Blues Brothers Everton Podcast
Blues Brothers Everton Podcast
Three wins in a week for Everton!
Well. What a week that was. We break is all down, covering all three Everton wins against Forest, Brentford and of course Liverpool. Plus, we discuss the hard time Sean Dyche gets from some fans, and preview the Luton game.
Welcome to episode 72 of the Boys Brothers Everton podcast. What a time to be alive. We're recording this on Sunday, april 28th, so we're on the back of three wins in a week, which is we're going to get right into that pretty quickly. Andy can't be here today, unfortunately. He's starting work at some stupid hour in the morning, so I think he's already gone to bed. So Ben's joining us from DC. How are you doing, ben?
Speaker 2:I'm very good, very chipper, after three wins in a week.
Speaker 1:Great Adam's here.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm good, thank you, so to Ben.
Speaker 1:Dad's joined us. How you doing. I'm great, thank you. It's Dad's birthday yesterday, so happy birthday. We won't say how old you were, but pick a number and double it Me. Adam and Dad are here. Uh in, uh in mansfield in england.
Speaker 1:So, uh, I went to, got to go to the brentford game yesterday, which is great, um, we'll start with. We're going to talk through the three games and it's great that you know we what we tried to record in the week, or we we couldn't find a time that enough of us could do, basically, but it's nice that we're able to kind of talk about all three of them, which is obviously it's been a great week. We'll go back, we're definitely going to spend a ton of time on the derby, um, because I think we'll still be talking about that in a decade, to be honest with you. But, like we're, we're going to start with the forest game. You know, which is amazing to think, that was seven days ago it feels like a lifetime when we were coming off the back of getting thumped by chelsea, you know, really still worrying about whether we'd be in the league and a lot of pressure on Dyche and all of those things.
Speaker 1:Dad, you were at that game, the Forest game. What was it like? What was the atmosphere like and what was the performance?
Speaker 4:like the atmosphere has been the way it has been at recent games. There was a lot of tension about it, a lot of tension in the stands, and that did come across, you can tell it came across to the players. It was such an important game. Obviously, the winner of that was going to, you know, put some distance between them and the bottom three. So I think it was a critical game for Everton to win. Obviously, from a Forest perspective, they saw it as a, I'm sure, as a good opportunity for them to get three points, having seen us get beat 6-0 by Chelsea.
Speaker 4:I think it was very similar to more recent games where the team not Forest had a lot more of the play than we had, and maybe that's something that we need to think about when we think about how Everton might change their tactics for the future. Basically, it was a lot of possession by Forrest. We scored two goals, two daisy cutters, and they didn't score any and basically that was it and they didn't really Obviously, I've watched two or four games since then, but I don't really remember them having that many chances.
Speaker 1:Am I remembering that rightly?
Speaker 3:They had the Chris Wood chance, didn't they? Which is a great save from Pickford, and you would say that you know, especially with a guy in such good form as he is, you would expect, say were were any and in in the ballpark of being chances.
Speaker 4:really no um no it was funny because I was listening.
Speaker 1:I think I tweeted this. I was listening, I was watching sorry that, obviously on nbc back in the states and they were talking at halftime about how everton I think at at that point maybe at halftime or just before halftime hadn't had a single touch in Forest Box. And at the end it was oh, we don't need any. Yeah, you know yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, two good goals and you know it's funny watching, you know, went from screaming at Garner to not shooting, to screaming because he'd scored. You know it was surprising, to say the least. Yeah, it was a good game and we should talk about, look, you know, we should get to the bit, obviously, that, you know, fortunately or unfortunately, maybe it's good for Everton, honestly, because it took a bit of pressure off us. The only story after that game was the tweet Forrest had sent about the referee and we should talk about the penalties. That weren't and it was funny. I mean, I'm joking about here, but just while it's on my mind, yesterday at the Brentford game you know we sit behind the seats we normally sit in that me and my girlfriend Sam were sat in yesterday behind the Gladys Street goal. In the upper Gladys Street it was second row, and there was a moment in the second half where you know we're attacking towards that end and I think we'd had an attacking corner which Brentford had struggled to clear and Tarkovsky, a range of about six inches, had booted the ball against some Brentford guy's arm and all the Everton players, including Ashley Young, were jumping up and down and screaming for a penalty and I thought that's a bit rich, that lad.
Speaker 1:So we talked about this a lot in our text chain and I think our consensus is, you know, those three penalties is that the first one shouldn't be a penalty. The second one, which is the handball, we don't think should be a penalty, but we've seen them given and certainly at the start of this season get seen a bunch given. The third one, I think we all agree, is a penalty any day of the week, under any circumstances, and we can't believe how it's not overturned. I mean, ben, you're, you're, you know you're. We talk about this a lot. You're a qualified referee.
Speaker 1:I know we haven't heard the var audio yet, maybe we will, maybe we won't, but let me ask you this the first one I don't think is a penalty, as I said. The second one is a judgment call about natural position of arms and they've tried to change the position on that from where it was at the start of the season, I think. So that's why that wasn't given the third one. Can you even imagine how they look at that on review and say it's not a penalty, especially because the referee on the pitch did the? He got the ball motion, which obviously didn't get the ball. So why doesn't Avar, in that situation, reverse that decision?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's a good question because until we hear the audio, I'd be really interested to understand what the audio shows about the conversation that was had between Navar and the referee. Because you're right, the referee very, very, very clearly does the classic, like we've all done it, where we do this with our hands when refereeing to say he's got the ball, he's got the ball. Now, that's just factually not true. Actually, you didn't get anything of the ball. He went through the man like it should have been a penalty. But if the var are making a, if the var are only making a judgment about whether it's a clear and obvious error in the context of is it a foul, is it, is it a bit soft, whatever, if that, if they think the referee has made a decision that it's it's contact but not a foul, then that's. They're not necessarily going to overrule that, but if there's, if the referee has been clear in his communication to them and they've been clear in their communication back that he's made a decision based on did they win the ball or not, that's clear. That's cut and dry. If the referee didn't give that penalty because he thought ashley young won the ball, that's a clear and obvious error because Ashley Young did not win the ball.
Speaker 2:I think that's the one the handball one is like. I think the handball one should have been a penalty, but that's because the handball law is written the way it's written. It creates those situations and therefore it's a penalty. We saw the Jack Grealish one in the semi-final of the FA Cup and the same weekend wasn't given, even though I again think it should have been. The handball law has created all these weird examples of things that you expect to be given that aren't. The third one is like it's a penalty, like it is just a penalty, and I think that's the one where Forrest have the most grievance. Not that it excuses what then happened, which was essentially to say that Stuart Atwell, who was the VAR, was biased because he was a Luton fan which, by the way, I'm going to get this off my chest right now because it's like my main annoyance with this. Like, if Stuart Atwell was a Luton fan, why the fuck would he want Everton to win?
