# Real Madrid 2-0 Levante Postgame Breakdown: Arda Guler Saves The Day

An episode of [The Real Deal: A Real Madrid Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1807821669), 17 Jan 2026, 55 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/103607aa8/podcast/play/114141914/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-0-17%2F416303662-44100-2-95318609afe61.mp3

Sid and Taalib break down the win over Levante, the whistles at the Bernabeu, the poor 1st half, the Guler impact substitution, what we're seeing from Arbeloa, and more.

## Transcript

[0:00] Hello everyone, welcome to a weekend edition of the Real Deal
[0:04] podcast covering Alvaro Arbelois.
[0:06] First game in charge in La Liga, Second game in charge in total.
[0:11] Khalid. A pleasant win so we don't have
[0:14] to talk about something too sad. Yeah, good win, better
[0:19] performance in the second-half. But early kickoff, yeah, lots to
[0:22] talk about over here. Yeah, it was an early kickoff
[0:26] and you know, I'm just looking at our intro and I don't know
[0:28] why I have any studying film on the intro.
[0:30] I got to change that. OK, But it's just so funny just
[0:35] watching that intro. But let's get right into the
[0:37] game. So first concern going into the
[0:41] game was that Arba Loa seems to want to play a very side to side
[0:47] style of play where full of wide rotations and a lot of maybe
[0:51] crossing. So looking at our starting
[0:54] lineup today, we have Camelini Fede midfield, we had upfront
[0:58] Gonzalo Garcia with and Papi and Vinny Gonzalo playing on the
[1:03] right wing. Any thoughts on the lineup?
[1:06] Yeah. Very, very weird set up.
[1:08] I would say Gonzalo starting on the right side.
[1:10] I think he should have maybe played a little bit more
[1:13] central. There was a lot of static
[1:16] feeling from the front three and the first half, I think first
[1:19] half was pretty, pretty bad. We kept the ball quite a bit,
[1:23] but I think he got the line up wrong in terms of Gonzalo being
[1:27] on the right side. I don't know why he did that.
[1:29] Yeah, yeah. And correct me, I was saying it
[1:31] was a 2 or many. Cameron got Jude midfield with
[1:34] Fetty at right back and it was struggling to get the the
[1:37] midfield wasn't bad. I will say it wasn't great, but
[1:41] we were constantly playing with quick touches, which I will give
[1:44] credit to our below for not taking much time on the ball.
[1:47] But yeah, I thought it was a lot of play the ball wide and then
[1:52] try to just send video and bop it through the middle with
[1:54] Gonzalo on the right. And I thought we were
[1:57] consistently wasting chances. And honestly, that first half
[2:01] was along with the Copa del Rey game, I thought were just
[2:05] horrible offense. And it reminded me of Julian Lo
[2:06] Pategi way back, because Lo Potegi would get you to the
[2:10] final third and he would set up the team really effectively to
[2:14] get you there. But once you got there, they
[2:16] would run out of ideas. And that happened to us too
[2:18] under Lo Potegi. After the first few games, we
[2:20] really slowed down under him. And I thought there was no
[2:23] inventiveness and. Exactly.
[2:25] Yeah, I felt the same thing. There was, there was nothing in
[2:27] terms of attacking flair. We we had 70% or 65% position of
[2:32] the ball. There was less than 0.5 XG on
[2:35] the first half and I just felt that there was no attacking
[2:38] flair from the team. We would keep the ball, we would
[2:41] back pass a lot. Kama winger would have the Kauna
[2:44] had a lot of touches but he would there was no idea in in
[2:46] the midfield. We would bring to the in front
[2:49] of the box and then there was nothing going on either.
[2:52] Levante would be on a low block and then we just end up losing
[2:56] the ball and starts all over again from the back.
[2:59] Yeah, yeah. And the main thing is we didn't
[3:01] concede too many chances, I'll give them that.
[3:04] They were very aggressive at hunting the second ball.
[3:07] Maybe there was a couple free kicks in dangerous areas that
[3:10] could have been penalties if they were a slight second later,
[3:13] but. But.
[3:15] I will say, yeah, a few of those.
[3:17] But besides that, I thought it was solid defensively.
[3:20] And I guess the backdrop is also the booing, which we have to
[3:23] talk about in the first half. You know, we had a guy on the
[3:26] ground, we have a fan who was sending us videos in the stadium
[3:30] and he was saying that the Bellingham was booed, Vinnie was
[3:34] booed and Florentino was asked to resign during the game.
[3:38] And they were booed at halftime. And when Florentino came on the
[3:42] screen, he was also being. Was booed, yeah, I remember
[3:45] that. I think they showed him a few
[3:47] times in the beginning and they just once, once the crowd became
[3:50] happy in the second-half, they just they never showed 400
[3:53] pairs. So I think all the cameras on
[3:55] the first half showing Perez and then a lot of Boo.
[3:58] I just want to touch upon Valverde starting on the right
[4:00] back. All the talk before Zombie got
[4:03] sacked was I don't like to play on the right back, right.
[4:06] And now we have Valverde starting on the right back.
[4:08] So I I feel some of the stuff that we hear on the media is a
[4:11] little bit exaggerated also. So, you know, if Valverde didn't
[4:14] want to start, why is he starting on the right back,
[4:16] right, So. I just.
[4:18] I just feel like, yeah, whistling was bound to happen.
[4:22] We expected that. There was a lot of talk about
[4:24] that before the game. Yeah.
[4:28] But I, I just thought Jude getting whistled a lot also
[4:32] didn't make a little bit of sense.
[4:34] I I thought he was one of those guys who works hard.
[4:37] Yeah, so on that. So you know there was this
[4:39] report coming out before that David Jimenez and other Castilla
[4:43] players will be used at right back.
[4:45] Betty is not going to be used at right back anymore.
[4:47] It was the big report, and then they basically play Jimenez and
[4:51] they play Sestero, the young guy with weak.
[4:54] But now we're back to a full lineup of regular guys plus
[4:57] Gonzalo, and I think that is really funny that Freddy's
[5:01] playing right back that early. And I agree that Jude shouldn't
[5:05] have been the one booed. But if you look at the reporting
[5:07] coming out of the club, unfortunately, like I, I judge
[5:10] actions as well. Like I keep telling people,
[5:12] actions speak louder than words on the pitch.
[5:14] Jude defends. He he shows good body language.
[5:17] He tells guys where to stand. He he can release the ball fast.
[5:20] It's not all the time, but he's way better than way better than
[5:23] two of many and all that. So, so I do feel like, I think a
[5:28] little bit of that, like I think they're just upset that we don't
[5:31] have Paz on our team. And on some level Jude is being
[5:34] scapegoated on because of that. And I agree, that was the one
[5:38] thing I didn't like because I saw that in the clip too, that
[5:40] the guy sent me. Jude comes up on the big screen
[5:42] introduced and he's getting booed.
[5:44] But actions speak louder than words with Jude is all I'll say.
[5:47] But I'll be honest, at the end of the first half I thought this
[5:50] dude might be on the verge of getting sacked.
[5:54] I thought the same thing. He he does, he's not very vocal
[5:56] on the on the sideline. So I thought maybe he should
[5:59] have done a little bit more on encouraging the players and
[6:02] trying to be, you know, what Zabi used to do, try to be more
[6:04] compact and stuff like that. But I thought same thing, he's
[6:07] not going to last. Maybe loss against Levante and
[6:11] maybe, I don't know, maybe draw a loss against Monaco in the
[6:15] midweek and probably then all the handkerchiefs will be on
[6:18] full blow in the stadium the next time we come back.
[6:21] So I but I think first half was pretty bad.
[6:25] I think he got again the tactics on the line up wrong.
[6:28] I think that's what mostly the the reason I think in terms of
[6:31] player working hard. I think it was better in the IT
[6:36] was good in the first half, but not great.
