The family that vacations together stays together. At least that was the plan. Except now the dastardly desk clerk is saying he can't confirm your connecting rooms. Oh, wait, what? That's right, ma'am. You have rooms 201 and 709. No, we cannot be five floors away from our kids. Eh, the doors of double locks. They'll be fine. When you want your connecting rooms confirmed before you arrive, it matters where you stay. Welcome to Hilton. I see your connecting rooms are already confirmed. Hilton for the stay. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Viscally responsible. Financial geniuses. Monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to progressive and save hundreds. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save. Progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary, not available in all states or situations. It feels like you can get your credit scores anywhere these days. Random websites, card statements, budgeting apps, heck, even your dog might bark out a few numbers. It's true, credit karma isn't the only place you can find them, but we actually do more with your scores to help you find your next financial opportunity. Like a more rewarding credit card, a game plan that helps you pay down that faster, or a person alone to help you save more on interest payments each month. Cha-ching! The possibilities are kind of endless. Download into it credit karma today to get started. [MUSIC] Ah, good evening, everybody, from wherever you're joining us from. Welcome to the Talkin' Cop, I'm your host, Matt. I'm joined by my usual post-match crew, Chris Brack, Kevin Sullivan. And Ashley, we're going to talk about the return of football, the glorious return of real football that people actually care about tonight, and the Reds back in action finally, finally. Ashley, it's been a while since I've seen you, how are things with you? Good, I am also looking forward to getting back to the regular football. International football is hard, I mean, we had the Pochettino thing over here, which has been kind of interesting. It's actually a very similar storyline to the tutel thing going on in England, but I'm just excited to get back to watching Liverpool. Yeah, I can't imagine that the Americans are quite as up in arms over the nationality of their national medicine coach. Not quite the same fear-sness, I guess. Yeah, I mean, Chris, you're over there in the heart of just the absolute disaster that is the FA, but how are you? Oh, great, mate, listen, I've been trying, I've been doing algebra of the daughter all the evening, so, you know, this is actually quite a relief. This has been my evening. So I've been loving the England fallout and the false, and it is false outrage, because it's Sam Wallace of the Telegram, saying it's a dark day for English football, but four days earlier when they thought it might be quite the older, quite ambitious, quite good. So they haven't got an issue with it being a foreigner. They've got an issue with being Thomas Tugel, because I don't think they'd like Thomas Tugel, but they can't say that. So, yeah, I couldn't care that surely, but it's quite funny. I mean, things though, the way he plays, he might actually win them at tournaments, it'll just be dull, really dull, but his style of football probably worth total football. Yeah, yeah, I mean, he does have a record as a winner, Kev. I mean, it'll be dull, but Gary Selkate was also dull, but what's not going to be dull is the upcoming run we've got here for Liverpool, and that's what we're going to get into talk about tonight. Are you ready, Kev? We've got Postman shows coming out the gingang. Yeah, it's busy. This block of seven fixtures now between now and the next international break, it's going to be telling. We'll find out a bit more about us, a bit more about us under pressure, and we'll see how we handle it. But it's not season defining, but this is a run of seven games that could put us in a really good spot. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, this is the crucible under which great teams can be formed. Is this run of games because it is absolutely hideous, but the main thing, actually, is the international break is over, and unless I'm missing something, did we pick up any new injuries? I don't think there's anyone new. I think there's a few coming back, which is great news. Yeah, I didn't see anything new. I mean, I think there was a few people that were worried about why Mosela got pulled from that last Egypt game, and there were some headlines that made it seem like he was injured, but they just wanted to keep him away from that artificial pitch. They thought he might get injured there. So that was the only one I think that had kind of scared a few folks, but yeah, no new news that I've heard of. Yeah, and Chris, I mean, before the break, Alexis McAllister picking up a little bit of a knock, and then he trots off to join up with Argentina and plays and seems like he's come through it. Yeah, but I think he'll be played as well. He only plays an hour in the second game, don't you? I don't think he's featured in the first game. So I think that's also a bit handy for us. There's quite a lot of the guys who've been on in statute this time, unlike the last one, have at all, not all of them have played full games like Trent has, think Robo has, Virgil managed to get himself just one game, which is handy. Tap the best red card you've ever seen. So no, it's worked out well. I think Grappenberg had a tough international break. I think he got, you know, a bit of a run around with the Germany game, but to be fair, I think Germany did the run around for a lot of people. So it would be good development for him. So like you said, hopefully that likes the keys back. Look how Elliott won't make the weekend, but it gets the impression he's not far off. So all can go to all these thousand couple of contracts on him a lot. Yeah, like maybe that's, maybe that's why Mo came home early, Kev, is just to have a nice triple contract extension talk. But I mean, I see so I got a couple of goals for Hungary. I think that engaged. Well, he should just assume that as well. Oh, it's just joking about that, didn't he? Because he got called up for England and then think it feature because he had to rush off to a bit of the birth of his daughter. OK, so take the rest wherever you can get it. Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, that's the international break. I don't think there was too much to talk about because, I mean, I don't really watch the international football. So, Kev, I mean, the run of fixtures. I mean, I'll just run through them here and then we can go around and talk about what we've got coming up ahead of us. But we host Chelsea. Then we are away to Red Bull Leipzig, away to Arsenal, away to Brighton in the cup, home to Brighton in the league, home to Leverkusen in the Champions League, and home to Aston Villa in the league before the next international break. Hoof. That's brutal, Kev. That's... It's Premier League, mate. It's Premier League and Champions League. It's a tough run of fixtures, but, in fairness, the hardest one in there is Arsenal away. They gave us a hide-in last year, and we deservedly got beaten. It was one of the few times in the Hall of Clops era that it sticks out that we really had our pants taken down and we were spent. You know, we were really roundly soundly beat. Chelsea home, no, but I'm not too worried about this coming Sunday's fixtures as long as we turn up and do our part. We turn up and do our job and play to how we've been playing. It'll be a tough game, but I expect to be everybody at home, and I don't care who they are. The Brighton Cup fixture, I think Brighton will go really, really strong. I think they'll go as strong as possible. I really, really, really hope we don't. I couldn't give a two-penny about it. I don't care. I care about the next game. It's all about managing these fixtures. You look at where we are now in the Champions League group as well. If we can pick up six points out of the two Champions League fixtures here, that puts us in a really solid position to come into top eight in the group. Irrespective, we got Real Madrid coming after the international break. So they're all dirt, some tough games, but I think Arsenal and Villa are probably the toughest games there. Yet we're playing Villa at home, we're playing Chelsea at home. Arsenal away is the hardest fixture, no doubt. That's going to be the asset test. And it's not as if I'm glad we got Chelsea first. If we had Arsenal first coming back off an international break with how some players come back from international breaks, I'd be a lot more nervous. But don't worry, it comes 3.30 Sunday. I'm going to be nervous as I'll help. Right now, I'm talking a good game. I'd be as nervous as anybody else comes 3.30 on Sunday. But at the end of the day, I expect us to be Chelsea. I expect us to get a result in Leipzig. They're not what they used to be. They're a good side, don't get me wrong, but they're not what they were a few years ago. And we should be buzzing going into the Arsenal game. That's where I'm looking forward to. Now, what about for you, Ashley? I'll speak to maybe the rest of the panel, but I'm thrown off by this optimistic cab. I absolutely love it. If his dead, we've got fully optimistic cab. He says we're taking 21, 21 from 21 points in the 7 games we got coming up. Do you expect Ashley to see fairly wholesale changes between the Chelsea, the Leipzig, and back to the Arsenal game, that run of 3? I don't know if we're going to see like 10 changes. But I do think we're going to see significant rotation. We've got a pretty good one-for-one thing going with our squad, where if Diaz is out, you put Cody Gackbo in. And for me, they're both exceeding expectations this year. I think we have a couple of places in the squad that we can do that without too much of a drop off. I think even Trent to Connor Bradley, I think that works out pretty well for us. I'm worried about our midfield rotation and how that's going to work. I think how he deals with Gravinberch during this period is going to be fascinating, because I'm not sure Endo is that like-for-like switch that he can do. I think it's just going to be a learning experience. I mean, we all looked at that first set of fixtures, wondering what thought was going to do with rotation. He didn't rotate, and that was a surprise to me and probably to a lot of you. It'll be interesting to see what he does now. I think he has no choice but to rotate though. I think these games are so high caliber that he's going to have to. He's going to have to pick and choose which ones he thinks are the harder fixtures. I look at this with cautious optimism, but I'm not as exceedingly confident as Kevin's. I think there's a lot of home games in there that help us out. We'll see. This is where we want it to be. Yeah, exactly. You play everybody in the league twice. Getting about the toughest Champions League draw you could get out of the number one pod or a pod, whatever it was. That doesn't help, but you've got to win games. You want to win trophies. Chris, Sam Tandy says here, he says, "slot will make just two or three changes. Every game, in my opinion, keeps the rhythm at the same time. Then, wholesale changes versus Brighton in the cup. Megan McCallion saying the same thing. I think everybody can agree with that. I think that Brighton Cup game, if you're going to make the full 11 changes, that's the game you make it for. What do you think, though, Chris, in terms of the midfield, what would you like to see? Not because how can we possibly predict what Arna Slott's going to do? I mean, he was probably going to pick Grabmer, Sobbas like McAllister. That's the answer. That's what you would do, and then what would you do for the Champions League game in between Chelsea and Arsenal then? Between Chelsea and Arsenal, I would rest McAllister. I think he'll start Grabmer, Sobbas Lyre, and Jones will come in. I think what you might find is Jones might get a run of three or four games and play three or four ideally on the bounce. But one of Grabmer, McAllister or Sobbas Lyre will get rotated out. Do you think Jones will play different positions there? I think so. That's what I think he'll ask him to do. He's probably better at the deep two, but he did used to be a wide left player. But I've still got to sneak your feet at some point. He makes sure that we'll go back to this 4-2-4 that we used to do. Just say to Jones and Grabmer, it's set as a two, and he just plays Kiesa, Gapo, Diaz, Jotto, go with that or Salah, because it could still do 4-3-1. It's just that when we have the ball, we go really attacking and he's done it before, so that also wouldn't surprise me. Maybe not Kies Chelsea or Arsenal, but he wouldn't surprise me if that's, he tries to look like that in the cup. That's one way around. I'm intrigued to see how we use Kiesa as well. He's having that sixth option and he's going to be handy. But I'm looking forward to it. I'm not particularly worried about the games. I just think it's what you're in it for. Far too many people are doom and gloom, but this could be a really tough fixture. Yeah, we could sit here and not win any of them, and it'll be shy. But what if we don't run like we have done in the past, and we showed last year this side could go and run, because we made the K-3rd last year, so it's capable of doing it. I love this. I'm not sure where all this optimism is coming from. I'm absolutely overjoyed with the whole game. You're slightly back in the pod and everyone has optimism. Sure, I think it is. I think it's because it's in you manage it. There's the element of the unknown, and there's two ways to leave the unknown. You can go doom and gloom and think it'll definitely be rubbish. You can do that with played no one, yada, yada, yada. Or you can go, "Ah, do you know what? We don't know what he's going to do." So embrace the madness as I say, "Do you know what? It is what it is." You know, if we end up picking three or four injuries up, then it's going to happen at some point into all clubs and managers. So we'll see how we adapt to that. So I'm looking forward to it. I mean, listen, the key is get yourself to New Year's Day, still in Europe, ideally trumps the fairly box, and still within four or five points of the title. Title race, long as you look at that position, happy days. I'm just so happy. Everybody's so optimistic. Kev, to me, I think when we're talking about rotation over this Iran of seven games, and it's something that Ashley and Chris mentioned, I think the role occurred as Jones is going to be massive in the team because of his versatility. And I don't know if it's just because Jones and Gomez look very similar in terms of their phonetic buildup, you know, an O and an E in between three consonants that