The Truth: How Good Was Zlatan?

It's time for The Truth!Sam Tighe and Dougie Critchley take a look back through the annals of history to analyse the career of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and ask the question - was he a world class striker in the pantheons of the all-time greats, or just an excellent player in his day?Zlatan has long divided opinion, even in a world before the hyper-sensationalisation of social media that we see today. From dancing through players on his debut, scoring some of the best goals that the game has ever seen, referring to himself exclusively in the third person, needing to be the lightning rod for whichever team he played for, and constant references to lions and gods, there is no denying the man was pure entertainment. But entertaining and being one of the greats are two different things. So is Zlatan right up there with the greatest ever to play the game? Or was his own perception of himself bigger than his legacy on the pitch?The Truth is somewhere in the middle... Hosts: Sam Tighe & Dougie CritchleyProduction & Editing: Jack Collins Studio Recording: Footwork Media 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! We're going on a bit of a trip down memory lane in today's episode, but one grounded in a very recent occasion - the game between Manchester City and Arsenal at the weekend, which had many of the hallmarks of the beginning of a new rivalry reaching its simmering point at the top of the division. With that in mind, we take a look at the game and the narratives surrounding it, before walking back through the rest of the Premier League's most memorable battles for supremacy: Pep's Manchester City vs Klopp's Liverpool; the noisy neighbours affair as City and United wrested for bragging rights in both Manchester and the League at the end of Sir Alex Ferguson's tenure; Jose Mourinho's scraps as Chelsea boss against Sir Alex's United and Benitez's Liverpool; the legendary Wenger vs Ferguson era of Arsenal and Manchester United; and even to the formative days of the new Premier League where Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United tried to challenge United's early dominance.  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?

It's time for The Truth!Sam Tighe and Dougie Critchley sit down to discuss a topic that's been circulating across social media, broadcast radio and YouTube for quite some time - the idea that Pep Guardiola has somehow ruined the game that we love, in the process of changing it amidst his dominance of Europe. We explore the ideas that are often used to berate Pep - that he is responsible for the death of long-distance strikes and flair players; that physicality and ball retention have become so commonplace; the sheer number of copycat managers who have attempted to transplant Guardiola's style onto teams with less technical ability; and the concept that he has made football boring by the pure dominance of his Manchester City team. Is there credence to these suggestions? Or are people just angry about the fact that Pep's City just feel inevitable in their quest to stack up trophies?The Truth is somewhere in the middle... Hosts: Sam Tighe & Dougie CritchleyProduction & Editing: Jack Collins Studio Recording: Footwork Media 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!You heard the music, and we're back in Champions League mode as the newest era of the competition gets underway with the new Swiss League stage replacing the old group stages. This is Part Two of your Takeaways from this week, looking back at the action from Wednesday and Thursday night. We start with Arsenal's trip to Bergamo, where David Raya's heroics meant that Arsenal came away with a hard-earned point against Europa League Champions Atalanta; before looking back at 10-man Barcelona's 2-1 loss to Monaco, Atleti's late winner as they beat Leipzig 2-1, and Leverkusen's return to thumping form as they dismantled Feyenoord 4-0 in Rotterdam. Our first part ends with a few thoughts on Benfica's nervy win in Belgrade over Crvena Zvezda, and Brest's wonderful 2-1 win over Sturm Graz which was sadly not in their own stadium. Then in Part Two, we're onto Wednesday's action, which begins with a look at the 0-0 stalemate between two of Europe's best sides in Manchester City and Inter Milan - a game for the coaches, not the players, in many ways. Popping over to Paris, we examine PSG's (somewhat) lucky win over Girona, head to Belgium to discuss Jamie Gittens' game-changing cameo as Borussia Dortmund beat Club Brugge 3-0, and give some love to a rampant Celtic who dismantled Slovan Bratislava 5-1 at Paradise. Rounding things off, we briefly talk about Bologna returning to the competition after 60 years away with a 0-0 draw against Shakhtar Donetsk, and Sparta Prague's hard-nosed 3-0 win against a very youthful RB Salzburg. 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!You heard the music, and we're back in Champions League mode as the newest era of the competition gets underway with the new Swiss League stage replacing the old group stages. The first day brought us plenty of goals, and plenty of talking points, and Jack and Dean are here to discuss all of them with you after the first six games of this matchweek. We start with Liverpool's trip to Milan, where Arne Slot's Reds were able to put the ghosts of Nottingham Forest behind them on the way to what was a comprehensive and important win at San Siro; before moving onwards to discuss the 9-2 hammering that Bayern Munich handed out to Dinamo Zagreb,  and the game between Sporting CP and Lille OSC in Lisbon. In Part Two, we start with Real Madrid's 3-1 victory over VfB Stuttgart, which was very much not as easy on the Bernabeu pitch as it looked on paper, before discussing Aston Villa's successful trip to Bern, where they beat Young Boys 3-0 despite an artificial surface, and Juventus' crucial 3-1 win over PSV Eindhoven, which might have been the best performance of the season yet from Thiago Motta's new-look Bianconeri! We'll be back on Thursday to wrap up the action from the next two days of UCL action, so we'll see you very soon. 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?