Speaker 1:Like he wants the draw.
Speaker 2:Right At that point, before we played Liverpool, before we played Brentford and got some more points right, it was essentially going to be three teams into one spot. Now Burnley have actually snuck back into it, so it could have been four-two. Why would a Luton fan want Everton, want either of those teams to win the game? And if you did want one of those teams to win the game, and if you did want one of those teams to win the game, you'd have wanted it to be Forest, because Luton have still got to play us. So you go oh, we'll keep Everton in it, because then if we beat them, we'll leapfrog them. So the logic was just inconsistent from Forest in the first place, because it was like, oh, the VAR was a Luton fan and that's what screwed us. Well, luton fans didn't want Everton to win that game, they wanted a draw. It was just utterly nonsensical on every level.
Speaker 2:Before you get into the crass unprofessionalism of essentially calling a referee a bias, which, like we can do, we're, like we're a couple of, you know, blokes on a podcast, that don't mean anything.
Speaker 2:You can't tweet that from a premier league account, right, you can't do that. Like there is a line and that crosses it. The final thing I'll say about this, and then I will hand over, is nottingham forest should have got a six point deduction right and they got two points back for acting in good faith and cooperating with the premier league, right. So like okay, so if they stay up right, if they stay up at the end of the season by a point assuming they don't get anything back on appeal, they stay up above Luton or Burnley by a point at the end of the season, it will be their good faith and cooperation with the premier league that's kept them in the division. And then they've gone and done this, which again makes we don't want to drag this all back to psr, but just makes a mockery of the whole situation, when they've essentially accused a referee of bias and they might stay in the division because they were nice it was. It's just. The whole thing is utterly absurd.
Speaker 3:I don't know. Yeah, I think. Um, when, when two, it's like when people argue, you can get so much, so far down the line of an argument, you actually sometimes forget what the original argument was about. And I genuinely think that's what Forrest's hierarchy has happened. They didn't think about the implications of actually who they would actually want to win that game, who Luton would want to win that game, and they just made up this absolute nonsense and apparently I think it was one of the Sky reporters said that the person whoever that was who actually did end up sending that tweet three minutes after the game had finished, wanted to send it at halftime, but they were talked down.
Speaker 1:Forrest Owen wanted them to send that tweet half time. Yeah, but they were talked down. Forrest Owen wanted them to send that tweet at half time. Yeah, can you imagine that if that had come out at half time, that was another four, the worst one yeah. It's like he hadn't even had a chance. He hadn't even given them a chance to probably screw them over.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean that guy's head has just cleanly fallen off and he's obviously just there's no coming back, he's gone full conspiracy, and you're right.
Speaker 1:Ben, you make an important point that we get very frustrated about referees. I think generally rightly, because there was a general agreement, except inside PGMOL, that the standard of refereeing in the premier league is not very good. You know andy's talked before about the fact that you know when you look at the, the, the refereeing list for the fifa list, world cups, european championships, the, the number of english officials, premier league officials, that go is way smaller it's than other, than you know other lesser leagues and and you know there's reflect, there's a sense there that that's because the quality is just not that high and we see it all the time.
Speaker 3:For the Ukraine-Eurus. It's the joint highest contingent now.
Speaker 1:Maybe everything's alright. You look at stuff like that and you can really understand why Forrester agreed. I really understand it because in a game that really matters, for them not to get that third penalty particularly is, like, absolutely inexplicable. But there is a line, which you rightly described, ben, which we don't cross from, where we say these people are bad at their jobs and there isn't a proper standard and they're not held properly to account, which I think is completely right to.
Speaker 1:There is an active conspiracy to rig results in certain teams, favors based on the personal preferences of the of the officials.
Speaker 1:I can even go so far and I've occasionally fallen down this rabbit hole a little bit of like the premier league favors certain teams, because I think the premier league is a product and at the top end they want the biggest teams to do well because that's the product. So I can stretch to the point where they go. Are they putting their thumb on the scale around some of that stuff To the point of something like man City's 112 charges, or it's so complicated we can't get to it until 2047, that kind of stuff. But the idea that individual officials are, it's just silly and it's embarrassing. And it's embarrassing and it's a shame because I think a team you know we're sat here in Mansfield now we're, you know, 15 miles from forest ground and it's a team I've always had a soft spot for because, you know, partly grew up here, but you know that between that and the food bank chanting that their fans did during that game, they could sod off back to the championship.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I mean now we're jumping out a little bit, but now that we're safe I said this earlier I want our team against Luton to contain the ghost of Dixie Dean, our dad, and that dog that we carried down the Goodison Road once.
Speaker 2:Like honestly, anything that we can do to relegate Nottingham Forest, I'm all on board for Like, send the kids out against Luton, like let them batter us 10-0, like, honestly, it won't. It won't happen, obviously, and I am joking, but like I'm so and I'm the same as you, austin, I've always had a soft spot for Forest. But they can, they can run and jump like, because they've just behaved in a way I just find so abhorrent on a personal level, but but also on a professional level as well.
Speaker 3:I mean, dad was a good player, to be fair, and he did play left-back and we do need one. I mean Ben Godfrey's in good form, but you never know.
Speaker 1:We are jumping around now, but while you mention Ben Godfrey, why the hell? I know he's won three games, so let me get this bizarre criticism of Sean Dinesh out of the way. Why is he playing Ben Godfrey at right back and actually Young at left back? Because Young's right-footed and Godfrey's left-footed.
Speaker 2:No, Godfrey's right-footed, godfrey's right-footed.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Look it, he's right-footed. Really yeah, yeah, I always thought he was left-footed.
Speaker 3:No, anyway, maybe it's just so shit with his right foot.
Speaker 1:No, he's terrible with both feet. I mean, he does those great saving tackles, godfrey, but nine times out of ten it's because he was in the wrong place to begin with. All right, so let's talk about the Derby, because Forrest I, you know I was. I watched it in with my mates in the pub and hello to steve, I will invite you on this podcast at some point. I promise you, steve. Steve neb is harassing me to. Uh, from the new york evertonians is harassing me to come on it. Um, I just don't know if we've got enough bleep in the bleep I can to enable that. I don't think it's the only thing we're working out. Uh, I had a great time. I had no expectations at all, but you know, my set I was, you know, obviously thoroughly enjoyed it. But dad, I mean, tell us what that experience was like well, it was fantastic.
