Spurs stumble in race for the top four – Football Weekly

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Hello and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly, an okay-ish night of Premier League action to bring you Spurs Stutter in the race for the top four, four even if a point at West Ham isn't a terrible result had all the ball but couldn't break down some stubborn Moyes ball and then to the bottom Nottingham Forest the big winners waiting until April to turn into 2011 Barcelona for 45 minutes blowing who knows what you're going to get Fulham aside when they're good that front four are really good and then to St James's Park a point isn't great for Newcastle or Everton but at least Everton scored a goal they're on their worst run for more than half a century a point isn't great either for Burnley or Wolves while Bournemouth beat Crystal Palace in a game that nobody saw also today some European Cup semi-finals, Norwich Corner, someone went their head in a tumble dryer.

Your questions, and that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

On the panel today, Paul McInnis, welcome.

Good morning, Max.

Hello, Barry Glendenning.

Hello, Max Rushford.

And from the racing post, Mark Langdon, welcome.

Good morning, Max.

Let's start at the London Stadium then.

So, Spurs win would have taken them level with Villa.

It hasn't, so they're on 57.

Villa, who play tonight on 59 points.

I mean, we all knew, Mark, how this game would play out.

West Ham sitting deep, Spurs with all the ball.

So almost ideal for West Ham, this kind of game.

It was completely sort of trademark, I think, not only for both teams, but then the both teams' goals as well.

Andrew Bosticoglu,

what he wants for his wingers is one to go down the wing, sort of cut back, and the other winger be on the end of it.

David Moyes, I think, you know, certainly at West Ham, set pieces have been a big part of what they do so uh the fact that spurs scored from winger to winger and then west ham equalized from a set piece and sort of just set the game up really to i think both managers would be pretty pleased with how it all worked out um they they the players kind of did what what was asked of them tottenh had a lot of the ball as you said but didn't I don't think affect the game enough in the final third.

And West Ham have got three sort of players in Boeing, Pakatar, and Kudos that are so much better than the other players they've got.

It's hard to know

exactly kind of what the rest of them are supposed to do, other than hang around.

That's quite a good point.

Do you think you'd be sad, Barry, if you were one of the eight hanging around, or you'd be delighted that you just had three players who were really, really good?

I'd be perfectly content being one of the eight, or even on the bench.

I think

if I was a professional footballer, I think my dream job would be for third choice goalkeeper, you know,

never actually having to do much work, but just getting well paid to hang around, doing very little.

Yeah, when West Ham play quite well, they're very difficult to break down.

And that kind of I was a bit perplexed that Ange Postagoglu took James Madison off after 70 minutes.

I don't know if it was a fitness thing or if he picked up a knock or something, but he's sort of the one player you would expect might be able to play that killer threaded pass through the eye of an eagle to unlock the West Ham defence.

But he was removed with 20 minutes to go.

Interestingly enough, or maybe not, David Moyes didn't make any substitutions in this game following his rather catastrophic

changes in personnel against Newcastle at the weekend.

I suspect that may have informed his decision not to do anything last night and to leave Calvin Phillips alone in the sanctuary of the dugout where he couldn't do any damage.

But

yeah, it was an okay game, and I think a draw was probably fair enough.

Yeah, it's the interesting thing, Paul, I guess, and we see this a lot in elite football to broaden it out from this game, is a team with a lot of the ball against a team with a low block, right?

A better team against a worse team, or this are two teams who play different styles.

And

is that question of what should a team with the ball do that Spurs didn't do, apart from just watching Manchester City?

Because it is basically when do you play that pass, the one, the pass that Barry was talking about, James Madison potentially playing if he wasn't off the pitch.

Like, is that the key?

It's just that there is so much that must go into that to be good at that, because that is a hard bit of football.

It is a hard bit of football.

I think it's also hard to

reduce the space as much as West Ham did.

I think, you know, West Ham did their side of the deal just as well as

Spurs failed to kind of hit theirs, I think.

So that's the challenge which Spurs weren't able to answer.

I think what I was looking at the game last night and thinking was that they, and perhaps this goes back to what Mark was talking about,

I think they needed more width Spurs.

I think they needed to move it from side to side a bit quicker, and they needed to pull those fullbacks out of the 18-yard box that Connected the Wingers.

And I think maybe because he wants a little bit of an overload from one side or the other with one winger coming in while the the other one's wide.

They weren't quite able to do that.

But you did look at the kind of at any point in the game in the second half in particular, and there was 10 claret and blue shirts, you know, like a Roman squadron, you know, in

well organised standing on the edge of the box there.

And it was very, very difficult to break down.

But

I'm always, I think, always going trying to be the sole defender of David Morris in the British media.

Although there's probably, I think Jonathan Norcroft liked him as well.

But

I was struggling for a bit last night because I thought, well, why are you playing,

why are you kind of like playing the submissive role in this contest when you're at home?

But over the course of the game, I kind of got into it and I just thought what they were very good at doing, as well as the defensive side, was unlocking that space very quickly on the counter.

And that takes some skill too.

I thought Jufao, who I was comparing with Udogi all night, who had a great game for Spurs.

