When Eamon Met Alyson (and Nacho)

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He started out as a journeyman footballer, wrote one of the greatest football books in history (the much imitated "Only a Game"), went on to become a serious writer and journalist and is now the most famous (and controversial) broadcaster in Ireland. Yes, Eamon Dunphy one of the more interesting figures in the game today is on board this week.
We're also joined by Alyson Rudd, whose mere presence raises the Red ratio in the studio to uncomfortable levels. But that's OK, I just have to bear it as we run the rule over the title run-in and the small matter of the Champions' League semifinals. Plus, Guillem continues to drop hints over the identity of Liverpool's new signing, we've got our quick hits (featuring a surpise appearance by Rangers icon Nacho Novo) and Bill Edgar does his thing...

In our Premier League discussion, Guillem disrespects Blackburn by calling them defensive and long ball. A bit harsh, methinks. Bill waxes lyrical about Sir Alex's inspired substitutions (Tevez two weeks ago, Nani this week). Alyson delivers here two cents' worth on Avram Grant's monosyllabic press conference and - you guessed it - Guillem is back with yet another Hicks, Gillett, DIC, Parry (I'm getting annoyed just writing these awful names) update.
Guillem predicts a United side lining up with Scholes, Carrick, Hargreaves and Anderson in midfield. By the time some if you read this, we'll know if he's right. If that's the case it sounds like a bit of a Catenaccio nightmare to me and rather un-United like. In fact, it's been a while since United have had a clear-cut victory in which they actually attacked and played well. Bill explodes some Anfield myths, revealing that, in fact, Liverpool do not get this fabled lift at home (or maybe it's just a side built on counterattacking which would explain why they do better on the road).
Dunphy explains his route to fame and it's a fascinating tale. Don't worry we also take him to task for some of his more outrageous statements (he's been quoted as saying "Barnsley could win Serie A" and calling Cristiano Ronaldo a "poofball"). In case you're wondering, the former is not true (which should teach us all not to blindly trust wikipedia) and the latter was taken out of context. I found it a fascinating discussion with one of the most important figures in the business.
As I write every week: join the debate below

Comments

[Keith Gregory]

Great work on the podcast lads, What happened to Ms Rudds songs?

[barry morris]

love the podcast - better than the guardian one - muuch better informed - I'm an english expat, living in the states and I'm frustrated that the podcast of April 27 is available to download on itunes but some error on your end is preventing it from happening - who can help?

[Keenan]

Hi Guillem, I am a Liverpool fan but have also become a student of the methods of Rafa Benitez, I have monitored the way Liverpool play (and Valencia, to a lessor degree in the past) and especially the ever talked about "rotation system" (which I might add has become an integral part of a certain Jose' Mourinho's methods, as can be seen in his biography by Luis Lourenco). People tend to get the impression that Benitez' methods are suited to cup competitions and not the league format, resulting in Liverpool not challenging for the league title. I believe this obcession with rotation or rather "the lack of understanding of it" actually detracts from the real reason Liverpool fell short this year. I actually think Liverpool should have won the league in this current season if they had only won a few more of their drawn games at Anfield (much to do with new players lack of understanding with the system Liverpool employed at the beginning of the season, where players like Babel battled to adapt ). I personally do believe that they will win the league in either of the next two seasons "IF" Rafa remains, because his methods are based on sound principles, many of which are used in business. I also believe based on the relatively unique methods he employ's, once Liverpool win their first title, I believe the other teams will find it much harder to regain the premiership from Liverpool, much the same as when Rafa stopped the Real Madrid, Barcelona dominance in La Liga. What are your views, Guillem?

[Badger]

In regards to Dunphy's jibe at British punditry it is worth noting the different guises of his old mate Graeme Souness. Too often I have seen a belligerent and opinionated Souness give his views on rte one night and then have a pandering, tepid version of the same model appear on sky the next.

