Álvaro Arbeloa

some of them are very quick, um, carry the ball in the case of Josh King and Oscar Bobb.

I imagine, uh, I'm trying to think game plan-wise, if you're Arbeloa, what do you do? Because is what you've done working, or do you need to tweak what you've done? They've had a, you know, they'll have had seven days off.

Liverpool played midweek.

They've had a full week to think about things and, and how they went about things at home to Palace.

We're, this is who I am, this is what we do.

We'll do it again and eventually try and make it work"?

Arbeloa strikes me as someone who might be quite stubborn.

You know, he's come from Real Madrid.

I, I think it's more likely he gets rested in the Champions League game.

And even by the way, if I don't do it in seven, as long as Arbeloa is still manager and they're still playing the same way, Fulham at home in 11 is not bad either.

And I think if I do sell Haaland, it probably wouldn't be until game week 12 when he plays Arsenal away, and I might not even sell him.

I might just free hit instead than having him for Leeds at home in 13.

The fixtures are coming thick and fast because this Saturday, 3:00 PM at Anfield, we welcome the Cottagers Fulham, who have endured a difficult start to their Premier League campaign, losing to Chelsea, losing to Sunderland, losing to Crystal Palace.

And Alvaro Arbeloa really does seem to be struggling to adjust to the Premier League.

Former Liverpool right-back, former Real Madrid manager, it's taken time for Fulham to adapt to his methodology.

And Liverpool taking them on this season is gonna be really, really interesting.

The Fulham match-- uh, not the Fulham match, the Crystal Palace match was a great watch.

The Chelsea game was terrific.

They have strengths under Alvaro Arbeloa in terms of the attacking players that they have, but defensively, like I said, very open, very inept, and that is where Liverpool could get a lot of joy.

But vice versa, Fulham could cause us some headaches.

Right.

Alvaro Arbeloa coming back to Anfield.

Um, you mean, let's, let's just start with a conversation on him.

He hasn't had the greatest of starts, I think, and I'm, we're being kind there, uh, so far into life for Fulham.

And we're starting to see that quite a lot this season, which is a nice change.

And going to the game, which I am tomorrow, it's actually really enjoyable, whereas last season... going to that field was a chore and that was that hasn't been the case for a lot i mean i would say that from a privileged position because obviously people tend to do well but the last season was was hard to take considering what we've been doing previously um so let's talk about fullerman because you mentioned iriola his spanish compatriot and used to be a rival right back back in the day for for spain alvaro abelowa and just even just saying his name takes me back to being A young boy, fresh-faced, 18 years old, a fresh-faced Alvaro Arbeloa signed to Liverpool in 2007.

It was a good time to be a Liverpool fan and to watch Liverpool.

What have you made of him so far? What's the style of play like? Does he seem to be a good guy in press conferences and stuff like that?

No, it's a shame.

So, Arbeloa, obviously, the Fulham manager, used to play for Liverpool.

Yeah.

He was a favourite.

You'll be really good.

And I like want to back Arbeloa.

He's my manager.

And I think I really don't agree with three games and you're out.

And actually, I think that's where Marco Silva was slightly hamstrung with the ability to push Fulham forwards because it got to a point where he didn't want to sacrifice defensive integrity for the attacking talent that we had available.

And it kind of just meant that we were where we were.

And I think going to Arbeloa with his style is meant to kind of be that final push forward to really break teams down.

But if you can't defend, and we've conceded some absolutely shocking goals, then it's not going to go well.

And this is a Fulham side that you said it there.

And Arbeloa for me just seems wedded to that style where he wants to be attractive, easy on the eyes, splits his centre backs, takes risks.

And I likened it at the very start of the season to when Vincent Kompany came in with Burnley going, I want to play this way because I want to show you what kind of manager I am, even if it's not going to be overly beneficial to the side that I'm managing at the time.

You know, you look at what they've done.

I mean, when Fulham have been big underdogs away from home, underdogs away from home, four out of six last season were under three and a half.

And we mentioned those nine times that Liverpool were $2 favourites or shorter, seven of the nine also under three and a half.

But I am wary because it's Areola.

It's

Fulham have had the worst defense in the league.

Arbeloa coming in, and their fullbacks are way up the pitch, and they are always destroyed defensively because they are not – they don't play that well together with how they're playing right now.

Will they figure things out? in a game at Anfield? Probably not.

We'll see.