New day or false dawn as Man United scare Liverpool at Anfield?
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Chris, we said after the United-Wolves game, when United lost at Wolves just before Christmas, we both said that we were surprised there had been so little evidence of Ruben Amirim's coaching in the way that Manchester United were playing. I think finally we've seen some, haven't we? Yeah.

Yeah, I think so. It's taken a while and I think a lot has been made that he's had time to get on the grass, get the players on the grass on the Manchester United training ground and instruct and all of a sudden Manchester United have cracked it, haven't they? It was a good performance against Liverpool, but we're still all thinking the same thing. Where has this performance level been? You know, you can argue, well, it was there against Manchester City, but losing...

heavily to Bournemouth, humiliated against Bournemouth, and then losing to Wolves, Newcastle, 2-0 flat at Manchester United. It could have been 3-4-5, whatever. And then what a strange team. They rock up to Anfield and actually give a really good account of themselves. So that's the standard. The one thing which I found really strange in after the game were Lissandro Martinez's comments. You saw them on the BBC where they

He was asked what the difference is, and he said, it's the mind. It's the mindset. That's a really, I'm not disputing what they're saying. You know, he's obviously saying what he thinks and, you know, he's telling the truth.

but your mindset. So why can't you have the same mindset as a Manchester United player when you go up against Bournemouth, when you go up against Wolves? Why does it have to be when you go up against your greatest test that you actually raise your levels?

I think it's a good point and it's a theme that actually ran through a lot of the post-match chat at Anfield. Liverpool 2, Man United 2, of course. Let's just get this out of the way. Let's say one thing off the bat. It was a very, very good Manchester United performance right from the start. There was a lot more organisation about them. There was an awful lot more durability about them. There was more confidence about them. There was more aggression about them. They looked like a proper football team,

They played very, very well, deserved the two-all draw without a doubt. Back to your point that you mentioned Alessandro Martinez suggesting it might be in the mind.

Bruno Fernandes said a similar thing and the United manager, Ruben Amirim, said a similar thing. And I think that's the important thing. He said, I'm the only person in this stadium who's mad and upset about what I've seen. His point being is that I haven't seen it for 10 games previously. Where has this been? He said here, we had some good games during the last month.

But then we dropped again. It's something that we need to be really consistent. We had this talk after beating Manchester City. It was the same. And that is the point about Manchester United. It's not as though they never had a good performance under Eric Ten Hag.

because they did. They drew nil-nil at Anfield under Ten Hag last season. They beat Manchester City in an FA Cup final. They had other good performances against decent sides, but it never...

ever lasts. And that is the thing with United. There is 100% a mentality issue there. They are mentally fragile. When things go well for them, they can build off the back of it like they did at Anfield and they can remind themselves that they are good players and they have a plan for a big football club and they have the prospect of being successful.

a good team again. But when things go wrong, they crumble. What would have happened to Manchester United if Gakpo had scored that early chance yesterday? What would have happened if Anana hadn't saved with his feet from McAllister when it was nil-nil? How would they have dealt with that? And those are the question marks that continue to hang over Manchester United. And they can only answer them

by going on a run of games, run of performances, and they have a chance. They're at Arsenal next weekend in the FA Cup.

That's not going to be easy. We don't need to explain why that is. That's going to be a tough game for them. After that, Southampton at home, Brighton at home, Rangers at home in Europe, Fulham away, Stoya away in Europe, Palace at home. There's a run there of six games where Manchester United, if they've got anything about them at all, can show us that what happened at Anfield yesterday wasn't a fluke.

But what do you think will happen in those six games? They will probably show their same unpredictability. That's probably what's going to happen. And until Amram has time to make changes himself with the playing personnel, I don't see things drastically changing at Manchester United. I find the mindset thing, this thing...

about bad eggs in the dressing room. This has been a story at Manchester United now, not for a short space of time, for a number of years now. So I think it just shows the magnitude of the job, the sort of, I mean, listening to Amberham after the game, the relief, but yet the anger. He probably...

He probably didn't quite know what he was walking into when he first walked into the door at Old Trafford. He probably thought it was a difficult job, but backed himself as a coach to turn things around. He knew it would be a long process, but sort of when you hear the players come out and talk like that, I did find that absolutely baffling. It's a big test for him now as well. Yeah.

I do wonder whether that performance yesterday came off a clear week, came off the back of a clear week from Monday to Sunday where he could get them on the grass, probably for the first time since he's arrived without there being a midweek game, five days straight, get them on the grass. Whether that's...

or whether it's a coincidence, I don't know. I'd like to think that it was a pertinent point and that was part of it. I do like the cut of his jib, I have to say. I do like the way he talks. You know, the way a manager talks will never determine whether he's successful or not. But in terms of his relation with the Manchester United supporters and hopefully the players, I do like the way he talks.

