You're listening to the Footglitch Podcast.
Love football, learn English.
Did struggling Manchester City stand any chance against an informed Liverpool?
Is there any team that can realistically threaten Liverpool's title challenge?
Is this Mo Salah's last season in the Liverpool shirt?
And what does the phraser verb to power through mean?
Hello audio listeners and video viewers.
Welcome back to the Footglitch Podcast.
My name is Denik Lucas.
I'm an English teacher and you're listening to a podcast where football meets English.
Remember with the Footglitch Podcast, you will never walk alone.
Unless you're trying to outrun a bad pun, in which case good luck to you.
Here we break down the beautiful game and the language around it.
So whether you are a diehard fan or just learning what a nutmeg is, we've got you covered.
You will never walk alone with this podcast.
See what I did there, Simon.
Impressive start. Starts with me to go on.
I like it.
Yeah, to be honest, I only did that because I know you are a Liverpool fan.
Just a little bit. Yeah.
Yes. And it is your debut on this podcast as well.
So welcome.
Yep. Yep. You know, like fresh faced.
I'm bringing some energy, some youth, some pace to it.
Spice things up a bit.
You got to give youth a chance.
That's exactly what we need.
The old guard is tired.
So we need the likes of you.
Okay, Simon, we can see you are beaming with joy and pride as a Liverpool fan because yesterday
you won a game which I would describe as a six pointer.
It was the Liverpool Manchester City game, which you won in my opinion in a very convincing manner.
Would you agree?
Absolutely.
I mean, it was I mean, it's a bit disrespectful to City to say it was men against boys, but it did feel a bit like that,
you know, and it feels like perhaps the City team time has caught up with them a little bit.
I know they've got injury problems, but they seemed to be outplayed, outclassed, out fought in every aspect of the game.
They looked tired on many levels.
I agree. I agree.
I think you could see that result coming, especially given the recent run of form of Manchester City when prior to this game,
they, I believe, lost four games and drew one.
So five games without a win for Manchester City.
That's unheard of.
Definitely.
Yeah.
I mean, this is just, you know, they're the definition of, you know, high performance, aren't they?
You know, say what you like about where they've got the money from or other aspects of what kind of team or club they are.
But when it comes to the crunch, they've always put out a team on the pitch that's gone out and steamrolled most of the rest of Europe for many years now.
Exactly.
Would you say this was the perfect time to play them then because of all this?
I suppose in theory, yes, but also a team like that, you expect some kind of backlash, really, you know, the, you know, the wounded animal, the corner tiger, that kind of idea.
But it didn't really appear.
And when you look at that City team, it seems to be not devoid of talent.
They've got the talent, certainly short of confidence and maybe lacking in leadership a little bit.
Yes, certainly and arguably off the pitch as well.
It's so different from what we have been seeing in the last few, in the, how many years, in the last decade, maybe.
Yeah, easily.
Right.
So, yeah, I was really surprised.
I couldn't see this coming.
Maybe this result, yes, but I couldn't see this whole run coming because that just came out of nowhere, to be honest.
Yeah.
Of course, there was this injury to Rodri, right, which even before this happened, everyone was saying is the key player for City and without Rodri, they are not the same team and whatnot.
But Guardiola has always managed to replace even these big names.
So this is really something new.
I mean, a club as good as that, a team as good as that, a management structure as good as that, you can't be dependent on one player being fit.
He's a great player, you know, and it's great to see a new name getting the Ballon d'Or as well for a different kind of contribution to the game.
Yeah.
But is that all they had was Rodri?
No, come on.
You know, but it reminds it as you'll see from the hair colour, a Liverpool fan of many years.
It reminds me sort of the soonest years at Liverpool, you know, you've got aging players, the squad hasn't been replaced on a like for like basis.
What's coming in isn't as good as what's going out.
And you can only trade on past glories for so long, really.
You have to. It's a tough league.
There are some great teams in there, you know, all kinds of different styles.
Forrest, you know, playing a very different kind of style of football, but they're motoring at the moment.
Brighton are top three.
You know, you've got Brighton, Brentford.
Brighton are in the fourth place, I think.
It's a fourth now.
Yeah.