Speaker 4:I mean, when we were going to the game, we were discussing, you know what we thought the score was and chris Sutton from the BBC had said 2-1 and we agreed with him. There was no expectation at all. After about 10 or 15 minutes I was sitting there thinking we're not doing so bad here.
Speaker 4:And then we scored. I couldn't believe it. I don't think anybody could believe it. And then, when the second goal went in, I think it was 2-0. We're beating 2-0. We're beating Liverpool 2-0. I couldn't and we haven't beaten them for 13 years. What's happening? And the euphoria of the crowd. And then the crowd were behind the team and obviously we won. It was one of the greatest nights and they did talk 40 years ago. I think it was on that night.
Speaker 4:On that day. Yeah, and that was the Bayern Munich game which I was at and that was an absolutely incredible atmosphere and experience. This wasn't as good as that, but it's one of those half a dozen games that, when you look back on, you'd say, hey, I was there and it was fantastic. The crowd was fantastic. The reaction of the players at the end going round, you know, taking the plaudits of the crowd was fantastic. I mean to put a bit of context in. I think we've now seen that Liverpool are in a were, in a poor form, and that has continued. So in a sense, I wouldn't say the victory was fortunate. I think the victory was well, was well earned, but there's no question that Liverpool are not at their best at the moment, which which clearly helped. But you know, we won and I think after that we thought we're safe, we really are safe, but talk about a game, of a result coming out of the blue. That was extraordinary and, as I say, the experience we want to remember forever really yeah, I, I, it was incredible.
Speaker 3:I think I'm trying to think of a of a game at goodison. I've been to that. I enjoyed more and I genuinely can't think I generally can't think of one probably maybe united when we beat them, was it? Um? But united three or four, nil a few, yeah, yeah, and I was at that game and um, and fiorentino obviously sticks in my mind, just the atmosphere of being in europe and stuff. But um, I think that is genuinely like my favorite game, especially, like, especially a night game adds an extra element to it. But yeah, dad and I both said on the walk up to Goodison, we did our usual. What are your score predictions? And you're usually quite optimistic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, on this podcast. Yeah, we win the league if you add up our score predictions.
Speaker 3:Especially mine, unbelievable, I know. And yeah, we both agreed on, like you know, we both agreed like 2-1 or 1-0 to Liverpool or something we both said. Like you know, we just want a performance at this point. You just want to carry on. You just want to carry on and put the Chelsea game behind and build on the Forest performance, knowing that you're going to go into the Brentford game and then the Luton game following that. You just don't want to be absolutely turned over by them. And, to your point, dad, you say Liverpool were in bad form but they actually, as a result of they weren't great against West Ham yesterday as a result of the Everton game, actually putting them further down whether the game was a bit of a blip beforehand. The games beforehand before our game, sorry, were a bit of a blip for them, but they obviously certainly didn't expect us to be as dynamic as we were.
Speaker 1:I mean, they did win the game the weekend before, right, I can't remember if they played. Yeah, they did, they played full and they won it.
Speaker 3:They played full 3-1. So yeah, and they weren't going into great form before that, obviously, the game before that they'd lost the palace. They'd lost the palace at home 1-0, which was a real punch in the gut for them. But just on the game itself, um, I mean to sort of I think it's easy to, it's quite easy to you know ride, ride on the euphoria of the game. But we sort of did get. We were fortunate in the sense like darwin nunes couldn't hit a barn door yeah um and um uh.
Speaker 3:You know, godfrey obviously made that last-ditch challenge. In the first half Diaz hit literally about an inch to the left. That shot from Diaz in the second half it goes in. So I think Liverpool had their chances. We had a couple as well. Brantham-waite in the second half had a good chance from a corner and Calvert-win misses that. Missed that chance in the first half too. But um, yeah, it got to the point in the second half where I thought I was completely comfortable. Like the crowd were like really nervous. Um, a lot of the crowd were really nervous and I just felt quite calm. We genuinely thought, actually we're not going to concede it.
Speaker 4:I mean I might seem calm, but inside I was Whatever you do, don't get one, because I thought if they get one they're going to get two. And even I think I only felt comfortable when we'd actually gone into the second minutes of the extra six minutes extra time. I thought they're not going to score two in four minutes, but before then, yeah, just that in the back of the mind, couldn't yeah, and and tactically it is quite a.
Speaker 3:The tactics are quite, you know, they're quite rudimentary in in the sense of, like you know, they're not. You're not going to stick us on youtube as like some sort of you know amazing passing team and look at it, you know, you know we're not going to put like 20, 20, 25 passes together very often to score a goal. But we know the thing is, we know what works and that is pressing, pressing high, um, uh, pressing high when we need to, and we obviously, you know, play for set pieces because we are, I think we're now the highest. I think, yeah us and.
Speaker 3:Arsenal, us and Arsenal are the highest. And just on that point, like you know, set pieces, playing for set pieces, has sometimes been seen as like a bit of an anti-football and it's like well, arsenal play, arsenal have a set piece coach in that, arsenal play, arsenal have a set piece coach in that. And and they have often have a set piece coach, and the guardian football weekly talk about this how when arsenal have a any sort of set piece, their, their set piece coach will get up off the bench and michael arteta will come back off, because obviously the rule that you're only allowed one person in the technical area at any time, so their set piece coach will often come off the bench to look at what happens. So arsenal, arsenal don't, they don't, they're not, um, they're not scoring that number of set piece goals by the law of averages yeah they're doing it because they see it as a real tactic.
Speaker 3:So the idea that it's a, it's some sort of anti-football, some sort of stuff that you know dice ball, this sort of idea, it's not true. And like jonathan lew on the football week, he was quite critical, saying, like everton don't really have any particular style, you know you wouldn't put them up against on you. He said, like you wouldn't put them on youtube showing good pressing. I was like I was like you're talking nonsense. We absolutely do. It's one of our key press, very intelligent, absolutely. It's why. It's why abdul haddaqoray plays. Because, like, technically, you only have to look at abdul haddaqoray for five minutes and you realize he's actually not that good a player. Technically he can, he can strike a ball well, but he's not going to, he's not going to be um someone who can, you know, be part of a team and really create. But what he is good, what he is, he's a very, very intelligent player. Yeah, and that's why daesh absolutely loves him. And on the other flip side of that, you look at someone like dan juma, who's probably are technically our best, probably technically amongst our best players, can't get a minute because he just doesn't, he doesn't trust him. Jay, um, um, uh. Nathan patterson in the same, in the same, in the same breath, because daddy's values, I mean. I know I know paterson's injured at the minute, but he's. He's spent a hell of a long amount of the season where he hasn't played. So dyche obviously clearly likes these intelligent players.