But Kufao, just, well, he's kind of not nearly as limber can't do the same sort of driving stuff he was very clever in everything he did and some of his chipballs up the field really unlocked that spurs and you know that occasion Antonio had who I thought played very well on the hour where he muscled his way past van der Went sprinted that entire uh halfway across the pitch and then just ran out of puff just when he had to finish one-on-one thought those were the sorts of things that that actually West Ham did well

and you know

it was fine margins but they could they could have actually won that game even though though they have bugger oil possession.

Yeah.

We all need a thing, Paul.

So, you know, your thing to make it big is

the defender of David Moynes in the national media of all the things to pick.

This could really...

That would be big.

Yeah, that could really make you.

Actually, interesting with that move, Mark.

I was watching when Antonio was through, where clearly Madison had been fouled right on the edge of the box.

And I was wondering...

Do Spurs actually want this ball to go in?

Because then they'll definitely, I mean, then they really should get a free kick on the edge of the box then.

So I was watching it.

I don't know what you think.

it's a risk i'm not you can't i'm not going you can't leave your faith in in various

sensible enough um decision no no i think you uh play play to that whistle and and do your best to to not have to go to the the video but just going back to barry's point about um calvin phillips i did see one totnum fan uh on about the hour mark demanding changes um from the bench and they wanted to see richarlesson laselso and calvin phillips um brought on.

So

going back to the Spurs point there, I think Richarlison actually

was brought on too late.

And I think that he

would have offered something different because West Ham were

saying to Tottenham, if you do cross it in, we'll just be able to head it away.

And it got very congested.

With Richarlison in there, you can put an aerial ball in that.

you know, Son just can't get on the end of those.

So maybe

that was an area that Tottenham could have changed up earlier than they did.

Um, but for both teams, I think a point's okay.

Um, you know, for West Ham, obviously, stops.

Um, I was going to say the rot, but it was just that after what happened against Newcastle, I think it would have, you know, Moyes wouldn't have wanted to lost another game, otherwise, even Paul might have started to lose the faith in his ability to

stick around.

Um, and for Spurs, I was looking at how many points they'd need to finish in the top four.

I was thinking around 13, 14 going into the West Ham game.

They've got Forrest at home.

They've got Burn at home.

They've got Sheffield United away.

They will consider that sort of a good opportunity for nine of those points.

And this is one more on that target towards 70, I think.

Yeah, you don't worry, Mark, you know, with your Spurs hat on, that elite teams suss you out in the Premier League.

And like,

as the season has gone on, obviously Spurs started so well that people have sussed out sort of what how you can stop them.

And

it's not straightforward, like Paul said, you have to do it very well, but actually you've seen it in a lot of games where they haven't really won any games comfortably apart from that Villa one recently.

No, the fullbacks coming inside all the time is fairly predictable and that that does and it's not easy to stop.

I think Paul was saying earlier on there, you still got to defend well because they are putting a lot of players forward,

but

it is slightly predictable, I think,

in regards of what they're trying to do with those fullbacks.

And Poro's performances have not been as good in the second half of the season, I would say, than the first half.

But they were punching above their weight when they were getting such good results.

Not many people had Spurs down finishing top four this season.

Harry Kane left.

They've got a new manager in charge.

I think they're slightly ahead of schedule, really.

So no panic from me when my Spurs hat on Max.

Stephen says,

hi, Stephen here from Melbourne, a weekly listener of the pod.

I have a burning question, needs some clarification.

Has David Moyes taken the well-respected Roy Hodgson's grumpy coaching personality, or has this always just been the case?

It hit me in the game against Spurs when Spurs scored early.

The face of disgust from David Moyes looks identical to Roy when he'd be lost for words when opposing teams would score goals.

So thanks for the great pod you've all created.

I sort of feel Barry Moyes has always been in the grumpy envelope.

Oh, very much so.

I think,

you know, Dower scott uh

it's very much him and sir alex ferguson isn't it uh and he's always been quite spiky and can be very chippy in in press conferences if he thinks uh

he's been asked uh

dim dumb questions uh so no i i don't think it's a new thing he's he's he's very much a a grumpy man Yeah, I'd say grumpier than Roy, yes, Paul.

He had a moment like that last night with a TNT reporter who came up and said, you know, interesting games of two very contrasting styles.

And he looked at her like,

what are you like, contrasting styles?

Do you even?

And he said, so

explain.

And she said, well, because you bring your fullbacks inside to play for the land.

And he's like, ah, yeah, all right, yeah.

You do know what you're talking about.

He's got a little bit of school there.

Yeah.

You know, in defense of David Moyes, Paul, keep that under your hat, of course.

Let's go to the bottom of the table then.

Nottingham Forest, at the big winners.

They're now

three points above Luton in 17th place.

They have played against Game Moore.

Luton go to Arsenal tonight, of course.

They beat Fulham 3-1, Barry.

And we mentioned on the last pod that, you know, Forest seemed to have lots of good attacking players, a Langer, Hudson, Adoy, Chris Wood, Gibbs White.

And they were, in that first half, they were absolutely brilliant.

