Ellen Rhone leads today in action against a Manchester City side. Winning Manchester City lead by three goals to one at the end. They had so many chances in the first half but in the end it was a steal making the one nil just before the break and then be ready for Harlow to make three we saw Leeds get one back but in the end it’s City who take the three points which means they close the gap on Arsenal once again to five at the top of the table job done yeah actually I have to I reckon you were right the other day wow when who was Mateo actually this It’s the first time I’m not going to like it.
erling haaland individually could ve won this game criag burley on man city vs leeds espn fc
That’s all we started this show with. I’m going to admit I was wrong. No, I don’t care. I was wrong. I never contributed. I am correctly conceding the statement you and maybe you made about this Boxing Day accessory list or Boxing Day quality periods. Yeah, the accessories list was going to be a bit on the small side. that they were pretty easy and this that this was the same I mean the fact that it was 3-1 was just because you know in the first half in particular, once again, Jack Grillish, we’re talking about the final product even though it improved in the second half and Airling Highland individually could have won this game. only with four or five, even though he got a brace that he should have had easily.
I’ll give it a four, probably a five, so it still gets the cobwebs off and I guess that gave the tracks a bit of an impetus when Gil came in. he could have scored and made a couple of free throws and that was the only downside really but yeah, I mean from the first minute when Harlan had the chance with Aki’s ball over the top, I never really thought about any of these games . i actually had doubts yeah i totally agree listen the only amazing thing in this game or the amazing things without hints were so disappointing i thought they were really bad at home and at 44 min we are still in the middle even with some unstable moments defensively. still l winning we saw united win yesterday we saw city i agree with the lads never really that tonight they could easily have scored four or five maybe even six uh throughout the game and you know spurs maybe but spurs dont they start off good they never start off well so they always have a lot to come back to which obviously they struggled at times but yeah it was pretty straightforward to fight boxing there and then a couple of days later in the Premier League really huh Earling stats Harlan. so of course he scored 20 goals 20 goals in the Premier
League already this season in just 14 games he is the first person in Premier League history to score January 24th he is on pace to score 52 Premier League goals huh, the current record is 34. he has beaten nine premier league teams this season, including chelsea, and if the season stopped now in five previous campaigns, he would have already won the golden boot and then said he agreed with you afterwards that he said i’m disappointed i should have gotten four or five.
I, uh, yeah, I don’t think he’ll get, I don’t think he’ll get 52. I mean it could happen, I just don’t think it’ll stay that way. pace there are much stronger teams to play well though you know he could intimidate easily yeah even if I play Newcastle a Batman and a shower that will be a great match there too uh great center halves in great shape Fantastic comeback because there are so many more fights to make but yeah I told you at the Liverpool game and the Caribou cop said he looks like he needs to get his cobwebs off and even though he had two he looked like it again I mean. the one who had in the first half that brilliant little ball from De Bruyne and let it run through him a bit but he’s so intent on getting it on his left foot and we’re being a bit hypocritical here he’s so focused on getting over his left foot is the wrong choice he has to let it run down his body or he’s right the defender doesn’t get close to him and he has a cleaner shot to escape and the one in the second half when he was again the big pass when he was straight through one and one with millie yeah kenny gets
stuck under him you always expect to see that a bit right now and his kenny as you know his touch isn’t quite there which seems strange to say for a guy who I think has three goals in the two games. back after the break but he’s got it he’s a little Rusty yeah that’s just I mean he admitted it himself yeah I said he’s not bad Rusty’s not bad especially given that come back listen the The truth is that I think that the only thing that is standing at the beginning of the heart is us and entering that threshold of 50 goals is the success of City, no, we do not rush with anyone, but if City goes deeper and deeper in the League of Champions, let’s see and Pep Guardiola decides to rotate and we see how the games accumulate given this in the middle of the season break um that’s the only one I think they stop selling Holland.