Speaker 3:So the idea that we don't have any sort of real method of playing is nonsense. It's just what we do. Isn't pretty on the eye for some people, but we're fighting for our lives. Yeah, and it worked, and and and Klopp. I mean, if you want any evidence of what, of how well it worked, klopp, in his post-match interview, basically said we know what they were going to do and we didn't do, and we didn't do anything about it. We know they're going to put the ball at the back post, um, and they're going to have people block, block defenders, runs for one of their big players, because if you think we've got so many, we've got really tall players, we've got like three centre-backs in as part of our back four, and then you stick an arna on the pitch as well. Yeah, you've got five, five players there over six foot two. You know, that's a real, that's a real asset yeah, and I thought go ahead I was just gonna say like I wasn't.
Speaker 2:I wasn't watching the game because I was at work so I wasn't able to get away. So I was sort of checking on my phone and I like, when the live score ticked over and it was chosen one nil, I was like, oh, that's it. Well, that's interesting. And then I like, when I got five minutes, went and had a look at the the goal, and that I mean the two goals are interesting really, because one of them is like how people think Sean Dyche scores goals, which is it's scrappy and messy and it all looks ugly, but you bundle it over the line. And the second goal is actually how Sean Dyche's team score goals at set pieces, which is very well organised and set up and everyone has a job, and when you execute it all properly, it works. Because if you watch that goal back, you watch James Tarkovsky. He absolutely has a job to do, which isn't to win the ball. His job is to get in the way of Virgil van Dijk and stop the defenders, because what they've, what they've banked on there, and you can sort of see how this goes into it. To the lad's point about the set piece coach, they know, trent Alexander-Arnold marks the back post and they know he's not very good in the air. So what they've gone is Calvert-Lewin will beat Trent Alexander-Arnold in the air every day. What we need to make sure is that one of the other defenders doesn't get there. So they've come up with a. You watch it back and someone should do an actual breakdown of this. Branthwaite runs the other centre-back can't remember who it was Canate maybe to the near post, so he goes with Brantwaite. Van Dijk is sort of in that area between the middle and the back post. So Tarkovsky runs and essentially stops his run. So when Van Dijk's backing off, because he's the sort of zonal player, he bumps into Tarkovsky so he can't get there. And then Calvert-Lewin gets ahead of Trent Alexander-Arnold and McNeil puts the ball in the perfect spot. So, like it was funny, the two goals, because the first one is like the mess, one of the messiest goals you'll ever see, and the second one is that he's actually a beautifully executed um setup of a strategy, but because it happens from a corner, no one wants to give it any credit because it's like it, oh, it looks, looks like, oh, it's a corner and a header.
Speaker 2:The other thing I would say is that we are like peak pessimists as Evertonians. It's built into our DNA, right? But the number of times that we had a conversation running up to looking at the fixture list and knowing when that game was and knowing the situation we were in and the situation they were in, and the number of times Evertonians would have gone, oh, and the number of times Evertonians would have gone, oh God, they're going to beat us and they're going to win the title and they're going to relegate us. It's going to be horrible. It's going to be the worst thing in the world. How glorious is it that we got to do it the other way around.
Speaker 2:But not only was it the game that kept us, basically ensured our survival, but also we stopped them winning the title because we essentially did Like. I know they then drew against West Ham, but even if, like, that was the one where they you know man City aren't going to drop the points, they need to drop Arsenal don't look like they're going to drop any points either. So losing to us was like you know. They lost the league at Goodison Park and we stayed up. It is like the dream for Evertonians when we focus so much on the nightmare yeah, they, they would have.
Speaker 1:I mean they would have banked all three points from that game and their projection. Do you think? I mean I echo everything you guys have said and I think you know I really enjoyed watching it and it just I agree with my sense of watching it on TV, obviously, but with a lot of other Evertonians in New York and you know I had the same sense that you know you had, that it was how relaxed it was, what was surprising. So that was the thing that was sort of different. The only thing I'll say is people talk about tactics. Really, what dice does well, there are tactics and the tactics are good. Dice does well actually is strategy and there's a very clear strategy for that game in two ways Set pieces we talked about.
Speaker 1:There are tactics, the tactics are good, there's strategy and you know there's a very clear strategy for that game in two ways. Set pieces we talked about Play for set pieces because that's how you know we can get forward and this is you know, and we'll come on to the Brentford game. But I was observing yesterday, you know, as play, you know, and it's different, you see how things are sort of fitting together more and you know God, they were working hard, but this is a very limited team in terms of creativity. There's no who is there that can do something. You know James Garner, maybe Dwight McNeil, maybe you know. So if you look at your dice, you go well, yeah, set pieces are going to be the way you're going to get the ball into the opposition box, right, because you're sure as hell not going to play it there. Yeah, against liverpool and the other thing. So he's pretty adam.
Speaker 1:The other thing he he did well, I think, in that game was we often know there was this period in the back end of this first half where we were under the cosh, where they had those two big chances picked and makes a couple of great saves, and it's a classic thing for us to say and we all say it oh, we don't want to score one and then sit back, right, we want to keep on the front foot, and that is obviously right.
Speaker 1:But if you look at how the second half played out played out, we did sit back, but we sat back really well, right, like it was actually the case that we we were not running around going crazy trying to get the second goal. We got the second goal because you know that we win the ball high up the field, as you were saying, adam, and then it goes to a corner. We score a goal from a corner. We weren't being crazy, we were sitting back and actually sitting back's fine if you do it well against the right team and and the other strategic you know, insight that dyche had was liverpool.
Speaker 1:You know, with the way they're playing, even with nunez, who's tall, I'm not going to do much if they're just throwing crosses in, you know. So the whole thing was make them cross ideally deep, and we'll we'll deal with that. Our centre-backs not goalkeeper will deal with that all day, and that's basically what happened. I mean, you saw it in the, the second half, you know, they just didn't have a sniff. So we thought it was interesting. Actually we did, we did sit back, but actually we did it in a way that wasn't stressful because we, we were still, you know, they had all, we were in control, like all the time they were playing our game yeah, no, I agree, I think the um.
Speaker 3:The only their own criticism that I would have was um, they sort of got a bit wise to that. Because I said to dad during the game you sort of looked, you, look at what luis diaz was doing. He was sticking, basically glued to the by, like glued to the um, to the byline, to the touchline, sorry. And um, because he was targeting ben godfrey. And I was surprised approach, because I said in the start of the start of the game that, like you would have, you could have either actually young right back or you could have Ben Godfrey right back and my my choice would be Ben Godfrey because he'd be good up against Lewis Diaz. It turned out he was actually pretty awful against him because he just kept backing off and backing off and backing off and it was really frustrating me seeing that and eventually culminated in him pinging it against the post and eventually Jack Harrison then went back and and started helping him and then Harrison dealt with him far better than godfrey did.
