Could Florian Wirtz be the BIGGEST FLOP EVER? 😳 | ESPN FC Extra Time
Could Wirtz be the biggest flop ever? ESPN FC Extra Time's takes
The show starts with Wirtz versus Coutinho and whether the flop label is fair, then moves to Hazard, hair-pulling red cards, injury absences, Chelsea's most important missing player, and a Scottish football Mount Rushmore. The panel generally resists early verdicts and stresses how injuries, missing starters, and team context affect players and decisions.
- It is too early to label Wirtz a flop; Liverpool will give him more chances, and the real question is his best position — He was an exciting arrival, but it is still unclear where he fits best; people say No.10, yet he still has to show he can create chances for Liverpool at the needed rate, and the club should give him more time than Coutinho got at Barcelona
- Hazard is the biggest flop ever — No concrete data or reasoning is offered; Hazard is named in a joking way
- Hazard should not be called a flop; his decline was mainly caused by injuries, not a sudden loss of ability — He was repeatedly injured; a great player who made people want to watch football cannot become that bad for no reason
- Pulling an opponent's hair should be a red card for anyone, including Vinicius Jr. — It is the new rule; he hates having his hair touched, and such actions can provoke retaliation and should not be part of football
- Missing four best attacking players clearly weakens a team, and the next-man-up mantra does not fully solve it — Replacement players may not control the ball under pressure, so teammates hesitate to make runs or take risks; a team can still encourage the substitutes, but confidence and decision-making change
- At Chelsea, the biggest miss would be goalscoring forwards — When the team is not playing well, giving the ball to those strikers can still create danger and produce goals, so losing them hurts most
- His Scottish football Mount Rushmore is Kenny Dalglish, Denis Law, Jim Baxter, and Alan Hansen — Baxter, though never seen live by him, is talked about alongside Dalglish and Law; at Wembley he toyed with England and helped Scotland beat the World Cup winners in their first match after the 1966 final, making Scotland unofficial world champions
Shaka Hislop, Steve Nicol, Mark Ogden and Mario Melchiot join Dan Thomas on ESPN FC Extra Time to answer your questions: 0:00 Will Wirtz be a bigger flop than Coutinho? 2:13 Thoughts on Vini Jr.’s red card? 5:25 What is the stupidest red card you’ve seen? 8:04 How can Liverpool overcome injuries? 11:31 How would Stevie deal with Ronaldo as a coach? ✔️ Subscribe to ESPN Unlimited: https://plus.espn.com/ ESPN
Transcript
Welcome in to latest edition of Extra Time. Thank you very much for all your questions. Boys in the studio. Mario joins us as well. Hey, Auggie went proper red, didn't he? When we said happy birthday, that was good. >> Smiley smiling. >> What's the All right. Uh for invert seems to kick off every extra time. Uh Mario, let's ask you, what's the percentage chance that Vert turns out to be a bigger flop for Liverpool compared to Cantinho for Barcelona? Oo, boy. Oo. Well, there you guys. That's That's Yeah, I don't want to compare. I hate it when you got to compare a player to another player making him flop. The only thing one thing I have to be clearly I don't know what's happening because I'm seeing words and what I liked about him was like, you know, the everything arriving at Liverpool was like, woo, this is going to be exciting. But the only thing is that now it feels like where is his best position? People will say yeah number 10 but is he the guy that opened so much up for Liverpool to create goals and that is what's going to continue. Yeah. When he went there similarity happened. So okay no I think Liverpool gives words way more chances. So I think it was harder for Cinho maybe. >> Biggest flop ever. It's got to be your boy though hasn't it Mario Eden Hazard. Ooh. And hey, how dare you call him a flop, man. He's a legend, man. >> That is the biggest flop. Listen, the guy got injured. The guy got injured. He got injured. He got injured. So that's why I give him then the the because you cannot become from a great player that makes me watch football to become that bad. No, something must have happened. >> Well, he trip tripped over getting out of McDonald's, didn't he? I think that was the basic that was the common sense of when he went there. Stop that, man. Hey, man. Dad, >> what have you done with your life? Nothing. >> I see you next time. I'm bringing a football. We playing football. When I see you in the next stadium. >> I used to, but since the new liver, Mario, not as good. >> Just I can't quite bring it like just incredible. Took away all my skills. Uh Mario, what's your thoughts of Venicious Jr. getting a red for pulling an opponent's hair? And should he face additional punishment? Do you have zero sympathy since it's happened to you a few times during your career? >> I I hate it when people touch your hair. That's is I never liked it. So whatever you know like and and you know it's what happened to him. It was the moment it's a new rule come in. We all know if you pull hairs you're going to get a red card. It's the rule. So regardless if it's Vinnie he came on I wanted him to finish the game. Yeah of course. and the way, you know, like he scored the goal also out out of that opportunity. But pulling the guy's hair and then carry on. No guys, I will never know. I don't like it. I will not support it. It doesn't matter who you are. Has nothing. Even if it was Finey, even if it was whoever