I don’t think there’s a single defense in the league to do that. What is Joe’s 50 percent in the Premier League? I agree with Craig when you look at it like that. It seems impossible come on it seems impossible if Thierry Henry and Shira and Salah are the best and Luis Suarez in his prime and Harry can I mean if the most they did and they did it with 34 and that’s not even all of them you know how you can do 50 or more but if you look at the score of 20 now I think he has 13 or 14 14 XG 14 expected goals or 13 expected goals so clearly he’s scoring some goals that you don’t really expect him to score the positions he takes and yeah like we said he can still score more he could have scored more today in the last few games you know this is not even like him or his prime really like two chances two goals a game two shots on targets two shots two cores per game it’s not even that so maybe 50 is possible then maybe why him why would he slow down why would he slow down even if you play bigger teams not on a good day so always you will have possibility des two three four maybe sometimes just one maybe it’s a couple of things maybe i was saying we don’t see man moose teams very often City’s ability once in a while yeah it’s like a perfect storm almost yeah, you know obviously we’ve seen fantastic United States Arsenal Liverpool City and then you take the lower leg and mediocrity and I’m being nice it draws a lot and what happens now is that in this kind of modern era there have always been more teams weak, like Joe said, always, but in general, weaker teams I’ve put in the spot and gone like we know we know we’re up against here the only way to survive in this Division and give myself a chance is to do what we know that we can’t defend, you know?
Some of these teams down there and the leaders are one. that they still believe they can play to some extent this open high paced pressing game which is sometimes successful against some of the teams but when you play against teams like City who can pop around you one two three four four pass and before you know it? gone from the edge of the box to the edge of your box then maybe the difference between the regulars and the ones that share vanister Roy continues the list goes on is that there’s a little more room to operate right against the background let’s say six or seven teams she says oh we’re not bad we’re going to play from behind no that never really happened 15 20 years ago teams just stagnated when fighting relegation and it all worked out here we are punchers So at that point I don’t think it’s just six down six or seven teams in the table probably i think you could go for ninth or tenth place and City could City could be I’m not sure if it was ninth or ten Leicester city right City could beat them 506. you could easily see that um and to Craig’s point there hasn’t been this chasm between the top clubs the top clubs Branford City could could beat them six easily you can see you can argue right now pretty easily I think I think Stevie always checked Stevie always said something she says look there’s the way the game is played now there’s more space on the field now than ever right?
And when you give quality players this space because of the way it’s played Because the fullbacks hog the touchline the Wingers are white they push in the center they’ve split even with the poorest teams now there’s much more space to operate, particularly in midfield, but generally and behind the teams’ defences. with Alexa de bruyne and they just opened for you. Jack Grealish was going to start today. How would you sum up his performance? There was a cut by Guardiola at that time. It was nobody. Ellen was like. Do you know? I know he’s a good player we know he’s a quality player we know he’s talented but I’ll keep watching him overall mahrez fordham de bruyne all these guys saying when he was there they had something up their sleeve at the end of the day , TRUE?
He needs to make it do that more I think that’s two league goals in the calendar year I heard someone say on the broadcast that he got a lot better in the second half and it was a lovely steal of the square ball and then they set up for the Netherlands and then obviously had to help , but I think it’s a general rule, it needs to be better and the final thought, how do you improve in the last third? I don’t have the answer, it gets better when that ball drops them instead of hitting the defender like he did in the first half which is with his right foot around the defender and he hits the goal he needs to make it look like we’re not balls in the box is going to do a half yard and shoot away or play a killer pass I never feel like he’s going to do that so it was good today he got better but I think it’s a big Achilles heel because I’m not a big fan of Grealish certainly since his arrival in the city and to your question, how does he improve?
It’s been 18 months, I mean, there were a lot of comparisons between Grealish and Mares, and when the mares moved from Leicester, she had to spend time on the bench, but she figured it out very quickly, it’s been 18 months and we still have that. Same discussion around Drag Grillish, even when he gets it right, assist for Highland’s goal, I thought he was a little short of success and Holland steps in and makes it easy in the End, but at that level of the game you should be so much better um and if we keep having the same conversation now that we were having about Jack Grillish in August 2021 I’m not sure even Pep Guardiola has the answer on how you’re improving thank you so much for watching ESPN on YouTube to see more sports and analysis. be sure to download the ESPN app and to watch premium live streaming content and let’s not forget also ESPN FC seven days a week subscribe to ESPN Plus