Speaker 3:But you're right, if you look at the game, we basically our defense when we got the ball, our defense played just a few yards wider. Our right back and our left back were no wider than a couple of yards to the right or left respectively, of the 18 yard box. Yeah, because they were like you can cross it all you want, we've got. We've got Tarkovsky and Brantham way who are going to win. You know, 95 out of 100 headers that come into this box and that's not the way we'll play.
Speaker 3:They they had a lot, quite a lot of luck in the first half where they you know what they feel like to do is they do that really quick pass and get it out wide.
Speaker 3:They pass inside, pass inside, and then they have the wide player who makes a darting run and someone dinks it over the top and they have that and then, just on your point of like, you know the creativity, what they also have is those they had, like Alexander-Arnold, twice Brilliant passes, and if Darwin Nunes could turn with his touch he'd be like the perfect striker. Because I said to Dad at the time I mean, it's such a fundamental part of being a striker is to be able to receive the ball and turn at the same time. And he just can't do it. The guy can't do it, um, and it must be really frustrating for Liverpool players to do Alexander-Arnold ping something that goes, you know, 40 yards, exactly where he wants, and the guy can't turn because he turns and shoots and he scores, um, and you know, we don't have that sort of, we don't have that sort of player.
Speaker 1:So we have to adapt our, our, our strategies yeah, and you know we haven't got anyone who can do anything like what Trent Alexander-Arnold can do with that pass of the football. I mean, gomez maybe on his best day can start to do stuff like that.
Speaker 1:But you know, you say you know we'll move on. Now. I guess talk about Brentford and you know great win and you know they tried really hard. I think the most pissed off person in Goodison Park would have been Dan Juma, who didn't get on, is behind Michael Keane in the striking fecking order that A brought Dij, brought Keane on for the last three minutes and put him up front, which I could make it was fire. It made sense.
Speaker 1:But my sort of takeaway as well as I. I mean the players were a bit knackered, but Brentford were poor, didn't really. You know, they didn't really create that much and didn't really have an idea and were pretty easy to play against, honestly. But the thing I took away from it was two things. One, as I said, we're not a team that's blessed with creativity, we're just not. And you can't, you know. It refocused my mind on the sort of manager question, because God, you changed the manager. What are you going to do? Dwight McNeil is still Dwight McNeil, you know, like you know Calvert-Lewin, calvert-lew, he wasn't playing yesterday. But these players, they are what they are and they're not like you're really building something that's more than the sum of its parts if you go toe to toe with Liverpool.
Speaker 2:And also the manager thing is like we can all be frustrated at Dyche and some of the limitations that he has in terms of you know, I think he's too fixated on one model and I think sometimes he misjudges the nature of games. I think there are games that are winnable, where he doesn't approach them in a positive manner. But saying all of that, if you told us at the start of this season that we, with three games to go, we played 35, won 12 games, drawn drawn eight, you'd have gone great, wonderful. That's before you even get to the point deductions. We've won more games than brighton. Like who are lauded as, like you know, this transformation and this is nothing against brighton, but like the difference in how the teams are treated like we've we've won more games than brighton. Brighton have won 11 games. We've won 12 games. Everyone focuses on the bad run, the 13, etc. People forget two things about it. We still picked up points in that run. Yes, we didn't win games. We drew a lot of games in those. We were still racking up points.
Speaker 2:We talked about this on the podcast when I was in the UK. The reason why we are where we are is we're an inconsistent team, and so it's not a surprise that you go through these runs where you have a good run of results and then you have a bad run of results, because that's what inconsistent teams do. That's why we're not higher up in the league, because we are inconsistent and because we are limited. But the job Dyche has done, we should name a fucking stand after him. But the job Dyche has done, we should name a fucking stand after him. All this talk of sacking him? And is he good enough? Is he for the job? If we think back to the last two seasons of football that we've had last day of the season last year and then 2-0 down at Palace at home the season before, and now I watched man City Forest earlier and I was able to not.
Speaker 1:Oh, I'll do this without avoiding the scores.
Speaker 2:I was able to not give a shit about what happened. I wasn't cringing every time Forest went on the attack and I wasn't like, oh my God, like I was just able to watch it as a game of football because it didn't matter, it was glorious. So, so, yeah, it was, it was it. He's been great. And the reason why he's been great actually, and the sort of the, the, the thing he's really nailed and where he deserves a lot of credit is I'm just going with my phone, so I get this correct.
Speaker 2:If you take the bottom seven of the premier league, so us and the teams around us, we have played 10 of those teams and you create essentially a mini league table of those seven teams. Right, we are played 10 won seven, drawn two, lost one, which puts us on 23 points, and we're top of that mini league table. So when it's come to beating the teams around us, we are comfortably better than every other team around us. If that makes sense, and that's what he's banking on. Right, you're going to play 12 games against the shit teams around you. You do well in those games. You're going to pick up the Liverpool 2-0s along the way and you'll be good. So, yeah, I mean we're going to have a rocky couple of years financially, but he's proven that he can do what he needs to do to keep us in the league. So fair play to him.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 4:I thought his definition of playing direct as well. I think he clarified that the other day. He said people think it's just a question of, you know, moving it from the back to the front. He said it isn't. It's about direct football. For him it's playing forward. Yeah, you know, always looking to go forward. Might be a short pass, it might be a long pass, but it's always about going forward. And we've seen Roberto Martinez and that's what really frustrates the type of football. That's what really frustrates us. It's just playing at the back end.
Speaker 1:Yeah, why was it?
Speaker 4:not, he doesn't believe in that. So I think hopefully, as we move on, we can get a little bit more sophisticated and we can have more of those direct football not quite so much of the long ball, because I think he would agree there's probably a little bit too much of that at the minute but I'm sure that will become more sophisticated as time goes on.
Speaker 1:You can even see that a little bit. Yesterday I thought, you know, obviously you know, 0-0 at half-time and it had been a nothing game really, and the crowd were fine, because people are like, honestly, if we get a point at the end of this, then you know we've still had an amazing week. So no one was stressed about it. But even second half, you could see, I felt you could see told them to sort of calm down and try to be a bit more deliberate, because we didn't have carver lewin up front. We got chimitio I don't play well, you know and through the game but he's not got cal lewis lewins now, you know. So it it was less effective playing an up team. And then the second half we did pass the ball around much more, you know, particularly from you know, there was way more transition from defence to midfield, you know which. So I think I, I basically believe him. I don't think he's, you know, opposed the idea of having the ball on the ground. I think he, you know he's, he's, yeah, I want to play winning football first, and bloody hell, the job he's got is to keep Everton in the Premier League. I mean, you know, don't get out for artistic merit. So I'm sure that will.