So, you know, it's a tough league.
So you can't just be rocking up expecting to win.
You've got to keep evolving your team.
And like you said, Guardiola has always been great at that.
It just feels like maybe they took their eye off the ball a little bit here.
That's a nice pun.
Another nice pun.
That's what we want here on the Footgris.
But it could have been so much worse yesterday.
I mean, Van Dijk could have had a hat trick.
Yeah, he hit the post at one point as well.
I remember that.
So I think they got off lightly.
They did.
You were so dominant in this game.
I mean, if I'm honest, especially the beginning of the game,
it sort of reminded me of the good old Klopp era.
The way you sort of like went all guns blazing on them.
That's something I haven't seen so much under your new manager
who has been doing an amazing job.
But I think he's a bit more pragmatic.
He's got a bit more pragmatic approach compared to the previous coach.
It's not being this heavy metal football as we got to know under Klopp.
But this game, it seemed more like that again.
Yeah, yeah.
Maybe the intention was to try and shock them at the beginning.
You know, you expect to just go out and blast them
and just see what they're made of, see how they respond.
Yes.
If they're lacking confidence, you've got to play on that really,
haven't you?
Delightful.
It couldn't have happened to a nicer shell company.
Yeah, I see what you did there.
But to be honest, Liverpool now, pop the league,
nine points clear of the second place, which is Arsenal,
and only on goal difference ahead of Chelsea with exactly the same amount of points.
And I think then there's Brighton and one more team.
I can't remember which one now, but yeah.
Spurs are up there.
Oh, yeah, Manchester City.
Yeah, it's quite tight.
Manchester City, I think in the fifth place or fourth place.
It's quite tight, but it's not tight on the top.
So, feels good.
Yeah.
And I think it's thoroughly deserved as well, you know, based on the performance.
And what is really interesting is it's sort of an advertisement for good coaching.
Yeah.
You know, it's great to splash the cash.
And I dare say we'll probably spend some money in January, I guess.
Not you and I, you mean Liverpool.
Yeah, I'm going to go out and buy myself Martin Zubamendi just to help around the house.
You know, the obviously the three elephants in the room are Van Dijk, Salah and Trent's contracts.
Okay.
Yeah, I wanted to ask you.
I had one question about Salah, especially Salah, because he has been the king, the Egyptian king of your team, right?
And he's done so well.
But now I heard a story that he has been sort of trying to subtly hint at the fact that he still hasn't got a new contract or something and no response from the club.
So what's going on there?
Who knows?
Is it gamesmanship?
Is it, you know, jockeying for position?
I have no idea what goes into contracts renegotiation.
But, you know, I don't believe that.
He's your legend.
Come on.
He's your legend.
And I know he's on big wages.
Maybe that's the issue, right?
I mean, I don't think fitness is the issue, is it?
You know, is it?
I mean, he rips his shirt off.
He looks fit as a butcher's dog, doesn't he?
He definitely looks fitter than me.
That's for sure.
And I've heard talk that Van Dyke and Trent don't want to be on less money than Mo.
So the trick is to someone suggested that they need to sort out Salah's contract, then they know what Van Dyke and Trent are going to cost and demand as well.
It's like a domino effect then.
Yeah, quite possibly.
That's interesting.
Okay.
Well, I have to ask you about an interesting moment in that game, perhaps the most interesting one for the neutral fans.
Basically, at some point, your fans and I don't know whether you were in the stands yourself or if you were part of this or even you may have been the actual instigator of the whole thing.
I don't know the mastermind of this idea.
But basically, your fans started to sing at some point, you're getting sacked in the morning to Pep Guardiola, the Manchester City coach.
I don't think it had ever happened to this manager in his entire career that anyone would sing this to him.
So, of course, his response was to show on his on his two hands number six, which refers to not to six games without a win.
As some newspapers pointed out, but instead it's the six titles, six Premier League titles he has won.
So what do you think about this?
Do you think it was just banter or was it?
What was this about?
Some of the things, I mean, genuinely, some of the things get sung at football stadiums around the world.
I'm sure it's not unique to England.
But in England, there are some there are some rude things that get sung.
I believe Mr Beckham had a lot of rude things sung about his wife over the years.
