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Welcome to the Total Soccer Show and the glorious Return of the Weekend Review! United went to Holland back, Carrick's at the wheel, but is he on the right track? Arsenal start looked pretty flawless and proved you don't need a Vinny when you've got a Zoolis. Liverpool were taken for a bit of a ride by a new look energetic new castle side, and Tottenham may have won the window and blown through their spending cap, but on the field, they still look a bit rubbish. And on the continent, Josie Breenio's side got off to a winning stop, but do they have what it takes to set themselves apart? My name's Ryan Bailey, let's go with the Weekend Review Taylor Robco, say hi Taylor, how are you? I'm doing well, a standard Weekend, we also have this coming Hall City Terrible, Ipswich already relegated Manchester United and Spurs, both going to challenge for the title. Obviously, that's how this Weekend played out, we all saw this coming. All went to form, and any experts who did previews all of last week have been made to look amazing. I know it's Week 1, I know we're not supposed to overreact, I'm still overreacting that, like this Weekend was just like, oh, you think you know things, do you? Well, you know nothing, and how dare you forever, even presuming to presume that you know something. Okay, speaking of that Graham Robson, say hello, Graham, how are you? Hello, Ryan Bailey, what a way to lead me into this episode. However, I am now cleaner than ever before that Hall City are the unidentified title, outside title challenger that I, I tipped on Friday's episode of Predictions episode, I said, someone is going to do a Lester City or Threaten a Lester City, it's Hall, I know it's Hall now, Olimit Burnay, the MKM Stadia atmosphere, I've seen it, I've seen it with it, it's tiny little pitch that Taylor messes me about to complain about before half time saying, Rashi is back, Rashi apparently was back, and then just really see it in the second half, it was a whole thing. But yes, excited to talk about the Premier League being back, European leagues being back, I messed it, the routine feels good to be back in the routine. It definitely does, yeah, many nights have nice kits at least, maybe we'll touch on that a bit later as well, Taylor's not sure on that one, but Joe Loury, say hi, Joe, how are you? Hi, I'm great, man, it's no green and white QR code barcode kit from A Testionator, but it'll do in the meantime, Graham is really unlocked the secret of just soccer punditry, you make all these observations about all these teams and you sort of give assessments of how you think they're going to do, you make predictions of the top five, etc, etc, and then at the very end, the last thing you say before the season starts, is that, oh, well, maybe there'll be a Lester City, all bases covered, truly, Graham covered every single base, if the big teams win it, well, Graham called that, Lester City equivalent wins it, well, Graham called that too. Now, I just, I bow before the presence of a soccer pundit, just big brain. I figured out, I'm actually big brain. I've figured it out, there used to be people back in the day in Twitter, like ITK accounts that would tweet random stuff out and then delete things that weren't available, that basically counts. Yeah, and the no accounts. Oh, wow. Young, young, young. That feels like a pretty neat environment. So, Joe wasn't ITK, but ITK, wow. I've never heard a more my space sounding term in my life, that's what I'm saying. Yeah, and Indy Kale, I made a whole career for myself out of it, dragged myself at a KFC using that method. I saw them apologizing to Fabricio Romano on the, so let's not go down that road. Let's talk about soccer instead. Plenty to talk about on this episode. Lots of Premier League to get to. And we have a Patreon, by the way, patreon.com, slash total soccer show. All of the goodness we don't get to on this episode, we'll get to on our bonus feed, including but not limited to a big, old deep dive on Tottenham and their defeat at the hands of Brent for this weekend. We'll go a bit deeper on that one on the bonus feed patreon.com slash total soccer show. Thank you to everybody who supports us there. We love you. Before we get to the action, Graham, you've got some kind of campaign trying to get more people to come to Scotland. Can you tell us about it? That's right. Yeah. So this is a bit of a special announcement, something that has been in the works for a while. So we are announcing the first ever total soccer show trip. And we are going to Scotland or rather people are coming to Scotland. I'm already here, but we want to get a sense of people's interest in a trip that is planned for late October. If there was interest, we could also do it in the spring if people preferred, but this is a, this will be a trip that is designed to give guests a real sense of Scottish soccer and I guess Scotland as a whole. The plan is to take in four games. Some of those games will be high level games, including clubs like hearts and Rangers and Hibernan, but you cannot do. This is where you can tell my fingerprints are on this trip. You cannot do a Scottish soccer trip without attending a lowly game. So we're going to go to a Breakin City match at Gleib Park, which is the only stadium in Europe that has a hedge running along one side of the pitch. It's famous in Scottish football. You need to say a word for it. Yeah. And Gleib Park is genuinely, in my opinion, it's one of the best lowly grounds in the country. I really love going there. So we'll get a full spectrum of Scottish Soccer's wonders, which may include a prior to. And yes, this is a soccer trip and we're going to go to some games, but there will also be some other experiences in there as well. Some of them will be soccer related like visiting the Scottish Football Museum at Hamden Park, also getting a pint at the Tencast alarms, which is this old school hearts pub around the corner from Tencastle. I love going in there for a pint on the odd occasion. I see hearts. And we're also going to do some non-soccer stuff like go for a hike in the Kerengorn Mountains and visit a distillery or two for a dram and we'll be eating well in local restaurants as well. So I think this will be a really special trip. If this sounds like your sort of thing and there's a URL that you can go to and register your interest so that URL is earthlydelights.club forward slash TSS and you'll also find that link in the in the show notes on and what a podcast provider you're listening on. So yeah, please register your interest. If you fancy coming along, it's really exciting and I can't wait for it to happen. Wonderful. That sounds great. Taylor. I think the idea is that it will be myself and Graham for this one. And then I think Joe and Ryan are going to do one in Phoenix either in the spring or maybe next fall. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no But it should be really fun too. Yes, please, we'll have a link in the show notes to register interest and then that interest can be in the fall or in the spring depending on where that lies. We will make more concrete plans from there, but Graham has outlined it very, very well. Yes, sounds very exciting. Link in the show notes for that. We very much recommend you come along. We don't recommend you follow Graham's diet. Our lawyers instructed us to say that while you're there. Very good. All right. Let's get to the weekends action, shall we? Which, which Taylor mentioned earlier? The team's lose. We saw our previews maybe look a bit questionable. We saw two-thirds of the promoted sides get a win on the opening day in the Premier League as well. Erling Harlan shaved his head as well. It's all been happening this past. That's how badly he messes Pip. Do you see how big he's phoning him and showing him and look at the boss, I shot a haircut. Zlatan was also on that call. I believe was not pleased. So is my number, wasn't it? Yeah, don't call me again. I don't want to be on the same call ever. No, a different call. I think I think it happened one at a time. The thing that's actually about that is, does Zlatan just do the bit all the time? Like, is Zlatan just that insufferable 24-7? Or does he know? Like, this