Can Man City Silence Anfield? United vs Spurs & Chelsea’s Defensive Issues | The Overlap Fan Debate

The Overlap

City's charges and Anfield test, United's backing of Carrick, and Chelsea's defensive flaws

The panel starts with Manchester City's trip to Liverpool amid the charges case, then discusses Manchester United's squad and transfer support for Michael Carrick, Chelsea's defensive and midfield problems, and later Brighton, Newcastle, Leeds, Spurs and the relegation picture. The overall tone is mixed: some sides are praised for resilience and identity, while City, United, Chelsea and Newcastle are questioned over midfield and defensive structure.

Manchester City head to Anfield with their charges case adding extra heat to a huge Premier League clash. Jamie Carragher, Stuart Pearce and our club fans preview the return after the international break on The Overlap Fan Debate, brought to you by Sky Bet. Can City respond on the pitch, and can Liverpool make the Anfield atmosphere count? Manchester United host winless Spurs as the fans debate Michael Carrick’s leadership, injuries and whether he’s been backed enough. Chelsea’s defensive concerns ahead of Bournemouth are also under scrutiny. Plus, Brighton’s win over Arsenal, Leeds’ unbeaten start, Hull’s encouraging return and Newcastle’s results versus performances. The panel also assess the relegation picture, with Fulham, Coventry, Ipswich and Sunderland in the discussion. 00:00 - Intro 02:30 - City Charges And Anfield Test 15:38 - Carrick Backing And Fixture Fears 23:00 - Chelsea Under Xabi Alonso 28:18 - Brighton’s Success 31:58 - Hull Survival Blueprint 37:52 - Newcastle’s Season So Far… 42:31 - Leeds Consistency Under Farke SUBSCRIBE TO THE CHANNEL HERE https://www.youtube.com/c/theoverlap STICK TO UNITED WITH WAYNE ROONEY ON THE UNITED STAND https://www.youtube.com/@UnitedStand/videos JOIN THE OVERLAP WHATSAPP CHANNEL HERE https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbC3WQvAYlUCoCqZgA45 SUBSCRIBE TO THE OVERLAP BREAKDOWN CHANNEL HERE https://www.youtube.com/@TheOverlapBreakdown SUBSCRIBE TO THE OVERLAP NEWSLETTER https://substack.com/@theoverlapnewsletter SUBSCRIBE TO IT WAS WHAT IT WAS PATREON Join here ➡️ www.patreon.com/itwas SUBSCRIBE TO STICK TO RUGBY HERE https://www.youtube.com/@TheOverlapRugby SUBSCRIBE TO THE STICK TO CRICKET CHANNEL HERE https://www.youtube.com/@TheOverlapCricket?subconfirmation=1 FOLLOW STICK TO CRICKET ON SOCIAL 👇🏏 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sticktocricket/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61577370443364 TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@sticktocricket X - https://x.com/StickToCricket LISTEN TO OUR PODCASTS…

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When you guys win, you you want to win playing a certain type of football. Maybe less so your Liverpool team in your era, but typically you want to see your team win. [laughter] >> I don't like writing off the start of the season. [music] United weren't ready for the start of the season. >> They're saying, "Who we going to sign?" And you've got to perpetuate almost this light. Oh, we're looking at a lot of players [laughter] and your nose is getting bigger as you're saying it. Can you ramp [music] people up? Can you talk about it? Can you say the world's watching in and Anfield needs to be alive? [music] >> Cole Palmer's pulling out of England squad is a bit of a middle finger to the manager. I don't know. >> Think he'll be fit the weekend? >> Definitely. [laughter] Definitely. >> The camera in the tunnel [music] that really frustrates me when I do see players shaking hands now. I always remember Jared. He would be furious. They'd be like, "You're [music] going to war." >> And they go, "You're quite nice actually, aren't you? You're [laughter] not." And they're so surprised because you're the Tasmanian Devil on a Saturday. >> Are there enough Tasmanian Devils in the Manchester United team? >> Absolutely not. >> [music] >> Hello and welcome back to the Fandy debate brought to you by Sky Bet. I'm pleased to welcome back [music] Stuart Pierce on the sofa as well as our loyal fans. So, uh Stuart, I'll come to you first. International break. Uh you ready for the Premier League to be back underway? >> I am, but I've got to give you a proviso. I prefer international football to club football. >> Oh, wow. Um I hear the fans, oh international football, >> it's the best thing that ever happened to me playing international football and with England and the four games and obviously I managed at under 21 level with the international team. So I always think it's fantastic. I can understand potentially seven weeks window for the World Cup and then five games and then a break and whatever. But you know what? I love international football. when when you were playing, do you think that would have been the consensus of most players at that time? And do you think it's maybe different now? >> Uh, no. I I I still see, you know, I think there's certain things people look back of yesterday year in football and think the rose tinted glasses, everyone was passionate to play for England. I see this group of players probably even more passionate to play for their country. I really do. And the managers that have probably had a good result are quite happy to have three weeks off. you know, basking in a good result sort of thing. Uh, and the ones that have just been beaten think, my goodness me, this is a long international break, you know. But listen, I I enjoy both to be quite honest with you. But, you know, when the Premier League comes back, I know from a fans point of view, most fans will