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That’s a Dive podcast: Rebecca Lowe joins to talk Premier League, women in sports

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On the latest episode of That’s a Dive, Kyle Martino is joined by Premier League host Rebecca Lowe to discuss some of the latest stories from around the Premier League, Rebecca’s journey to covering the Premier League and the difficulty of being a woman in sports.

After finishing her education, Lowe had plans of becoming an actress and took a job in sports radio as she pursued an acting career. At 21 years old, she entered a soccer reporting competition after hearing about it from a friend and ended up earning a job with the BBC. At that point, acting took a backseat as Lowe ventured into journalism.

As she said on the podcast, “You don’t leave the BBC when you’re 21 to go back to trying to be an actress, so I just stayed.”

What has followed for Lowe is a career that has brought her to the U.S. to lead NBC’s Premier League coverage. Despite her success, it has not been easy for Lowe. “It’s been very difficult,” she said when Martino asked about being a woman in sports.

Speaking of her time working in the UK, Lowe said, “I was abused to an extent to which I decided that I was done…It was so bad, I would be walking down a touchline and would have to have a bodyguard at one ground.”

Lowe hopes to get to a point where she will no longer be asked about being a woman in sports.

“I don’t want to be different,” she said. “I just want to be in the game doing my job. You don’t want to be separated, you don’t want it to be different. You just want to be seen as the role that you’re doing, not the person that you are. ”

To hear the entirety of their discussion you can click on the Audioboom embed above or download and subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts. The free subscription will provide automatic downloads of new episodes to your smartphone.

The podcast is also available on Stitcher and can be found on a host of other smartphone apps.

Following their podcast, Martino sat down for a Facebook Live to answer questions on a variety of soccer topics, including rumors of James Rodriguez going to Man United, his Champions League and Europa League final predictions, the best league in the world and more.

Robbie Earle on Man United’s priorities for rest of this season

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Following Manchester United’s 1-0 victory over Celta Vigo in the Europa League, Robbie Earle spoke with ProSoccerTalk about United’s priorities for the remainder of the season and their upcoming match against Arsenal.

Q: Does Jose Mourinho go all-out for the Europa League now that Man United are that much closer to the final?

Robbie Earle: Yeah, everybody was looking at the lineups for the Europa League and which way Jose would go. I think having gotten to the semifinal and now being 1-0 up from the away leg, they are in poll position to finish the job off at Old Trafford next week and then look forward to the final. It’s possibly going to be against Ajax to give them a Champions League spot.

In many respects if you look at the gamble in terms of opponents still to play in the Premier League and the trickiness of that and then maybe two games max in the Europa League, you can understand why the gamble will probably be more skewed toward the Europa League.

Q: Is that the right move from Mourinho?

RE: Yeah, I think it’s a gamble, but a calculated one. Due to injuries and suspended players he hasn’t had available I think he was always looking to head that way. He’s a great one-off tactician manager. We’ve seen it in days like the Manchester derby, recently against Chelsea when he can plot his team to make sure they get a result. Cup football very much suits him and I just think he likes having his own destiny in his own hands, which he will feel more in the Europa League than he will in the Premier League.

That leads us into the weekend when they have a huge game against Arsenal and a manager Mourinho hasn’t particularly liked over the years so he isn’t going to want to make it easy for Arsenal and give them the points. I still think Manchester United will want to go win that game. They can put a little more pressure on Arsenal and pretty much end their top four hopes.

Q: Mourinho has said that he will rest players against Arsenal if he needs to. Do you think he will?

RE: I think it’s a little much to say rest, he may rotate. I think we have to be careful with Manchester United. We’re not talking about Bournemouth or Southampton or Burnley, you know teams that might struggle for depth. I mean we’re still talking about Manchester United and I know they have injuries but they spent 200-odd million dollars at the start of the season on players. So yes, you have your injuries and suspensions and things, but I don’t feel we should be going down the road too much of poor old Manchester United because Manchester United in the past have been successful winning the treble at one time when you’ve got to play cup finals, league games, European games and that’s what successful teams do. They keep on grinding out results and getting results to get to finals.