Then there's obviously the more abhorrent end of it.
There's some of these disgraceful chants that go on about Heisel and Munich and things like that.
The worst things are the racist stuff, in my opinion, right?
That's the worst.
And then when someone is saying you're getting sacked in the morning, like compared to that, that's quite innocent.
I know it's targeted at one person and this person doesn't probably make this person feel good about themselves.
But still, you know, it's part of football.
I think he's in a bit of a techy place at the moment.
You know, these are uncharted waters for him, really, aren't they?
It's certainly in the Premier League and probably for a long, long time.
So, yeah, he's a little bit on the is a little bit sensitive at the moment and fair play to him.
You know, yeah, he has won six titles.
So it was a good response.
I think it was. I think so, too.
I think he was taken in the spirit it was given, you know, so he had every right to do that.
Like this is this is the kind of response you would expect from someone like Jose Mourinho.
But Guardiola, I guess, is a similarly emotional coach.
And fair enough.
You know, he also he was also on record as to say that what did he say?
He said that he finds finds this disrespectful or or did he say that I don't want to spread.
I think he was surprised that he was surprised.
He was surprised to that level.
You know, he expected it elsewhere, but he thought the four fans were a different breed.
You know, I mean, you see this, though, when managers get towards the end,
you know, this sort of stuff comes out with the classic one from my generation is is Kevin Keegan at Newcastle losing it
when Man United were catching up with them with the whole I bloody love it if if we beat them, you know,
and Benitez going on about these are the facts.
These are the facts, you know, when he was talking about other teams.
So, right, you know, and Klopp's not been immune to a few outbursts either.
So I think, you know, it's just such a high pressure job.
It is you don't like losing six games in the row when you're playing under 13,
let alone when you're, you know, one of the most successful managers of all time.
So it's got to it's got to hurt a little bit.
He's got to be frustrated.
And you know what? I think these managers, emotional managers,
I think that also means that they have empathy and they can be good man managers.
They can talk to their players.
So I think this is still better than being some sort of distant,
cold-hearted manager because maybe that that kind of manager wouldn't respond
or would it would not it would be like what's the expression like water of ducks back?
Yeah, but seems to work for Ancelotti though, doesn't it?
When we absolutely battered them midweek as well, you didn't see him.
I mean, first of all, he struggled to have enough fingers to show how many trophies that guy's won.
He needs to be a mutant.
Yeah, he's like an octopus.
You know, everyone reacts in different ways.
I think in the past, Guardiola is always he's never needed to react
because his team have always reacted for him.
And what's happening now is his team is just not responding to what he wants them to do.
You know, it's a combination of things.
Maybe it's maybe it's time for fresh voices, you know, the new ideas.
Maybe it's someone else's turn to take the team on.
Maybe he needs to go somewhere else and work with different people.
We'll see. That's the thing.
Like this is never going to happen.
Like he's just signed a new contract there.
Like they're never going to fire him.
Like even if it happens like three seasons in a row because he's just it's just so much credit in the bank that it's just unthinkable.
And and he is also not the kind of manager in my opinion who would just give up easily.
I think he doesn't like no manager wants to leave like when are when they are at their lowest, right?
He wants to leave as a winner.
Absolutely. Alex Ferguson did right.
So yeah, yeah.
I think the saddest one many years ago was when Brian Clough was in his final season with Nottingham Forest,
the team that you know, won two European Cups is insane.
But his last season as you know, alcohol kept caught up with him as well.
The team was just for and got ended with relegation is that don't really deserve that.
That's not that's not the note to end on.
But when like you say when you've got that kind of legacy like Guardiola has as well,
this is going to be a blip for them.
That's that's another thing I wanted to ask you about.
How long do you think this is going to last?
I mean, I'd be afraid to play them next.
I think every team who's coming up against them must be thinking they're not going to keep losing.
Are they? Surely not.
You know, they could put nine past someone, couldn't they?
You know, it's good.
But but they are fragile now.
You can see they are fragile.
Yeah. Yeah.
So so so so your chances against exactly.
So my next question is who do you really fear as a Liverpool fan now?
Okay, nine points.
I know it's a comfortable position to be in, but you know, it's not over.
Right. It's not over yet.
Let's be honest. Anything could happen.
You could experience a bad bad run as well.
It can happen to anyone.
It's bound to happen. It's going to happen at some point.
I'm not saying it will, but it could.
There's a realistic possibility of that happening.
But in that in that case, who do you fear the most?
You've got to look at teams that can can score goals first of all.
And six months ago, I wouldn't have said this,
but Chelsea look like they're turning into something quite intriguing.
You know, they have the potential to just power through teams sometimes.
And maybe by having like a million players on their books,
you know, they've got entirely different squad for that for the European game.
So they then the people are playing in the in the Premier League
are only playing a handful of games in comparison.
So I don't think fitness or injuries will be a problem.
No cohesion was the concern before,
but they look like they can put three or four past people when they fancy it.
Arsenal obviously have got the quality all round.
They're solid at the back.
And again, they've got goals all over the pitch.
Havertz is scoring quite regularly now,
which was always seen as the Achilles heel of the team.
But actually, he's come to the party, hasn't he?
It was more of he wasn't so trusted as an incoming transfer.
So the fans were very sceptical about him,
but he won them over really quickly.
It took a few months and then yeah, he hasn't been a liability at all.
No, far from it.
Far from it. He has done really well.
Arteta found a place for him and he has flourished since he left Chelsea,
where he was, I think, just on a decline. Now at Arsenal, he's been great.
I mean, I think big thing for us is going to be injuries and fitness.
You know, that's why I hope there's a bit of cash to be spent in the new year.
You know, so far they've managed to get their transfers right.
Chiesa hasn't quite worked out, but it was a risk worth taking.
Yeah, if we stay relatively injury free, I don't think we can be stopped.
Yeah, I don't think you can be as the Liverpool team,
but also you as the Liverpool fan, you have been as fit as a fiddle here.
Thank you very much for being the guest.
And one more thing, you're even fitter than we realized,
because you told me before we started recording that you're about to run a marathon.
Yeah, London marathon, April next year, less than 150 days to go.
Seemed like a good idea at the time when someone asked me if I would do it
through work and for our works charity.
And yet every time I go out and go for a run, I'm reminded of how hard it is.
So how many kilometers are you on currently, like when you train?
How many do you do normally?
I mean, it's little and often at the moment.
These old bones need nursing through the training.
So yeah, I'm getting up to 13, 14 kilometers, something like that.
That's decent.
The most I've ever done was 22.
And when I did that, I did it like five times in my life
and I knew I wouldn't want to do another 22 after that.
I'll come back on in April and tell you how stupid an idea it was.
But I think the difference here is like when it's like a big event
and you will be full of adrenaline for that, there will be fans,
there will be other runners.
I think that that can push you.
I believe so.
Like if I had been in that position, maybe I would have run longer,
you know, but it just starts hurting.
Your body starts hurting at that point.
But I think you can do it.
You can definitely do it.
You just need to train for it.
I think that's the main thing.
I ran one 15 years ago and it was in Prague.
There you go.
In Prague even.
And the thought of a Czech beer at the end got me wrong.
Nice one.
Now you have won me over and you're definitely coming on again
when Liverpool win the title.
We will have you back here and celebrate.
Nothing better than a smug Liverpool fan, is there?
Everyone likes how modest we are with our celebrations.
I mean, to be honest, you're not the worst.
If I, you know, you're an opposition fan, of course,
and if I look at your fans and your club, yeah, I don't mind your team.
No, they are worse teams than yours.
All right, Simon, thank you very much and take care.
Bye bye.
Cheers.
Bye bye.
Hello, everyone.
Welcome back to the language corner.
You know what this is about.
This is about the English language.
Today, I'm going to be explaining some interesting phraser verbs
from the interview that I did with Simon about the Liverpool
Manchester City game.
What are phraser verbs?
I hear you asking.
Well, phraser verbs are a type of verbs which have two and sometimes
more parts, but usually two.
And the first part is the verb itself.
And the second part is what we call a particle.
Now, the problem with the phraser verbs is that there are a lot of them
and they often have meaning, which is not very obvious from the meaning
of the verb itself.