Sky / the BBC are too afraid to lose their broadcasting rights (too late in the beeb's case!), and so they have to remind their audience of how great the premier league is at every opportunity instead of giving their honest opinion. This is all so as to keep on the right side of the administrators, at the viewers expense of course.

[Joseph]

Guillem, I have to agree with Matt and Gab about your stance on the Rovers style of play. There was a lot more to Mark Hughes tactics than to park the team bus outside the goal, and you could argue that Fergusons 4-5-1 formation was arguably the more defensive of the two teams. I don’t see why teams should be pressured into playing offensive formations when the top four teams keep overcrowding the midfield with five players.

Also, I'm sure you guys will get your opinions on the Champions League games through next week, but I thought I'd get mine off my chest whilst they are fresh in my mind; I think Wednesday night was a real reality check for a lot of the English pundits and journalist (i.e. Tony Cascarino). Barcelona played in a way I expected them to; they kept possession very well, were comfortable on the ball, and clearly dominated the game. The stats are really impressive; 89.4% pass success rate, 72.8% possession, with a 61% territorial advantage. The only thing that stopped them from creating better chances and scoring was that they didn't put enough men in advanced positions. This doesn't surprise me because Man Utd are particularly dangerous on the counter attack, and for them to concede an away goal in the first leg would be disastrous.

I was really disappointed with Man Utd because, whilst I did think they were very well organised defensively, they gave away the ball very easily. A lot of there passes were over adventurous and this resulted in a 74.3% pass success rate. There were occasions during the game were they managed to string a few passes together, and the crowd started to get on Barca's back. I thought they could use this to their advantage, but they just gave the ball away almost straight away. Michael Carrick is in the team for his range of passing but I thought he was particularly bad, and was possibly the number one culprit.

Overall, I think Man Utd will be happy with the draw, but the fact that there wasn’t any goals means that the second leg will be very cagey whilst the score line is the 0-0. I’m hoping for an early goal because I think it will open the game up.

[James]

Guillem- do you think you were proved right about Manchester Utd's style suiting Barcelona on wed, or did Man Utd play an unexpectedly defensive style that stopped barcelona being really dangerous?

Do you think Barca feel they've got Utd's number now or are they annoyed they didn't get a chance to exploit Ut's normal 'kamikaze' style as you said they were hoping to do?

[Richard, Nottingham]

Great show again fellas. I enjoyed the interview with Eamon Dunphy. I'd never heard this guy before, but now I want to hear more of him. He summed up the general state of British Football broadcasting (especially the BBC/ITV's - and with exception to yourself Gab) in three words "Lame, tepid, and disappointing". I couldn't have put it better by myself. I don't think any of the BBC pundits have been further South (or East) of London. Their apptitude for football played outside these islands is pretty woeful. And I particularly hate the way that they use the EPL as the yardstick against which everything should be measured.

C5 are making a good fist of it on Sunday afternoons. But Sky are the pick of the bunch for the domestic leagues.

Which, in summary, is why many people come here for informed and interesting football debate. Do I get that prize now ?

[Vic]

Are you an underchieving european giant, in poor form and feeling sorry for yourselves? Just play manchester united, and youll instantly be transformed, thanks to the sophisticated tactical genius of the wizard. And remember that the greatest manager ever - (c) the english press - beat mourinho once in 12 attempts. Thank you roman.

[Will]

When is the Euro Game podcast coming?

[Patrick]

Guys,

I was interested to hear the suggestion made by Eamon Dunphy that his method of match analysis (and that employed by the rest of the RTE team) relies on critical examination of issues, and avoids the cliches and platitudes that pass for analysis on the BBC and Sky.

Although it is fair to say that Dunphy and Co do avoid platitudes in the main, we should not be mistaken that the criticisms they make are intellectually driven; having more in common as they do with the rabid, knee jerk reactions which can be heard in any pub in England (or Ireland) on a Wednesday evening.

As a result of this, Dunphy confuses statements made for the purpose of headlines (i.e. the criticism of Ronaldo) with intellectually challenging the "norms" that pervade football punditary.

