Champions League Takeaway: Xavi Silences Lucho, Dortmund Stay Alive, Bayern's Experience Tells & Another Madrid-City Classic

Hello Rank Squad! Just four teams remain in each of the UEFA Champions League, Europa League and Conference League, and so we thought we'd get our competition ranking caps on to discuss which teams are favourites to lift those trophies in their respective competitions at the end of May and the start of June. We start with the Champions League, with Dean examining Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain and Borussia Dortmund as contenders to lift the most coveted prize of all amongst the European elite. Are Real Madrid unstoppable? Could Tuchel go out with a bang at Bayern? Will Lucho inspire PSG to overcome their nearly-men tag? Or could BVB spring the ultimate surprise in this pack?Then it's over to the Europa Twins, and Jack takes the reigns, discussing Atalanta BC, Bayer Leverkusen, AS Roma and Olympique Marseille as candidates to lift the Europa League this season; before turning attentions to the wild baby brother - the Conference League, Europe's newest competition, and looking at Aston Villa, AC Fiorentina, Club Brugge and Olympiacos' chances of winning the prize this year. And finally, Dean take Guru Wisdom control to bring you his latest fitness tips ahead of his move to San Diego this summer, which is a bit of a mind-boggler. It's Ranks!  And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon?

Hello Rank Squad!Champions League Takeaway is back to take a look at the second legs of the UCL Quarter Finals, which took place across both Tuesday and Wednesday nights.  We start with Wednesday’s action, looking at Real Madrid's defeat of Manchester City on penalties - discussing how City fans shouldn't be too disheartened with what was a dominant performance, how Jude Bellingham has a perfect understanding of Real Madrid's off-the-cuff nature already, and why Los Blancos are now favourites to win this whole things again; as well as Bayern's 1-0 win over Arsenal - talking how the Champions League allows Bayern to play in a style that arguably suits them more, why Arsenal weren't able to force the issue enough to overcome their opponents, and how Thomas Tuchel defied the critics with an impressive display tactically. Then in Part Two, we take a look at Tuesday – looking at Borussia Dortmund's impressive 4-2 win over Atletico Madrid through the lens of Marcel Sabitzer's impact on this game as a whole, why Angel Correa needs more praise for the effect he had on the game off the bench, and why Borussia Dortmund have helped themselves out in more ways than one; before finishing with a discussion of PSG's 4-1 win in Barcelona - via talk of PSG's individual talent starting to shine through in a more cohesive whole, how Barcelona let the emotion and the occasion get to them, and why the brilliance of Luis Enrique could be the key to PSG breaking their Champions League curse.  It’s Ranks! And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon?

Hello Rank Squad! After Cole Palmer's star turn on Monday night against Everton, we got thinking about the players who have used this season as a platform to thrust themselves into the spotlight, and become some of the star names in their respective leagues. We start in the Premier League, where Dean has a ranking of his three breakout stars - a flying fullback at Liverpool, Manchester United's midfield metronome, and the aforementioned Chelsea sensation now joint-top of the scoring charts. Then it's off to Europe for Part Two, where Jack guides us on a quickstop tour of La Liga, Serie A, Ligue 1, Bundesliga, Eredivisie and Primeira Liga - picking one player from each who has made this season their own. Then finally, Dean discusses some of the football related purchases for the boys this week - including some exciting bits ahead of his move to San Diego in time for the Copa America this summer. It's Ranks!  And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon?

Hello Rank Squad!Champions League Takeaway is back to take a look at the first legs of the UCL Quarter Finals, which took place across both Tuesday and Wednesday nights.  We start with Wednesday’s action, looking at Barcelona's topsy-turvy win over PSG - discussing how both managers were able to influence the game with their substitutions, the strange nature of PSG's struggle at defending set pieces, and Barça's excellent mix of youth and experience starting to shine; as well as Atletico Madrid's 2-1 win over Borussia Dortmund - talking Atleti's early intensity and how they rattled their visitors, the defensive mistakes that allowed the hosts to launch themselves into the lead, and how both Antoine Griezmann and Jamie Bynoe-Gittens impacted the game. Then in Part Two, we take a look at Tuesday – looking at Arsenal and Bayern's 2-2 draw at the Emirates through the lens of the two penalty shouts, Leroy Sane's impact in a counter-attacking team, and the experience of this Bayern unit allowing them to play in different ways at this stage of the competition; before finishing with a discussion of Real Madrid and Manchester's City's latest bout - a 3-3 classic at the Santiago Bernabeu - via talk of Rodrygo shining on the left hand side of this Real Madrid attack, Rodri's ridiculous run of games unbeaten in a City shirt, and why games like this are just how it should be.  It’s Ranks! And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon?

