All right, all right.
Welcome back Chelsea fans.
London is blue fans to part two of this Tinkerman episode.
Notice how I exclaim that because if you didn't listen to part one,
you should go back and listen to it.
We posted it yesterday when you're hearing this.
So it's right there.
It's available.
It's the last thing in our feed.
So with that said, we'll jump right into it and enjoy as we move into sort
of the second portion of this particular podcast.
There are two, I guess two players that I want to pick your brains on in
terms of an exploration of how you might develop.
And I'm very much stressing how you would develop them.
None of them are not asking you to sort of second guess how Poshatino
and his coaching staff may develop them.
So if you, I guess, are looking at regurgitating,
what's the famous book that has become very popular again?
So you can't remember what it's called.
But yeah, the Poshatino book that has become very popular with journalists
and people writing articles about him in terms of his coaching philosophy.
Yes, if you're expecting a regurgitation of that, unfortunately, not.
This is more leaning to fact that Seb has done this professionally and has this
background.
So the first player, and if you follow Seb on Twitter, this, this one
won't necessarily be a huge, I guess, surprise here, but non-imado AK.
Very, very talented player has something that I think Chelsea haven't
necessarily had.
In a long time, which is a very competent 1v1 wide player who can dribble
and carry the ball and is aggressive and threatening.
And I guess has a short memory because when he sort of loses the ball a few times,
he's still aggressive and he's still willing to go out players.
And I guess, you know, not necessarily elevating him to the levels of a hazard
or a Willie and Orpeggio at this certainly point in his career.
But I think as a refreshing, I guess, as a, yeah, almost like a refreshing
counterpoint to a lot of our white players are almost kind of number 10,
sort of hybrids and want the ball to feet and aren't necessarily great at staying
wide and want to drift in field all the time and sort of compress the pitch
and sort of, I guess, drift into, into those pockets that maybe kind of
cluttered central areas.
I'm going to sort of hand the floor over to you here, Seb, because obviously
you've done an awful lot of work on, on analyzing him.
Now, how would you see his sort of taking, I guess, what is still a very
raw skill set and probably an impressive skill set?
There's no point sort of trying to downplay it, but a very
impressive, raw skill set.
How would you start to look to mold that into making him an effective,
what first team weapon, because he does look like he has the, I guess,
the sort of intangibles, I think, but he also has some very obvious skills
that we've lacked for a number of years.
And some of that just is in terms of his effectiveness at ballcaring and the
fact that he doesn't lose the ball after two or three touches.
So it's not a particularly high bar to cross at this point at Chelsea in terms
of why players, but I think he might be one that has a good opportunity on the
Pochettino.
So how would you be looking to develop him?
Yeah, the player like that, it was Eric Lamela.
And you remember I watched a lot of games at the start.
He was a co-paning him in terms of making mistakes, going again, tracking back
and having the good attitude.
So it's a player we can look at in terms of how Pochettino dealt with.
Madwieke is a player who was well known, maybe flagged up from a statistical
standpoint, because he used to have some absolutely wild numbers in Holland,
like five shots per game carries into the box, progressive carries,
11 progressive carries per game.
So he's a player.
There's a lot of people who are aware of Madwieke before that.
And if you compare with the eye test, if someone was raising the question,
how would he adapt to the English game?
There's always a question of attacks.
Is Arson number going to drop from air division to the Premier League?
In fact, the number dropped, but he's still very impressive.
The second question with adaptation was injuries, but I don't think it was such a big issue.
He had two muscular injuries and maybe two setbacks.
I'm not sure if someone was necessarily injury prone, just two injuries.
And I don't think that was a big problem.
But yeah, as you said, in terms of variety, he's a player we haven't had for a long time.
Maybe the closest player would be Flora Marudara,
where the combination of work rate numbers and being involved into the game,
because someone like Robin back then was mostly about cutting inside the same move
and scoring goals and wasn't involved that much into the game.
So the thing we like with Madwieke is that he's a player who's taking risks,
is taking on people and the important thing to keep in mind in terms of player development
is that at this level, it is granted to have players who are at least gifted with the ball.
Otherwise, you don't get the chance at all.
And the most important thing is how do you get up from setbacks
and when you succeed at dribbling people, it is the most important thing.
You can take everyone who can dribble, someone who can't dribble is not going to make a cut.
And in terms of attitude, it's right that Madwieke's attitude is quite good.
When you succeed at something, it's not burning out and disappearing from the game,
because he's playing the highlight in his head for five minutes.
And when he misses something, he's going again on the next play.
And you have players who are getting under the water, when they miss something,
the air people mown in the crowd and they stop doing anything at all for five minutes.
So he's a player who has a lot of action, a good volume of actions,
and he's going to go again all the time.
So that's a really good scouting point to keep in mind about him.
He likes to make some Singaporean because what I really like is that every touch has a purpose.
So every contact with the ball is trying to shift the ball, take on the defender, move the defender.
There's no unnecessary touches and he keeps quite a good control of the ball when he dribbles players.
And he's got that variety, that's why I mentioned Maruda before,
because he can go in, out, right, left, and maybe for left footed player,
he's quite good with the right foot, he's not afraid to use his right.
Of course, it's not perfect right now, but having a left footer at ease with his right is not that
frequent and he's not really just as of yet.
