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You're listening to the Footglitch Podcast.

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Love football, learn English.

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How is Manchester United doing under the new manager Ruben Amorin?

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Despite losing their last two games, which Manchester United player seems to be thriving under the new manager?

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Can Manchester United lose their next Europa League game against Victoria Pilsen?

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And which preposition is used with the verb congratulate?

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Hello everyone, welcome back to the Footglitch Podcast.

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Another week of football is behind us and another Footglitch Podcast is here.

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A podcast for football fans who want to improve their English.

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My name is Denik Lucas. I'm the host.

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And as always, every host needs a guest.

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And this time it's none other than Leontes, a returning guest.

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Welcome back to the podcast.

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Hello everyone, thanks for having me, Denik.

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It's always a pleasure.

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First of all, massive congratulations to you on having the baby.

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I can see the baby is there.

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Yeah.

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It's enjoying his little giraffes.

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Right behind you, to your right.

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Thank you. Yeah, it is tiring, that's for sure.

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Yeah, I can imagine.

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Just shifting around.

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I say I can imagine, I actually can't imagine, but I'm trying to imagine.

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There are so many things you can't imagine, like, I don't know,

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your team Manchester United getting relegated, I guess, would be one of them.

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But we have to say that your team, Manchester United, isn't doing so well.

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No. Again.

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Yeah, so what's going on then?

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Well, I think the best time this season was under Ruth Van Nistelrooy.

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I think that was a good game.

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Two games, yeah, or how many?

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No, four games. Four games in total.

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Under Ruth Van Nistelrooy, those were excellent games.

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To be honest, I didn't think the Erictenhag games were sack-worthy bad.

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I wouldn't say that they had to sack him for some reason.

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So I wasn't surprised, but I was surprised, if you know what I mean.

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I didn't expect him to be sacked so early in the season.

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Right.

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If it would happen, it would be January.

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But now with Ruben Amorim, you see him struggling.

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You see that he was all hyped up during the international break,

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and they said, well, this is going to be good, and blah, blah, blah.

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But now I think he's trying to find a way with the players.

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He also said something like, with these players, I can't do what I want to do.

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They don't have time to train.

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So there's no training time if you have lots of matches after each other.

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As in he hasn't been able to instill his own philosophy onto the players.

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He needs a full preseason for that.

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Yeah.

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And I think what he's doing incorrectly, if you like, is changing the system mid-season.

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I think it's sort of mid-season-ish.

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Yeah. I think we are like one third through.

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Yeah. And these players have played under Zinhaag for two and a half years now.

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So to then change from 4-4-2 back to 3-4 something, something, what else he's doing.

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I think that's challenging.

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I think the only person who really excels at the moment is Bruno Fernandes.

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I can see that, yeah.

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Yeah. I think he's an excellent player under Ruben Amerin's system.

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He was good on Zinhaag as well.

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And I even think that the attackers are good.

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But I think the defense needs to get used to their new roles.

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And if you're a point behind, you don't bring on Harry Maguire, right?

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Nobody does that.

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But then he did. So that was an interesting choice.

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Right, right, right.

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Kind of desperate times call for desperate measures.

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Basically, unfortunately, you lost a second game in a row.

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The previous week you lost to Arsenal, obviously to my delight.

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And then this week, unfortunately, this weekend you also lost a home game against Nottingham Forest of all teams.

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That must have been really disappointing.

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And to be honest, I didn't think the football was particularly bad.

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If you lose against Arsenal, that happens.

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Top six, it's just the way it is.

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You need to defend corners against Arsenal.

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If you can't defend corners, you can't succeed.

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Yeah, I think they were excellent corners by Arsenal, excellent goals, and they deserve to win with their set pieces.

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So that's fine.

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But I think the football wasn't bad, but it were easy goals, especially the way Onana didn't react.

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Yeah, that's one of the things I had to ask you about.

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Of course, it's in my notes here.

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Onana, I think he's guilty. He can be guilty at two occasions, right?

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The second goal was a long range shot, which went straight into the middle of the net.

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It was just a slight swerve, so that confused Onana, but a keeper of his quality should be saving that.

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Yeah, you would even say it's sort of a training field goal, right?

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Where they practice these things in training.

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To be honest, if the goalkeeper of my village team conceded a goal like that, I think we would have been really pissed off.

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Yeah, but I do think that Onana made up with some excellent things he did during the game.

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And I think Onana is a good goalkeeper overall. He's a good footballer as well.

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If you compare him to, for example, David de Gea, who was not a very good footballer, an excellent keeper, but a bad footballer.

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I think those are things Onana makes up for his mistakes.

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The problem is that the mistakes are drastic. Same for Bruno Fernandes, right?

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He made the mistake that led to the first or second goal or something.

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But then he immediately made up for his mistake by scoring a goal at the back level.

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This does not help the confidence of the team. You need a keeper you can rely on.

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And if you know your keeper has a mistake in him like that, I know he's good with his feet and all that.

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But also he has this sort of mad streak in him. I don't know.

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Have you seen some videos? I've seen some kind of Instagram reels in which he is moving the ball like five times before doing the goal.

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I don't know if you have seen it.

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Yeah, he did it with a free ball as well during the game.

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Don't you think I understand what he's doing is like s*** how's he trying to stall for time, like time wasting, whatnot.

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Okay, I get it. It's part of football. But don't you think that basically he's losing his focus by doing all this?

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Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I think it's too much. I think if you're 7-8-0 up, you can do those things, right?

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It's not very nice, you're not seen as a good competitor, but hey, you're up eight points, you can do those things.

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Not if you're a point behind against Nottingham Forest, right?

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Yeah.

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If it were Liverpool and they were up and they were winning against Liverpool, fine, you do those things, but not against Nottingham Forest.

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So I agree that he does these weird things.

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I remember one of the games he played against my home team in Groningen when he was still at Ajax.

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He also did one of these things. One of the Groningen players caught him off guard and then scored the goal in an open goal.

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So that was disappointing. So the first thing I had to think of was that incident when they said he was going to Manchester United.

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Of course, yeah, no, he has this in him.

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That's probably what also means that he's not a world class goalkeeper, at least not in my opinion.

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He's a decent keeper. He's not as bad as some people say, but the thing is, as you said, you always notice those big mistakes.

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They're called howlers and that second goal, even the third goal, to be honest.

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That header, like looping header. I know there was also a defender in his way, but still this goalkeeper should command his six yard box.

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He should be a force there and should take care of this, but not him. So partially at blame, I think, for this game.

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And I wonder what Ruhmina Marim is going to do with him. I wonder what he's going to do with all of the players, actually.

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You think there will be some changes? Definitely. Yeah, definitely.

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I think one thing that we can blame Ten Hag, or I don't know if it was Ten Hag, but at least in part we can blame Ten Hag for the fact that some of the players that they got over the transfer window in the summer are not as good as he thought they were.

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Matthijs de Ligt, for example, is a good footballer, but is he Manchester United Premier League level good? I don't think so.

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I think he's just a slightly faster, a slightly better Harry Maguire. He's not as good as Virgil van Dijk, for example, which is the level that we need at Manchester United at this point.

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Especially with, I mean, I like Lindelof as a defender, he's a good defender. Dalot is good. But at some point they're leaving as well. Who's going to replace them?

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There is something I also have to ask you about. So last week there was a piece of news saying that your sporting director, did you hear about this?

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Yeah, he left, I think it was yesterday or so, right? He left yesterday after only five months at the club.

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Now, I don't know the details of his departure. And by the way, I'm just going to Google his name quickly. Ashworth, right? His name was Dan Ashworth. And if you look online, they're like really sort of damning headlines, right?

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Like shock, shock Manchester United exit of Dan Ashworth and stuff like that. So what on earth happened there? Have you got any inside information or no?

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No idea. I did read somewhere that he was against the appointment of Ruben Amorim.

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Well, that explains it then.

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Yeah, he was against that. I think the CEO, the one that came from Manchester City, went to Portugal to talk to Ruben Amorim to convince him to join Man United. I don't know whether that's a thing that happens regularly, but that's normal.