you feel like you can use them left, right in the middle. It doesn't really matter. But I have a sneaking suspicion that Curtis Jones is going to start on Sunday. And I think it might be McAllister that misses out with the travel and the fact that he's coming back from that little knock, even though he played that 60, 70 minutes for Argentina. Like, that makes sense, right? You start Jones with Sawbus Line Grabber. I would anyway, after the way McAllister has come back from international duty in the past few times, I give him the extra time. If it all possible, if you've any confidence in Jones and his availability and his fitness and sharpness, I would look to try to start him as much as possible. You always have the option of McAllister to come off the bench if need be. But given the Chelsea have strengths on that side of the pitch, on their right, are left. We have to be a bit wary about how we line up with that one, because even though as someone pointed out earlier, they're missing a couple of players through suspension, it looks like Reese James might be back available. So that will cushion a blow a little bit. I can see the problem. Whatever, at the end of the day, he can cause a problem with his ability to get up and on the pitch. I would be amazed, I'd be amazed that he threw him in the first big game. I wouldn't show the break a minute. I mean, isn't that kind of how he's done all of his previous injuries? Was coming back too fast? Yeah, no one ever accused Chelsea of being the sharpest noise in the drawer. Let's be honest, let's have a look at their transfer window. But no, I look at the likes of Medwayke and the pace that he has. And he is very, very quick. I watched him coming off the bench for England in the last couple of games. He is rapid. And when he runs at people, he runs at people with purpose. And Chelsea have scored, I think, 16 this season in the league. There are only one goal scored behind Man City, conceded eight. So Mareska has got them playing a style of football. It's really good, but they really attack the wings. So you want to try it off for as much protection as possible to Robertson or Simicast, whichever one he goes for. But at the same time, if you can carry a threat going the other way down that side as well, that gives them a whole range of problems that they have to deal with, that ordinarily they haven't had to deal with in a lot of their games that they've played so far. It's I think we've got more than enough for them. It's just the case of how he manages it. I would definitely be looking at D as and parts of McAllister as options off the bench if needed for that game. And I wouldn't be a bit surprised if Endo plays a role in the live game in Germany. It's against opposition that he knows in a place that is comfortable playing. European football is different. It's not as frenetic as a Premier League game. So I wouldn't be surprised if he's used as an option, even if it is for an hour. So maybe starting that game for 60 minutes, see how the game goes. If he plays well, play at the 90, if not, you have the ability to make adjustments, because the one thing I watched is the Germany-Holland game. Germany were very good. Gravenbergs was literally among others in the Dutch lineup. You could tell Virgil was a massive mess, but Gravenbergs was given the run-around in that game quite a bit. So you could tell there's definitely room for improvement. We've seen really good running Gravenbergs. Don't get me wrong, but you saw parts of his game there against Germany that are going to get tested against a better size, like Chelsea will give him a test. Arsenal will definitely give him a test. So maybe having that rest in between those two games after playing two full internationals against good opposition, I think the Netherlands played hungry and they played Germany. Probably wouldn't be the worst idea in the world. But you're amazed that the Dutch did so struggle because obviously they had the true leader in the licks coming in, so things like, oh, sorry, no, he dropped and didn't he feel okay. Funny that, I know. This Virgil's got, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, come on. I mean, it's a natural transitioning point. I mean, we can talk about the fixtures ahead of it, but it makes more sense, actually, to talk about a little bit more about our game coming up against Chelsea, mostly spurred off by Paul Giovanni asking a very good questionnaire, which is, how would you mark Palmer out of the game? Tell Sabaslai to follow him around all game. Raki says, just kick him real hard. Kick him real hard. Just kick him real hard. I mean, he's cold, so it might break something in him, but that's... Just do what the Greeks did. The key was cut supply off to him, which is easy said and dumb, but don't get... That's the... he kills you in transition. And that's going to be the big test for Liverpool is that's what we were crap out last year is. We also caught in transition. So this would be a good test, but that's where Palmer's at his best, because he's got a bit of a free spirit, but he picks clever positions in transition. So that's where you've got to be wary of cutness supply off. Not my mark of him, no, because I think he's... I think that's been tried before, and to be fair, I think he does pretty well. Still creating stuff, you know, he's a really good player. I'm still baffled to why I said he sold him. I think they want to buy him back. I saw something about them trying to buy him back. For some ridiculous sum of money. It's probably worth it as well to be fair. True. Yeah, but like going on that point, I almost think you have to look at like the whole midfield as a unit where you've got... you've got like a physical battle that's going to be going on right now, and I think a lot of people are saying, "Oh, it's going to be Cole Palmer versus Ryan Gravenberch." I think it's going to be also how Gravenberch deals with the physicality of that caiseido Enzo Fernandez thing going on in their midfield. Because I mean, we saw... I didn't watch that Netherlands Germany game that much, but I did hear that Gravenberch got a little bit out muscled, and I'm curious to see if that's something that's going to happen, or, you know, whether or not those two players from Chelsea are going to have the same sort of hangover that McAllister might have, because they're coming back from international duty. So that midfield kind of battle whatever you want to make it out to be. That's going to be fascinating. I think that's going to have a lot. It's going to have a big say on what happens in the game. The family that vacations together stays together. At least that was the plan, except now the dastardly desk clerk is saying he can't confirm your connecting rooms. Oh, wait, what? That's right, ma'am. You have rooms 201 and 709. No, we cannot be five floors away from our kids. Eh, the doors of double locks, they'll be fine. When you want your connecting rooms confirmed before you arrive, it matters where you stay. Welcome to Hilton. I see your connecting rooms are already confirmed. Hilton for the stay. Listen in. Starbucks, it's a great day for coffee. Subtle results, still you, but with fewer lines. Botox cosmetic, out of botulinum toxin A, is a prescription medicine used to temporarily make moderate to severe frown lines, crows feet, and forehead lines look better in adults. Effects of Botox cosmetic may spread hours to weeks after injection causing serious symptoms. 