Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #428: Nine questions ahead of Uzbekistan

Episode Date: September 7, 2023

Greg, Watke and Belz talk through some things we could learn, and would like to see in these friendlies against Uzbekistan and Oman. Malik at the 10, the "Weah-ification" of the entire XI, and striker goal-scoring chances are on the list. Lots more.Watke's newsletter: https://watke.substack.com/p/berhalter-declares-soccer-capital?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=138476&post_id=136804066&isFreemail=true&r=3e8xm&utm_medium=emailSounderatheart.comConsider subscribing to Scuffed on Patreon. You get an exclusive episode once a week, plus access to the Discord and live call-in shows, by signing up here for as little as $2 a month: https://www.patreon.com/scuffed Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus any bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show, plus all patrons get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedAlso, check out Boots on the Ground, our USWNT-focused spinoff podcast headed up by Tara and Vince. They are cooking over there, you can listen here: https://boots-on-the-ground.simplecast.comAnd check out our MERCH, baby. We have better stuff than you might think: https://www.scuffedhq.com/store Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to the Scuff podcast, where we talk about U.S. soccer. Hey, everyone, we have a couple men's national team games coming up. Our first since our B.C. D team crashed out of the Gold Cup in early July. How are you, Waki? I'm doing very well. Good. Greg? I'm doing all right. I'd like, if it's okay, could we spend the first 15 or 20 minutes trying to determine whether it was a C-team or a D-Team for the Gold Cup?

Yeah, that's what I was alluding to. Yeah. What do you think? No, let's not. So we play it was Bekistan on Saturday, 530 Eastern, 430 Central. I want to talk about some things we could learn from those matches. I have some ideas here. I'll run them by you.

How about that? All right. Number one, can Malik Tillman play the 10 for the U.S.? I mean, can he play it? Will Burrhalter play him there is, I guess, the question. It's a perfect opportunity. for this if there ever was because Tyler Adams is indisposed. We would get to see Malik get a chance to start and make a real impact for the first time.

This would be his first start if you were to start. And as we have discussed, he is a decent proxy for the injured Giovanni Raina. So we could get to see an 11 with a double pivot and a 10, which is one way to get Gio in our best 11 sometime in the future. Thoughts? I think we might see it. I really do, and I think it's because, you know, for as ably and willingly as Brendan Aronson has filled in that midfield role, as needed it in the World Cup,

played that midfield spot, West was on limited minutes. I don't think Brenda is really like a Burhalter-type midfielder for the way Burrhalter likes to play. Burrhaler's not like the Jesse Marsh style of all-hustle, all grit. chasing. So Malik Tillman is not that. You know what I mean? Malik Tilman, Malik Tilman, Malik, we've established it's Malik, right? Yes. Correct. Malik is not that. Malik is suave, right? Malik is finesse. So I'm hoping that Burhalter actually is super excited about this possibility to get this more of like a ball control hub calmness into the midfield. So I'm hoping we

see it. And this is the thing I think I'm certainly most excited to see. I think most people listening, this is what they're really gearing up for. If he pulls a switch on us, Burrhalter, there's going to be a lot of lit down. So I think he needs to go ahead and do it. Obviously, that's not what his thought process should be, but let's see Tillman. That's really

the main draw of this first game. Yeah. Because it could also be like a Luca, right? Or it could, or the other option might be like a three at the back, and we just run McKenny and Musa as our midfield? Chris Richards was on the CBS show, and he mentioned that Wayo was playing wingback in

training. He was kind of fit into another story. So there could be some. But I think, I think Greg has probably always had a three-back thing he's playing with. It doesn't necessarily, I think he's, he's, he just always has it. It doesn't mean he's going to do it against. He has a little folder. He has a little folder with the three-back ideas in it, doesn't he?

Yeah. It doesn't always come out. But, yeah, it doesn't always go well, either. But he's like, well, let's, let's give it another shot. And this would be the game to do it. Well, let's not do it here. Let's see Malik Tillman. Yeah, who knows. Who knows what Greg's going to do. Is, you know, Malik's just scored that really nice goal for PSV.

