that we don't want to see at this level.

And that's clearly what happened to the Dortmund defence.

That's a that's a real kid's error.

We don't want to see that.

So So I think the referee should have blown up and just said, stop that.

None of this.

This is not how these games should be decided.

I mean, actually,

the first mistake,

I'm going to contest this.

The first mistake is not a kid's mistake because it's playing out from the back, right?

And I think kids still get it launched.

But the second mistake, where somebody would be yelling, one of you, is absolutely a kid's mistake.

And so the second goal should be ruled out.

But on the second goal, Rory got in touch.

There's an excellent message about the second goal saying maybe petty but why are foul throws still ignored massive foul throw for athletes second but it isn't mentioned yet pulled up all the time at grassroots levels but never at professional level where's the cutoff the isthmian league as if we can have var find 10 replays of the ball brushing someone's fingernail or that fingernail being offside by someone interfering in the build up to the build up to a goal but totally ignore a whole law there's a new little sub-clause solely to nitpick things now VAR is here.

Handballs are just completely fucked and a ridiculous amount of time taking up discussing referees and interpretation of laws that were made up at the start of the season.

Yet the whole of Law 15 is just forgotten about or completely disregarded.

Who decided to do that?

Maybe it's the 3am newborn nappy changing talking, but it's pissed me off a ridiculous amount.

I would suggest, Rory, it really is that.

But you make a very good point.

Foul throws do annoy me at this level of the game.

I didn't even notice that it was a foul throw.

And I think maybe it's ignored because

everyone just presumes

professional footballers know how to take throw-ins properly and do so all the time.

Like, I never look at it, really look at anyone taking a throw-in and go, you know, unless they slung it underarm or something with one hand, I don't think I'd notice.

It's surely ignored just because it's a kid's mistake.

Yeah.

Exactly.

Which we don't want to

penalize at this level.

Actually, it would be very funny if one year they just decided VAR is going to pull up every foul throw and we're going to analyze them and the referee will have to go to the monitor to see if this is a foul throw or not just to see watch everyone's heads explode and and everyone get really angry it would be quite entertaining for 10 minutes for 10 minutes and then a tv show with howard webb explaining why branislav ivanovich has committed a foul throw we must replay that game just on this game right but i mean it it it it is perfectly poised isn't it mark and i just wonder you know these two sides have to sit there and think it's it's not easy to get to a champions league semi-final and these sides okay they've got they have got history in this competition but it's such a massive moment for one of them yeah particularly seeing as their domestic seasons and are not going to plan uh for either of them uh this is not vintage athletico i think vintage athletico see that game out um you know 2-0 and you know dortmund are barely able to keep the ball in play because sort of it's taking two three minutes over throw-ins but they're a looser team this year atletico they are conceding more goals dortmund as as i mentioned earlier in this battle for a sort of top four spot.

And so it is, not only is it a big opportunity to reach a semi-final, Barcelona and PSG are not perfect either.

So

even in the semi-final, you're playing against a team that you'll give yourself at least a reasonable chance of doing well against.

For the four teams that played on Wednesday, the bottom half of the draw is wide open.

You know, whoever gets through it would be the underdogs in the final against what looks like a higher quality top half.

So

it's all there, really, for one of them.

And Dortmund at home,

I think that goal they scored, I can see Dortmund doing it because Atletico away from home in Europe have not been good.

And

I can see Dortmund doing it.

Yeah, it's just Atleti,

just to yes and what Lengo just said is that they don't keep clean sheets really a lot.

I mean, domestically, they've been very inconsistent.

And I mean, it might surprise some listeners to know that the teams in La Liga who have kept more clean sheets than Atleti this season domestically are Atletic Bilbao, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Real, Sociedad, Rayo Vallecana, Real Bettis, Valencia, Girona, and Osasuna.

Like, the day of Atleti just kind of shutting it down is that they can't do it anymore.

And as much as I...

I find it very hard to trust this Dortmund team in any sort of way because they're capable of playing very well but then they're capable of just not turning up at all.

They definitely have a chance of turning this around.

Absolutely if they play like they did against Bayern fairly recently.