is a piece of content about Erling Harlan in my public persona is going to be out there. Like, dude, I was just exhausting. I was an exhausting watch from a Zlatan perspective. I thought. Wonderful. There we go. There we go. You get like 95% Zlatan and then there was maybe 5% after the thing finished where he was like, no, it looks good, man. And then that was nice. I don't know that the 5% is the genuine, not the 95%. Yes, we call that ratio, the Daniel Farco ratio. Of course, he's 95% coffee and cake on the sofa and 5% fire beast as we established in our previews. But we'll get to him later right now. We're going to talk about Man United and their trip to Hull. It was a two-nil victory for Hull. A dream return for the Premier League today, after nine years away. And of course, in those nine years away, they dropped a league one and back. They've done terrifically well to get back into the top flight. This is the first time on the 13th occasion that Man United in their history of loss to a promoted team on the opening day of the season. They had 72% possession. They had 21 shots. Yeah, Hull got it done. I think Taylor, for me, one of the funny key moments was Harry McGuire holding on to Mazawari during the opening goal. He did play for Hull to be fair, Harry McGuire. Did you think he just got too familiar with the surroundings and decided to have his brain get slightly fogged in that moment? But yeah, good one for Hull. I have tried to figure out what is happening in that sequence. I've watched it so many times from so many different angles. It is indeed him just ends up marking like holding Mazawari McGuire. My assumption is basically they're all just kind of ball watching and reacting. And it doesn't really matter other than just of how bad of a look it is because they don't really seem to have much of a plan. And they are very much reacting. And that was Man United throughout this game. It felt very reactive. It felt very passive at the same time. And it felt like a team that just thought they were going to win. Totally honest. It felt like a team that had read the headlines about Hull knew what they were going up against. And maybe just expected to have more of the ball or for the experience to overall. But I think Hull came ready to play. And that was what I said at my preview is that they were a team that can really spring surprises. Can when they are back against the wall. And I think they're going to be back against the wall this whole season. We'll fight tooth and nail for every inch. And I think we saw them bring chaos. We saw them bring commitment. But we also saw them bring a plan. And they talked about this. That they had kind of seen some preseason games from Manchester United. They've seen some games from last season. They had an idea for how to exploit them. And I think it was pretty clear. Playing it back three invite United to pressure just a little bit because they did not want to press very much in this game. And once they do exploit the kind of uneven spacing in behind that front three or front four as it occasionally was from Manchester United. And I thought Hull had a... I don't want to say simple because that feels like reductive or something. But it was basically just a like a straightforward game plan that Manchester United failed to adapt to and failed to make adjustments to deal with. And then once you're losing now you have to go out and try to break down an opponent who are not going to be broken down and you end up resorted to a lot of crosses to zero people in the box because that was kind of what the game called for was a lot of movement a positional fluidity from Manchester United. But ultimately then when they do end up attacking its shots from distance its low percentage chances or its crosses lumped into like a 2v5 inside the box. And so in that way I think Hull got their game plan right from start to finish. And I think all aspects of that game plan by contrast I thought Manchester United looked pretty abjectly terrible. Yeah, you could have it chapter the game came out and said that he used the the game plan used by Ruben Armer and the not final preseason game against Manchester United for easy Milan, which has a subplot as a chance. Like it can it doesn't get any better than that as a subplot. An obsession manager in the opening day of the season using Ruben Armer's game plan against Manchester United. But so they went to that back five. The the wing backs, the high and wide wing backs gave Manchester United all sorts of problems in the way that they were spreading the pitch and opening up spate opening up space and mind it. I mean the most striking thing about their performance was just how sluggish they were and how lacking in intensity we use that word a lot. I feel like sometimes gets overused but I think it's applicable in in this case when talking about what was missing from Manchester United's performance. They were either unwilling or unable to apply any pressure on the ball and how deserve a lot of credit for the way that they were able to impose themselves and they did a lot of smart things like Olympic Burnay seem to be dropping on to both in and out of possession. He was dropping deep in possession to sort of link up play, which is absolutely not something I associate with. And then out of possession, he was dropping on to Andrew Santos, who as I mentioned, I was the person who previewed Manchester United last week. Santos has been the guy to play them forward and so the Manchester United in that first half in particular. We're just unable to get out like even though they had periods of possession, it wasn't leading to anything. I know they end up sort of edging the XG, but I think that's just down to the number of shots that they had in the game. I don't feel like they were creating any clear cut opportunities. And particularly in that first half, it just felt like hull battered them. There was no contest in that first half. They deserve to be tuna up at the break. I love this game with the atmosphere and it felt like it felt like proper first day of the season fair with a promoted team who were truly up for it. I know it's quite a new stadium, but there's something about hull stadium that feels like a proper like Reggie Dig Premier League stadium. I love that ground and yeah, mine had got a wake up call here. They were nowhere near good enough. I did text you about it, Graham. Like, is it a smaller pitch or is it just like a tighter atmosphere? It felt like as soon as Manchester United player got the ball, they had like nine people around them, which is a credit to what hull we're doing defensively, but it did feel like space was at a premium. I think that's true to the rugby, right? So that the hull stadium is primarily used, I don't know rugby well, how KR that sounds like a rugby team. I'm sure I've plucked out my subconscious, but they definitely play rugby there as well. And so I kind of wonder if the pitch is designed for both sports. But yeah, it feels really, it feels really claustrophobic and that just added to the sense of hull being right on top of Manchester United. I kind of have questions about the fitness levels Manchester United where this seems to happen if not every season, every couple seasons from Manchester United where they'll qualify for the Champions League, the way a bit of positivity, and then they come into the next season and they look like Frank layout of shape. And Yuri Telemans gave this interview, which has been bouncing around social media since this result. He gave this interview, I think it was his first center of view as a Manchester United player. And he's asked, you know, has it been a tough preseason? And he almost laughs so often he says, no, we've just been doing ball work all summer. And so I don't know whether the idea is that Manchester will play themselves into fitness. I don't know whether it was Julian LaRong on Five Live over the weekend was talking. He has this theory that a lot of the time the promoted teams or the mid table teams who don't go on their travels around the world for preseason come into the season just fitter because they're not having to handle those traveling conditions. So I wonder if that's a factor as well. We saw Spurs struggle in their game against Brentford against a kind of mid table team or I guess maybe slightly higher than that. But yeah, Manchester United just wore way off the pace every way. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, and I think like there's there's simple things like I think the way they wanted to set up United defensively without Jessica starting. They're in like a 4 4 2 and it's Bruno and Mateus Cunia higher up. And Dorgu is your left midfielder left winger, whatever you want to go with. And I think he's been asked to to stay a little bit deeper because they're not trying to press aggressively. They're not trying to go at all and win the ball back high. And I think that is a mistake right away because you're playing a team that were expected to be relegated last year in the championship end up making the playoffs end up finding way through. A lot of that has to do with switching to a back three and it continued to work for them here. But this is not a team that expect to play with the ball for large stretches of the game. And I think if you make their life uncomfortable if you press them and force them into turnovers and force them into quick decision making. You're now playing your game and you're taking it out of their hands. But instead United would try to sit off. But then the three center backs would spread. You'd have one central two wide. The wing backs would go forward for whole. And then midfielder would shift side to side to create overloads and out of the half spaces are out wide. And if Dorgu would like would then go try to press semi a jie as the right center back. Now the right wing back is open or a midfielder can slot into the space that Dorgu is just vacated. And it happened like five times in the first 15 minutes and no one adjusted. No one reacted until every single time whole were just able to kind of completely break through Manchester United's entire defensive system with like one simple shift. And it just it shouldn't be that way to start the season. You can talk about fitness. You can talk about maybe a lack of preparation. Hall seemed pretty prepared. It felt to me like it was a another complacent performance from Manchester United. That seems to be something that Bruno talked about in the post game where he talked about kind of like same old mistakes, same old decisions, same old same old. It's not a great look for the first game of the season and maybe things do turn around. But again, if we're doing like week one over reactions, which we're not, but I am in my head. Like I asked Graham in our in our final predictions episode, like who's the perceived big five big six manager who parts company with their club first. Graham's answer was Michael Kerrick this weekend did nothing to dissuade me of the notion that Michael Kerrick might not have like prepared this team physically and mentally for the season to come. Yeah, we've talked a lot about physicality and fitness and open play setups in this segment. I don't think any of that is is wrong. I also think it's probably worth mentioning that if Manchester had to defend set pieces a bit better, they probably win this game. I mean, all but 0.07 of the XG they can see that to hold on this game according to Fatmava came from set pieces. Both of the goals they allowed were from set pieces. I think the pretty simple like how do we evolve from here Manchester United thing is just actually locking on defensive set pieces. And all of a sudden you're not going to be playing from a two goal. That's it. That's probably where they will be starting on film when it comes to this week's training. I enjoyed for the first goal. Sanny lamens like pulling off the greatest saves of his life. He's flying around the goal. I might just say they're just completely static and say the box any help guys. Come on laughable defender. I couldn't in a Charlie. Excuse me if I pronounce that wrong Taylor. Maybe you got a bad handle on that one. The owner at whole said the secret was that our boys were dying to win. I didn't see many United in this mood. Obviously, it's a bit intangible what he's saying there. But I guess the gist is that whole wanted this one. And they might be up more up for this season than we expected. A lot of people I saw a lot of Premier League previews putting hold at 20th this season. And maybe obviously it's 138th of the way through the campaign. But maybe we've seen something from them that will give whole fans a bit of hope that it's not going to be a cop out of the season. Yeah, I think I did this in the whole preview. Like I said this with the predictions episode as well that like the way to not be relegated is obviously to accumulate around 40 points. But I think it's also to start strong so that you build that momentum so that when teams do eventually kind of figure out your system figure out your approach you at least have some level of cushion to then adapt from there or evolve from there so that you can stay alive. And this is obviously the ideal way to start with the three points against Manchester United at home. Like you are it is a statement game. It is a reminder that this team is going to fight for every single inch and be up for everything. And if you a team who spent more money and theoretically has more talent are not competing at that level they're going to cause problems. I still think it's going to be a very long season for all I still think that they're going to have injuries and teams will figure them out and they'll have to find a way through and they won't be able to rely on set pieces. That's not a thing that they're particularly strong at last season. So it's it's a great result. It is a long season to come. But I think as long as they can keep punching people in the mouth and then those teams don't really have an answer for it. Yeah, they're going to hang around for at least a little bit. I mean this game is the template for how it's going to be difficult for them to replicate it. But if we talk about teams that over perform like some of the smaller clubs that over perform and not bright for the category that we talk about regularly. It's stuck Joe. It's stuck. We're making it. Right for it. And what are what are the hallmarks of those those teams. They all seem to be strong at home. They all seem to work hard and outrun opponents and they're all good at set pieces. So how are able to take those boxes and more games and not this season. They'll get themselves a chance. Very good indeed. Highlight of the game for me, by the way, 74th minute, the PA announcing that all trains to Manchester are canceled after the game very pointedly doing so obviously stranding a few of the. And how does that work? Like how is that possible? Britain. Yeah, train trains breaking down has been a theme over this summer with it being hot and the infrastructure not being very good. Yeah, whether it be in Britain. I enjoyed a whole fans chanting you're going home and a taxi after that announcement. Very good. All right. Congrats to hold getting off in the best possible way on their return to the Premier League. A quick break when we come back we'll talk about Arsenal and how they're looking so far. Oh, we're talking about Ramadrid and so much more. Join us then. So the soccer show, welcome back to the weekend review. Let's talk about Friday night lights in North London, Arsenal 3, Coventry Nile. First half goals from Kai Habitson, Kai Osaka putting the rating champs firmly in control in this one and a Marta no to guard adding the third almost apologetically in the second half. I'm sorry, sorry guys that one that one went in. But I suppose Graham is looking like a Arsenal got some swagger. Some of the new signings on this is looking great at the moment. Are we seeing an evolution in this team? Is it going to be even better this campaign? How are we feeling after this game? Yeah, very positive about the start that Arsenal made here to state the obvious. Obviously a very comfortable start for them. That was always likely to be the case considering the opposition, but even accounting for that, I still got the sense that Arsenal played with more freedom than they did at various points of last season. They won by two or more goals just once in the final 10 games of last season. Obviously the pressure