← Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
International EPL Forwards Headed to the World Cup | Unfiltered Soccer
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Foreign.
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This bonus content is brought to you by Virgin Atlantic
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LD we are breaking down some of the English Premier League's most talented players and how we think they'll perform at this summer's World Cup. All right, today we're going to look at some forwards finally. Yeah, your people are the categories.
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Make the money, baby.
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As we know, there are three categories. The headliners, the breakout stars and the question marks. And we'll, we'll get into why they are in those categories when we get there. Okay, let's start with headliners. That's what everybody wants to hear.
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So usually these, you know, we go through this before, it's pretty challenging. But these two are easy. Mohamed Salah and Erling Haaland. So two absolute stars for a long time now in the Premier League. Mo Salah is going to be interesting. This probably his last World Cup. Right. They have a. Interesting group, I guess I would say it's. It seems on the surface manageable to some extent for them. He's had a bizarre season, really bizarre season. But I, I have a feeling he might want to end his career.
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Yeah.
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Somewhere other than England and maybe in the US and so I think he's going to be really at it and really excited for this. You agree?
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Yeah, I mean, I think that last point is kind of where I. Why I have him in headliners. He is. When he's motivated, Mo. It's. It's a different. It's a different beast. It's a different animal altogether. It's been a strange season. He's had, you know, he's had his gripes with Liverpool Football Club and then he's gone away to AFCON and, you know, come coming back and sort of trying to find that groove and that rhythm. So, um, he's moody, you know, Moody moody. And, and, yeah, and. And it's obviously served him well because he's been the top player in the world for a very long time. So is this his last hurrah? How does he feel about it? You know, is there is his summer, which. I don't think so because no one does their business early. But is his summer sorted in terms of moving or staying at Liverpool Football Club? And if he's staying, does he feel settled and content and all that sort of stuff? So. Yeah, and given, given who he is on the global stage, he has to be a headliner for me.
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Yeah, he's a stud. And I mean, I think we both agree his time at Liverpool is done right. After this year and then it's gonna be I could just see, not that people need any extra incentive to want to sign him if you're an MLS club, but I could see owners watching him this summer and be like, oh my God, we need.
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It tilts the balance. If he's in America and he's, he's flying. You think I still still got, still got a lot left.
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That's right. And then Erling Holland, I, I'm gonna have the pleasure of calling, I believe two of his games with Fox this summer in a great group with Norway, Senegal. So it just feels like, I mean you could say, you could say he's going to break out, but he's not a breakout star. He's. He's a headliner. I just feel like the world's his oyster this summer. Their team is so good. They, they ended up getting a more difficult group because they fell in the top of pot three instead of instead, instead of pot two. But they have along with Sorlot, Stron Larsson, with Odegaard, I think they're primed to be really good man. And, and he's going to be the star man.
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Yeah, this one is, is interesting for me. I just wrote down the name Ryan Gigs because there's every now and again there's a world class player like, great show, brilliant world class player who just doesn't make it to the stage.
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Born in the wrong country, right?
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Doesn't make it to the stage. You're like, you're like, gosh, you know, and everybody for forever is like, I just wish his national team was better because we wanted to see him on that stage. And so, and so this sort of falls into that category. It's like, okay, Holland has to be at the World cup, he has to perform on the stage. And quite frankly, it ain't going to surprise anybody if he's banging in goals now. Do they get far enough for him to be a part of the Golden Boot conversation? I don't know, but I think he's going to have a good World Cup. You know, I don't, I don't think there's going to be a matter where he doesn't show up, you know, or he lays an egg. He's, he's, I think he's, I think he is an absolute machine on any pitch that he goes on. I think he's, what he does is sort of unstoppable. Like if he, you know, it's almost like an NBA player. And in the NBA they talk about don't let a player get to a certain spot. He has he has spots on, on the floor and if he gets to that spot, he's scoring. And Holland's a bit like that. Can you take him out of the game? Maybe in spells, but there are going to be moments in a game where he gets to his spot and there's nothing you can do about it. So I'm excited.
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I'm not in any way comparing him to Lionel Messi. Right. But there are few players in the world in their league who can just dominate a field by themselves without help. And he can pull off plays just because he's so physical and he's so talented. Now the beauty for him is he has a supporting cast, like a real supporting cast. These are top play. Martin Odegaard's a top player. Sorlot's a top player. Strand Larson's a solid Premier League player. Oscar Bobb, right. So, like, he has supporting pieces that are very good. So I think you can't just put all your eggs into the basket of trying to stop him. There are other good players, so he's going to be fun to watch. All right, breakout stars. Ryan Sharkey for France. Now he's come into City and Pep's put a lot of trust in him. And I have to be honest, like, I didn't know a ton about him at all. And next thing you know, he's playing every week and you just hear. I always, I always learn the most about players. When you hear other players talk about him or you hear other people in the industry talk about him, and everyone is so high on this kid, like really high. And I think if they do well and go far, he can be an absolute stud.