Absolutely you can do it.

Is it a case that because at Let of Go Madrid we're pressing really high and hard

from the start that it's bound to take a physical toll and that's when Dortmund sort of come back into the game because at Let Go Madrid's players, you just can't sustain that kind of energetic pressing for more than an hour.

It might be.

Barry, I just think that they were probably driven on really by that crowd at the Wanda Metro Aitano.

And

they probably won't even play like that

in Dortmund.

If you go back to the...

the match against Inter, the difference between Atletico at home and away was so stark, really.

They barely laid a glove on him

in that road game.

I know Lars speaks about expected goals fairly regularly, but obliterate stats this season, not fantastic for a goalkeeper that is considered one of the best.

So

that might be one of the reasons why they've just not kept as many clean sheets as you imagine.

I'm on my best behavior.

No XG reference so far this episode.

I'm doing my best, Lango.

True,

you're doing very good.

Although you did refer to Mark Langling as Lango, and I just wondered if that was even too casual.

Too casual for us.

Sounds a bit rugby.

Sounds like the Guardian Rugby Weekly.

Everyone we called Lango.

Lango's good.

Each other's way out of shoes.

Well, I've heard other people call Mark Lango, like Bruce Millington, for example.

Oh, really?

He's

his former boss at the Racing Post, but I don't feel I know Mark well enough to refer to him in such a matey, chummy way.

Maybe maybe I should just I should just do what we do in the intro and just say mark langdon from the racing post every single time uh i i i refer to i mean it's probably up to mark i think how do you feel mark mr langdon yeah mr langdon will do uh no mr langdon mr langdon i'd um yeah i'd probably get called lango more than i do mark so um yeah right oh there we are okay well very good hello lango and i will just here's a pint of absinthe down it um now in the europa league uh uh tonight atalanta versus liverpool Sky Germany reporting that Ruben Amarin has verbally agreed a three-year deal to succeed Jürgen Klopp at Liverpool.

Sporting boss deal includes an exit clause

allowing him to leave this summer.

Good or bad, Lars?

He's clearly someone who's done very, very good work in his coaching career.

He's still very, very young.

We talked about it.

I think it was the last pod I was on.

I talked about how he's someone who was like a coaching prodigy.

You know, he took over at Braga and was poached by Sporting.

And Sporting paid like 10 million Euros for him very, very early in his career.

And it seemed like just an absolutely mad punt for them to take on a coach who'd hardly been in charge of

15 games or something.

But then he's done incredible stuff with them.

Then the title looks set.

I mean, they're on track to win the title again this year.

And Sporting out of the big three in Portugal, Benefica and Porto are kind of slightly more powerful teams than sporting, so that is a real achievement for him.

He is more of a three-at-the-back guy, so it'll be interesting to see if there's like a tactical rejig

incoming at Anfield.

That's the thing that sort of strikes me.

But I mean, he's a pretty smart coach.

I'm sure he's also going to be flexible in that regard.

And I guess the thing that's hard to...

It's never fun to be the guy who comes after the guy, I think.

So, like, whoever follows Joe and Klopp, that's going to be a very tough gig.

But clearly, he's like a young and

very impressive

coach.

So interesting.

Imagine following James Richardson on the totally whoever gets that job at totally.

God,

they're going to be under the pump, aren't they?

There are going to be no flags on the cop tonight in protest at increased season ticket prices.

Seems odd, Barry.

We see more.

I mean, is that just the nature of, you know, it's just capitalism.

Things get more expensive.

It's a 2% rise at Liverpool, I think, compared to maybe 5% at Spurs.

I'm not sure what Fulham's is.

The way Archie talks about it, I imagine it's like £8 million

a ticket at Graves Cottage.

But you know, you've got to pay for that pool somehow.

Well, at least if you're going to Tottenham or Liverpool, you've a fair idea what you're going to get.

That's true.

Fulham is

very much a lucky dick, isn't it?

It just seems strange that,

you know, as far as we understand, like...

revenue from ticket prices is sort of less and less important in the grand scheme of things for football.

But I suppose markets, you know, it's fine margins and every penny counts, right?

Well, I mean, that's maybe I mean, that's maybe what the club would say.

I just feel like there are so many other ways that football clubs could sort of get that couple of million.

You know, you really don't have to like the wages that they would spend on players that are like, you know, twentieth man or, you know, twenty, you know, like that that to me just feels uh wrong way around.

Um, you know, Daniel Levy gave himself a bonus that was almost identical to what's going to sort of

be paid for by the season ticket price rises which went down like a lead balloon at Spurs and yeah Liverpool I think the fans are still right to complain I still think

the tickets are expensive enough as they are it's not going to make a big enough difference and now you're getting clubs say well it's all to do with PSR and you know we've got to run ourselves correctly you you can do that and I'd love to see how much money is wasted at Premier League level and then and then sort of you know putting that onto the fans just is wrong.

Just don't buy tanguy and don't bele right?

That's what Tottenham should do.

That would save that's like that's a good decade of or more of ticket prices Lars.

And it's just sort of market economics would suggest that you know if the tickets are being sold then the pricing is correct.

But I just don't feel like that applies to

to football because fans aren't just customers.

And the thing that's going to gets lost in this is clubs really don't want fans to start acting like regular regular customers because I think that'd be quite bad for clubs.

Like if they were, if clubs go through a period where the product on the field is bad, the fans just stop turning up, that'd be terrible.

Clubs are very quick to sort of, oh, we need our magnificent support today.

Like support is a word that's kind of used and weaponized by the clubs.

I think long term, it's going to affect the way people feel about their clubs and the way they interact with their clubs.

And,

you know,

I wonder if you, you've just, I think you discussed it on a little bit on a on a former episode.

Like this sort of I wonder if more people are going to start going to the local lower league teams and to start looking for the sort of feeling of community and like you're part of something rather than just a cog in the big corporate machine.

I do wonder if that's something we're going to see more and more because the big clubs are really bad at treating their fans well.

They just they they just see them as sort of walking wallets that they can sort of try to extract more and more money from.

And at some point that's going to start affecting attitudes, I think.

But but you're in it.

We live in a world where sometimes fans, they're so tribal, they will defend their club's ticket price rises because our ticket price rises aren't as big as

your club's ticket price rises.

And, you know, it's just

ridiculous.

So I suppose if clubs see that, you go, look, we can do whatever we want to these guys.

They're still going to blindly.

follow us and support us and give us their money.

West Ham go to Leverkusen.

Not an easy game, of course.

Mike says David Moyes is going to end the only unbeaten season for any team involved in European competition.

And I am completely here for it.

West Ham to go through on away goals, even though away goals aren't a thing anymore.

I mean, it would mark be funny if David Moyes masterminds Leverkusen's first loss of the season.

They've got no Dara Bowen, which is a big deal.

Alvarez not playing either.

So it's not quite the full strength West Ham, who I think we agreed were...

three, four really good players and some fence posts slightly partially the other day.

Yeah, so now it's two really good players.

I think West Ham's best hope is that Labour Cousin

not being as focused up until now on Europa League.

Now, maybe it'll change because the Bundesliga looks dumb, but they have many scary moments against Carabag, for example, and looked like they were on their way out in that game.

And I think from West Ham's point of view, it would be considered a good result.

If they can lose by one goal,

I think that would give them a really good chance.

Their record in Europe,

a conference league, was a lower standard, but even in the Europa League previous to that, it's absolutely outstanding.

So

I'd give them a reasonable chance.

I don't think this Labour Gusen team is

so much better than Bayern Munich, for example, is what the league table suggests.

So, yes, they're having an amazing season and they are unbeaten, but it's not like...

you know they're not as good as say manchester city or or arsenal i would i would say so um not they're suddenly not the best team in Europe.

So West Ham have got a chance of progressing, but I think this first leg is key in terms of staying competitive without so many of their key players.

And I think the tactical approach that West Ham and David Moyes have, which is driving quite a few West Ham fans up the wall,

that they stand off so much, that they sit deep, that they only look to counter-attack.

And I think that stands them in really good stead in these European games.

It can be frustrating to watch.