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Yeah, and I mean Chelsea are, for me, Chelsea are one of the surprise packages of the season just because they were such an absolute enigma coming into it that you had no idea what they were doing. Another typical Todd Boli fuel transfer window with more and more players coming in, new manager in charge. But I mean, in their defense cap, they're off to a half-decent start, four wins, two draws and a loss out of their first seven games, and their away record is three wins from three. So it's not a team to be taken lightly like you were saying, and where did that one go here? Somebody's saying, eh, crap, where did it go? Somebody's saying the midfield that they could possibly start with, Lavia, Kiseido, Enzo with Palmer on the wing and going with kind of two up front. I've not lost enough of them this year. Presumably Nicholas Jackson is going to start what Sancho left, Madawake right, Palmer in a 10, and then two holding midfield or something like that. That would be my expectation. Yeah, if they start with that and just literally match us up position for position, it'll just be a case of confidence really. I think confidence is going to play a massive part in this. There's no doubt in their ability, they've got quality, they can be got it. I think they're losing for Fana, and... Coca-Rella. Coca-Rella is out of a stable back four, and looking at who they're bringing in probably the sassy, and... Call well to the left? Maybe it wouldn't be surprised if he goes... He's got a lot of shots, I think his name is Rega, I don't know how to pronounce it. Yeah, I see. A lot of shots for him. I think they'll go over to three centers. If they go like for like, yeah, they'll bring him in, but I think they wouldn't be surprised if they go with Colwell. I left back and try to play, probably the right back can go, but the back's the three will stay at the back and try to shut that down. But Mareska's got him playing some decent stuff. I mean, if you're anyone watching any of Leicester last season, I know it's a championship, but his style of play is so like Pep Guardiola, but at the same time, it's not. Their record is good, but I don't think they beat anyone that they shouldn't be beat. They underperformed last season, but I agree with Kieran Thorne there. They're three away games, walls born of West Ham. You expect Chelsea to be winning those. And we can be all three of those teams. Exactly, so that's why he going back to, as long as we do our job, we know we're going to create chances. And it's just going to be a case of how brave are they going to be? We'll find out Sunday, but I think they'll feel pretty confident in an away trip to Liverpool, because they'll see it as we haven't been tested yet. And in truth, we really probably haven't. The forest result was an anomaly. I think the Bologna game was a good test without having a sense of danger. I think Chris made a great point earlier on about how is he going to use Kiesa? It's been here now for a while. You'd assume he's got his fitness up to scratch by now. So it's having that option of potentially playing. It's not a 4-2-4, but playing with four forwards with one of them dropping into the 10. Having that option to be able to say to Jota, "Okay, you're going to play as a second striker." When we're off the ball, you go and sit on Kiesa though. When we're on the ball, you pull Kiesa all over the pitch and make him follow you everywhere. And he looks without us, isn't he? Exactly, and we have two sitting. We have a lot more options and flexibility, I think, than we have had in a while. So I'm really looking forward to this, because I'm not overly confident, but I'm confident enough. I'm confident enough for this, Chazi, get this run off to a good start, get the confidence flowing back again, and take it on from there. I mean, I said, "Arson, that's a toughie." But yeah, I fancy this against Chazi. I just do. I think men for men all over the pitch were just better. And I think we have a better manager. I think we're set up better. We're more sound defensively. Nice for you and I too. Yeah, I just think we're just... Nice and club. I'm not saying it. I'm not saying it. I'm going to say something else, but I'm not going to say it. I completely agree, Kev, especially with the importance of getting this next block of fixtures off to an impressive start. And Ashley, Sam Tandy's comment here says, "A lot will hinge on the end field atmosphere, to be honest. Remember the home game versus Chelsea last season, they couldn't handle the occasion at all." This feels like one of those games where you really hope that the 60,000 lucky enough to be inside Anfield for this match. Bring their A game. You know, it's the late game, I believe, on Sunday. I mean, they're all early for me over here. But like, it's the prime time Sunday night game. Everybody should be well into the cans by the time they get into Anfield. Make a rocket atmosphere and help us get off to that good start. And like, I agree with Kev, like, I can't wait to have the football back. But it feels like a marker, actually, like this match. Like, if we wobble in this one, it feels like the next six could wobble also. Yeah, I mean, I hope that they're making out to be something that could be like where they could put a stake in the sand and be like, "This is where we're at." Because I do think the media has just run away with this narrative. I put in the chat, you know, they've really made it out to be like the battle of the untested. And I know Chelsea faced Man City very, very early on. But in general, that's kind of the media narrative is, "Oh, well Liverpool haven't really faced anyone." So, you know, they really, like, they were making it out to be, in my, I was reading the NBC Sports coverage. And they were saying that basically Chelsea and Liverpool were both outside contenders for the title and kind of put them at equal footing for outside contenders for the title. And I thought that was kind of a mad shout. But I hope that Liverpool and SWAT kind of frame it in a way that they can be like, "Let's just silence the doubters. Let's just show up." We have always kind of been a team for the big occasion. We've always had players that enjoy stepping up to big competition. And it's about time that we do that. So let's do it. Let's show up. And hopefully the fans find everyone and agree with that. And encourage the team on. Because I think that was kind of, again, I'm not an Anfield expert by any means. But, you know, I think that was one of the criticisms that came with the Forest game was because of the time and because it was Forest, you know, that the atmosphere was sort of a little bit quieter than usual. And I hope that this time is not like that. I mean, this is Chelsea. Whether or not you want to believe that their title contenders are not. I personally don't, but they're top six contenders for sure. That does a big matchup. And I think that if the fans can look it that way and show up and really support the team, I think that we'll have a really good chance. Chelsea is the most favorite for fourth at the moment. Because I think to give them credit, I think since the turn of the year, I think form guide wise, they happen the fourth best side. They just give themselves too much work to do to get anywhere close to catch in a villa or top. But this run of form