Michael Cox

speaker

164 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jun 2026 last heard 6 Jun

Michael Cox’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 1.

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The Athletic FC Podcast · The World Cup's most tactically interesting teams · 6 Jun 2026 podcast

I think they've got a decent team.

I don't think they're outstanding.

So I'm probably slightly more pessimistic than most.

I just think it's a little bit of a tough draw.

And I do wonder, obviously, 2028 being on home soil, I think England could go into that as favourites or quite close to it.

Whereas this time around, I think they're probably about fifth or sixth favourites.

Yeah, I think so.

I think there's one of the common themes is that they often don't look great in the group stage, the eventual winners.

I mean, last time out, we saw Argentina lose their opening game to Saudi Arabia.

I think, I mean, we haven't yet spoken really that much about the expansion, but I think that's something to consider, the fact that much as the group stage seems a little bit bloated, actually, when you get to around a 32...

There's more chance.

I think the favourites could go out at that stage.

If the last tournament had been decided as a round of 32, Argentina's first fixture was against Saudi Arabia, they lost and then they're out.

So I think the round of 32 will be where the shocks are.

But usually teams build into a tournament.

I think clean sheets is more important than goals.

Again, I think that's going to be particularly important this time around with five knockout games.

The group stage...

I think most of the favourites will get through that, but five knockout rounds, you keep clean sheets.

The worst case scenario is you go to a penalty shootout.

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