think, "Thank goodness that's back in instead of international football." >> Okay, let's crack on and we'll start with Manchester City, the biggest story in town. And, uh, Nobel's going to come to you. Your next game is at Liverpool. With everything that's going on at the moment off the pitch, how do you think that's going to affect you on the pitch? >> Yes. So, little little quiet fixture just to get City started. I would like to think that there will be a similar effect to what we saw in the 22 23 season where the Charges first dropped and the response from the players was that it galvanized them and that they did go on to win the treble. Obviously, it's a different collection of players. It's a different manager as well, different levels of experience and that sort of thing. But I would like to think that this group of players will allow it to improve uh their performances and sort of like have a siege mentality as Stuart was alluding to earlier. >> I mean, your record at Anfield is not great even in the greatest teams had under Pep, but you came through at Old Trafford, didn't you? M >> 10 men obviously up against you know your biggest rivals is that something that you're almost hanging on to because you still don't know everything about this team and this manager quite yet do you? >> Yeah 100% there's there was loads of uncertainty going into this season new manager different players etc. I've still got some concerns with like the setup that Moresca's going for. I think there are some tactical concerns that a couple teams have exposed. I think >> I think we're a little bit too uh easy to play through in the midfield. I don't think that Moresca's sorted out his out of possession structure yet. He's leaning more so into like the manmarking setup that we saw at Chelsea and Leicester. He's like abandoned the zonal structure that we would associate under Guadiola. And the players hasn't quite clicked yet for a lot of those players. And when you have they have been described as offball liabilities, players like Shery, players like Hallm for example. I wouldn't call them that, but others have done. And you maybe have too many of those all on the pitch at once, coupled with a relatively frail, in my opinion, midfield, coupled with a different pressing structure. It makes it so that City are a little bit too easy to play through. Sunderland have exposed that. In fact, I know that City have done well defensively and people pointed to the fact that well, Porto didn't even have a shot on target against us and that's all well and good. But if our midfield against Porto is getting bypassed from their box to ours within four passes, I don't think it matters if it results in a shot on target or not, that's still a midfield which is too easy to play through. >> The result you got at Old Trafford is probably one of the best results you've probably had in the Premier League when you you think, you know, down to 10 men so early in the game, you end up winning the game. would going to Anfield with your record there with everything surrounding [snorts] this fixture. Could this be one of the best results that City could get if they could go to Anfield and win considering as I said the implications around the game? >> Absolutely. Yeah, even without all of the implications and the charges. Definitely would be absolutely huge. our record is terrible and it would whilst it wouldn't obviously shut people up about it or put it to bed or anything. It would absolutely be a resounding answer to it because lots of people are saying well how are you going to cope with that? How are you going to deal with that pressure if these players can come on the other end of it with three points? Yeah, absolutely massive and that's another really challenging fixture to the start of Mesa's tenure and have come out of it relatively clean. >> Do you think you'll win? Give me a score prediction. >> Oh yeah, definitely win. Um definitely going to predict a win. Uh I'll go to one. >> Wow. >> Okay. >> But we'll be losing at halftime. 1 nil. >> Oh. All right then. No problem. >> Anfield second half. >> Now for the team who have to play Manchester City since they were found guilty of all those charges. Liverpool Gareth. I was thinking about this game. I've talked about this game a lot. We've had a long break. It almost feels like an important game for Liverpool because I almost feel that everybody's expecting this atmosphere at Anfield. Now, this this atmosphere will be there, but this this this team and this manager >> have probably cuz it's new have not used the Anfield crowd yet to sort of propel into performance and win a big game. Maybe Atletico Madrid had >> features of that without it being a full-on rocking night. And I'm really interested to see how Liverpool go about it and the manager understanding how he needs to use this crowd. I'm really interested to see what the manager says before the game actually because I don't think it's in his nature >> to ramp things up. He just doesn't come across as that type of guy. He just seems I just want to speak about football and I can see him batting this the city charges away and I'm thinking >> I wouldn't mind him just throwing a little ang grenade in there and just revving the supporters up and using the atmosphere to try and get the three points which is the most important thing. >> Yeah, 100%. I've been I've been thinking similar. I mean, you know, um lots of conversations obviously around all the City stuff about our time under Jurgen Klopp and could he have ended up with more trophies. And you think about Jurgen and think he 100% would have used it. He 100% would have said something