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Well hello everybody, this is the

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Gary Neville podcast from Goodison Park

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as the dark night sky glares

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over this wonderful old arena for

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what was almost certainly now the

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penultimate Goodison Derby and

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Everson Gary Wonnit. So

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where does that lead Liverpool? What did you think of

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Liverpool tonight? Where was the game won and lost? I

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mean it was a

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night that we talk about at Goodison Park. I

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mean I first came to this stadium 30

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years ago and I've

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seen this stadium at its best. I once

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got sent off here and Paul

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Scolz did as well late on in the game and we

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lost and the atmosphere was incredible and it was a night

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game. We had a good record here but when you lost

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here the atmosphere was special. And

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this gantry is the only one left in

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the league that shakes when

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this crowd behind us jump and

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go crazy. And the

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fact that we're not going to be in this

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ground witnessing these types of atmosphere is quite sad.

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I mean that's what I felt towards the last

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part of the game. This idea, this great

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old ground that obviously needs modernising. They need

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to go to their new ground. We know

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how it works but this is one of

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the last great grounds in the Premier League.

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Been around such a long time, played here so

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many times and it's been at its absolute

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best tonight. I didn't expect it Peter.

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I didn't expect it all day. I just

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thought Liverpool, you saw that team sheet that Liverpool had put

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on, you thought, I even thought

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this morning would Sean Dyche pay

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less attention, can't do its emergency side

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diving. What do you think? I've got

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a victory against Forest. Brent for the

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coming Saturday. Try

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and maybe leave two or three out and say that they're

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a bit tight or they're a bit, you know, just

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not quite there and they needed to give

1:44

them a bit more rest. But no, what

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we've seen tonight was a ferocious Everton, a

1:48

throwback. I said at one point in

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the first 10 minutes, it was like 1986 and

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Liverpool didn't cope. For

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the first half an hour, it was

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a good old fashioned beat them up. and

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I faced this in the sort of known players who played in the 1780s

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probably faced it even more, but in the 90s

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when I started playing you went

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to grounds like Goodison Park to

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sell us parts, to play Wimbledon,

2:13

to play Stoke you had

2:15

to win the battle. We were under no

2:17

illusions, we weren't going out there to play football in

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the first 10, 15 minutes, 20 minutes now the pitches

2:22

weren't as good and the games

2:24

changed dramatically but this was a throwback where

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you had to go out there and the

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two players I highlighted before the game were

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Tarkovsky and Canate because I thought that if

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this game became physical Canate would have to

2:34

deal with it and Tarkovsky would be dominant

2:36

and he would be winning the ball in

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bold boxes every set piece that Liverpool

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gave away, they gave away too many set pieces but

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every first contact in the box was won

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by Tarkovsky and Bram Thwaite and Calvert-Lewin and

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you cannot have that, the goal

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that Calvert-Lewin scores in the second half Virgil

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van Dijk is getting messed around by Godfrey, that's

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the sort of thing good off me I want

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to swipe away like a fly, Virgil

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van Dijk don't get caught up in a block

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and I must apologise to Dominic Calvert-Lewin because I

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called him Daniel Calvert-Lewin on the point where I

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offered him the man in the match which to

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be fair is a blatant error

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of magnificent proportions but

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I feel on the night lights and I can laugh at it

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but you know it was, I

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loved that game, I said at one point in the game I

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loved watching the best teams in the

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league play football but

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I hope we never lose the identity of

3:27

certain teams in the league being direct and

3:29

up and at them because

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I played at Manchester United where we

3:34

played some scintillating football and some great

3:38

combination play but I tell you what, the idea

3:40

of playing it into your strikers early and getting

3:42

support up there and putting crosses in the box

3:44

and building pressure and getting the crowd up and

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having a shot on goal and winning a header

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and a tackle, getting the atmosphere

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and keeping the crowd involved that's

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what this ground is, it's what English

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football is and we saw tonight a

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real... Gritty

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performance from Everton, lots of good things, good

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defensive work, we saw the defensive record on

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the screen, the fourth best in the league,

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second best clean sheet, and

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we saw a good amount of that but we

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also saw some really good attacking play. They didn't

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have much possession but when they did have the

4:16

possession they were effective and they made it count.

