Okay

...

the one thing that like he's like an incredibly smart player and like immediately fit in at a team that won the Premier League and almost won the Champions League.

Um, so like that speaks quite well to him, I think.

But I think the one thing that like you didn't see from him that you might have wanted to see is he just didn't really add anything with the ball at his feet.

Like I, I think he kept possession, but I don't, didn't think he was like a press-breaking holding midfielder and just wasn't a super aggressive progressive passer or like even a, a proficient progressive passer, right? So like, um, I think sort of took the safe option like quite, quite frequently for Arsenal.

Again, like how much of that is him? How much of that is Arteta? We don't know, but his progressive passing like numbers, just like the raw numbers, have never been like amazing, um, at any of the other places he's been.

Okay

Are there any areas where these new technologies and AI is actually changing or being beneficial to the game?

Yeah.

So I know I've probably sounded like a, you know, luddite, nihilistic, we don't, none of this matters person, but I actually do believe that, like, data can be used to make better decisions in soccer.

I do.

But I think...

So the one thing that you've seen change, so soccer is just a very dynamic sport, right? There's barely any rules, 22 players.

If teams wanted to, they could agree to stare at the ball for 45 minutes and no one could do anything to stop it.

At what point does the AI s- and the, and all of the analytics and all of the ability to, um, in all of these sports where we're seeing analytics play such a big role these days, wind up tipping the balance away from a fan experience?

... above their weight, which they usually do at this thing, basically.

Exactly.

But for two, two reasons.

They rate out as like a very, very weak defensive team, and I think if you look at these things, defense a- you know, I think weights out a little bit stronger in World Cup performance than attacking strength just 'cause it's hard to be a good attacking team 'cause you just don't practice together.

Um, they give up a lot of goals in World Cup qualifying, just like way more than pretty much any team.

Obviously, you can control for talent, uh, in the various regions, but they're like among the highest goal scorers allow- goals allowed.

And then they're, they're, they're relying on Cristiano Ronaldo to be their starting center forward.

Oh my God [chuckles].

What does that mean? Should we?

Well, the U S it's interesting.

Like their group is, uh, Australia, Paraguay, and, turkey a um as the country now goes by uh and when this happened i think the initial reaction was oh my god like they got australia as the the tier two team and it's probably the worst tier two team they got paraguay and then i think turkey is probably the best this was like from the as yet qualified teams turkey was the best team um that could have qualified that the u.s could have played but i think it was viewed as like there's no powerhouse teams in this group no teams that have um won the World Cup, no teams that have won their Confederation Championships other than Australia.

But actually, like, all the teams are just decent, which I think is the worst possible case for this situation.

So, like, if you look at Luvin's projections, like, the...

A team like Australia has almost like a 25% chance of finishing first, second, third, and fourth.

The US's odds of advancing are only like 73%.

Well, does that mean that we won't see the same difference between open play and set pieces in the World Cup as we're seeing in the Premier League?

most

part, yeah.

I think it's like two reasons also.

There's like a...

So Wrexham doesn't exactly fit this, but...

In English soccer, there has been almost like an acceptance of oil money, oligarch money, et cetera, coming into your club.

Because we've seen it at Manchester City, at Chelsea, at Newcastle.

But what does that even mean when you're talking about wealthy celebrities and there's a lot of brand value and who knows if all of the revenue and expenditures are even being accounted for properly? So is this a good idea, a good investment, or is this sort of a burnishing one's own legacy and ego exercise?

Is that a universally held view among fans of other lower division English soccer clubs?

I would say for the most part, yeah.

Um, I think it's, like, two reasons also.

There's, like, a-- So Wrexham, like, doesn't exactly fit this, but in English soccer there has been almost, like, an acceptance of oil money, oligarch money, et cetera coming into your club, uh, because we've seen it at Manchester City, at Chelsea, at Newcastle.

Um, the owners, those types of owners, their interests align, like, directly with the fans in a way, even if their end goals are not the same.

You know, you buy a team because you wanna be, you want people to sort of accept you in Western society, and the main way you get that to happen is by just spending a lot of money and winning games, and the fans want your team to win as many games as possible.

But then there's, like, the American style owner that comes in, which are, like, I know Ryan Reynolds is Canadian, but I feel like he sort of fits into the same bucket for fans.

So is this a, a good idea, a good investment, or is this sort of a burnishing one's own legacy and ego exercise?

All right, let's take it to Johnny Cardoso now, Ryan.Getting now to Atletico from Real Betis.

Yeah, you say I'm a hard grader but I gave Cardozo (laughs) to Atletico uh, an A.

This just...

I just find this so bizarre, um, I think outside of Pulisic's move to Chelsea and maybe, um, Weston McKennie's move to Juventus when they were playing a little bit better, um, this is like, the best team that an American player has moved to and immediately started for.

Um, but it just doesn't seem that exciting because he didn't even...

He barely played at all at the Gold Cup and like, I don't even know if he would make the World Cup roster if the World Cup started, you know, next week.

But overall, he's moving to one of the best teams in the world, you know, a top 10, top 15 team, playing for Diego Simeone and they bought him to start.

What do you make of this move?

He doesn't make the list here for the Gold Cup, but you have him at number three.

Yeah, I think part of this is that there are a bunch of attacking midfielders on the team that can sort of play as wingers in an emergency.

I think even Yunus Musah might play on the wing if they need him to.

So I think this isn't, like, totally a true representation of the team's depth, but it is, like you said, it's just not...This is kind of the part where it's very concerning ahead of the World Cup, because players get injured all the time.

Right? I think the US was pretty fortunate in 2022 with the amount of health they had.

Um, if Pulisic or Gueye get injured, it's just kind of pretty grim beyond them.

I- I think...

A- and more importantly, why over a guy like Josh Sargent?

Talk us through it.

Yeah.

I think the starting 11, uh, actually looks pretty good, even though almost none of the players that we're gonna see on it are gonna play in the Gold Cup unfortunately.

So Matt Turner in goal, not really playing for Crystal Palace, but also no one on the team is really challenging him in any way.

I think the full-backs, Sergino Dest and Antony Robinson are like fantastic, probably the strongest part of the team.

The center backs, Mark, Mark McKenzie and Chris Richards, I think they need a little bit of time together, but there's a lot of potential there.

I think the midfield is maybe the strongest area on the team beyond the full-backs, with Tyler Adams, Johnny Cardoso, Weston McKennie, Tim Weah, and Christian Pulisic, the wingers.

(laughs)