But you always, you often see players this day who are trying to prove a point and dribble, dribble,
dribble, dribble, and at this age, 21 years old, 50 game played.
They are going to try to go even 1 against 3.
And we've seen a couple of examples, especially against Arsenal and Bournbous,
that when he couldn't go past the first player or when he did and when the double team was coming close,
he was happy to get back behind and keep position of the ball in final third.
And I think it's not a big deal, it's not a highlight play, but it's interesting to
spot and point that because you could have a player just giving the ball away and creating
problems for the team because he's not going to help the team retain the ball in final third.
It's a huge deal, yeah, just to jump in on that set there.
I think I quite often, and I look back now and I kind of, I guess I wish my assessment was
slightly different, but I used to sort of look at players, particularly William and Pedro,
as you want them to do more, they've got the ability, they ship doing more of the ball, but
that point you made there, in terms of sustaining pressure in the final third, which I think Chelsea
are absolutely horrendous at for the majority of games we play.
You look at a city or even Chelsea teams are old, sustaining pressure, keeping the ball
close to the opponent's penalty area, close to the opponent's goal, making them feel pressure,
making them feel uncomfortable. What you're saying with Madu Aikie, it's absolutely true,
and that he, if you look at somebody like Christian Pudisik or others, and Pudisik comes to mind
because it's my most frustrating thing with him is that he has one touch to you, touch
loser of the ball, particularly in the final third, and then you're defending a counter-attack.
I think with Madu Aikie, the fact, certainly against all sorts of great observation, that
if the alley was blind, he wouldn't just carry on running down the blind alleyway until
something happened or he lost possession. He was smart enough and intelligent enough to put his foot
on the ball to open his shoulders up, turn around, and actually just keep the ball, keep the momentum,
keep the pressure on, which is such an underrated thing for wingers to do. Because, as you say now,
in this modern era, I just want to dribble at people, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble,
dribble, dribble, dribble, get tackled over and over and over again, realizing that actually there
is a lot of value in just keeping the ball in that final third, because you're going to force
a mistake, you're going to force somebody to jump out, you're going to force some movement from
an opposition player that allows you to play that critical pass or make that critical movement
to get a crossing or to get a shot in or to find a good angle. I think the fact that he is doing
that at 21, as you say, not to a William standard or a Pedro standard, who even at their absolute
best were still just really good balancing players for Ed and Hazard, who just had no interest in
doing anything apart from it. But then, guess, when you're determining most games, that's absolutely
fine. But having that kind of player in the front three, who potentially has that aspect to his game,
has that balance, I think is really, really critical.
Yeah, and on top of that, for the player who likes to get on the ball and get into feet,
he's got some nice habits, and I believe maybe it's been coached into his game,
he's to run in behind. And of course, we've seen with the goal at Arsenal,
naturally, nowadays, there's something I used to call the Neymar Sandrum of players who all
want the ball into feet. And especially when they have super, super good pace, someone like
Rashford, which I like a lot, sometimes is greedy in terms of asking the ball into feet,
trying to dribble people, whereas he's a weapon when he runs his BN defenses.
Mudric as well is a player who should be getting in-bN equally as much as getting
the ball into feet. And Madwieke has that right balance of the timing of runs,
not just running straight at him in front of him, sorry, but diagonal runs, and keeping
composure in the box is not losing a momentum. If you look at the finishing against Arsenal,
you wait for the ball to drop before thinking over the goalkeeper, and there's a lot of players
who would have rushed and volatiable over the bar and is able to keep composure. And as you
mentioned, defensively, he's not troubled with getting back, and sometimes you see that players
are instructed to do it. It's in front of the bench, they are doing it for two times, three times,
and after that, they are just doing it. Two-core shouting at them. Yeah, exactly.
Was it kind of hot in the door to get back? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And for Madwieke, you see,
I don't read too much into body language and face expressions and all that, but
it doesn't do the defensive work just for the cameras or just for the sake of it.
He's willing to have the full back. It's efficient. He's over anything else. He's just a
nick on the ball and an interception, and that's it. And the attitude is really good,
and as long as he keeps doing that, maybe at some point he's going to take into account that he
needs to score more goals, or maybe keep more energy to attack. But at the moment, the attitude
is really good. And if you look at a player that is 21 years old, he's not succeeding at everything
in terms of dribble. He's got 53% of dribbling success, 25 out of 47. It's not bad, of course.
It's not great. And he goes again, he goes again, he goes again, and he's able to offer something else
that's just dribbling in terms of defensive, in terms of running his behind and keeping the ball.
It's a good package to have. The question is, we don't need to put too much expectation on him,
because of course, it's Chelsea, when you start two or three game in a row, you need to have
one goal to goal, one assist to assist, at least, is not having a lot of numbers so far,
but he will need to have that. And that's why when we mentioned the squad balance previously,
someone like Hakim Zeech is a frustrating player, but mostly because people expect him to be something
he's not. Zeech is someone who is very under-run, he's not quick, but he's really consistent at one of
two things and he's happy to sit on the bench and maybe play one game out of one or three.
In terms of balance, it's a good player to have if we were to keep him at one point, because
you would take some of the pressure on Maduike. If he's having a good game, you have a Maduike
starting and Zeech coming on for 20 minutes. And once Maduike maybe plays two or three games,
with a lot of unsuccessful shots, dribbles, and it's rare, you can put Zeech back into the fold
and get something. It is a balance, we need to find to not put
two big expectations on players, because it's going to be detrimental at one point.