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I think we will see some rotations of players, but this is Manchester United. [Paul] Pogba was good today. [Marouane] Fellaini can’t play in the Premier League, but can play in Europa which is a bonus so some things will take care of themselves. [Anthony] Martial could come back in. Obviously [Marcus] Rashford scoring today, he’s 19-years-old, he’d play every day if he could. You’ve got [Juan] Mata coming back and Michael Carrick may have a role to play so there’s still plenty enough there for United to get a result at Arsenal and then turn their attention to next Thursday.

Q: Is it an admission of failure from Man United this season that Mourinho has openly said they are prioritizing the Europa League and thus putting the Premier League on the back-burner?

RE: If we look back to the start of the season Mourinho talked about, we’re Manchester United, we have to go for titles, so that was the initial aim. I think during the course of the season, despite them being on this unbeaten run in the Premier League, there have been too many draws, 14, many of those at home. It’s very unlike Manchester United, where they generally put teams to the sword and get their result.

So I think it’s almost been a sort of realism of the season that’s gone on. That this team, this squad is not yet good enough to challenge for the top spot. It’s all out to make the top four and obviously the Europa League has been the best opportunity as we come toward the end of the season. Mourinho’s very smart. He’s won the League Cup, if he wins the Europa League or grabs a top four spot then that would go down as a successful team, although not maybe the success United have had in the past.

The Europa League is everything because of the Champions League spot now. In fairness to him, he’s taken the competition pretty seriously from day one. Whereas some teams I always think work hard to get into Europe and then work just as hard to get out of it. I don’t think Mourinho is that guy. I think he likes to win silverware regardless. I think he recognizes the value of the Champions League spot and he probably deep down recognized after a certain point this season this team may not be good enough to be top four so he gave himself and the club a chance, and you have to say that’s good management.

Q: What is the result of the Arsenal v. Man United match?

RE: That’s a good one. It’s so difficult to call because Arsenal are in this position where they have this whole sort of negativity around the football club, that’s part what’s happening on the pitch, part what’s happening with the manager.

Manchester United are in a reasonably relaxed frame of mind. There is certainly less pressure on them and Mourinho’s already almost got his excuse if they lose, that you know they are focusing on Thursday and that’s the big thing.

[ MORE: Mourinho confirms intent to sit players ] 

I think because of the circumstances, the pressure of losing the North London derby last week, which means Spurs are going to finish above an Arsene Wenger team for the first time, because it’s so important to try and grab that top four spot, if I have to go one way I’m going to slightly tip it Arsenal’s way. Their need is greater and Manchester United have a ready-made excuse. I don’t feel Arsenal are necessarily in great form, but because of their need to get the points and because of United’s situation I tip them the slight favorites.

Robbie Mustoe: Tottenham are bosses in North London, for this season

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Ahead of Sunday’s North London derby (NBCSN, 11:30am ET), Robbie Mustoe spoke with ProSoccerTalk about Tottenham, Arsenal and whether there is a transition of power happening in North London.

Q: Are we seeing a power shift in North London between Tottenham and Arsenal?

Robbie Mustoe: I think it’s hard to really commit to that statement of a power shift because of the history and because of the revenues. I went back and checked just on the 2016 figures and Arsenal have so much more money coming in. Arsenal have 468 million euros of revenue and Spurs have 279 million. That’s almost 200 million euros in terms of difference. For a long-term power shift I still think it’s really hard for me to think that’s going to happen when there’s that difference in money.

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When you look at Spurs at the moment with their amazing training ground, their new stadium, a motivated owner and chairmen in Daniel Levy, a fantastic young manager with a young team, you have to think, hang on for a minute could history change and all of sudden Spurs become that dominate force in North London? But again, I go back to the revenues and a lot in the Premier League is governed by your revenues as a football club and I just can’t think that there’s going to be this crazy difference right now. Even though Spurs are in a brilliant period of time with what they are doing at the moment and Arsenal are not, I think it’s way too early to say that there’s a shift of power in North London.

Q: Have Spurs begun to rise to the level of Arsenal?

RM: I think it’s about Spurs rising, but Arsenal have definitely fallen. Considering where they are right now it looks very difficult for them to finish in the top four and they’re stagnating. They’ve stood still where Spurs have really gone forward. I think you really have to give credit to the owner Daniel Levy. We all know he is an extremely hard negotiator, he won’t go crazy on players’ salaries. He has sold the club’s best players before for financial reasons, like [Gareth] Bale and [Luka] Modric and through all those situations he’s still managing to put together the football side of the club that’s phenomenal. Their new stadium is going to be incredible. We had a look at it two weeks ago when we were in England and it was magnificent. There’s no question that Spurs are on a fantastic run with this new dynamic football side of things and this young squad that have been all signed up.  They’ve signed up all their good young players where with Arsenal you’re thinking about who’s staying, who’s going to sign a longer contract.