Yeah, they absolutely ran amok,

so much so that Fulham made three substitutions after

about half an hour I think it was yeah who who were the the players that

were were shamed um

Harry Wilson

Lukic and

Harry Wilson John Lukic and Calvin Phillips they were the three that were hooked after the game Marco Silva uh said I wasn't trying to embarrass them uh we needed far more than three substitutions at that point in the game but Morgan Gibbs White absolutely put on a masterclass last night.

He was really, really good.

And

the

Forrest defending at set pieces continues to be diabolically bad.

It's really, really

just cannot defend set pieces.

Fulham were much better in the second half, but it was too late by that stage.

They could have rescued something, though, but

Forrest deserved the win on the strength of the first half performance alone that ball from gibbs whitepool to hudson adoy i mean there's something about people kicking the ball with the outside of their right foot that looks so beautiful but it was absolutely sensational sort of summed up his performance yeah i mean i don't know whether this is fair or otherwise but it felt bellingham-esque to me watching him play you know just that

the speed and the technical ability with which he was able to kind of engage with every play was just fantastic.

The awareness was brilliant.

But yeah, the technique for that pass, the technique for his finish as well, for the goal, just to kind of clip that, keep it under control and position it beyond the keeper, you know, in a what, one second to be able to do that, really impressive.

I don't watch enough of Nottingham Forest to know, but I kind of imagine that this kind of form is not something the team's been replicating week in, week out during the season.

And, you know, I think it will give the club

a lot of hearts going into these last matches that they are capable of delivering that kind of performance.

You could see even the first 10-15 minutes, they were playing with a confidence and a belief that is out of keeping with the sort of relegation fights where everybody's more scared to lose than they are desperate to win.

So I thought it was impressive all around.

Do you see the markers like you see West Ham as three or four good ones and then just some

fence posts?

Well, Forrest have got even more than that.

How many players they've got in the squad?

It does feel like it sort of comes out of a Tombow, like some like, you know, who's playing at times and i actually think that's quite difficult for the manager to work out kind of what the best balance is um behind that because um

so many just so many players um it's been mentioned before but um it's quite hard um to work out what notting and forest's kind of best 11 is but i definitely think those three behind that the forward is the way um to go and gibbs white and we spoke about him a lot already he was fantastic and to do that against Palinya, who is one of the best kind of defensive midfielders in the Premier League and that usually does that job so well in front of the Fulham defence.

And

Lukic was the one that got hooked instead of Paolina.

But for Gibbs White to play like that against a player of Paolina's stature, I think was even more impressive.

Fulham at home does feel like the kind of fixture you'd want as a relegation team sort of battler in April, um but you've still got to put on the performance and they did that yeah in the first half fulham very much looked like a an on-the-beach team you know are they the first to sort of down twos this season much improved in the second half as i said but they're just a weird team that i can't figure out they're brilliant some days but away from home really

bang average to poor they've only won two games i think this season everton man united away

And congratulations, by the way, to whoever it was on the Guardian Subs desk who came up with the headline, Hudson Adoy and Gibbs White, give Fulham both barrels.

Very good.

Chris Wood scored another very good goal, Paul.

3-3, 11 for the season.

I mean, we could have a Chris Wood goal of the season, but he scored some great goals.

And I just wonder where on the sort of Mark Albrighton underrated scale, is he underrated?

Or do we have Chris Wood in his correct position?

I imagine in his correct position, because I think that

when he has periods of good, you know, he has flushes of good form, but he is consistently reliable in

what he can do off the ball, what he can do in sort of bringing other, you know, being that target forward that can bring other people into play.

And I think in the Notting Forest team, as it currently is under Nuno, he's one of the most senior players as well.

There's actually quite a youthful spine going through the team.

And I think he has a steady head, lots of experience, and can link those exciting players behind him into the game.

So I think he brings an awful lot to the table, even if he's not scoring goals.

But maybe some of his flairful

baller kind of players are robbing off on him with his finishes, too.

All right, that'll do for part one.

Part two, we'll begin at St.

James's Park.

Hi Pod fans of America, Max here.

Barry's here, too.

Hello.

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Coach, the energy out there felt different.

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Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly.

So Newcastle won Everton 1.

Barry, is this a good result for anyone?

It's a good result for Everton

because,

well, I actually...

They're further up the table than I thought they were.

I think the four points clear of the drop zone.

Now, they may get another deduction, which could land them right back in the shit.

But, you know, when you're in that position, any point is a good point.

But

away at Newcastle is tough, but Newcastle are missing 12 players for various reasons, injury and suspension.

I think nine of them would be first-choice players.

And

I don't really know how Newcastle failed to win this game, even though they had so many absentees.

They were vastly superior, but they have this habit of conceding late goals.

And while he is hamstrung to a certain extent by all the injuries,

I have my

not concerns, but I think Eddie Howe's in-game management is quite questionable.

And

he had quite a few youngsters on the bench, but he seems very reluctant to bring them on, presumably on the grounds that they don't have enough big-game experience.

But how do you give them big-game experience if you don't bring them on in big games?

Alex Murphy, Irish defender, would be a case in point.

I thought he could have probably come on last night.

He brought on Paul Dummett, who's very much a peripheral figure at Newcastle, and it was Dummett who gave away the penalty when he brought down Ashley Young.

So he had

a substitute appearance to forget.