of the title race was probably a factor in that and then grinding out like so many games over that run. But between this and the community shield, I am encouraged that Arsenal might be turning the dial a little bit towards being able to impose their own attacking game a little bit more. Something in that respect that should definitely not acknowledge because I possibly overlooked it a bit in my general critique of Arsenal over the last like year or so. But this was only the second game that Kai Havards, Martin Oldergaard and Bacchial Saka have started together since December 2024, which is a pretty astonishing fact, like coming up for two years that those three players who we consider to be, I mean that's sort of the Arsenal attacking creative line in this team. And I wasn't quite aware of that fact. Obviously I was well aware that those three players have had injury issues and Saka hasn't quite been the same player for a while. Oldergaard hasn't been the same player for a while and Havards missed a huge chunk of last season. But I didn't quite appreciate how little they have played together recently. So I guess having those players available again is going to make a difference in itself. And I also felt like Ben White made a difference on that right side where we saw on that right side that triangle between Oldergaard, White and Saka, which last season we didn't see all that much of. So as I say that in itself might help Arsenal be more convincing in a lot of these ones. Yeah, but it really really was convincing across the board for Arsenal. I think that's the big takeaway and grandma like how you linked it to what we've seen from Arsenal already in this young season outside of the league as well. I think that the 1000 foot view of this game is that Arsenal looked pretty comfortable creating chances against a defensive team. And that how many times have we really been able to say that about this peak version of Michaela Tetas Arsenal team. I mean very, very rarely. You go through and you look at only only 0.26 of Arsenal's 1.8 expected goals in this game according to Opta came from set pieces. So this was them creating a good number of chances in open play like a comfortable number of chances, not maybe wave after wave after wave. But they created chances with the ball more easily than I can remember them doing compared to most of last season. And I think part of that was Solis over on that left side. I thought he looked extremely clever, very eager to cut in. Can beat players 1v1. He was just so involved like so much of the game. Maybe it wasn't quite running through him. But he was a fixture in and around where the ball was for Arsenal. He had freedom to rotate and to move across the front line at times. He just looks extremely reliable like like his actions are very dependable. That's that's what Billy Carpenter who writes the Arsenal newsletter. He do's barbecue, which is I think maybe my favorite single club piece of writing out there. Billy is fantastic like phenomenal social media follow if you're not doing it already whether you're an Arsenal fan or not. He talks about the consistency of Solis's actions. I think it was so clear in this game like just reliable his level did not dip from the first minute to to the end of his. It is just so effective on that left side. I don't think Arsenal have been getting that level of play. Even from Trussard. I mean, I don't think they've been getting it from Martin L.A. and there's been a controversy about Martin L.A. Not even making it on the bench in this game makes me think that there's probably an incoming coming because if it's not Trussard, there really is. I'm sorry if it's not Solis, there really is no natural other winger in that spot as is not that player, right? They're missing that. But I thought the person L wise before you can get into some of the fluid principles that you mentioned, Graham, I think that's right to talk about. I thought Arsenal's talent looked better in the attack in this game. Sort of the point you were making about the other members of the attack. I thought Solis entering this equation made them look better and it's easy to look good against Coventry with respect to Coventry. But still, it is something to watch moving forward just how much does he elevate that left side. Yeah, I mean, if Arsenal are going to bring in another left winger as an upgrade, it's going to have to be hell of a player to improve on the level that Solis has started this season with for Arsenal. I mean, he seems to have nailed down that starting left winger position very quickly. The most touches inside the penalty box in this game of any player also took the most shot and the most shots of any Arsenal player as well. It just seems really quick to drive forward with the ball. I think his work rate is really impressive as well, which makes him a good fit for this Arsenal side. Yeah, he looks really good. And in another individual that I'll highlight very quickly. As Miles Lewis-Skelly, who I just cannot believe Arsenal were touting around rival clubs a couple weeks ago because he is so good in that central midfield position. And that seems to now be his position in this team. I guess Arteta decided defensively maybe he wasn't solid enough as a left back. He has now started the last three games for competitive games for Arsenal. Those three games are a Champions League final, a community shield against Manchester City and the opening game of the Premier League season. So it doesn't really make sense that he's potentially on his way out of Arsenal because it seems like he's never been more integral to this team. And he's just so nimble on the ball and his first touch I always think is almost always perfect. It sets him up for a quick pass or a quick change of direction. And I think he combines really well with Rice and Odegard in the middle. And I don't think it's a coincidence that Odegard kind of looks back to his old self with having Lewis-Skelly as that sort of rhythm builder and progressive passer in central midfield into Odegard who can then get turned into the final third of the field. Also his understanding with Caliphi Ori down the left side who is who's like this this I don't know like horse galloping down the wing for Arsenal and Italian stallion I guess you could call him. And I just think he started the season really strongly as well. And as it is a bit of a chaos merchant for Arsenal in the most positive of ways like he is the person who maybe opens up a little bit of space and lose Skelly facilitates him as well. And so yet plenty to be posted about for Arsenal right now. Yeah, including just the general like vibe of the performance which I think you two have already spoken to. Like this is our central team that I feel like every preview I I read saw heard had them likely to be your back to back champions like most people picking them to win. I think the only other option was like city for some but that creates a lot of expectation and a lot of pressure. And I think by contrast this performance felt to me like Arsenal are more than comfortable with their present situation. Primarily champions community shield winners and have all of the hype and all of the kind of spotlight on them but did not play like they were under under any level of scrutiny did not play like they really even had a point to prove aside from we are still very good and we are going to create a lot of opportunities for ourselves and they did just that but the fluidity of the attack how quickly they could transition but then how quickly they could also just slow it down and move the ball fast and just create so many different headaches for Coventry. I thought this was as good of a start as whole had this was an even better start for Arsenal just with even with the expectation even with the imbalance even with it being a promoted team. It was still just a strong performance from basically every single player and they had kind of answers for everything and they had different looks. Definitely feels like the pressure is on but then also simultaneously off. Just on that psychological retailer completely agree because I think in sports you see this in general wider sports not just soccer but you see when a team or an athlete has had this