You're listening to the FootGlish podcast. Love
football, learn English. Manchester United 1,
Arsenal 1. Is this a United performance Rubin
Amorin can finally be proud of? Has Bruno Fernandes
stepped up? Now that he's a captain, is he less
petulant than he used to be? And how do we use
prepositions at the end of sentences? Welcome
back, audio listeners and video viewers. The
Footgrish Podcast is back. What's the Footgrish
Podcast? Well, it is a podcast which combines
my and hopefully also your favorite passion,
football, and learning English. And today with
me in the studio is, of course, Leon Teres. And
that can only mean one thing. Or potentially
two things. It could mean that we're going to
talk about Manchester United or Dutch football.
Yeah. I think it's going to be mainly Manchester
United, right? Yeah. Yeah, life has been too
busy to watch two different types of competitions.
Okay, that's fair. That's fair enough, man. So
where do we start? I guess we have to talk about
the game that took place yesterday. Arsenal,
Manchester United in the reverse order. It was
actually at Old Trafford. So Manchester United,
Arsenal. What do you make of it? What did you
make of it? That was better from you, wasn't
it? Yeah. Of course, it's not anything to be
very proud of, I think. I don't think Manchester
United is at the stage where they can, you know,
be proud of anything. And Ruben Amorim is definitely...
aware of this. He's very noble in his remarks.
He says things like, well, the season for us
is done. We can't change anything. We can't win
anything. So the only thing that we can hope
for is that we win the Europa League, which I
don't think it's going to happen. But they played
okay. I do think something that we do need to
mention is that free kick by Bruno Fernandes.
I think... It reminded me of the old Paul Pogba
at Man United in his second spell. You remember?
He was also able to have these free kicks and
finish them off perfectly. Juan Mata as well.
Those three people, Mata, Fernandes, and Pogba,
it all came together in that free kick. That
was excellent. The truth is, if you want anyone
to take that free kick from that position, from
both teams. I would probably choose Fernandes
to do it, to execute it because he's just that
good. He's got a lot of experience of scoring
similar goals and a great technique. I may not
like this player, but I respect him for what
he can do on the pitch. I also think he is an
excellent captain. Oh, my lights keep falling.
Okay. An excellent captain and he, you know,
he's able to maintain some sort of momentum in
the team. I think that's very good. We saw that
as well. And a good example of this type of behavior
was just around the halftime break where he kind
of stopped CXA of approaching the referee. I
think that's a good thing. I think Bruno Fernandes
really knows his position and his role in the
team. I think he has stepped up. And honestly,
you will have to... You will have to ignore me
if you don't like what I'm going to say, but
a lot of fans of the opposition teams have been
sort of pointing out the fact that he tends to
dive a lot and sometimes he behaves in a petulant
way and he's just like crying all the time. Whatever
you think, you may disagree with me, but I'm
going to say this. In my opinion, he has been
doing less of this. In the last few months. And
I don't know. I think it was under the previous
manager. Ten Hag. I think a little bit. I think
he started getting better at this. But now under
Amorim. I think he told him. Probably these managers
sort of had a chat with him. Had a word with
him. And they said what they don't like about
his game. And he seems to have. improved that
aspect of his game would you agree with me because
i don't remember him doing this in the recent
games he he should have a lot of opportunities
to do it too because your results have been awful
yeah well i think um i think what you mentioned
about him behaving like this and they're behaving
better on the 10 half i think he also was a very
good player on the social A very good player
under Ranjik. So, Socia, Ranjik and Ten Hag.
He was a good player. I do agree that I think
when the results started to go bad under Ten
Hag, he really stepped up. You can see the disappointment
in his face. You can see that he's trying to
coach on the field, put players in their positions.
If there's anyone on the field that wants to
win the game, even when they're 3 -0 down, it's
Bruno Fernandes. He leads by example. For me,
this is also a sign of a great player. Everyone
has a weakness. Everyone has a weakness, right?
And his weakness, in my opinion, was his sort
of behavior on the pitch because I think it affects
others as well. If you dive too much, if you
roll on the ground too much, if you behave in
a way that you cannot inspire your teammates
by that, in my opinion. A lot of your teammates
will be looking at it with disgust in their face,
I think, mostly. But if you really manage to
sort of eradicate that sort of weakness from
your game, I think that's a mark of a great personality,
of someone who shows that they can develop. And
he's been given the armband, right? So now he's
a captain. I think he's stepping up. Yeah, I
agree. And I think his attitude is very important.
especially if things turn around and they start
winning again. I think the team will be grateful
for this Bruno Fernandes now. Yeah, it's definitely,
for me, this is a better attitude than what Ronaldo
has shown in the past. Whatever you may think
about Ronaldo, a great player, goal scorer, the
greatest player of all time, the GOAT, but his
behavior hasn't always been top -notch. Neither
has been Bruno. So those two players, like the
greatest players of the Portuguese national team,
you could say, in the last few years, in the
last decade. And now Bruno, I think, is sort
of winning me over with this, with the ability
to reflect on his own behavior. He's, of course,
not a player that... Ronaldo is a very good player.
And Fernandes is a good player as well, but he's
not kind of the... the core player that everyone
kind of relies on, right? When Ronaldo was at
United for his second spell, everybody knew,
well, he was going to pull us through and win.
So there was this arrogance that was sort of
expected, I think, sort of self -fulfilling,
self -fulfilling arrogance that Bruno Fernandes
doesn't have. That's true. That's true. It makes
him more humble. And sometimes I think if you
combine confidence with humility, I think this
is the best mix for success. That's my humble
opinion. Pun intended. If you are only humble,
I don't think that's enough because you will
never have enough ambition. So I think if you
are confident and believe in your ability to
do it and to succeed, that's important as well,
which often brings that confidence as well, especially
if you are successful long -term, it gives you
some arrogance as well. But if you manage to
weigh it up, if you manage to balance it with
a bit of humility, with a bit of sort of grain
of not thinking you are the best and always thinking
forward wanting to develop despite knowing that
you are good already that is how you become the
best yeah and i think there's another player
on the field sorry who i think there's another
player on the field who also has done yeah so
can you say this again i will remove that part
sorry we stopped over each other okay you say
okay so i think there's another player on the
field that has the same attitude and that's garnacho
alejandro garnacho i think he also has this um
he's less prominent In a sense, he's not as present
in his attitude as Bruno Fernandes, of course,
because he's not the captain or a prime player.
But he's also able to reflect, to change, to
keep up the mentality of, I need to score, I
need to fight for my position. So that's also
another player that really has the same. And
we saw that during the Arsenal game as well.
He had very good movements. He was able to move
around. around the Arsenal players, around the
Arsenal defence very easily. So, yeah, I think
if we compare United under Ten Hag and United
now, even though they're playing worse now...
The results are worse now, right? The results
are worse. The win rate is worse. Yeah, but some
players who are kind of bad for the attitude
of the team, like Anthony... You know, I don't
know whether the players were bad for the team.
I don't know what Ten Hag did to some of those
players. But, you know, Anthony is playing very
well now. So, you know, it's something that attitude
like some sort of curse maybe that hangs around
United. No, this is important. Like you need
to see something, right? Even if the results
are not there, you need to see some sort of...
positivity out of it. You need to see some signs
of a brighter future. And if you don't, as a
fan, as a United fan, being in the 15th place,
that must be a tough pill to swallow. So I think
a draw against Arsenal, a team that is sort of,
they think they are in the title. I don't think
they have been there for the last two months,
but okay. the Arsenal fans want them to be in
the title race and they are in the second place.
So if anyone can put Liverpool's hopes of winning
title in danger or at risk, then it would have
to probably be Arsenal. I mean, Nottingham Forest
have a great season, but come on, not them. Manchester
City, they are out already. They just lost to
Nottingham Forest, speaking of which. it has
to be Arsenal. So a draw against Arsenal with
decent performance, a deserved draw in my opinion.
If you look at the stats, okay, you do have only
one third of possession. So Arsenal were dominant
on the ball, but that means nothing in football,
right? These days. So if you look at chances,
Arsenal have a few more, but I don't know about
the XG, but I think the XG might be on your side
because you had some... like david raya the arsenal
keeper had a double save towards the end of the
game you might have nicked it there remember
that chance yeah the double chance you had yeah
yeah i agree i think um i think they can be proud
of this result i mean it could have been like
three four nil uh against arsenal which is also
a very good team for you for you you could have
won it three four one right i think i thought
you had some chances there Yeah, but I don't
think that... I think the team mentality is not
winning 3 -4 -0 or 3 -4 -1. I don't think so.