And

I suppose,

as well as the point, the best thing for Everton in this game is that Dominic Calvert-Luhn scored a goal,

which is his first in 24 games.

It's a penalty, but it's a goal.

It'll boost his confidence.

Yeah, on that foul, Eddie Howell said it was just one of those at that stage.

We were hoping to see the game out.

Paul is an experienced player, and unfortunately, it was his arm.

And whether it brushed against Ashley Young that went against us, both were grappling.

I mean, that seems a bit of a reach mark to Paul Dummett having Ashley Young in quite a WWF.

It was a WWE headlock, I would say.

I mean,

yeah, it was.

Yeah, I mean, I disagree with Eddie Howe.

I disagree with Barry as well, to a point, because I do think Eddie Howe has chucked on the youngsters.

I mean, Lewis Miley was playing almost every week.

Anderson played in that game.

Maybe the defenders just aren't good enough.

You know, he doesn't think they're good enough at this stage rather than

sort of experienced enough and i do think as a defender it's probably

a position where you're less likely to chuck on somebody that is inexperienced because that one mistake often leads to a goal as it proved he brings on somebody really experienced he does exactly the same thing anyway newcastle should have won the game they had enough chances to have wrapped it up before

I was very surprised with Everton the way that they were wide open at times in that first half because you expect usually a Sean Dais team to be organised for all the other things that maybe they don't do so well they're organized and difficult to play through but they weren't at times and Pickford made some very important saves and yeah and Newcastle be kicking themselves should have won the game on Everton Pool no win in 13 league games so that's their worst ever run in the Premier League it's their worst run since 1957

I sort of wonder how good is their squad I mean it should be better than that it's quite a depressingly functional functional squad.

If it really works, you know, you've got McNeil and Harrison, that's quite good.

You've got strong, powerful center midfields.

You've obviously got two big old centre-backs, some like an okay good goalkeeper, an okay football.

Like, it's sort of, if they had a striker that scored goals, maybe this, it would, this whole conversation would be different.

But I, you know, I wonder if they should be, they should be doing better than this, right?

I wonder.

I wonder.

It does, it does feel a little bit like,

you know, the years of toil are something that kind of accumulates on the field and it's difficult to shake off.

And I also think that you look at the squad and it's a sort of,

it's not greater than the sum of its parts.

And you can see that it's sort of been acquired by different managers at different times when different strategies were perhaps

being deployed on the pitch.

Like Barry, I've looked at the table and thought, oh, they're doing better than I thought.

And it increasingly looks like the bottom three of the bottom three as it has done for a lot of the season but there is that that threat of a points deduction and and

that would very much change the the picture for everton but also you wonder whether it's at the back of their minds a little bit yeah i i i think i think the if you look at nottingham forest as we're just talking about a kind of another club in a similar position and you look at the actual talent they have in their squad you know they they they've overspent to achieve that but then you know everton have spent quite a lot of money um over the years as well The quality in that Nottingham Forest squad, I think you can look at it and go, yeah, well, that is better than whatever, what Dyke has to draw on on a weekly basis.

Everton have Burnley at home next, and Burnley are starting to show signs of life.

So that's a big, big game.

And they also have to play Luton and Sheffield United.

So

those, you know, three six-pointers there,

which,

and yeah, they could also end up going to Arsenal on the final day of the season,

needing something.

That'll be that could be a big, big game.

Yeah, it could be.

Just on Newcastle, Mark, it's quite interesting.

Similarities with Chelsea in talk of having to perhaps sell players, Isak, maybe who scored a brilliant goal.

I think it's a really wonderful footballer, you know, and quite interesting to see what that squad will look like next season.

Well, I mean, Eddie Howe says they can't sell Isaac, and that would feel like a really backward step to try to improve the squad by selling your best sort of goal scorer.

I think that for Newcastle, it's about getting those injured players or, you know, ineligible in sort of tenaly sort of player we've kind of forgotten about really, but they spent a lot of money on him.

Him, Gimaraish in midfield, Harvey Barnes back on the wing.

I think Anthony Gordon has shown good signs of progress.

You've got Isak up front.

If you get the kind of the injured players back, you know, across the back four, for instance, with Sher and Botman, Nick Pope in goal as well, has been out for a few months.

I see Newcastle as not actually needing as much, maybe, as what other people do.

And it's just about getting

the play, they kind of progressed too far.

um too quickly uh they reached the champions league then got a really difficult champions league group that meant that to play at maximum for all six games They've had some horrendous cup ties.

If you look at the cup drawers they've had.

It's been just on the go constantly.

Eddie Howe maybe will feel like

he should do something different in training.

There have been a number of muscle injuries but overall

bad luck I would say and just get those players back would be my sort of thought for what Newcastle should be looking to do in the summer.

Nathan says, if Anthony Gordon, and this is related to the penalties at the weekend, flung himself in front of my minivan as I backed out of my garage garage.

And referee Rob Jones was the officer at the scene.

How many years would I spend in prison?

And

it did remind me of when

I was in Tanzania and on Safari.

And I think there was a kind of insurance scam where people would throw themselves in front of cars.

get hit and then say you hit me with the car some of how anthony gordon got fouled by calvin phillips i'm not suggesting anthony gordon was doing it for an insurance job so we were in this car and we're driving along, not really concentrating.