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So it's only five months at the club. That's something definitely went wrong there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that also throws bad light at your club and just something is really rotten at your club. Like what Gary Neville always refers to is probably true.

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And yeah, it must be hard, hard to be a United fan at the moment. I mean, a lot of rival fans who are actually enjoying this, like Schadenfreude and all that. So part of me is kind of happy. But also I know you are a good guy, Leontes.

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I feel bad for you. What about the baby? Is the baby going to grow up Manchester United fan too or will you give your baby like a sort of liberal choice?

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We usually watch Manchester. When I watch Manchester United and he's with me, I always, you know, we watch together. He also has two jerseys, two Man United jerseys. So my father-in-law is a Liverpool fan. So, you know, there's some rivalry going on.

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But then the thing is, I always tell him, well, I have the baby most times, so I can watch Man United with him every time I want to. So I hope he's going to love United and we can go to Old Trafford at some point.

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But yeah, I hope Manchester United will reach their glory days again. But the thing with glory days, I think Liverpool had the same problem. I think Arsenal will face those times as well.

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People will always refer back to the glory days, but then forget that football, you know, it changes, evolves into something new.

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And I like how you just say Mourinho when it was asked about Pep Guardiola said, well, I won three Premier Ships, but I didn't buy them. So, you know, those things happen. And I think he has a point, right? Man City was built with lots of board players and that's good. It's an excellent team.

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We don't know exactly the details here, but it doesn't look good. But you know, sent out until proven guilty, I guess. Yeah. But yeah, so yeah, I think that's a that's a problem. People always think of glory days and then everyone said, then Hach was going to bring back the glory days.

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But then, you know, did we give him time? Was he given enough time to work on something? The first two seasons with Sir Alex Ferguson were crap as well. Right? Yeah. So he was even he was on the verge of being sacked in I think 89 or 91 or something.

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So those are things that happen. But then football changes so quickly and people want results immediately. So yeah, he's not I think I don't think Manchester United will give any manager enough time to build something to truly, truly build something.

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Yeah, I guess it has to be someone that the players stand behind. And I think Eriksen Haag didn't give me that impression. Like he was good at dealing with difficult situations like with the Ronaldo situation, I think it kind of deserved respect of the journalists.

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But then when you looked at his sort of personality, I didn't know him personally, you are you are Dutch, just like him. So, you know, there's this Dutchness about him, of course, which I think you understand more than than me, for example, and more than English people, right.

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But it didn't he didn't seem like that charismatic person that you would that you would follow as a player, you know, and it's something that maybe was missing. But I don't think it's the main reason. I think there are some bigger issues like at the club, you know, in the hierarchy.

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And that's all that's and the biggest issue here is that the reality is so far apart from the expectations of the fans, right. So as you said, they remember the glory days, the United is still a brand like in the world is crazy.

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I mean, Asia right now in Vietnam and these clubs like United Liverpool, they have a massive, massive following, even in Asian countries. Yeah. And they are losing this following by these results because nobody can get inspired by them anymore.

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Like, I'm sorry, but they are currently sitting in the 13th place in the league. 13. Yeah. Yeah. The team that is below them is a struggling West Ham United team is right below them. So it's a shame. And I'm really sorry. I kind of am not but also I am sorry.

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I'm sorry that your team is going through this and I think I think it's it's it's bad for the Manchester United brand, right. The thing that they stand for. I think it's bad for the football as well because Manchester United was a team, you know, as a club, a team that that delivered good players.

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Many good players came from Manchester United youth. Marcus Rashford, for example, was one of those those children of Manchester. He was born and raised in Manchester.

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So I think that's the worst part that you have these players who have so much potential. And then for some reason, there's this curse, you would even call it. United where it's like, yeah, players like Sancho, who was an excellent player that Bruce to Dortmund.

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No, right. I think I think so. Yeah, it was a Dortmund. Yeah, it was an excellent player. He wasn't able to excel. He got in a fight with 10. I think Ronaldo is a different case. I think Ronaldo was a mistake. That was a mistake.