I think the off the field stuff in terms of organization, preparation and execution, Spurs have been fantastic. It’s just the annual revenues that Tottenham Hotspur bring in are still a long way down on some of the other clubs in the Premier League. That’s the challenge for them going forward. You have to figure Spurs will be addressing these revenue issues in the next few years as they move into their new stadium and maybe if the team gets more successful they will close that gap financially as well.

Q: If we are looking at the next five years, which side has the brighter future?

RM: I think in the five-year window Spurs’ future is more positive. I mean in terms of the ownership, Stan Kroenke doesn’t seem that motivated, that involved. Arsenal are a giant of a club, a historical giant of European football and that’s where the frustration has come from the Arsenal fans. They should be challenging for the title. Last year, I thought it was absolutely their year to win, given the other teams that weren’t in good shape and Leicester ended up winning the league title so the frustrations are still there. I think the general feeling is that Arsene Wenger is going to stay at the football club so I just, you can’t see a reason to be extremely positive about them challenging for the Premier League title.

[ MORE: Full Premier League schedule – Week 35 ]

Whereas Spurs you can. Their net spend over the last few years hasn’t been a lot. They’ve received a lot of money from the players they’ve sold. Financially they are in good shape and they’ve done an amazing job in producing a brilliant young team without spending a huge amount of money. I think when you look at the manager and these young players you have to be more excited about Spurs. Particularly the players that are signed up for long contracts. They are playing so well, their ages are good and there’s been an improvement from last season with Spurs. They’ve got their highest Premier League points tally already in 74 points. That’s real progression and the majority of the team is the same so that shows you what the manager does with his players. He improves them and develops them so they become a stronger team, where with Arsenal you can’t say that. You can’t say that many of the players, if any at all, are improving. There doesn’t seem to be this same underlying progression from the squad.

Q: What do you think happens in this weekend’s North London derby?

RM: I think it’s interesting. I think it’s made more interesting because of Arsenal’s system. The three at the back is very different for Wenger. It’s worked in the three games they’ve played so far. They’ve won all of them when they’ve played this system. We first saw it against Middlesbrough which didn’t look particularly comfortable but I think they’ve done better since. However, I think Spurs are going to show Arsenal whose boss in North London because it is Spurs at the moment. They’re fired up, they’re playing great football and they’re finding ways to win. I thought the Palace away 1-0 victory this week was an indication of an improved determination, a drive, a hunger to win. I think last year I’m not sure if they would have won that game, but manager switches, system switches, player switches and just that drive and going for the game in the second half was very impressive. I just think Spurs are going to confirm with a victory that they are, at the moment, the best team in North London.

Kyle Martino on Tottenham, Chelsea and the Premier League title race

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Following his trip to the UK alongside the rest of the NBC Sports Premier League team, Kyle Martino spoke with ProSoccerTalk about his thoughts on Tottenham and Chelsea and what he thinks of the Premier League title race.

Q: What was your biggest takeaway from seeing Tottenham play in person at White Hart Lane?

Kyle Martino: Well, first off it was the first chance I’ve gotten to go to White Hart Lane which was pretty spectacular. An old, beautiful stadium with so much history and we saw it right before the curtain call. We also got to see construction of the new stadium and it’s going to be a pretty special place. But, what overshadowed the amazing experience at White Hart Lane and the fascinating experience of seeing the new stadium was how irresistible Spurs were. They were as good as I’ve seen them in a long time, probably since we saw them last year. In person, Dele Alli, Harry Kane and Christian Eriksen, the fluidity and preternatural understanding of each other’s movements was pretty remarkable.