I think one of the interesting things that you're speaking about, and I think this goes beyond
Maduike at this point in time, but when you think about the profile of a lot of Chelsea's
attackers in particular, they are very much back to go into feet, want to drop into pockets of space.
And when you have a number, a nine in Havot's series, by your intention of purpose, a bit of a
hybrid as well, he wants to come and receive short. And I think at times, if you're right,
saying he will come as deep to pick the wall up in the center circle. I think that we've kind of
struggled with balance. I think that's the right word here. In terms of, you're looking at,
really, in terms of simplifying things, you want to stretch teams horizontally or vertically,
you want to make them uncomfortable on one of the planes, whether you can use width,
you can use quick transitions to create overlays on one side or the other. Or you use players,
as you say, with Maduike's ability to run in behind, to at least give the frector teams that
they can't necessarily defend on the halfway line and compress the space and press really high and
having aggressive strategy against you. I don't think when I've looked at Chelsea players over the
past number of years, ZH, Pudisik, Havot's is a good example. Timo Werner was a guy who was meant to
be, I guess, the person running in behind, but necessarily we weren't able to engineer those kinds
of spaces, probably Romulu Lukaku as well. We didn't really ever seem to get that balance right
between those who, as you say, want to have the namars syndrome of coming into those inside
channels and receiving to feet, turning dribbling, creating and being that playmaking player
and the balance of those who are comfortable to make those runs in behind as well. I'm certainly
curious, I think, as we look over the summer and I guess as we move into next season, I know,
memory in terms of Pochettino's teams, that he's not afraid to play directly, to play over the top
to play into space and to actually give opponents a different headache than the very typical set up
of, very slow, deliberate build-up and then get into the final third and then you've got a
sort of chess match taking place with a back five or 10-member behind the ball. How did you break
it down? He is somebody who has certainly traditionally been happy to go long to Harry Caine over the
top into Sol and, as you say, using pipe plays like LaMella and others, certainly, when he was
at Spurs in terms of using pace on the counter and then things like that. So that balance of me going
forward and I think Madeweke's ability to do both is definitely an interesting wrinkle because it's
not something that I've necessarily seen from Chelsea players and very oddly again, I'm not
picking on punicy per per se, but if you think about sort of that post-pandemic
purple patch that he had under Lampard where he was carrying the team for a number of games,
it was the directness, it was him getting on the ends of Crossage and his ability in that
period of time to time runs to get onto back post to finish chances, that aggression that you're
seeing that his, I guess has been lacking in his game, maybe it's to do with injuries, maybe it's
a confidence thing, but that kind of player that we've lacked a little bit, that sort of real
kind of wide striker, wide forward here is overall intent and the purpose is there just purely to
score goals and running behind and be a threat, I think we've kind of missed that profile. So in
terms of Madeweke, the balance that he offers is interesting there. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, and I
think maybe for Pulisic, we are at the stage where there's a discrepancy between what if maybe things
he can offer, which is I'm not saying he's going to become hazard, but maybe he wants to get on the
ball dribble people and he's not good the demo at beating people, his dribbling stats are
dropping down like flies and it should be, as you said, focused on getting at the far post on
Crossage and the question is, is he interested in having that role or is he still believing that he
is going to be the key attacker getting the ball into feet? So we have to find the right
situation for him. Yeah. And in cooperation for someone like Madeweke, you can mold him into
several different roles and he's happy to do it so far. If we're looking at sort of Madeweke,
I'm going to finish up with him before moving on to my next prospect in terms of development
here, but I think we've had a lot of his positive qualities and I definitely echo that I think
under the right stewardship, the right management, the right coaching framework, there is definitely a
very interesting player and kind of profile that we haven't had for a while and actually, when you
said the sort of Meluda comparison, that was actually, I think very apparent and, you know,
for some reason there are some Chelsea fans who he don't believe that front Maruda had a particularly
good Chelsea career. I mean, there was probably an 18-month two-year period where he was absolutely
exceptional, certainly during the double season under Anshulotti. He was absolutely just brilliant
for the majority of that season, was one of the players of the season there. So I think the
comparison definitely holds true there, but if you were giving him, let's say, the critical feedback,
some things to work on, there could be a number of items that you would like to see him improve
on where were you focusing on for him in terms of becoming that sort of more complete player.
Yeah, in terms of dribbling, first of all, if you look at the more refined dribblers like
Vini's use and the starting example, their first touch when they get the ball is straight
diagonally to take on the defender before the defender sets. And sometimes in academies when you
learn to get on the ball as a first touch, players sort of wait for the defender to set their footwork,
be further into dribble. And no, you need to be less tired than that and attack the defender when
he's trying to get his footwork right and make a difference. And there's been a small difference
between the game against Arsenal and the Bournemouth. If you attack the defenders as soon as possible,
you're going to put him off balance. The more time he gets to get his footwork right, the less
success you're going to have. The main point where Madwiki adult to adapt was shielding the ball
because I looked in the early visit at PSV. It was dispossessed one time per game. And in the
Premier League is 2.6 times per game. It's way too much so far. And the explanation is quite simple.