it was, no. You pull somebody's hair, you got to get a red card. >> Mario, did it happen to you? Obviously, there was no VAR when you were playing. Did it happen a lot to you? Because obviously we didn't really notice it because it wasn't something that you'd focus on. No, because because it happened like maybe no not I don't want to say a lot because it didn't happen a lot to me but it happened like I think maybe once or twice but believe me you know like if something goes through your body and making you feel like hey these are things that is you know in the game that we play don't pull somebody's hair to get the advantage on it because the next thing what's going to happen and that happened to me clearly when someone did it to me I'm going to look for you to get some one over you too and it might not be as nice and That's why I felt like no pulling hair shouldn't be part of football. >> Is it Kenwin Jones? >> Yes. >> Kenwin Jones. That's what I always think of when it's pulling the hair. Was it Crouchy? >> No. No. >> No. Ken Jones also had long hair. But Brent Sancho and Peter Crouch. >> Oh, was that during the >> Yes. Yes. >> You know what he said about people touching your hair. I used to hate when you used to come cuz the old tunnels everybody was only ever had this haircut by the way. It's not like he used to have long just in case you're thinking. >> I'm not talking about pulling hair. just people touching your hair, >> right? >> So when you used to come out, most of the grounds had tunnels that would come up and so everybody who was along the side >> would hang over and rub you in the head. >> Strange. Oh, I hated that. >> Yeah. As you're running out the tunnel, they all touch your hair and all that. Like keep >> I hated to I hated that. >> Yeah, that's understandable. >> Check where you stand on here. Yeah, I'm not partial to people touching my hair. >> Don't know don't know what else to say, Daniel. >> No, I think that's a unanimous you, Dad. Hey, >> anyway. >> Tell you what, when he gets his hair done at makeup, you kind of get him off the chair. >> I'm Look at him. Look, I can tell. Dad, what's happening? I heard what they said. Maybe what did I just hear about the makeup? >> Takes a while, man. >> Dan, listen. Listen. Hey, listen. Then you don't need that much time in the makeup. Quick, >> don't do this like this long period stuff. You come to studios, people are taking forever. No, >> it's the only place in Well, the world people are nice to me. >> What was the stupidest red card you ever saw a teammate receive? >> Oh boy. >> Anything spring to mind? I can't think of anything. No. >> Well, that car >> you weren't there for the batty. Was it Who was the the Newcastle players who fought >> back? No, I wasn't there for that. >> You weren't there for that. That was a silly red card. >> That was a silly rather silly That was I mean >> Yeah. >> I mean, you know what's the dumbest red card? I think I probably got one as myself. Was dumb as wigan. The ball came in the middle but the ball got played to me and the person that played it to me he played it too soft so it came right in the middle and you know in England when the ball came right in the middle in my period people will not hold back so I went two foot on the ball because I had to protect myself at that time I thought like it's either me or he's going to come for me so I went two feet on the ball but you know what I knew that it was a dumb red card because as soon as I got up I walked straight in. >> Yeah. >> Then you know it's dumb. >> That was it >> because that means that you don't even look at the referee anymore. you know what he's going to pull for you. That's the dumbest for me and that was myself. So, no, it was not a good red card. >> Stevie never sent off. Of course. No. Famously, >> I I I've been I've got a couple of dumb ones in my town. >> For what? >> There's one playing way to um Middlesbrough, >> right? >> Bo comes over to the top. Hamilton Ricard comes on it. I come charging him a box like a like a lunatic as as you do. >> When you say charging sh, how quickly are you actually moving? >> I was charging that. I was charging >> charging like I was I was charging very fast but then I should have known. He drills the ball straight at my face but as a reaction I catch it and I I I do the same as Mario. I just drop the ball and turn and just start walking you. Yeah. Like Yep. There's no no way I was getting away with that. >> If it if it didn't catch you, it would have hit me straight in the face. Were you there for the Dania red card, Stevie? >> No. Left by then? >> You'd left by then? >> The best one I saw was Walshie. Paul Walsh got sent off >> for punching the center back in the face cuz he sent back spot at him, right? He just Now Paul Walsh is 5', >> right? >> He's even smaller than you. >> Wow. >> And he's playing against big center back, 6'2. The big hard center back spat on him. And Walshie just looked at him and chinned him. >> Sparkle straight on the floor. And Walsh just walked off. >> That was it. >> Yeah. Nobody had a problem with it. >> No. >> Yeah. Nothing stupid about that at all. >> No. No. Nothing stupid about that. Yeah. Well done. >> Okay. Stevie, EAC, Gakpo, Sish, Sly, Ekatique. How demoralizing is it to the team going into a big game with your four best attacking players out injured? Is the next man up mantra just an overused rubbished? >> It's the next one. >> Next man up. So, >> no. >> No. When you go when you go into a big game and you're missing at least four of your your starting 11, your four your best players and certainly four that have been your best so far, it it you don't forget about it. You try and encourage the guys that are stepping in, but you know that it's going to make it much harder. I mean, you certainly you don't you don't go into the game with an attitude of you're not going to win, but you you're not quite as positive and you're a little bit, you know, normally when you go on the field and you're playing with your proper 11, it's not 10 guys that are standing next to you, it's all about going that way. It's all about >> taking chances. you know, you you you can gamble, but when you're not playing with your your regular team, you kind of secondguess a lot of things that you would normally just go ahead and do >> because from a defender's point of view, >> you're not sure that the guy's going to keep a hold of it. So, Kumas, for example, you're not quite sure when the ball's getting rammed into him at 60 mph, he's going to hold on to it. So, me as a fullback, I don't go past him. I don't make that run past him because I think he might not control it. Whereas if it's your normal center forward, if it's if it's your EAC, for example, you think he's going to control it. So you actually make the run. So it does change a lot of the way you think about things actually on the field from a positive thing without thinking you're not going to win the game. Mario, for example, when you're at Chelsea, which player being injured would be the biggest miss? >> Most of the times the guys like like how you have it here, the guys who score goals, right? So um we had guys up front you understand that um we had like okay Jafranco was really Solola was very instrumental when I just came through but then after that there was a couple of Hasselbank and Guten why they were very important for the team because sometimes if we were not play well we had one objective is get one of them on the ball because they will create danger for us and score a goal. So I think have not that have missing them in the team will be a big miss. You understand? And of course one of the very important things because it was prior to John Terry was Barcai what he brought was calmness experience and he could control everything. He was incredible as a human. You understand? when he when we had an important game, you only had to look at him and he was the guy that will say, "Don't worry, go there or do this or do that." And I think that's why those are the kind of guys that I can imagine in in my time at Chelsea were very important. >> Shaka, did you hear you got a shout out on television at the weekend from the English broadcasters? >> Oh, what' I do? David David Ryer was doing something fancy and it was Ali McCoy I don't know who the other co- commentator was who was laughing to himself he must have played with you and they were like what's so funny and they were like I just can't imagine Shaka Hisop doing that >> well I need to see what it is then >> I don't know I don't know >> probably can't imagine myself doing it either >> final question we had uh last week we had uh Mario's Mount Rushmore of Dutch players they've asked for Stevies oh I've missed the session. Oh, okay. If Stevie was a coach, would he let Ronaldo make him say same level as Pelle and Maradona and be honest? >> This was the statement that that Ronaldo wanted read by Jesus, which included, you can't leave players like Pelle and Maradona of that ilk. >> No, not No, I didn't think so. There we go. Right, final question. What is Stevie Scottish footballer's Mount Rushmore? Can I guess? Let me guess. Kenny >> Alan Hansen, Craig Burley, Don Hutchinson. You got Kenny Douglas, Dennis Law, and do you know there's one guy and I never I never saw him playing live, okay? But there's one guy that everybody talks about. Guy called Jim Baxter. He's he's about as famous as Dennis and Kenny because when England won the World Cup in ' 66, the next time Scotland played England at Wembley, Jim Baxter was standing on the halfway line, keeping the ball up, giving it all that with the shoulder onto the other shoulder, heading it, back healing it, completely taking the Mickey out. >> You don't like people who do that? >> Unless it's Jim Baxter. >> I see. Jim Max. >> So unofficially, we became world champions because England were world champions and it was the first game after they won the World Cup. We beat him at >> the fourth one. >> What was the fourth? >> So not Alan Hansen. >> It's between Hansen Sunnes. Um I mean Joe. Joe was fantastic. See, when I was when I was young watching Joe Jordan terrorizing people you shack pretending he's interested, please I've missed him. >> I work with Joe. Joe is one of coaches at Pumpy. I know Joe. >> So, we're going Joe Jordan, Kenny. >> The fourth one. Well, Dennis, Dennis, Lob, Lob Baxter, and D Glee. The first three. >> Okay. And then it's between Hansen, Sunnis, and Jordan. For me, >> you got to pick one. >> I'll go Hansen. >> Hansen. There we go. Uh that I thought they were going to put up a graphic, but they had no not bothered. >> Not not bothered. >> Scotland in it. If it was England. >> Well, he did it for for Holland. >> Holland. Yeah, but no Scotland as well. Can't be bothered. >> It's Pete. >> Yeah, there you are. That is it. Mario, thank you very much. What you doing this week, Mario? >> Oh, he's gone. >> Hey, >> there you are. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, we're all redone, right? >> Yes, we are. That's right, Mario. That's absolutely right. >> We are on the plug. >> GET OUT. I think YOU GOT OVER YOUR HEAD. >> You understand? You're good. You're good. >> I think you I think you probably should.