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Yeah, you know, he, he is. He's actually this really interesting when I watch him, respectfully, he's sort of a luxury player. You know, he. And there's not many of those left in the game. The game just has. From a sports science standpoint, the game just becomes so. I mean, there's so much more running in the game. You can't really like there used. It used to sort of be the talent level was such where you built a team around a guy who you could afford to, you know, take plays off. You can't really do that anymore and, and certainly can't do that at City, but every now and again he has this sort of spell where, where he's a bit like, you can give him the ball in the wide areas and the forward areas, but he's still a little luxury, a little bit of a luxury player. And I just wonder with France, like That's not going to fly, you know, but talent, wise man, he's got magic in his boots. He's. He's doing tricks and flicks and like, he just enjoys his football, man. Like, and it's one thing to enjoy your football, it's another thing to just enjoy it and do keep you ups on like the biggest, brightest stage. And he, he does.
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And he's productive too, though, right? It's not just all, like, the tricks, like, he's on the score sheet, he's producing. It'd be interesting to see if. And how France use him, because if you get players around him who can do a lot of dirty work and deal with it, that's fine. You can do. But they have so many talented players and they can literally pick from a gazillion different players to put around him and it's gonna be really interesting to see. All right. The other one is his city teammate, Antoine Semeno, who is newly his city teammate. But this guy's really good, Tim. And like, I've been watching him. I'm blanking. Where was he?
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Bournemouth.
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At Bournemouth. Sorry.
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Yeah.
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And when you do it at Bournemouth and you don't have the talent around you, it may. I'm learning this about the Premier League and you know this already. When they can do it at a team like that and they don't have supreme talent around you, like, okay, you put them on a real team and this is going to be dangerous. Like, like, scary good. And he's fit in perfectly and he's a very, very good player. Now, can he do it also with Ghana and, you know, less talented people around him with the national team? We'll see. But Ran, is he a good player?
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Well, we've seen, you know, if you, if you're sort of trying to put this into context. We've had our battles with Ghana, haven't we, over the years in World Cups and, And you. And when you are close enough to that action, you do realize that there are certain stars, a couple of them I can remember, and some of them drawn a blank, but have used the World cup to sort of catapult their names, you know, into. And he's already in the Premier League, but, you know, sort of into the forefront, like, oh, I wasn't really. I didn't know much about it. Now people know about him because of the Premier League, but can he do it on the biggest stage wearing that shirt? And look, I agree with what you're saying.
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He.
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He was able to do it at Bournemouth and then has immediately hit the ground running at.
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At.
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At City. Like, like, literally, he's taken to that. He's taken to playing for City, which I didn't know. I thought maybe that might take a little bit of time.
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Yeah, I did too.
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But the other part, and I saw this yesterday and I said it on air, not that he didn't enjoy playing his football, because I'm guessing he did. He. He was out there week in, week out. He didn't. He's not a big smile guy. He's not a big like. Like, you know, but yesterday he celebrated the goal with this new celebration and he's smiling and I'm just thinking he's sort of enjoying himself, you know, and maybe it's a realization that he can play at that level and I don't know.
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I can tell you what it is. I can tell you what it is. It's getting to play with players of that quality is so fun. I cannot tell you the change I had when Robbie Keene came over to the Galaxy. And every day in training I was like, I have chills. Like, I could not wait to go play like a six aside with Robbie on my team because we just knew we were going to bang in goals and like, it was so fun. And so he is now getting that joy and it's awesome. All right, let's move on to a few question marks. Hugo Ekatike. Now you're like, wow, this guy's playing for Liverpool, a top team in the Premier League. Our question mark is, is he going to get on the field? Can he get on the field for France? I mean, between due Dembele killing Mbappe, how did they find a play? You know, obviously Shark is there in the midfield amongst others. How did they find a place for him? I don't know. I don't know what the answer is.
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Yeah, I mean, I sort of. Sort of.
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He.
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We talked about it maybe with the Dutch squad. I think we, you know, we said it about Mickey Van de Vent when we talked about defenders. Again, he is another sort of product of his own success and the success of his national team and, you know, can he get. Can he force himself onto the pitch? Look, he's having a good season for Liverpool Football Club. If he continues that and then goes into pre World cup training camp and all the rest of it, he may not start game one. But very similarly to some of these top teams, they will rotate their squad. They have enough good players, he will get a chance. And he might not start. He might come on at the back End of the game. But you know this as a striker, particularly in tournaments where the, the window for the tournament might be four weeks, but it feels like four hours, it goes quick. And if you, if you're the guy in form and if, If a, If, If a striker gets hooked and you come on and bang in a brace, you can, You'll. You'll play the next game. Like that's how it works. And so you. I can see a scenario where he forced. Forces his way into the team, maybe not right away, and I guess that's hence the reason why he's a question mark. But if he, but if he does get in the team, I think on, on that, you know, at that level, he can compete.