When he gets the ball, he needs to stop getting the ball flat on the defender and always be on the
Alftern and have a palm or arm to keep the defender at bay. So, too reason because when the ball is
too far away for the defender to tackle it and second, he can maybe ask for feedback from Hazard,
look at the socks and the hips and what kind of kicks you get in the game. So, he needs to shield
the ball better to give the ball a bit less. And maybe when he shifts directions, keeping the
shoulders above the ball, when you shift the weight, sometimes he leans on the left or the right.
As long as you keep the shoulder over the ball, you can change direction and not be
troubled by the defender. And in terms of the biggest room of improvement as of course, the
final ball and the final pass. And this is where he needs to go beyond the academic stuff and
guard the ball at the back post and cross the ball for a player. Sometimes you need to put the ball
low and hard into the mixer so that he creates a rebound. And you need to go beyond that to be
the player that he's going to score a goal and not just look for a nice shot. A goalkeeper
sound going to keep that player like Sterling and Marais when he's the third post, the third
goalkeeper and not just to have a nice shot at the purpose. So, maybe that is more about mindset
than technique. But as long as he keeps working and keeps the right attitude, he's got a lot of
good option for him in the future. And it's really not something which is hard to fix via coaching.
And I believe he's going to improve a lot with more game time in the program.
All right, really quickly as they wrap up on Madawake and before they move into a certain
other player, let's jump to the ads real quick. Thanks so much to our sponsors and we'll be right
back. But you didn't see this coming. I'll be ready to hear editor Jake's voice for a while in the ads.
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only 200,000 people. As we move forward now, I think I'll preface this conversation by saying
I want to say maybe two maybe three years ago. And I guess first of all, the question I asked
there was a little bit tongue in cheek given the amount of talent coming through the French
system at that point in time. But I asked said to send me a list of French centre backs sort of
under 23 that he would consider to be good enough to play for Chelsea. And the list was about 30 long.
I think you can't you can't fall over in France. Can you without falling on a potentially well
class centre back at the moment? So and it's I think it's very interesting that we have actually
signed two of those players that you sent me very, very long time ago now. And I've
reason I've said the centre back thing here is because the chat that we're going to be talking
about Levi Colwell probably doesn't look out of place on that list of players that you sent me
in terms of ability. And lots have been and said about him recently. You know, I think this is a
player that certainly myself and others who have seen him come through the academy were not
necessarily surprised that he is having the sort of season that he's having at Brighton.
You know, the game against Arsenal, the sort of big showcase game all of a sudden you're seeing
this sort of six foot four, six foot five centre back hitting parties like he sort of rude
hilly at the back and you know, just really competently dealing with things in and around him and a
great defensive display and you know, all of a sudden you're like, Oh, hang on, he's he's still
a Chelsea player. Right. Yeah, of course he is. I think we mentioned him at the beginning of sort
of the first episode here. How on earth do you fit Levi Colwell into this Chelsea squad because
I think the first question to start off with here is that we have in in Benoit, Badi,
a shield. We have an incredibly talented left sided player, left first player who has
want to say very similar traits, but you know, he's great on the ball. We've got the athletic
traits. He's got the physical traits. He's aggressive. He has an incredible higher potential.
How do you how do you fit them? And can I guess can they can they play together in the back
for his body? My question as well. Yeah, I think we've got four very good and modern centre backs
and again to to emphasize the point badia shield, Colwell for financial bar need to be our four
options going forward because they are everything you're going to look for for modern sort of back.
So able to different in front and behind in the channel and bring the ball up and they all have
some specificities. Maybe I would say that badia shield and Colwell were both left footed or maybe
more the passer type in terms of putting the foot on the ball and playing the baiting
baiting strikers and playing blind passes is something they do very well. Colwell and Badia
shield, they can also switch play with long passes. They are really good at that on top of their
defensive ability of course. And in terms of right foot and left foot, we often have the debate of
can to to refute it play together at centre back. It's not an issue and maybe it's something people
are not aware of but at Monaco, Badia shield used to play right centre back a lot alongside
Jonathan Ponzo was a chitsey of course before that and they played together and Badia shield was
the one playing on the right in the use league and in the league because there was also another
refuted centre back. So in fact, it's a matter of habit of how do you deal with opponents cutting
inside and are you comfortable with tackling people with your strong leg or weak leg when the
players go that out. But nowadays we have players who are really good at finding solutions, especially
in tight space. There used to be good talent that occurs able to turn in a phone booth. In fact,
nowadays every player, especially at the back at the top level, is able to find solutions.
And I would say there's two kinds of solutions. Someone like Colwell, but also Badia shield and
maybe Chaloba are able to turn, turn around themselves and draw foul. And we had someone like Crudegar
and now Wesley Fofanae with more one-way ticket player who is going to go and beat people on the
run but he's not going to turn if he's close down and cornered by two or three players, he's going
to go forward, forward, forward, forward all the time. But with Colwell, with Badia shield,
the problem is not so much that the second player on the left on the right of each other.