I think he says a lot of the things that Manchester United supporters are thinking, the things that a lot of analysts are thinking when they watch the team play. He doesn't hide away from criticising players. He could have kind of walked into that press room at Anfield yesterday with his arms in the air and told the world that he'd stuck it to them, but he didn't. He sat there and told it

told it as it is. So we will see. Big test of United coming up, big test of Ruben Amorim coming up. Can they build on that performance? They could have won it, of course. Harry Maguire, seventh minute of added time, puts it over the bar from... Terrible pass. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Absolutely. Why did that pass from Joshua Xerxe arrive, square ball over six yards? Why did that arrive to Maguire on the bounce? How does that happen? He choked it into the floor, didn't he? I thought he should have. I know that the angle was, you know, was quite tight, but I thought he should have just put his laces through it. He didn't. He chose to square it.

But he killed Maguire because, I mean, that's a simple five, eight-yard pass. And you just have to make sure that, you know, you connect cleanly and stroke it to...

Maguire so he can just sweep it in but the fact that he choked it and it bounced that's what a lot Maguire should have scored anyway but that's that certainly didn't help and it's little moments like that imagine had Amarim gone there and beat Liverpool all conquering Liverpool in the backyard but that was that was a terrible pass I don't think enough was was necessarily made of that everybody's pointing the finger at Maguire but had Xerxes just taken a little bit more care it wasn't a you

You know, Anfield's certainly not a pub playing field. I mean, you know, the surfaces players play on. I mean, back in the days when I played, you know, there were pitches which were bobbly, but you can't use that as an excuse nowadays. It was a terrible, terrible pass.

I agree with you and I'm glad you've made that point. I was happy to see, to hear the United fans singing Joshua Xerxes' name when he came on because he did have that awful experience last week when he was taken off, I think, partway through the game against Newcastle and he was

he was cheered off and booed off and all the rest of it. And I'm glad to see that there's been some thoughts that may be giving a young player some encouragement, but I am right. You are right. I agree with you. It wasn't a great pass. And that would be an expensive miss for quite a lot of people that,

that by Maguire. You know, United were 9-1 and 10-1 with a few bookies to win that game. And you can guarantee that there would have been quite a few people who would have taken a chunk of that and were probably licking their lips when Maguire pulled his right foot back. I wasn't too far out.

I wasn't too far out with my 5-0. With your 5-0 Liverpool prediction, not one of your better ones. Oh, look at Captain Hindsight. And you might find that we come back to that when we get to our questions for Chris today. Chaotic performance from Liverpool.

They will be, strange as it seems, well, Virgil van Dijk said it, they were quite fortunate not to lose. They'll be quite happy to get out of that game with a point. You should always remember, by the way, Liverpool United games have often gone like this. In my many years of watching football, back in the day when Liverpool were on top in the 70s and 80s, they often used to struggle against Manchester United.

equally when United were winning title after title Liverpool often got good results at Old Trafford it can kind of go that way that rivalry and at the end of the day a two-all draw at home to Man United for Liverpool is not a terrible result That's always in the back of my mind you said that last year and you're actually right I don't like to sort of give you too much credit

When I was making my prediction, I was thinking of you when I went 5-0 Liverpool, thinking, well, the lady, when he does say these games can be tight and anything can happen. And yeah, you've been proven right for once. Yeah, he thought about me and then chose to ignore me, which you're not the only person. That's because I know you. You're not the only person in my life who does that. Yeah, Liverpool a little bit chaotic. Trent Alexander-Arnold's particularly so. Poor performance from Trent.

Roy Keane on Sky suggested that he may be more suitable for Tranmere than Real Madrid. Tranmere on their X feed, and we're quick to jump on that one. No, thank you. Say Tranmere, we're quite all right without him. What surprises me is that people are surprised. We know that Trent, for all his wonderful ability with the ball...

one of the best users of a ball I think any of us have ever seen. He's not a natural defender. An odd thing to say for a right back, you might say, he does have games like this. This was a bad occasion for him to have one, but he does have them. I'm a little bit surprised that people are surprised. Yep. Same as, how do you, you know, people are saying, well, he's had his head turned and, you know, he wants to go to Real Madrid and that affected his performance. Well,

I'm sort of always wary about what I think of this, because how do you measure that? How can you actually say that Trent was thinking about the possibility of moving on? I suppose what you could say, that the fact that there is this uncertainty over Salah, over Trent, over Virgil van Dijk and their contracts, it may end up

being a reason if Liverpool don't get over the line. But it's very difficult to measure that, isn't it? He just had a bad day at the office. You have mentioned, quite rightly so, that people have questioned his defensive capabilities. And that was another one of those days yesterday. But,

If I'm Liverpool, I'm not in a hurry for him to go to Real Madrid, whatever the price really, because if you want to compete and win the big trophies this season, you need that strength and depth. Conor Bradley's back. Conor Bradley is a fine player, arguably a better defender, but

But you still need that depth and quality in all areas. So, you know, if Trent ended up going and anything happened to Conor Bradley, well, they could play Joe Gomez out there maybe, but that's not ideal. Conor Bradley came on and almost won the game, by the way. Late chance at the end that Inanna tipped off. Should have squared it.

