Mark Critchley

speaker

1,840 appearances 10 recordings 1 series first heard Jun 2026 last heard 8 Jul

Mark Critchley’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 10 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 7.

Appearances

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The Athletic FC Podcast · Argentina are inevitable + Ornstein on Man United transfers · 8 Jul 2026 podcast

It's not really football.

It's a sort of artificial construct.

It's just a shot at goal against the goalkeeper unopposed.

It should be really easy to achieve that and do it.

And it's something that you spend the other 89 minutes of the game doing.

really trying very hard to do and it's just simple straightforward and he can't do it and it's you know a penalty sort of removes all the artistry from the game it removes all the special advantages and qualities that Messi has his manipulation of the ball his use of his body weight his understanding of space and the relation between his teammates and opponents it's

It's just like a very blunt instrument, like one shot a goal and he can't do it.

And he's not even average at it anymore.

You know, I think it's like, isn't it like 75, 80% of penalties go in and his record is now, I think it's below 75%.

But in a way, and I hate to use the phrase like, oh, he's just, he is human after all because that's what everybody says whenever he misses a penalty.

There is something like that I like about it because it's almost relatable.

It's almost like, yes, he's fallible.

Yes, you know, he isn't, you know,

a master of absolutely everything but he's got it's almost like he is purely football he his ability is in this the wider construct of the game where he has that relation to his teammates and opponents and the ball and whatever and this is his one Achilles heel and it's not that important in the end just like somebody else take the penalties yeah next time somebody else can do that he can do the rest

It's like I said before, I think Argentina

Yes, in a way, because you watch them and you think, look, they're gettable here.

There's clear weaknesses.

There's ways of beating them.

There's ways of getting around them.

And it's predictable because you know that you've only got to stop Messi, but then you've only got to stop Messi.

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