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I mean, he saved the club at some point, you know, and the Solskjaer, but it was more about Ronaldo than about the team. It's always about Ronaldo when Ronaldo is in the team. Right. So I don't know how they make it work in the Portuguese team, for example.

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I honestly don't know how they make it work there than the international team. It must be so hard. I think he's now in Dubai, right.

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He's in Saudi Arabia somewhere. Yeah, Saudi Arabia. Yeah. So, you know, they don't care about those things. They don't have clubs. They don't care about they care about the names. Right. So everything can be about Ronaldo there. But in the Premier League, you don't you don't you're not Ronaldo. You're Manchester United.

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So that was a mistake. There is a reason Leontes he's not playing for any European giant anymore. No, no, there is a reason for that.

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Yeah. Yeah, we see it with Mbappe as well. We saw it with Depay, for example, is one of those as well. Made the same. So I think that's that's a problem. And they need to let go of this legacy idea. They need to let go of the we are Manchester United idea.

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They just rebuild. You need to rebuild the team and instill a new philosophy and all that.

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And I still believe, honestly, that the biggest mistake they've made was letting Ralph Ranier go. I for some reason something in me says they had to keep Ralph Ranier on as a technical director as a sporting director.

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I think it goes as far as David Moyes should have kept David Moyes.

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Yeah. Yeah. Do you think they should have kept David Moyes? Probably not. He's a defensive coach. Yeah, it's not. Yeah. It's not what you need. But I do agree that maybe they should have given him more time. Yeah.

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I don't know. I wouldn't know. I wouldn't know. I don't remember those those days. It's quite far now. Yeah, it was only a half year, right?

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But it's like, was it like 10 years ago or eight years ago? It's a long time ago, right? Yeah, 2013. So 11 years ago. Oh, my goodness. Time flies. Yeah.

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Well, there's there's another thing I have to ask you about. Do you know which team Manchester United faces in the Europa League this week?

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Oh, no, I thought you meant Premier League. That was City, but I don't know who they're facing in Europe League.

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Victoria Plozenj. All right. Is that one of your teams? Cool. Yeah, it's currently the second the second team in the Czech division or in the Czech top league.

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And they are doing quite well. And if you look at the Europa League table, they are exactly on the same number of points as your team.

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Wow. You only have one goal more. That's why you're ahead of them. Only because you have one more goals ahead. Wow.

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So what do you think? Well, I was going to ask you the same question, but since you didn't even know you.

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No, no, I know what's the main question is. The main question for me is if they're going to be any Manchester United away fans, are they going to go to Posenj to grab three points or get drunk?

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Because that's what you do in Posenj. They have the best best beer in the world. Oh, wow.

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That's a great question, right? So if they're British, they're probably going to get drunk.

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Yeah. Yeah. So let's hope the players join in, because obviously I will be massively supporting Posenj, because it would be a massive achievement to even get a point against a giant like your team.

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But is there a team in the Premier League you would compare them to?

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Victoria Posenj, they have really well organised defence. So I don't know, is there a team that is so well drilled in defence?

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But yet they are able to take their chances. They have some excellent young players that have a lot of stamina. So they're going to be running a lot.

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And then there is one player called Matěj Vidra, who used to play for Burnley. So he's also has got Premier League experience.

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So we've got several internationals like Czech Republic internationals, especially in the midfield.

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Cerv, if you translate his name, it's Worm. He's very tenacious player. He doesn't back down in a challenge.

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Then Schultz is arguably the sort of the hottest goods right now. He's a talented, talented footballer who also runs a lot.

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But still, like your players, if you just look at the budget, if you compare the budgets of your team and the salary that your players are on, it would be...

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Well, it doesn't say anything, right?

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I know, but it would be such a disaster if you didn't at least get the point. You should be winning this one, Leontes.

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Yeah. I hope for you that it's an excellent match. I wouldn't mind losing against that team.

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Honestly, it will be a great game for the representing fans because their stadium is also small. I don't know if they have...

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So it's a home game or an away game?

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It's a home game. At least they have like 9,000 capacity or 10,000. I don't know. Let me check.

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Okay. Almost 12,000 fans can squeeze into the stadium, but still, it's not as many as Old Trafford can take in.