He probably should have squared it, but wouldn't have said that if he'd gone in. I'm with you, by the way. I don't think for one minute that Trent's got Real Madrid on his mind when he's walking out to play for Liverpool. I think he just had a really, really poor game. And he does this. And he'll do this if and when he plays for Madrid.

He will give the ball away. He will lose players over his shoulder occasionally. But the trade-off with Trent has always been that slight bit of dependability that you miss with him. You get back in all the other expansive areas of his game. And I'm afraid sometimes

When a player gets to a certain age, you accept that he's not going to improve a certain side of his game. You've just got to accept it. Virgil van Dijk looked a bit miffed about it. There was a social media footage of him appearing to blame Trent for one of the goals.

But there you go. No player. I used to do that all the time. Yeah, I'm absolutely sure you did. I can't believe by the way, but I'd like to ask you whether before any of your, you know, big moves to Blackburn and to Chelsea and to Celtic, I mean, did you ever, you would know some of those moves were in the offing before they happened. Did you ever find yourself getting distracted by what the next phase of your career might be rather than concentrating on the here and now?

No, and I don't think players do. It's like when people talk about new owners taking over or owners' influence at clubs. Players just selfishly, and quite rightly so, care about yourself and the way that you prepare. You don't let outside things really... I've never really let outside things affect me in any way. You cross that white line, you just...

focused on the game, hadn't you? And you care about your levels, don't you? You care about your levels. I mean, the one person who would wake up this morning feeling most disappointed about this whole thing is Trent Alexander-Arnold, I'm sure.

Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, you're right. He'd have gone home last night and felt, I suppose, he'd have felt really down, really. And he'll be aware of all the speculation. But, of course, he cares. I mean, he keeps himself in great condition. It's just there's always been that question mark over him defensively. And that really, it's sort of ugly head at the worst possible time for him yesterday. Yeah.

The Kop made their feelings clear before yesterday's game in relation to the ongoing contract stands off at Anfield with Trent and with Virgil van Dijk and with Mo Salah all out of contract in the summer of course.

Give Mo and Co their dough, said the banner on the cop. Not quite as straightforward as that, I'm afraid. Anyway, like I say, it wasn't the worst result for Liverpool and it didn't turn out to be the worst weekend. Arsenal and Chelsea had already both slipped up. Arsenal drawing 1-1 at Brighton and Chelsea coming away from Sellers Park.

having taken the same result against Crystal Palace. Very, very quickly, was that a penalty for Brighton against Arsenal? Saliba clashing heads with Yao Pedro?

I thought so. Yeah, I thought so. Yeah, yeah. And just because people can't remember it ever happening before doesn't mean it can't be a penalty. There can always be a first for everything. But I thought they caught him, you know, had it –

It was a head, of course, but had it been, you know, a boot which caught him around his knee, a touch like that, and it had gone down, then you'd say it was a penalty. So I don't see what all the kerfuffle was about over that.

Mikel Arteta, the Arsenal manager, said he'd never seen a decision like it. That plays to your point. There's a first time for everything. And I'm also not sure that the point that was made on Matchday about the fact that Saliba had got a touch on the ball with his head, that doesn't matter these days with your foot. If you take a slight touch on the ball and then come careering through and take your opponent out at knee height, then it's a foul.

So I think it probably was the right decision. Arsenal players surrounding the referee. I see that's something that has slipped back into the game, not just Arsenal, all teams in the Premier League. There is supposed to be... Up to referees to deal with that. It is. There is supposed to be only one player, the captain, allowed to make a representation to a referee. And I'm afraid we are back to those days again of six, seven, eight players surrounding the officials. And you're right, Chris, the referees have the power to sort that out.

out at Selhurst Park nice to see that Cole Palmer is human after all gave the ball away for the Palace equaliser having previously played two of the best I say this all the time about Cole Palmer I'm going to say it again having played two of the best passes I've seen this season for his own teammates he then gives the ball away and Chelsea turned a game that they really should have won into one that they drew

Yeah, another sort of slip from Chelsea. Interesting piece by Kieran Gill in the mail about Maresca not really wanting to make substitutions. And you think the strength and depth which they have in the squad, the game's coming thick and fast now. It is a strange one. I mean, I've not looked at every team in the Premier League, but I think most weeks, most managers now are freshening things up and trying to get...

get legs on to sort of give players a bit of a rest, but Chelsea are doing it differently. And look, it's a short run of games where their form hasn't been there, but it has come at a cost. Yeah, it has. And of course, when teams don't win games, as Chelsea aren't doing at the moment, people like you and I and Kieran Gill, our excellent Chelsea correspondent, look for reasons. Of course you do. And Kieran has identified this. Only three Premier League clubs have used fewer subs than Chelsea this season.