about it. He 100% would have referenced the crowd and ramped us up and got us going because that was what he was good at. He he, you know, one of the things he was good at. He recognized that power of the Anfield crowd and he used it regularly and referenced it regularly. Areola, as you say, yet to do that. And I'm the same. I found them sort of pretty sensible, pretty reserved, quite quiet almost. Um, you can't see him sort of, >> you know, doing this press conference where he calls them out and says, "Let's go and beat the cheats," or whatever. You know what I mean? He's probably just going to be fairly straight bat, but I think all that side of it will still come from from fans anyway. I mean, you know, all I do is talk on a podcast and I've had loads of people DMing me saying, you know, can you ramp people up? Can you talk about it? Can you say, you know, we the world's watching in and Anfield needs to be alive. And I was like, to me, these things will will just come from people anyway. You know, they don't need me to tell them, you to tell them, or anyone else. I think it it's it's there. People are angry. And look, and forget the anger and forget the situation. We were always like that in Floyd City anyway. Do you know what I mean? because they're almost like these, you know, the the new team in town, the the team that want to say they're the best and the biggest and the greatest and that's what we think we are. So, anyone sort of coming to our manner and saying that well, we rile against that. So, you know, we play Man United, you know, we always did that when Chelsea came to town and and they were like that that that started to become a game and I think and it's been like that with City, I think. And I think look, you know, the harnessing that energy, getting stuck in, giving us something to sing and shout about early doors and all that, you know, it's quite old school, isn't it? And and some people say, "Ah, you know, football's moved on from all that." But I always think about that, you know, that that that night against Barcelona. There's a there's a tackle that early door does Fabinho on Suarez and it sets the tone and and so, you know, I'd love us to do that, but I'm old school. I'm 50 and I'm used to, you know, I watched, I don't know, Steve McMahon play or whatever, you know what I mean? And I know I know you can't do that now. So, um, we'll see. We'll see. I I think I I I think it's dead interesting. It'll be good to get in there. It'd be good to, you know, all vent our spleens and get something out and hopefully we come the other side with a victory. It's interesting what you just said because a lot of your what you're, you know, what you're worried about about City is is similar to what we've been worried about about Liverpool about being a little bit too open, the midfield not being strong enough and that kind of stuff. But we've actually chalked up a few clean sheets now and shown a bit of fights. You know, Bournemouth was terrible, but it was we got the result. We fought for the results and I quite liked that. Do you know what I mean? I'm not that bothered about Silk. I'll take, you know, I'll take the iron fist inside the silk if you like. And we showed a bit of that. I thought I I I just think it's interesting because I think a lot of the focus will be on City and rightly so. But when you when when you when your team's Liverpool, you're always looking at >> through that prism. I'm I'm looking at at like this feels like the first real top team we've played. Atletico did a really good team and got good players, but when you think of what Liverpool have spent in the last year or two, we still should beat Atletico at home in my view. But this feels like team top of the league. Good team, good players. I think it's almost a a test for Liverpool this as well. Uh not just like you know the atmosphere but actually on that pitch as well. But Stu, I want to come to you. You think of this atmosphere. Now this is think probably something that we miss, don't we? were were out of the game or were certainly not players. What other atmospheres or did you know you played in similar to something like this going into that cauldron and how did you deal with that? >> I I think it inspires you. I think if you got anything about you, it it should really inspire you. And I I covered the uh Newcastle Liverpool game at the start of the season and I'm watching Isak [snorts] and he shrunk under the the pressure of thing. And I'm thinking, wow, what an opportunity for him to say, hey, have some of this. This is what you're going to miss. And I was really disappointed in in he didn't come out fighting almost, you know. And since then, to be fair, his forms picked up a fair bit. So, um, but you've got to be inspired I by a the support that you get from your own fans, but also as well, you know, when you go away from home and there I come back from a World Cup having missed a penalty. So, everywhere I went, everyone's calling me a German and God knows what and then you score the only goal at Old Trafford from about 135 yard free kick. I've exaggerated [laughter] a little bit and it's the only goal [clears throat] in the game. you think, "Yeah, keep singing Stretford End." You know what I mean? So, you do you've got to show some personality on a football pitch. And uh I I think it should inspire. I'm I'm looking forward to to the game Sunday. I really am because the timing of it couldn't be better. Um >> do you both think some of that's gone too much from the game? Cuz I I think Do you say something in your book, Jamie? Something along the lines of like you you know, you looked at everyone in the