I know what you mean. I think Arsenal also didn't
start the game very well. They were also sort
of off. It's not the Arsenal from last season.
Definitely not. Yeah, something isn't right there.
Yeah. We were happy to score through Declan Rice.
It was a good equalizer. I mean, fantastic shot
off the post. We thought, oh, okay, maybe we
could win it now. But then it didn't happen.
And I think in the end, we should be grateful
for the draw because of that double save from
Raya. I think we should be grateful for the draw
as well. I think so. Really? Okay then. I guess
it's a fair result in the end, right? I want
to ask you about Mazraoui because I thought he
was excellent in the game. The Moroccan, in my
opinion, was the man of the match. At least for
your side. Would you say so? Yeah, I think he
played well, definitely. I don't have anything
in particular that I thought was excellent. But
I think Masori is also improving game after game.
That's definitely true. In the beginning, you
could see that he was sort of uncomfortable at
United. It felt off. It felt weird. He's now...
He's made his... He's found his spot. I don't
think he was a good addition to the team. I don't
feel it was necessary, but Ten Hag thought, well,
let's make Ajax again. Now that he's there, we
might have to roll with him. Yeah, yeah. Okay.
And then also one more name, Aydin Haven, because
he's an ex -Arsenal player. He's a youngster
that came from the Arsenal Academy, I believe.
And he's now playing for your team, for Manchester
United. I think he played in the second half,
didn't he? So what did you make of his performance?
I missed the final part of the game, but I did
see him come on, and I heard the commentator
say that it was his debut. So that was very nice.
I haven't seen him play, actually. Was it a good
addition to the team? I was watching the game
in a pub with my friend, and you can imagine
you talk a lot during the game, and it's very
emotional, and the focus is not there fully.
Another friend, Nrub. You know Nrub? He has been
on this show many times. He then pointed out
to me that this was a player that came from Arsenal,
which is an interesting connection there. Oh,
yeah. I noticed that Amorim is playing lots of
young players. Many young players. Yeah, that's
good. That's good. Ruben Amorim, let's give him
a shot, shall we? Yeah. At least he's not playing
Harry Maguire that often anymore. come on he's
not he's he's he's not as bad as like two three
years four years ago when that's the joke of
the league but you know it's not a it's not a
show with me if i don't say something about harry
mcguire it's tradition that is that is true it's
a tradition on any shows we've done with leon
test in the past that's true that's true Okay,
so now that we have you here then, why not ask
you about... We can ask you about Arne Slot.
So, top of the league Liverpool, you're Dutch.
So, Arne Slot is from the Netherlands. You must
be very proud of him, right? Doing so well with
Liverpool after Jurgen Klopp, which is a tough
act to follow as well. Yeah. My father -in -law
is a Liverpool fan. So every time United loses,
he asks me, so how did United play this weekend?
But he's into Liverpool. And I think Arne Slot
is doing a good job. I know that Arne Slot is
someone well -educated. So I think he studied
something at the university here. So he's well
-educated, well -spoken. And you can see that
in how he does. I do think... that he kind of
got on a train that was already running, right?
It ran well. That's true. But that can also be
messed up. That can also be done wrong. I mean,
I've looked at Moyes and United, so it's not
always the case that this happens. But then again,
he did have, he inherited a very good team. But
then again, he's top of the league now and he
still is and they're going to win definitely.
So that's a good thing. And the predictions were
not like they would win the league. Now they
are going to win it. So I think he deserves more
credit than you're giving him. I think you're
just being humble because he's from your country.
There we are again talking about humility here.
But I think so, man. I think he deserves a lot
of credit. respect for what he has done with
Liverpool this season. Because many of the Dutch
coaches and trainers in the Premier League have
struggled. And he hasn't. So that's very good,
of course. And the last thing I want to mention
is PSV Eindhoven, who lost 1 -7 to Arsenal in
the Champions League. So how about that? Did
you notice that result as well? No, I heard about
it while watching the game. I think one of the
commentators mentioned, well, Arsenal found out
that Manchester United isn't PSV. So I thought,
okay, well, that makes sense, of course. This
is the first time I heard about it, about the
actual results. It was 1 -7 at home as well.