And then this guy runs out into the road and we hit this guy, right?

So we hit this guy.

It's not something you're used to.

So the driver gets out of the car.

This guy is

lying on the floor.

And we think, oh, the driver's going out to see if this guy's all right.

He ran out of the car, picked the guy up.

punched him in the face, threw him to the side of the road, got back in the car and just carried on driving, just put on another song.

It's quite confusing place to be in so anyway that is that's the risk that anthony gordon takes by trying to buy these penalties and free kits yeah i i would say

in in response to the the listener's correspondence that if you're reversing your van out of the drive you're kind of obliged to do it slowly and and check your mirrors to see if anthony gordon is is going to

you know in the vicinity and about to jump in front or behind you that's a very good point yeah i'm i can see it from both sides.

Let's talk about Burnley starting to hit a bit of form then.

Baz, they drew one all with Wolves.

What did you make of it?

Yeah, it was a good result for, well,

as I said about Everton, any point when you're in Burnley's position is a good point, but they should have won this game.

I think they had the better chances.

Wilson Aldeberg was a complete

constant threat.

He had a couple of shots

saved by Sa.

Manuel Benson brought a fairly decent save out of Sa.

And

Burnley's goal was a lovely shot from Jacob Bryn Larson.

A nice volley from a diagonal cross from deep from Darrow Shea.

So, yeah, Burnley should have won this game.

Wolves were surprisingly poor.

Six points from safety Burnley are seven games left.

They have to play some of the teams around them.

Everton, Sheffield, United Forest.

Could they pull off a great escape?

It has been done before.

Sunderland stayed up once from a similarly perilous position by stringing a few wins together at the tail end of the season.

It's difficult, but it's doable.

By the West Brom, Jeff Horsfield.

Who is their Jeff Horsfield?

Do you reckon they could pull?

Are they showing enough signs of life to you?

I still think they look a bit frail at the back.

You know,

They always look like they could struggle to hold on to a lead that they've acquired, but what they do have is a philosophy and a way of playing and a group of players who've been bought to play for that style and a coach who leads that style.

So

they've got an idea that they can stick to and they have stuck to it.

And they're clearly better at delivering that

free-flowing, creative, imaginative, attacking football now than in the Premier League, than they were earlier in the season.

And that gives them half a chance.

I've said before that, you know, when we discuss bad refereeing decisions,

no team is ever going to get relegated because of bad refereeing decisions.

But Burnley have had a lot of bad decisions go against them this season.

And they had another one last night.

The Wolves goal should not have stood.

And if we were to, you know, flog the van analogy,

Darrow Shea was penalised for a foul on Ray Rayonet Noori.

Darrow Shea hadn't even got into his van.

He had just pressed the key fob to unlock the van.

He was about to get in, and Rayonet Noori just fell over.

And that was the free kick from which Wolves scored their equalizer.

So Vincent Company is a bit of a whining post-match, but God, a lot of it is justified.

I feel, I tend to agree with you.

Like,

I sort of wonder, this season is just to test how exasperated you can make Vincent company.

It's the job of the Premier League this season.

And it's doing an incredible job on that.

Actually, Renet Nori is quite an interesting player, Mark.

I think he's really improved this season.

I wonder if some of the big guns might start sniffing around him in the summer.

Definitely is a threat and a good player down that left-hand side for Wolves.

And Gary O'Neill post-match was bemoaning the sort of lack of investment from Wolves in the summer.

They are hamstrung by financial fair play and who they were able to bring in.

They were linked, weren't they, with Broyer and Danny Ings as somebody that could just sort of fill a gap for them.

And their season has tailed off because of the injuries up front.

And Matt Noori has been one of those that has carried a goal threat during that time when all the forwards have been out.

It did make me laugh because newspapers and websites have all gone with the Gary O'Neill quote as kind of the lead into the post-match

from that game and him slightly threateningly, sort of, I don't know, throwing his weight around in terms of what he might want in the summer.

And then I went on the Wolves website and they've done virtually the whole press conference that we got from that, just without the bit where he's

had

a pop at sort of the situation.

I think as far as Wolves are going, their season has tailed off.

He was on the bench, but no Kunyu, no Huang,

big players, netto out as well.

Difficult for them at the moment until they get some of those players back.

And they already have more points, I think, than they got last season.

And for a team whose manager only took over, what was it, like half an hour before kickoff of the first game of the season,

with very little investment, they've done very well.

I think we're all agreed on that.

To the vitality bourne with Big Crystal Palace 1-0, No way to watch this game on the telly in the UK.

So both teams kind of agreed that nothing really should happen in most of the game until Justin Cliver banged one in like his dad would have done.

He kicked the ball very hard.

I wonder, Mark, if the interesting storyline is about Crystal Palace and sort of Glasner, because so much is happening.

Sort of Glasner's arrival has been quite quiet.

He's only won once since he appointed in February.

Should he be doing better or

is he doing okay and that's okay?

I think he needs a summer to clear out what he doesn't want, bring in the players that he wants to be able to play the football that he wants to.

But whenever I've seen Crystal Palace post Roy Hodgson, if you'd said to me, Oh, Roy's still in charge, I would have gone, Yep.