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No. And how would you compare the league against... Is it the same as the Irede de Fisi or is it the same as more like the Premier League?

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Of course. It's not like the Premier League. It's the best league in the world.

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But let's put it this way.

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If you look at the quality of the teams, we have, I think, four good teams and the rest is okay-ish. Whereas in the Premier League, you have like 15, 16 good teams.

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All I can tell you is that Victoria Palzen is unbeaten for about 24 games.

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There was a game that they lost, but it was in extra time against Fiorentina in the quarterfinal of the Conference League last season.

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So that's quite telling if you're not beaten in normal time for 24 games or something like that.

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So they're actually kind of flying right now, the last two seasons.

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All right. That's interesting.

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But they haven't faced a team like Manchester United yet. So we will see what happens there.

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Good stuff.

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As for the league itself, the quality has gone up in the recent years, surprisingly in the last five years.

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Yeah, I think very near your league, I would say. Maybe not as technical.

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The league is different in that there are more physical battles. But you have some really good players now there as well.

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And some of them are wanted by Premier League teams as well.

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I don't think we are at the same level as the Dutch league, but it's going up.

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Interesting. I hope it doesn't end up being a trashing. I don't like trashings unless it's against a Premier League team.

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But I always think when it's against a foreign team or a team from a completely different league, I don't like those games.

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If you mean Liverpool trashing, sorry, Manchester United trashing, Palzane could happen.

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Or Liverpool trashing United, it makes sense. It happened.

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But Palzane won't thrash United. If they somehow manage to win, it will always be by one goal, because that's what they always do.

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Any team they play, they win by one goal. It's their signature move.

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Yeah. Oh, wow. That's interesting.

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So we have something to look forward to.

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Yeah, definitely.

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Okay, Leontes, I think we can leave it there. Thank you very much for joining me tonight's show.

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And let's see what happens in that game.

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Yeah, I'll make some notes and then definitely come back to discuss that particular game.

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We could do round two if you were really interested in that. We could do round two, maybe make it a little bit shorter.

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Yeah, so. Sure.

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Okay. Well, thank you very much and say hi to your baby too.

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Yeah. Thank you for having us.

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Take care. Bye.

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Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the Language Corner.

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As always, in this part of the show, I will be doing my job.

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I'm an English teacher, so I have to teach you something in this podcast.

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Right. First things first.

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Let me apologize to you for having quite a weak voice, quite a, let's say, quiet voice.

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When I was recording the episode with Leontes, the reason for this is that I was recording it quite late at night and I do have a roommate.

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And I did not want to wake her up because she was sound asleep.

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And that's why I decided to reduce my voice a little bit, reduce the volume of my voice.

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So hopefully it was still listenable. It was still audible for you.

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OK, so I would like to take a look at the verb to congratulate.

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At the very beginning of this episode, I said to Leontes, massive congratulations to you on having the baby.

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Now, I've heard this verb used with the wrong preposition many times from my students.

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Sometimes they say congratulations for something, congratulations at or something like that.

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But it should be really used with the preposition on.

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Yeah. Congratulations on your trophy.

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For example, if you talk to a Tottenham Hotspur fan in their dreams, yeah, you talk to Harry Kane.

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You could say congratulations on winning the Champions League.

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So you can use the verb congratulate to someone, right?

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Congratulations to you. You can say congratulations or without to you.

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It's fine. You can say congratulations on.

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And then there is a noun, right? Congratulations on the baby. Congratulations on the trophy.

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Congratulations on the victory. OK.

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But if you want another clause, it must be the verb must be in the I.N.G. form.

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You must use the gerund. So congratulations on having the baby.

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Congratulations on winning the title. Congratulations on not conceding a goal.

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Congratulations on scoring a hat trick. Right.

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So keep it in mind. Congratulations is used with the preposition on.

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All right, guys, I think that's all for today.

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Thank you very much for listening.

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And don't forget to give this video a like on the TeachersDenek YouTube channel.

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If you haven't done so already, it does help me out a lot.

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And as always, thanks for listening and take care, everyone. Bye bye.