long process and then they win the first one. It's the first one out of the bottle and it can either go one of two ways it's either the pressure of being the chase rather than the chaser gets to get to them or the other way is they're completely comfortable and flood gets open and there's a freedom to them all of a sudden. On the basis of the first two games this season still very early don't want to overreact but just on the vibe around the Emirates stadium as well it seems like Arsenal are going to be the latter. It feels like they are really stretching their legs now especially if they're now going back into the transfer market to get like another top level elite level winger. They are at a point that no other team like all the rivals right now we're talking about rebuilds and really like foundational stuff. And Arsenal are at a point where they're like who's the world class winger or attacker we can get to win as the champions league. No one is anywhere near that right now so yeah I think they're going to stroll this Premier League title at this point. Except the Lester team Paul I mean once I get past tallers or competition then they're going to attack us. That's right or leads it was leads I think that ultimately Ryan forced me in to say I'm going to be the new Lester say there you go. Before she did I maybe I did you did a little bit but I feel okay about after this weekend good stuff. All right I'm sure Arsenal fans are feeling quite okay about their campaign as well turns out if you want to get better you just need a quantum of solace. Yeah I'm sticking with that one very good. Okay let's move on shall we to Liverpool and what they look like in their debut under Iriola they had a two to draw against Newcastle Dominic Zomaclyle with the dramatic late penalty to deny Newcastle the opening game victory. In this one and Auntie Lanka getting Newcastle on the score she after a few minutes as well. Liverpool had 60% possession their 27 attempts on goal in this one. Joe we can talk about Newcastle and how they shaped up we should probably start with Liverpool here and our first impressions of the Iriola era what are your thoughts. I thought the most interesting bit of this game was Liverpool in defensive transition which I know maybe doesn't sound like that great of a hook but just watch the goals. Just watch the two Newcastle goals and tell me that doesn't spark some sort of alarm sounding off in your brain. I mean the aggressiveness with which Iriola allowed his central midfielders to go and step forward in possession is fascinating to watch first of all because it's something that we don't see maybe from a lot of managers. Again Iriola at times has prioritized chaos a little bit more than control and I think he would push back on that a little bit and in reality probably the truth is somewhere in the middle. But Iriola wants a lot of verticality he wants players pushing forward he wants players taking vertical space and we saw that a lot not just from Liverpool's wide players are attacking players or their full backs which I do think we saw a lot from from their outside backs. But we saw a lot from the center mids with Gravenberg and service like playing as the two deeper midfielders with Florian births floating ahead of them. Those players that will pivot could and were often allowed to push super high in possession even ahead of the ball as they carried it forward and then moved off the ball to try to become an option to continue that vertical play. And at times it created some really interesting attacking opportunities for Liverpool. I thought Gravenberg in particular has a lot of qualities that I think Iriola is going to value with his ability to carry the ball forward and be a quite vertical central midfielder. But at other times say on both of the goals especially the first one when Liverpool lose the ball after their central midfielder said push forward it is like a giant red carpet coming the other direction where there's so much space for Newcastle to go and counter attack through and that's exactly how both goals come about. I mean the first one again is super egregious where it's so much like and Gravenberg they're like the two highest players for Liverpool they're the two for this forward players when the ball turns over. Averse is like a tiny bit behind the ball but it's so much space for Newcastle to go and attack into and there's another bit of this which is yes to me through this go and push forward and that happens on the goals. But it's also then the rest of the structure for Liverpool because there is something the structure there that are center backs back they just don't deal with the play on the second the second goal was was rough. I think Liverpool had a chance to go and actually make a play on that ball they just never fouled like you're supposed to I mean that that's what you're supposed to do in that situation. If you foul you stop the attack you take a yellow card if you have to but Liverpool just didn't deal with their business especially on the second goal but the first goal was a reminder to me of just how difficult this season is going to be for Liverpool center backs and there's going to be a lot of pressure on them. If they're not a little bit more careful about the rest defense structure and where they lose the ball but this was Eurela being aggressive pedal to the metal like we're going to push players forward in ways that other teams don't always and that comes with advantages and it comes with drawbacks and for me in this game. I thought the drawbacks that way the advantages just in terms of the execution of his principles I don't think Liverpool really nailed almost any of that stuff in transition. So was this a case of just two quite gung ho teams going at it and we got a relatively entertaining result from it then Joe. I thought so I mean this was back and forth where the amount of space for Newcastle to go and charge into was was there it could see. Yes one could say that and I and I don't want to say that I wouldn't say that you're more than welcome to not just not just in terms of Newcastle going and having space to counter into but even when Liverpool defended a little bit deeper Newcastle had possession. Liverpool were quite man oriented I thought in their block where you would see a fullback following Winger and Winger following fullback for Liverpool. I thought Frimpong and Gamo on that that right side they were constantly tracking their their men especially in the first half. It was obvious to see just because they're on the near side of the broadcast where they're being pulled out of position and allowing themselves to be pulled out of position in hopes of going and applying pressure to the ball. The first turnover that they can go sprint into with the other other direction but the opposite is that that leaves opportunity for Newcastle to pull you apart and go and attack through. So again all of these were trying to be aggressive were trying to be somewhat manner oriented when even when we're in a lower block we want to push numbers forward in possession. It's it's pretty much pedal to the metal stuff from Maryola which I thought was incredibly enjoyable and I think Newcastle probably also thought that for parts of this game. Joe you mentioned how like like especially the second goal like there's just got to be a foul in there that's the way to stop that from happening especially as Lisa starts to just seem like he is impossible to tackle or dispossess. Maybe that's when you got to sweep the leg a little bit but short of that are there are there things you saw Liverpool not doing or there are things that Liverpool could do to make themselves less vulnerable in that defensive transition because for the first goal. Like they are carved open and it is just like an 80 yard lung busting run by a longer to eventually then finish it is him completely out running carcass who way to quickly realize design beaten for pace and tries to use something else but doesn't end up doing anything. But it's also also governor who gives the ball away to start that attack so if you're committing those numbers and then you're conceding possession like is it ball security is it have numbers further further forward to make those tackles