If you go to the stadium in East London London and in Stratford and you want to see and they take on a lesser Premier League side and they're still sitting off, like, why are we not attacking?

Why are we not doing the things?

But when it gets to games like this, the fact that you've drilled that way of playing and that's what you've been doing for years now, I think that's a pretty solid advantage to have, actually.

Asen Villa, Leal, also tonight in the Conference League,

which from my understanding, Mark, is not the draw that Villa wanted.

Leal are quite good.

I would say that these are the best two teams left in the competition.

So

it definitely wasn't the draw that Villa, and they've had a relatively sort of tough run for conference league.

Even the Ajax game, you would expect a sort of less complicated sort of match.

I know that they dealt with that well, but got some very good players, Lil,

Gonfan David being the standout one, some sort of old Premier League players in there as well, Andre Gomez,

Benteleb in midfield.

So,

but you know, David definitely is somebody that can cause problems problems um as as far as liw are concerned so um yeah it what wasn't the draw villa wanted all right thanks lango uh that'll do for part two uh we'll do a premier league preview in part three

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Coach, the energy out there felt different.

What changed for the team today?

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Those games sent the team's energy through the roof.

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Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly.

Let's look at the Premier League then this weekend.

One of those weekends where we say none of the games are good, and then there'll be a million goals, and they'll all be brilliant.

Uh, let's start with um, potential title chase points dropped.

Watch, Barry, you've got Man City hosting Luton, Liverpool hosting Palace, and Arsenal hosting Villa.

Who will drop points if anyone?

Well, looking at that, just on the face of it, you'd say there's a chance Arsenal could drop points against Villa,

but

in the Uni Emery Derby, uh,

and uh,

I think Uni Emery is almost certainly a better better man than I am, but I'd like to think he would be going

really love

to be responsible for Arsenal not winning the title.

But I think he's above that kind of pettiness, unlike me.

I would give Villa a good chance.

The problem for them is that they've too fewer days to recover for this game than Arsenal had.

And

Douglas Louise is suspended.

And he picked up his tenth yellow card.

So I think he misses Villa's next two league games.

And I think he will be could be a massive loss.

So I don't expect Arsenal to drop points.

Man City will rest quite a few players against Luton ahead of their Champions League second leg game.

But, you know, a third string City side should be good enough to beat Luton at home.

But we all know how competitive Luton are.

And while I don't give them much of a chance, wouldn't it be hilarious if they took points off City at the Etihad?

I wouldn't rule it out.

And what's the other one?

Liverpool Palace.

Palace have cost Liverpool the title before, haven't they?

We all remember that game at Sellers Park, the Rogers era.

I thought Palace were pretty decent against City last weekend, even though they lost 4-2

and barely had a touch of the ball in the second half.

I can't really see them giving Liverpool too many problems.

So I'm going to say they'll all win.

I've been so good.

I've been on my best behaviour.

I'm 40 minutes in.

I've not made an XG-related point yet, but I'm about to break that streak just to sneak in.

But you've made two points about

the fact that you haven't made an XG point.

So

I'm saying that technically you're incorrect.

Yeah.

What's Lars's expected to make and expected goals reference?

X, X, X, G, XG.

It's really hard to pat yourself on the back.

My hand doesn't really bend that way, so I just don't need someone else to.

But no, I just know I was looking at some stuff as I do, and Aston Villa's numbers have just kind of collapsed a little bit since the turn of the year.

If you look at their XG against since the 1st of January, they've actually got like the 16th worst than the Premier League.

Like their defense is just not working anymore.

They're conceding so many chances.

I think think it's a little bit to do with Bobaka Kamara missing.

I think that's really unsettled at midfield.

And with Douglas Luis also missing.

This should be very, yeah, very good time for Arsenal to play the Villa.

And I think that'll be absolutely fine.

But Villa, not good at defending currently, is what I'm just going to...

Say no good.

Important point.

At the bottom, Mark, what?

Brentford, Sheffield United, Forest Wolves, Burnley, Brighton, Chelsea Everton.

How's the bottom of the table going to look come the end of Monday night?

Chelsea Everton's Monday night football.