It was in the Europa League? Yeah, no, it was
in Champions League. in the Netherlands. So that
was a terrible result for the team from your
country, obviously. But then at least your mood,
obviously, must have improved after that United
result. Yeah, well, I mean, PSV is considered
top tier in the Netherlands, right? It's PSV,
Ajax and Feyenoord, Rotterdam, who are usually
the top three. Sometimes we have AZ, who played
against Tottenham in the Europa League. So that's
kind of our... best of the best that we have.
My team, Groningen, is not that good. But I like
the name. Groningen. Groningen. I told you before,
Czech people can say G. We can say it because
we also have it. Yours is a bit stronger, but
it's tough for English people to say G, I think,
because they don't have that sound. Groningen.
Groningen, okay. And on that note, I think it
was interesting. 7 -1, losing 7 -1 to Arsenal.
But then again, you know, Arsenal is, of course,
top tier Premier League. So it's not like you've
lost 7 -1 to Fulham or something. That would
have been worse, I think. Okay, Leontes. And
on that note, we're going to part ways here on
this podcast, if that's okay with you. Yeah.
I'll do the language corner as usual. Thank you
very much for being a guest and talking to us.
Thank you for having me. Manchester United. It's
always a pleasure, man. Bye -bye. Bye. Take care,
man. Welcome back to the Language Corner. Today
I would like to take a look at how prepositions
can be used at the end of sentences and questions.
So, normally prepositions are used somewhere
in the middle of a sentence or a question, but
occasionally they appear at the end. For example,
in the interview with Leontes, I asked Leontes,
what did you make of the United's performance?
That was better from you, wasn't it? And Leontes
responded to that by saying, it's nothing to
be proud of. No, actually, he said, it's not
anything to be proud of, which is pretty much
the same thing. So notice how the preposition
of is at the end. Now, this happens when we have
relative clauses. For example, this is a type
of performance that we should be proud of. That
we should be proud of, or just we should be proud
of, is a relative clause. It tells you more information
about the word performance. What kind of performance
is it? It's a type of performance that we should
be proud of. And in those type of sentences,
clauses, sorry, we put prepositions at the very
end. It's possible to say also this is the type
of performance of which we should be proud but
that sounds way too formal. Let me give you another
example. I could say this is not a football team
that I am interested in. Again, we can just say
this is not a football team I'm interested in.
This is not the kind of football that I'd like
to look at. So notice how the preposition always
goes at the end. The same happens when we ask
a WH questions. For example, what are you proud
of? What is the most interesting thing that you
have been involved in, right? What is the strangest
thing you have ever had to look at? Well, that's
more of a combination of a WH question and a
relative clause. Anyway, I am getting a little
bit sidetracked here. The point is, sometimes
in English, we use prepositions at the end, in
relative clauses and in questions. What is important
for you to remember is how we actually pronounce
that preposition. Most often than not, prepositions
are pronounced with their weak forms. So instead
of of, you would say something like of. I'm proud
of you. I'm proud of you. Proud of you, right?
I'm not interested in it. I'm not interested
in it. In it, almost. You say like in it with
the weak form. But when this preposition is at
the end of the sentence or a question, it's always
pronounced with the strong form. Because we put
one of the most important words are always at
the end of questions or sentences. That's why.
So what are you proud of? Proud of, not of. And
then you can respond by saying, I'm proud of
you. I'm proud of Arsenal. Of. Is this the team
you're proud of? Of. You see? What are you proud
of? What's the team you're proud of? Do you notice
the difference? I hope you do. There are some
other cases when we can stress prepositions,
even when they are in the middle, but those are
usually just for special emphasis. Okay, guys,
I hope this was understandable and clear. Today
I went slightly off script, I have to say. It
was a bit longer than I wanted it to be. But
that happens sometimes, doesn't it? It happens
to the best of us. Anyway, if you do enjoy these
episodes, please let me know. I don't know, because
I know I have some listeners. I can see the number
of downloads. But, to be frank... I could do
with some more comments and feedback from my
listeners. Okay, guys, don't forget to like this
video if you did enjoy this episode of the Footgrish
podcast. And take care, everyone. Look after
yourselves. Bye -bye.