He hasn't played hardly any minutes, but he got in midweek last week against against against Rangers. I would say a pretty inauspicious appearance for him. And then he came in over the weekend against a really bad Air Divisi's side and scored in a game that was already over. But it was a nice goal, wasn't it? And maybe that's why. Is that why there's going to be such a big letdown if they don't

if Burrhaler doesn't start him just because he scored this goal? I think it's because if you look at the rest of the roster, we just know all the other guys. We don't. I guess Val again. I'm excited to see him again. See what he does. Me too.

Yeah. The types of things he does. I mean, when you look at the roster, if it's not Malik, then it's probably Brando or it's probably Luca. And Luca McKenny-Musa midfield would be fine. That's a very competent midfield. But it just doesn't have that, that sort of magical

possibility that I think we're all hoping Malik will bring. We don't know if we'll actually bring it. This can be one of those situations where you're super stoked about something and then it kind of turns into like the Sonora effect where it's like maybe this player is not going to have it at the national team level. I think Malik is better, much better than Sonior. So I have more hope that there will be more magic. But I am always prepared for any of these sort of like

unestablished national team guys all these new ones are bringing in. I am always prepared for it to just be like, oh, no, he's just not quite there at all. Well, if you're not an absolute sicko and watching Malik's minutes at PSV so far, you know, all 40-some of them, he is very languid.

He is a languid young man, and it can be, you know, if things aren't going very well out there, it can be kind of annoying to watch him because he's, he's so languid but when it's going well it's beautiful

it is yeah I'll take that trade off every day although I wonder if he's actually not running as harder for just kind of it's an optical illusion because of linguidity that is the question

we should get the sports scientists on this that reminds me next interview after the mediator we got to get a sport scientist I was just going to say I never reconnected with the mediator it's already Thursday life is

passing me by. Number two for me is can Berhalter coach a game where the attack is fluid and consistently dangerous? Who you asking? It hasn't been, well, let's start with you, Greg, but I'm just going to say it hasn't been the case

most of the time. Underbarth, we've done a lot of good things. Consistently fluid and dangerous attack is not one of them. No, not consistently as far as like against, from game over game. But we've had games where we've been fluid consistently.

Does that make sense? And the teams we're playing against are at about the level, I feel like where we've hit our peak of fluidity and danger. So it'd be like an El Salvador home match. Iscaro and I think this could start to look like. Again, I don't want to undersell Uzbekistan. They don't ship a lot of goals. They look like they're pretty organized and they want to defend.

And they're kind of committed to that in a brief video I've watched of them. but I do think that we have a chance to like really kind of have a little bit of fun so what I'm looking for in the fluidity zone is like the wayification of the US men's national team the surgification would also be acceptable it's you know we're all sick oh so we've been watching the footage coming out of the camps right the little clips coming out of this group and there's a lot of sauce out there and I think waya and surge lead the way and also going back to those games where we have looked fluid under Burhalter through the last cycle it was those Home World Cup qualifiers and almost always involved in the fluid choreography of any moment

would be Tim Wea for us. So I want to see that wayification spread from just being, you know, when Wayas involved to other players doing it too. And I think it is kind of contagious. Again, those clips we're seeing from camp, yeah, they're just kind of, they might be just messing about. But you can sort of set a tone or a baseline of like, we should expect to be able to have some fun with this.

You know, that's what kind of Hugo was talking about in the interview with him about, like, you put on a show. Yeah, you put on a show when you go out there. That's part of your job. So that's what I'm hoping we get is a show. Yeah, that's probably my, go ahead, walking. If you set that tone for Serge, and he knows that as a tone, and he's coming in with high confidence, we could be looking at his all-time highlight real game. Yeah, a piano concerto, if you will, you know? Yeah.

You practice how you play. You play how you practice, right? Isn't that what it is? Isn't that how it goes? And let's hope that what we have seen so far is not just like one-offs, but like every activity they're doing no matter what. You can compete and it can be intense, but you can throw that stuff in there and it can add.

Because it's not necessarily just like one guy squaring up another guy and like doing a trick. Like the movement, the, like you're saying, the symphony of it. That's what I want. I think we can see it in the, games. That doesn't mean it's going to translate to Germany in October. But I think we could see it in a game like this. I'm going to go back and say, I don't want us to play three at the back.

Come on. Let's not do that. That would be really frustrating. Maybe we had some fun with it. No, we don't do that. Absolutely. Don't do that. Well, because our third centerback is not going to be a way-fied, it's not going to be a way-fied player. Just to get McKenzie on the field? Yeah. If you want to do something wild and put way at centerback, I'm at least interested. Right.

But yeah, if you really want to wayify things, like you go with two centerbacks, you've got Jedi and desk, and then you add another Malik, who I think can do some of those things as the urge to. I do think for the sake of the discourse, it would be nice if we played fluidly and dangerously. I don't know that it would solve our ills, but it would help, or it would not hurt, I guess. Number three is Chris Richards the new Sergenio Dest in one particular respect. Can he come into camp with limited recent club minutes under his belt

and still be a very good player for the national team? I think he can. I think he definitely can. I'm hopefully can. I'm also not sure that this is going to be the camp to tell us, that just because, again, Uzbekistan while they don't ship a lot of goals, they haven't been super dangerous in the games that I've been watching them play in.

So against, against, like, the real teams that they play against. They play some even weaker teams in some of their windows. But once they start playing, like, the real teams, they're not, they're not putting up 20 shots of game. So I don't know this is going to be the huge test that we'd like it to be. But yes, I'd like Richards to come in and look, look competent, assuming he's a starter.

You can still perceive sharpness or a lack of sharpness even in a game from your centerbacks, even in a game you dominate, right? I mean, passing wise and stuff. I'm just excited to see him play. Yeah. No movement on his transfer front, as far as we know? I think we would have heard about it. Let's say no.

Let's say there's been no movement. Right. And that's safe to say. And this, I believe, is, oh, yesterday was the deadline, right, for Belgium? That was the next hope, the next dominant. was that even though all of Europe had sort of closed by whatever it was the second, it was that he could still then find some European contending team in Belgium because their window was open until the 6th, but I think that window's closed.

So I don't know. I think he's going to just ride it out at Palace. Berhalter was selling us a bill of goods with his cryptic remarks. I guess so, yeah. I read way too much into it. As some of you pointed out on the Discord. Well, I think he clearly meant that that is what he was insinuating. It seemed like it to me, yeah.

And I didn't think he would just go way on a limb there. Not to defend you too much, but... No, I appreciate it. I think he was out of line. I think Burle-Dor was out of line. I could change in a day. I feel like he was suggesting change was coming, whether it was being inserted in a palace of starting lineup later that week,

or that he was going to move to a team where he's going to be starting. That was definitely the insinuation. He could have just been talking about the general uncertainty of life. That's what I'm saying. You don't just say, you know, future, no one knows the future. Who can say the universe is vast? Like, no, come on. Greg's not that mystical.

No. Not yet, at least. He's hardly mystical at all, really. Well, I don't know. All this corporate stuff can have counterintuitively kind of a mystical impact over time. We don't need to get into it How much chemistry can we get from Pulisic, Baligan, and Wea

assuming we don't do something dumb and play three at the back and we do have a 433. I think we can get quite a bit. Again, Wea, Wea, I feel like is instant chemistry. He's like chemistry cheat code. In that last cycle, it was him in McKenny, him in Musa,

him in Desd. Like, it didn't matter. The guy can just play with everyone. We were seeing it with YuVay already. like he just wants to get in there in chemistry with people. So I think we'll get a ton from him and whoever's surrounding him. The big question is going to be Pulisic. Because we have seen Pulisic gum things up, like anti-chemistry. I don't know what that.

I think technically that's still chemistry. Like if you create like a gum, like that's still a chemical bonds breaking and reform. But we want the good kind of chemistry that way is doing. We want that. And so I think Pulisic can pull. it off and I'm hopeful that he will after what we've been seen with ACMilan and after what we've seen within the U.S. team he kind of had a renaissance, you know, we can almost pinpoint it to coming off the bench against Honduras in that freezing game in Minnesota

last cycle. Since then for the U.S., he's been solid. Yeah. A lot of times arriving on a ball from across from Wea. Can, you know, assuming again, we do the 433, Can Wes and Eunice do a competent job and a double pivot? I'm guessing Greg, you're going to say the answer is yes. Of course, they can do that against Uzbekistan. Yes. Yeah, we're going to see them, I think. I think we're going to see them in almost like total control of this match.

Like to the point where field tilt-wise, I think it'll look a lot like the whales first half. Again, I'd love to be wrong because I'd love for Uzbekistan to come out and hit us in the mouth a couple of times to, you know, be like, hey, this is a real contest. And you got to respect both directions. But I'm kind of anticipating more like we will kind of try to do our thing and then it will fail a lot and his Beckstein will kind of kick it back to us and we'll go again. Yeah, I was watching some of their midfielers on Y Scout. And it looks like we probably should control the midfield in this game. There's going to be a lot of chances for Moussa to do some really cool Moussa stuff, though. I really think he could blow past multiple players on multiple occasions.

Yeah, they're going to have a physical challenge on their hands. One other thing we have is their three best players are struggling for minutes as well I don't know that we necessarily see where they play do you know that off the top of yeah we got we got Eldor Shumar Rodoff he's at Kaileri he's a super he's not struggling for minutes he's a sub he's a striker who comes off comes on as late and he's probably their best player and then we had then there's some older guys Marsha Ropov he's without a right now. He's like their second best attacker, second best player.

So he's not playing anywhere. And then we've got Adubek Shukharov who plays in Turkey for Kera Garmrook. And he doesn't start either. He plays like 10 minutes a game. So they're going to get tired out there.

So Shomuradov is their like striker and he's their most cap leading score on this roster. 66 caps, 37 goals. So for the national team, he's prolific. Not prolific with clubs. So it's kind of, I feel like U.S. fans should totally be able to relate to this because it's what our striker situation used to be. But since then, we've really

turned a corner and now we just have a ton of prolific strikers with their clubs, is what I'm going to say. But yeah, I don't, I don't, again, Uzbekistan's top talent is going to be, it's going to be, you know, on a scale that maybe isn't quite what the U.S. has at the moment. He is the Uzbek Messi, though. Which guy is that? Schumer Rudolph. Shumer Rudolph. Okay.

I like the, I like Masharraf, a little number 10. He's a little problem solver, like a pass-move kind of guy, my style player. I like watching that. If he gets a free kick, he's going to take it. He's going to try to hit it right under that wall. So look out for that. Yes. Avoid set pieces.

If Chris Richards is committing a bunch of dumb foul spells, that's where we're going to come after him. Okay. Okay. We got some more things to talk about, but let me just quickly. you know, you know the drill on the Patreon, the link is in the show notes, but I want to shout out Jeremiah O'Shan's work with Sounder at heart.

As many of you know, SB Nation kind of pulled the plug on a lot of its soccer coverage. Jeremiah's not paying me for this. He's just been a friend to scuffed. And he was able to move Sounder at heart out from under SB Nation, and now it's an independent reader-supported Oregon. I know not all of you,

or maybe not a lot of you, are Sounders fans. I'm certainly not. but if you are or you're interested in them, I'd encourage you to check out what they're doing. Again, Jeremiah's been a big friend to scuffed over the years, and I want to shout out the independent work he's doing. Sounder at heart.com.

Give it a look-see. By the way, Waki, I saw your post about the soccer capital of the USA. It was very funny. Thank you. Check out Waki's substacky's substack, too. I don't know. What are you doing over there? You don't even charge people for it, but you're doing it.

I'm just trying to keep doing stuff. So, I'm not charging it. So it's free. I mean, there's no, you absolutely should sign up for Waukee's substack. Finally, though, there is an option to give money to Waki for the longest time. Is there? Emails. And I'd be like, I don't know how to, I don't know how to actually, like, subscribe and pay for this.