Speaker 1:I'm sure that will happen, but it's not even as you rightly say, dan, it's like it's not even what people think it is. You know the people who are sat on you know other podcasts talking about Everton aren't watching Everton. You know they're not and so they don't know what they did. I think you know against we don't really sort of play them, but bloody hell, I've seen some long ball Everton teams in the past Like this is not one of them at all, even even honestly under. You know I would.
Speaker 1:It's interesting. It's an interesting contrast. Even Dyche and Moyes who I've watched and we've all watched hundreds of Everton games with Moyes and Moyes as actually has a very similar philosophy. But you know all Moyes' teams would do if you were in your own half. You were basically instructed to hoof it down a channel, have someone run after it and hopefully get a throw at it, and then you played football in the other half. Now Dyche is a level above that. You know no doubt at all he's way. You know much smarter. So I think it's you know that's hey, why do we care what people think? You know like we. We know what we're doing and what we're trying to build and you know, hopefully he's got at least now until comfortably the start of next season.
Speaker 3:All the pressure off him. Yeah, you've got to play with what you've got. You know, this is the third season where we battled and successfully battled relegation and you know, I think Evertonians myself included sort of can be guilty of living in the past and sort of not accepting the reality of the situation you find yourself in, which is, you know, we're a club with limited creativity in terms of the playing squads and we've now got limited resources in order to improve that. So the idea that that's going to change anytime soon is not you're in dreamland. If you think it's going to change fundamentally, I think you can add certain things to it and improve it definitely, but it's not going to change quickly.
Speaker 1:And look. Success for us this year was going to be comfortably avoiding relegation, and we've done that, despite the fact we've lost eight points through the deduction and the only reason we've even got a question around us. We'd have been safe weeks ago, effectively, if we hadn't lost those eight points.
Speaker 4:I want us to beat Luton and Sheffield United because that would give us a net 50 points. They had an eight points back and that compared to what 34 previous season yeah.
Speaker 4:That is it still is a measure of the improvements, even irrespective of what happens in those two games. But if we can, just, you know, win those two games as well, I think that would put a real marker down to our the work that dice has done and where we're likely to be, and where we can think we are likely to be in, yeah, non, um, you know, a year when there's no issues with, uh, with pso and these up to points.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so very positive yeah, no, and it's good that everyone, and it's good that we're all in. I like to think the vast majority of attorneys are realistic about the job that Dyches has done. I saw some nonsense yesterday where he was saying the thing about Dyches at Dyches Everton is we've only beaten the teams around us. Well, yeah, that's why we're near the bottom of the league, ed.
Speaker 2:And also, you don't get more points for beating the teams at the top of the table. Beating Liverpool and beating Sheffield United gets you three points. So, like, this is the problem. Ultimately. I worry that we have a problem as a fan base because, as we've talked about before, as a fan base, because, as we've talked about before, we sat roberto martinez when we were 10th because we we weren't happy, we weren't and I there is something I worry about fundamentally from the everton fan base is like, are we ever actually like, do we have the ability anymore to be satisfied with a job that a manager is doing in the context of how he's doing it?
Speaker 2:Because, like, if we all sat at the start of the season and did our previews right and we all said the priority was staying in the Premier Division, avoiding relegation and anything above that was a bonus, dice has delivered that in spades with about the worst situation you could possibly imagine from a, you know, a club structure with all the ownership stuff, with the points deduction and, and yet, and yet, still people like, oh, he doesn't play nice football or we don't beat big teams. It's like, okay, well, what do you want? Like, go support man city honestly. Like you're not. That's there's just the reality of where we are and and my worry is and I think there are enough evertonians who are sensible about this, but, like my worry is that, you know, people are just so focused on like, well, he doesn't do x or it doesn't, we're not challenging for this. It's like okay, but what's the priority? The priority is staying in the premier division until we get in the new stadium, like and then people are varying.
Speaker 1:Look, you know peter johnson, you know Peter Johnson, you know Everton you know, everton infamous Everton owner said once you know when, when the team are losing, the pies taste bad and like you know, basically it's all about what's and people are very reactive to like what happened the last five minutes. Basically, and you know, and I think that we have a bad row, in particular the Chelsea game, people are saying we've got to change the manager Because it's all you can do. Right, it's all you can do as a club. You can't sack the players, so it's an easy thing for people to go to. What I will say is I don't think it ever got to the point where it was sustained or involved a large group. It was not not a. People were turning up to the forest game with dice out banners. You know, like it never reached anything like that.
Speaker 3:It's a small group, people on the internet, yeah, I think people like to be right as well, especially on social media. Um, you know, people have a short memory of what the sort of things that they've they've put in, you know they've put, they've put in the past and, um, uh, so you know, especially Everton, twitter can be absolutely cesspit. I mean, it was an absolute cesspit after the Chelsea game, but the Chelsea game was just an anomaly, like it, just it didn't, we didn't turn up, but then you judge it against the team's three games that preceded and succeeded it, and that's the judgment for me.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think, exceeded it and that's the judgment for me. Yeah, I think the last three years including this year, although we're obviously out of trouble earlier I think it's been quite traumatic for us all. This, I mean people talk about sleepless nights. Well, we've all had sleepless nights and waking up at five o'clock in the morning asking yourself why do I feel like this? It's only a football game, but you can't help it. That's how you feel. Now.
Speaker 4:I think that for at least another three seasons, people will remember the trauma of these three years and will be comfortable not having that trauma. And I think that two years gives us an opportunity to get into the new stadium, sort the finances out, and maybe then we can kick start for the new stadium. Sort the finances out and maybe then we can, we can kick start for the, for the new future. But I think we are in a we will be in a period of relative stability, mid-table. Get the finances right, maybe shows our academy out, so we're getting some players coming through, so we're not having to think of spending lots of money that we currently have got to boast to the team. So I'm comfortable that people will be alright with Dice and what's happened in the last week, I think, will have eased a lot of our anxieties about the future and Dice's capacity to be the right person for, I think, years. Another two or three years and then we'll see.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and winning, you beat Liverpool 2-0, that buys you a lot of goodwill for a long time. Absolutely. We all kind of feel that, adam, you wanted to say something about the referee, you wanted to praise a referee, I did. So we're going to call out we should have a little jingle that plays now, but we haven't but praise a referee.