And the average time of Chelsea's first sub is the 63rd minute. And again, only three clubs, Brentford, Fulham and Ipswich, tend to wait later than that. And the thing that's interesting about that, of course, is that the big clubs, the richer clubs, do have more strength in depth. They do have the deeper squad. You would think that they would use their substitutes a little bit earlier than that.

Maybe they need to sign some more players, Ian. Bolt the squad up a little bit. It did make me laugh at the weekend. Did I read this or hear it? I think I heard it. Somebody say that because Maresca's now got a couple of injuries to centre-half,

at Chelsea that he might have to go to the transfer market this month and sort that out. I mean, heaven knows what somebody like Hans-Poster Coghley who hasn't got a fit centre-half in

the building would make it a Tottenham, would make of something like that. I do think if there's one manager in the country who we're not going to feel particularly sorry for when it comes to squad depth, then it will be Enzo Mureska. He's moved away from that regular Premier League starting XI that I talked about so often early in the season. Six changes he made again on Saturday. It does seem to be

costing Chelsea a little bit and I think it's probably fair to say that they are pretty much out of the title race when only a couple of weeks ago we were beginning to wonder whether they were going to be Liverpool's

prime challengers. I think one thing that we do know that's going to happen in the Premier League is Southampton are going down. They have fewer points than Derby had at this stage in 07, 08. Derby, of course, do hold the record for going down with the fewest number of Premier League points. The new Southampton coach, Ivan Durek, is a death metal enthusiast.

Death metal to death wish. Is that a fair, is that a fair, fair point? He must've had one when he took that job. Yeah, I don't, I bet none of us are going to blame the,

Well, you've got to blame someone for the way they played on Saturday against Brentford. Did you see that? Yes, yeah, I did. Goodness me. But just think about what has happened at Southampton, what he's taken over and the type of manager... And, you know, you were quite critical of Russell Mark, didn't I? I understood why. And now, all of a sudden...

You're talking about Ruben Amram needing time on the training ground. But Southampton have gone from playing this possession-based football where a lot of teams do it now. They take a goal kick and the two centre-halves are 10 yards away from the goalkeeper and they're playing out from the back and building. And all of a sudden...

It's basically a total change of what they're doing. So players who have been programmed to playing a certain way for the best part of, well, for well over a season, two seasons with Russell Martin, now are doing something totally different. Substandard players at Premier League level. What do we expect? Who was it I said a couple of weeks ago should be locked in a room with dog biscuits and water? Was it...

Neto at Chelsea. Neto at Chelsea, wasn't it? After feigning injury against Fulham. I think there's probably an argument for locking the whole Southampton team in a holding cell for the week and seeing if they come out with a slightly better attitude. This is...

But it's not attitude, it's quality, isn't it? And this is the age-old debate, isn't it, that Southampton fans, there'll be Southampton fans out there thinking, why didn't we just lose the playoff final and stay in the championship and watch our team win a few games and enjoy it? But what a thoroughly miserable existence. And now, I mean, you know, there's a possibility they could be

the worst ever Premier League team. But you talk about quality and you're absolutely right. But there is some quality in that team. And what undermines Southampton at the weekend, from what I could see, was the basics. Running and tackling and jumping and heading and trying your best. That's what undermined them at the weekend. But I have to say, I mean, look, we talked about it before. I always do run the risk of being pigeonholed myself as some kind of narrow-minded person.

middle-aged chap which is maybe what i am but i do think that i do use i use i do use a different word than chat what the middle-aged oh if you're going to um if you're going to take a

a foreign coach from nowhere to try and keep a club up, to try and bring about change. I think he's got to have a better pedigree than Ivan Djuric has got. If you look down his, look at his backstory, there's nothing really there to suggest that he would do this. I don't know where you're going down a rabbit hole

of a hole in this one. I mean, where were you when Arsene Wenger first came over? Were you critical of him? Had you heard much about him? All right, I'll give you that one. I'll give you that one. I'll give you that one. But if Ivan Djuric turns into the next Arsene Wenger, better get a move on because he's already knocking on a little bit.

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Johan Wisser and Brian Mbwemo continue to go from strength to strength for Brentford. 5-0, of course, Brentford won at St Mary's. Now, recently on the podcast, we asked, I think I asked, if Chris Wood was the best value Premier League signing around at the moment, £15 million when he went from Newcastle to Nottingham Forest, where, of course, he's shooting the lights out. Steve on Spotify came up with this information.