When it's in the combination with that particle, it kind of changes
the meaning completely, not all the time, but very often.
So that's why this is often something English learners fear and rightly
so.
It's not easy to master phraser verbs.
And that's why I am here to help you with them.
Of course, we're going to be talking about football because this is
the Footgrish podcast.
So you will be learning phraser verbs in the context of football.
Okay, Simon said at the beginning of the podcast, I am bringing some
energy, some pace to spice things up.
So if you spice things up, then you make something more interesting
or exciting.
For example, an English teacher could be teaching an English class
full of students and the students are bored and the teacher
has got a trick up their sleeve and come up with an activity that
makes everyone active again in the classroom.
They spice things up with, I don't know, charades or a board game
or whatever, right?
So to spice things up.
It feels like perhaps the city team, time has caught up with them.
So we were talking about or Simon was talking about the fact that
Manchester City has had or have had a lot of injury problems and
stuff like that.
And now time has caught up with them.
If something catches up with you, it basically means that something
bad that you have done or something that has been happening to you
finally sort of begins to cause problems for you.
Maybe it didn't at first.
Maybe it was okay-ish at the beginning, right?
But if you let it be the way it is, if you don't deal with the
problem, if the problem isn't resolved, then at some point it
will catch up with you, right?
So to catch up with someone.
And then Simon also was basically describing the Manchester City
Liverpool game and he said that Manchester City actually got off
lightly.
If you get off lightly, it means that you are treated in a way that
is less severe than expected, right?
Maybe you deserve bigger punishment.
For example, in this case, basically Manchester City only conceded
two goals, but Liverpool had a lot of chances.
Virgin van Dijk hit the post and they could have easily put four
goals past Manchester City.
So Manchester City actually got off quite lightly.
And you could say the same if a criminal is sentenced to, I don't
know, several years in prison, maybe this criminal committed a
heinous cry, a very serious crime, but then in the end got off
lightly.
Maybe in the end this criminal only got three or four years for a
murder or something like that.
Yeah.
Okay.
If they are lacking confidence, you've got to play on that,
haven't you?
So basically Simon acknowledged the fact that Manchester City have
been lacking confidence recently and that you have to kind of capitalize.
You have to take advantage of the fact that they don't have confidence.
You have to play on that.
If you play on something, for example, somebody's feelings, you
basically you make use of these feelings to your advantage, right?
Often.
So this is what it means.
Then Simon was talking about Mohammed Salah.
He said if he rips his shirt off, he looks fitter than a butcher's
dog, which is a lovely little comparison there, little idiom
actually.
So to rip your shirt off or to rip your any parts of your clothes
off means to remove it very quickly and carelessly without thinking
about it.
So a player when a player celebrates, right, a scored goal, they
often rip their shirt off.
They take it off really quickly in order to celebrate.
Often they get a yellow card for that.
So if you rip your clothes off, then you remove your clothes very
quickly and carelessly.
Okay.
And then what else do we have here?
He's not the kind of a manager in my opinion who would give up
easily.
That's what I said.
I'm sure you know the phrase of verb to give up.
In this case, it kind of means to stop trying, stop hoping that
a particular thing will happen.
You kind of stop fighting.
You stop believing that you could turn it around and leave on a
high.
You just kind of give up, you know.
Yeah.
And the last one, Chelsea, they have got the potential to power
through teams.
So that's an interesting phrase of verb to power through something.
If you power through something, you continue in a strong and
determined way until the end of something, even when this is
difficult.
So often in difficult times in war, the soldiers have to power
through, right?
They have to power through the battlefield.
I don't know.
The teams that are going through some difficult times, they have
to power through.
In Chelsea, they seem to have the potential to power through
teams.
That's what Simon said.
So they can keep fighting even if things get difficult.
They have the potential.
They have the potential to basically win games.
All right.
Well, I guess that's it for today.
And before I say goodbye to you, I would like to ask you kindly
to support the Footgrish podcast by going to the YouTube channel
and leaving a like there or a comment.
It would really mean a lot to me.
Thank you very much.
And I hope you enjoyed this episode.
Thanks for listening and I will speak to you soon.
Take care.
Bye bye.