Libero

It’s Champions League punishment round week, which means clubs who were among the biggest and best in Europe 10 years ago are slogging it out to make it through to the last-16.

The question on today’s show is what these sides - especially Juventus, Benfica and Borussia Dortmund - can realistically achieve in a European game that is now stacked against them.

Jack Pitt-Brooke, Tariq Panja and James Horncastle discuss whether they ever build a competitive team to last, or whether they will just get picked off by the vultures at the first sign of success. And if they can’t hope to win any more, are they left with a sense of identity that they can fall back on?

P1: (10:28)

P2: (31:50)

Produced by: Tom Bassam

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Music: Kid Kodi - Blue Dot Sessions
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In a world where Jack Grealish becomes 'The Rest Station' and Jürgen Klopp insists that no playmaker can be as effective as counter-pressing, it is fair to say that the game's creative geniuses are being marginalised like never before. Has systems football stunted players' ability to think for themselves? Do free spirits have no place in modern tactics? A trio of Libero mavericks, Miguel Delaney, James Horncastle and Jonathan Wilson, attempt some free-thinking to discover the root cause of this troubling trend.

P1: (01:53)

P2: (27:44)

Produced by: Tom Bassam

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Music: Kid Kodi - Blue Dot Sessions
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Another week, another manager departed from the big chair at a traditional English heavyweight. It turns out Dr Tottenham does not have a cure for the club's own malaise and so Thomas Frank must go. Are Spurs trapped in a gilded cage of being the Premier League's sixth biggest club? Are the demands in north London unreasonable? Where will the Lewis family turn for their first appointment of the post-Daniel Levy era? John Brewin, Rory Smith and Jonathan Wilson pick through the issues.

P1: (02:00)

P2: (31:15)

Produced by: Tom Bassam

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Music: Kid Kodi - Blue Dot Sessions

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Resisting the temptation to get distracted by VAR, John Brewin, Jack Pitt-Brooke and Rory Smith discuss the more immediate consequences of Manchester City’s win at Anfield. It was a result that leaves Arne Slot with no margin for error as he tries to keep his job, but does it also tell us something about Pep Guardiola’s future? Is his new-found activist streak evidence that he’s in his final few months in the Premier League? And if he is, what will we talk about once a fortnight on Libero once he goes?

P1: (06:28)

P2: (36:32)

Produced by: Tom Bassam

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Music: Kid Kodi - Blue Dot Sessions
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There has been no bigger change to football in the 21st century than VAR. On today’s Libero, Jack Pitt-Brooke, Jonathan Wilson and Tariq Panja want to do more than just complain about it, and the harm that it has done to the modern game. They also want to explore how we got into this position, from Gianni Infantino replacing Sepp Blatter through to its introduction at the 2017 Confederations Cup.

We are now about to head into our third men’s World Cup with VAR, and it does feel like a permanent part of the game. So is there any reason for optimism? The team discuss potential tweaks to VAR to improve it. And then whether we can ever be optimistic about bottom-up change, fans standing up together against VAR, and changing football for good.

P1: (5:28)

P2: (31:31)

Produced by: Tom Bassam

Email in via [email protected]

Subscribe to our YouTube channel @liberopod

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Music: Kid Kodi - Blue Dot Sessions

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