Speaker 3:Cormac, yeah, but it's part of a wider point around. You know, we've talked all about refereeing standards and officiating standards rather, rather than refereeing standards being below par and they objectively are and have been for a number of seasons, are and have been for a number of seasons, um, and I just think part of the plan of improving refereeing standards is to give them credit where it's due, because it was in the game. Um, it was a game yesterday. Well, it's a little game yesterday, sorry.
Speaker 1:well, you know, not an emerson game, a different game yeah, there was a game.
Speaker 3:There was a game yesterday. We'll go into praise Andy Madly specifically in a minute, but there was a game yesterday where Stryker misses a chance. It was in the championship game actually. Stryker misses a chance, but then the referee doesn't give the same team a penalty. And what's the manager going to come out and talk about at the end of the game? He's going to talk about the fact he didn't get the penalty, of course, as opposed to his striker, who is paid to score goals, didn't. And, like Chris Wood, chris Wood's chance in our game was something that he should. You know, he should be scoring that eight times out of 10 and he didn't.
Speaker 3:Is that being talked about at all? No, because refereeing decisions are being talked about, and rightly so, but you can't dismiss one. You can't just say, oh, one's human error on the one hand and then just completely chastise another human error in the same breath. And we've all been guilty. I mean, I've been definitely guilty of it many, many times and I just think we just need to praise referees a bit more, or not?
Speaker 3:Some of us on this podcast, you know, with a few hundred listeners but like pundits and stuff, need to need to be get into the habit of actually making a point, of saying commentators as well, of saying, or the referee did made a really good, but a really good advantage there, because that led directly to a goal. It's like a referee made plays an advantage, it leads directly to a goal. How often does it actually get praised when actually it's actually really fantastic officiating when there could have been a, there could have been a situation where they where they didn't do that, and then then you know it's Schrodinger's cat, isn't it? You don't know what's going to happen next.
Speaker 3:But, I just think that's part of the plan of improving standards overall. And on the Liverpool game, I thought Andy Madly was really really good, and not just because we won it's easy to say that after we won 2-0. But I genuinely thought he was really good. He didn't fall for, you know, he gave free kicks well, genuinely free kicks that we were playing. Obviously we were trying to play for, but we were putting ourselves in situations where we could buy free kicks.
Speaker 1:but we were getting fouled and he wasn't letting them go. Yeah, and he didn't let the Liverpool players because Van Dijk particularly was really getting at him. He just refereed the game as he saw it and gave us a penalty, which I don't know wasn't a penalty rightly, but you know he gave us which you know was like so many referees would have that early in that big a game if they'd not wanted to make that call Exactly.
Speaker 3:And there were like things where you know there were fouls by everton players and you know the crowd saying, you know, why are you giving that? It's like because it's a foul. It's like you know he's given it and um, yeah, I just thought he was really good and I'm going to try, you know a bit, make more of an effort to sort of notice where referees have actually had, you know, good games and um, I think you know pundits and commentators in particular need to do more of that, because that'll be the one of the ways in which, uh, officiation standard officiation will be will get better, because constant chastisement and um is not, is not the, is not the way to go about it no, we'll make you a jingle, thanks on this.
Speaker 1:But on the um subject of advances of common, which man united game, it was very might have been actually a couple of days ago where they had that classic situation where there was a foul, but very, very quickly, like a second and a half later, the ball ends up in the net but the referee is blown for a penalty. Yeah, yeah. So then they have to take a penalty, which is the stupidest thing a referee can do. Andy Mandela at the Derby did this. When Calvert-Lewin goes down, he obviously waited a little bit to think about it, but he waited till the ball had gone out of play before he. Because, you know, maybe Calvert-Lewin gets there, maybe he doesn't, and why not just wait, just take a breath and then decide? You know I say that I can't remember who the referee was, and you know I said he came the other day but he gave a penalty and they scored, and then Bruno Fernandes had to take the penalty.
Speaker 3:You know which he scored but yeah, it was, simon, was it? Was it the same game where it was like Anani just punched?
Speaker 2:you know, absolutely punched the guy last night that was that was that was that was the Burnley game. This is, this is like three people trying to remember, like where they put the car keys, like this is we're gonna stop this now for that exact reason.
Speaker 1:But no you're right because you know the when when referees referee get games as they see them. And then you know vr should be a backstop to egregious errors and we spend enough time rightly talking about it. Doesn't work, so it's right that we called out that that it when it does. Um, we're going to preview the luton game, but before we do that, anything else on everton, the three games we've had, general glory, us being the greatest football team ever, sean Dyche's track suit, anything else from anyone else.
Speaker 2:I'm really sad that I'm probably never going to get to watch Jared Brantley in real life, because he just looks incredible.
Speaker 1:He is sensational, he's very good. You're definitely not going to get to see him. Well, you'll get to see him play for man United or something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll get to watch him play against us when they play us at some point at DJF. But yeah, he's a proper player, isn't he? But, those bloody PSR rules are going to mean that we make an enormous profit for our accounts.
Speaker 1:But the fee we're going to get for him, I'll drop him off. I mean, yeah, I love the guy man.
Speaker 3:You know it's going to be he's left-footed as well, and he's left-footed as well. Yeah he is left-footed.
Speaker 1:See, I'm very bad at this.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he's very much left-footed, Is he? Yeah, like You're two-footed now, see, which, because a lot of teams play three centre-backs now is a much sought-after trait on centre-halves. So that will literally add to the fact he's English as well. It will add a huge bump to his value. I think we should be pushing for £70 you know, 70, 80 million for him. I really do.
Speaker 4:Just an observation about expected goals. I think it's interesting that at the start of the season our expected goal was very high but we didn't score any, and then towards the end of the season, recent games, our expected goals have been very low and we scored goals. Yeah, be very low and we score a goal.
Speaker 3:But we still have a difference of 13, I think, rxg and R-Actual. Now I'd be surprised if anyone has still surpassed that. But at one point in the season I think it was back in February, January time it was RxG. The difference between RxG and R and actual goals was double the team with the second biggest difference.
Speaker 4:So yeah, I think if you're looking for a difference next season not 13 goals or the 13 extra goals that you're hoping to expect Calvert-Lewin to come up with in a normal season.
Speaker 3:Well, you said before the Liverpool game or Burnley game or something you said this is obviously your point, dad. You said before the Liverpool game or Burnley game, or something you said for your point, dad. You said you read about how, out of 500 players, a finisher scored a goal this season, but Calvert-Lewin's chance success rate was bottom of those 500 players.