It doesn't actually the formation's changed.

Roy very much likes his

sort of 4-4-2 or variation of sort of he developed a bit into a 4-2-3 one-man at times.

But Glasner's played 3-4-3, but the football's the same they only had two shots on target in this game and only three shots overall I mean they just

Eze's the one but with Elise gay injured and Palace lucky they're not involved in the relegation fight I would say

judge him in judge him next season there are some Palace fans getting twitchy and the when they went for Frank DeBoer that ended very quickly

but if you do want to change your philosophy and your whole approach, you can't just parachute somebody in in February and then, you know, with Roy Hodgson's players and say, you know, turn us into something different.

Football rarely works like that.

It is very difficult.

Like, Palace are rarely able to get Elise and Eze on the pitch at the same time.

And they're very much a team who have three good players and the rest are meh.

Gay, Elise, Eze, or their three standout players.

And, yeah, two of them have been injured since Glasnar took over.

So

the only, there is,

there's a chance they could get sucked into the relegation battle soon.

But I think Elise is due back on Saturday.

That will make a big difference.

And

tip of the hat to Joel Ward, who has been at Palace for 200 years and last night was his 300 appearance for them, which is a club record, I think.

Yeah, what a great achievement.

For a fence post.

Yeah.

Their next two games are City and Liverpool.

So that's not ideal, I guess.

I would say that Adam Wharton, who they brought in from Blackburn, wasn't it?

He is definitely not a fence post.

This guy looks absolutely brilliant.

I really love watching him.

I mean, I don't want to praise him too much because he might fall down the Tom Carroll hole where I announced that Tom Carroll was the next Xiabbi Alonso.

But I really think Adam Wharton's got something about him.

Just movement, the way he takes the ball, the time he has is a real pleasure, isn't it?

So tonight, Brentford, Brighton, Arsenal, Luton, Man City, Aston, Villa.

I guess when you look at Man City's games, Paul, and Villa have to play all three.

I think Tottenham have to play all three of the top three.

Is this, you know, and Villa smashed Man City?

I know it was only 1-0, but they absolutely hammered them at Villa Park.

You wonder if this is, you know, a possible stumbling block for Pep.

I think it's a really big game.

A really big game.

You know, Villa are a different team away if they are at home, but

they're having a fantastic season they'd be missing ollie watkins but John Duran you know inexperienced but occupies a similar position on the pitch

they will be they will be up for this game and

defensively resolute and

whatever you say about about city and you know the the the levels they've kind of their consistency over a long period of time, they're not scoring an awful lot of goals right now.

And

I think this is the sort of day that Erling Haaland has to turn up and play.

I think he has, you know,

himself, Foden de Bruyne, who, apart from that cameo on his return, has

not been his self.

And

I think there'll be a bit of expectation on all these players to turn up and deliver tonight, which, given this is Manchester City we're talking about, they're probably more likely to do it than anybody else.

That's why they're Man City, but all right, that'll do for part two.

Part three, we'll do any other business.

Hi, Pod fans of America, Max here.

Barry's here, too.

Hello.

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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?

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Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly.

The Lone Badger says, if Manchester United can't get Jason Wilcox from Southampton, which member of Blackburn's title-winning squad should they go for as backup?

Stuart Ripley.

Or they could get Ian Pierce and Mark Atkins in.

Why not?

Yeah, Manchester United, according to Ben Fisher Wright and The Guardian, have made a formal approach to take Jason Wilcox.

Jason Wilcox from Southampton as part of Big Sir Jim's summer recruitment overhaul.

He joined Southampton as director of football last year.

And they want him to come in as technical director.

So Jason Wilcox, Dan Ashworth, Omar Barada,

and perhaps a new manager, Mark.

I don't know.

I find it hard to get really excited by backroom staff appointments, even for a club of the size of Manchester united but yeah i know that uh barry often says about transfers that sort of just tell me what's happened um once you know what once the windows shut um and he hates the transfer rumors of sort of you know what your right back might be going to crystal palace but um yeah backroom staff is about 10 steps even behind uh

a crystal palace uh transfer rumour mill

Most people have said that Manchester United have needed an overhaul of their whole kind of football operations for some time.

So probably then unfair to start mocking them when they do do that and fill lots of these positions.

And you would always get them in place before you get the next manager because presumably that, whatever the committee looks like at the end, will decide their whole footballing philosophy going forward and who the front man is of that operation.

It's much needed from Manchester United.

Their transfer policy has just been ridiculous for too long now, wasted so much money.

If they do want a new manager, it's going to be a fascinating summer.

We know that Liverpool need a new manager, Bay Munich need a new manager, Barcelona probably need a new manager, although there were reports yesterday they might try to keep Javi

for another season.

A lot of talk that Juventus will sack Maxilegri.

United need a new manager.

I mean, are there enough good managers to go round all of these teams?

I'm not so sure.

That's probably why Gary O'Neill is calling Billy Big Bollocks.

All these plum gigs are coming up.

Exactly.

I wouldn't.

Gary O'Neill at the Camp New would be good.

Exactly.

Get him to Barcelona.

Do you think the writing is on the wall for Ten Hag, Paul?

What do you think?

I feel that way, but at the same time, I think Mark's

appraised it well.

And I think they don't necessarily know

quite yet what their philosophy is on the pitch and therefore who the right coach is.

I think Deserbi is an interesting one for Man United.

I think because he's a sort of a hipster's choice, um, and he is somebody who is probably

not going to be on the short list for Barcelona or Bayer Munich.

I might be wrong there, but I imagine he's one step away from that.

That maybe that will be somebody who

would fit the bill for United.

But, yeah, I think Ten Hag looks like somebody who knows that he's on the

scepticism about him.

And I think his team play a little bit like that apart from when they turn up against liverpool in the fa cup so uh yeah i i think i think that i don't really see what he's going to do between now and the end of the season that's going to change the impressions about him yeah do you think man united are too big a club for a hipster like isn't that whole idea you can't be a hipster at and liverpool maybe slightly differently different i mean i don't know if this is just based on nothing but well it wasn't clop was very much a hipster's choice when he took off i think that's different i think liverpool can be you can be slightly hipster at liverpool where just that you can't at Man United.

But don't you think hiring Jason Wilcox is hipster football?

This is like, you know, when you get kind of nerdy about your backroom appointments, that is, that is hipsterness.

I don't think you can ever call Jason.

I think I think you can call anyone who played in such a 4-4-2 for so long and just got it to the byline and knocked it in.

Can be no part of any hipster organisation, I don't think.

Anyway, Mark, talking of football hipsters, take us through the European Cup semi-finals that none of us have been following.

Okay, yeah, well, we might as well start with Juventus, because I mentioned that Max Allegri

under big pressure in Turin.

They beat Lazio 2-0 in the Copper Italia semifinal, first leg, Chiesa and Vlavic got the goals.

Allegri's

a strange character, I think, really, in that he's definitely not a hipster.

He doesn't believe in that kind of football data.

He doesn't believe in...

attractive football he just about winning and when they don't win you then um like, what are you left with?

And not much.

So, Juventus has been on a bad run.

The talk is that he could lose his job, even if they were to qualify for the Champions League, which I think they will, and also win the copper Italia.

But he definitely needs to do both of those things to stand a chance.

Thiago Motta is the one being linked most with that job at the moment.

The other semi-final is between Furantina and Atalanta.

In France, Leon, who, if you remember, started the season appallingly under Laurent Blanc, didn't get much better under Fabio Grosso,

finally sort of woken up.

And they're now in the French Cup final, 3-0 victory over Valencienne last night.

Lacazette got two of the goals.

Gift Orban also on target.

Fans are on the pitch after the game.

It's been a miserable season for them.

So a positive ending potentially, although PSG are in the sort of other semi-final against Wren.

So still a lot of work to be done, probably, in that one.

And then in Germany, derby game between Saarbrücken, who beat Bayer Munich earlier on in the campaign.

They're in the third tier.

They lost 2-0 against Fallen Giants, Kausesleiten, who

have found the members of the Bundesliga.

won two Bundesliga titles in the 90s, but have fallen on a hard time.

So good to see them have a sort of return to the limelight, reaching a final.

First

team from outside the top flight in over a decade to reach the German Cup final.

The other semi-final takes place between Leverkusen, who are on for a treble this season.

They've got Fortuna Dusseldorfer also in the second division.

So

you'd assume Leverkusen would win that and then beat Kaiser Slautin in the final.

But

you never know, I suppose.

But yeah, that's

a whistle-stop tour, I think, Max, of Continental Corner.

Perfect.

From there to Norwich, of course.

Paul, sixth in the championship.

You've got east anglia second derby at the weekend massive game against high-flying ipswich how are you feeling i'm feeling excited about it i'm feeling excited about it i've got it's what would be the only the fourth game i'll be able to have made this season and it thanks to the perennial rail works in the east of the country it's going to take me four hours to get off for the game for 12 30.

looking forward to it though i think because i think we play well at home now the the difference between where we were in the autumn and where we are now and our home performances is quite large and i do think that ipswich

you know, as they play in great football, fantastic football to watch, I think they know,

I don't think they've been able to yet to shake off the hex and there will be pressure on them to come and deliver because the championship, you know, as ever, is deliver delivering a thrilling competition as we come to the end of the season.

All three automatic contenders won at the weekend.

All the playoff contenders lost, apart from West Brom, who got a night snatched a point at the end.

So there's this flux tumult.

Nobody knows what's going to happen.

So there's a lot on every single game, and that makes this derby even more, even more exciting.

That said, he'll probably end up with a 3-0 Ipswich

Imnich win, and I'll be crying into my cider, but we'll see.

Yeah, I scored one Ipswich goal was absolutely brilliant at the weekend.

And Dan James for lead scored.

I think the keeper was up, wasn't he, for Hull, late on, and Dan James

managed to pop one in from the halfway line.

Yeah, really good, wasn't it?

I watched watched Leicester's game against Norwich on Monday, and it was a good game, actually.

And it was a really key game for Leicester, who'd been on this

massive wobble and dropped out of the automatic promotion places, having had a, I think it was a 17-point lead.

But

Norwich scored a lovely goal from a corner, so they went ahead.

Paul was quite insulted when I said on the WhatsApp group, it was just a replica of the goal

John Stone scored against Liverpool.

John Stone scored, yeah.

And it was just a replica, but I didn't mean that as an insult.

Someone in the Norwich coaching staff had obviously been taking notes, but the way Leicester came back and won the game, they were so, so impressive.

Two wingers, Abdul Fatehawu and Steffi Mabodidi, who I'd never heard of before.

Brilliant, brilliant players.

Wilfred Adidi and Kiernan Dewsbury Hall were fantastic as well.

So I would say that has probably settled any Leicester jitters because it was a big game for them to come back and win, but they won it very, very convincingly.

En Lee won top two played last night, Portsmouth and Derby, drawing two apiece.

Pompey's equaliser was a howitzer.

And a word on Gary Monk, what a hero after that terrible start and then conceding 10 goals in two games.

We won away at Barnsley and beat Wigan at home over Easter.

And Easter Monday was so good.

We won and every other team around us lost.

It was like a heavenly day.

Someone sent me the league table with the results going, hang it in the Louvre.

And it was really good.

It made me think I should go.

I'm really looking forward to one day going to the Louvre and just saying.

They should

hang it in the Louvre to things that are actually hanging in the Louvre.

Ian says, what brand of Easter egg did the panel enjoy the most?

And did Mark get a ginster's one?

I mean, mainly just.

Did you have a meat egg?

Scotch egg.

Yeah, the scotch egg.

No, no, it's

I'm very much sort of Cadbury's.

Of course you are.

Of course you are.

Expect nothing less.

Oh, yeah, Mr.

Basic.

But yeah, so I've been polishing off a few Cadbury's buttons ones.

And I'm just actually just before we came on,

the kids have still got about 20 left, and there's no way they're getting through them.

So I'm I'm in for a good next few days, I would say.

Tremendous news.

We'll finish with this.

Johnny says, hello guys.

On Monday's pod you were discussing Calvin Phillips being heckled by the Newcastle supporters while boarding the West Ham team bus.

At the precise moment that Barry said about Phillips, his head is clearly in the tumble dryer.

I had my head in a tumble dryer.

I let out a big echoey laugh that made me giggle so much I had to pause the show.

The pod has a tradition of being in the background at vasectomy, surgeries, births, and car crashes.

But is this the first time you've commentated on a listener's activity?

I love the pod.

Thanks so much.

Johnny, Pierce, in case you were wondering, I was using a friend's...

tumble dryer and I was looking for the lint tray.

So there we are.

Hope.

I hope you found it.

But yeah, thank you, Johnny.

That's a wonderful email.

If that has happened to you in any sense, go email us footballweekly at theguardian.com.

Yes, Barry.

Oh, no i was just i'd like to apologize to listener bob who uh i met in brixton yesterday he's he i think he lives in singapore but he he was i was out walking a friend's dog who i'm looking after i uh looked in absolute

state because i just got out of bed and i was bringing doggy around the block to do his business and uh yeah this this random guy just went who was sitting on some steps outside the house went barry and yeah

yes probably exactly what he wanted but he he um yeah he he asked for a selfie and i was like hair everywhere bloodshot eyes uh a big stain red wine stain on my upper lip from where I'd overindulged the night before.

So yes, apologies, Bob.

I did invite him for a pint later that day, actually, and he never turned up.

Oh, he stood me up, did Bob.

I would say that is the selfie that Bob would want, I think.

While we're on thanks, can I thank, I don't think they listen, but a team of, I would say, 15-year-old, I find myself in Rome, and I played on a,

I would say, an unforgiving surface, tarmac.

It wasn't molds or studs.

It was very much runners.

And

dads and kids played against a team of 15-year-old Italian girls, who are very, very good, very good touch.

Didn't move the ball a lot.

I played for them for a bit, and I was just pass or see

a lot.

But then they sent me back to the opposition.

But

during this game, I fell down a drain twice.

So a long, a long, sort of one of those long, thin grates that went across the pitch.

The first one, I was running up for a corner and my foot fell down a hole.

I rolled my ankle slightly.

But the second one, I was trying an audacious step over, slightly unnecessary against a teenager.

And

my standing foot landed on a drain.

The drain opened, and my foot got covered ankle deep in slurry,

which was a great joy to everyone else.

But it was quite sad for me and my trainer that is hanging up outside this tiny hotel room window presently.

But I sent this picture to my WhatsApp group, my team in Australia, and one of the guys is Italian, said he used to play on this tarmac, and Daniel DeRossi used to turn up and play on it.

It's in Trustevere in Rome, but anyway.

So it was a, it was like a halcyon, it's like a, you know, a proper place where people play.

But um, yes, falling down a drain twice, slight disappointment, uh, and my ankles are feeling it this morning.

But you know, uh, if we're on this kind of subject, we're probably done for today, aren't we?

That'll do.

Uh, uh, thank you, Paul.

Thank you very much, Max.

Thanks, Mark.

Thank you, Max.

Cheers, Baz.

Thanks.

Purple Weekly is produced by Joel Grove.

Our executive producer is Daniel Stevens.

We'll be back tomorrow.

This is The Guardian.