£5 million Brian Imbremo provides the answer to that question. You would even have enough change to buy Wisser as well for £8 million. What a great shout. £13 million. 1-3. £13 million between them. And those two this season have ensured that nobody...

that Brentford need ever mention Ivan Toni's name again. That is proper value for money. And why are these players, and Bumo and Wissam, why are they not, you know, people talk about Manchester United and what have you, why are players like that not linked?

Manchester United wouldn't be able to afford them for a start now. I mean, you use Manchester United as your example. You might point to Arsenal or someone like that. Manchester United couldn't afford them because those players have serious price tags on their heads now. Man United haven't got that type of money, not until they sell somebody. I'm going to tell you another, just quickly, another striker who has gone under the radar, I think, Crystal Palace's

Mateta. Yes. Last season, blimey. I mean, he's come up with some crucial goals for them and, you know, he's won. I bet there are a fair few looking at him, you know? Yeah. And look, I think it's a good debate value for money in the Premier League, especially now that we're just at the opening of another transfer window. You know, what do you think in terms of value? Who do you think, who at your club do you think has provided excellent, excellent

for their book. Who do you look at at other clubs and think, blimey, if my team could have signed him for that amount of money, we would have been a different side. Let us know what you think. You can find us on all the social accounts. You can certainly find us on X, of course, and the one with the very strange name. Chris is the one with the famous name. But you can get us at Instagram and TikTok as well. Both of those. If you go to malesport.com,

both of those channels, you can find excerpts from the show and leave your thoughts and opinions. And of course, you can do exactly that on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, wherever it is that you get this show. Look beneath the show notes and you can find a spot there for your comments. And while you're at it, hit the follow button and give us a rating and a review. High rating. Yes, if possible. A couple of comments here. This was from Michael Boo on Instagram.

I thought you were going to say Michael Beale for a minute. That would have been nice. Michael Bublé. I said at the end of last week's podcast, last Thursday's podcast, I had a little bit of a rant about the honours system and asked why Gareth Southgate had been given an item when people like Lee Macari and Kevin Sinfield are still waiting. Michael Boo said, fantastic to hear you mention Sinfield. Southgate rewarded for mediocrity. Very British character.

Keep up the good work. Love the pod. James Powell on X says, interesting that Chris doesn't slag off Celtic players going down easily when their faces are brushed, spends most of his time moaning at divers. As we go into... Where's that come from? Which come from James Powell on X. And we'll leave that one there as we go into one of our favourite sections of the podcast. And this is Questions for Chris.

This one has come from Scott on X. Very simple. Can Arsenal catch Liverpool? Well, they can, but they won't. Griff on X says, how do your prediction of 5-0 to Liverpool go at the weekend? I said we'd come back to this one.

Well, I've said this to you many times, not an easy job being the BBC predictions expert. Actually, I nailed three this weekend, correct scores, but I didn't have my finest hour with that prediction. But nobody says beforehand, I don't mind getting flaky if they say you're an idiot beforehand. It's

But they don't. It's a very, very good point. This is interesting from Jimmy on Chris's Blue Sky account. You can find Chris on Blue Sky. I haven't migrated yet, but I will. I keep saying it. This is from Jimmy, and I like this. And could Arnaz Slott have taken Trent off after 60 minutes? As my mum suggested by text, did Slott wait too long?

That's a great shout. Talks about subs in Chelsea. Yeah. Maybe Jimmy's mum. I think she's 68, Jimmy's mum. He says later on in that question. Yeah, and he says maybe she should have been given the job as Liverpool manager last year. Yeah, but

But that's another hindsight one, isn't it? Yeah, I mean, you know, Trent wasn't having his finest hour or finest game and Connor Bradley is a great option. So it looked back and probably thought, yeah, why didn't I put Bradley on earlier? I think Jimmy's mum is absolutely right. Slot should have made that switch sooner than he did. And this is from Yeah, I Know on Spotify. And we talked on last week's podcast about attendances in the EFL and how high they are.

And Yeah I Know asked, is this maybe because there's no VAR in the EFL? People like it, the football a little more pure. How do you measure that? But I do think there is a lot of happiness in the championship and the lower leagues because they don't have VAR.

Yeah. 40,000, by the way, at Sunderland as they beat Portsmouth on Sunday in the Champ. And that one was on TV. 18,000. 1-8. 18,000 at Bradford in League Two. Keep on making those turnstiles click, people. Finally... You're not mentioning Blackburn? The Lancashire Derby? Blackburn would...

you know, I think their biggest attendance. Got a bit of that coming later for you. Adrian M, finally, should Big Ange have media training? He went full Gruffalo again on Saturday after the Newcastle defeat. Erm...