Yep, I think it'll be the same three

that sort of start the weekend in the bottom that that are there come the end of it.

I think we always overestimate how many points teams at the bottom and results that they actually get.

You know, Forrest don't win very many matches.

Everton don't win very many matches and clearly Burnley haven't won very many.

And the same for Brentford as well.

So I mean Brentford, you would expect to beat Sheffield United.

Sheffield United have shown something in the last couple of weeks, but I also feel that Brentford, you know, even going back to Arsenal, you know, that was a slightly unfortunate 2-1 defeat.

They probably played better than most teams have against them.

How they dropped points against Manchester United, I'll never know, even though in the end they were glad

to get the 1-1 draw.

A 0-0 against Brighton's not a terrible result.

Then they drew 3-3 at Villa.

So I feel like Brentford have picked up in recent weeks.

So I would expect them to beat Sheffield United.

Yeah, Forest, I watched them quite closely against Tottenham and wasn't impressed apart from maybe 10 minutes.

Wolves have got injuries, but

I'd still be surprised actually if Wolves won that game.

Burnley may be the ones because Brighton been very odd performances from them for a while now and you just wonder if there is to be kind of a shock down at the bottom.

Maybe it's Burnley who shot themselves in the foot once again at Goodison Park.

But generally speaking, I'd say over the last month, results and performances,

you could argue, have been among their sort of best of the season.

So maybe if there is to be one sort of standout result, it might be there.

I wonder with Forrest and Wolves, who will VAR wrong?

Will Mark Cuttenberg and Gary O'Neill come out together furious that they've both lost the game with some like hugely controversial moment, which means that nobody gets any points from that game.

It would also be really weird.

It'd be weird to see Nuno managing it.

He just feels, he still feels wolves to me, Nuno.

So it's like, it's weird to see him in that forest gap.

Absolutely.

Newcastle plays Spurs.

Sam says Spurs Man City has finally been rearranged for the last week of the season.

Will you and Mark and Lars, God, what a Spurs-heavy panel, be joining every other Spurs fan in hoping we play the kids to let City win to stop Arsenal winning the league?

It'll be very interesting won't it if spurs have already got top four

which they might have and then they play man city

can't see ange going throwing a game it's not in his nature but you know you're shaking your head mark well i mean that'll be after the 30 0 defeat at anfield to get liverpool's goal difference um up towards arsenals of course um no look professional professional players do not reach the level of like premier league Imagine how good you've got to be to reach the Premier League level.

They just don't play to lose.

While the fans can joke about it,

it's just not going to happen on the pitch.

Tottenham will try in that game.

They might not be good enough, but they'll try.

To be fair, you don't have to try too hard to lose against Manchester Decision, do you?

That is true.

Last night in the championship, after Leicester lost and leads Drew Ibs, which had the chance to go top, and they could only draw 0-mil at home to Watford.

And actually, Watford almost scored from inside their own half.

And like the really late on in the game, which would have been some moment.

So, yeah, all these sides, after having brilliant seasons, are now desperately trying to avoid automatic promotion to the Premier League.

It's worth digging out the penalty that Rotherham conceded for Hamble

about five yards outside the box away at West Brom.

I mean, look, they're down already, so maybe it doesn't matter.

But God, you could just imagine.

The thing is, you know, sometimes when there's a foul, like outside the box, but the player ends up in the box, and you sort of think that's fair enough.

The guy handballs it, stays exactly where he is.

He's outside the D.

Like,

it's just sort of impossible that that is, you know, that that is given.

Very funny.

Thank you to Peterborough United for beating Port Vale.

I really appreciated that.

Looking good currently

at the bottom of League One for us.

River Mersey FC says, what are the best crisps, lads?

Barry?

Tato.

Irish crisps are my favourite, and my favourite flavour is cheese and onion.

Tato.

Roast beef, monster munch.

Of course.

In fact, what Mark does is he fashions Monster Munch out of actual beef and then roasts that and then puts it back into the packet.

I was

sort of a square crisp fan

as a child.

I've got a bit kettle shit in my

middle age.

You won't eat a crisp on it.

Tyrrells.

I've got a bit Tyrrell's.

