ZOOM0002_Tr4

The podcast discusses an exclusive interview with Barnet player Nicky Kavamba, who shows humility despite scoring 19 goals this season. The team's defense is criticized for lacking communication and making basic mistakes. The manager Dean Brennan is under pressure, but fans believe he should stay to maintain stability. The team's recent poor form has made promotion unlikely, but with a change in fortunes, anything is possible. There is speculation that Brennan could leave for the Burton job, but he is expected to stay and see out his contract. Hello everyone and welcome to the UCSB's podcast with me Mateo and I'm joined by Kyle, Liam and Najib. First things first, I want to talk to Kyle just briefly about our exclusive interview you did with Nicky Kavamba a couple of weeks back which is now on our website which is UCSB.wordpress.com. How was he? He was a nice guy. He comes across like a nice guy. Obviously I got into contact with the amazing guy at Barnet and managed to secure an interview with Nicky. He was a good guy to be fair and got some good info out of him about the season so far and his career in general. One thing that stuck out was his humility. Although he scored 19 goals this year, he's already looking for more. He knows that he's up against Paul McCallum who's a great striker as well in a race for the Golden Boot. The title of the article is we'll get promoted and I'll win the Golden Boot so it's looking like he's on track for that. He's a good guy as well. When I saw him for the first time actually play in real life on Saturday, he's just all about the goals isn't he? He just manages to score from wherever. Anyway, moving on to the other two. Barnet, let's talk about their defence and how dire it is all the world. Well, well, well. I don't know about anyone else but I saw the performance against Newport a couple of days ago. There was a lot to say. It looks a bit disjointed at the moment, I can't lie. I know Newport are a higher league side but regardless there are some basic key principles that have been missing there. You see the lack of communication between the keeper and the centre-backs which has happened a couple of times actually. Especially the first minute of the game and then you can see that at Owen Joel because Colleen didn't actually end up listening to Walker and ended up editing things on there. So I think that's going to be a big issue that they need to sort out if they want to get promoted this season. Do you think the lack of communication is because he's changing up the defence pretty much every game? Possibly, but I feel like as a team you need to be able to chop and change easily. You need to be able to communicate with all your teammates effectively to be able to enable your management to switch. Especially in the National League where you're playing many games a season as well. Because you've got the FA Trophy, FA Cup, you've even got the National League itself which is quite full of pitches. So you need to be able to chop and change your teammates and be able to communicate effectively. Personally I think their loss to Chesterfield messed with them psychologically. I think it's started a down spiral. I feel like they've not been back to their best since. I thought on Saturday they would be, but I was wrong. I feel like on Saturday, did they play Saturday again? They played Maidstone, yeah. I knew it was a high-scoring game, I mean it sounds like it meant so much. But I do remember seeing the Bamba bags a few and it goes on what Kyle said. And what he said in his interview, he thinks he can get the Golden Boot, he just needs to prove it underneath. Yeah, but I think with the game against Maidstone it's a game they should be winning and they won. But we've seen in the last seven games they've only won one game and they've also conceded 18. So yes you could blame the players, but no matter who's playing that is a mistake. So I think you've got to look at the manager and Dean Brennan also because you could change the defence, you could change the shape, you could change the players. But if the same mistakes are keeping on happening no matter who's playing then there's only one man to look at and that is the manager. For example, against Newport you would see them drew in the first game because I feel like he was more reserved in the first game, especially away from home. He wanted to keep it tight and he did keep it tight and it obviously ended in a 1-1. But you're at home in front of your fans and he conceded three goals in transition. I've seen that happen in the last few games and there's a saying that if you win it creates a good habit, but also if you lose it creates a bad habit as well. And I feel like that's what's happening right now with not only the manager but the players and also the fans. Najeeb, what did you actually think of their defence? I know you went to see the Harrow versus the Varner game a couple of weeks ago. Yeah, I went to the Woldstone game. A game like that, especially because it's a derby, I would understand why the players... I understand conceding goals in a derby, obviously don't get me wrong. I feel like in a derby it's more about the passion and who wants to win it more. And what I saw from the Woldstone players was every 50-50 they were jumping in, every tackle the fans were cheering. Obviously they were at home so they're going to have the fans on their side. But sometimes it's the psychological intention, not only what's being played on the match. Literally, and as I said before, losing is a habit and obviously they've lost their last few games. So it is looking a bit bleak, especially the fans. They were on a high, especially early on in the season, now