The Lions will be a lot closer to whole on Saturday night when the New York Red Bulls visit Inter&Co Stadium. Orlando City is chasing New York (and most other teams) in the standings early in this 2024 season, and a good way to claw your way to the top is to beat the clubs that are in front of you. The question is: How will the Lions do that?

Oscar Pareja has favored the 4-4-2 the last two matches and it has produced mixed results, but there's no question it looked more cohesive last Saturday night against Austin FC. We open this week's show with a discussion of whether Papi will go back to the 4-4-2 well for a third consecutive match or if the familiar and comfortable 4-2-3-1 will return with so many of the team's international players.

After that, we're joined by Mark Fishkin from the Seeing Red podcast. Mark was kind enough to stop by and provide all the New York Red Bulls information we wanted to know about. Big thanks to Mark for giving us his thoughts on Lewis Morgan, Emil Forsberg, Sandro Schwarz, and more.

This week's mailbagbox asked us questions about OCB players, corporations teaming up to make alcoholic beverages, Carlos Rivas, how many shows we've done as a podcast host combination, and more. Remember, if there’s anything — and we do mean anything — you want us to address on the show, just ask us by tweeting it to us at @TheManeLand with the hashtag #AskTMLPC, or hitting us up on Bluesky Social with that same hashtag.

After answering the mail, we turned our attention to the Lions against the Red Bulls on Saturday. We discussed their players to watch, provided our key matchups for the game, and did our best to predict the final score.

Be sure to rate and review our show wherever you get your podcasts. Remember, we'll read any five-star reviews we get on Apple Podcasts on the next show.

Here’s how No. 407 went down:

0:15 – With his internationals returning, will Oscar Pareja stick with the 4-4-2 or go back to the 4-2-3-1?

9:18 – Mark Fishkin from the Seeing Red podcast hops on with us and gives us the scoop on the Red Bulls.

26:58 — Our mailbagbox overfloweth, and we jump on those key matchups and predictions for Saturday night's game.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices