Real Madrid pull clear, Højlund in form and Bayern unbeaten – Football Weekly

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Hello, and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly, a Europod for you, part one series here to tell us how Xiabbi Alonso's settling in at Real Madrid, top of La Liga after the weekend's games, despite getting walloped by Athleti the week before.

Is he getting anyone to track back?

Will Jude Bellingham get back in the team?

Barcelona hammered by Sevilla last time out.

That high line again.

There's also La Liga and Serie Ad games overseas to discuss.

In Italy, Napoli and Roma lead the way.

Another for Rasmus Hoiland.

In 2023, pod agenda news.

Christian Pulisic balloons a penalty as Milan and Juve draw 0-0.

In Germany, Samore Harry Kane is good as buy and win the title.

Four points clear of the only other unbeaten side in the division, Borisia Dortmund.

There's an incoming Nordic minute, a panelist's son spotted somewhere unexpected.

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

on the panel today nikki bandini hello morning hello lars ivertson hello max and welcome sid low hello just for part one of course unless you want to stay good morning max i i was going to say i didn't you know you've now just assumed that it's all part one

no one even asked me if i can stay till part two if you would like me to i would very in fact i was saying before we came on air how much i'm across what's happening in world of football at the moment i absolutely didn't say to Nikki and Lars that I have no idea what's happening in any other country other than Spain.

So I'm very valuable to you.

Yeah, and you're here to learn as well.

Let's start with you, just in case you do bugger up in 20 minutes.

So La Liga looks like this.

Real Madrid, 21 points from eight games.

Barcelona, 19.

Villarreal, 16.

Betis 15.

Athleti Sevilla and Elche have 13.

Real Madrid, they beat Villarreal 3-1 at the weekend.

Two for Vinicius Jr.

and Bapo with another.

Not totally convincing, I guess.

But how is uh how is Jabbi Alonso settling in, would you say?

Well, I'm going to point out how little I know by saying that before the Atletico Madrid game last week, I was watching Real Madrid and I was kind of thinking there's a structure forming, they know what they're doing, there's an idea, there's clarity, they're well organized.

And I decided that Real Madrid were probably going to become boringly good.

And then

they went and got battered 5-2 by Atletico for boringly good.

I mean, it's excitingly bad, which is much more fun.

This weekend was kind of back a little bit to the boringly good, but I think there was a bit more creativity than there had been in previous games.

It was the best performance from Vinicius.

There'd been a huge debate around Vinicius, whose numbers have actually been reasonably good, but whose performance level wasn't anything like it was.

In fact, actually, in a way, his decline kind of starts with that ballon d'Or that he didn't win.

And that since then,

his record's been nowhere near as good.

But they played pretty well at the weekend.

Again, not brilliant, but I do feel like there is a structure being built.

And I think you're starting to see Xavier Alonso's hand.

But what we're, I suppose the question mark we've all got is what happens in terms of the management of the players as people and the egos and the fitting together of the pieces.

And the player, funnily enough, at the midst of that kind of debate has been Fede Valverde, who said he didn't want to play at right back, wasn't born to be a right back.

And then at weekend, Chavi Alonso puts him on at right back.

Right.

And did he object or did he just get on?

It was his best game of the season by Miles.

And this is the, I mean, one of the weird things about Fede Valverde is he actually, he's possibly a victim of this new structure because he's a player who loves to be able to maraud all over the pitch, have the space to run into.

And what Xavier Alonso has done is create something a bit tighter, a bit more structured, and with less room for him to do that.

And from the centre of midfield, which I genuinely don't think is his best position, it's not really happened.

Now, he's only filling in at right back because Trent's out and because Danny Carvajal's out.

But it was very interesting that he went so public.

in saying that he didn't want to play there.

He was then left out of the Champions League game.

And then when he was put back in, he was put back in at right back.

Dude Bellingham is, what's what's happening with dude Bellingham in sort of obvious English biased questions?

Yeah well I mean actually it's a question that people in Spain are asking as well so don't feel bad about it being the obvious English question because he came back from that shoulder operation and went straight into the team for the Madrid Derby against Athletico and it's not all about dude Bellingham.

He didn't play badly because Dude Bellingham played but he didn't have a good derby.

There was a very clear sense of almost everyone saying this is too soon.

He wasn't ready.

He wasn't right.

And actually Xiaobi Alonso was asked a question after the game at the weekend where he came on as a sub and there's a sense now that they're going to use this international break that you know he's not part of the England squad to kind of

I don't want to use that cliché term but I can't think of a better one so apologies to use kind of a mini preseason you know to get him fully ready for it um and Xavi Alonso was asked at the weekend knowing what you know now and given the condition he's in and so on would you have played him last week and Xiaobi Alonso said yes without saying yes he says well that's really really a question where the answer isn't of any value so yes

I think I think he had decided that that maybe he'd been a bit premature for what it's worth I think Bellingham's shoulder operation was was kind of overdue and he had to do it but they were trying to wait for a time to do it so of course they went and waited until after the club world cup and he's really keen obviously to get back and this was always going to be a slight risk for him was that if Real Madrid got that structure right in his absence, you then have to find a place for him.

Now, he's such a good player that you feel like they will find a place for him.

But the derby was exactly that question was asked, was, hang on, was there too much urgency to find him a place in a team that was actually functioning?

And they left out Mast Antoine, who'd been playing really well.

My question, the interesting thing about Real Madrid, or the, I mean, there are lots of interesting things about Real Madrid, but last year we were sort of saying, actually, it's Tony Crows is the guy that you can't replace.

And they haven't, you know, by the way.

They still have.

And so

my question was, like, what are they doing there?

To be honest with you, I feel like the answer is probably nothing,

which is a terrible answer.

They haven't signed anyone for that position and you know what every everybody was looking at philby mendi thinking well there's there's the man there's the obvious answer to this question alonso's structure has been to have chomeni and valverde in the middle neither of whom are someone who who will dictate a game but both of whom will will kind of underpin a midfield and allow others to play and so so chermeni from a more static position valverde from from perhaps pushing the the the press on the other team not allowing them out and having some of the energy but as i say i personally think this tighter structure means that his energy kind of doesn't get seen because he hasn't got the space to be running around in.

They've been trying to develop Ada Gula as a slightly deeper midfielder who kind of runs the game a little bit.

And that's been a, I would say, a sort of maybe a qualified success.

It's not entirely right.

And it's certainly not quite that Tony Cruz style player.

And I think there's a belief that...

Bellingham's not quite that player either.

He does some of those things, but he's not a guy that kind of runs the tempo of a game and the speed of the game.

And so they kind of don't really have it.

but

they've overcome that a little bit by being a little bit more compact and having the line of three in front.

Mast Antoine is playing well.

Vinicius hasn't been playing brilliantly yet, but it's Vinicius and at some point will.

And so they've kind of looked for an alternative because there actually isn't someone to play that role.

Worth saying in that game, Villarreal had a man sent off.

Very surprised to see Real.

It's an awful decision.

Very surprised to see Real Madrid benefit from a decision given the conspiracy against them.

But yeah, it's Vinicius, massive die, pretending to get hit in the face.

and it's a second yellow, so I guess VAR can't intervene.

But that's provoked part of the debate, which is about

the way that the VAR rules are set up.

You only intervene if it's direct red.

And of course, the question being asked now, and actually, it was being asked a little bit anyway, but being up, but you know, it's really focused people's minds, the fact that it happened at the Bernabalis.

Should

VAR also step in for yellow cards that

mean a red, even if they in themselves are yellow?

Because it was an absurd decision, really.

Sid, I am curious.

i i really really hope you have better things to do with your time than watch like real madrid tv all the time but i it always fascinates me when clubs are trying to sort of spin this conspiracy yarn and they get a very obvious mistake in their favor like how that is processed and how you kind of like do you just pretend it didn't happen do you just kind of go like well you know what this this is one of the things that always that always strikes me about rail madrid tv because obviously you can create a video and you can create a video and provide the analysis or the the the images to support your thesis and that's not that difficult but as you say when it comes in a game and it happens well what happens is that that's what little i watch of railmudgyard tv and i should point out that i basically don't watch any but what's what what railmudgard tv have these unwitting or maybe not quite so unwitting allies in the mainstream media who pick up the railmudge of tv videos and tell everyone what they're saying for all those people which is basically all of the people who aren't watching it uh and what they do is just ignore it or just say yeah yeah that's a red card and carry on yeah i mean that sort of works in the world at the moment

i don't know what As I was saying that, as I was saying that, I was thinking, this sounds kind of familiar, right?

Yeah, yeah.

Let's talk about Barcelona.

Second after a surprise defeat to Sevilla, or at least it was a surprise to me.

Three of Sevilla's goals were, you know, Barca's high line somewhere in the opposition half.

But like, it was, you know, Lewandowski missed a penalty at 2-1.

Penalty given away by Adnan Janazai.

Yes, me neither.

But was that a surprise result?

Yeah,

I mean, of course it was a surprise.

Although, I mean, it depends which way you want the analysis.

And

have I've just been responding to people below the line on on my piece about Sevilla which is that you know I sometimes think well why does the analysis have to be about about Barcelona all the time you know how about here's a really good team who managed Barcelona perfectly but let's let's do the the Barcelona analysis which I think is really interesting when Barcelona got a draw at Rayevaya Candle they got totally overrun and Joan Garcia the goalkeeper made four or five really good saves and after the game isy palathon who's um ray valley's number 10 said that inigo martinez the coach had told us about the flick line.

And I just love the fact that it was called the flick line.

This is the main overall.

That sounds like something from Aloe alone.

Exactly right.

This is the plan to get through the front line.

And essentially what Sevir did was apply something similar.

People running from a little bit deeper, going into the gap behind the fullbacks.

There's a lovely bit of footage.

The players come off for the drinks break.

30 minutes, 33 minutes at the weekend.

And Matteo Salmeida gets the players together.

Sevira at this point of winning 1-0 and could already be be 4-0 up and he says to them do not let them think and he says and he has got a yellow card and he's talking about the left back for for barcelona and he says it's touch return go touch return go touch return go and then he says and i love this and not least because it sounds kind of sort of almost doctor evil he says liquidate this oh good

you know don't sit back you've just got to keep on going at this lot now they scored three minutes later so i suppose that part of the plan was good you're right though that the second half bars and were better marcus rascals scores a really lovely volley just before halftime they get a penalty which they miss and they had chances particularly uh runy uh baji who had a couple of good chances but then severe catch them twice at the end but all of the goals are through that line i'm going to defend flick quite a bit here because all the last season it felt like we were obsessed by this high line and at the end of it you go well actually you know what they were brilliant And they did this high line brilliantly.

And so there's a bit of me that thinks, yes, we know that there's a risk in the high line.

And I'm sure Flick knows it as well.

And we know that that comes with

an environment in which occasionally, when they get caught, they'll get caught badly.

But when they get it right, it's fantastically useful for them.

The Bernaval last year in the first Classico, they caught Madrid offside 12 times, Mbappe eight times.

You know, and this is working perfectly.

So I think part of what's happening now is it's not working as well.

It's not just that they're doing, you know, the fact of doing the high line.

It's doing the high line really, really badly.

I think the absence of Inigo Martinez, who was the one that led the line last year in the timing, is really important.

He's gone to Saudi Arabia.

I think they're not putting pressure on the

passes the way that they did before.

And yeah, the weekend, it looked absolutely

awful.

Sure.

And I guess idiots like me can spot this as opposed to teams conceding other goals that's just

slightly different or slightly more complicated.

This is the other part of it.

So the other part of it, there's been a lot of discussion about how, well, opponents have worked this out.

Now, obviously,

as you say, and I'm not pointing at you now, Max, but

any idiot can see it because it's such an obvious

and identifiable characteristic of the way they play.

But of course, there's a difference between seeing it and being able to play against it and working it out.

Because as I say, last year, loads of off-sides, their timing was brilliant.

I think what's happening is other teams are working out ways of getting the timing right at exactly the point at which Barcelona are getting the timing wrong.

I was just wondering, Sid, because it's like one of those weird things where you can easily think, especially it's early in the season, read too much and disappoint numbers like this.

But when I was having a glance at the table this morning, I did think to myself, there's not a single single team in spain in the league or anyway um that has conceded fewer goals than played games is that just the moment the league is having a little bit that um there's not really anyone who's defending that well or even trying to to play in a more cautious way do you know what i i that's not that's not something i'd i'd noticed it feels like rail madrid are uh maybe a little bit not cautious but organized and they're structured better villareal are a team that i think are well structured and play largely on the break i must admit i hadn't realized they'd conceded um that many i i think it probably is

about the way teams are approaching it.

Elche, I always feel like a very well-structured and well-organized and don't concede many.

But yeah, it probably is something about them.

them not defending that brilliantly.

Cavalier League.

Stephen says, Dear Max and Barry, who isn't here, can you please get Dr.

Low on to talk about La Liga staging matches abroad?

Does the good doctor think this is a turning point in football or simply a gimmick?

Also, is this Barca pulling another lever out of thin air?

You know, this goes for you as well, Nick, isn't it?

Because so Villarreal Barcelona will be played in Miami, which will be Barca's home game, and then Milan have been permitted to play Como in Perth in Australia.

It'll be Barcelona's away game, but it will feel like a

game, which is actually obviously part of the debate about this, whether this adulterates the competition, whether it, you know, it depurifies it.

Is that a real word?

Depurifies?

Anyway, whatever the word is, it is now.

It is now, yeah.

Did you see the the UEFA ruling on this yesterday?

Yeah, when it said it had reiterated its clear opposition to domestic league matches being played outside their home country.

However, given that that the relevant FIFA regulatory framework currently under review is not clear and detailed enough, the UEFA Executive Committee has reluctantly taken the decision to approve on an exceptional basis the two requests referred to it.

And I think UEFA's fear, reading the game's piece, is that if they tried to, if they said no and there'd been a legal debate, it could have like opened the floodgates.

And this is UEFA's way of saying yes, but no.

but yes.

But I mean, I thought it was very, very striking,

the way it was expressed.

And you've just

read it there, that idea of yes, but no.

Well, first of all, if you're really opposed to it, you can say no.

But as you, you're absolutely right.

I was talking to someone about this yesterday.

It's about the fear that actually they're not on very good legal,

they haven't got good legal support to be able to say no, because then they'll find a legal challenge.

So they would rather effectively be working behind the scenes to get some of those legal, what would you call it, that legal framework in place and maybe even have a challenge on the law and allow this to happen and be ready to stop it next time.

But there was the other part of their statement which said, this doesn't set a precedent.

And I thought, well, by definition, it does, surely.

The statement made me think that Chefferin either doesn't have children or is not heavily involved with raising them.

Because it is this sort of thing of like, yeah, but just this once.

I'm completely against this, but I will permit it now.

It's like, no, that does not work.

When you open the door to that, you're done.

The one time I let the dog sleep on the bed and then never stopped again after that.

It's done.

That's over.

Yeah.

What's the reaction?

So in Italy, it's because the Winter Olympics is happening at the San Ciro.

Is that right?

That's the reasoning they're using.

I mean, that's a good excuse, isn't it?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think it's reminding me a bit of the discussions around when the Super League talk was happening because I had a lot of

British-based editors and producers at that time asking, oh, you know, the Italian fans are as angry as the English ones.

Of course, we saw the Super League, there was a big response in England in terms of fan protest.

And I do think there's a slightly different...

air about the way Italy responds to these things where it's not positive in lots of cases, but it's almost like this air of resignation about this sort of stuff happening.

And I think it was voiced actually even by Max Legri, who's the Milan manager, where he said,

essentially, they tell us we have to go to Perth.

We'll go to Perth.

And he specifically used the word portropo.

Unfortunately, this is the way that football is moving.

So he's not saying, he's not being a good company guy and saying, I'm so happy to go to Perth and do this.

He's going, yeah, it's a bit of shit, but that's just how things are.

And I think that's a very Italian

view view on this stuff.

I did think it was interesting, Carolina Moracia, who's a former player for the Italy women's team and who is now, I think, a member of European Parliament.

I saw she was saying

a point that hadn't been discussed so much, which was, she said, I think some of the people who are making this decision have never been to Perth in February.

because people these players are going to be going from a Milanese winter, which is pretty cold, to nearly 40 degrees to play a football match.

And people haven't thought that through.

So I think there's going to be some stuff that continues to go with that.

I think, of course,

there's likely to be at least something from the ultras, but I expect it'll probably come more in the form of grumbling banners than the sort of hugely angry protest that we got with England in the Super League.

And the reaction in Spain is, well, apart from the sort of fair, you know, the it'll be a Barca home game, because unsurprisingly, there are more Barca fans in Miami than Villa Royale fans.

But aside from that, is this a kind of, is there panic here?

This has been coming for such a long time that it's kind of, there's an inevitability about it as well.

Exactly the kind of scenario that Nikki's explaining in Italy happened in Spain, the Super League.

No one really, there was a bit of, there was a little bit of complaints about it, but it would never have been stopped by Spanish fans the way it was by English partly, of course, because the nature of Spanish football is different and the polarization of it and the fact that it's dominated by Madrid and Barcelona, who are the two partners in that Super League project.

In fact, there's been suggestions this week that Madrid might be about to be on their own in that, that Barcelona are starting to seek a bit of reconciliation with UEFA, which I think is always what Barcelona wanted, that the Super League would, to use Laporta's favourite word, be a lever, which would gain them a little bit more traction with UEFA and a bit more power there.

There was something

a week or so ago, which really, really struck me on this.

And the CEO of Villa Real, I can't remember.

I apologize to this.

I can't remember the context of the question, but his response was to say that it was about the Federation of Supporters clubs had said something about it and he basically said well that lot

you know generate 22 million a year or something everything in the odds sorry 22 is it 22 000 220 000 anyway he gave some figure he said this lot generate this much a year and whereas going to the us is worth this much and our schools in the us and our academies in the us and all this stuff generates this much and he was essentially saying you can sod off you're irrelevant compared to us going to the to the us and the thing that was so striking wasn't so much the content of what he said because you know in a way we were all confronted with a reality which is an uncomfortable one which is where the money is generated is where the money is generated it was the it was the totally dismissive tone of his fans yeah you know and and those fans then became quite docile and backed down and said oh yeah all right then which i was really struck by and it was as i say for me it was the tone it then there's a whole debate here we could be here all day and i i sort of don't want to be which is that i don't know about i i'd like someone to explain to me in very simple terms, because I'm quite a simple man with colors, drawings, if they possibly could, and maybe a pie chart and stuff, how much difference this actually makes, taking one game to the US in terms of development of football in Spain.

You know, so for example, you get the CAO of Villarreal saying, look at what we generate with our soccer schools in the US and our academies and so on.

Okay, but you've already got those.

You going to the US.

for a home game against Barcelona in which the stadium will be full of Barcelona fans.

What's the tangible impact of this?

Now, I'm perfectly prepared for someone to be able to demonstrate to me what it really means.

But there's a bit of me that thinks, in the grand scheme of things, how much difference is this actually going to make?

And if that's the case, then how many games have to go to make it worth it?

You know, exactly.

And I don't know what the answer is.

And I'd love to know, for example, the NFL figures, how much difference it makes bringing games to Europe,

what the actual tangible impact of that is.

And it might be huge, but is a bit of me that thinks, is it really?

Because the people who go are already supporting you.

Yeah.

So, yes, you get that game, but you get the one day of massive ticket sales, but it's one.

Does that actually make a difference?

I think, just to jump in on that, like, because I used to cover the NFL

much more.

And, like, from the NFL's perspective, it's, it's specifically that they really feel like they're pretty close to tapping out as much as they can make from American fans, right?

That's, I mean, obviously, like, there's always like a new technology which might give you something else, but they've got as many fans in America as they can get.

So, if you want, like, like everything in uh in capitalism you have to keep growing everything has to be bigger every year and if you physically can't do that in the audience you've got anymore it's the only other place to look and i think there's yeah there's some replication of that obviously it's a bit different with european football because there's not just one country you're you're you're targeting to begin with but there's mls there's the a-league right and i don't know how the london monarchs are doing but really you know it is slightly different even though if i was a you know the cleveland browns are playing the vikings at tottenham stadium or wemby i forget which you know if i was if you know you don't get that many home games in American football.

I'd be furious if I had a season ticket and one of them went away.

But it is slightly different because there isn't like a competing sport on the ground that someone goes, well, I'll go and watch Barcelona Villarreal and I won't go and watch into Miami.

Perhaps a bad example of, or, you know, Perth Glory, because I'll go to this game instead.

And so that doesn't feel sort of, it doesn't, it certainly feels completely wrong to me, but maybe, you know, younger listeners.

I mean, those are, there are those kind of moral questions and what it feels like and and whether it feels right.

And to me, it doesn't.

But as I say, I'm more, in a way, I'm more kind of interested in

sort of challenging the assumptions that this is even a good thing in terms of the business model, like that this necessarily makes a really big difference.

Because ultimately, what drives,

well, La Liga, for example, and La Premier League and everyone else is the TV rights.

So the fact that you take a game and play it in Miami, one a season, does that actually impact upon that fundamental basic economic model?

And I as I say, I'm perfectly prepared for cleverer people, and there are a lot of them out there, to say to me this is why and this shows it and this proves it and this has an impact the other thing that should be noted i think here

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given that the starting point of this we were talking about the super league and how england was different and so on one of the things in this and what nikki was saying about italy you've sort of got to try something is that there is a conceptual belief which they don't want to admit which is the fear that the premier league just runs away with everything and that premier league becomes a de facto super league and so you've got to do something to try and counteract that.

Sid said he didn't want to be here all day, but does he want to be here for the next half hour?

Find out in just a second.

Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly.

Hey, Sid.

Hello.

Let's do Serie A.

Napoli, top of Serie A.

Roma, level on points with them.

Everyone's played six.

Milan, two points behind on 13, then Inter and Juve, fourth and fifth.

I suppose Juve, Milan seemed like the biggest game of the weekend here, Nikki.

Kristen Pudicic ballooning a penalty over the bar.

Lovely ball by Luca Modric in the build-up to that, and Lloyd Kelly bringing down his man.

How's Luca Modric doing?

That's why it was just nice to see him there setting up Liao for a lovely chance.

You know, that cliche that the pace of the game will suit him.

How's he getting on?

He's doing really good.

I mean, it's so fun to watch him, Max.

And Sid knows this because he's been currying him for how many years, but getting to

call it work when you're watching him play football is one of those things where you're like, oh, this is just great.

I'm really enjoying this.

He was absolutely magnificent in the game against Napoli.

Is it a week ago?

My sense of time is all wonky at the moment.

I don't know which way I'm facing, but yeah, the last round,

he absolutely outshone Kevin De Bruyne.

And I suppose that head-to-head between the two big,

slightly older, I mean, a lot older in Modric's case, stars who arrived in Italy this summer.

Yeah, I think the thing with Modric that shines out, obviously, all the stuff about what he is as a technical player, for things he can do on the ball, that's

a joy to watch.

watch and it's not new.

I think what stood out for me

in this first part of the season is how absolutely evidently he is not done competing.

I think you see in the way that he puts himself about the pitch, you see in the way that he celebrates, you see in the way that he like...

genuinely like is reacting to results as if they mean everything to him.

And that's the thing which you just don't know with someone when they're at that point of their career.

Is this just going to be a little farewell tour coming to Milan and getting to live in the city and

have that experience.

It very clearly isn't that at all for him.

It very clearly is he's here to try to win something.

And honestly, this Milan team might just.

Max Allegri has come back with a fresh version of the old theme of a Legri ball.

I mean it's be tight at the back and trust your very good players to be very good going forwards.

But one of those players is Luca Modric.

It really helps.

I think he's a moved to put Christian Pudic

closer to goal in that central role is paying dividends right now.

I know he missed that penalty, but it's a great start to the season.

He looks really sharp there at the moment.

And this team was getting results at the start of the season, even without Rafael Liao, who was injured.

So when you put all that together, remember they're not in Europe, which of course, again, is maybe a good thing for Modric playing a little bit less, even though I'm certain he wants to be back in the Champions League.

It feels like a good recipe there at the moment.

And yeah, Modric is Modric is brilliant.

And I actually think watching him right now, you think to yourself he's he's definitely going to be there next season playing the Champions League again isn't he's going to be there so good and just on Max Allegri and and uh and this is self-indulgent and them going to Perth which I should have done in part one but I left my AirPods in a plane Qantas plane in Perth and I can see them on find my you know on my app but you have to go and get them in person and they're at terminal four in Perth so just in case Max Allegri listens to this when you do get there could you go and pick them up and send them to me um napoli max why do you why do you think it's max allegory that has to pick them up and not Luca or Rafael Liao?

Maybe I'll take any of them.

Any of them.

I mean, I don't mind which one.

Yeah, if Liao wants to pick them up, totally fine.

Given, you know, Christian Puric, maybe he does.

Maybe that could be the rapprochement

between

the pod and Christian Puricich.

Napoli at top, Rasmus Holland getting another win.

At last, I'll bring you in as a Nord.

A Nordic man.

It's so great to see him, you know, and it was another proper sort of centre-forwards goal that he scored.

Yeah, I mean, I think I said it on the the last pod i was on i just think the key to health and life and happiness is to leave man united

to the point where i think it's worth trying to go to man united so that you can leave it

and get the post man united bounds it's it's it's like a therapy isn't it yeah it's like it's like a like a detoxification clinic you go there you do really horrible cold turkey you know but you come out of it

so i have a friend who went to this sort of detoxifying like fasting thing in thailand where you just don't eat anything for a very long time and you have constant like colonic irrigations and they try to get all the stuff out of your body and he was completely shocked by all the crap very literally that came out of him and he decided to never eat certain food.

I think that's like what Man United could become.

Maybe this is what they could market themselves as.

Like just come in.

And then when you leave, you'll be very happy again.

No, I think, and also just like I'm being super flippant, but I also think on a human level, it's nice to see these guys having this much fun.

It's tremendous to see McDominé become like an actual superstar in one of the coolest like football cities around it's tremendous to see rasmus hyland smiling again you know it's bringing joy to the world nikki it's a little bit tough with mctominay at the moment i mean first of all just on your your um united point like even just seeing him at the presentations in preseason like obviously he did win the senior mvp award last season which is going to give you a bit more like confidence a bit more swagger isn't it but i honestly like i'm looking at him in pictures i'm looking at one video and i'm thinking is that even the same person like he suddenly looks like he's he's had like a physical glow up.

He looks like he looks different.

Like it has changed him living there.

It's really like striking.

I think if you look at the just

as simple as looking at pictures of him when he arrives from United and what he looks like now, maybe that's just the years or whatever else, but he looks like he's a whole different person.

Having said that, McTommoning hasn't had as great a start this season.

He hasn't been bad, but there is this now slightly weird dynamic in the structure of that team because you have got De Bruyne there and they kind of do their best work in the same space.

And Conte has tried to accommodate that by shifting to this

sort of 4141 where you've got that, I guess, line of

players just behind Hoyland who've all got licensed to get forward and get back.

But because you've got De Bruyne and Anguies as the two central pieces in that puzzle, McTominay's pushed out to the left, whereas before he was coming through the middle and attacking in the central space a lot more.

And it has pushed him wider.

It has changed the way he interacts with the team.

And he has been less impactful.

And it's very early this season.

So it's also really easy to overstate that and to read too much into it.

So I think it's

avoid doing that.

But I do think it's an interesting dynamic to watch and see how that continues to play out.

Came from behind to win this game.

Jenno's goal was set up brilliantly by an Englishman called Brooke Norton Cuffy, who may be familiar to lincoln rotheram coventry and millwall fans um so it's quite interesting when you see english player i mean i don't know how many there are and you know lots more scottish players going to to serie

yeah

the scottish thing i think there's like at least a little bit of of the thing that happens all the time in football which is copycat stuff uh one club sees another club do something successfully and thinks oh have we been missing that but it it was definitely a a moment that that came a bit out of uh covert and the lockdowns and i think scouting moving a bit more to by mandatorily moving to different methods and people relying on tape and video.

And for whatever reasons, these things just led to different avenues being looked at.

And there was this kind of collective realisation that Scotland

had become a place where you could get players

who weren't necessarily valued expensively as ones from just south of the border, perhaps, but who still might have had those experiences of playing some European football at young ages for clubs in Scotland.

And I think some of those opportunities started to be developed.

And then I think there's also like on the other side of it,

absolutely a network of players who talk to each other and say, hey, like life over here is pretty good.

And that has a knock-on impact as well.

But yeah, obviously there's

the Scottish contingent.

Shea Adams scored at the weekend as well.

And Torino's 3-3 draw against

Lazio hasn't been starting so much this season because Simeoni's been taking that number nine spot there.

But yeah, I got the goal.

And then perhaps even, even, if you want to widen the net, Irish as well, Evan Ferguson at Roma, who looked really promising to start the season.

The problem with Evan Ferguson is he doesn't score.

He does everything else really well.

And I think everyone's been pretty impressed with how he started in Team Link up play and everything.

But he's on a really long run now of games where he just isn't scoring at all.

And I think that's...

that's a question that needs to be resolved for him.

But yes, the Scottish group are mostly thriving, I think,

different places.

Josh Doig is starting every game at Sassuolo, Ferguson at Bologna,

injured to start the season, but back in there and captaining them at the weekend.

Billy Gilmore isn't really in the starting 11 for Napoli, but you...

but he gets to play and when you listen to Conte he talks about how much he loves him in training and I think that's almost

something that Conte is going to value a lot even if you're not the guy who is going to be in the sighting 11 every week, having players in the squad who he trusts to make everyone else work their butt off in training that might have to do as well.

So, yeah, lots of success stories, definitely.

We should talk about the Italian national team who are

second in their group.

Do we have to?

Well, I mean, just the thought of them missing three World Cups in a row is too much.

But, you know, that was a massive win in the last international break, wasn't it?

The problem Italy have in qualifying now is that it's almost impossible for them to get past Norway unless Norway loses someone else or drop points to someone else, I mean rather, because the goal difference is so out of hand for Italy now.

Italy needs to win everything and hope that Norway chuck it somewhere, I think, which isn't looking especially likely at this point in the group.

And if Italy don't do that, then they go to a playoff again.

Yeah, I think things have been very messy.

My confidence in Gattuzzo as a tactician is not the highest, but I also think that international managers don't necessarily have to be the best tacticians.

and if gatusa can do the thing which is kind of the brand he's come in on of of bringing back that sense of uh of of unity and and shared purpose to the team then that would be something

and um i do think international football is very vibes based this is the thing i talk about all the time i've talked about it on the podcast a hundred times i'm sure and i think if he can do that right that would be something and there was some spirit if nothing else in the last couple of games so fingers crossed yeah i think the key game in this group then for and the key moment for italy is this next international game when Norway play Israel.

Because after that, I mean, we've got the Italy game again, which we could lose, but the goal difference is so much in our favor.

And we've got Estonia, which I don't think we're going to screw up.

But this Israel game is a little...

You know, Martin Edgar was pulled out of the squad with the injury.

And the Israel game is an awkward thing for Norway because, as you might be aware, politically, the

resistance to Israel's actions in Gaza is extremely strong in Norway.

I think Norway is one of the countries in Europe who are the most upset about this.

And there's a lot of people in Norway who I think feel this game shouldn't be happening at all.

So there is a framework around that game that just adds a little bit of extra to it.

I do think Norway should be fine just because Erling Holland is just back in complete freak mode and you just think that over 90 minutes against a not very good international team, he will get a couple of goals almost no matter what happens.

And that should be fine.

But I guess if you're one of the people who are listening who's a big IFLI fan, this is the game to really look out for in this international break.

I do think, just honestly, like the other positive for Ithi, I do feel like there is a current interesting moment of some younger players starting to show up a bit, like Matteo Conchellieri at Lazio, who was restricted at the weekend.

But it feels still like we're clutching a bit for

these players who are not yet at the level they need to be.

But there's some good stuff happening.

I always think Moise Akina has really like

pushed on again this last year and a bit for Fiorentina and him being showing some of that for the national team.

And of course, Rotigi, even though he's gone away to Saudi, coming back and scoring goals for the national team, I think there are some good things in the international national team.

Maybe not as many as there need to be.

But yeah, the situation in the group is just

so hard to unpick unless Norway throw it somewhere else, basically.

Yeah, Moisa Kane scored a nice goal in the

defeat, Fiorentina's defeat to Rome.

And we're saying that we're doing a pod on Friday after England Play Wales

with Johnny Lou and Philippe and Barry.

And we will talk about the latest John UEFAS possible ban on Israel and on Israeli teams in European competitions as well.

And actually, we had a message from a fan saying that we didn't mention the minute silence at Manchester United and

Brentford Manchester City in solidarity with the Jewish community in Manchester.

And

we probably should have mentioned that, and we didn't.

And so, of course, our hearts obviously go out to anyone who is the victim of any terror attack and

the three injured as well in a serious condition after that attack at a synagogue in Manchester.

And we send our love to all of you, and we'll be back in just a second.

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Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly.

Sid, you alright?

Hi, Max.

This is what happens.

It's exciting, isn't it?

It's good.

It's very exciting.

I've been watching the background in your room trying to work out what everything is.

That's a signed...

No, it's not signed, signed, but it's a frame picture of Ian Culverhaus.

I thought it might be Culverhaus.

I'm not going to ask you the obvious question because whenever I do, I don't get an answer.

No, no, you can't.

Bayern Munich, top of Bundesliga, 18 points, six wins in a row.

Dortmund have 14.

Then come Leipzig, a point behind them.

Stuttgart, a point behind them.

Leber Kusen, a point behind them.

Kerlen, a point behind them.

And Frankfurt, a point behind them.

And I'm not going to read any more at the table.

Look, Bayern beat Frankfurt Lars at the weekend.

They scored after 15 seconds.

Harry Kane broke another new sort of tenuous record.

The first Bundesliga player to reach 11 goals after six games, has 18 in 10 across all competitions.

I mean, his goal was brilliant and he had another one disallowed.

The just effortless centre-forward play.

Yeah, he is remarkable, Harry Kane.

And actually, that goal, it's worth looking up.

Because if you've just

seen it from the normal angle, I'm not sure you really appreciate how good a hit it is.

There is a video doing the rounds where you can kind of of see it filmed from behind from the stands.

And you can see it's kind of hit.

He starts outside the post and kind of swerves it.

I'll say this.

Because Harry Kane is such a big golfer, it is like a punch three-iron, like with a bit of a fade on it.

It's a punchy three-iron fade, maybe even two iron, the sort of with a swaz off the, it's such a beautiful strike.

I do think, like,

maybe he gets enough credit.

I don't know.

I do feel like maybe since he's gone to Germany now, he's kind of disappeared a little bit from the national conversation about football in England.

I think there is a slight underappreciation for just what Harry Kane has done and how many goals he scored in Germany and what an impact he's had.

And what is, I think it was Andy Brassel referring to it in the big paper as initially a marriage of convenience, but one that has grown.

quite a lot closer.

And he's someone who seems to, because he's such a calm and uncomplicated guy, he's perhaps even more appreciated at Bayern, a team where there's often like quite a a lot of chaos and combustible characters and a lot of drama, you know, famously referred to as FC Hollywood.

Harry Kane, there's not a lot of Hollywood about him.

He just works really hard and behaves himself and goes about his job and scores a phenomenal amount of goals.

And it has been a real success story for him to the point where he's now opened the door.

I mean, he's been...

surprisingly forthright about how when he first went there he had half an eye on on maybe coming back to England at some point because he does have that goal scoring record still in his sights.

But he did say now recently that he's maybe now thinking less about individual awards and possibly what they can achieve as the team because they are going very well at the moment, Brian.

And I suppose can you make a case for anyone to challenge them?

It is early in the season, I guess.

No.

No, okay.

No, it's kind of, and this, and this weekend, I think, brought a bit of clarity.

I mean, I'm sorry, but I think it's six games in, so maybe it sounds ludicrous, but they've been so good.

I mean, six wins out of six, okay, but they've scored 25 goals and conceded three.

Like,

they were playing Frankfurt, who Frankfurt are having a bit of a weird one at the moment.

I mean, really, you do make an effort to watch Frankfurt's recent games.

In their last four games coming into this, they beat Galtas Rey 5-1 in the Champions League, then they lost 4-3 to Union Berlin, then they beat Gladbach 6-4 before then losing 5-1 to Atletico Madrid.

So, like,

there's a lot going on with Frankfurt right now, but they are one of those teams that on paper should be capable of maybe potentially giving Bayern a game, especially at home.

And then the game starts, and Bayern are wandel up in 15 seconds.

It's just ludicrous.

They're very, very good.

And that's without Jamal Musiela.

It's without Alfonso Davis.

Are they Champions League winning good?

That's the thing.

That's the thing that's very difficult to judge.

I think with Barcelona having some issues that we explored and Sid explored in part one, I think with Real Madrid maybe not being the best version of themselves just yet.

I think with Liverpool having some issues betting in all these new signings, I think there's a case to be made for Bayern being the strongest-looking team in Europe right now.

But the caveat being they're not being pushed domestically.

They don't have strong opponents domestically.

And that's kind of what I want to mention in this segment before time runs away from us.

It's almost almost more interesting than this game was Boosa Dortmund playing Leipzig this weekend, ended up a 1-1 draw.

Because with Bayern Levikuzen having stepped on a bit of a landmine in the appointment of Eric and Hag and having to rejig their whole season and start over again, They're not expected to be a factor in the tackle race, I don't think, Levikusin.

So you look at Dortmund and Leipzig as the ones who you're hoping will challenge Bayern.

Now, that was a 1-1 draw, and it wasn't a bad game of football, but neither of them looked like they're on the same level as Bayern, really.

Dortmund under Nico Korvaks have stabilized, and Nico Korvaks is an experienced coach.

He came in last season and really kind of went back to basics, put in a back three,

really hard-working fullbacks.

Dortmund kind of having had two really bad seasons in which they've been, I think, respectively, 25 and 27 points behind the league leader, which is not good enough.

Like, if you're Dortmund, you can say it's hard for us to compete with Bayern sure, but you really should be the best of the rest.

You shouldn't be miles off, and they have been.

And they really lost their way, I think, as a club in a lot of ways.

They used to have this thing of always finding the next big thing, whether that's Bellingham or Osman Tembello or Arling Holland or Jadon Sancho, it looked like for a while.

And they combine being this elite finishing school for European talents with having a solid framework around that.

That only works as long as you keep finding the next big global superstar.

And they just haven't for a little while.

And the framework around it hasn't been that strong.