tunnel and they were like, "They're my enemy. I hate them almost. I'm going into battle with them." And now, you know, you're watching Sky and they're all like, "All right, lads, you're okay." And all this kind of stuff and you're like, >> it's it's funny because it's you're always very careful, I think, when when you're an ex player to say in my day cuz I used to always think Tommy Smith was probably saying that about us. You know what I mean? It's not the same now. It's not the same and stuff like that. But what but what you're talking about there is >> the camera in the tunnel. That really frustrates me when I do see players shaking hands. Now, people think, "Oh, what what's the big deal?" But I always remember Gerard Ulier, Gerard Ulier, a French manager for us what over 20 years ago now. If he if when he watched the game, like if he seen you shaking hands with someone before the game, I mean, you would be in trouble. I'm I'm deadly serious. He would be furious. He'd be like, "You're going to war, you're going to like, you know, you need to be focused, you can see them in the in the bar afterwards, you can hug and swap shirts after." Even like a cup final, he would say to us, you know, notoriously a cup final, you come out at Wembley, everyone's waving at the wives, he used to say, if I see anyone waving at anybody in that crowd before the game, you know, it was a bit like you've got to be like laser focused. It's the biggest, you know. So, yeah, but I I don't like saying it because it's just this it's the nature of football or the game. It's always just slightly changing. I tell you what I used to quite like. I You used to play club football on a daily basis and then turn up for an international squad and bump into people you've played against on the Saturday, Paul Merson and people like that that have never met you personally before and all of a sudden they see how you interact off a football pitch and they go, "You're quite nice actually, ain't you?" You know, and they're so [laughter] surprised because you're the Tasmanian devil on a Saturday. But that's how it should be for 90 minutes, you know, be what you want to be. Play your strongest card, whatever that may be on a football pitch, and then afterwards you're a different animal. Don't think that you got to behave that way off the pitch. You don't have to be. The Overlap are excited to launch the Overlap Daily, kicking things off on Friday 9th of October with myself, Gary Neville, and Mark Goldridge. Your daily fix of the biggest talking points and debates in football is brought to you by Sky Bet and Sky Vegas. >> There's too many manunians on this show. [music] >> Football. Football. >> Football. It's all we talk about every day. >> So, [music] starting Friday, come and join us >> on Overlap Daily. This is easy. [music] >> Every week, Monday to Friday, >> from 400 p.m. [music] >> Watch on YouTube >> and listen wherever you get your podcasts. [music] >> Just laugh. >> It's >> football. >> Football. >> Football in that order. Overlap daily. >> We'll see you soon. [music] >> Beth, I'm going to come to you. Are there enough Tasmanian Devils in the Manchester United team? >> No. >> Right now? >> Absolutely not. I mean, it's unrecognizable to the teams that we've seen, the players that we've seen in Manchester United teams that are super successful. I think the one that is gets a lot of criticism and stick, and that's Bruno Fernandez. like what you're saying there reminds me of him a little bit in terms of what he does for the club behind the scenes, how unbelievable he is as a character that always gets spoken about, but on the pitch, if you're not a Manchester United fan, even some United fans don't really like the way he behaves, but he's the one on the pitch that you can tell every single inch of him wants to win. So for Man United, I think that's something where I think Carrick needs to needs to step up a little a little bit in that department as well because I'm not seeing enough character on the pitch. And I get that every manager is different in terms of the way that they conduct themselves. But sometimes if you've not got that on the pitch, you need to look to the sidelines and see that leader and see that authority on the sidelines. And I'd like that a little bit more from him as well. >> Do you think the break come at a good time for you? Cuz it looked like it was starting to unravel a little bit. Do you think it was a it was a good thing? And it's it's been an extended break, hasn't it, than what we normally have. >> I think it is a good thing because we're dealing with injuries as well with players that we need to get back. We need Carl Ba back in that midfield. I mean, he's not been in there yet, but we need him to get into that midfield ASAP. Ahmad, I think he's a massive miss that people don't recognize because he's not massive in terms of goals and assists, but the way he plays is super important to the way that Michael Carrick wants to construct his front three. I mean, we've got ongoing issues with our left back situation, which is just I mean, Luke Shaw, he did have that little injury. Thankfully, I think he's back now and he is our best left back despite the fact that he's probably maybe not at the same level he was and not the best caliber of left back you want at the club. But it did come at a good time in the sense of we were doing super poorly, but also at the same time, I don't like writing off the start of the season. United weren't ready for the start of the season. We didn't back Carrick enough in the transfer window. Them issues like they it came out straight away. He said he wanted a left back straig