[6:37] But you know, I, I just felt that the, the line up let us
[6:41] down mostly in in the first half.
[6:43] Keba winger and two of many definitely struggled at points
[6:46] to progress the ball and then Gonzalo was taken out of the
[6:49] game on the right wing. But I will say this, Gonzalo was
[6:52] still the only one getting on the end of the set piece.
[6:54] There was a set piece that he got on the end of and then at
[6:56] the. Beginning, yeah.
[6:57] Yeah. And also we created nothing from
[7:00] open play. And I will say, continue to say
[7:04] Vinicius level is just shocking right now.
[7:06] Like the guy is just when he gets the ball, I just know it's
[7:09] not going anywhere anymore. Like if he manages to get past
[7:12] his man, I know he's going to make a bad decision most of the
[7:14] time. Like it's a soft shot on goal.
[7:16] It's not the neat pass and it's not all on him.
[7:20] But I'm saying if you're going to play wide rotations, play
[7:22] through the winger, and then you're also not going to create
[7:25] central chances for Mbappe, then it's basically a worse version
[7:29] of what we got under Jabi the first half.
[7:31] It's like defensive possession, so to speak, but without Mbappe
[7:35] even getting his shots and a little more emphasis on Vinnie
[7:38] out wide. And it's not Vinnie ISO, but
[7:40] it's like a lot of like Vinnie getting Carreras overlapping
[7:42] with him and Vinnie doesn't utilize those situations.
[7:45] So I feel like on some level, I feel like he actually this this
[7:49] system is designed for him and he needs to deliver, you know,
[7:52] besides the substitution, which we'll get to.
[7:53] But like, what do you think there?
[7:55] Because I feel like the end point is a winger getting like
[7:58] they just kept trying to feed him all the time.
[8:00] They fed him as much as Mbappe it felt like.
[8:02] Right. I, I think in the first half he,
[8:04] he was on the ball quite a lot. As you mentioned.
[8:06] He just, he wasn't efficient enough in the on the left side.
[8:10] He would bring the ball to the end of the line.
[8:13] He would just ended up losing it or somebody.
[8:15] Levante would play, would get the ball back.
[8:17] It'll go out of touch. I think he had so many of those
[8:19] in the first half. Maybe he should not try to
[8:23] dribble. He tries to dribble and then he
[8:25] just hits a kind of a wall and then he loses the ball.
[8:28] So I think maybe when you have couple of players backing on to
[8:32] him, maybe just release the ball sooner to somebody and then let
[8:36] Carreras swing it. Well, we've been asking about
[8:40] that. Well, we've been asking that for
[8:42] so long and he throws A tantrum the teams when you ask him to
[8:44] watch the film and move the ball to Carreras.
[8:46] But I think there was a stat our tactics crash rough had earlier
[8:50] in the season where Carreras overlaps a lot and he just
[8:52] doesn't get found like like ever.
[8:54] Like he's just and and the one who doesn't find him is
[8:56] Vinicius. Like the other guys do try to
[8:59] find him but Vinicius seems like allergic to making that full
[9:02] back connection. I think we see see more Fran
[9:06] getting out of the ball. Fran moves up front and then he
[9:09] just doesn't know what the hell to do and he passes it back,
[9:11] right? I think Carras in terms of
[9:13] efficiency is much more better than Fran.
[9:14] And I think that's what Carrara should do.
[9:17] He should link up, play more with Vinicius, run behind and
[9:22] then try to cut a cut across a little bit more because Vinicius
[9:26] ain't doing any of that right now, right?
[9:28] So we want somebody to feed the ball in from from the deep end
[9:34] of the box, right? Yeah, yeah, totally.
[9:37] So at half time I'm wondering like what do you do?
[9:42] Cuz Gonzalo is the only one getting on the end of chances
[9:45] cuz the only chances are coming from set pieces.
[9:47] So my instinct honestly just would have been to remove a star
[9:51] like Vinny and just change up the system and like play more
[9:55] set piece heavy. And that would be my instinct.
[9:56] But I will say I didn't realize, but going through the stats,
[10:00] Levante are actually one of the worst teams in La Liga at like
[10:04] pressuring the ball, keeping the ball and generally making you
[10:08] fend for the ball with it and like making you turn.
[10:11] They don't. They're not that good at
[10:13] challenging you for the ball and keeping it themselves.
[10:15] They're the second lowest expected threat difference in
[10:19] the league, 4th worst expected goal difference in the league,
[10:22] and all their build up and like high pressing stats are pretty
[10:26] mediocre. Like nothing stands out.
[10:29] So I thought when I saw the sub, I will say I didn't realize the
[10:33] stat was that that was the case. Like I knew watching them that
[10:35] they were kind of poor at keeping the ball even in the
[10:37] first half. We could tell like come on, even
[10:40] with the right system, when are we going to keep 70% possession?
[10:42] You know, unless they're kind of a great team.
[10:44] Yeah, so, so it was completely, they started off the mid block,
[10:48] They've been on a low block when we had most of the position.
[10:52] Surprisingly, they had a much better expected goal difference,
[10:55] expected goal than Real Madrid. We had 0.707 or something and
[11:01] they had like slightly higher than us because they had that
[11:04] one shot on goal. We didn't have anything in the
[11:06] first half pretty much except for that Gonzalo.
[11:09] I think it was a Gonzalo header. That was the only chance that we
[11:12] had. Other than that, there's no
[11:13] shot, nothing, right? So I think the Subs where
[11:18] needed. I think Kama winger had a pretty
[11:22] bad first half. He he lost the ball a couple of
[11:25] times, fouled the plan in front of the box.
[11:27] So I think and he was not just releasing the ball soon enough.
[11:32] He had a couple of runs, vertical runs, but it was never
[11:35] really materialized anything. So I think I have to give credit
[11:38] to our below. He got the Subs pretty accurate.
[11:42] I think Mastantuno coming on for Gonzalo worked out well and then
[11:47] Cama Winga being taken off for Gula, that was, that was a
[11:51] super, super move and I I think that changed the game.
[11:56] Yeah. So on that note, like Cama, Cama
[11:58] Winga concerning, I think the thing with him and Jude and
[12:01] that's where all the coaches and different systems comes in.
[12:03] It's like we'll get a good game from them at the end of December
[12:07] when they're healthy or Batiste. Then we'll get a Classico where
[12:10] it looks like they can't hold the ball against the deonger
[12:12] pedry because they don't have it.
[12:14] Then we'll get like last game where Cama Vinga comes on at
[12:17] left back, plays a horrible misplays pass.
[12:19] Then today he's finally back in midfield after how long?
[12:22] Like it's like he's played ten 90s all season. 1 of them now
[12:26] came at left back or one of his appearances.
[12:29] And so I I thought this was emblematic of like everything
[12:32] we're worried about with him. It's like he looks like the same
[12:34] player who joined some of these games, like hasn't learned a
[12:36] thing in terms of controlling the game.
[12:39] And I think still the solution is getting other archetypes to
[12:43] do that. But you know, just wanted to
[12:45] point that out because like, this is a type of team that
[12:48] Kamaminga should be comfortable against, you know?
[12:50] So, so here's the, here's the thing that I've noticed about
[12:52] Kamaminga, right? So when you're playing against
[12:54] the Basa or somebody who keeps the ball a lot, you need
[12:57] Kamaminga on the in the middle to win those ball backs, right?
[13:00] But today we didn't need that because Lamont had hardly had
[13:02] the ball. So Kamaminga was going against a
[13:06] low block defensive team, staying back and then he just
[13:12] didn't know what to do exactly because he had a lot of the ball
[13:15] in the middle. He just because when you have
[13:18] Jude dropping deep, getting the ball back and then moving
[13:22] forward, right, you need somebody and Jude goes in the
[13:25] front also, right? Then you need somebody behind
[13:28] Jude to a little bit of the dictating of the ball, move the
[13:31] ball around and Kamawinga, I don't know if he's the right man
[13:34] for it. We saw Sabios come in in the
[13:36] second-half and do that much better, right?