Hello Rank Squad! The talk of the football world right now seems to be the fact that Liverpool are reportedly closing in on their next manager - Rúben Amorim of Sporting CP, who became the leading candidate once Xabi Alonso made it clear that he planned on remaining at Bayer Leverkusen for at least one more season. Amorim is a young coach with a high pedigree, and someone we talked about a little bit on our recent episode ranking young up-and-coming managers, but we wanted to go into a little bit more depth this time round. In Part One, Dean discusses the situation as it stands right now, and a little bit on which journalists you should be following for the on-the-minute exclusive news surrounding Liverpool's pursuit of the Portuguese. In Part Two, Jack dissects three questions Amorim would need to answer should he start next season in the Anfield dugout, and three strengths of his that should mesh nicely with the Liverpool squad as it stands, as well as the ethos of the club. And in Part Three, Dean's Guru Wisdom is tested as he tries to give Reds fans a helping hand on their way to find an appropriate chant for their potential next boss. It's Ranks!  And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon?

Hello Rank Squad!Something a little bit different today, and we hope you'll find it as fun a listen as we found it to record. Dean put together a list of seven potential rule changes that he thought could improve the game of football immediately - we discussed everything from stopped clocks to goalkeeping handballs over the course of a manic main ranking. We also took some suggestions from our brilliant Patreon community in part three, chatting through some of the best (and worst) suggestions that came in via our brilliant community! Before that though, there was some love for both the Manchester City documentary and how it was shedding light on the title race in the Premier League, and the wild race for promotion in the Championship, which took centre stage over the Easter weekend. It's Ranks!  And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon?

Hello Rank Squad!It's time for us once again to turn to a positional ranking - having covered the best centre-backs and centre-midfielders in the game, we're switching our attention to wingers, wide forwards and those stars who shine the brightest on the flanks. Again, we'll be splitting it into categories - this time shearing the ranking down the lines of those who play on the right and the left, and examining both with a top five and some honourable mentions. There's one particular player at the end too, who doesn't quite fit naturally into either space - so he gets his own little chat! In Things We Love, we spend a bit of time talking about Endrick, who scored his first senior goal for Brazil against England at the weekend, and also produced a beautiful interview with The Player's Tribune following that in which he described his road to the top of the game; and also Vinicius Jr, who gave an incredibly powerful interview of his own ahead of the game between Spain and Brazil, set up to try and combat the racial abuse he's received in stadiums around the country. We finish as ever with a bit of Guru Wisdom, and the final part of a run of helping find new teams to support for people, before we start to mix things up again in the final segment. It's Ranks! And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon?

Hello Rank Squad!It's time for the weekly excerpt from our Monday Postbox episode on Patreon, where we take questions from our community to look back across all the action from the weekend just gone. This is the segment on the USMNT's 2-0 victory over Mexico in the final of the CONCACAF Nations League, marking three times in a row that Gregg Berhalter's side have won the competition - with a performance that was a night and day contrast from the US' struggles against Jamaica in midweek. We discussed what that means for this team going forward, the issues with chanting from fans that saw the game paused whilst the offenders were removed, Tyler Adams' brilliant goal and impact as a whole, what the midfield will look like going into the Copa America, Antonee Robinson, the future of Santi Gimenez, and a whole lot more. The full episode is here!It's Ranks! And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon?

Hello Rank Squad!And...breathe. After the drama of the last few weeks across so many different competitions, men's club football has come screeching to a halt for the last international break of this season, which gives us a chance to take stock and examine all the drama to come. Let's be real - there's so much drama to come. We've picked out five different elements that we think could provide the most heart-racing finishes to the season - starting at the top of the Premier League table, and then racing through the Champions League fights in Italy, Spain and Germany, the Serie A relegation scrap, the title race in Portugal, and the fight for promotion (and survival) in the Championship.There's also time for a new Guru Wisdom, in which we reveal what Ellis did with our suggestions for a new club to follow last week, before helping out a new Rank Squad member this week as he searches for teams to follow in England and France. It's Ranks!  And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon?

Hello Rank Squad!It's time for the weekly excerpt from our Monday Postbox episode on Patreon, where we take questions from our community to look back across all the action from the weekend just gone. This is the segment on Manchester United's win over Liverpool in the FA Cup on Sunday, with Erik ten Hag's side coming from behind in extra time to end Jurgen Klopp's farewell quadruple dream - there will be no more stops at Wembley on the Goodbye Tour. We discussed how important that is for Ten Hag's chances of remaining as Manchester United manager next year as INEOS take full sporting control of the club, the influence of Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo, whether Klopp made some mistakes in his midweek rotations and substitutions, and a whole lot more. The full episode is here!It's Ranks! And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon?