EURO 2024 is at the door and we're here for it! An Englishman [@geourgesouthern8], a hate-watching Irishman [@fergal_kerr] and a yank [@tacticality_] preview England's chances ahead of the tournament's Friday kick-off. Then we get into The Big Event: SHORT KING AWARDS and revealing YOUR winners 👑 JAFP on Spotify 🟢 JAFP on Apple Podcasts 🟣 JAFP on Twitter 🔵 JAFP on YouTube 🔴 JAFP on Instagram 📸
This is a chat about legacies.
Jurgen Klopp leaves an eternal legend to Liverpool fans. But what about neutral and rival fans?
What are Guardiola's Man City going to be really remembered for?
How does the Arsenal fan base see their title charge?
Plus, a catch-up on Ange and VAR, Fergal hospitalized, and Hungover Harry...
Chelsea's 5-0 win against West Ham has signaled that they have returned to the form we were used to seeing from them in the past, and while Cole Palmer has rightly made the headlines, there's another player that explains why they're suddenly good again.
Ali, Fergal, and George walk you through Chelsea's tactical tweaks and secret weapons that made things click lately, propelling the Blues to 7th and a real possibility of European football.
As we recorded, news actually broke that West Ham are set to part ways with David Moyes and acquire former Real Madrid and Wolves manager Julen Lopetegui, and we incidentally reflect on David Moyes' perception and legacy at London Stadium.
Ipswich are back in the Premier League thanks to back-to-back promotions, so we have a quick review of the promotion and (very funny) relegation stories from last weekend, and look ahead to the Playoffs.
Plus: The "Title Race", top team strikers' form, and a typically surprising George take on who wins the Golden Boot. And: a Championship Edition Short King of the Week!
00:00 Intro and Chelsea's tactical tweaks
16:58 West Ham: Moyes' Legacy
27:58 Ipswich are Premier League! Playoffs Preview and Birmingham
36:48 "The title race !!1!!1!1"
44:07 Short King of the Week - Championship Edition
Just Another Football Podcast is a weekly show and series of videos presented and produced by Ali El-Araby, who holds a Master's in Sport Analytics from Temple University. Ali has served as a video scout for FC Dinamo Tbilisi and an analyst for Man City Analytics, as previously worked with James Allcott in this podcast and beyond. He is currently a youth football coach (still the round kind).
I guess.
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Why didn't either team really go for it? Were they just not on form? Why did they play with 4 central defenders? Why is Gvardiol playing at left-back? Was his performance good, bad, or indifferent?
Why were Arsenal content with a draw? Does that open the door for Liverpool now? And did Xabi Alonso take the right decision?
And how utterly brilliant is Alexis Mac Allister, AKA Fergal's cousin? (Real story)
Ali is joined by Fergal and George to answer allllll of that.
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England losing to Brazil and Wirtz scoring for France inside 8 seconds in Lyon? People raging over a tiny cross on a piece of fabric? None of our business lol
Ali and Harry are back to discuss the biggest strength and weakness of their respective teams, joint-table-toppers Liverpool and Arsenal (the latter being actually top on goal difference).
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Liverpool's children defeated the most expensive side of all time in Chelsea in one of the more impressive Jurgen Klopp successes with the club, and it's a perfect time to have Chelsea boys Fergal and George on the pod to reflect on a new failure, how it came about, and who's to blame.
Klopp to become the only manager to win a league against Pep twice.
Pep to become the only manager to win the Premier League 4 times consecutively.
Arteta to become the youngest Premier League-winning manager in history. One of those three things will happen. Harry's back [tw/@haznicoll]! The Arsenal part of the pod is in for the first time in 2024 to talk through a HUGE month for the Gunners, and Ali and Fergal preview yet another JAFP Derby for Chelsea coming in the Carabao Cup Final this weekend against an injury-overloaded Liverpool. JAFP on Spotify 🟢 JAFP on Apple Podcasts 🟣 JAFP on Twitter 🔵 JAFP on YouTube 🔴 JAFP on Instagram 📸 https://www.instagram.com/jaf_pod/
Chelsea were European Champions literally 2-and-a-half years ago. How on earth did the get here? 11th place and still sliding in the league, more losses than wins, more conceded than scored, unable to afford changing managers, and a mishmash of players too young, too old, or simply not good enough (yet) for the level.
Fergal is FINALLY back, so we discuss Chelsea's downfall on today's show, as well as that Virgil Van Dijk performance against Arsenal (it's a HEATED DEBATE as the kids say)
Jürgen Klopp is leaving Liverpool this summer. With the likes of Xabi Alonso, Julian Nagelsman, and Roberto De Zerbi already linked with taking the Liverpool hot seat in a few months, Ali (x/@tacticality) and Lewis (@GoodSportReviews) react to this sudden, seismic news, their ideal managerial replacements, and their favorite moments from the most successful period in Liverpool's modern history. Check out Lewis' work at Good Sports Reviews ➡ @GoodSportReviews Lewis is also part of the team at LFC Transfer Room ➡ https://www.youtube.com/@lfctransferroom1955 00:00 Intro 00:50 Our immediate reactions 03:59 Why is Klopp leaving now? 09:11 The top candidates to replace Klopp 17:45 Klopp's legacy is forever. 22:25 Our favorite Klopp moments! JAFP on Spotify 🟢 https://open.spotify.com/show/7FeyRiKEOShT6LVNI5U828?si=13b2f8ebdea3408a JAFP on Apple Podcasts 🟣 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/just-another-football-podcast/id1544068485?uo=4 JAFP on Twitter 🔵 https://www.twitter.com/JAF_Pod JAFP on YouTube 🔴 https://www.youtube.com/@JAF_Pod?sub_confirmation=1 JAFP on Instagram 📸 https://www.instagram.com/jaf_pod/
Reacting to the wildest day of AFCON yet. Egypt 2-2 Cape Verde, Mozambique 2-2 Ghana, and Equatorial Guinea 4-0 Ivory Coast. JAFP on Spotify 🟢 JAFP on Apple Podcasts 🟣 JAFP on Twitter 🔵 JAFP on YouTube 🔴 JAFP on Instagram 📸
No Rodri, no Salah, and two players haven't even played this whole season.
The goalkeeper on the XI isn't the one that won Best Goalkeeper yet again.
Two players haven't even played since August.
It's a 3-7 formation.
We're here to slander it but if someone can explain it to us in the comments, we'd love it.
On a better note, AFCON and Asia Cup are happening, and Ali (@Tacticality) and George go through some of the squads and predictions for the tournaments.
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The penalty shout against Odegaard, the Tsimikas injury, and seemingly horror tackle towards the end from Saka on Gravenberch, were only a handful of a bizarre collection of slipping incidents in the biggest game of the season so far.
Man United continue to hit new lows every week, and the content it's been providing the football world has been a blessing.
A quick podcast to end the year rounding up the opening phase of the festive fixtures, brought to you by Ali, Harry, and a truly brilliant The Guardian article.
00:00 Intro, Liverpool v Arsenal reaction
20:57 Man United have officially lost half their games.
(Music by @SavfkMusic )
29:34 Fulham's surprise loss, Forest suffer the VAR disease
38:21 Our Festive Fixture Plan
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Liverpool broke a record number of shots and could've played for the rest of the weekend without scoring.
Man City drew, and Arsenal won and are in pole position ahead of the JAFPDerby on Saturday: Top-of-the-table clash against Liverpool.
MLS had a miserable week, the Club World Cup has a new format, and these two topics tell plenty about the bleak future of the game.
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Welcome to the recap of the funniest Premier League Weekend this season! Liverpool were the winners of the weekend and have gone top, and the results signified why they are there.
A full JAFP house discusses why each contender's chances, the Christmas schedule, and why Chelsea and Man United are having a miserable season so far.
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Draw at lowly Chelsea, draw at home against title challengers Liverpool, and draw against Spurs playing with a back line of fullbacks. Cracks.
And Liverpool scoring 4 goal of the season contenders and finding the answers, again.
Plus: Arsenal's win v Wolves was apparently their best performance, Serie A has heated up nicely, Bayern have been winning the Bundesliga since I was in middle school and they'll do it again, and a team in Georgia might be the worst top flight team of all time.
Liverpool's 1-1 draw at City tells us a great deal about a potential title race, Chelsea's 4-1 defeat to Newcastle tells us a great deal about their progress under Pochettino, the MLS playoffs tell us a great deal about the state of American soccer, and Sergio Ramos had the funniest moment of the week!
Ali and Fergal are back after 2 weeks with a bumper episode.
#premierleague #chelsea #mancity #england #southgate
Chelsea 4-4 Man City was the game of the season, but it tells us so much about the state of the league as a whole. Going into the Christmas run-in, the difference between first, Man City, and fifth, Aston Villa, is 3 points.
Do the current top 5 build a five-way title race? Could the surprise "form PL team" mount a challenge to them? Has the gap between top and bottom ever been bigger? All of that plus Kane's cakewalk season, a surprisingly rare Short King of the Week awardee, and what else does James Ward-Prowse have to do to get in the England set-up? (Not to mention Raheem Sterling..)
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BRAND NEW INSTAGRAM 📸
We didn't plan on talking about Ballon d'Or too much in this episode, but not to mention the fact that women's award nominees couldn't show up because of internationals, and there's no women's equivalent to the Yashin Trophy, there's a whole list of reasons why the award itself is confusing and shouldn't be taken too seriously.
We also played a little "who finished higher" quiz!
Also in this episode:
00:00 Intro - Fergal's mic is broken
1:39 Erik Ten Hag has scammed us all
15:14 George's Chelsea - Brentford thoughts 🤐
17:31 Barcelona's massive lip, and Jude silences them.
22:45 MLS's bizarre playoffs tinker
30:39 Ballon D'Or debate, and a quiz!
42:42 Short King of the Week
43:52 Outro
Arsenal's 2-2 draw away at Chelsea may have exposed midfield balance issues for the gunners, as well as a particular team selection tendency that has backfired for Arteta again.
Chelsea losing a 2-goal lead wasn't idea either, considering their league position...
Harry and Fergal reflect on their Desmond, Salah did something underrated, little Champions League preview follows, and a Short King achievement so big by a nominee so dominant it deserved more than a mere Short King of the Week award.