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There's also an element of it's okay to be the first guy off the bench sometimes, and, and players hate that. But if you're playing France, if you're Norway and you're dealing with due and Mbele and Mbappe for 60 minutes and one of them has to come off and now a fresh Ekatike walks on.
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You got.
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We used to have a guy at San Diego loyal to me, Mosheban. And at times we had to convince him he was better coming in off the bench. We had a lot of the ball in the summer when it's hot, teams would wear out and you come in for 30 minutes and you feel like you're playing against guys who are exhausted. And it's a totally different dynamic. And in that year that Toomey scored more goals off the bench than he did as a starter. Right. And so this could be. That could be a Katike's role. Now, how do you manage that? How do you communicate that? That's an issue. But I think he. He could be primed for a role like that. Okay, let's move on to our English friends. Guy who had an incredible start to the season and now has cooled off a bit. Morgan Rogers. And he's a question mark because he's talented enough, Tim, to be in that squad, to play significant minutes, even though they have some good players and he has a lot of quality and could really be a breakout star if things went his way. But we could. I could also see a scenario, one, where he doesn't make and two, where he might. And he doesn't play at all. Yeah.
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So, I mean, I think. I think he makes a team again. Whether he, Whether he does well enough in the squad, in the training to get any. Any sort of match minutes. We'll see. What I would say about Morgan Rogers is Unequivocally, he has another level. He.
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He.
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He can and I believe will go to another level. Now, does that happen first in the Premier League? Does it happen in sort of a World cup role where we know his name but the rest of the world doesn't and they come to find that out? Possibly. But he, like Ekitike is, hence why he's in this category. He might not see the field, and if he does, is it limited minutes and does he have enough opportunity to shine? But he, you know, he is someone who isn't. He isn't afraid to take the ball in big moments. You know, he'll ask for the ball against whatever team that they're playing, whatever player, and he. He'll fancy himself to go one on one and break lines. So again, I think he has another level to go to. When. When he. When does he make that jump? I don't know.
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It's been fun to watch his progress. I had, like, I had the pleasure of seeing him at Lincoln City when he was in League one. He got loaned down to League one, right. And. And you think about now, he might be playing in the championship, and he is. He's the same player that he was there that he is at Villa and hopeful team. And you're right, man. When he's brave and brash, he's got some quality that some guys on that squad don't have. So it's gonna be fun to watch. All right, our last question mark. Igor Thiago plays for Brentford. And you sold me on him, Tim, because for a while I'm like, I'm not. And you're like, dude, he's got whatever. At the time, you're like, he's got 13 goals for Brentford. And I just watch and it feels like every week either scores or gets on the score sheet somehow uncapped by Brazil. Now that's, you know, they have Matias Cunha and Martinelli and Ja. Pedro Esteval, others. Does he make the team? First of all, and if he does, could you see him leading the lines?
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Well, he scored again this weekend.
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Yeah, I know.
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He's got. He's got. He'll be touching 20 goals. And you know the way that they play, right? He'll finish his season, I think, above 20 goals, which is. That's in the Premier League.
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That's a.
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That's a standard for a star striker. And the fact that he's uncapped worries me a little bit. That's the. That's the big question mark. I do think if you have this sort of season. Yeah, we talk about with us team all the time. You're going to take a punt on somebody. Angelotti's not dumb. You know, he's one of the best managers in world football and has been for a long time. Like he, there's room on the roster for a guy like Igor Thiago. I just, I don't, I would do it like, like. Let me ask you a question, Racharlsson. Is he a Brazilian striker? Right. He's gonna go to World Cup?
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I think so.
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I think so. Like, I think so, I think so. And, and, and, and everybody knows where I'm going with this. Like, who would I take?
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Right.
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It's not even a question you take, you would take Igor Thiago. Look, I, I, I'm, I'm a little low on this Brazil team now. They could go far and I'll eat my hat and I absolutely hold my hand up. But I made a list here and we were going through it before. Right. So when you look at Brazil and sort of Premier League got Cunha, Martinelli, Igor Thiago, J. Pedro and Esteval. Yeah. Good players. When I go back to 1994, you can't compare. That's not Romario, Babeto, R9, Neymar, Hulk, Ronaldinho, Rivaldo, Adriano in forward areas.
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I know, I know.
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That's why I'm, that's why I'm down on this Brazil team.
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So I don't know, it's, I mean,
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those are be interesting.
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Yeah, you're right. I mean they're, yeah, they are. Those were top, top, top, top guys. Top guys.
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They were. But I would take Igor Thiago for sure over them.
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No, I'm just kidding. No, I mean I, it, you said something that is interesting. I was like, it does worry you. Like, why is he, why is he uncapped? Is there something we don't know? Yeah, there's something going on and I
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think there's a, I think it's a slow burn. You know, he got, he got to the Premier League. He was, got injured towards knee, I think it was so.
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