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 he's quite close to their best player, to be honest, maybe.

You have to say Jamal is the best player, but in terms of a Spanish midfield playmaker, he's exactly what you want.

So yeah, they'd be my favourites.

A lot can change in two years.

We've seen before France, Euro 2000 were fantastic and then flopped at the World Cup two years later.

But I think...

People tend to judge international teams a little bit too much on individuals and he's had a good season, he's had a good season.

Actually, teams who've got results coming into a tournament, the ones to go for.

You look at Italy going into Euro 2020.

You look at Argentina going into 2022.

They had long unbeaten runs and not continued it through the tournament because actually Argentina lost their first game at the tournament, but they continued their good level of performance into the tournament.

Yeah, Spain for me are the favourites.

Yeah, I was quite impressed by Germany on home soil two years ago.

I think Nagelsmann did a pretty good job to whip them into some kind of shape.

And I think they will be quite exciting.

I think going forward, there's probably relatively few teams that can match their attacking dynamism.

I think the weakness for me would be in defence.

I think they will concede goals.

And like I say, I think clean sheets are really important in a knockout stage.

I'm also slightly unsure about Manuel Neuer.

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