[13:38] Obviously he had good also in the middle supporting him.
[13:41] I just felt feel that Kamawinga plays to his strength based on
[13:45] the opponent, based on the tactics.
[13:48] He plays up and down to the other team.
[13:49] Right, so you need you need the other teams playing style to
[13:54] suit Kamawinga more. That is such facts because he is
[13:58] such a big game player and it's hard to go without that type of
[14:02] duel with machine in big games. He just they're just too many
[14:04] duels and he wins too many of them.
[14:06] But I agree that's that's facts. He plays up or down to his
[14:10] opponents and and and also he just doesn't play enough.
[14:13] Is the other issue just you know, not enough as to share
[14:16] this comment here in Nigeria he's like yes, for like 10 games
[14:19] a season lol. And that's the other issue, but
[14:22] I agree, the second-half sub was phenomenal.
[14:24] So let's get into those. Franco, I think honestly, the
[14:28] whole Subs just caught me off guard to be real because I'm
[14:31] looking at it, I'm like, okay, what if you just brought on Arda
[14:33] for Camo Vinga and you kept Gonzalo on?
[14:37] But then you don't get the width that Franco provided that kind
[14:39] of stretched the pitch open for us.
[14:40] And then Franco wasn't even efficient.
[14:43] But it's just again, like he occupies that lane in a way that
[14:46] nobody else does. And then the whole vertical
[14:49] lanes are spread out with Vinnie on one side, Franco on the
[14:51] other. Then Jude, Arden and Bape really
[14:54] found space in the pocket together.
[14:55] And I thought because Levante, so that I thought the platform
[14:59] for Guler was one of the best we've ever had because Levante
[15:03] weren't sniffing the ball. They didn't intend on pressing
[15:05] us. And definitely our below got
[15:08] something in terms of quick touches and win the ball back.
[15:10] He definitely had something going there and I feel like
[15:13] therefore Guler was shielded. So they just kept winning the
[15:16] ball and getting it back to Guler and he was so good, like
[15:20] on the goals. What do you think?
[15:21] I think one of the things that that has improved from the first
[15:25] half to the second-half. Obviously you mentioned Franco
[15:28] coming on the right side, Gula linking up nicely with Franco,
[15:31] but we saw players like Gula and Franco come back to get the ball
[15:38] and they were in between the lines.
[15:39] So you had more players in pockets, like you said, to get
[15:43] the ball and then they used to just link up, play, link up play
[15:46] got so much better in the second-half, right?
[15:48] So the ball movement was so much better in the second-half.
[15:50] Why? Because you have players coming
[15:52] in between the lines and trying to get the ball and then move
[15:55] quickly, right? So I think that was the pretty
[16:00] good thing that happened in the second-half.
[16:01] And I think really I have to give some credit out blower
[16:04] there. Yeah, getting that right.
[16:07] I I, I just sorry, I just hope he he read that he read those
[16:11] plays tactically and that's what he was thinking about, to have
[16:15] more players in the middle, not being more static, being less
[16:20] static right than we saw in the first step.
[16:22] So I just hope that that's what he intended to do.
[16:25] I mean, I think there's no question he intended it.
[16:27] My question is like, can this even work against most teams in
[16:29] La Liga who were just, they were just bully Gulera off the ball,
[16:32] They would bully his angles. Levante just did not close him
[16:36] down at all, honestly, to the degree that we're used to.
[16:40] Not much pressing from Levante. They, they, they still, I think
[16:43] the game plan for Levante was the same in the first half of
[16:46] the second-half. They tried to stay behind and
[16:50] then we we just found more room to work with when you have these
[16:53] supplies coming in. Yeah, and Guler, obviously
[16:57] Mbappe wins the penalty and then Guler feeds Ascencio on a
[17:00] platter. And then from there, Guler is
[17:02] just feeding guys like the whole game and they just keep
[17:04] shooting. Jude shoots, Vinny shoots,
[17:06] they're all, none of them score. I will.
[17:09] The big credit I'll give him is this.
[17:11] When you're playing this wide rotation style, you probably
[17:15] need a tall guy to mop up some second balls in the box if you
[17:17] cross it in. And if your only chances in
[17:20] three halves against pretty bad teams as a head coach have come
[17:24] from set pieces And you decide in that moment I'm taking off
[17:27] the only guy who's who's like shot anything for me in three
[17:30] halves because I see something tactically that's going to work.
[17:34] I thought that was ballsy. And for me that was the first
[17:37] big positive from Arboloa because I I guess you can count
[17:40] the Castilla guys playing the last game.
[17:41] But you know, as we established, we don't even know if that's
[17:44] going to be a thing from from this game on as we saw or And so
[17:49] I wonder if that was the first big positive because honestly,
[17:52] like the low pategi ball with crossing is not going to work
[17:55] with this team, dude. But but then The thing is, if it
[17:57] if I honestly don't think it's going to work midweek, like who
[18:00] are we playing midweek? Monaco.
[18:02] Monaco, yeah, I mean, is. Is Arctic Oler going to turn
[18:04] around again in the Champions League?
[18:06] I don't know. I'm not sure if he's going to be
[18:07] that effective. Right.
[18:09] So I I don't know much about Monica, haven't been following
[18:12] them. I don't even know how they play,
[18:14] but still I would feel taking something from this game the the
[18:19] line up would be, I would give my two cents that Gula starts,
[18:25] maybe not Franco probably is going to come back in the
[18:28] second-half or something, but Gonzalo probably is going to
[18:31] start again. I just feel that if you have
[18:34] better midfield, you know, I think and players connecting
[18:39] well with each other, we should be able to do the job against
[18:42] Monaco. But again, much better
[18:45] performance in the second-half and I think that is something to
[18:48] take away from this game and I just hope our below builds on
[18:53] this game and doesn't do anything completely different in
[18:57] the line up against Monaco. So I just feel that he, he, he
[19:00] should stick to something that he knows.
[19:03] I'm, I'm worried that Guler plays and that reduces our dual
[19:07] winning capacity. That's the first big test for
[19:10] me. Like play a team where Guler
[19:12] like cuz at this point, 4 halves, the only good half is
[19:15] with Guler. Yeah, that's that's not like a
[19:18] huge positive to me in the sense that we can't, we know we can't
[19:22] trust Guler in big games. Like it's just not it's just not
[19:25] a thing. And as Nymerian says, yeah, big
[19:27] teams, even if he's a 10, he has extreme angle bias, no ability
[19:31] to turn out of ball pressure. So what are we going to do when
[19:34] a team is like, OK, you don't have Goulair and we have not
[19:38] seen anything so far. And I admit that Chabi basically
[19:42] did the same thing to start the season as far as leading on
[19:44] Goulair. But I just don't know if you can
[19:47] wind the clock back, man. The scouting report is out.
[19:49] Levante is like one of maybe four games left in the season
[19:52] where this is going to work, in my opinion.
[19:54] That's my honest take. Like I think most of the games
[19:57] this Goulair thing won't work as well, but I will be open to the
[20:01] possibility that our below a system maybe win second balls
[20:05] back a little better with the new manager effect guys running
[20:07] back harder. But I think that's going to run
[20:10] out then because if you're relying on this new manager
[20:12] motivation when that runs out, then you look like bad
[20:16] defensively again when players revert to type.
[20:17] So I'm not really convinced this is sustainable is my concern.
[20:22] So if you have to a mini Jude, Gula in the middle, right?
[20:26] So too many plays as Adm and then you have Jude a little bit
[20:30] higher. And then if you have Gula on the
[20:33] ball more, I think the system could work, but it depends on
[20:37] who you're facing, right? If you're placing a team that
[20:40] that is physical presses a lot, I think that's where Gula kind
[20:43] of has its limitations. So you need you need the tactics
[20:48] and the opponents who you're playing against, right?