They are able to retain the ball on the pressure and are they able, it's not a problem at all,
are they able to play a pass the teammate is comfortable receiving because I trust completely
the vehicle will at the right corner flag to keep the ball, retain the ball. But can he find a player
who is not going to lose the ball? It's a different question but they can play on the left or the
right, it's not a problem at this level. I think the news, let's say the point about Badia shield
playing on the right hand side will probably give a lot of people some comfort there but I think
again from what we've been saying as well, the opportunity for players to rotate in and actually
deputise is going to be fairly significant. Perhaps not next season in terms of the number of games
that Chelsea will be playing but I think to your point in terms of long-term there now, I think
Cole will, I guess I'm looking at him coming back in and there's an awful lot of pressure
already kind of building on him given his sort of price performances here. Do you think he is good
enough to sort of be, is he going to be the guy and then there's going to be like a plus one aspect
or who do you think is going to potentially take that sort of mantle or is it probably,
is it too early to say in terms of I'm thinking from what you've said about posh Latino, how he likes
to have his kind of set centre backs, that kind of sort of the foundation, is it going to be
Cole plus one, is it going to be for Fauna plus one, is it Badia shield plus one, how do you think
that that's going to play out? I think we have to take into account that sometimes for Fauna picks
up injuries and it would be important to tackle this point and the word is well chosen but for Fauna
doesn't have injury issues, is not injury prone. The thing with Fauna is we've got an exceptional
player able to dribble people and get the ball into literally the other teams net, if you look at
Fauna he's got 1.1 dribbles per game, 60% success, he brings the ball twice in final third per game
and he draws two fouls per game and he's a player who has got two big injuries so far because he's
been broke down because for Fauna if you want to take the ball off for Fauna you need to bring him
down, there's no other way to keep him out of the play and where I really sit on the fence is that
is really effective at it but the more it does it the more he exposes himself to massive
leg injuries, lower leg injuries such as uh yeah, ankle, ankle injuries, maybe leg breaks again
so I wouldn't expect him to stop dribbling because he's really good and effective at it but he's going
to maybe miss out some games and Levi Colwell isn't someone with injury prone as well, if you manage
players properly you're not going to have issues but he's not someone who I would trust to play a 60
game directly at 19 years old, I don't think it's reasonable but yeah she'll avoid injuries
most of the time but he's been playing at the first level for for five years, I would be worried to
to define a hierarchy right now in terms of who would be the first because I really like
bad yeah she'll call him for Fauna all have slightly different skill sets
I think maybe some combinations would be better than others in terms of balance but I would say
on paper it would be good for Chelsea and also for France to build on bad yeah she and Fuffana
all together and have Levi Colwell pushing it pushing up as a third option and maybe rotate
I think that Levi Colwell sounds to me the like the players that would be able to play at
left back to DPTI not as a starter not to do benchy roll things or Ashley Colwell things
but being able to play on the side of the defense just like Charoba has been doing recently to
Takaal and bring the ball up on the other hand by the action and Fuffana I can't see them playing
at full back at all despite their qualities so maybe there's something to find in terms of backup
at left back I'm not so sure that Matt Sen is ready to play the DPTI DPTI at Fback maybe Colwell
would be a good option to consider in a dual role and possibly the role Cook Korella should have been
playing but he's been short at most things so far so yeah let's hope that the club
makes the right decision and I don't think purchasing it with Bother or having to fit him into a particular
setup but I would say the reasonable expectation would be to have Colwell maybe as a third center
back without pressure and maybe set it all into the team going forward if you were to use
the ball and then he's about three hypothetically yeah Baddie Asheel Colwell for Fauna who plays where?
yeah and this is a question that I'm keeping in mind for weeks now and I can't find to find
a right solution I think they all would be able to play well there but you know used to play a lot of
back four and he started to play three at the back occasionally to play against two strikers
so it was two more stopper type and Eric Dyer as a some kind of libero and later on at Spurs
there was more three at the back setups and it was more Davinson Sanchez with the best ball
playing defenders on the side Alderweir and Wertongen so maybe I would say Fofana is key to bring the ball
up he really goes all the way Colwell is good to bring the ball up Baddie Asheel can bring the ball
up but is still maybe really tainted as an academic player Baddie Asheel is an excellent
academic player Fofana is a bit different in terms of background and education and curriculum
so I would maybe keep Baddie Asheel central Fofana to rampage on the right and Colwell because it does
it as well Baddie Asheel is a bit like Chalo Bay you are not going to take the ball off them easily
but I would say maybe Fofana and Colwell are more I would say Streetwise or
better in tight space to find solution use arms and draw files
maybe as a cleverer to be on the ball outside the box but it would be interesting to follow
and I would not know if you to have a tool if you did at the back in the back three in the back
four the question is simple do you prefer having two good players or one good player
a one bad player for the sake of symmetry so the answer is straightforward good players
find ways to play alongside each other yeah but I don't have a lot of examples of left with it
right center back at the top level but it should be possible to see that yeah I think that the
back three question is interesting I think primarily if you're looking at you know how to
potentially get the best out of Reese James as a wing back in Amalagusto and then obviously Ben
Giroel and potentially not so I'm not putting a lot of weight on that because at PSG fans and
genres and media put a lot of pressure on a position because yeah Nuno Mendez is a left wing back
Akimi is a right wing back and a position you didn't deviate from that he kept his back four
I would still be surprised he went with a back three at the start I really really think he's going
to go with a four and occasionally with a five but I really don't think he's going to put five at the
back right from the start do you think it'll be a similar case I guess where he's he knows that he
might match up shapes so if he's playing against somebody that is a is a back three team I did
see him do that well particularly when Chelsea sort of played yeah sometimes he would match
shape so yeah I guess yeah that makes sense yeah yeah I think more as a match at the one of
game plan and the plan from the start is going to maybe shuffle a lot of players at the start because
I on the side note I'm not sure we are going to shift 12 players I'm pretty sure there should be a
good bet to make over on the top yeah who are the players who are going to start the first game
maybe I would say truly seek or someone like ZH is going to start the first game it's we are
always always going to keep in mind that someone like that is going to start the first game but
I think he's going to keep the framework from the start which he did at sports four two three one
and a lot of shuffling and tinkering within that but not in terms of maybe it's a different change
from from previous coaches but he's not going to fit to find creative lineups for players he's going
to try to to get them into into something familiar yeah I think that's uh we'll leave that as a teaser
for the for the posh-tina so the posh-tina deep dive there and I think we'll move on to
the final part of the pockets now which is this slightly more fun aspect we've obviously done a
more serious deep dive on some interesting aspects there but this is yeah latin canman 10 as an
otah to to sub here um so I have I don't know if you've seen these or not said but I have uh 10
questions which are I think going to reveal some of uh sub's tendencies when it comes to Chelsea and
for those of you familiar with with the concept it's just 10 questions uh sub can can expand on them
as much as he wants he can give me short answers whatever works here but the tinkering term will
be closing this out here so I guess I have flavored them somewhat a little bit to to sub's
nationality in some capacity of course here but I think there are some some interesting ones in
here so I've gone with probably I guess for for sub in particular a relatively difficult one here
so the first question off the bat is Claude Mackelle or ungolo cantay yes it's a good one
I would say maybe Mackelle is one kind of fun maybe 10 or 20 years ago when you remember him
used to slap people a lot uh see people around uh trash talk a lot uh this is one kind of fun
maybe I will go with cantay with who is a much more entertaining I would say player
and maybe a player got me off my seat more than Mackelle did if you acknowledge the
role of Mackelle of course you knew he was a solid presence at the back uh it's a different kind of
fun and maybe cantay is one of the most incredible player we've seen in the past 10 years 15 years
in football so I would go with cantay yeah cantay the I think we'll look back in in years time I
think when cantay has retired and we'll look at that that runs the chamois you find on those kind of
three or four games that he played back to back to back to back where he was yeah man of the matching
three or out of the four games which that as a even in in Chelsea teams of the past that have had
probably better overall teams yeah not record that many unbelievable performances in a row which
were just you know heads and shoulders I think that that is something that we will look back on and
probably appreciate more in time um number two who are your top five Frenchmen that have played for
Chelsea yeah so I think there's been 20 players 20 French players actually so it was a hard one to
make there's going to be other people players maybe I'm listening to the bud so too bad for them
I would go with first with cantay of course because it's a combination of him being the great player
we just mentioned but also the fact that on a poorly personal level good player my country the
club I like and he's joining at his peak so it was it was a great combination of things sometimes
it doesn't happen sometimes you you watch good players in other teams so it was all at the same
place maybe on second I would say Maruda because I was really really fond of him he was my favorite
French player or maybe post-cedent yeah because I like the energies defensive activity so being
able to do everything I would like to have an attack with player like that left and right and
you need to have maybe some more much willing but when he was at his peak he was in pursuit in
terms of uh he ended up playing in midfield and I really like when wingers and attacking players
can end their career in midfield and offer passing creativity um maybe in third place I would say
this I myself this I the rock was yeah yeah well I met twice when I was doing TV work and yeah maybe
some someone I would like I would have liked to see more often if I could go back in time because
I think he he was something in terms of being able to play at the back and in midfield and
he was a leader he was an outspoken he's a he's a fun character to be around so so yeah maybe the
sayy um I would put my career in force because it was really important and I think when you can
sign a role-defining player for your club and win titles it's it's key and there's a position
named after him and uh and it's good to to to to say yeah it was Chelsea it was not real Madrid it was
not uh uh 50 years ago no it was uh 20 years ago and it was uh it was here and the last one the
fifth one would be Olivier Giroux what they think yeah an incredible career and uh I was lucky to
grow up in a place in France where he started he didn't start because he played it in other areas
of course but maybe his first uh rise to stardom was at tour and I used to watch ship in segore division
he used to have a long hair he didn't score a lot of goals he started to score like uh three or four
goals a game and uh that score goal for two or three months but yeah he had long hair he'd still be
our top goalscorer yeah he stayed on the floor for ages when he took a kick he was complaining he was
waving arms and I didn't he was about to sing to sign I think for middersboro or Celtic lasgo in 2009
I was saying all too bad to go and uh and uh and join the championship team so I was happy to for
him and I didn't expect him to to become that good and have the career he had and he's always
fun to to to to compare 12 years apart uh someone you saw at uh a discover and uh the things the
career has had and uh and still playing at this level yeah now France's record goalscorer if if
if it is correct yeah yeah and probably ironically if you're looking at the profile of center four
that this Chelsea so I'd probably could use if you could find a 25 year old Olivier Giroux at this
point it's probably somebody to genuinely fantastic hold up incredible aerial presence you know I
think sometimes we we genuinely just miss a player that you can just kick the ball up to you and
just bring the team up and see midders that's that's all sometimes you need to do yeah okay
interesting top five there all right one more time very quickly an ad break thank you so much
for our sponsors keep the show going we'll be right back for the last bit of this tinkerman episode
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started today. Third question now I've gone with this player but it could it could be any young
up-and-coming players so if we're ignoring like the osserman's and the martinez's and the Tony's
like the sort of players that we've been linked to recently would you rather roll with Romelio
Lacanqui next season or go and buy a young unproven talent I've put rasmus not unproven
necessarily but a slightly less proven team I've put rasmus hoyland here so the Danish
fall for Atalanta but it could be any person that you that you particularly like in terms of young
profiles so if we're ignoring I guess the big the big names that were being linked to is it
Lacaku or would you like to take a bit of a punt on somebody a bit a bit less heralded?
Yeah I think I would go with you Cacou because I always like the player and I think there's an
element of truth in terms of liking the club in the first place he watched as a link to Volei at
Ulta Frida I think I like a good story in football in terms of I want to join this club to
succeed at something and I would like us to win the title maybe maybe not the league title in
but why not in two or three years but with someone who's been able to score a lot of goals in
different teams and if we can maximize the skill set is one of the top goals cover of the decade
and yeah if if we can maximize the output put the ball early my answer is that the kind of chances
Spurs used to create for Kane Aaron so different from the kind of chances
look at Colleagues in terms of putting the ball in the channels in the box between centerbacks and
fullback. Avonari shot, bid the goalkeeper and put a lot of crosses. I can see I can imagine
the kind of service the teams put you know coach it over the years I think that could suit Cacou
so I would say why not give it a go if he's willing to to get back of course.
This is normally a controversial question when I ask this but who would win in a one-off final
between the Munich 2012 Champions League winning team and the Porto 2021 Champions League winning
team and let's say that they're playing for the European Cup just to give it a bit more extra
pizzazz. Yeah in terms of the squad in itself I would say probably 2012 because there was junterees
there was a I think I would go with 2012 for the character and trying to finally win the
Champions League. It was lamb part in the team and with a drop-by maybe the 2021 team was nice
it was unexpected just as the previous time but in terms of pure characters I think 2012 would be
did. If we're looking at the summer and you had one opportunity to sign a big money player let's
say 1890 male plus whatever that looks like in terms of C are you going for a midfielder or are
you going for a forward. In fact I think for a season without Europe if we play with country and
end zone midfield with someone like Gallagher we can take a punt on a less known defensive
midfielder and I would say the position we need to put a lot of money on would be the center forward
and of course I would like to us to go for Ozzie Mann because he is a flavour of the months and
Zurgol's career everyone wants so it would be good to get him. I wouldn't want us to take
another gamble on a forward because I think it's a position we can't
we can't gamble on a young player unproven who is going to struggle a lot.
I want to get this one wrong company this time if you're providing something it has to be something
that's going to work. We had reason to think that Pawata wouldn't be a flop and he was
and Toreis and so a young player is going to be a 10 time horse so no. Put the money on Ozzie Mann.
Okay I like that. Question number six what is your earliest memory of Chelsea? What's your
first first world memory of the club? Yeah I think it would be 2004 it was a Monaco run
into the final and as a good Frenchman I was rooting for the French team I didn't have a team in
particular and on the other hand I was also looking at this Pawata team with Mourinho and
Dico at the tip of the diamond and I was liking a lot that team and I was 10 years old so I switched
allegiance in the final I was I was rooting for Monaco and I was at peace it's a bit chilly in the
semi-final and after that it was a combination of yeah I liked the Chelsea team in the semi-final
despite Monaco beating them and after that I saw Mourinho was going to Chelsea so I said yeah I
like England I like blue I like Mourinho so let's just go for it and but it was not just one decision
I started to follow the Premier League on the TV more and more games and yeah maybe 2004 yeah okay
I like that um question number seven so I think there there are always a couple of standard answers
here so I try to sort of set a caveat by saying if we ignore goals scored in Cup Finals which is
generally what the answer tends to be in this question so if we ignore goals scored in Cup
Finals what is your favorite all-time Chelsea goal now this can be because it was important
this can be because you'd liked it because it was technically fantastic or whatever but what is
your favorite all-time Chelsea goal I think I would go with the Tami Abraham at Arsenal for three reasons
and because I just signed a full-time contracting football maybe at the start of December and it
was the end of December so you are pretty much satisfied with being involved at any different
football I was also watching with my brother with with an Arsenal fan so you can imagine the reaction
of of coming a last minute goal to to wind him up and also because when you look back in time and
take into account that family time at certain moments don't don't don't don't see don't seem much
sometimes but when other events happen in life you figure out that casual moments such as watching
a game at with your family is yeah when you look back in time it's fun memories I love that I also
I always just finally remember the the lamppard reaction on the touchline where it's just an
explosion yeah yeah I've got a video I've got a video on my phone yeah absolutely um
question number eight again I love asking people this because I always get different answers but
do you have a favorite Chelsea shirt or Chelsea kit yeah I think my first Chelsea kit I bought in front
was the 0608 the one we kept two years in a row I've got one with more
with used over and over again maybe it would be the one that rung the most because I was starting
to look at the transferable and videos on the internet and it I know the feeling of the first
kit you love or you start watching on TV and whatever and it is more special than
the other ones and the one we get answers a few one away but yeah the home shirt 2007 and eight
yeah love that um question number nine now who is your favorite Chelsea player ever not I always
I would say this because I don't want the best player I think the best player it's normally one
of three or four that people tend to pick but favorites can always be a little bit a little bit of a
deviation so who has been your favorite Chelsea player and why honestly the answer is easy but
it was lampered because when I started watching football there was two players so Zidane for
friends and lampered for Chelsea you know it's ever present midfielder with different class from
everyone else is playing passes nobody else is playing at one point you wonder if everyone is
able to do it and over time you figure out and to be honest it took me some time to figure out that
friends without Zidane was still friends but without Zidane and you got used to C-LAM part
weekend week out never missing a game always in force which we number eight shooting at goal
and it took me maybe a couple of months to look for all i'm proud when he was not here anymore
and yeah we are missing someone and no no and there's only two players who made me feel like that
so lampered and Zidane it's not back to me to it yeah it's gonna say um my final question here so
this is we can maybe put this in terms of your lifetime you're of watching Chelsea here so
your personal all-time Chelsea 11 and you can pick a manager who is going to manage this incredible
group of players yeah i will go with search in goal because i didn't have a special bond with
court war anyone else after that maybe me and d but not long enough so search um actually call
at left back i like chilwell but call was something else in terms of uh battles with a Christian
or an undo and and or that uh with james that's right back because when his feet is an incredible
footballer and at the back maybe tarry because just like lampered you you got used to seeing
weekend week out and elbowing people and switching play with a right foot left foot and the diagonal
switch for the left foot was special the second center back i i ended up with cover you because i
liked the player after him but cover you with something else in terms of uh cashew orness but
also reading the game almost like he was picking up the the second ball from uh tarry's winning
the ball in the air and it was always where the ball was dropping uh it was quite good on the ball
as well um i would go with four three because chilis is four three of course um i would have put
matic as the deepest midfielder whatever uh because i really like him so maybe after
yeah after when he joined the second time i i liked maticher a lot the left foot the
the passes getting the ball back dribbling uh i think he's still a very good player at the time
and he's a player not only i've enjoyed watching but taking a lot of clips to show uh to show you
in players how to shield the ball how to mask a pass how to play the ball how to to dribble so
he's a player i've looked at the very closely over the years um of course lampered as left midfield
in the industry uh i didn't really settle between asian and cante but i would put maybe asian because
the long the long uh shots he was scoring not a lot but maybe a tad more than cante and because
the passing range uh inside outside of the boot short long was incredible from asian um and the
front talent as well as knee yeah i think just actually force i always think with him he yeah he's
probably one of my favorite if not my favorite else he played yeah he's my absolute hero um had he
not been injured i actually think that we would have probably won not even more in that period but
yeah you know special special player but yeah i completely agree any any asian prop that i get
to put on the podcast is completely back so yeah excellent yeah i would put drug ball front because
yeah as you as you said earlier you can put the ball up front is going to draw for i'll keep the ball
bring people into play and he was also an incredible passer he had maybe 12 or 15 assists the season
we won the league in 2010 yeah on top of the 21 goals so people forget all good across her set
p-staker and uh yeah just to to flick the ball or create chances he was incredible as well at that
and on the flanks because i would like to win the game i think i would put as up maybe the the
compilation of other the idea of other and not the version was playing on satyr day at four
against with bromat home has it hasn't his best you want yeah well i
and and on the right maybe william because uh i liked william i used to have a lot of fun of on
the social media to to tell people he's good and he's is not just uh good at playing the ball back
and is also a player i've clipped a lot of videos to show to players how to to be consistent to be
the player to to find separation so maybe william for balance because i need to have a balanced team
and uh on the bench maybe murinio because he made me like the club i was happy to see him join back
i didn't lose complete up on him having his third stint at the club in sever you want you want
to do three feet yeah exactly yeah that's essentially i tell you what that that right hand side of
re-stream is my chaletian and william would take some beating to get past yeah yeah um yeah i
lot i love that team that's that's fantastic um i think that that's probably it from us in terms of
in terms of these episodes i think to to saps point there we have a poshatino special i think what
once it's formally announced because it would be terrible for us to spend nearly two hours recording
an episode on poshatino for it to happen so we're waiting for that official official to happen and
i think sab and i will go through i think yeah pretty much atomically what we think poshatino is
is going to look like in terms of a chalet setup um also again you know keep an eye out for the
keeps our own stuff that will be happening um probably probably the biggest one we're ever going
to do i would imagine the season given the number of players we currently have on the books um
so that is also going to be something that sab and i will be running with with the with the lads as
well um but yeah i think certainly going forward the poshatino one is it's likely to be the the
next one that i think that we formally record and then keeps on and we'll be there after as well so
just keep that in terms of your yeah in terms of your your i guess list or or whatever in terms of
of what we're releasing so very very loose calendar but poshatino and then i think keeps on and we
there might be some ones that we drop in between that but yeah that certainly is the plan um any
any final thoughts or any closing thoughts about before we uh before we depart for the evening
no just to to thank people for the support and the nice feedback from the previous episode and
i hope we are continuing to be able to provide a good good usable information and make it enjoyable
yeah and i know i probably i will stop reiterating this at some point but the fact that you are doing
a podcast in your second language yeah to the degree and complexity of which you're talking
about is still incredibly impressive to me so uh yeah i will i will leave leave everybody i would say
uh yeah take care and sab and i will speak to you in the next one until then uh chocivans take care
and i bid to you agit