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And I regret asking you first about Liverpool

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and you were quite right to answer about

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Everton. No, no you are because it was

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Everton tonight and they were terrific. And

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you say about the stadium is so true, I think we all

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shed a tear the last day we walk out of here. But

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of course there is a Liverpool story too. There

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is. Were they sub-par

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tonight? And I'll ask the same question again,

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where are they now? How

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close is that to Terminal? Yeah,

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look, in terms of the season it's going to be

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very difficult for them to win the league. It's

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not over because things can happen. We've just talked

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about it, Brighton could somehow beat Manchester City tomorrow

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night and Arsenal could lose in the north London

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derby and all of a sudden we'd be thinking

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Liverpool are back in it. But I think they'll

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go into that dressing room tonight and I think

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it will be a sullen atmosphere, I think

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it will be down and they'll

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know that it's

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probably gone. Probably gone is where I would

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be. I can't see them

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winning the title from here. It

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would be difficult for them anyway but from here, no. In

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my mind you almost have to be perfect I think

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if you were Liverpool and Arsenal and I think losing

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tonight is a real problem for them. In

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terms of their performance, the parts of the first half

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at Fulham, and they won at the weekend comfortably, but

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the parts of the first half at Fulham that I

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didn't like on Saturday in terms... When

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I say I like Liverpool, I don't

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like Liverpool but I like Liverpool's style

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when they play quickly in the high

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tempo and there's a real fizz in

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the passing. And they're just playing

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for me a little slowly, a little slowly

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from the back through into midfield, a little

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more predictable. And

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I like it when they play electric. I know they've changed

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all the time. the years under Jurgen

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Klopp and that first Jurgen Klopp period was

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all sort of fast and furious and times

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a bit erratic but I'd rather

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them go back to that. So for me tonight the

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passing was a little bit slow at the back, it

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was sloppy, they gave the ball away, they gave free

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kicks away, they missed big

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chances. The New

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Year's one, look, I mean he's still a

6:20

striker that's developing but he cost a lot

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of money. We

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watched Nicholas Jackson last night and that young

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man has been criticised heavily

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in the last four days because of what's happened and

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the chances that he's missed. But

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Darwin New Year's is missing as big if

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not bigger chances and with

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a bigger price tag and that one in the

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first half. I don't really

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ever go players for missing chances, I've

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never felt that actually to be fair because of the

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way I played football and the position I played in,

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worthy of being able to do so. But

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I think if you sport any striker, if that was a

6:55

striker in my team that had missed,

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I'd be fuming. That is a

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really bad miss. It was as simple

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as putting the ball in the back of

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the net should be for the striker at

7:07

this level. Just put

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it into the far corner, hit across it, side

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foot it if you have to. Jordan Pickford

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almost looked to have over covered on his near post

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and there was such a gap and we were right

7:18

behind it weren't we here. That goal's right behind. Oh

7:21

my god, the goal's just gaping, it's there. And

7:23

yet he has that, he

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snatches, he's not got

7:28

the confidence, the belief, he hasn't built in

7:30

his mind that what is

7:32

a Darwin New Year's finish.

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And I always think the best strikers, you know

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what they're going to do when, or

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the best goal scorers, you know what they're going to do

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when they get into a certain position. Mo

7:43

Salah, his team mate, we know Mo Salah

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cuts his left foot, he sets it out

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into that far corner and he's below par

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tonight as well. And then Diaz as well.

7:52

Diaz is electric, I'd hate to play against

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him. But the

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next few years of success with Liverpool.