to put in those challenges to slow the attack down. What would you do were you area obviously a scenario that you found yourself in before very much so it's a lucrative scenario for me but I'm enjoying it I do think I do think there's a couple of levers that you pull here if you're Liverpool one is you talked about ball security Taylor lose the ball in better spots lose the ball in positions where you have more numbers around the ball so that you can control what happens next in a simpler way. The other option is that you alter your personnel in your positioning excuse me your positioning slightly and you have numbers a little bit deeper to go and control and maybe you're not pushing. Both of your your sentiment fielders your deeper midfielders up away from their their real positions quite as often I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a little bit of both right I don't I don't think fries as willing to lean into the chaos as Irola has been in his career. Surely he would not want his team losing the ball in these positions right and that that's just the reality or he would want them to lose the ball there but actually deal with the sequences a bit better I think the first goal again they were more exposed there than I think on the second goal the second goal was it almost completely preventable. Even if it had some some smacks of the first goal but those are the levers that you have to pull and I think it's going to be extremely interesting to see how Irola pulls those I mean we're just I talked about this in the in the previews we did last week we just don't see big teams play like this. It's that simple like this is not a normal way for a big team to play in the year 2026 and that's why they Liverpool are just so compelling this season because they have talent they need to add more talent I think that's also true I didn't think engemo was was very good in this game at least not not really relative to the level around him. I didn't think anybody really for Liverpool outside of Gakpo in the attack was was ready to take the game. So that needs to change and needs to be more there but even beyond that it's just the fact that this is a totally different tactical laboratory that we're seeing right now play out for Liverpool and I'm really enjoying it. Yeah, I thought generally it was a pretty disjointed performance from Liverpool the attack is a concern in a weird way because the PCs the individual PCs are some of the most talented PCs in the Premier League we got Alexander Eastack and Florian Varts and Cody Gakpo and even engemo who is as young obviously and only just getting started in his career. But as one of the most talented teenagers in Europe I guess and yet there just doesn't seem to be much of a chemistry or understanding and Varts has been over the summer I was reading that he's been put on a program and even towards the end of last season to bulk him up and get more physically ready for the Premier League that seems to be part of Liverpool's reading of what has not worked for him so far. Eastack I struggled to fully understand what's going on with him because I thought he shrunk in this game maybe it was the non-stop booing and pretty hostile environment for him but I just think like I don't know maybe this is the most Roy Keen opinion you'll ever hear me say but I just think like a truly elite level centre forward like a stone cold killer reacts in a different way in that environment. A stone cold killer takes the penalty and scores the winner like not just for the chaos factor I so wanted Eastack to take that penalty and score it and use it as like a catalyst to build some confidence because you look shot of confidence in this in this Liverpool team at the moment so there's concerns over the center the forward line. And then in the midfield I think and I think this is maybe what you were kind of getting to Joe but in a micro sense like that midfield and how it evolves under a real is going to be fascinating because the player who surely breaks up at least one of those Newcastle goals if it's a real is born with is Tyler Adams that's the Tyler Adams role in our area all a team but for a team like Liverpool Adams maybe doesn't have the all-round game to play for a position heavy team like that so how is how is a real like going to how is he going to deal with that what how is he going to square that circle so I think then the midfield is going to be a really like interesting bear weather of his success as a Liverpool manager. I thought it was interesting from Newcastle so it kind of fit the thesis I went with in my previews for them that they'll score plenty on the break they'll be rapid in transition but also they'll concede low to goals so I think it's going to be exciting one for Newcastle this season at the very least whether they win or lose was nice also ground to see the tributes to the aforementioned Keegan obviously who play for both sides managed Newcastle as well much loved by both teams he passed away last month at the age of 75 so this is the first competitive match from both teams and they were playing each other so it was nice to see both fans in use and for King Kev yeah incredibly fitting almost like it was scripted that Newcastle would face Liverpool in the open and day of the season I don't think I've quite seen obviously we see tributes to legends that have passed away before we see that's quite common I don't I can't quite recall like displays from both fans were Liverpool had their own display and then Newcastle had on all through all all three the sides of the ground that they their fans were on there were different displays and we had that. I thought on the Galagate about what's that famous quote with the Keegan one about dreaming and you know what football is all about and I think George is in particular idealized Keegan because of how he made them dream right as manager in the 90s he was the guy who took them within touching distance of the Premier League title and they were known for being the great entertainers right that was their nickname that Newcastle team and it was great to see Shaka Hisslop and Tino Aspria in the bucket hat at the game and Alan Sheerer as well obviously at the game and so it was fitting that we got a four goal thriller to remember a guy who always stood for entertainment I think is fit to absolutely very fitting stuff great let's take one more quick break when we come back we'll look around the houses on the continent we're going to look at Ramadrid as well and what Josie Marinos Ramadrid V2 looks like join us then total soccer show welcome back to the weekend review a quick summary of the other Premier League results before we get to La Liga as noted at the top of the show Brent with the three nil win over Tottenham Brent for missing a penalty in that one as well Spurs throwing money at the problems and the problems persist is the TLDR perhaps there and deserve be talking after the game about duels and physicality and how they were not met by his Tottenham side more on that on our patreon page on dot com slash total soccer show for weekend review extra Manchester City got off the winning waves with the two won win over Bournemouth it was a comeback win though never really look like they were absolutely convincing in this game a meriscaurs said it is a work in progress this side but hey early harland's got a new haircut so that's the take away from that one as well leads got a smashing grab one nil over notting and forest and on stack with the cheeky free kick to steal it in this one oliglasners new start forest after losing ways Ipswich though after winning ways in their first Premier League game back in the league a two on win over Sunderland substitute Jack Clark scoring in the 90th minute nice way to win the game in the 90th minute there Sunderland's free kick goal by the way Nilson Angolo was brilliant I really enjoyed that often off the cross bar free kicks are always looks better always looks better absolutely it was beautifully done Everton with the two new win over palace as well in a jujburi hauntino burry getting the goals either side of half time there tina berry is a yeah he's going to be relied on a lot this season he's getting the job done so far that snapped a win list seven