Oh, yeah. I think he's feeling the heat, isn't he? I mean, should he have media... I think that he's, you know, he's one of the best talkers out there. He's just going through a bad time and he's clearly rattled. I saw Craig Hope's piece about Big

Big Ang just morning in the mail. I mean, that was slightly OTT. Delusional, he called him. Yeah, Hopi has gone full Hopi on Big Ang. Short-sighted and delusional, he's called the Tottenham manager. And then he used the old Celtic, the poke at Celtic. You can do it at Celtic. I don't know whether Craig's looked really deeply into Ang's whole coaching career. I thought a lot of that was unfair, but there you go.

You can find Craig's piece, by the way, running on Mail Online this morning and in the dear old print edition of the Daily Mail.

Right, we were going to do a bit of Tottenham, but we haven't really got massive time for that. What I will say is that they've got a huge game. I mean, every game for Tottenham seems to be huge at the moment, but there is a big one. Wednesday night off the Seven Sisters Road, the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final against Liverpool. It does feel a little bit as though it could be defining for Posta Coglu. If they get a win,

to a Wembley final against Arsenal or Newcastle that will certainly keep the Wolves from Poster Coghlu's door for a while if they don't then who knows what's going to happen Spurs are very much marooned now in the bottom half of the Premier League table um one as are West Ham by the way

They got a shellicking at Manchester City on Saturday. It is now. A few mates of mine who are City fans have spotted the green shoots of recovery at the Etihad. There weren't many when they beat Leicester before.

for the new year. Or was that just after new year? I'm not sure. Getting all my days mixed up as we do at this time of year. Anyway, when they beat Leicester 2-0, I thought they were okay. They were much better in putting West Ham away 4-1. Afterwards, a couple of interesting discussion points emerged. Kevin De Bruyne suggesting that some of the City fans may want to give their team a little bit more time.

that kind of plays that debate as to whether it's the old chicken and egg debate, really. Is it up to the team to get the supporters going or is it up to the supporters to get the team going? I'm with Kevin. Sorry? I'm with Kevin. I'm with Kevin on this. Just because of their recent success and Manchester City's great club,

But, you know, you think what Pep has won in recent times is the players a little bit low on confidence. I do think that, and there will be a fair section of the fans who get behind the team. But yeah, I think that there becomes a sense of entitlement with a lot of football fans and they should just carry on. And, you know, there's that expectation that,

You know, it'll just be, you know, City will wipe the floor with everybody again. So it's, yeah, at times players do need the fans. And I think this is one of those times where the City fans could give a bit more. Yeah, you could argue that the fans probably owe their team a little bit after all they've given them in the last few years. Anyway, in the press conference afterwards, Guardiola was asked about that, but he was also asked about Savinho, who's Brazilian winger who has...

come to prominence in the last couple of weeks, played well, scored a couple of goals, a couple of assists. And somebody asked him, it was actually Dave McDonald of the Daily Mirror, who asked him in the press conference afterwards whether Jack Grealish could learn something from Savino and maybe try and increase his levels. And this was the answer from the Manchester City manager. As much as he looks himself, I will see the contention. So they have to compete themselves. And now Savino's in better shape and everything than Jack.

And that's why I play Sabino. I want the jack for the time, the treble. Yeah, I want it. But I try to be honest with myself, you know, for that. And what happened with Sabino delivering the box is higher than maybe the other wingers in that position. And they have to fight.

Jack Grealish, two assists and three Premier League goals since the start of last season. Not this season, last season since City won the treble, two assists and three goals in the Premier League for Jack Grealish. Pep has made his point pretty clear. I don't have a problem with Pep making that point if it's in the confines of the dressing room. It seems to me that this is a last resort for

for Pep to come out and the language, you know, about him needing to fight. And, you know, that's quite a bad slur, isn't it? Savino is in better shape, you know, saying that, you know, Jack isn't conditioned, he's not fit enough and what have you. So to come out and do the very public nature, I think, is a shot across the bows for Jack Grealish, a last resort. You know, I'm sure that they would have

Pep would have given him a few reminders over the last few months and this season. But yeah, when managers call players out, as he has done there, I think that's a problem for Grealish. But he's been told. But that's sort of pretty un-Pep-like.

I think, isn't it? All the other, yes and no. He does occasionally do it, but I totally take your point. But I think he's done all the other things, hasn't he? He's left him out.

He's put him back in again, having left him out. He's given him the arm around the shoulder. We've seen him actually physically do that on the field. And like you say, maybe this is a point where he thinks, well, something's got to happen here because one thing that will not happen as a player like, say, Raheem Sterling discovered to his cost, no one is allowed to drift at Manchester City.

And players are allowed to drift at other football clubs. They are. Because other football clubs don't have the options or the depth. You're shaking your head, Chris. You could say that there's been plenty. But name players who have been allowed to drift. Marcus Rashford.