[20:50] So Gula really thrives on certain opponents like today,
[20:53] right when you have players not pressing that much and Gula has
[20:56] more time on the ball. But if you have somebody like, I
[20:59] don't know, like a Bayern, Barsa, even Athletico writes who
[21:02] presses you who, who's very physical.
[21:04] And that's where Gula just doesn't thrive in those
[21:07] scenarios. So really depends on the opening
[21:10] and who you're facing every week.
[21:14] And and I think Monaco game is going to be a home game.
[21:17] So I feel Monaco is somebody who's going to come come at us.
[21:21] So I don't know if Gula would be able to sustain that.
[21:24] But if you, if real, can get a early goal or something and then
[21:27] you have Monaco not doing well enough.
[21:31] So maybe Gula can thrive in that aspect.
[21:33] Yeah, yeah, yeah. Something like that, yeah, it'll
[21:36] be interesting. I'm still have so many question
[21:38] marks tactically, you know, like as far as like, like some of the
[21:43] good things coming, our set pieces and that were worked on
[21:46] under Chavi. If we look at what's going on
[21:48] now, if a team presses us high, I feel like it becomes an end to
[21:51] end game because we want to take touches quickly and win the ball
[21:54] back and it becomes an end to end game.
[21:57] But without us creating that much is my worry right now.
[22:01] Like I guess it worked against Levante, but against a better
[22:04] team that presses us on the ball a little tighter.
[22:07] I mean, the Copa del Rey game is a good example that I was
[22:09] thinking. About that, yeah.
[22:11] Yeah, like they got tight to us and we couldn't create unless we
[22:14] went down South. Obviously we had a lot more
[22:17] first teamers playing today. So it's a completely different
[22:19] lineup, right? But that's also kind of the
[22:21] point with Castilla. I just wanna say like, look,
[22:23] Arbolo comes in, he's gonna play Castilla, lose his first game
[22:26] playing Castilla, guys immediately reverts to playing
[22:28] first teamers and. Got a taste of what La Liga is
[22:33] right coming to coming into even a way game.
[22:37] I get out of the set there he what he thought would be a
[22:40] slightly pushover, but then you understood that the team, the
[22:43] the the opponent is pressing you a lot.
[22:45] It's, it's very physical, doesn't give you much time on
[22:48] the ball. And, and they were doing pretty
[22:50] much everything. They were pressing, They were
[22:51] doing a mid block, low block and, and we really suffered in,
[22:55] in midweek, right. So I think Abaloah kind of
[22:58] understood. I mean, he, he, he tried to do
[23:00] with Kamawinga, right? He had Kamawinga in the middle
[23:02] hoping that he would give that, that steal and, you know, in,
[23:06] in, in the middle. So, but that didn't work.
[23:08] He just had a very, very bad game.
[23:11] So we'll see how it goes when it comes to, you know, more teams,
[23:16] more opponents coming up midweek and the weekend.
[23:22] Yeah, I'm curious to see if Alonzo, I mean, if Arvolo
[23:25] figures out any offense without Guler in the 1st place, if he
[23:28] can put it together and we play wide rotations, it'll be
[23:32] amazing. But I think my thing is I don't
[23:34] see any end point to when the ball gets to the winger with the
[23:36] full back combo plate. Like they're not doing anything.
[23:38] They're just cutting in or they're handing it back to the
[23:41] midfielder and then Vinny's cutting in and they're trying to
[23:43] slip it in centrally, but then there's like nobody out wide and
[23:47] so the defenders just collapse in the middle and it just
[23:50] doesn't feel like a threatening way to play offense right now.
[23:53] There's there's nobody to cross to, right?
[23:55] So there's only Gonzalo. And I was thinking when he took
[23:58] Gonzalo out, who do you cross to from from the wings?
[24:01] There's there's nobody. There's Jude baby coming in.
[24:04] But other than that, that kind of play I I feel with Mbappe in
[24:09] the middle. And no, Gonzalo is just doesn't
[24:10] exist. Yes, for sure, and that's why
[24:14] I'm just so like when when Guler doesn't have acres of space to
[24:17] turn and look around and sip and take a sip of coffee.
[24:20] Very curious to see how the offense goes.
[24:23] Any any other thoughts on this stuff without even know it's
[24:27] been a while since you came on. I know you, for example, don't
[24:30] love seeing the brewing. I think some of the brewing is
[24:32] necessary. I see.
[24:34] I think this like we like there's so many fans who spend
[24:37] their time and energy watching the game and you have guys who
[24:40] are paid millions who are trying to exert themselves over the
[24:42] club. There's nothing wrong with
[24:43] booing them when they're paid that much money in my opinion,
[24:46] especially when they're like exerting influence on the club
[24:50] the way some of the players objectively have over this last
[24:53] few months. So that, you know, we watch a
[24:56] lot of other sports, right? We watch other teams also.
[24:57] How much booing? I'm, I'm not against booing
[25:00] 100%, but how much booing, whistling do you see in other
[25:03] sport? Not much.
[25:04] Even even football in other clubs, you don't see yeah, in La
[25:07] Liga, it happens in the Premier League, Bundesliga, I I don't
[25:11] see much whistling. There are teams that's losing.
[25:13] I know the standard of winning with Real Madrid is extremely,
[25:17] extremely high. We are used to winning and, and
[25:20] I and I think even pre Cristiano or even before when Cristiano
[25:26] came, when we were losing in the semi finals or you remember the
[25:29] Leon, the back when you're getting knocked out of the
[25:32] round, round of 16, there was booing.
[25:34] But I, I just felt that today the booing was not, it was
[25:39] against the players, but it was more against Fountain of Prayers
[25:42] and sacking Sabi Alonso. I think they were booing against
[25:45] the overall aspect of how things were.
[25:48] You, you don't have to Boo the entire first stab.
[25:50] They were booing the entire first stab.
[25:52] And when he got on the ball every 30 seconds, they were
[25:55] booing it. And I think that's what I don't
[25:58] agree. You can Boo, but not all the
[26:00] time. Players do get the message when
[26:03] they, when they whistle, right? So I just feel that it's players
[26:08] know what's happening, right? I, I just, I just feel that you
[26:10] need to encourage the players also the same time.
[26:14] But if if you don't, if you don't see effort.
[26:16] So I one of the things I've heard about border bears, if you
[26:18] don't see effort in the middle of the field, that's when they
[26:20] start booing. But I felt there was effort in
[26:23] the first half. It's just that it didn't work
[26:25] out. The lineup was shit.
[26:26] It was it was tactically it was bad.
[26:28] And second-half improved, right? And we saw less whistling in the
[26:33] second-half. Why?
[26:34] Because we saw fluidity improved in the second-half, right?
[26:38] And I think the Barnabas saw that and it was a lot less of
[26:43] booing in the second-half. So why do you like, like how do
[26:47] you sorry, how do you analyze that?
[26:49] Is it because we were playing better in the second-half, they
[26:51] started whistling less or did they have some sort of stuff
[26:56] against the players? Right, no, I, I think we scored.
[26:58] So it's like I, I was watching the video that the our fan at
[27:01] the stadium sent of the goal. It's on our Twitter, by the way.
[27:04] You can check it out. We have a couple of clips of the
[27:06] booing from a pretty close seat to the stadium, like front, not
[27:09] front row, but pretty close and then front row a pretty good
[27:12] view of Mbappe's goal. And I think the first thing that
[27:15] stood out to me was it felt very subdued, the celebrations.
[27:19] But I like, I just when Mbappe scored, it felt like relief more
[27:23] than, yeah, I, I didn't hear a loud celebration.
[27:26] I felt almost like a gasp and like a mild celebration.
[27:30] And then, and I think that I, I don't think anyone wants to Boo.
[27:35] It's like if the team's winning, it's our below a second game in
[27:37] charge. You don't want to Boo.