One example of this was evident in his "great player" argument during the podcast. Dunphy defined a great player as someone who can perform on the big stage and cited Paul Scoles as an example.

When, I would respond, has Scholes dragged United to victory in the manner of Keane, or as Gerrard does for Liverpool? Too often Scholes plays well when United play well, not the other way around.

Scholes is, however, one of the annointed figures in English football, of whom criticism is simply not allowed (and I say this as a Manchester United fan). Rather than challenge this norm, Dunphy goes instead for the easy criticism of Ronaldo. Such a policy smacks of cowardice rather than intellectual rigour.

[Faithy]

Phil Aronson - Owen Hardgreaves ;-)

[Phil Aronson]

Hi Guillem,
I'm a little confused about Liverpool's new signing, you say that he is an English international but the other day Benitez said that he speaks good English but is not English. Which one is it?

[Asher Gilani]

Gab and Guillem; on Ronaldo not performing in big games do you think that this is mainly because it is easier to take wingers out of a game then say a central midfielder or a striker? Wingers often have limited space and by using the full back and holding midfielder the opposing manager can block him from going down the line and cutting inside. You might say that Ronaldo isn't really a winger but in the majority of big games Ferguson goes with an almost fixed 4-5-1 rather than the floating 4-2-4 in which Ronaldo seems to flourish. I don't think that Ronaldo is a better footballer than Messi, Kaka or even Rooney but he certainly is playing far better than each of them at the moment and has done for the last 6 months.

[Jay]

Also a stat I came across today, which may have been said before but I found interesting. Since 2001 the winners of the English Primer League and La Liga in Spain have matched...

2001: Manchester United/Real Madrid
2002: Arsenal/Valencia
2003: Manchester United/Real Madrid
2004: Arsenal/Valencia
2005: Chelsea/Barcelona
2006: Chelsea/Barcelona
2007: Manchester United/Real Madrid

And this year it looks like it's going to be Manchester United and Real Madrid again. Arsenal better hope Valencia don't get relegated!

[Jay]

It was an interesting interview with Eamon Dunphy in yesterday's podcast. I have only ever seen clips of him on youtube (and I would advise those that don't know him to check them out, especially his rant about Venables which lasts 15 minutes) and while I do not agree with everything that he says I do respect the way that he gets his points across and the fact that he is wiling to speak his mind, a quality that is lacking on television these days.

The pundits on TV seem to lack any character or identity, and all seem to follow the semi identi-kit mould, where they state the obvious, stroke the established big teams egos and sit expertly on the fence, I have to say I am talking mainly about coverage of the English league and national games here.

There seems to be a fear to criticise certain managers and teams and I think it may stem from situations like Alex Ferguson refusing to speak to Match of the Day and the BBC. From this, I wonder if editors have sent word out so that pundits will not anger any 'top manager' which could result in that top manager refusing to speak to that organisation again.

If so I think it's time for SKY and BBC to grow a pair and say what they think. My enjoyment of Match of the Day is not hindered by not hearing Sir Alex's comments after the match but rather by the sitting on the fence of people like Alan Shearer.

I also think Stan Collymore is one of the most underrated exfootballers out there that have went the route of being a pundit and feel the BBC should seriously look at promoting him from radio to TV.

[Matt Riley]

Hi Guys, as a blackburn fan i was a little disappointed with Guillem's summing up of Rovers home football this season, of just sitting back with 9 players behind the ball!

Ironically we more than matched man utd in the first half when we played more expansively, it was only in the 2nd half when we did sit back and got bombarded that the inevitable happened.

I think we deserve a little more credit considering the teams around us, such as Man City, Everton, Villa, Pompey and the teams well below us this season, Newcastle, Spurs & West Ham have spent huge amounts of money, sometimes tens of millions more than us!

We have played some good stuff this season and if Hughes, who has a fantastic transfer track record is given a little more money this summer we may do even better next season.