Speaker 4:Yeah, he said Beto actually was sixth from bottom, so some improvement expected and I'm sure will happen next season maybe we should have woken up.
Speaker 1:We should have woken Beto up your name's, pele so it would be good to have him back, or maybe they'll give Michael Keane a run out on Friday. Alright, so let's talk about the Loon game playing the Loon on Friday. Ben wants us to lose. I want us to lose to Arsenal one, because it's funny, because we always get battered. I was explaining this. Check my maths here. Right, there is a 1 in 38 chance that you play Arsenal away at the end of the season. Right, it could be one in 19 teams could be home or away. Yeah, one in 38 chance. It seems to happen every other year and we always get absolutely mullered by it. I mean absolutely. Remember we finished fourth. Was it 2003 or four? 2005. 2005. We finished fourth.
Speaker 4:We it 2003 or 2004? 2005.
Speaker 1:2005. We finished fourth. We were the fourth best team in the league. We were a really good team that year, Really good. They beat us 7-1.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, have you heard the story about that? I'm going to sell your soundtrack to extend this, but have you heard Alan? There was a great podcast Alan Stubbs was on the other day and I don't know what podcast it was, because I saw the clip on TikTok. But Stubbs was on this podcast, right, because he was in that team and he tells this brilliant story where, like, he says that Moyes, after the game we were playing like Newcastle or something on the Saturday and that was the game that got us fourth, guaranteed us fourth, and Moyes had basically said you know, go out, have a good time, whatever, blah, blah, blah. So basically said you know, go out, have a good time, whatever, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 2:So they all turn up on Wednesday for the Arsenal game and they're all like hungover and dying and like have just been absolutely blasting it for two days because they've got in the Champions League and we're like five nil down at half time and Moyes is ripping into them at half time and Stubbs says that someone in the changing room said what you said on saturday, like go out, have a good time and moise just goes. That was saturday. This is fucking now the reason why we got back at seven one. My arsehole is because the players were all like hung over, because they've just been celebrating for like three days straight and I think was it.
Speaker 1:nigel martin was our goalkeeper at the time and if you watch that game back which I've only done once he was absolutely the man of the match. Nigel Martin, I mean, they could have scored twice as many.
Speaker 3:He's T-Total, probably that explains it.
Speaker 1:So I think we'll lose to Arsenal Because you don't want man City to win the league. So I'm happy for us to lose to Arsenal, but Luton one man cities to win the league. So I'm happy for suez to arsenal, but lutein uh, I mean, ben, do you want us to lose? So what's your score prediction?
Speaker 2:no, I never actually want us to lose. I just in a world where I there is a situation where forests go down, I want that to happen and I feel like losing to to lutein is is, is part of that part of that master pilot has happened. I actually think we'll we'll, we think we'll draw. I think it will probably be 1-1, because I think Luton are actually really bad, but equally, I think now that we're safe, there is a natural inclination for it to tail off, and everyone talks about on the beach and et cetera, et cetera. So I don't think there's anything strong riding on it for us as it is for them, but I think they're a bad team. So I'm going to go for a 1-1 draw.
Speaker 4:They're a bad team who've beaten us twice already and we've only played them twice. So my view would be that they should be out there saying there's no way we're going to allow that Luton team to certainly beat us three times, and I think you know they should be going out 100% to win and I think part of the problem is that we've had in the past that you know. We've had games where they've been brilliant and worked hard and you've thought, fantastic, they've turned the corner. What they now need to show is that it's not just three games or four good games out of five, that they are now able to keep it going and our next two games are Luton and Sheffield United and expect them and hope that they win both of those for those reasons. So I'll be very disappointed if we don't beat Luton on Friday.
Speaker 1:What's your?
Speaker 4:score prediction. I'm going to go for 2-1. Okay.
Speaker 3:I've gone for Lawrenson the last few times. We've done a prediction, so I'm just going to go the opposite of that now and just say that we're going to lose. In the back of my mind I agree with that. I think we'll go into it with a positive mindset, but I think it's worth bearing in mind that the relief these players must be feeling will be absolutely astronomical at the minute, and it's only natural that there will be a bit of there will be a tail-off because we are now safe and we're safe beforehand. There will be In their mind. There will be a tail off because we are now safe and we're safe beforehand. There will be In their mind. There will be. I think that's inevitable. You can still pick them up and get them to play to a level that will beat Luton, but they're not going to show the same level that they do against Liverpool. They're just not. So I think we will draw.
Speaker 1:Okay, what's the score? One more, all right, see, I reckon the only thing we're now playing for is Jordan Pickford to get the Golden Glove for the most clean sheets, which I think he's got his eye on. The way he's been reacting to saves recently has been extreme even for him, but Arsenal are well ahead of that. Three games ahead, yeah. So if he gets his clean sheet in all three games, including Arsenal, including Arsenal. So on that basis, I think we're going to win 1-0. And I don't think we'll concede another goal which is now the end of the season, wow.
Speaker 3:Because I think Pickford is obsessed with keeping clean sheets.
Speaker 1:He was celebrating what? Was it? A game against Forest? The Forest game celebrating the Forest. Why are you talking 12 yards?
Speaker 3:away from him he's like he's all over it on a wild point. I mean, even if, taking the Chelsea game as well into account, we've got, we still have the fourth best defence in the league, which again you go back to the point around Dyche's influence.
Speaker 4:You know, that's not, that's not by accident it is, but that is still haven't conceded 48 goals it is, but maybe there's a why.
Speaker 3:I mean, I'm sure the Athletic are very burrowing away on some analysis that will pop up over the summer about you know why there seem to be more goals scored in the Premier League around this time.
Speaker 1:So I think that wraps it up. We'll be back. I guess we'll be back after the Luton game and we'll see how we did, whether we turned up like Lions, as Dad predicts, or like Slots as.
Speaker 1:Adam believes we will. And then there's stuff we need to talk about. At some point we're going to talk about 7-7-7, transfer stuff over the summer, all those things, but we'll get to that. Right now, I just hope everyone enjoys us getting nine points from three games, playing well, beating Liverpool, happy days and sleeping of a night. Yeah, and sleeping of a night, I know, definitely, it's so true, I I woke up. It's the forest game. Actually, before the forest game, I woke up in the middle of the night before that and I knew you wake up and you just know something's on your mind. Yeah, it's unbelievable. So, yeah, that's all behind us now. Yeah, um, follow us on apple podcast, subscribe on on spotify. Wherever you get your podcasts, we're there. Tell your friends Thanks for listening, stay safe, stay well and we'll see you soon.