game streak carrying over from last year for David Moise as well so on back to winning ways had a villager on not well for nil defeat at the hands of Brighton and some interesting stuff going on with Holy Watkins as well Emory asked after the game why he wasn't picked I think you can call him and you can call his agent and he can respond Okay that's good yeah we'll see we'll see how that one unfolds maybe ole Watkins not in Birmingham for much longer let's go over to the league a showy Mona they got a five new win over LJ five goals from 11 shots LJ had seven though quite a bit of the possession in that game Two so far so I'm sending themselves are not nicely for that third successive title at letty with a two two draw it with VRL And normal almost a Norman Lamont Robin Lamont was sent off in this game and Julien Alvarez Graham didn't get the greatest reception maybe No Holy Watkins anyone seen this yeah and the guy throwing the shirt at him as he goes down the tunnel the thing at the end I've never seen anything like the scenes at the end where that letty fans go over to if Lester's haven't seen this Go and seek out on social media basically the athletic players as is customary for teams in the modern age they go over to their fans to applaud them And Alvarez who's been getting dogs abuse from his own his own fans the whole game he decides not to join the rest of the athletic team And quite performatively I guess walk off on his own down the tunnel as the entire stadium is brewing and whistling and throwing stuff at him as he walks down the tunnel Obviously the entire summer has been dominated by speculation linking him with a move out of athletic Madrid and having watched those scenes And now put money on him not being there for much longer I'm not entirely sure how you come back from that Yeah, that's a tricky one he's put himself into there shall we say we'll see how things turn out there On the other side of Madrid it's Josie Mourinho's Madrid of course they got a 2-1 win on the road at Espanyol Our Lord and Savior Jude Bellingham getting the opener in this one Well Graham what do we make of Mourinho's latest Sajon at the Bernabé? Well not the Bernabé he was away You know what I'm saying what's it like what's going on there Mourinho V2 Real Madrid kind of looks a lot like Real Madrid from last season I guess I guess Isn't too surprising because I frankly just don't have faith that Josie Mourinho at this stage of his career is able to impose like a clear tactical directive on a group of players Let alone this group of players because this is still a very top heavy team It might be even more top heavy now that they've just spent 145 million euros to sign Yandio Mandi Who I guess does give you a little bit more against the ball than Venetius or Mbappi But there were still moments in this game when he came off the bench where I thought to myself I'm not entirely sure D'Amande As good as he is is going to fix this problem for Real Madrid's There were two or three Espanyol D'Amande for him to come on at that point It seems it seems that way particularly the one and I think it was the 70th minute Which has gone viral I would watch this game live but I saw this bounce around social media afterwards When Espanyol just play through Real Madrid's at ease from back to front In Bappi, Bellingham and D'Amande are just they're standing I was going to say they're walking they're not walking they're just completely standing as a player runs past them And then in midfield for Real Madrid they still lack that player to give them control in an out of possession The player that they wanted Rodri to be they still don't have Neither Bernardo Silva as good as he is or Ferry Valverde as good as he is I'm a fan of both of those players They don't really have true defensive instincts I'm not convinced either of them has like real passing rhythm either in that deep row So none of those problems have been properly addressed by Real Madrid Obviously they get the win in the end through young Carlos Espay who I really quite like And has flown under the radar as the signing that Real Madrid have made from Lovante He is the new Hossaloo or the new Gonzalo Garcia Which is to say I can't wait for him to get a 20 million euro move to the Premier League next summer But for the time being he is kind of like the depth striker for Real Madrid So they get as they usually do Real Madrid They got by on their superior individual talent But I didn't really see any sort of like coherent tactical approach that suggests they truly have turned the corner yet I do love Grand Rapids Red do that where they always just they have one striker They have one who's like a real striker a proper striker who plays I don't know 18 minutes of game And scores a goal every third game it feels just so incredibly Ramadred I completely agree with your assessment that this looks like Ramadred from last season Where it just didn't look meaningfully different they didn't press Which I mean you can't really do that when you have Mbappe and Vinicius Jr It's kind of that simple They didn't try to consistently step forward and whether they did it it wasn't great We didn't see a lot of tracking back from Mbappe and Vinicius Jr Some but I wouldn't say that looked notice will be different either It was a lot of very similar principles I am really intrigued though to see over a larger sample How things change based on the personnel Because I agree I don't think Jose Maria News here to reinvent any tactical wheels But how does Bernardo Silva's entrance into midfield change things Where I think he can give you a little bit more retention deeper while still taking your point About the fact that he's not he's not Rodry right he's very different sort of player How do we see the battle for minutes on the right wing change How this team's gonna play what about it left back We didn't see Kukareya or Dio Monde start this game I think probably Kukareya will be I feel strongly that Kukareya will be the ever game starter Left back over Carreras But I thought Artiguleta was was fantastic in this game Like maybe the best Ramadred player on the field He he looks like and I think he kind of already took the step last year He looks like a player that could start for any team on the planet to my eye I mean I don't know if anybody will disagree or push back on that He looks absolutely brilliant in open play creation and set piece creation He's willing to do some defensive running he's not the largest player right so there's some physical limitations there But he's quick I think he I think he moves well over short distances I mean he is phenomenal and I don't really know how Jose Maria is going to take him out of this team to put in Dio Monde Maybe there's the better balance in Dio Monde's on the field maybe there's not I think there are tons of really fascinating questions that surround Ramadred But I don't really know that this weekend's game gave us many answers to that other than Yep, they're still supremely talented He did give us a potential plotline for either a season of Ted Lasso or some sort of weird buddy comedy Because I was reading that I believe for now Jose Maria was living at the Ramadred training facility because they do have like residents there And then SB is also living at that facility So apparently the two of them have breakfast every morning because they love each other Like you somebody you know at the end like give them a proper like big beer hug So yeah, there's definitely a set call on that I just picture both of them starting off like kind of silently sitting at different tables and like nodding to each other And then slowly they come together and bond over I don't know what breakfast they are on having And now here we are with them being best friends I don't know how this is going to work it seems very confusing to me Jose's entire thing to my understanding has long been like you know motivate intensity But also have a strong defensive game plan and let the attack cook And this is an attack that last season like by the players on admission routinely had players standing in the exact same space and occupying the same areas And so this is a scenario in which I feel like that is the opposite of that approach is needed Where there