Guacamole or hummus on it.

Yeah.

Come on.

I mean, guacamole is not, you know,

that's a nice thing to dip a crisp into.

Yes, Lars?

Can I make a rogue shout here for

the Walkers Mac Strong with jalapeno and cheese?

It's one of very few crisps that are actually quite, like, has quite a punchy flavor.

I think you'll find that it'll have some fans amongst our listeners.

Ed says, is Mark okay with vegetables being classified as steaks?

This follows France's top administrative court wading into a battle over the labeling of veggie burgers, suspending a decree banning plant-based products from being described as meat.

In February, the French government issued a decree to ban the term steak on the label of vegetarian products from the 1st of May, saying it was reserved for meat alone.

The decree listed 21 items usually used by butchers, including escalop ham, fillet, and prime rib.

However, on Wednesday, the state council suspended this decree to implement the same labelling law.

So

at the moment, I think that means you can call vegetarian stuff meat in France.

Mark.

You've got to be careful, haven't you, what you say here.

I've already upset the buffet fans.

I want to upset the vegetarians as well.

No, I think we could all live together in one big, happy.

Oh, beautiful.

But it's obviously not me.

It's beautiful.

Yeah.

Francis says, what's the heaviest kitchen appliance that Barry could carry into a garage using only one hand?

This follows Barry's washing machine claim that he single-handedly lugged washing machines.

One hand.

It's going to have to be a microwave oven, is it?

Fair enough.

Fair enough.

If only one of us had a story about those.

Troy says, I worked in a tumble dryer factory in the late 90s crossly in hippophil hippahome he says uh we used to have to stack them manually four on the base three high then wrap in cling film and they were taken away one person lifting every time would do about 1200 a day um producer joel says i doubt the maths that's 150 an hour over a seven over an eight hour day god that is really quick work isn't it that's a lot of tumble dryers it'd be a tv show i would watch isn't it today troy is going to lift 150 tumble an hour for eight hours.

Dylan says, Will Lars as a Norwegian defend the reputation of Swedes as maligned by Barry yesterday?

To be clear, I did not malign the Swedes.

I maligned the Twins.

No, I did.

Yeah, you

inadvertently

maligned the Swedes.

You suggested that they're all perverts.

Well, I mean, I didn't suggest.

I very much say I was led down the garden path here by Barry.

I was certainly, it was not top of my mind.

And so

I will apologise to the people of Sweden, but I would accuse Barry very much of aiding and abetting my crime.

Most Swedes I have known have been perfectly nice people, and I've never gotten the impression that they watch any more pornography than other people of other nationalities.

On that slightly lecherous note,

this has got nothing to do with that, actually.

I just wanted to say,

we have some German listeners, no?

I think we have German listeners out there.

Yeah.

The book is out in German now.

The Holland book has been published in Java.

I'm plugging something, Max.

This is me plugging something.

The book is out.

If you would like to read it in German, it's out, which is very exciting for me.

Someone sent me a photo of it in the shop in German.

I'm now a published author in more than one language.

I'm very hyped about that.

But if your English is good, it's sufficient that you can listen to Football Weekly, but you'd quite prefer to read the Holland book in your native language of german and the translation is very good i'm told so uh please do buy the book yeah well and uh in in german what's the book called in germany it's called holland halland

yeah

i i i knew that but thank you finally chris says can you ask barry when he greets magpies hello mr magpie why does he not finish the phrase with the rest of the saying how's your wife i'm worried he's leaving himself open to needless bad luck by not completing the sentence that's a good question actually i suppose well what if it's yeah I was going to say, what if it's a lady magpie, then why would I be calling her Mr.

Magpie?

So,

I don't know.

I've been quite lucky so far.

That's true.

Yeah.

And it's not for you to know if the magpie has a partner, if they don't have a partner, what the sector is.

Exactly.

Who knows?

So keep it open.

And really, that will do for today.

Thank you, Barry.

Thanks.

Thanks, Mark.

Cheers, Max.

Thank you, Lars.

Thank you, Max.

Formal Weekly is produced by Joel Grove.

Our executive producer is Daniel Steep.

This is The Guardian.