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.

Trend

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 · Who is winning the World Cup so far? · 22 Jun 2026 podcast

without scoring. voice-verified

But yesterday, you could see the vibrancy, some of the directness that we associated with them from the Euros, I think. voice-verified

And it's that mix of styles and that blend of styles that they've got that they can adapt to certain situations, which I think was the reason why I was picking them as pre-tournament favourites. voice-verified

Getting the win eases the path a little bit more. voice-verified

Jamal back, obviously, is huge. voice-verified

And you see the difference that he makes, but also some of the changes they were making with Pedri playing a little bit deeper as well. voice-verified

Just a much more all-round performance. voice-verified

And yet, for me, I'm still just about having him as favourites, even if he didn't get off to a brilliant start. voice-verified

I think massively because how many other 18-year-olds have a conversation to be the best player in the world? voice-verified

You know, it's crazy. voice-verified

First World Cup start, first World Cup goal, first start since picking up his hamstring injury in April. voice-verified

And I do think on Keras's point, I think that has to be a factor in it as well. voice-verified

You know, you see him come off at halftime, the game's won. voice-verified

I understand that you sometimes want to put your foot on the throat of teams, but Spain didn't need to do that yesterday. voice-verified

And when you've got such a concern about voice-verified

your star player and his fitness. voice-verified

And if this is him at 50, 60% and that needs to be managed, then I think it makes sense to just maybe just take the foot off a little bit. voice-verified

He just lifts everything though. voice-verified

Like him coming on against Cape Verde, the reaction within the stadium and how suddenly there's a lot more just electricity in Spain's play once he's on the pitch. voice-verified

And then you see that right from the start yesterday where he's putting crosses in, he's taking shots on from four minutes and then he's scoring in the 10th. voice-verified

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