Under Kovacs, they're now quite gritty, hard-working team.

Kovacs spoke in the summer about how he's had to rebuild their confidence a little bit, work on that.

But it is all very much like, there's an element of going back to basics with it.

You can stabilize things that way and you can try to claw your way back to second, but you probably in the state the squad is in, the way they're playing, they don't look like a team that can challenge Bayern plausibly, which leaves Abi Leipzig, who are just kind of remain Abby Leipzig.

They've got a lot of hardworking, energetic players.

But there is the sense that there is a...

Actually challenging for the title is a step too far for them.

So that's a very long way of saying, no, I don't think anyone will challenge Bayern for the title.

And I do think they are a credible threat in the Champions League this year.

This is a Lars, this is a Premier League-centric question, but it is sort of Germany-based and it's, you know, Leber-Kusen-ish.

AAF says, tell me everything is going to be okay with Wierts.

And I think it is an interesting, I think it's one of the sort of fascinating questions at the moment in the Premier League is how Wierts is getting on.

Yeah, yeah.

I feel like it's every time I'm on anything, someone will ask that.

Is this the defining question of the nation at the moment?

Are we all sort of on Wierts watch?

No, but I do understand because of the price tag and because of the expectations.

My take is that, and not even my, you don't even need to have watched him that much for Levikuzin to know this.

You can just watch his highlights reel on YouTube to see that so much of his best work is relational.

It's about connecting with playing little quick passes around the edge of the box, playing little one-twos, you know, making the players around him better.

And I think when you've just arrived at a new club where there's a few other new players and people are not quite on the same frequency yet and they're not quite finding each other, and you yourself haven't quite gotten used to the pace pace and the different opponents you're meeting in the new league it becomes a challenge i definitely think he needs a goal or something like this for just for confidence reasons because

you know

i i'm sure it's not affecting him that much but i'm sure it's not not affecting him either you know becoming the becoming the talking point of the nation is not great for your psycho your mental state i don't think but i i'm i'm confident that the talent's there i'm confident that really any club in europe that's there's none of the top clubs wouldn't have made that deal if they had the money and the ability to do it.

I suspect City were a little miffed.

I have a feeling City were looking at him as a De Bruyne replacement and

that was something they wanted to do.

I'm pretty confident he's,

I know he's good, and I think it'll be okay.

But I think it's a question of him and the team growing together and figuring each other out over a little bit of time.

Finally, Lars, Maker says there's quite a thing about to happen in Alsvenskan.

What's happening in Sweden, Lars?

Mielby, and this is such a, I mean, this is ticking so many boxes for a Scandinavian footballing underdog story.

I, I, it, it really, uh, because Mjelby are a team from a tiny, tiny place in Sweden, uh, kind of like a farming and uh, farming and agricultural uh area.

Nick Ames has done a big, good piece on it back in August and in the Guardian paper.

You can look up if you want, but the

sort of municipality has 14,000 inhabitants.

It's one of those places that people drive through and forget about instantly.

And

they have a team that has that has been in the top division before but they've been mostly like part-timers and

they're they're they're heading towards winning the league and it's remarkable and it's done on an absolute shoestring no massive investment from from abroad or anywhere else that doesn't happen in scandinavian football really uh the head coach is a guy who used to be a principal of a local school that feels like your sort of scandinavian footballing fairy tale check mark yeah that's good but it's not just to make it i think i feel like this is also important for a scandinavian footballing underday story They've brought in a nerd, and I say this

affectionately.

The assistant coach is a young Norwegian guy who hadn't worked in football at that level before, but has a PhD in visual perception in elite football.

So they've got in one of these, you know, the big tactics blogger energy from Carl Marius Axum, but who's clearly a very intelligent guy and is credited with changing the way they play and making them like the more sort of high-pressing, etc.

Yeah, so there's a lot of good stuff about the small community, local wholesome things an imported nerd from norway and a team that is punching so far above their weight it's it's it's it's extraordinary and they they might be about to win the league in sweden paul writes while in bangkok on a work trip this weekend i took the opportunity to venture down to the fantastic PAT or PAT stadium a few minutes from the center of Bangkok to watch a Thai Premier League match, Port Ev C versus Kachanburi.

In Barry, where is Sergio Ramos playing category?

To my surprise, playing in an advanced right wing, cutting inside to use his left foot was Andros Townsend wearing the captain's armband and cutting a frustrated figure on a bog of a pitch after an early sending off using VAR.

Yes, it's reached Southeast Asia.

Andros Townsend's Kachin Buri lost 8-0 to Port FC.

Pictures attached.

I'm not sure if Troy watches all his games like he watched all his Everton games, but thank you for letting us know where Andros is.

It's good to hear as well that Andros Townsend has evolved tactically and he's now doing something totally different to what he's done throughout his entire career.

He's very much, you know, the better version of iron robin is how i like to see it um and that'll do for today hey thanks for doing part three thanks for saying that thing at the end sid so it was worth you being here i could prove i was still here and it wasn't just a picture are you growing a jeff from biker grove or you just have a very grey beard it is no no it's not there it's it's absolutely not a handlebar moustache it's just unfortunately my beard color is that the handlebar bit is darker than the rest of it so it's it's pure laziness and yes jeff from biker grove is not really a life ambition for me well there's no better look, if you ask me.

Anyway, that'll do for today.

Thanks, everybody.

Thank you, Nikki.

Thanks.

Thanks, Lars.

Bye, Max.

Thank you, Sid.

Cheerio, Max.

Thank you.

Thanks for staying for the whole thing.

Amazing.

Football Weekly is produced by Joel Grove.

Our executive producer is Danielle Stevens.

This is The Guardian.

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