You're listening to the Footglitch Podcast.
Love football, learn English.
Are there any positives for Tottenham to take from their defeat to Newcastle?
What caused Anjić to lose his composure so much during his press conference?
How excited are Tottenham fans about their new signing Czech goalkeeper Antonín Kinski?
And what does the expression to invite pressure mean?
Hello ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Footglitch Podcast, which is a football podcast that also aims to help people develop their English listening skills.
And I have to say that today there is no video, so this podcast is only available in the audio format.
And that's because I've got some sort of face infection.
In other words, I look like a zombie.
So it's probably for the best if there is no video.
Anyway, today I'm talking to my friend, Anjić, who is a football player.
And he's a football player.
So it's probably for the best if there is no video. Anyway, today I'm talking to my friend David about Tottenham again.
Welcome back, David. How are you doing today?
I'm fine, thanks. How are you?
Apart from that face infection I mentioned at the beginning of the podcast, I'm all right. Thanks. I'm pretty good.
So I need to talk to you today about the Spurs-Newcastle game.
I've got a few interesting questions. Are you ready for that?
Yeah, I'm ready for it. First of all, I'd like to say that I have seen Zenex face.
And I think it's made the best decision for everyone to make this audio only today.
Yeah, literally. I can't go out. I can't go out.
And when I have to at least order some meals, right?
So I book a meal and the motorbike delivers it for me.
So that means I have to kind of go down at least.
And I dread meeting people in the elevator.
And sometimes there are some people, because this is a huge building that I'm in.
And if it's kids, they just constantly look at me. They are so curious and they are just pointing at me.
Like, who the fuck is that? Why does this person have like half of his face so red?
Yeah, so anyway, this is a football podcast. It's not a podcast about health or anything like that.
So Spurs-Newcastle, to be honest, I think the shape of your team Spurs or Tottenham Hotspur, as we can say as well,
it's not very deep. It's not very far away from the way my face looks. Would you agree with that?
I think you're doing Spurs a great injustice there, Zanek.
You would say so.
I would, yeah. I mean, maybe in terms of what we can put out on the pitch, yeah.
If that's what you mean, yeah. Rather than the actual shape of tactics.
The results don't seem to be very good.
I mean, they're very underwhelming this season and you're struggling.
You're a mid-table team now.
I think the results are bad, but I think everything has context.
I think if you look at life without context, then I think that's silly.
Yeah, that's fair. There is a context to this and we will talk about it today.
So first of all, Ange Postekoglio, manager, said that he was the angriest he had ever been.
It was in a post-match conference and he praised the players after this defeat.
He said it was a fantastic performance from you, but he was very, very angry.
So what do you attribute his anger to?
Well, I think when he said about the players doing well, I think it's probably relative to recent weeks where they haven't been doing so well.
And I think rather than ostracizing the players at the moment, it's better to get behind them,
especially as you can see at the end of other managers' reign like Conte and Mourinho, the players generally give up.
It's fairly evident that the players aren't giving up at the moment and they're still fully behind Ange.
I think his anger probably... well, in this game it was to do with the referee, which is unusual for Ange.
Exactly.
This was a strange one. It might not even be about the referee, it might even be about the rulebook that over kind of he hates the AR in general.
Yeah, and we'll probably get onto that a little bit.
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Definitely keep that in mind.
But basically, I think we also have to mention the fact that you have about 11 players missing from the squad.
Half of the squad is injured, so you're down to the bare bones.
Exactly.
And as far as I understand, in this game you played two 18-year-olds and also a goalkeeper that had never played, Forster.
Yeah, no, not Forster, Austin.
Austin, sorry, sorry, sorry.
But I also have to ask you about the fact that Madison, Son and Basuma, like big names, included in the lineup.
I think they were just on bench, so why?
I think this is a purely tactical decision by Ange.
And anyone who says he's one-dimensional in terms of just attacking, this shows he's not.
I think what he knew the game first and foremost would be about physicality with new parcels.
So they've got Jolinton, Tonali, Guimara, and anyone who has watched him play 90 minutes knows newcars are a very kind of dirty, aggressive, very fit team.
So I think he wanted players like Saar, even Bergvar, who's 18, but he's very fit.
And even Werner in terms of just his pace and stamina to start the game.
And then he was going to bring on Basuma, Son, who haven't been in very good form anyway.
So they need a rest later on in the game.
And although the result didn't go the right way, on another day it could have done.
And yeah, I completely get that decision by Ange.
Yeah, that makes sense.
So in this game, you took the lead through Solanka.
It was a lovely header, right?
But then Newcastle scored that goal that I think nobody from the Spurs camp were happy about.
Basically, in the build up of this game, Jolinton made a handball.
But they ruled it as his hand being in a natural position.