needs to be more structure there needs to be more Regidity in how they are attacking or at least how they are possessing and where they are possessing So that they don't leave themselves overloaded if they turn the ball over But I'm not sure that's a thing that this team really wants to have and I'm not sure the talent that they do have allows them to play that way So it ends up feeling like Hey merina worked in the past sort of I'm Florentino Perez from everything I read Like loves him it's the only manager that he actually enjoyed working with by a lot of reporting and so the idea I think is just like And I think Perez even gives merino credit for a lot of the success that came after him So there's an idea that like maybe maybe that's what we need is just a steady hand in Jose merino in present day Jose merino coming in and figuring it all out But it felt like he was deliberately trying to be more stoic less reactionary in this game even when they get the winner His his reaction is is more subdued than I think we've seen certainly from early Jose, but even mid stage Jose So it does seem like he's trying to project an air of like steely confidence and like severe analysis But at the same time this team doesn't really lend itself to that so I I don't know how this is going to go it feels like it's more likely still to be a train wreck than Some streamlined efficient attacking juggernaut, but I am here for whatever happens because it's going to be entertaining if nothing else Real Madrid recently I've become the masters of signing some of the best players in the world but yet putting them into a team and you think to yourself I'm not entirely sure how this is how this is all going to piece together and how this is going to work Obviously in back he'd been the most exact but obvious example of that But even Diomande like we're all glowing about him at the world cup and yet there's something about this move that in this top heavy team It doesn't feel like the perfect fit for him Bernardo Selva and a deep role like I love Bernardo Selva It kind of makes me think you know how teams clubs they hand in their like transfer papers to FIFA before they get ratified Did the Real Madrid and Barcelona transfers this summer like get mixed up because like Barça have signed the players that Real Madrid needed and Real Madrid have signed the players that Barcelona needed It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to be easy to make I guess Yeah, when you've got your stuff living at the training ground who knows what the rules are at this point Is everything okay at Real Madrid because I was reading this when Taylor mentioned it Carlos S.B. Anne Mark Couture also living with merino at the training ground says three of them there Like are they not paying them enough accommodation It's got to be it's got to be teachers pet you know attempts right like who can get in with Josie the best I'll say the hotel season I'll do it for two seasons I'll do it. I'll say in Josie's room Like I don't know what the line is but I think they're trying to get in good with the boss Have you seen the rooms at Real Madrid's training grounds? It's like fancy yeah like they do the like you know the swan towel sculptures on the beds like is that is that kind of hotel So maybe that's maybe that's the reason I don't know I'd lift that to then in that case So it's when we get the Jalen Hertz the the Eagles quarterback he did a video where he broke down like how he spent his money When he's like when he signed his first contract and the answer is he didn't like he went out of his way to not spend any money Like he still drives I think the same car he drove when he was drafted because he is about preserving that for the long term And so I think he's like spent a tiny amount of money since he turned professional Maybe these guys are just following the same principles like free breakfast every day free accommodation cool I'm here free laundry as well. Yes, please yeah or the rental market in Madrid has watered collectively gone We don't get marine you are apartment You got minimum six month lease Well at least it's not like a blood mattress in the boot room which is what I was a visiting at first but good for them And a winning start for Real Madrid to kick off the campaign Quick look at some other games in Europe the German super cup was over the weekend. Hey guess who won that yeah by Munich 2-1 win over daughter Michael at least and Samuel Brown with the goals of buying at least they're getting the man and the match in that one Most of our score twice in his Turkish super league debut for travel and sport almost a hat trick in that one as they beat Istanbul But actually here in league are fair and Torres came off the bench and got a late double for PSG They got a 2-2 draw due to those goals with Ren in this season open up for them and a quick look over at Serie A Well, oh inter they won their first game. That's a shocker 4-1 win over monster there of a newly promoted monster We should say if you've not seen hack and channel knows goal from this game listener go check it out It's a bang up and if you've not seen pure espacitos back heel from this game as well Two like goal of the season contenders in this inter game I recommend you go check out both of those Do you say I'm an important update for you Ryan because I texted you about this I don't think we've talked about it on the show I Don't know if the Turkish super league will ever be topped because I think Fenerbahce have assembled like the Perfection of a Turkish super league squad They're starting their potential starting 11 is Graham don't don't look it up. I need I need to read I need to read through it for you Just to hear how insane this team is you've got it up Graham. It's no quiz with doing here You've got Ederson and goal. You've got Brown, okay Scrinny R and Nelson Seminoe Seminoe across the back line and go look on say a Mateo Ganduzi in the middle Then you've got Raul Asensio Anderson to Lyska and Mason Greenwood with Ramalulu Kaku up top What is your potential starting 11 for Fenerbahce not a turkey in there just a lot of names that could be playing inside a Arabia Could be in Serie A but are in the super league right now Wonderful love to see it more of that please Just another two quick games for Serie A to mention you vague getting the one deal away in win over for a known a far from impressive in that one Vicario is on loan from Tottenham for for you guys well he got an injury in this one had to be substituted late on as well And Milan also after winning starts they got a two on win at Torino opening day win for Ruben Amerin No, Chrissy Pulisic in that one fitness management going on there But another banger to look out for this the Cheyadams Yeah, it's so good What it what it's such a good goal at 360 back here I don't know like a 360 volley I don't know if I've ever seen another goal like that So yeah At a time when we're looking for other strikers maybe Cheyadams If he could do that for Scotland that would be great Just on Milan no Christian Pulisic But Eunice Musa did start this game And seems to be in Ruben Amerin's good graces So maybe the picking order has switched between the two Americans at AC Milan probably not Pulisic has just build up to fitness but still not a ball on Musa More on Musa on Wednesday I'll just say that Oh there we go look out for a USMNT weekly on Wednesday dear listener Updates coming Luke Amodich by the way apparently not fancy by Amerin He did come on in this game but yeah he's getting some minutes too good Too good Maybe so Yeah that's what Amerin said when you look to it Yep, too good Can't start you, sorry There we go that's the weekend review Which was too good I might add Thank you very much to Taylor Rockwell for all your weekend expertise And expertise My pleasure my friend thank you Thank you very much to the Graham Rosvin Thank you Ryan Bailey And Joe Lowry thank you very much for your expertise as always Thanks Ryan Listen now thank you very much for joining us on this one We'll be back on the feed very shortly And remember we came review extra coming to the boat as the patreon.com slash total Subscribe to show But for now Bye You got a slice of me You got a bangin You got a word of my tone