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will come down to whether the

8:02

gap poles of this world and the Nunez's

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and the Diaz's can step up and

8:08

become rough diamonds

8:10

into the sort of, if you like,

8:12

the real deal and the polished sort of

8:15

smooth finish. That's a big

8:17

question mark and it needs to be answered in the next

8:19

couple of years and they're gonna have another coach that's going

8:21

to try and deliver that. But Liverpool

8:23

still could have done well in that game

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tonight but they missed chances but overall, Everton

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deserved to win and there was

8:30

an element of this game where you felt

8:32

that Liverpool were out-muscled. I won't say out-fought

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because I think Liverpool teams, you know, they

8:36

work hard but they were out-muscled by Everton

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in the big moments in both boxes. I

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watch every League Two game that's

8:42

sold for the play apart from two or

8:45

three for four or five years and every

8:47

National League game and non-league game for like

8:49

eight to ten years and it's about both

8:51

boxes. Very, very

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different than maybe the Premier League where you see a

8:56

lot of the play sort of, if you like, developing

8:58

in the middle of the pitch and you see a

9:00

lot of possession but you've got to win in both

9:02

boxes still. Liverpool lost the game tonight in both boxes

9:04

which is where you lose the game but physically they

9:06

lost the game in both boxes and

9:08

that was surprising. I was really surprised that

9:10

Canati, who I thought was the right pick

9:13

alongside Van Dijk, they

9:15

just got pushed around and nudged

9:18

and ruffled and I didn't expect

9:20

that. I just expected them to be really

9:22

powerful and dominant in those areas. And

9:25

they now, then my next two or three years,

9:28

next two or three days they play late here and

9:30

lost, they've got to peel themselves up on the floor

9:32

and they're at West Ham first thing Saturday. That's not

9:34

much fun is it? Or

9:37

is it? No, well look, I mean it'll be

9:39

a different game but I think there's a template

9:41

here if you West Ham of how to go

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about the game on Saturday. Let's

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make sure the tempo's quick, keep the crowd involved

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but yeah I agree with you. You know, 12.30

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on a Saturday ordinarily after a defeat on a

9:52

Wednesday night. It's tough because you've got to get

9:54

yourselves right physically which is normal for these types

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of players because they play Champions League and then

9:58

you know early it was. weekends but mentally

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I think just in the last

10:03

few weeks the FA

10:05

Cup's gone, Europe's gone

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and there might be that feeling in the back of the

10:09

minds tonight that the league's now gone and

10:12

that's tough to recover from you know these

10:14

are players who've won a league they've won

10:16

trophies they've won Champions League quite a few

10:18

of them and the manager sets such high

10:20

standards and this is not the swan song

10:22

this is not the ending that everyone imagined

10:24

in Liverpool so yeah there'll be a disappointment

10:26

but they'll have to pick themselves up and

10:28

they've got a manager I have to say

10:30

so experienced he's been around the block there's

10:32

no panic coming through him he's obviously leaving

10:34

but you know he does his job so

10:36

professionally that he'll get them right for Saturday

10:38

and they'll still I think probably win that

10:40

game and that might apply a bit of pressure to

10:43

City and to Arsenal ahead of them playing on

10:45

Sunday. Arsenal on the other

10:47

hand how good last night? Very

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good I mean excellent in fact