Yeah, but that's a slur on the manager, isn't it? And Ten Hag and Amram have tried to deal with Marcus Rashford. I'm just saying... It's amazing with the Rashford situation that there's...

you know, there's a lot of, uh, there seems to be a fair bit of sympathy for him. And it's interesting when Manchester United lose a game, people are saying, well, why is Rashford, uh, not involved? Why is he not playing? But it's all about setting standards and trying to, trying to take Manchester United back on Manchester United back to where they, where they once were. But the fact that managers, uh,

call players out publicly normally in my experience that is the final straw so the last resort I absolutely don't mean to drag Marcus Rashford into this debate because that is unfair but you just asked me for an example there are absolutely cases at all the football clubs where players are allowed to drift and that's because of the football not allowed okay okay not allowed they drift okay they drift they

they drift okay and they drift because those clubs don't necessarily have the resources or the depth of squad to just ignore them they've got to play him whereas at City it's slightly different when Pep Guardiola's got his squad fit he can leave Jack Grealish on the bench okay so and ultimately he won't be allowed to drift because other players will play instead of him and then he'll be

moved and he'll 100% be moved on. That's what happened to Raheem Sterling. If he drifts, if he continues to drift, Jack Grealish will not be a Manchester City player much longer. I would argue he probably won't be a Manchester City player beyond the end of this season if

This continues. It will be hard to shift him because his wages are high, okay? But they'll do it. But they'll absolutely do it because there's absolutely no way that Guardiola will allow it to continue. It's a sobering one. When Grealish won the treble with City, didn't win it on his own, when he won the treble with City, I absolutely... You know, he just got that...

deal with Gucci. He had a number of other endorsements which currently escape my mind. I'm not saying that's anything to do with his form. I'm just saying he'd got to that point, Grealish. He'd moved from Villa for £100 million. He'd had a quiet start and then he'd been brought up to the boil by Guardiola. And at that point, that summer, two years ago, he looked like he was going to go on and be the face of English football. And it's not happened yet.

And you wonder why. He's older than I thought. He's 29, Jack. He's 30 in September. He's 29, right? How old did you think he was? I'd have guessed at 27, maybe. Okay, he's 29. Okay. Do we think the fire's gone out? Can it go out at that age? I think it sometimes does happen. Sometimes it's just the way it goes with some players.

Yeah, you can, you can, I think sometimes players get, get comfortable and mosey along. Hence why, you know, this, this very public kick up the backside. I wouldn't say that. I mean, you know, I don't, I don't know Jack personally, but you know, he always say, you know, he's always, he always, he's always very honest when he talks. And I think that he would, he would, you know, possibly be one of those players who isn't too bothered about the public nature of the criticism. Uh,

and accepts it, but I wouldn't say his fire has gone out. I think he loves football. Jack has always given me that impression. It's just finding his way back. I think the stuff about being in bad shape is, you know, that's a no-no for me. Every player, you know, you can have a dip in form and your touch can be slightly off and your finishing can be slightly off. And, you know, I know from my own personal experience, but to not be in the right physical condition, then that

That's an absolute no-no, and that's a massive kick up the backside. But I don't think he's lost his love for the game.

I like Jack. Okay. I've dealt with him on England duty. I've sat down and interviewed him at Manchester City. I like him. I think he's a great lad, actually. I think he really cares. I think he's deeply talented. But I do also wonder whether he's just dropped that 5% that makes a difference between being a Man City player and a Man City bench player. When I sat down with him season before last for a long interview, he was very honest about...

how challenging he finds the discipline required to be a top level Premier League footballer. He actually said to me that sometimes he kind of wishes that he could just be anonymous and go out and enjoy himself. What,

Whereas as a Premier League football player, you just have to rein yourself in constantly. He is by nature a lad who wants to enjoy his life. And when I say his life, I mean his leisure time. He wants to go out. He admits that. He wants to go out. He wants to have a drink. He wants to be with his mates. And...

Whereas a lot of players will say, no, that's fine. I'll put that on hold for 10 years. No problem. Jack admits it is a problem for him. He finds it difficult. And I'm not saying... The 60s, 70s, 60s, 70s and 80s would have been perfect for Jack. Yeah, he'd have been perfect if he'd been part of your Norwich team. No problem with that whatsoever. He'd have been getting chucked out the nightclubs with you. But seriously, I'm not suggesting for one minute that Jack's on the beer. I'm not suggesting that he's...

that he's living his life the wrong way. All I'm saying is that he has admitted to me before that he finds the discipline required to be a pro hard work. And I do wonder when he looks back now and thinks I've achieved everything, he has achieved everything. He's won every domestic trophy he can win. Hasn't quite won anything with England, but he's in a big club there. Just wonder whether subconsciously he's just turned down the dial a little bit. It's very interesting. And just quickly, yeah.

