‘DEVASTATINGLY GOOD’ - SERIE A COMMENTATOR ON LIVERPOOL SIGNING FEDERICO CHIESA

hello everybody and welcome to the red Men TV and your latest episode of expert Insight my name is Dan Club I will be your host for this one as ever I'm delighted to say I'm joined by serak commentator and press conference interpreter interestingly enough Patrick Kendrick Patrick how you do mate you okay very well thank you thanks for having me on no no my pleasure and I was always going to get you on anyway and then I noticed you had the most handsome man in football as your sort of header thing on Twitter alongside you so it was a done from that moment on for me anyone who doesn't know I'm talking about it's Alison Becka but I'm sure you knew that already um yeah sound let's do this for Theo when I first reached out the move was a possible one now some hours have past and it's a definite one we've seen him in Liverpool K you's been talking in glowing terms About anfield You Never Walk Alone the football club saying all the right things um let's dive into your perspective of him then commentate it as I mentioned so to begin with Patrick I'm going to ask you have you enjoyed commentating on Pho ker down the years and have you enjoyed watching him have you got sort of some nice moments from his footballing ability absolutely no I've really enjoyed commentating on kesa down the years I would say that it's tinged with a little bit of frustration because when you see him at his very best then you start to wonder why can't you do that week in week out I'm sure we'll get on to you know his pros and cons but consistency is perhaps one area where he has fallen down but at his best he's a c ating player I think a lot of people that don't follow Italian football have seen him at Euro 20 Euro 2020 rather you know three years ago now but I remember in particular there was a game between fantina and bologna that I had to do I got a very late call fortunately it was it was off tube so uh I was I was able to do the game but a colleague called in sick and at the 11th hour I had to do fantina bologna which is a sort of derby um at the 11th hour I had no time to repair much in the way of not so sort of posting on my just general knowledge of both teams and luckily K that day decided to score a hat-trick which made the game very easy to commentate on um that was during his fantina days it was that potential that obviously led to his move to Juventus and there have been some standout moments uh in the cop italan in particular that seemed to be his competition I remember him scoring in a final against Atlanta um when another now Premier League player scored as well Dean koseski um and at his best he's almost impossible to defend against he can go one way he can go the other he can driving off uh off the Left Flank onto his right foot and and he and he's a good finisher um so I think throughout his time I have enjoyed covering him but I think it is probably now time for him to take that next step and and explore another country and and and see whether he can compete in the Premier League having shown what he can do at International level yeah interesting that actually lead does nice answer my next question and in a lot of ways because obviously this move away from Juventus has been touted seemingly all summer we know about sort of the contract standoff though he was a pain to stress it wasn't as it played out in the media potentially in the aftermath of his move but by the by a little bit and obviously he has left Juventus now and it feels like it's been coming for some time it's almost a protracted exit in a way so I take it from what you just said there Patrick that you're not necessarily surprised that it's come to this and are you almost pleased to see him make this move because you said it he needs a fresh he needs to challenge himself in a different Arena and go and see what he's all about and continue or rather maybe get back onto a trajectory that he wants was on yeah I am pleased to see him to go abroad because already in the last three years that you sensed a lot of frustration in his game allegri came back for the last three seasons there are a lot of criticisms about the way Juventus were playing whether it was the right system for kza 352 occasionally he played wide right occasionally played as a second Striker I think his best position is definitely as a left Winger in a 4-33 um and I haven't seen too much of Liverpool since the new manager's been in but obviously that would that would work under the previous regime and I know they they're going for continuity there so I think it is time for him to step outside of his comfort zone this is someone who's grown up in a footballing family his father was a sera Legend because of that he had quite a privileged upper middle class upbringing he went to International School you'll have seen he speaks pretty good English especially for Italian I would say he speaks very good English um I said say that as a slight linguistic snob um but yeah he he's definitely he's definitely got what it takes on his day to thrive in the Premier League in terms of his Pace he's very direct he's going to work well in in a team that will dominate the ball he'll also work well in a team that presses very high in transition so it has stagnated a bit he's never really shown that same level from the summer of 2021 since he had the serious knee injury in January 2022 so you need to look at it I guess it all depends on whether you're an optimist or whether you see the glasses half empty because if you're optimistic you would say he's shown that level before he's not yet 27 this might be the Fresh Start he needs that's what he can achieve or you can look at it the other way and say he's already peaked and this is a player whose career trajectory is on the way I suppose Liverpool are looking at it from the former perspective and and Juventus are trying to cut their losses and they're having a huge revamp in terms of style and Personnel anyway so that that factors into the move as well yeah most definitely I think Liverpool just say that rich Hughes Michael Edwards Etc Al R the numbers and they'll be making that judgment call based on that first bit you said the fact that they think that he does just need a fresh start as you mentioned he does just need to almost go again and sort of restart his career and jump start it in a way and hopefully Liverpool and anfield is the landing spot from which he can do that and describe him as a player for as then if you can you've already touched on a few of his qualities along the way you mentioned some of his Pros ear on at his very best foro K he's a couple years removed from that now but what is he all about what will he bring to a to a fit and firing football team well he's not afraid to take on opposition players he's he's not one of those players that gets the ball to feet and they're immediately looking to to pass it because they're they're worried about running at someone and losing the ball or losing possession he's he's very direct occasionally he can be accused of holding on to the ball too long and perhaps he's a bit too he's almost a bit of a throwback really and he's a very unusual Italian player because traditionally you know Italy would produce very tactically sound players good on the ball um but never really the sort of searing Pace old school Winger and he is very much that occasionally he'll just put his head down and drive opposition players which can be devastatingly good if he goes past those players occasionally it can be to the frustration of his teammates because maybe he doesn't necessarily spot a teammate who's in a better position but I love the way that he he picks the ball up on the touch line he's he's got very good acceleration from a standing start he'll fit it into a teammate's feet and then expect the ball back so I think there's he in terms of his profile and his skill set I think it'd be a very good fit with with the Premier League he's a much better fit I think with Liverpool what they're trying to do than what Juventus were trying to do in the previous three years and clearly the new coach at Juventus Thiago M uh hasn't seen what he needs in K's game hence why he's decided probably in agreement with the club that it was best for the for the player to seek a new opportunity elsewhere but he he's a good finisher as well I think at his best no I don't want I don't want this to come back to bite me but there's a little bit of tierry Omri at his best a little bit in the in the way that he can drive in towards the sort of left corner of the box and then try and bend it into the far corner he doesn't have the same consistency in terms of finding that finish but you have you have seen him be able to do it so this is a player who can provide assists who can score goals I don't think he scores enough goals I don't think he's ever been as prolific as he should be for someone of his ability um and and I would say it's more athletic ability than footballing brain first and foremost it's not he doesn't trap a ball that's dropped down 50 yards from the sky with two players around him he's not going to Dazzle you with close control and nutmegs and stepovers things like that but some people would say that's what you need especially if you've got a center forward that wants an early ball he's going to try and just knock it away from his fullback and cross it in or drive towards the Box himself so I quite like him because he's he's a unique player K there's there's no one else like him in the Italian game and I think he um he reminds me a little bit of some of the Wingers I grew up watching in the Premier League put it that way a lot of like about all of that I'd say to be honest with Patrick the tiar on E comparison is enough to you could have said that back the start we could have all packed up and gone home to be honest