I didn't know there wasn't actually give me money. I hope, unless I've just, I may have just thrown it into the seat. You may have given money to someone else. I'll check. It says to write the name Wachy on a card and then put some money and you put it in like a bottle or what the instructions were and then you just chuck it into the largest body of water. They'll know what I do. It'll get to me. I appreciate that.

Thank you. Actually, I can totally see that being Wachie's business model. Just write my name on something. But put what you want, what your heart tells you, put it in a bottle and it'll find me or it won't. I think it might be a thing where you can give a pledge and it doesn't actually charge you until I set up something where people pay. It's my guess. Amazing. I love the behind the curtain looks into the U.S.

soccer content community because it is all such like a passion hobby project. Yeah. But, you know, you did address the big controversy of the week, which is St. Louis, the soccer capital of the USA. Yeah. I mean, you just, he, you get him in front of a local news crew. He's just going to just unilaterally declare the city of the soccer capital. People are, people are not happy about this. We're not happy.

This is one of the best things about bringing Burrhalter back is you have guaranteed controversy because so many people have made, you know, their entire brand or personality about, like, despising every single thing about him that no matter what he says, you've got a bona fide, like, story for days that people are going to go back and forth on because you can say something offhand about the host city, you know, and just give the most generic comment about the city you're going to play your games in, you know, the cheerleader stuff like rock stars saying hello St. Louis and people are going to lose their minds about it. And it's just prime, prime for content. Yeah, I was thinking I wanted to give him credit for having a genius for

saying the most innocuous possible thing and starting a frenzy, but it really is a group, a group effort. I mean, it is, I think, just to take the question sincerely for a second, not the soccer capital of the USA now. That would be silly, I think, to say. But historically,

that has been what people say. I mean, I don't know how you would define it exactly. You have to probably check, to steal a phrase from you, Waki, check with the, soccer Congress. Yeah. I was going through

the newspaper.com archives searching, you have to search football, unfortunately, in St. Louis. It does seem like they were pretty into it in like the 1870s. Yeah, it really was like St. Louis and New York

were the first places where you had like a real footballing community in America, I think. Bells, I feel like if you're going to say that St. Louis is no longer the soccer capital, like it's incumbent on you to now tell us what is to the current soccer capital of the country. Take your time.

While you're thinking, I have one anecdote about St. Louis soccer in the 1870s. It was really popular amongst the lawyers, the lawyer community there, the attorneys, and they would go on retreats to Hot Springs, Arkansas, and one of their activities was playing soccer. But there was a pair of stories where apparently one of the lawyers popped the ball, so the game stopped for 10 days. And then 10 days later, there was another new story. that the game it started again. So...

I had one ball. Yeah. Yeah, the nearest ball was probably 10 days journey, apparently. Or it'd be five days journey, because you have to send somebody five days to get it, and then their return leg would be five days. I don't know exactly when the telegraph came into fashion, so I don't know how they were communicating to nearby soccer manufacturing sites. Well, it came in the early 1800s, so they were using it at this time.

Yes. I think we covered that. Pretty well. Yeah. I don't know. I think it's probably got to be Southern California. I don't know. It's a real thing.

Southern California. I just call like the southern portion of a state, the soccer capital. It would be Los Angeles. Okay. Los Angeles. But, you know, maybe Dallas. Just like that. Maybe Atlanta.