it's dropped all of a sudden. I don't know what you boys have got to say about their form. I just want to allude to something I've mentioned before. The fact that he's talked about in his post-match a lot about how his philosophy is man-to-man, like defending. And like he said, sitting back against Newport helped him a lot. But after the Newport replay, he's saying that we need to go back to a direct style of winning football, as he calls it. Because the goals they've conceded are so poor and they all come as a result of counter-attacks. See in the Oldham game, which I went to, they lost 4-1 as well and all of the goals were on the transition. Just one ball and the whole defence is split open. Like I think Mateo alluded to, he keeps changing his defence. On Tuesday, he put a Findlay Porter at centre-back. Findlay Porter is a 19-year-old who just came from Sheffield United and he's barely played central centre-back this season. So to put him up against Omar Bogle, who is one of the best strikers in League 2, a strong physical specimen, he's obviously going to struggle. I think like he talked about in his first match, he needs to just start playing direct winning football and switch away from his philosophy to stop the rot. Just speaking about Dean Brennan, he hasn't been able to cope with his defence recently but we've heard in the last few weeks that he's favoured for the Burton job. So is there now more pressure on him and are the fans putting him under more pressure and do you think he'll leave? I think it's the opposite actually. Fans are worried that he could leave. I agree. When he took over, he won it at the lower end of the National League last season and he took them to a good position. Third, they're in the play-off. So for him to leave, it would just remove all that progress they've made in the last year or so. They have to find a new replacement and maybe a new style of football that could affect them. But potentially that manager balance could put them on a winning streak and keep them up there with Chesterfield. I think that before Dean came in, there were so many manager changes before that and there was no stability at the club and Dean's brought that stability back. So I think that the way to go for Barnier at the moment and in the near future is stabilising. If you sack that manager who they trust and after who they put their faith into, questions are going to be asked about other people, about the manager, the board and the players are going to feel disconnected to the club. Right now obviously it is a tough form and it is tough, especially in the National League when you're playing every few days and you don't have a big bloated squad. It's very hard for you to keep your players fit and keep them fighting. But in the National League, literally anything can happen. You could win in three or four games and you could climb up six or seven places. It's just about form and right now it does seem a bit bleak for them. But you have to trust the manager, especially if he's getting linked to jobs which are obviously League Two and higher. I truly do believe that he's a top manager and he does deserve the time and the respect from not only the fans but also from the media. I think I can back up what he said as well. To be honest, when you're getting considered next to Gary Rowett, who's also considered for that certain job, who's had the high praise of nearly getting nil into the Premier League last season and they missed out on the playoffs unfortunately in the last game. It's a credit to Dean Brennan because he has lifted up that disqualified side and as they've said, he'll be a big hit if he goes. I don't think they'll be able to find someone that's good enough to keep Barnett in the playoff positions as it stands. As he's doing, he can just find a way to get Barnett back on the ways I think. The last thing about Dean and Burton is he's got two years left on his contract so even if Burton won him, they'll have to pay compensation. So I think he'll stay and sort of see how the project ends. You think he'll stay out of his contract? Yeah, definitely stay out of his contract but he has notoriously left clubs before like Hamilton and Wilson to go on to bigger things. That's a possibility. I mean we all know that you can't win every game in football so Barnett is just going through a bad period at the moment. Do we all think promotions on the table or has that lost to Chesterfield a few weeks back? They could have finished first, they could have finished above them but it doesn't look like that's going to happen anymore. Well, I was going to say I feel like if they can get back to winning ways then anything can happen. But if you're looking at this current moment in time where they've only managed to get one win out of their last seven, it's just not good enough to get into the play-offs let alone get promoted. So you'd have to have a look at that to be honest and I think they're third at the moment? They're currently third and they're five points from fourth so they have a five point cushion. So they've still got a cushion between them and them play-off places but they're going to make it hard for themselves if they keep moving games like they have been moving in the last couple of weeks. I think the problem is the teams that are below them, Gateshead and Aldershot, not really Saliholmore to a fourth but Gateshead and Aldershot are in great form at the moment. Aldershot beat Stockport yesterday who are around the top of League 2 so their form and Barnett are sort of on a downward. They haven't played a league game for a week or so so we're waiting to see how they bounce back against Ebbsfleet on Saturday. I still do think that promotion