You know, it is important he turns it around because I know Manchester City have fallen away this season, but it's where would he go next? And the probability is he would go to a club, it would be a downgrade on Manchester City and then there's less chance of winning trophies. Absolutely. If you can't motivate yourself at Manchester City, then you won't motivate yourself anywhere. We're not saying that Jack isn't motivated, but I do wonder...

if he's just struggling at the moment, maybe even subconsciously, like I say, to keep that dial turned up to where it needs to be. Anyway, my friend, let's get into the moments of the weekend and you can go for it. My moment of the weekend, this is to do with Southampton again. Somebody brought this to my attention. It was on X.

A lady went to the Southampton-Brentford game, went to the Southampton hospitality. Her son posted this, said she knew nothing about football and predicted that Brentford would win 5-0. And then she was the amazing thing about that.

She was presented with a Southampton shirt after the game by Adam Armstrong, the Southampton player. I mean, how sort of humiliating for him to go. How would he have felt? It seems he'd spanked 5-0 and he has to go up in hospitality and hand this shirt over to this lady. But the lady should do the BBC predictions first.

Five nil. How could she have predicted that? Amazing. I mean, imagine predicting a five nil and getting it right. I mean, who would ever have thought of that? Right, very quickly, regular listeners will remember that at the start of the winter, Chris and Alan Shearer had a couple of council gritters

named after them in blackburn what was it again alan clearer and grit sutton grit sutton yeah which i thought was marvelous well i noticed well and they'll have been in they'll have been hard at it by the way over the last three three days up up in the frozen north um there's been a little bit of that in scotland as well by the way what about these two grittney spears and spready mercury

You've got to have a little bit of that. Britney Spears and Spready Mercury. And sticking with the Blackburn theme, you mentioned it. Okay, we'll go back there. Yeah, Blackburn versus Burnley. Big derby, of course, in Lancashire, 25,909 at Ewood Park. Didn't go well for Rovers. Scott Parker's

I was going to call them buccaneering Burnley. In fact, they're anything but buccaneering Burnley. They are where they are. They build a wall. They are where they are at the top end of the championship on the back of their complete refusal to concede goals. They won this one 1-0. Their winning goal scored by Zian Fleming, a Dutch forward who had the temerity at full time to celebrate by taking his shirt off

sticking it on top of a corner flag and waving it around in front of the away supporters. The home fans still in the ground made their feelings pretty clear. That reminded me of Graeme Souness and Galatasaray sticking the flag in the centre of the field at Fenerbahce. I'm now scared that I might have got that wrong, but you know the incident that I'm talking about. How about that? Yeah.

That, yeah, I mean, I covered the game. That was, I mean, he did have the greatest game. Well, I was in the studio down at Sky. Thanks for watching. And he scored a brilliant header, Fleming. But I mean, you know.

He's not the sort of... He didn't have a particularly good game. You normally do stuff like that when you go up, don't you? I mean, a little bit OTT. It's called the winning goal. Yeah, it is a sort of big derby. And they really... I mean, you'd know as well as me, they really don't like each other. But that's a bit OTT, isn't it? How strange that the former Blackburn Centre Forward and Premier League winner would suggest that a Burnley player squandered

scoring the winning goal in the Derby at Ewood. Hadn't had a particular good day. Have a bit of class. He scored the winning goal. He can do exactly what he wants. Have a bit of dignity. He can do exactly what he wants. I absolutely loved it. Check it out on X. That video, he's doing the rounds. Gian Fleming and the corner flag. Before we finish, the England manager is at work. The England manager is at work. He's everywhere. What?

He's everywhere. This is brilliant. Thomas Tuchel, who got the job in October, did absolutely naff all between October and the end of December. Asterix here didn't actually officially start his job until January the 1st, but we can push that to one side. Burst out of the traps this weekend and goes to two games on one day. Two games on one day. He was at Tottenham at lunchtime and then he was at Brighton Arsenal. Thomas, you are up next.

and running son. That's, that's, you know, you know, what's going to happen now. He's going to be tired. He's going to have a couple of weeks off now, all that traveling. That's the level that we expect every Saturday now from Thomas. Two game Thomas. We could talk, we could call it two game Thomas. That's what we'll call him from now on. Okay. I think the time, I think the time is up on this one. Thanks everybody for being with us. Remember, I've already given it a big, a big push. Go to the socials, leave us your thoughts.

Jack Grealish has a fire gone out or is there a second lap of his Manchester City career on the horizon? Is there a player coasting at your club? Should it be allowed? The Southampton manager, Ivan Durek, where on earth did they find him and should they send him back there? The Maguire miss at Anfield. Harry's problem or was it Joshua Xerxes bobbling past that goal?

did for him and Enzo Mureska doesn't need to get his act together when it comes to substitutions let us know what you think and all of that hit us up on X remember stupid name and famous name find us on Instagram and TikTok and all the rest of it and we will read out the best of those comments when we're back together on Thursday I am Ian Ladyman the chap who's refusing to believe that Burnley beat Blackburn at the weekend is Chris Sutton and this has been It's All Kicking Off