[27:39] But the fact that there was like a no new manager effect and we
[27:42] lost the Copa del Rey game, that that effort in the first half
[27:46] against Levante is still like nil, nil.
[27:49] I think those things kind of indicate how far we've fallen as
[27:51] a sporting project. And I think The thing is
[27:54] Florentino himself needs the booze, like for sure, because
[27:59] this guy lives off public opinion.
[28:00] He lives and dies off it. And I think, and I think he also
[28:04] thinks he can manipulate public opinion, which with with the
[28:07] sacking, I think that's what he thought he was doing.
[28:08] He's like, hey, like everything everyone's been complaining
[28:11] about since last June is all Chubby's fault.
[28:13] I'll just sack him and we'll be good.
[28:15] That's what I think he was thinking.
[28:16] He's like, I'm tired of the complaints from Vinny, from the
[28:18] players, from agents, from the fans about the style of play.
[28:23] But I think, yeah, I just think he's going to use everyone else
[28:26] as a scapegoat. And on some level, you know,
[28:31] having like, I, I just think having him hear it is the only
[28:36] way. And you know, he also changed
[28:38] the rules as far as like how you can run for president.
[28:41] So I think there's a general concern Talib, that he's Oh,
[28:45] also, dude, the thing before the game about how you couldn't
[28:48] you're not allowed to Boo. There was a thing that.
[28:50] Came out the at the at the what is a group called behind the
[28:53] stands. I think it was subject to them
[28:55] that they were not allowed to be on the on the the ticket season
[28:58] tickets would be cancelled. I don't even know how much that
[29:00] of that is true, but. There's a part of the the
[29:03] Vertibus the vertibus still whistle right?
[29:05] You you could see. So I saw, I heard whistling and
[29:09] I saw the those those fans at the back of the post cheering
[29:14] for the team. So you could hear a little bit
[29:16] of mix of cheering and whistling, right?
[29:20] But I just want to get your pit. I know you spoke midweek about
[29:24] Zabby's sacking and all the stuff that's going on.
[29:27] I want to ask you something. There was a lot of reports on
[29:30] physical preparation for the team and physically the players
[29:33] not being up to the mark doing Zabby's tenure, but Pinterest
[29:39] not being around. I understand Pinterest even last
[29:41] season had a lot of injuries, right?
[29:44] So I just want to get your opinion on what do you think
[29:46] from the physical aspect of the players because I saw a lot of
[29:50] games we've been complaining the intensity has been missing in
[29:54] the last few months. Do you think is that like a
[29:57] physical preparation or is it something that they were not
[30:01] listening to the coach just doing their own thing or mix of
[30:05] pretty much everything? I just, yeah.
[30:06] What do you think about? That yeah, yeah, I think it's a
[30:08] mix of three things. First, like I just want to put
[30:11] #1 the bad medical staff. Because irrespective of fitness,
[30:15] the main thing that stands out to me watching Vinnie is he's
[30:17] just not explosive. And like, I'd like to think I
[30:20] have some level of critical thinking with this guy because
[30:22] I've been watching him since he burned PK on the scene.
[30:25] And I was telling everyone he'll be a GOAT like 7 years ago.
[30:27] And the same reasons I thought he'd be a GOAT then are the same
[30:31] reasons I just cannot project him getting better right now.
[30:34] Because wingers peak like 19 to 26.
[30:38] Like physically, like it's just the reality.
[30:40] As an athlete, you just peak younger.
[30:41] Like the most intensive roles reasonably are a young man's
[30:45] jobs. Like you just can't do it.
[30:46] Even at 2829, you're kind of past the peak of pure physical
[30:50] ability, honestly. And so so there's that.
[30:54] And when Vinnie came onto the scene, it was effortless for him
[30:57] to burst past players. And then what happened was, you
[31:01] know, and I just bring it up as a label because Biddy is the one
[31:04] where you see it all, where like I, I guess the rest of the team
[31:07] doesn't dribble as much, where you can see the lack of
[31:09] explosion. Biddy's whole game is just
[31:11] winning duels one-on-one, beating your man, beating your
[31:14] man. And I think on some level the
[31:16] cumulative effect of not having a good injury prevention system,
[31:20] not having a good performance enhancement system has caught
[31:23] up. And I actually think we got
[31:24] lucky. That's the thing.
[31:26] I think we got lucky a few years ago with Pintas and everything.
[31:28] I think these guys are freaks. They work with Pintas and had
[31:32] good trainers. And gradually after a few years
[31:36] of like superhuman effort, superhuman talent bailing us out
[31:40] of some really hard games, I think that ran out.
[31:43] Like I think sustaining it itself requires like the best
[31:46] level of performance management. So when you don't have high
[31:49] level performance management for a long time like now, and I'm
[31:53] saying Pintas, isn't that because Pintas essentially takes
[31:56] time away from training to do pure endurance work that could
[31:59] otherwise go towards film room or technical ability?
[32:03] So I'm saying like all this Pintas Valley stuff we did and
[32:06] won the Champions League while getting injured was 1/2 assed
[32:09] way of going about all this. And then you lose Pintas, Jabi
[32:13] comes in, maybe Vinny pushes back on Jabi, does some things
[32:16] his own guys want. He finds training too intense.
[32:18] You put it all together, it's like he's not on the best
[32:20] program even while winning. He probably just like like he
[32:24] wasn't lucky to win, but we were lucky that he hit the genetic
[32:28] like that. Our players hit a genetic
[32:30] threshold where we could bullshit get injured and use the
[32:33] Pintas effect without having maybe other top things in place.
[32:37] We could still win because our players are that crazy.
[32:40] Does that kind of make sense? So I'm saying.
[32:41] Like we have the bales and the moderate screws, Ronaldo, all
[32:44] those guys, right? So I think they were they were
[32:47] physical freaks in my opinion, right.
[32:49] But I think he go ahead say sorry, I cut you off.
[32:51] Yeah, I just want to put that. Well, no.
[32:53] Well, they were. So that's the thing.
[32:54] Ronaldo had his own team that came.
[32:57] And I think on some level, like 2020 during the pandemic, you go
[33:01] read about it and these guys all had their own personal trainers.
[33:04] That's why we won the league because like they all stayed in
[33:06] shape those three months during the pandemic, came back, we won,
[33:08] won every game, one nil. We were fitter than the other
[33:11] teams. But I'm just saying all that
[33:13] accessory work of like physical fitness and everything that's
[33:17] secondary to good nutrition and training at the training ground,
[33:21] that's really still the foundation.
[33:22] And that even under Carlo was not being implemented perfectly.
[33:27] Like players were not listening to everything on the pitch.
[33:29] They weren't watching film. And obviously we can see now
[33:33] that they were not willing to do that.
[33:35] Like when when when Pinterest work got removed.
[33:37] I think what happened was that extra endurance boost he gave
[33:40] them went away last season. And on top of that, everything
[33:44] else is subpar. And I think Pintas's endurance
[33:47] boost would hurt us early in the season, like in the fall and
[33:50] benefit us at the end. So we just got like a little
[33:53] curve down and then a curve up at the end.
[33:55] Now that's gone. And you can just see this team
[33:58] if they're, if they don't have a Pintas, like essentially like
[34:02] making them extra hard for the second-half of the season.
[34:06] If they don't have that in the reserve, then their basic
[34:08] training doesn't do anything to differentiate them that much.
[34:10] Like they don't improve as players on the training ground
[34:13] enough. They don't apply themselves
[34:14] enough. And that's what I see when I see
[34:16] the team. I see a team that's not
[34:18] improving and training because they don't want to do all the
[34:20] work. But I, I think, yeah, I'm a
[34:22] little optimistic on what can happen in coming down, right.
[34:25] So I, I just feel that if we, if physical preparation took
[34:29] control during Zabi's time because of the reports that I've
[34:33] been hearing, I don't know how much of it is true.
[34:35] But if you, if you have Pinterest coming and coming and
[34:39] changing certain things that the way it was done and if it
[34:43] improves from a physical stand of you.
[34:44] And I think that could be a plus point for some of these players.
[34:49] And then obviously having a good relationship with the coach,
[34:51] right? That's also very important.
[34:53] If, if the players start listening to the coach.
[34:55] I know Arbello is pretty soft and I don't know how much how,
[34:58] how I don't know how, how much how assertive he is and how he
[35:02] can bring the players to his philosophy, right?
[35:06] But if if the physical aspect of the team improves and, and we
[35:10] saw right in by 65th minute, player performance started
[35:15] dropping off right in some of those games when we were seeing
[35:18] like we, we substitutions were required.
[35:20] That was never the case. I remember all that.
[35:22] I'm on Tadas and everything. This team used to work hard and
[35:26] come back even at the 70th, 75th, 80th minute, right.
[35:29] We used to be, we used to run, we used to slight tackle,
[35:32] moderate getting on to all the balls.
[35:34] And also we, we saw we lost a little bit of that towards the
[35:38] end of last season and also this season, I feel because the
[35:43] system wasn't, wasn't there like zombies system was never
[35:48] adopted, right? So I just feel how do you
[35:51] compensate on that, right? If you, if you're not physically
[35:54] good and you don't have a good system, you're bound to fail,
[35:59] right? So you don't have players
[36:00] leaning on their their personal physical peakness.
[36:05] Do something. It's interesting because that's
[36:07] Pintas had that effect when he I believe he joined with Zidane
[36:10] and Zidane ran a mini preseason with Pintas 10 years ago around
[36:14] this time and it worked. But even though it worked, like
[36:19] there's a reason Zidane didn't want him back, man.
[36:21] I'm just saying like I'm just saying if you want to work as a
[36:23] coach, there's a reason they said don't like Carlo didn't
[36:26] want him. Zidane didn't want him by the
[36:27] end. He wanted Gregory DuPont.
[36:29] Even though he had 60 injuries, he still preferred Gregory
[36:31] DuPont over. Yeah.
[36:33] And I think he, we, we left. I think right.
[36:35] Some other, yeah. Yeah, DuPont left, DuPont
[36:38] failed. But like the point is there's a
[36:41] limited amount of time on the training ground.
[36:43] And part of the reason we had to come back those times is because
[36:46] we're doing all this endurance work on the training ground.
[36:48] Tactics are off, and we have to play with sheer desperation to
[36:51] come back. And it happens to be that we had
[36:54] the combo of physical fitness, but also talent to pull it off.
[36:57] Like, and I say talent because like once we signed all the
[37:00] young midfielders, we could play more of just water cruiser
[37:03] moderate at one time. And that allowed us to have the
[37:06] other one available off the bench.
[37:07] Or if you go back to 2022, Isco was still available, if I'm not
[37:10] wrong, in that last run, Right. He was there.
[37:14] Yeah. OK.
[37:14] So we don't have anyone like Isco right now.
[37:16] Like Arda can't turn like, like the washed old Isco coming off
[37:20] the bench. He can't even do that.
[37:21] So it's, I mean he. I hope he improves in that
[37:24] aspect, right? That's maybe something he can
[37:27] work on his game and try to be a little more quicker on the ball,
[37:29] right movement and turn, turning around, That's what his score is
[37:33] absolutely amazing with that. That's why I feel Gula could
[37:36] improve. I just need he he needs more,
[37:39] more, more and more game time. Again, stuff up, up and I know
[37:42] he got out of minutes but I don't want to give up on Gula
[37:46] that easy and on I'm sure the club's not going to do that
[37:49] either. I just mean, we did.
[37:51] At the end of the day, when we're playing a better team like
[37:53] Monaco, that presses up on us probably a lot more.
[37:56] We need guys who we need pintis effect.
[37:58] But if like the Pintis effect worked because we had guys who
[38:01] could play quarterback, who could steer the ship, play point
[38:03] guard, who could sit deep and essentially be general.
[38:06] Sabios. I mean Sabios is supposed to do
[38:08] that but he just keeps getting injured every 3rd game second
[38:11] game right? Sabios is basically in the
[38:13] camera viga category of like between injuries and like their
[38:16] your career trajectory. We don't know who you are on a
[38:19] given day. There are matchups where you're
[38:20] probably effective. So BIOS is like the opposite of
[38:23] Kamala Vinga. He like plays down to teams,
[38:25] almost like the worser teams are the better matchups for him.
[38:28] Kamala Vinga is better at bigger games, but I just think without
[38:31] those guys, the same Pintis effect, I don't see it working
[38:33] because we're not going to be able to handle the ball.
[38:35] We're not going to be able to get it up the field.
[38:38] Like it's not just that we got it up the field, it's that we
[38:40] got it up the field guided. Like our comebacks weren't long
[38:43] balls. They were like just possession
[38:45] sequences of US playing faster, thinking quicker, moving better
[38:49] and. Efficient, like very efficient
[38:51] fluid. We saw with Cruz and Madrich
[38:54] being in the middle, right, we saw some of those highlights and
[38:56] I keep seeing, right, it's so efficient that they they cross
[38:59] the ball from left to right, they come to the mid and then
[39:01] they take it forward, right. It's so fluid.
[39:04] And I think that's what we didn't see that much, yeah, in
[39:08] this in this season. Well, it's low turnover as well.
[39:11] And the problem is now anyone who's trying to do the same
[39:14] thing just cannot do it at such a low turnover rate.
[39:16] They're going to give the ball up more.
[39:17] And I'm just saying that's the whole game.
[39:20] I was that's what I was saying. In the summer, Trent is going to
[39:22] require adaptation because Liverpool's comebacks under
[39:24] clock because they had that year or two where they were coming
[39:27] back all the time at the turn of the decade, if you remember
[39:29] before the pandemic, and that was very different.
[39:33] It was keep spamming the ball into the box and win the second
[39:35] ball. We don't do that, we don't win.
[39:38] We would win more second balls than ever chasing games then you
[39:42] would expect us to. But it wasn't designed around
[39:44] winning the second ball. It was designed around making
[39:46] the right path read and finding space.
[39:49] Liverpool didn't find space. They would spam it into
[39:52] congested areas and just try to win it and shove it in.
[39:54] And I know you know, it's just philosophically a different way
[39:58] to play and. I think that's the big thing I'm
[40:01] looking out. Even when the Pintis effect
[40:03] happens this season, I don't expect it to lead to some
[40:06] miracle. Ramon Tatas for that reason.
[40:08] So, so you're saying because even if we improve physically,
[40:10] we won't be much better on the ball?
[40:12] But I understand, yeah, that's probably this because comparing
[40:17] players that we have to the Benzema days and all those
[40:21] things, right? We had great players that were
[40:24] excellent on the ball, right? They would, it would be hard to
[40:26] take the ball away from them. Cruz, Modridge, Benzema, even
[40:30] Bale. Like I understand Bale was fast
[40:33] and he was strong, but he he never used to you.
[40:35] You can't bully the ball off Bale.
[40:37] It's not easy, right? He would still find passing
[40:39] lanes, right? I think that is where the steam
[40:41] lacks. We need a little bit more
[40:43] players who can hold on the ball and pass it around and dictate
[40:47] the player. And we saw against Basa, we got
[40:50] freaking manhandled in the first half, right?
[40:52] Even the second again in the Super Cooper right.
[40:55] It was it was literally like men versus boys in that first half.
[40:59] And I saw I think that was the one of the worst games I've seen
[41:01] first, first apps I've seen in the classical.
[41:04] Yeah. So I get what you're saying.
[41:05] Said you just need to be better in the midfield, have more
[41:09] control of the tempo and on the ball, right.
[41:12] So, and I think, I think that's going to be the.
[41:13] Signing part and I think that means signings like and I don't
[41:16] see where we're going to do that anytime soon.
[41:18] My worry is that we get stuck in mediocrity where like great
[41:22] second-half. I just hope that we don't get
[41:24] stuck in mediocrity where we succeed enough to justify
[41:28] continuing some of these stupid behaviors as a board, as a club,
[41:33] and the lack of internal review, the lack the the total
[41:37] complacency in Fester. If we succeed enough.
[41:40] And I root for Arbeloa, but just if he's toeing the company line,
[41:44] coddling the players, Vinny's not improving and we still win
[41:48] some and Vinny renews like that. The worst case scenario would be
[41:50] that. And I will say this lastly to
[41:51] close, I just don't see how that dude renews man.
[41:55] Like great second-half with Guler.
[41:57] I don't think Vinny did anything that in much in the second-half
[42:00] either of it. Like he just wasted chances as
[42:02] far as I'm concerned. Yeah, he he got he got quite a
[42:05] bit of the ball, but didn't do much of the ball right.
[42:07] He was trying to take take on players and just just didn't
[42:09] pass properly. I mean, he he was doing those
[42:12] back passes from the left hand side, but that but that's pretty
[42:15] much what he did right. But this club is so huge, said
[42:19] they're still going to end up signing players.
[42:21] You if we go on a season with no trophies, again, like no major
[42:24] trophies, we're going to see either Front and Perez maybe
[42:29] resign or just go out there and buy, I don't know, maybe Holland
[42:32] or I don't know, somebody, somebody huge right there.
[42:34] He's going to buy like 3-4 players.
[42:36] I think so. I do see, right.
[42:40] I do see light at the end of the tunnel because this club is got
[42:43] money, it's so huge, it can buy whoever they want, right?
[42:45] Apart from maybe PSG City players.
[42:49] Yes, I will say I just hope I don't trust the president
[42:52] anymore just cuz like I think he's on the verge of retiring so
[42:56] him for him these results don't matter anymore.
[42:59] Like he's really thinking about the next 20-30 years and
[43:03] therefore is the people who get hurt the most are the players
[43:06] and everyone in the squad and team right now.
[43:08] Everyone in the sporting project now is getting neglected
[43:10] essentially. And did I mean seeing this, I
[43:13] saw some of our I saw some of our our below his quotes.
[43:17] But going through them again, did you really say that you
[43:20] can't Boo Florentino Perez because that ties in with
[43:23] Florentino changing the rules for presidency and threatening
[43:26] to rule fans who Boo him today? That that stuff has me bringing
[43:31] out my inner joker. Like, I hate this club now.
[43:33] Like I like I want to sabotage him type shit.
[43:35] Like if you say that they're going to Boo him more, right?
[43:37] I I don't think that's the way I would works.
[43:39] No way I'm going to shut up. Yeah.
[43:42] Dude, he actually said it. I'm going to president on the
[43:45] screen. I'm sharing it on screen right
[43:47] now just because this is. I think he's saying from a point
[43:52] of probably how much foreigner Prayers has achieved for this
[43:56] club. Yeah, that's what I thought.
[43:58] We were so lucky to have him. So I yeah, I thought from that
[44:02] aspect, right. I mean, what is what else is he
[44:04] going to say, right? He's like, yeah, no, no, you
[44:06] should be booing him that that's the way to do it.
[44:09] I mean, there's nothing else he can say, right?
[44:11] Well, it's just if this guy is asking himself for a three-year
[44:13] contract just because he can so he can get the money and walk
[44:15] out with the buyout. That's what it feels like dude
[44:17] at this point because like. I understand, but he's a coach.
[44:21] He he has he has to look after his players and he's his boss is
[44:24] 400 pairs, right? At the end of the day, who was
[44:26] at the top of the chain? I mean, there's nothing else he
[44:29] can say, right? Yeah, no, no, there isn't much
[44:32] more he can say. I just think if he could just be
[44:34] a little more discreet, doesn't have to shamelessly Dick ride
[44:37] our players on board right now, just.
[44:39] Yeah, don't be right saying that.
[44:41] We, we, you know, we, we're trying to do better.
[44:43] We want to be something on that. Ground yeah yeah focus more on
[44:47] how much we have to improve show some sensitivity to the fact
[44:49] that we've been trashed for two fucking years now man and like
[44:52] that's all we ask is a club. Listen between I think the the
[44:57] trying to like get people on video camera to and and like
[45:00] remove them as fans over all this booing is nonsense and I
[45:05] think in general I'm just ready for a little more transparency
[45:07] and modernization in certain aspects of the club.
[45:10] Florentino is so good but he's because he's so good
[45:13] financially. He's a bit like almost like
[45:16] Elon, I would say and I compare them in this sense like Elon
[45:18] like what he did with Twitter. He cuts out like so much of the
[45:21] people working on it and he changes it.
[45:23] But sometimes in the quest for that minimum viable product, you
[45:27] like lose the sight of like what you're doing, you know?
[45:29] And that's what I see with Florentino.
[45:31] He's like, I mean, the same thing you see at United.
[45:33] United thought cutting back on €1,000,000 a year worth of
[45:37] lunches for all their staff would do a lot.
[45:39] Dude, just take a million off a player's salary.
[45:41] You have so many overplayed players and they, they kind of
[45:44] missed the forest for the trees in terms of what is going to
[45:47] boost morale, what is needed for the organization.
[45:50] They start seeing it as like an item line that they are spending
[45:54] and like they see everything as numbers on a sheet and, and it's
[45:57] effective. That's why I compared him, for
[45:59] example, to Elon because like that leads to very and us like
[46:03] we're very successful. But there are moments where you
[46:06] go too far in the direction of like CFO innovative spending
[46:11] approach or 8020955 and what you need only don't worry about the
[46:14] rest. And like, we're clearly there,
[46:16] you know? Yeah, So I, I think comparing
[46:18] United to reality is a little bit different because sit at the
[46:22] end of the day, Premier League has a lot of money, they have a
[46:24] lot of power. They, they, they end up buying a
[46:26] lot of players, right? So even mid mid table teams, low
[46:31] mid table teams like Brighton or whoever, right, They end up
[46:35] spending a lot of money and can buy decently good players.
[46:38] So I think if you, if you have a club like United who are not
[46:42] getting well, who are getting 4 out of the five things wrong,
[46:45] you, you're still competing against those clubs who have
[46:47] decent amount of players, right. When in La Liga there is 4-5
[46:53] clubs, 4 clubs maybe or three clubs who is competing, it was
[46:57] always be at the top. So I think for Real Madrid is a
[46:59] little more easier than if you compare to the Premier League.
[47:02] Obviously you have Champions League when you have everybody
[47:04] in the same part. It's easier to get it wrong here
[47:10] than in the primitive because primitive is so tough.
[47:13] I, I that's my personal opinion in terms of competition, but but
[47:18] here it's easier to get it right.
[47:22] So I think that's what that needs to be done.
[47:23] If you, if you so, if you have, if you bring in the right
[47:27] players and a decent, decently right coach, it should work
[47:33] right. Well, that's why I think there
[47:35] needs to be more pressure, because then we need more
[47:36] expectations. We should be retaining league
[47:38] titles. And there's a sense among parts
[47:40] of the fan base and presidency himself that they're now trying
[47:43] to mock people asking for consecutive league titles.
[47:46] It's like, dude, like you guys just wait till you go on your
[47:49] next drought and we're going to never stop making fun of you.
[47:51] Like just because I don't want to go on a drought.
[47:53] I'm just saying if we ignore the processes and I just compared to
[47:56] United because I mean, hey, we were pretty cheap on social
[47:59] media spending as far as I can tell.
[48:01] A few, like some years ago, we were one of the later clubs to
[48:04] that train. Adapted.
[48:05] Yeah. And then we were also my
[48:07] understanding from my time at managing Madrid, Keon always
[48:10] says The food was nothing crazy. Unless it's a Champions League
[48:12] night, I think, and even then it's a duffel bag.
[48:14] Like when you go to Premier League games.
[48:16] Chelsea, like the food is crazy, but the food for media was not
[48:19] that crazy here. And I think there's a little bit
[48:22] of the arrogance of like, you know, we've created so many
[48:24] great experiences. Just trust us on this one.
[48:26] And I think there needs to be a little more of going above and
[48:29] beyond to create an elite customer experience because
[48:31] like, ultimately we have picky fans.
[48:33] That's why we Boo. You know, going back to the
[48:35] booing, I think on some level having extremely high
[48:38] expectations, higher than anyone else in the sport is what
[48:41] creates that environment higher than anyone else in any sport.
[48:44] You know, we used to talk about watching sports.
[48:46] This is the biggest luxury brand arguably in sports.
[48:48] So I think I think that comes with the territory.
[48:50] And on that level, I would just love to see a little more Steve
[48:55] Jobs and Florentino, a little more care for the design, you
[48:58] know, a little more of that, bring that care for the team,
[49:01] that bespoke element of love for the team.
[49:03] Again, just feel like he doesn't love the team right now.
[49:06] He's like, oh, Rudiger out coach, figure it out, you know?
[49:08] Right, right. I mean, from a social media
[49:10] point of view, this club has done a much better job like you
[49:12] mentioned, right? They're very good.
[49:14] The app is pretty good. There's they're very active in
[49:17] social media and stuff like that.
[49:19] How much of front, you know, Perez runs this club?
[49:22] I'm just wondering maybe he needs to delegate certain things
[49:25] to Jazz or Buterango or Scolari or whoever was or higher.
[49:30] I think there's a new CEO that they're trying to hireright he's
[49:33] trying to. Bring Holland in.
[49:35] It's the rumor, according to Jose Angel.
[49:36] Right, so, so front you know Perez runs the biggest
[49:39] construction company and spent billions and billions of revenue
[49:42] and and just delegate some of those work, right.
[49:45] You don't have to be yeah, you go after the mbapes.
[49:49] I understand from a commercial point of view, but try to have
[49:54] other people do the job, bring in players that's needed.
[49:57] I mean, if Zabi said I wanted Zubamendi for 60 million, I mean
[50:02] what they bought 7060 million, you could have still got them.
[50:06] Just load some more, load the team, have more players, you
[50:09] know, like like we did in the past, have a second, a fairly
[50:13] good second bench, things like that, right.
[50:15] So I try to fix the sporting aspect first and then go after
[50:19] the rest. That's why I'm so confused.
[50:21] I'm like dude you know to sack joby for 20 million and bring
[50:24] pintus but you can't delegate some of the basic shit around
[50:27] the medical staff and oversight auditing.
[50:29] That's team making sure everything is running clean
[50:32] internally. I But that's not sorry, Sir,
[50:34] that's not his job, right? I mean he can't be doing A-Z
[50:38] right? Like OK, look after the medical
[50:39] staff, look after the. Nutrition.
[50:41] Why isn't there? Why?
[50:42] Somebody has to do that, right? I'm saying, I'm saying he, he,
[50:45] he puts all these pictures together for players.
[50:47] You're telling me he can't find an executive that can do that?
[50:50] As far as like you're telling me he hasn't found an executive?
[50:53] I feel like he's just been a little arrogant in the way he's
[50:56] gone about delegating over the years.
[50:58] I think he's a control freak a little bit, and I understand it.
[51:01] I'm a control freak too, you know, Like, you know, we change
[51:03] the show. Talib, you haven't been on the
[51:04] show for a couple of months. We're the same.
[51:06] I'm just kidding. Go but take it in.
[51:09] It's not good. I'm just kidding, but I am a
[51:11] control freak. I would, I let go of it before
[51:13] on the show and then when we made the switch, I'm like, OK,
[51:15] now we're going to try and go Pep, you know, before it was a
[51:18] little more Carlo. But so I get it.
[51:22] As a control freak myself, I will say that's where I
[51:25] sympathize with him. But as someone who's super into
[51:27] nutrition, I can't sympathize with that side.
[51:29] And the other thing is the threats, right?
[51:31] The supposed threats towards the lady.
[51:33] If you haven't checked it out, we did an episode on Riometer's
[51:36] medical mafia. Go check it out.
[51:37] But like you're telling me you don't have the oversight?
[51:40] Like, you hear about these things, maybe she comes and
[51:42] tells you what's happening. You're telling me you can't,
[51:44] like, just hire someone to go investigate because you know
[51:47] people are lying to you? Are you telling me you're so
[51:49] gullible you don't know people are lying to you, that you think
[51:51] bringing back Pintis is the only difference between injuries and
[51:53] not like those things? I'm just like, something's not
[51:56] adding up. There's some power play going
[51:58] on. Someone's hiding info from
[51:59] someone. I think that's what it is.
[52:01] I think there's a lot of information that maybe not being
[52:04] passed to the top. And just like any corporate
[52:07] corporation, right, you have upper and you have the upper
[52:12] middle, right? And then you have so much stuff
[52:14] that's going on, people not agreeing to each other.
[52:16] How much would that go all the way to the CEO level, right
[52:19] Until shit, it's the fact, right?
[52:21] Then you understand, you need to cut people out, you need to
[52:23] bring new people in, right. So I'm, I'm always wondering how
[52:27] much front, you know, Perez runs this club, right?
[52:30] I know he he signs off on the check probably on which player
[52:33] to bring in. But other than that, how much is
[52:37] he looking at? Yeah, physically what's being
[52:41] done, exercise wise, what's being done, nutrition wise,
[52:44] what's being done, you know, things like that.
[52:47] There's more to running a club, right?
[52:49] And I, I, I think he's been focused a lot on the Super
[52:51] League and the money aspect and going against UFO and being
[52:56] friends with FIFA and all that stuff, right.
[52:58] So I think he's hovering on the on the top end of the commercial
[53:04] aspect of the club and maybe not looking at things that needs to
[53:07] be looked at deeper. Yeah, yeah, definitely.
[53:11] That's just, I think I have no idea what's happening inside the
[53:13] club really like you're not inside the club, but we don't
[53:15] know what's going. On No, we're definitely not.
[53:16] I'll just say this. If you have control free
[53:18] tendencies, then then you can't like be like, OK, I don't know
[53:20] what's going on. It's like, OK, do you control
[53:22] everything? And are you freaky with giving
[53:24] out control and be restrictive or are you going to like be
[53:27] laissez faire? And it's not all your fault, but
[53:29] like when you're controlling, when you're telling, when you're
[53:32] like choosing the players over the coach Pintus over the old
[53:36] coaching staff and all those when you make those types of
[53:39] decisions that we expect you to have full awareness and
[53:41] accountability as well. And clearly that's not been
[53:44] happening. But Talib, this has been a fun
[53:46] episode. Welcome back to the show.
[53:48] And you know, we are going to work.
[53:50] We are going to have you on more as we work on updating the show.
[53:54] We're going to, you know, as we work on maybe bringing in some
[53:56] potential outside investment so we can do more of this full time
[53:59] potentially. And, you know, bring you on
[54:01] more, make this something that's more fun for everyone.
[54:03] So looking into all that listeners, thank you for coming
[54:08] on. Please like and subscribe.
[54:10] Talib, any final farewells here? Just looking forward to the next
[54:15] Monaco game mid week. I just want to see how sorry I
[54:18] keep I keep seeing Zabi, he's not there so I how he's going to
[54:22] line up and we I'll be about 8 in the table.
[54:27] So definitely need a win. Need to be in the top 8.
[54:30] So need a win in the midweek. Nothing in a win.
[54:33] We're seven tied with Athletico and Liverpool and Inter, so 6th
[54:39] and 9th are tied up. We definitely need to separate a
[54:41] little bit. We're one point behind third and
[54:43] PSG, so definitely need to separate and get that win.
[54:48] Thank you all for tuning in and see you all next time.
[54:51] See you.

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