Ronan Mullen

One thing that maybe doesn't...

or isn't immediately obvious I remember talking to a player before he used to come up against Dermot Connolly a lot in club football in Dublin at a time when Connolly was at his peak I think Connolly was the most like for skill set was the footballer of that generation that just had like he was out catching kick outs and turning people over had the same sort of kicking thing off both feet

But this fella said one thing people don't appreciate about Dermot Connolly and it applies to Clifford as well is that he can hold the ball in one hand and he said that's such a huge advantage being able to hold the ball in one hand because it means that you can shield the ball in such a way and still be able to control it.

You can hop the ball off one side and solo the ball off one side.

And it gives you this extra kind of layer of separation that's very, very hard to get close to.

That's an interesting point.

Like somebody will eventually do a thesis on the many ways in which David Clifford is brilliant.

And it'll be a long list.

The time that he really annoyed me was when the video came out from the Pro-Am and the K-Club when he hit the three wood from 300 yards.

Okay.

Listen, and he probably should... What would be a realistic delivery from when he came in to the end of the season that you would say was a positive indicator of what he could do long term?

But who is impressive?

Like the Premier League is a weird, weird, weird league.

Like there were players who came on for Arsenal last week against Newcastle and played 30 minutes and then collapsed on the pitch exhausted afterwards.

I'm not sure we fully appreciate the kind of physical drain the players are on, particularly at this stage of the season when they've been playing three games in a week and coming in injured.

And, you know, like Thomas Tuchel saying about Declan Rice, he's only at 70 percent.

And then you can see he's playing three games in a week.

I have it in my head that the World Cup is going to be sort of won by the country, well, the elite country that has players that aren't sort of banging it out for Arsenal and Manchester City sort of three times a week, 90 minutes at a go.

Because it's very hard to pin down any team.

Like City won their last game 1-0 against Burnley.