Just shifted off of it immediately. I mean, they have a good academy for like five years and we're giving the capital. I'm going to see a little bit more out of them, Dallas. Maybe it still is St. Louis. Central Iowa. All right. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry I introduced the question. What is something you really want to see in this game, Greg? Okay, so aside from the wayification all over the field, nine wayas at least. I wouldn't mind seeing Turner do a step over. I want to see striker chances. That's what I want to see. I want to see the striker ball. in front of goal, either setting up directly a chance or on the end of chances

repeatedly. Because while wayification is great, we do need to find ways to turn it into the ball within 15 yards of goal with somebody who's ready to shoot it. So that's what I want to see. I know Balo had a boatloaded chances last season for his club. Has barely played this season, so it's hard to judge him. Pepe did not get a lot of chances last season because he was on a horrific club, or at least that's what we hope the reason is. He's now FPSV still not getting a lot of chances, but he's also barely played. So I think he's got like two non-penely shots so far

in his PSV career. So that's on a team that's much better than the competition they're playing against. We need to see that improve, and it could. He could be one substitute cameo away from like suddenly having Lionel Messi underlying numbers because the sample size is so small.

But I just want to see it. I just want to see it and enjoy it. That's what I'm after. That's one thing. Peppy had some, I thought, pretty ugly outings earlier. You know, cameos off the bench. I thought his last one was pretty decent.

And he scored a goal that was called back. He was offside by, you know, a step or two. Shouldn't have been offside probably. Should have been a little bit more aware of where he was. But, yeah, I like that. He had a bunch of chances in his cameo against El Salvador in that home match in the Nations League after the World Cup. Came in off the bench.

for who started that game, DK? Yeah, I think so. And then that's one where Pepey scored with the chip. Yeah, came in and had like four great looks. So I'm hopeful that with the national team, we're going to see this. We're going to see those chances. And that's what I'm after. So that's my one thing.

What's something you really want to see, Waki? Well, the answer is Tillman. That's what I want to see. But we've discussed that. So I guess I would say, I'm curious. to know what BJ Callahan's going to be up to on the sideline. Is he just going to sit there? He has more of a leadership role now in the team.

He presented the, I guess, like a certificate to Christopher Lund. They put out a video of that. So he has some speech-giving responsibilities. What's what happens during the game with him? I imagine he'll just be sitting there, but we'll be watching it closely. it'd be a real shame if we don't get at least one sideline shot of BJ like up kind of kind of like chatting into Burrhalter's ear maybe maybe pointing at some things while he's doing it just and then Burrhalter just kind of nodding you know nodding along like if we don't get at least one of those I'd be I'd be disappointed it could be the type of thing that we're just going to notice him everywhere now like when you learn a new word you start hearing it all the time

we're going to realize he's been in the frame the entire time we just see that we just see We were too focused on Burrhalter to see it. You got to give us one, Bells, because we got to get to three. That was only two things. We're not counting Mount Malik and BJ as two things. This is pretty lame, but I want to see Perettus at left back just a little bit. See if he can, you know, see if he can do the job. So not Christopher Lunt.

Yeah, that's, we're really, oh man. I mean, after Bell said he feels bad for the kid before, like. because I actually had Blandis my Dark Horse player of the match. I love it. I love it. Because I wanted to really lean on the unexpected element. It would be a shocker.

He seemed just perfectly normal in the handful of clips I watched of him. All right. I didn't, I mean, not good, but. Yeah, so he came off the bench for Palermo. He started the game that I watched him.

His first game was Palermo he started. And I noticed that there were some times where the game looked pretty fast for him. He was getting caught up speed for sure, getting some lessons. And then I just saw he didn't start in their next game. So I didn't know if those two things were related. He did come off the bench. I haven't checked out those minutes yet.

But yeah, it'd be great if he's a dark horse. He isn't, though. He isn't. He's not going to play in this game. Well, his contribution is already to be in the clip that BJ got to give the speech. That's already a real contribution that Lundas made to the program. It was one of the more awkward videos the national team has ever put out because it's just too many people involved.

You got BJ giving a speech. And then Lund doesn't want to get up, so Burrhalter has to clasp his hand and kind of jerk him up. And then he's just having to give a speech and he wasn't comfortable. He wasn't confident. I feel like I'm being too hard at him now. Well, maybe not too hard on him. But do you think there are other coaches the U.S. could have found that would have pulled him up in a little bit more effective way, less awkward way than Burrhalter? we don't know because they won't put another

the Fed just keeps hiring him so we don't know we have no idea I was going to say the reason I feel I feel bad for Lund is because he's not going to play that's why I wouldn't feel bad if he was going to play oh so over under half a minute you're saying Lund gets the under for this window or just for this

first game I mean from a pure sporting perspective I would be disappointed if if Paredes didn't get this chance, you know, and it seems it's going to be a choice between the two of them. I think Lund is a type of player. It's okay not to play. He's not going to be that bothered if he doesn't play. Really?

What makes you say that? I just don't think he would have an expectation. He's coming in to, you know, meet the team, get used to it. There's established players in front of him, and Paredes is closer in line to playing the minute. I see. It's just a fun relaxing time and he's going to have a great time in the camp. He's been in a lot of the clips that they've released from camp.

Well, what if he just starts? I mean, he's been the guy getting sauced quite a bit by Sir Gini. I was going to say, yeah. So he was, Sirge was really taking advantage, it sounds like. I mean, this could be a ploy by U.S. soccer to make sure that some of these auditioned guys. you know, help set up some of this great media that we're getting. This is, I don't want to make this sound like we're piling on, and I'm excited for the kid, and I actually do hope he gets onto the field

because that'd be fun to see. And I think we're going to be in a position where he's not going to make or break the outcome of a match. Anything you guys are particularly unconcerned about? I mean, the list for me is very long, but what about you? Unconcerned. Unconcerned, yeah. That's a strange way to put.

I guess I was the one who put that question in there. That's a tough question to answer I mean I don't know I'm unconcerned about how our fullbacks play I think they'll play fine I think they'll be good not concerned at all

I'm unconcerned about the overall like shape that we trot out even the starting lineup that we trot out like I feel like a lot of people are like it should be this or it should be this and I really can't be that bothered about like which one in particular it is I feel like there are so many that are totally fine and be like, yeah, that could be great.

So I feel like we're in this nice spot where it's going to be our good players starting and the ones who, the spots that aren't like locked down with apologies to walk here, even if it's not Malik Tillman in the starting lineup, like it'll still be a worthwhile thing to watch and to just sort of see how it, see how it functions. So I'm like, I can't get too bothered about

which exactly shape. formation personnel group we settle on. Because I think they're all going to be interesting. I think is the best or the, maybe not best of them, but the best players are so kind of clear now, it's almost not even fun debating the roster anymore. I mean, the starting lineup. So you'd just be happy about seeing Malik or, again,

just Malik for me. I'm really excited to watch the team play. even against a bad team. It would be fun. If you were the coach and your life depended on the outcome of this Uzbekistan friendly, what would your starting lineup be? And obviously, the lineup does kind of pick itself, but would you still Waki pick Malik if your life actually depended on the outcome of the map?

That's a good question. Yes. Yes. I'm going to trust myself to Malik here. there would be a temptation to have Brendan run around like crazy out there making sure they didn't get anything going but interesting because my temptation would be to start

Luca just for some baseline competence I don't know I'm with Waki here life on the line I'm still going Malik he's an unlocker he's a set piece guy you can get up and win a ball with his head which you know if we are somehow struggling

to create offense we can always fall back on that old on that old try and true method. So, I mean, not tried and true for us recently, but historically, get Malik in there with McKinney going up to challenge for those corners. Yeah, and I assume it's Reem Richards, the centerbacks, and the rest is clear. The rest is what it is. Yeah, I think life depended on it.

Would it be Ream? I think so. Yeah. What about you, Greg? Yeah, I'd probably run Ream. and man I don't know You know what life depending on it You guys are

I think Vince said it It can happen overnight And so there'd be a worry that like The floor for Ream is actually very very low Because if he has happened to like hit that cut off That could undo you So I don't know Maybe I'd go Richards and then just pick one of the other two out of a hat

But since life doesn't depend on it You get Ream in there You brought him all the way over here Get grandpa Tim in the 11 for the first game, then send him home. Let him play and say, it's St. Louis, you have to play him. Yeah. I think all roster debate should be with the condition that your life depends on it

and you need to take it seriously. Yeah, I think if my life really did depend on it, I probably would start Miles over Ream in this game because we are going to be on the front foot. Any chances are going to come in, you know, acres of space in our half. I want Robinson instead of Ream in that situation, even though Ream is a better player than Miles Robinson. I could, I could, I'll be thinking about this up until the game, really.