This will be our 3rd top 10 finish in a row, from a club who spend the Wisest, have actually won the premier league, and have the cheapest tickets (some matches just £15 for adults). A little credit please!

[Faithy]

Gab/Guillem – There has been a lot of reports in the press talking about Arsenal blowing the title due to their lack of strength in depth
I’d like your thoughts on my theory on how you can manage a large squad as this seems to be the key to the title.

Chelsea is able to maintain a deep squad because they pay high salaries.

Liverpool is able to maintain a deep squad because most of their players are of equal ability and Rafa Benetiz can swap them and give them playing time to keep them interested.

Man Utd have young players who feel part of the club’s future and will tolerate less playing time because they know the veterans will not be around forever.

However I believe Arsenal has a problem. They have young players who have already experienced lots of playing time so they will not tolerate having new veterans blocking their progress. Therefore if you bring in vets you will get young players wanting to leave. If these players are that good then Arsene Wenger will not want them to leave.

I think Wenger has a conundrum to solve if he wants to challenge for the title. I also think that Alex Ferguson will also have the same issue soon when his veterans retire.

[Ber]

Great pod guys. Was interesting to hear Dunphy on the show. I'm Irish so have to suffer his ramblings often. Was strange, Guillem and Marcotti were almost gushing over him. ;-) He is a breath of fresh air to be fair to him especially compared to the brown nosing that goes on at the BBC, UTV and Sky. Giles is still the master though. The chemistry himself Dunphy and Bill O'Helihy have is a bit special. They're getting on a bit now to cherish it while it lasts.

Guillem. What might be your feelings about us signing Barry? I'd be of the opinion that it would be a totally unnecessary signing, and a very expensive one at that. Bentley isn't an exciting signing either but I can at least see the logic. With Barry though, he's not a better left back than Aurelio nor is he a better mid-fielder than Lucas or Mascherano, Michael Johnson would be a much more forward thinking and exciting signing however. However, If the Barry signing happens then i hope it's not our big signing of the Summer, because we'll need to spend quite a bit to get the quality we need on the right and a back-up for Torres.

Again, great podcast.

[David]

Great interview with Dunphy, Although I do not agree with everything he says, but at least he is willing to say what he thinks and is able to speak coherantly. You compare this to the vast majority of brittish pundits like the terrible Alan Shearer who never express an opinion and resort to cliche. Another problem with the English media is that there is to my knowledge no ex footballers who are journalists.If there were some than may be there would be less sensationalist headlines and wild rumours. If you compare this to Cricket were many of the journalists are ex test players you get a higher standard of reporting.Oh and these journalists on the whole do not brown nose the players often they will be fair in their assessments of performance.

Disappointed with today's podcast. Far less insightful then before.. Anyways wrote to respond to Eamon Dunphy's comments. I personally haven't seen him play or even as a presenter for that matter but what comments he made today suggests to me that he is even worse than those nonsense pundits of BBC. He thinks Rooney is a great player (I might even think that I am now) when Ronaldo is just a flashy crap. Of what I've seen to this date, not one season has Rooney done anything better than C. Ronaldo to rival his weakness. Just look how many chances he manages to miss in a game. And his disciplinary records aren't any better than Ronaldo's. Just because he's English doesn't mean that you can call him whatever you like.
I agree Ronaldo is flashy, he does his fair share of antics, moans and groans but please!!! No matter how much you berate him, he'll win the FIFA Player of the Year this year, an award that I must stress no English player has won to date (But apparently Eamon Dunphy sounds like Scholes and Rooney win it every year in tandem).
Very disappointed with Guillem, instead of arguing against what Eamon had to say, he just catched Eamon's tail and went along with him. Don't mean to disparage you Guillem but today was a total disappointment.
Anyways will write again when I overcome such ridiculous comments.

P.S: In case you were wondering if I am anti-Guillem and anti-Rooney guy, I am a Liverpool and England fan.