But, the one takeaway which is something you don’t notice when you are watching on TV is how [Mauricio] Pochettino was, I don’t want to say dissatisfied, but just holding the team throughout the entire game to a very high standard. Every little missed pass or failed attempt to put them under pressure and win the ball back was met with a sort of primal scream from the sidelines from Pochettino just to make sure everyone was switched on during every second. I don’t remember that from him when we were there watching them at the Britannia last year. So maybe that’s one of the changes down the stretch this season, that Pochettino’s just not going to let any of the standards drop for a moment to make sure they don’t slip up like they did at the end of last season.

Q: You guys saw an uncharacteristically poor performance from Chelsea against Manchester United at Old Trafford. What were your thoughts seeing that?

KM: I was shocked. Everything in a positive way that I just spoke about Spurs is the complete inverse for Chelsea. They looked languid, disorganized, disinterested and incapable of a Plan B in a way that I’ve never seen with Chelsea this season and that includes the beginning of the year and that Arsenal game when they were so poor. It’s difficult to remember the struggles before they switched to a back three so the stretch of dominance is probably skewing our opinion of Chelsea in terms of analyzing them in that one game against Manchester United.

Marcos Alonso went out with a stomach bug and supposedly it’s gone around the team a little bit and that’s one of most powerful stomach bugs I think I’ve ever seen because it took the animation out of Antonio Conte on the sideline. He looked like a statue and the energy and endeavor was gone from the best team in the Premier League this season.

Q: With that said, do you think Tottenham will be able to chase down Chelsea for the title?

KM: We’ve been saying for a long time there wouldn’t be much of a title race, but I think we definitely have a title race that’s going to go to the last day. I just look at a Chelsea team that in the reverse fixtures of the games they have left, won every game by an embarrassing score margin. I think this game against Manchester United was exactly what Antonio Conte needs to refocus and revitalize the group.

[ MORE: Do we really have a PL title race? ]

He had a quote recently saying when I don’t feel there’s pressure on the team, I put pressure on them. Well, there’s definitely pressure on them now. It doesn’t need to be manipulated, it’s not going to be artificial. But, it would be really surprising to me if Antonio Conte, for the first time in his managerial career, let a title race slip through his figures with such a talented team that have proved over a very long period that they are capable of walking over any team in the league.

Robbie Mustoe: Jose Mourinho has underachieved at Man United this season

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Following Manchester United’s two recent home draws to West Brom and Everton, ProSoccerTalk spoke with Robbie Mustoe about the struggles of United and manager Jose Mourinho.

Q: Manchester United’s Premier League unbeaten run now stands at 20 games, but 10 of these matches have been draws. Why have they drawn so many matches?

Robbie Mustoe: First of all, what Mourinho has proved to us in the past is a tremendous record of winning trophies. He’s done a vast majority of that by playing counterattacking football. Defensive first, very well-organized, strong in transition and counterattacking is what made his name and where he has been successful. At Real Madrid, he won the league in Spain ahead of Pep’s Barcelona for one season. Real Madrid are never going to be a counterattacking team so that was a little different, but other than that it’s been that style.

What we’ve seen this season, where he has tried to be more expansive and try and play the ‘Manchester United way,’ it hasn’t been great. It hasn’t been great to look at, it hasn’t flowed hardly ever and the results have shown that. At home where that’s been most evident, the style, they haven’t scored many goals. It’s kind of shocking what they’ve done at home. There’s a stat that was on Twitter from Sky: Jose Mourinho has the lowest win rate of any Manchester United manager since 1974, just winning 37.5% of the games at Old Trafford. It could be something thrown back at me saying this, but with the money that was spent on several top players to come into the football club, it’s been very disappointing. I think it’s a mixture of his tactical style and some of the young players that attacked better last year. It wasn’t great last year in terms of their attacking play under [Louis] van Gaal, but the likes of [Anthony] Martial and [Marcus] Rashford seemed to be much more prominent and confident and playing well.

Q: Do United have the players on the roster to fix the issues they are having?

RM: Yes, they do have the players on the roster. That’s a simple opinion from me that this is more to do with the manager than the squad of players. That’s always the biggest question and I think when you go through the squad they’re packed with international footballers. When a team is playing badly and when players are in bad bits of form and confidence is down it’s very easy to say ‘These players aren’t that good, he needs a lot of new players.’ At Manchester United when we saw the players that were brought in, it’s like ‘Wow, Jose’s done his homework and he knows what this football club needs.’ I honestly thought they, and Mourinho said it himself at the start of the season, ‘we are going for the title.’ I think he is very surprised at how poorly the club has done this season.