I could see going that way. Yeah. Okay. What else? Oh, I want to play a clip from Matt Turner. It's a little bit lengthy, but. During the year at Arsenal, you talked about how much. much you've learned.

That's Ron Blum. You really just wanted to hit us to have on board. In your mind that you conclude that just the Europa and FA Cup games weren't enough career development then, it was time to move on? I think towards the end of the season when I felt like there was games that I could have been playing, that I wasn't even getting really a sniff of them. I was training really well. I was doing it.

I felt like everything in my power. to, you know, get myself minutes on the team. And, you know, that just wasn't happening for me. And I knew that, you know, if I waited another year, it probably would have been more challenging for me to make a lateral move within the Premier League. So I knew that time was of the essence at that point. You know, if I went another season without playing,

I would have probably had to take a step back. And once you're in it, once you're out of it, it's hard to get back into it, especially when you're not English. So, yeah, I'd say, you know, probably towards the end of the season. And, you know, credit to Aaron, really, because he brought it every single day. And when he had opportunities, when doors were cracked open, he always slammed it back shut. And I think he's a really talented goalkeeper. And I think we always pushed each other to get better.

Just note when he says, especially when you're English, Tim Riem kind of does the Alonzo morning, Jiff. That's exactly what he did. It was the Alunsa morning. Yeah. Like, I can't, like, did you really say that? Well, it's true, you know? That's going to be really interesting to follow because Turner could be, I mean, he's going to be in a battle now at Forest because they just brought in another high profile keeper for roughly the same value. So he's going to have a.

Why did they do that? I mean, you just, when you can stockpile pretty good starting keepers, you just got to do that if you're a relegation team. I don't know why. I don't know why. Turner, I also thought it was interesting how Turner, like, very quickly made sure to credit Aaron for being a good goalkeeper, you know. Not just getting the English bonus there. Right, because he might not really like Ramsdale very much. Because the time he made fun of him saying dog.

Well, I don't like Ramsdale because of that. So. I don't think Turner would have taken it personally. We'll never know, though. Did you notice that when, uh, last, last time there was a double press conference, it was Turner. I think Brendan and Turner was clearly the, he was really in charge of it. But then when Reams up there, it's a total shift.

And Turner becomes the Brendan. You thought so? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it was, I'm not saying he was like, Brendan, but there's, it's clear that Reem has this sort of, sort of, uh, an aura, uh, elder aura. Yeah, Ream's definitely going to be the senior senator there.

And, and I think it's also, you know, very obvious that Brenda will be the junior senator, no matter who he is in the press conference with. I think there was a press conference where he was older and he thought he was supposed to be the elder senator, but it just didn't work. Brendano's my dark horse pick, by the way, for this match. Ooh. And I feel like it can only be considered a dark horse in the scuffed universe, but I feel like he's going to drop like two goals, two assists,

and you guys, we're all going to have to reckon with our past. Eat a whole bunch of crow. Yeah, I don't know if I have a dark horse. I guess Malik is my dark horse. Is that a dark horse? Not in the context of this episode of a podcast. Second one would be Paredes, and it would be him actually coming in as an attacking player because he's outshone all of the other attacking options in the weeks leading up to it.

He actually gets to go play and do some fun way-of-stuff. That would be among the most exciting things that could happen in this game. I don't think it's going to happen. Just for the record. Anything else, guys? No, I can't believe you let us talk this long in this Uzbekistan preview. It's great. We needed it.

We need it for, we need this kind of stuff. Any other camp notes from you guys? Nothing. I guess there's a, there's a availability right now happening. It was going to be Tim Wea and West McKinney, but I think they changed it. All right. Well, games at 530. Greg, we'll recap that game the following morning, right?

That's the plan. and then on Tuesday night, Oman. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.