10:52

I mean they were outstanding in that

10:54

first 25 minutes against Aston Villa when we were

10:57

there a couple of weeks ago weren't they some

10:59

of the football and Ertegaard is mesmerizing at the

11:01

moment I think he's become the best in that

11:03

position in terms of just the way

11:05

in which he plays and I was

11:08

really impressed with Chelsea against Manchester City

11:11

on Saturday in that FA Cup semi-final

11:13

thought they were really good but lots

11:15

to sort of hang your hat on

11:17

there and build on and

11:19

then Mauricio Pochettino I think he came

11:21

out with he couldn't have said

11:24

it any better he said when we're bad we're really

11:27

bad but Arsenal

11:29

were really good and they

11:32

won well and they played in a

11:34

dominant fashion against a really poor and

11:36

under-strength Chelsea team but they did their

11:38

job and Arsenal's

11:41

big moment one of the

11:43

big moments but the big moment of the season is this

11:45

one on Sunday I mean I'm gonna be

11:47

there in the North London DAB it's a game

11:49

I've loved all this but my favourite game actually

11:52

that I've commentated on for Sky in my 11

11:54

years it seems to always give

11:56

us something and I've enjoyed it a lot and

11:58

this one's got a lot of on it

12:00

at the weekend, a lot on it,

12:02

and Arsenal go to that amazing stadium

12:05

and they've got to go and play. I

12:07

was there a few years ago when there

12:09

was a battle for the Champions League and I think

12:11

might be getting, yeah, there was a battle for the

12:14

Champions League and Tottenham did them over

12:16

and Arsenal didn't handle it. It's a very

12:18

different Arsenal that's going to go there on

12:20

Sunday, a very robust and

12:22

resilient Arsenal, but this will be

12:24

a test. Just like Liverpool, I found

12:26

that Everton tonight was just a little bit too much

12:28

for them on the night. For all the

12:30

experience they have, they just got caught

12:33

out surprised, shocked by what they

12:35

found. Arsenal cannot be

12:37

shocked on Sunday. It's going to be

12:40

potentially almost like a bloodbath in the first 15,

12:42

20 minutes. The Tottenham fans don't want Arsenal to

12:44

win the league. I've been in London so much

12:46

in the last few weeks and I go in

12:48

the black

12:52

cabs all the time and if you bump into a

12:54

Tottenham fan, they'll say, do you think they'll

12:56

win the league? I'll go, sorry,

12:58

I hope Arsenal will probably win it because

13:01

City of Liverpool, and they'll go, I hope

13:03

not. You're a Tottenham fan,

13:05

you know what I mean? That type of

13:07

feeling exists. Tottenham will want to

13:09

interview in their own, not just for stopping Arsenal winning

13:11

the league, but just for pride. North London will die

13:14

by getting as many points as they can for the

13:16

push of Aston Villa for that fourth place. It's a

13:18

big game on Sunday and Arsenal are going to have

13:20

to, that's a big lesson for Arsenal tonight. If Arsenal

13:22

will watch you, which I suspect they were, they should

13:25

look at that game and think, right, okay, I mean,

13:27

it's not quite the same. Tottenham are a different football

13:29

team in Everton, but the elements of

13:31

making sure we're ready, making sure we don't get caught

13:33

out, making sure that away from home you respect the

13:35

opposition and the crowd and what you could be up

13:38

against if they get on top of you, the

13:40

principles of playing away, Arsenal can't forget that just

13:42

because they're a better football team and they're in

13:45

a better moment. And just finally, to complete the

13:47

three, a word of sort of preview on Manchester

13:49

City's trip to Brighton tomorrow, I

13:52

expect them to win. And I

13:54

think we think that probably that was a big moment

13:56

getting back, you know, into the FA Cup final on

13:58

Saturday. I think Chelsea, the beat, manages. City on Saturday,

14:00

that would have just bumped them a bit

14:02

and made them think, oh hang on a minute, we're doubting

14:04

ourselves, but I think that was a big one to

14:06

get through that and I expect that they'll just recovered from

14:09

that sort of real Madrid going out of Europe, it was

14:11

a monumental game and that happens, you go out of

14:13

Europe sometimes, but it still just gives you a dig in

14:15

the ribs and then you've got to recover and get up

14:17

and that's what City had to do against Chelsea and

14:19

they did and I suspect they've had a few days now,

14:21

you know, probably Sunday off, maybe Monday just back in and

14:24

doing a bit of gentle work and then Tuesday right,

14:26

okay, we're in an FA Cup final, we can win a

14:28

double and then they see

14:30

Liverpool drop points tonight so they may feel that

14:32

they're one of our contenders, it's almost dropped away

14:35

or dropping away, so I expect them

14:37

to win but what

14:39

we want is a title race, everyone wants a

14:41

title race and we want it to go to

14:43

the wire and I want it to

14:45

go to that sort of last week of

14:47

the season where Tottenham play Manchester City on that

14:49

Tuesday evening where we'll be there and you want

14:51

to make sure that the city has to go

14:54

there and win so that's what we want just

14:56

from a spectacle point of view, we don't want

14:58

it to end with two, three games to go

15:00

and it sort of peters out but

15:02

I expected it to win and do their job.

15:06

Sure and so it goes on,

15:08

fantastic night tonight Gary,

15:11

brilliant, well done Everton. And

15:13

the man of the match is

15:15

Dominic Calvert-Lewin sorry

15:17

Dominic, embarrassing, thank

15:20

you.