Looking at the roster right now, Martial, [Zlatan] Ibrahimovic, [Wayne] Rooney, Rashford, that’s good options up front. You’ve got Ander Herrera, Paul Pogba brought in, Juan Mata’s creative, [Michael] Carrick is experienced, [Henrikh] Mkhitaryan is a top international player. You could put together a very strong side at Manchester United that you’d expect to win the title. Luke Shaw at left back, maybe [Matteo] Darmian playing in the side, I like Eric Bailly. You’ve got [Phil] Jones, [Chris] Smalling or [Marcos] Rojo, you can pick who to play with him. I think the players are there and it’s more of an underachievement from the manager that this club is not in the top four right now and won’t get there this season.

Q: If you were in Mourinho’s position, would you try to play the ‘Manchester United way’ or would you go back to his counterattacking ways?

RM: That’s a great question. It’s probably something that he thinks about all the time. I think he’s committed to playing an attacking brand of football. I think he realizes that Manchester United want that, they demand that. There was a little bit of concern from many people when he took the job wondering, is he really going to play the attacking way? To be fair we have seen that, we’ve seen them control games, try and play the ball and there’s been tempo about it which has been good.

I’m disappointed with the strategy, with the chemistry. When you see a side that attacks well, there’s very much a philosophy, there’s a creativity. I just don’t see that regularly enough at Manchester United. I think when you watch Chelsea it’s a good example. I know they have less games and no European commitments, but you see those wing backs getting forward, you see Pedro and [Eden] Hazard playing in between the lines coming inside, you see [Diego] Costa’s position up front, you see what Cesc [Fabregas] brings when he comes into the side. You can see the attacking pattern really clearly, but with Mourinho’s United at the moment you can’t. Now could he bring in better players, that’s inevitably how they’ll try to address this. He’ll say some of these players aren’t good enough, he’s already hinted that. We all know about what he said to Luke Shaw that he’s kind of not ready to be a United player. He’s questioned the front players other than big Zlatan about producing and finishing opportunities and of course there’s been tons of missed chances. I think he’ll try and address it with money and new players in the summer to try, in his way, to produce a team to win games.

[ MORE: Prince-Wright’s Week 32 picks ]

Q: How do you think Man United will look differently next year?

RM: I think the center midfield will be very high on his priorities. I don’t think Jose really fancies Michael Carrick. He’s not mobile, he’s not aggressive in attack and he’s not brilliant defensively and Jose needs that from his central midfield players. We all know that Carrick can play, a great passer of the ball. Pogba is a box-to-box, so is [Marouane] Fellaini, so is Herrera. I think he’ll look for controlling, commanding, players in central midfield. He’ll look for a first-class attacking player as well. I mean Zlatan is 35 right now, it can’t always be up to him. We know Wayne Rooney’s time is coming to an end at United. There’s talk about Antoine Griezmann, maybe some other big, top players that I think he’ll try and bring in. Eric Bailly he’s backed and will continue to back and we know he likes Phil Jones, but Jones has had injury issues. We’re not sure how he feels about Smalling or Rojo. I think defensively you can see a lot of players added as well.

Inevitably players will be leaving and a lot will be leaving. You could see Carrick leaving, you could see Fellaini leaving, maybe Rojo. Does he get rid of Smalling? I still think it’s surprising given the squad. There’s very good players there. Of course, every team needs to make additions and Manchester United, being the size they are will always try and improve, but I don’t think there’s that many new guys that need to come in to make it a lot better. However, I think Jose will disagree and think they are nowhere near what they should be. My argument would be there’s a lot of international, top players at this club who are underachieving at the moment.

Q: Lastly, will Manchester United be in the Champions League next year?

RM: Well, I don’t think they finish in the top four so my thought is do they win the Europa League? They’ll be the favorites, you’ll see whatever style it takes to get through and win it, but I’m going to say no. Based on this team’s evidence, what we’ve seen over the course of the season so far that even in the Europa League there’ll be something that goes wrong. There will be something that goes wrong between now and the final of this competition. They’re not quite going to do it. I think that the bookmakers will have them the favorites, I get that, but I’m just backing my judgement that it’s not going well for Jose at the moment and they’ll find a way not to win the competition and won’t be in the Champions League for next season.