is still on the cards. Maybe not coming first and getting that automatic promotion but obviously through the play-offs they have a chance. I feel like they do have a very strong squad and they have a game in hand to Bromley and if they win they go same points. Right now the biggest problem as we said before is them conceding goals. Now the question that you have to ask is how do you stop them conceding goals? Obviously changing the tactical system, changing the tweaks, we ain't managers so we can't really comment. I think sometimes when you're in tough form you need to go back to basics and right now he needs to go back to basics and after once you're doing the basics right then you can move on to the more complicated stuff in order to find your form again. Why was it working a month ago and two months ago to now? Because that's how he's been playing and it's been working well. It was working because he had players that were in form first and foremost and they were firing. For instance Nicky scored all of his goals in the first period of the season and now he's only scored in the league like one in seven. That was against Wolfsburg and they lost so I think he's quite isolated. The one thing I've talked about on Twitter and other socials is that Barnet don't really have a right side at all. When you watch them all the play goes down the left to Idris Karnes and I think that's something that needs to be rectified in the January transfer window. Speaking about the transfer, the money they would have got to get through to the next round of the FA Cup would have massively helped them but now they can't do that. They had a favourable time easily at home if they had got through but that was a key. They've still got the FA Trophy though to be fair, chance to play at Wembley. I think with the FA Cup, if you were to ask a Barnet fan going into the game against Newport, I think they most likely would have thought it would have been a loss anyway so I don't think they'll look at it in terms of money point of view. I think mainly the fans will be looking at it and worried about how they play because Newport, especially the reputation of the last few seasons, they're a hard side to beat. The players are tough, you know what they're going to do, they're going to sit back, they're going to try and hit you on the break. We saw that in the first game but the worrying thing to fans, to manager and to the media alone would be how do they bounce back, which for me is the biggest question. I've got a question, I feel like from what we've seen that Barnet are trying to be the getter of the Cup from on. I feel like they'll lift the mood really, especially in the FA Trophy now because that's one of the only trophies they can go for this season. Do you think that the Cup allowed Barnet to get a hard reset on their league? As Kyle said earlier, they've not had a league game in a week which is quite a long time in the National League. Do you think that may allow them to regroup and hopefully become that stronger? I think that if they would have got a result against Newport then I think it would have been fine. But now they've lost another game by a big margin, so the confidence has been knocked again. And Ev Street is a tough game even though they're in the relegation zone at the moment. So they need to get a result and that sort of kick on. And now it's the Christmas period, they've got a lot of games coming up. They've got Southend, Twyce, they've got Boreham Wood and these are all games that are... One of them is a derby and they're going to be tough. So I think that they need to go back to basics. Play balls up to Nicky so he can hold it up, stop conceding goals on the transition. And I think they just need to stabilise. These games are all must-wins at the moment for Barnett. Just checking here on the table, between eighth and third place there's only nine points in it. So all you have to do is lose a few and the people behind you win a few and then you're down. And they can't afford to do that at the moment. But just to finish up boys, what's your prediction for Barnett for the end of the season? Do you think they're going to get promoted or not? I think they will finish second or third and get a home tie in the semi-finals of the play-off. I think they have to because they need to show progress from last season and that would be a step further than they got last season. So I think they'll get into the play-off. I think for me it's the same thing. I'm just going to repeat what Kyle said basically. I think they will get second or third and I think they will get a play-off home tie. I really do think that they can get promoted. All it takes is a few games to turn your form around. I do want to be positive for Barnett so I do think the manager and players can turn it around and hopefully the match-going fans can help them and support them too. I'm going to be a fan for my bad again. I'm going to say that I don't think they'll get promoted. Especially if they continue the way they're going at the moment. Obviously I do hope that Barnett get promoted but I'm looking realistically and I don't think they will get promoted just off of some of the signs you've seen in the last few games. Not in the play-offs. They might get play-offs, don't get me wrong. It might be a big drop-off. It might be a very big drop-off if they drop out of the play-offs but I feel like they won't get further than the play-offs. Personally I think they'll get to the play-offs but I agree with Liam. I'm not sure right now they have what it takes to be promoted this season. But that's all the time we've got today so thanks for tuning in. Thanks Matthew. Thank you Matthew. See you again next time.