It's time for The Truth!Sam Tighe and Dougie Critchley sit down to discuss one of the burning questions of the international break - whether Erik ten Hag is the man who can guide Manchester United back to where they want to be, challenging for league titles and competing consistently in the Champions League. United's summer was a chaotic one, starting with the new INEOS-backed ownership fluttering their eyes at a number of different managers across Europe, before finally coming to the conclusion that the best one (or the best that they could get) was already at the club in the shape of Ten Hag. Three games into the season, and the knives are out for Ten Hag again, with United's last game before the international break - a 3-0 home loss to Liverpool - driving home the point to many that the Dutchman was perhaps not the best man to be in the dugout as United attempt to get back to the top of the pile. So is he a help or a hindrance to the club's plans to return to the top table, and are his tactics limited or simply making the most of what he has at his disposal?The Truth is somewhere in the middle... Hosts: Sam Tighe & Dougie CritchleyProduction & Editing: Jack Collins Studio Recording: Footwork Media 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 window is shut, there's been a few games to see how teams look, and it's time to finalise our long-term predictions for this season, which can only mean one thing here on Ranks - it's time for 5x5! And, as has become tradition for this episode, the Rank God Sam Tighe is back in the building to share the microphone with Dean and Jack.The concept is simple - we each pick how we think the top five in England, Germany, Italy, France and Spain are going to look when the curtain falls in May.First, we take a look at what happened last time out, before working through our selections, our thoughts on how a shedload of sides have started their campaigns, and some more questionable bold calls from Jack, hot off his successful Leverkusen shout last year.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?

It's time for The Truth!Sam Tighe and Dougie Critchley sit down to discuss the hottest topic in the world of football right now - whether Chelsea's transfer strategy is a 4D Chess plan that will leave others in the dust, or a chaotic playground of excess that's destined to struggle for some time. Chelsea's additions of João Felix, Jadon Sancho, Pedro Neto, Tosin Adarabioyo, Marc Guiu, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Filip Jorgensen, amid others - caused some consternation on social media; whilst their outgoings of Conor Gallagher, Ian Maatsen, Thiago Silva and Lewis Hall depleted the squad further of homegrown talent and valuable experience. It led to a bit of an online firestorm regarding what Chelsea were up to under Todd Boehly and Clearlake, and whether the soul of the club was being traded in to allow for a blitzkrieg transfer policy to remain in operation. Is the whole thing a disaster, or could it be that Chelsea are just a few steps ahead of the rest?The Truth is somewhere in the middle... Hosts: Sam Tighe & Dougie CritchleyProduction & Editing: Jack Collins Studio Recording: Footwork Media 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!There's a new show starting on the Channel from this Friday, and it heralds the return of Rank God Sam Tighe to Ranks FC. Sam's new podcast, which he's co-hosting with the brilliant Dougie Critchley, who you might know from Sky Sports and Football Daily - as well as being on Ranks a few times in the past! The podcast is called The Truth, and Sam's here to explain the concept, introduce you to Dougie, and prep you for the first episode which will be dropping tomorrow (Friday) for your listening pleasure ahead of the weekend. The Truth is somewhere in the middle.  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 to take our previewing over to Italy, where we've seen an intriguing first couple of weeks in Serie A - where 14 of the 20 clubs changed managers this summer. We start by analysing those we think will be challenging for the title - starting with reigning Scudetto Champions Inter, moving on to Juventus and their new manager Thiago Motta, taking a look at Napoli under the guidance of the legendary Antonio Conte, and examine new-look AC Milan, even after their difficult start. In Part Two, we examine the European contenders, and the teams who'll almost certainly be fighting it out for that final Champions League spot (probably with Milan), as well as the Europa and Conference League places behind - last season's surprise package Bologna, Gasperini's Europa League winning Atalanta, a completely fresh-faced Roma, Ciro Immobile-less Lazio,  and the eternal wildcard that is Fiorentina. Then it's onwards to the newly-promoted sides and the teams we think might struggle, and Jack has some thoughts on Venezia, Parma, Como, Genoa, Cagliari, Lecce, Monza and Empoli. Finally, we make a few early predictions for Player of the Season, Signing of the Season, and Golden Boot (Capocannoniere) winner to round things off. 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?