they've been, they've been in a decent run of form under Pochettino before the new guy came in. So it has been there for a while. I'll be honest, even as a full win, we'll still be told with faith. We've played nobody until we play Arsenal. That's just, that's just going to be the way. I mean, the atmosphere thing, I do get it to a point. But I think that the rap made a good point on this saying this isn't a new thing. Go back. You can find loads of videos of the players in the 80s top up. The crowd's not as loud as it used to be. You know, as someone pointed out, the first time I looked back at the Champions League in the 0405s isn't the year we won it. The ground wasn't full for the first few group games. It wasn't. It was quiet. You know, so it sometimes think, the crowd thing does sometimes get a little bit overblown of how quiet it is, you know, because to be fair, and I said this to Kev, well, I went to one of the games. There wasn't a lot to shout about because apart from the forest game, most games were done on dusted. So it's hard to sort of shout and rant and rave and really get up for it when you're too nervous and it's comfortable and you're like, well, it's done. The idea of a crowd is you use it when you need it. So another of these games, this is the ideal time for a game, I think, where it's one of those games that starts in daylight and finishes at night. It has that European vibe to it. So I think that normally suits itself out and to us. It's never normally a quiet game when you play in Chelsea, is it? No, no, there's no, there's no, there's no, they don't like us and we don't like them. So it's quite easy. I think the atmosphere in this one's going to be massive. Especially if we get ahead. Even if we get behind, if we go behind, we're playing well, and we're looking like we're getting back in. I think Andrew will go ballistic. I just got a real feeling about this one. I don't know, a few people that I've talked to over there that have gone over there as well, but other lads that I know over there, they've all put pretty much the same thing. They're waiting to see what the potential really is for this side. Are we, if we get through until Christmas, let you guys were saying earlier, get through to Christmas, get the, you know, talk the next marker off, you know, the new year, get through Christmas in the new year, see where we are. If we're banging in there around the top, then this period of fixtures now, we're going to have flown through it. You know, we're going to have done really well, because it's tough run of fixtures for us. But if we could somehow put distance between us, we come out of this game, seven points, clear a chance, right? That's them done as far as I'm concerned for us. You come out of the arsenal game ahead of Arsenal with a gap. Then they've got chase into them. And we'll see what they're made of, because they're not very good chasers as far as I can see. They're not very good at holding onto leads either, but I don't think they're going to chase very well. This really could benefit us hugely. If we get this right, this run of games could really benefit us. You could see gaps opening up in the day, but the fear factor of playing Liverpool is automatically back on the back of it, because when we were in our pump, when we were rolling sides over, and when we were rolling sides over, we were beating sides of one nail to nail. They knew that when they went one nail down, that was it, they weren't getting back in. The doors were shut, and that was the end of the story. Get a second goal, forget about it. Managers were looking to make early substitutions to look at the next game. To get to that position, we need to come through this lot of fixtures. We come through this lot of fixtures, then we can get back onto that train, where sides are coming to Eunfield half-fraid, and then when we get a lead, they're taking off the best tires, because they're protecting them for the Christmas run, or they're protecting them for New Year's fixtures. But all these spots are maybe at this stage. You are killing our merchandise. It was dead! We had a whole grumpy Kevline coming out, and you're kind of killing it a little bit. I involved the Christmas one. The next thing after Grumpy Cat, it was the next greatest thing. Christmas jumples were coming out, and everything. I hope gal's not listening, there's gonna be a few, and there's gonna be things to it. This is all true though. Rangers are already been contacted. It's like you look at all those fixtures, right? And yeah, the toughest one, Arsenal, Aston Villa, Man City, different and Spurs in December. But we gotta play them all twice anyway. They gotta play us as well. It's always a good us worrying about it. I would not be wanting to play Liverpool until we've had our nose blooded by someone else first. If I'm looking at Chelsea, I would, if I'm looking at Arsenal now in a week's time after this one, you're praying to God that someone manages to lend a blow on us before we get to them. But if they don't, and we come to Arsenal in really good form, we're a different proposition to what we were, and we'll ask different questions of Arsenal. Arsenal knew us on the clock. They knew what we were gonna do, because we didn't really change. We evolved a little bit, and we tweaked here and there. But Arsenal suckered us. They really set us up. We're a different beast now. We're a bit of a different animal. We're still learning it ourselves. Even like Chris was saying there when you were talking about the atmosphere at Anfield. It's like, the crowd that are going to the games are still figuring out what it is they're watching, you know? And you used to see like when a tackle or, you know, you defended something really well. Now it's like, yeah, but they're not flying up on the brake and we're not going massively up the walls over smaller things. Everything is a learning curve at the minute. But at the minute, we're passing every test that we're facing, we're flying colors. That's a one thing about this AI, this AI cap's brilliant, isn't it? Yeah, it's all right. I like it. I mean, Ashley, I'll just come to you just, we can finish up on Chelsea then, and then we can look ahead of what comes after. There's a couple of comments here I'd save to touch on this. Bob Paddock early on said, Chelsea struggle with the back five. Miss and Fana Cucarella, it increases their weakness. We have to expose it and score many goals. Go then goes on to say, if we defend well, we win. And Kieran Thorne along the same line saying, Chelsea can see goals. That's the key. Chelsea looked around the channels with Jackson. Can not take needs to pick up Palmer's second runs. And somebody else mentioned in there might have been one of you said that we need to be clinical. Who do you want to see start up front? Is it just salad, Jada Diaz? Is it as simple as that? Are we just going with Slough's 11? I think so. I mean, he hasn't shown us anything to the contrary. For me to think that he's not going to just pick as strong as 11. I mean, I do understand the shouts for Jones. But again, just it's a learning experience. But from what I've learned so far from Slough is he has his preferred starting 11. And I think he's probably going to go with it. I think that he thinks that this is... I think Jones starts you all up. I don't think he starts this week. Yeah, I can see that. I can see, I can see Endo starting in Europe. I can see Jones starting in Europe. But I think that for these games, especially if he does want to do that marker, I think he's just going to go with the same old team. And I'm not mad at that. I think that we do have a pretty good chunk of time. I think we got lucky with the internationals this time where even the guys that were in South America, they got a good chunk of time with the Sunday turnaround. So I think it's going to be the same 11. And I understand what Kev's saying. I think that people are trying to figure out like they're trying to gain a level of trust with this team. And that's where I am too. Like I want to be super optimistic. But I also feel like I need kind of like a bank of evidence to be super optimistic. And I feel like I've got the beginnings of that bank going. I think that this game could really kind of fill that account and make me believe going into these next seven games or so. And that's what I want to see happen. I love this, Sue saying, Kieran Thorne, correct me if I'm wrong, Kieran, but I haven't seen you in the chat too much lately. This is a name from a few years ago all the time. But since in 1920, we played Chelsea Arsenal back-to-back early in the season. Make of that what you want. And then also says that season we had a run of fixtures from the 20th of October that included Manchester United, Tottenham, Aston Villa, and then Manchester City. So I mean, Chris, the portents are all there. I mean, the chicken bones are falling in our favor. We also played Leicester unboxing thing. Just saying. And who played this year unboxing day? Leicester, I thought I'd just throw that no get out there as well. Ooh, I like it. I like it. Give me a score prediction, Chris. What are you liking for this weekend? I think we go for the slot classic. Two-nil. That seems to be the score. I'm going to go with two-nil. And Kev's fuming because it looks like that's Kev's score. What do you got, Kev? I had two-nil. I was sick of it two-nil as well. I think... Also, do we need two goalscorers? Or are we just...? Nah, give me some goalscorers, sure. I'll go with salary and D as, because, you know, why not? It's easy. Joss and Gackpaw. Because I'd start Gackpaw over D as... D as Koss. I'd just go, sort it. The only reason I'd start Gackpaw over D as is purely pre-physicality on that side of the pitch. I honestly think Coach Caldwell will play it left back. And I think he could probably do a job on Salah that side of the pitch. But I think that will pull D'Sassy all around to the other side. And I think Gackpaw is a tailor-made to cut in on his right foot. And I think he'll catch one and he'll get one right. I like that. Bob Paddock here says, "Three-nil, a Maresco red card, a Carcedo red card, and a Mosella hetric." That is... Wait, that's... That's how he'd do it later. At some point, Carcedo is going to get a red, because he's the master advocacy so far. And somehow, escape in a second yellow. He's got that Ferdinandino thing about it, which is quite annoying. Ashley, what do you like for this weekend, score line-wise? Well, I don't want to repeat anyone. I'll go three-one to the reds. No clean sheet, Ashley. Outrageous. Sorry. I know, no clean sheet. I think that Chelsea are very dung-ho. And I could see them slipping one past. I could see that happening. But I don't know if they're going to go with that back three. I think that this Vega guy is probably going to be the one that steps in. And I think that Mosella versus Vega could be a really good battle. So I think we might get a little bit of joy there. So I'm going to go Mosella with a goal. I'm going to go Dias with a goal, and just to be a little different, I'm going to go Saab is blind with a goal, because I think he's on a bit of a streak. I don't know if he's going to score for them, and I don't really care. He's probably going to be calmer, but whatever. Nobody's going to score for them. Nobody's going to score for them. We'll just go with that. I think it's going to finish one nil and a Trent-free kick. I think Trent-free kick. We can ban the nice one the other night. I know, and he's going to celebrate it with a signature celebration like that. And everybody's going to have their heads out. The only thing that we haven't talked about in this run of fixtures is color. Alison's a big miss. How are you guys feeling about color her coming in knowing that you're going to get the next seven games? I think what helped is last year when he got over in the games, he probably took him a couple of games to get in the rhythm. He probably let a couple of soft ones in. I think the only problem we had last year was... This episode is brought to you by Indeed. We're driven by the search for better, but when it comes to hiring, the best way to search for a candidate isn't to search at all. Don't search, match with Indeed. Use Indeed for scheduling, screening, and messaging so you can connect with candidates faster. Listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsor job credit to get your jobs more visibility at Indeed.com/SBO. Terms and conditions apply. Justin and so good. Thousands of winter deals are at Nordstrom Rack stores now. And that means thousands of fresh reasons to rack, because we get the latest trends for way less. I've been looking for these. The best deals go fast. Safe big with up to 60% off Sam Edelman's Sorel, free people, Colhan, and more cold weather finds. Great brands, great prices. That's why you rack. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. Life gets busy. Luckily with Peloton Tread, you can still get the challenging workouts you crave. Only have 10 minutes? Take a quick Peloton workout. Want to go all out? Chase down your goals with 20-45 minute Tread workouts. No matter your goals or time, Peloton has everything you need to become everything you want. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit one peloton.com to learn more. It's a difficult part of a squad/back-up keeper. He probably played one game too many, which is the afterlancer game, and I think he mentally got a bit of fried. He wasn't used to doing that many games. I think the fact that he had two games back to back for Ireland probably does a favor, because he's actually got a bit of rhythm in him and he was busy. In those games? He played well. Yeah, but he's busy as well. Yeah, so I think it wasn't one of those internationals where the other keeper stands around. There's nothing much to do. He was... No prior limit, he's always going to be fucking busy. Exactly, but for us, that's worked in our favor. So he's sharp, ready for the game. So I'm right, but you know, because realistically, we don't have to change it, isn't it? Yeah, I mean, Ashley Scowzer-Pietz says, "Queen's got this. He's proving himself as an adequate replacement so far." That's how I feel about it. I mean, if there hasn't been enough history that Stephen Kelleher has shown that he's willing to step into the breach and fill in for when Alison goes down and jerks through them. Do you have the same confidence? I feel like I always feel more confident after I see him play a full game. I feel like for some reason, I sort of, like when he's out of the picture and out of mind, I get a little nervous, but then I see him play, and I'm like, wow, he's great. I think he's great with his feet. I think that, you know, he has a great intelligence when it comes to what's going on in the back four. I don't know if the back four trust him the same way that they do with Alison, but I mean, I'm hoping that we'll come out of this game with the confidence that I normally have after I see him. And I think that, you know, it does him no harm. It does him no harm whatsoever to get a run of games, whether or not this is him kind of proving himself, maybe making a case for a move later, he's never let the team down. He's always been very, very professional, and it's one of the things that I like most about him, and I think that makes him such a great backup keeper. So I'm not worried about it. I would obviously prefer Alison, but I'm not worried. Yeah, I think that's probably the only measured and reasonable answer is that you're not worried, but of course you would prefer to have the world's best goalkeeper, because why wouldn't you? Chris, I'll come to you on this one. I mean, we've talked about the Chelsea, Leipzig, Arsenal run. I mean, we'll obviously do some build up to the Arsenal match ahead of time, because it's going to be a huge match and the big talk and whatnot. But then we get that little double header against Brighton, the home and home, League and Cup. And I've got a League Cup team here that Thor threw in for us earlier, and I want to see what your take is on this. So Thor would go with Yarrows, James, Cariger of Wigan, Hippia, Ege, Ger, Kuncheski, Babble, Speering, Morten, Kout, Heski and Carroll. I think that's too many people. Well, Kuncheski doesn't count as a player, so you get all right. Oh, maybe it's James, Cariger of Wigan. Yeah. But we're going to see the wholesale changes for that, and then back into it with our best three. Like, can we, in bright a way, so I think even you play your best side bright a way you could still could lose, because they are a tricky side. So I think that's when we see the wholesale changes, and you hope you get a bit of that. But not kids though, right? No, as in like, we don't have any, that's not a lot. Well, I think Kello, I think Kello was still playing. Yeah, I think Kello's still playing. I think your process of like Bradley, Quanza, Gomez, Simicast, he could then do Jones and then there was a two, Kieza, Nunez. There's a few there. And then you just, Elliot might be back by then. So you probably start Elliot in the 10. And then the other side, Gappa. I think Trainione is a nailed on to start Jeff, right? I think he comes off the bench. Because we thought he was nailed up for the West End game. He didn't even get on the squad. Yeah, but he's now signed his first professional contract with the team, and it feels like reward and reward into that. I think he's just a bench. I think he's just be on the bench. Because he's about three stone went through at the moment. I think he's a vocal, I think he's a vocal for men's football. You know, he's really a kid. Yeah. And Kev, is it realistic to think of this block as like three, two, or three and three with that Brighton Cup game in the middle? You do Chelsea, Leipzig, Arsenal. Like you rotate for those three games to keep mostly the same 11 going. You know, slots preferred starting 11 going. You rotate around wholesale changes for the cup. And then back for the next run of three games, Brighton League, Liverpool, Champions League, Astonville and the league. Because those are three games. Yeah, everything is contingent on injuries and suspension. So that's something you can't legislate for. But what you can do is manage the three games in mini blocks. I'm just, just out of curiosity, I just, I kind of might have understood Leipzig is like tiny small. Well, they are second the league on the cup. They're, they're joint top. They're level on points of Bayern Munich. And I'm just looking at the 11 that they put out against Juventus, that they lost three, two in the end where, yeah, they start, they started, they played a 4-4-2, Galastian goal, Gertruda. Remember him from the summer? Yeah, Gertruda, Orban, Leukeba, who we've apparently been linked with. Round, which is a good left-back, I think, as well. Really good player for Austria, Bob Gardner. I think he's, he's an absolute quality player. Seiwalt, I don't know anything about. Hidera has been a good player for us. Javi Simmons, everyone knows about him. Benjamin Sesco, up front with Appenda. So, yeah, that's, that's a proper 11. This, this block, this first block of three is not going to be easy. And they're in a position in the Champions League group where they need a result. They last two, one to Atlético Madrid, three, two to Juventus. And the events, that's ten as well, weren't they? Yeah, yeah, they need a positive, they need a positive result. Yeah, Juventus lost, I think they're pulled back. So, no. I remember when his legal table was all it took for a happy kid to disappear. No, okay, well, to realize what he said was untrue. Things are wrong, like, top of the, top of the generally. No, yeah, it, it's still a side that you could, you'd expect to be able to make three or four changes and go and put in a proper job. Because the changes that we're making, I mean, look, there's, it's no secret that we need to add depth in the field, quality depth, okay? Because, you know, you got our normal three, and then Jones is four. Then you're looking at Elliot, we don't know what he's like in this system, because he hasn't really played. Endo Morton, you know, we need, we need to add in midfield, no doubt about it. So, the key really is to manage that, manage the minutes of the midfield over three games, to try to maybe even out the minutes between four and five players over these three games. Get through the right in a way, and then deal with bright in the home when we're almost like had a week off, more or less, or the majority of the players will have had managed minutes in that midweek cup picture. But yeah, it's, that's actually, that live series games could be an absolute crazy game of football. I'm looking forward to it again, I can't wait. All right, he's back, he's back. I'm looking forward to it, do you know what I'm looking forward to it? Because Arsenal will help Benton paying $50 million for Ben Sesco. And he said no, he is a quality, he's been tipped up now for a while, as being the next one on the Leipzig conveyor belt. And, you know, he scored two against Juventus as well. So, I'm looking forward to seeing him play. I'm looking forward to seeing what Gertrude can do. You know, we'll see what the hype is like. You know, I see if he's worth another look. If anything doesn't go the way we wanted to go with Trent. You know, there's some good, good, good, Lucaba, the centreback. You know, we were looking strongly looking at him apparently. You know, really highly rated, highly touted. So, there's some things to look forward to in that fixture, big time. Yeah, it's happy days. We are quickly approaching festival of football season. I mean, there's another God forsaken international break coming up after this round of seven. And then Gav originally asked us to do a 10-game preview, because the three games, actually, after the international break, I mean, just- Doesn't get any easier, does it? No, I mean, we can stretch it out to five games. I mean, we come back against Southampton, away to Southampton, which is fine. You know, Southampton looked like they're just going to go right back down again. Russell Marcus seems to be sticking to his guns to the point where he gets fired. But then we host Real Madrid, host Man City, go to Newcastle, and go to Everton. Yeah, and there's a lot to do, right? Like, every three days there's football, you're playing big teams. Like, we're- the absence of 12/30 as well, doesn't it? Yeah, it's after we travel away to Newcastle. That always kills a derby. It's in a way that Newcastle, Wednesday night. And then they moved it for TV, which is annoying. But at least we don't have to travel. Five-thirty in the morning is a great time to watch sports. Yeah, seven-thirty is not much better, to be honest. Two hours. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, if we can get a run going, and we can get some confidence building in some of these games, like something really magical could happen here. And, you know, we do see a drop-off after that, where I think there's like a Spurs game mixed in there. But in terms of our opponents, they get a little bit more manageable. You know, so around the festive fixtures and whatnot, I think that we can rotate a little bit more. But if we can get something going, you know, maybe Grumpy Kev can stay in the corner for a little while. No, it puts Kevin the corner. Oh, this game. Oh, yeah. You just lied about it, but he hits him out of the park. What's so in sync, Ashley? No, that's what we do. I mean, we're great. I think there's something to be said there. It's something also Camp said about just creating something, a little spark, a little moment of magic. And if you feel like you've got that moment of magic in you, I would direct you to footballprises.co.uk. Because for £2.95, they're selling about a thousand tickets. The top prize is two hospitality tickets to Liverpool hosting Real Madrid in the newly revamped Swiss League Champions League. It's the tickets as somebody that has had to buy hospitality tickets before. They are rather expensive. They are rather expensive. So that is an extremely good prize that football prizes has going on for, I think it's two weeks now that they're doing it. A couple of instant win prizes in there, a bunch of different sign jerseys from mostly strikers. I think it's mostly forwards in there. Maybe a saw the slide thrown in as well for good measure, but obviously the big one, one in a thousand chances for £3 that you win a pair of hospitality tickets to quite a large game, quite a large game. So presumably, I'll see some, if not all of you Sunday after the match. Everybody in? Hopefully. I've got the women's game, which finishes at four. So I've got half hours of rush over. Well, if you only catch the second half, you can come for the second half of the show again. It doesn't like I've done that before, is it? Yeah, it's part of the show. What about you, Matt? You're the one that hasn't been here for a little while. I know, you guys have been playing games in a while. I've been out on painkillers and hobbling around the house. It's ridiculous. No, I can't wait for the football to be back. When I first got hurt, my dad, because I got hurt at the farm, he was like, "Oh, this would be great. You can watch all the footy you want." It's like, "It's a fucking international break. There is no fucking footy. This is bullshit that all the timing to get injured on a stupid international break is ridiculous." He told me there was a cat in the background there. We were all waiting for it to jump on you just to finish you up. That's fine. He's nice. He's great. He's always good. But yes, it is getting to the joyous part of the year if you are a sports fan, baseball playoffs, basketballs back, hockey's back, Annabelle's in full flow, the footy's back in full flow. It is an absolute feast if you're into the sport whatsoever. So we will be here at least to talk about the post match with you for all the Liverpool FC games, giving you some buildup and all that good stuff on the channel. Chris, anything else before we go? No, nothing from me. Kev, roll on Sunday. Can't wait. Here, that's what I want to hear. Actually, anything from you? No, just up the reds. We're going to do it. Oh, sorry. I've got one question. We're going to bring up the question we had about Group P Kev. I mean, that's its own show. So, Scouser Pete says, "If we're going to do Grumpy Kev range, which of the talking cop contributors would make up the other seven dwarves?" That's an entire show on its own. There's, you can't do that in an outro. Well, there's an international break coming up. So you guys can have a journey. Yeah, there you go. That's-- Show somebody can-- Show somebody can Photoshop it. Yeah. Oh, it's between-- I just want to know who's playing happy. There's trouble there. Yeah. Who's playing happy? Oh, it's got to be Keith. Keith's always happy. I don't know. We had a show. We had a show for Phil to be happy. And that's not bad either. I mean, I don't-- Yeah, I have a first. Phil doesn't want to smoke all anymore, so-- Yeah, I'd have a top 10. That's way, it's happy. That's fine, that's cool. I mean, what are the seven dwarves? Like there's-- There's Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Badmall. Sleepy, sneezy. Doc, Doc, there's Doc. Doth the brains of it, I think. Well, that's got to be Gav there. That's got to be Gav. I thought Gav was going to be Snow White, but Gav can be Doc. Sean is Snow White. Yeah. He's too big, he's too big to be one of the dwarves. Emmett Sleepy, definitely. Yes, because he misses enough shows. Emmett is 100% sleepy. So that's the hallmark for the members' chat on the Telegram to get through for the next international break when we're desperate to find material to fill up show hours with. But that's-- Chat like that is one of the reasons why you should really think about becoming a member of the Talking Top channel. Because for $3.95 a month, you get access to the members' telegram group, and it is bonkers. More so when there's no football on, because just-- And you've got great food recommendations. It's wonderful. Yeah, we need to find a good chance. We need to find a good international food shipping company, so that we can all swap potato chips and chocolate bars to each other and have a big taste test extravaganza show one of these days. Because the fact that you guys don't have ketchup chips is just-- That's an outrage. You have a dude. You have a dude. That's not what I was saying in a members' chat. You can get ketchup flavored for Christmas. Of course you can. They're shy, but you can get them. Well, there's the problem. Ketchup chips are the absolute best. But anyway, that's the sort of goodness you can when you become a member of the Talking Top. Get into the hilarious fun telegram chats and take it from there. But if you've been watching, thanks for watching. Hit a like on the show for us. Share if you can. Keep your notification bell on, because you might just get a random show popping up in the next day or two. But we will definitely have a crew of people back here to go through what is hopefully a comfortable, clean, sheeted Liverpool win against Chelsea on Sunday. The football's finally back. Thanks for joining us, everybody. We'll see you after the match on Sunday. Adios. This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. [BLANK_AUDIO]
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Matt, Ashley and Chris look forward to the return of the reds after the latest International break as Arne Slots men face a crazy 10 game run... starting with Chelsea at Anfield on Sunday!
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