But I always thought that any kind of handball, the goal is disallowed.
I always thought this was the rule. So what happened here then?
Well, that's the thing, Zeynep. A lot of people are saying, oh, by the letter of the law, this should be allowed, this goal.
Because this year, the handball rule is if it's in the natural position, so in your shadow, or wherever it should be.
And it's not, and you're not the player that scores, it counts as a goal and shouldn't be disallowed.
But I mean, personally, I couldn't give two shits what it says this year.
Because they change the rule every year. It's not like talking about the Ten Commandments here.
Literally, every year they decide to change the rule.
And there's just a complete lack of common sense.
Anyone who saw that goal on Saturday, if they're neutral or Tottenham, would just say that has such an impact on that passing of play.
There's no way that would have been scored.
And especially in the modern day, where you invite the press onto you to then bypass it and create a better opportunity for yourself.
I mean, the ball clearly hits Jorrenton, changes complete 180 degrees.
And I think if there's no common sense allowed, you can't make a rule for everything on football.
And just this overuse of having everything down to the nth degree with rules is just bizarre, especially for something like handball.
Just common sense and very easy to do that for handball.
Yeah, no, I feel for you, even though I'm an Arsenal fan.
It was a very dodgy decision.
And then I think you did not recover from that because Isaac put Newcastle up front and you lost that game a few moments later.
So as you said, Ansh Pustakoglu wasn't happy. I think it wasn't the only decision that goal.
There were a few other moments.
And as you pointed out, rightly so, Ansh Pustakoglu himself, he is not known for actually looking for excuses of this sort.
In fact, he actually hates people who do that.
So that's very unusual for him to sort of indirectly imply because he didn't say it very directly.
He sort of implied it that he was not happy with the officials and that some things kind of went against.
That were not under his under his team's control. Basically, that's what he's suggesting.
Yeah, I think that so say you say you apply the natural law to that handball and say it's fine.
The issue was 10 minutes later Tottenham won the counterattack and Dan Burn, who'd already been narrow carded,
kind of came charging in with his hands like literally out like a ballerina doing a pair of pure right.
And the bill struck his hand. So then and the problem was the referee gave the free kick.
So if he doesn't get the free kick, I understand the refs made a mistake. Doesn't matter.
But the refs given the free kick for the handball, the handballs, the hands are way out of his body.
I mean, that's just known to be a yellow card if you stop a counterattack with a deliberate handball and he decides not to book him.
So it's like you can't apply the letter of the law to one handball and not the other.
So it's just like that was and then there's a Joel Linton, who is a very physical player.
Just you know, when the pair does two, three, four yellow card files and doesn't get any of them as a yellow card,
that kind of winds up a manager of the opposition team. So there's a lot of that going on too.
But I think you can take some positives from this game. You definitely deserve at least a point.
There are some positives to be taken from the game basically.
And what you have to do is that you just have to like if you are post-ecoglue,
you have to turn this into sort of positive motivation and try to encourage the players to stand behind, be behind them and just galvanize the team.
I think so. Yeah. I think this was different to the other games we've had recently where we've played against Wolves and drew one-all.
And then we've had a few away games where we just haven't kind of turned up and it's very just lethargic.
This was different. It felt different. Yeah. I watched some bits from the game as well.
I have to be honest, I didn't watch the whole game. But yeah.
So this is what I admire about Anj. He just doesn't back down from his style. It's the Anj ball.
And yeah, it's kind of admirable. Although some people might say that that means it doesn't show his flexibility.
But I kind of admire it. I think Tottenham should play the way they do. And Newtros also appreciate this.
Exactly. Can I just say the Premier League this year is just so much more competitive.
Apart from the three bottom teams or two, every team has good players. Even Cunha, Cunha at the moment for Wolves is about to sign a new contract.
And he could go to a few good clubs. Even Palace have like as a last year they had at least say every team's got good players that can hurt another team.
And that makes it better, I think. But it does mean that a team like Spurs or Arsenal, they're not going to win every game.
It's not going to be like Pochettino five years ago where the league is much worse.
Yeah, you're right. It's really interesting. Anyone can kind of beat anyone.
Apart from I would say Liverpool. Liverpool seems to be thriving on this. They're the most consistent team.
They're the most consistent team. But we all know about Manchester City's crisis and all that.
But a few struggling teams apart from your team Tottenham, we would also have to mention Manchester United, of course.
And not just them. West Ham is not doing well. And who else? I'm missing one. Yeah, but of course City.
So one thing I really have to ask you about, as you know, I'm from the Czech Republic. I'm Czech. And you, I believe, have signed a Czech player.
Tottenham have signed a Czech goalkeeper Anton Jinkinski. Yeah, so you've got a new fan called Zenek.
No, I'm not going to become a fan.
When every player signs a player from Czech, you change to that team. Like, first it was Zeki, then it was West Ham, then it was two fouls. I'll be Spurs.
I know you're trying to wind me up, but I will explain this. Yeah, I'm going to come clean on this.
So I am more a Czech fan than I'm an Arsenal fan. Basically, that's that's the reason. Yeah.
So I love the Czech national team. I've always supported it. And especially if you are from a small country, like every sort of success of a player abroad, especially in a league like the Premier League, which in my opinion is the best league in the world.
It's great. Like, it feels great to see that. So that's why I support West Ham. That's why I wish all the best to Anton Jinkinski, even if I'm an Arsenal fan.
So I know maybe I wouldn't be, you know, like this wouldn't bode well with the Arsenal fans. They would definitely take the piss out of me for that. But I cannot I cannot help it.
Yeah. So he signed for 12.5 million pounds. Yeah.
Which I think for you is quite cheap. But for the Czech League, because he is coming from Slavia Prague, for the Czech League, it's like one of the highest transfers for a goalkeeper. It's great. I think Petr Petrchek was nowhere near that.
Actually, when he went to he first went to Rennes, the French team. So what do you what do you make of him then?
Well, obviously, I don't watch domestic football, but I've watched I've watched some of the highlights and I mean, I can't I can't I haven't seen him play. But what I like is the profile in terms of I think we said in the previous podcast on the
podcast, you know, I thought they should have made a really tough decision to sell Hugo Luis, even though he was one of the best goalkeepers in the world, because he couldn't play with his feet. I think it changed the whole sense of what we were trying to do.
But I just think that that goalkeeper who is calm and can play with their feet. It's so important when you try and invite the pressure on in modern day football to then get behind the opposing team. And the good thing about this goalkeeper seems like he he is of that kind of new type of goalkeeper where he can use his feet and play calmly out the back.
And that's the main thing. And then you just have to trust the scouts so they see that he's a good goalkeeper as well. Yeah, well, he does have great numbers. And as you said, he he is amazing with his feet. And this is true. I have seen it with my own eyes. We have seen him in the national team as well.
He does have this calm presence around him and he doesn't seem to make mistakes. Of course, you will eventually make a mistake. But the point is to to minimalise these mistakes. And if he can play this way, I think that he will definitely suit the system because you want to play it out from the back.
Yeah.
Well, the good thing is also that he seems to be brought in to provide competition for Vicario rather than just being back up. I think they're going to fight out for the number one spot. Maybe Vicario kind of at the moment seems like the number one.
He'll have a couple of months playing because Vicario is out for another two months.
He's injured. That's right.
So it's really his chance now to grab it.
Absolutely. So you think he will start as number one then from the get go?
Absolutely. I mean, Fraser Forster is just an embarrassment of the goalkeeper. He should have retired years ago. He's good at saving anything that's close to his body. But any time he has to run, he really plods and it's hard to watch.
I would say Austin, our third choice, looks from that game a lot better than our second choice. But I think he'll go straight in the team for Wednesday. I hope so. He's allowed to be registered.
Right. Right. Right. Yeah. You need that after Brexit. You need a work permit now if you want to work in the UK.
Because I used to work in the UK as an English teacher. So back in the day, yeah, there was no Brexit. Of course, yeah. I could just work there in an easy way. But now it's more complicated.
But the point is you have got a Czech goalkeeper now. We wish him all the best and hopefully he beds in well and he shows his quality immediately and improves your team.
Hopefully he will develop himself as a player too. Is Arsenal the weekend? Maybe he'll get another match in that game. I think it's the Northumbrian derby this weekend or next weekend.
I think it's the next weekend. I think it's epic happens weekend. Wow. If it's the next weekend. Oh my God. You can watch it together in Da Nang maybe.
If I'm back in Da Nang. No, it's not. I don't think you will be. No, no, no. But it's not. It's not. It's not. Probably the week after. Ah, OK. Yeah. But I think I will be in Da Nang back then.
So anyway, this is a private conversation. You're just listening in on ladies and gentlemen. Basically, Jenks, aka David, aka Jenks is my friend.
And we are about to catch up in Da Nang, which is the city I used to live in. But now I'm in another city. So hopefully we will manage to see this North London derby together again.
All right. Well, David, thanks. Thank you very much for your for your insight. And I hope to talk to you soon. Yeah, I think. Bye. Cheers.
Welcome back to the language corner. As always, in this part of the show, I'm going to do my job. I'm an English teacher. That's right. If you need an English teacher, you could hire me. I offer one to one online lessons.
And all you have to do is to just email me at teachers, then at Gmail dot com. And we will take it from there. And this time on the language corner, I'd like to explain several vocabulary items that appeared in my conversation with David.
And so these words or phrases were used by David and I. Let's start with this one. I compared Spurs basically to the way my face currently looks and which is the reason this episode is not on YouTube.
I think you're doing Spurs grace injustice was, however, David's response to that. If you're doing someone great injustice, it means that basically you are being unfair to Spurs.
You are too critical to Spurs. Basically, your comparison of your face is too harsh and undeserved. Basically, what he was saying is that my face looks much worse than Tottenham Hotspur look at the moment as a football team, which obviously was a little bit light hearted from David as well.
I would say rather than ostracizing players, it's better to get behind them. David said that. What does ostracizing players mean? Basically, it means excluding or alienating them from the team or squad.
Isolating them either emotionally or professionally ostracizing someone right so he could have that we are talking about post a coglue here by the way, and post a coglue these Spurs manager, he could have gone after his players, he could have criticized his players, but he's not doing that.
He doesn't want to ostracize his players. He doesn't want to alienate them. Instead, excuse me, he talked about the referees or the rules of the game. Next half the squad is injured. So you're down to the bare bones.
I said that one. If you're down to the bad bones, it means you have very few resources left. And in football, this means that the squad is severely depleted due to injuries, suspensions or other issues.
And it basically leaves you with limited options. Yeah, so if you're down to the bare bones, it's not very good. All you have is the bones. It's like a metaphor from I think it's a metaphor from eating some sort of animal sort of bar.
It could be a barbecue or whatever you eat an animal and all you have left is now the bones because everyone else is eating the meat. So you're down to the bare bones, not very options left to eat. Right.
If you're starving, let's say hungry on a desert island or something.
Right next. Although the result didn't go their way on another day, it could have done, said David about the Tottenham's performance.
If something doesn't go your way, it means the things don't work out in your favor.
And in this case, basically, you don't win the match or you don't get a favorable outcome in the match. You don't draw. You don't win.
It doesn't go your way. Very useful expression indeed.
I feel for you, even though I'm an Arsenal fan, it was a dodgy decision. Right. So I was referring to the first Newcastle game and the fact that there was a handball in the buildup of that game.
And I was talking about the referee's decision to award this goal, despite VAR's check.
But if we say something is a dodgy decision, it means this decision is questionable or suspicious.
Maybe it implies a poor judgment or unfairness. Usually by a referee or official. Right.
So basically, you are sort of criticizing the decision by using the word dodgy.
Ange doesn't back down from his style. I said that one. If you don't back down from your style, you don't abandon or compromise your approach or philosophy.
You keep doing the same thing that you believe in. That's what Ange Postecoglou is known for.
He's sticking to his principles, even under pressure, even when things don't go Tottenham's way.
He will not back down from his style. This wouldn't bode well with Arsenal fans. They would take the piss out of me.
Basically, I was talking about the fact that I will support Kinski, even though he's going to play for Tottenham now.
Kinski is a Czech goalkeeper. And of course, I wish him all the best.
And I want him to succeed because I'm Czech and I support the Czech team most and foremost.
And I sort of suggested that this might not bode well with the Arsenal fans. They would take the piss out of me.
So we have two expressions here. If something doesn't bode well with someone, it basically means that it wouldn't be kind of accepted by them.
It wouldn't be well received by them. They would not react positively to that.
And they would take the piss out of me. So if someone takes the piss out of you, they make fun of you.
They mock you, often humorously, but sometimes harshly too.
This is common in British slang to take the piss out of someone.
Right. And then we have, it's so important when you're trying to invite the pressure in modern world football.
And Kinski can do this. That's right.
So to invite the pressure means to deliberately allowing the opposite team to press aggressively.
You kind of provoke the team. You poke the bear. You want the opposite opposing team to press you.
Because this is a way for you to create space for a counter attack.
It's part of modern football. You invite the pressure. That's why you play it out from the back.
You take advantage of the quality of your defenders and the goalkeeper, the fact that they can pass it around with ease and with precision.
And this will obviously create space because there will be a lot of players on your half.
And that means hopefully you're attacking players. Once the game switches to them, you will be able to capitalize on that.
Alright. And finally, I said, so you think he will start as number one from the get-go?
This is a question I asked. What does the get-go mean? Or from the get-go actually?
It means from the beginning. So he's just signed for Tottenham. He's new at the team, at the club.
And will he start from the get-go? Will he start as the first choice goalkeeper from the beginning?
Well, I hope so. We will see. We will see.
Alright, listeners, that's it for today. Thank you very much for listening.
Once again, I apologize for the inconvenience of not being able to publish this episode on my YouTube channel.
And if you want to support the Footgrish Podcast, why don't you write a review on Apple Podcasts or give this a five-star rating on Spotify?
This would go a long way. Thank you very much and I'll speak to you soon. Cheers. Bye bye.