# Real Madrid's International Break + Mailbag

An episode of [The Real Deal: A Real Madrid Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1807821669), 10 Oct 2025, 1 h 03 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/103607aa8/podcast/play/109505212/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-9-10%2F409044011-44100-2-9f0651dd05681.mp3

Loconte, Jarod Hector and Xavier discuss the international break in the context of Real Madrid, Vinicius, Mbappe's interview, Villarreal's game against Barcelona in Miami, and more. We also take mailbag questions covering subjects like Arda Guler, Brahim Diaz, Nico Paz and more.

## Transcript

[1:03] Hello, welcome to The Real Deal, a Real Madrid podcast with me,
[1:07] Gerard Hector, joined as always on Fridays by La Conte and
[1:11] Xavier. What's up fellas?
[1:12] Yo-yo. What's going on guys?
[1:14] How we doing? We're good.
[1:16] It's Friday. We should talk about it off air,
[1:19] Xavier. It's crazy day, right?
[1:20] Got a lot of stuff going on in our personal lives.
[1:24] Nothing to do with football because ain't no club football
[1:26] going on. We're on international break,
[1:28] which is kind of a good thing. So let's actually start there.
[1:33] We have some players who are obviously away.
[1:35] Good news. We have players who stayed.
[1:37] The Valverde thing happened, yes, right.
[1:39] We're happy about that. Tukul not calling up June, by
[1:42] the way. The ridiculousness that is the
[1:44] English football media or just football?
[1:47] Just football media in general. All right, so England beats
[1:49] Wales three nil and I forget who they played in their last one
[1:52] where they won like 5 nothing, their last international break.
[1:55] And now it's like, are England better without Jude Bellingham?
[1:58] I'm like like, like, is this really what we're doing with our
[2:00] free time? Like this is an article that
[2:03] people are actually thinking about writing.
[2:05] Lakante, I love your face because you're like, I'm not
[2:06] even gonna dignify that with a response.
[2:10] I don't know, it's just English media, right?
[2:12] Just being them. And like, they're so petty about
[2:15] the fact that you just refused to go in that league.
[2:18] Like even on on the last interview, they went like, oh,
[2:21] we want you in the Premier League.
[2:22] And he goes like, well, I don't think I'm the guy for that.
[2:25] So yeah, I, I can see why they spend that narrative, really.
[2:29] They love doing that. It's it's a matter of
[2:31] convenience for me, right? I mean, look at the timing.
[2:34] You know, you need to get your clicks and then your sales in a
[2:36] in a slow week. And why?
[2:37] Why not target you, huh? So ridiculous.
[2:40] It's just it's just dumb. But yes, it and Bape.
[2:43] I believe all of his matches kick kicked off yet, but he
[2:46] plays today apparently with France.
[2:49] We'll see what was going on with him.
[2:50] I know he had the ankle that that happened in in in our last
[2:53] La Liga match and we were all concerned about is he going to
[2:56] even go? The French medical doctor say
[2:58] he's fine. I don't know if I trust them.
[3:00] I don't know if I trust his jumps.
[3:01] But we are where we are. We just hope he and Kamabinka
[3:04] both come back healthily. The Brazilians played last night
[3:07] or this morning I should say, US time against South Korea.
[3:11] They won three nil. I want to say Vinny and Rodrigo
[3:14] both look good. I mean, it is South Korea, so
[3:16] let's not lose our minds. But the confidence, I think, and
[3:21] Vinny continuing to follow up on his good play is good for him.
[3:25] And Rodrigo playing well, I think it's also good for him.
[3:28] Yep. Especially with Vinny,
[3:29] considering everything that's happening with him outside the
[3:32] pitch, unfortunately. And yeah, I mean, and the
[3:37] Ranchalotti, it's always good vibes for the Brazilians.
[3:40] Vibes FC baby. Yes yes, great vibes.
[3:43] You know it was amazing to see. I just saw some of the
[3:46] highlights but they did win 5 nothing by the.
[3:48] Way. Vinny ended up scoring as well
[3:50] at the fifth goal and the chemistry between Rodrigo and
[3:53] Vinny for some reason other Carlo, there's some there's like
[3:56] some magic there. There's some, there's some
[3:58] motion for some reason it's it's not happening right now in
[4:00] Madrid. So I have to call that out by.
[4:02] Myself. So, so, so now we need the
[4:03] Spanish press to write the story.
[4:05] Oh, did Madrid make a mistake? Get rid of enchilada.
[4:08] You should Rodrigo be starting with It's like that.
[4:10] That right, that's the next story we need.
[4:11] That was an article today above that.
[4:17] Drafts already ready to send. They already had it in drafts,
[4:20] right? Waiting for the OK press send
[4:22] publish now. We're good to go.
[4:23] Oh my God, just so ridiculous. Anyway, that's a sort of a
[4:28] larger guys out and then there's more matches.
[4:30] I know Alba played. Austria won 10 nil today.
[4:33] I want to say something crazy like that.
[4:36] Whatever. Yeah.
[4:40] The the big thing here is we want our players to come back in
[4:42] good form and not injured. That's all we want.
[4:45] No one feels weird though watching international break,
[4:48] seeing Croatia play and knowing that Madrish doesn't play for
[4:51] your team anymore. I.
[4:52] Know just Wild Madrish, by the way, who's playing well for AC
[4:57] Milan. AC Milan, Yeah, great, actually.
[5:00] He's he's been a revolution over there.
[5:02] They're what, top of Syria? Yeah.
[5:04] They're they're playing well. I mean, a lot of people feel
[5:07] that they saw that, so, yeah. And not that I am, even though I
[5:12] don't know how you feel about this Xavier.
[5:14] Not that I am a pro yay USA guy, even though I am American.
[5:18] Kristen Poole's such a big reason why AC Milan plays well.
[5:21] And not because again, I, I, I'm not some like Christian's
[5:24] awesome, but like, he's just a little good.
[5:28] Footballer, yes. He he's let us down too many
[5:31] times. OK, I got to be honest, I've
[5:34] I've put my hope in him too many times.
[5:36] You see, that's your problem. It's because when the World Cup
[5:38] comes, you root for the USA. See, I don't do that.
[5:40] So I have no problems. I have 0, so it doesn't bother
[5:43] me. Win, lose.
[5:44] I'm like, whatever, you got to root for someone else.
[5:46] That'll save you. And please, we participate.
[5:51] You get participation. You get participation awards,
[5:53] that's true. Exactly right.
[5:57] Oh, bad, awesome La Liga news. UEFA has made it.
[6:02] Yeah, UEFA approved it, right? That two of the big or two of
[6:07] the big 5 European leagues will have matches overseas this year.
[6:12] Sierra, I will have a match, I want to say in Australia and
[6:16] Liga will have a match in Miami between Villa and Barcelona and
[6:21] we'll talk about that one because that pertains to what we
[6:23] want to talk about, which is Real Madrid and the La Liga
[6:26] competition which we are in. So this Barsa match, Billy Real,
[6:30] by the way, a team that we just beat at home right before the
[6:33] international break, a team in the top five in the league in
[6:37] the table, right? So a very a very good squad, a
[6:39] team that at home is a very tough team to play against,
[6:43] right, Like really, really difficult.
[6:46] Well, that home game against Barcelona has effectively now
[6:49] been made A and I'm using air quotes if you're listening on
[6:52] Apple and Spotify, a neutral site game in Miami, FL.
[6:56] Now for anybody who knows anything about football, neutral
[7:00] Miami is going to be 100% Barcelona fans.
[7:04] I don't care that La Liga is saying, oh, we're gonna fly in
[7:06] Villarreal fans. OK, You mean to tell me people
[7:09] are gonna take off, I don't know, four days from work?
[7:12] No, that stadium's gonna be rocking Bella Grana.
[7:16] Like all Barcelona, like all the time, heavy.
[7:20] And so from a competition perspective, Barcelona has one
[7:24] of their toughest matches basically turned into a home
[7:26] match away. Wild that that's allowed to
[7:28] happen. I mean, first and foremost, I
[7:33] hope yet LA Minimal doesn't get to travel there.
[7:35] With all the news that's come in Miami, she might as well stay
[7:38] there. But.
[7:42] Say more, say more, say more. You know, you know.
[7:47] Subscribers will get the context, I guess, of what I'm
[7:49] saying. But outside of that, yeah, I
[7:54] mean, Frankie Daon himself came out and said that even as a
[7:58] Borsa player, this just feels not very fair.
[8:03] And also against the spirit of the sport.
[8:06] Because ultimately, you're giving me around like 6 more
[8:08] million for them to basically give up one game or Atlas
[8:14] Ceramica, which is, well, not to say them that Barcelona
[8:18] struggled a lot. Like, I know that they're going
[8:21] to push this narrative of, oh, OK, we haven't struggled that
[8:24] much. It doesn't really matter.
[8:25] Its season is different. And guess what?
[8:29] Struggling now. No, just let me take this
[8:32] example. Sevilla did not beat Barcelona
[8:34] for a decade. Somebody tell me what the
[8:37] scoreline of the last game between Barcelona was.
[8:40] So every season is different. You can't really use, oh, we
[8:44] have won last five meetings at that stadium.
[8:47] It doesn't work like that. Like a team is better, a team is
[8:50] worse. It doesn't really matter.
[8:52] It's very unfair. Unfortunately, it's being done
[8:55] purely from a financial standpoint.
[8:57] That is, as you mentioned, no neutral ground.
[9:00] There is no way that Villarreal can match Barcelona in a Miami
[9:05] stadium. Like, it doesn't matter if
[9:07] you're a football fan in US alone, you're going to be a
[9:12] Barsa supporter in that game. You probably are not going to
[9:14] cheer. You're still going to support
[9:16] Barsa and just sit there and celebrate their goals, which can
[9:21] be enough of a swing to make it into a home turf.
[9:25] Yeah, because. They're they're the known
[9:27] commodity, right? Like they are the known.
[9:29] I mean, outside of die hard Villarreal fans, who the hell in
[9:32] Miami knows Villarreal even exists, Even knows Villarreal's
[9:35] a place? Exactly.
[9:36] Exactly. It's very small place in Spain
[9:39] to begin with, like stadium alone is very small, like you
[9:42] saw in the Champions League, how Well they don't really have that
[9:47] many supporters. If we have really want to be a
[9:49] regulator. It's just the fact that
[9:52] historically throughout at least my time, they've been a great
[9:55] club. Yes, they did have a relegation
[9:57] in between, but I remember from the teams of Raquelme, Diego
[10:01] Forlan, who should have beat Arsenal in 2006 by the way.
[10:05] But from that to the team that they are now led by Marcellinio,
[10:10] some good players, Danny Perrejo, for example, like a
[10:13] legendary Spanish midfielder still in there.
[10:17] I don't know, like I don't agree with the notion it.
[10:20] Stinks, Xavier, right? What do you think?
[10:21] It stinks? Look, and, and I'm glad you
[10:24] mentioned it, La Ceramica Villarreal stadium, I mean, it's
[10:27] a historic site. They've been playing there, but
[10:29] since the 20s, I believe it is. I know when it went through some
[10:34] reservations recently. But I mean, it's one of those
[10:36] stadiums where if you are a traveling fan, like yes, visit
[10:41] that stadium. If if you happen to be in Spain
[10:44] and you know, you want to see Real Madrid, there are some
[10:47] historical stadiums that for me show the culture of Spain, like
[10:52] represent our league, why we're different and, and La Ceramica
[10:56] is fits that criteria to a tee. Another thing that I have an
[11:01] issue with when it comes to the competition itself, essentially
[11:05] Barcelona are now awarded an extra home game.
[11:08] So every other team has one less home game than Barcelona in La
[11:12] Liga. And that's something that for me
[11:15] just doesn't sit right. I if it were the other way
[11:18] around, to be candid, if it was Barcelona home game that was
[11:22] getting sacrificed for this, I would have less of a problem
[11:24] with it. I mean, we see our own sports
[11:26] here in America going to be played in in Europe all the
[11:29] time. But where I have an issue with
[11:31] it is you're taking away a home game from Villarreal in which
[11:35] they would have their fans, they would be able to create their
[11:38] atmosphere. And you're essentially giving
[11:40] that up to Barcelona, who's going to, as you mentioned,
[11:43] bring all of the fans. I'm gonna maybe do my best part
[11:47] to break that ratio up in Miami, by the way, just for the sake
[11:51] of. But in, in reality, I don't
[11:54] think that Barcelona, who is the defending champions, right?
[11:58] They won the league last year, should be awarded an extra home
[12:01] game the following year. That to me speaks of maybe some
[12:06] injustice within the league itself.
[12:09] I don't know what's what's happening.
[12:11] There is a new Negrada doc that just dropped.
[12:13] If you know, you know, go watch it on YouTube, please.
[12:17] And it it just to me, it stinks of hey, maybe the back end
[12:23] business dealing in Spain that's been happening this league for
[12:25] far too long is still happening. And I don't like it personally.
[12:31] I think we need to go towards more transparency.
[12:33] And I think this is anything but transparent.
[12:36] Last thing I wanna say on a separate note, that game being
[12:39] played in Perth between AC Milan and Como, it's gonna be the
[12:42] battle of Luka Morgic versus Nico Boss.
[12:44] So I may actually tune into that as well.
[12:47] But to, to the same degree. I, I don't like this idea of,
[12:52] you know, you're taking away home games from historical
[12:54] stadiums and, and you're giving it away to bigger brands.
[12:57] Cause the same thing. It's gonna be all AC Milan fans
[12:59] in Perth, right? And I just, I don't like that.
[13:01] Yeah, listen, it is. It is harming the integrity of
[13:06] the domestic competition when you do that.
[13:08] And by the way, La Liga, a domestic competition which
[13:11] already has major integrity issues, right?
[13:14] You are not helping your case by doing this.
[13:16] You are making it worse, right? And Javier Tabos, who was a
[13:20] atrocious league president, one of the worst I've ever seen in
[13:23] any sport. Like, bro, what do you even care
[13:25] about? Like what do you care about
[13:27] actually like making your league profitable and growing it and
[13:30] like having fans, does that actually interest you or no?
[13:33] And I don't know what his ultimate end game is, but this
[13:36] to me is not it. I understand the idea of wanting
[13:38] to grow your sport and do all that, but this what?
[13:41] This is not the way to do it. Hell, if you want to do it that
[13:44] way, you're better off. But of course they won't because
[13:46] of again, the size of the clubs. Anytime the league has agrees to
[13:50] a team going to play, especially in the US, it's going to be 1 of
[13:52] Real Madrid or Barcelona because maybe at like maybe, maybe, but
[13:57] really one of those top two teams because they're going to
[14:00] draw the eyeballs to the stadium, right?
[14:01] From a dollar standpoint. But if it really was about
[14:03] growing, why don't you send Villarreal and Ryo to to Miami,
[14:08] right? If you really care about it in
[14:09] that way, right? But they don't.
[14:11] It's not about that. It's about the dollars, right?
[14:13] That's clearly what this is all about.
[14:14] Yeah, obviously and and the timing is very convenient.
[14:17] Last game of the year, like there is no at least travelling
[14:22] burden into any team. It's more or less like, OK,
[14:26] everything has been conveniently set up.
[14:28] It's end of the year, 25th of December if I'm correct.
[14:32] It's like people are probably on their holiday breaks at that
[14:37] point. It's going to be failed.
[14:39] And if it's the schedule, the teams can just chill, continue
[14:43] their vacation new as if they want to, and that's about it.
[14:48] But I mean, I can say as much as I want about the league.
[14:52] Yeah, I'll had the chance to turn it down and they didn't.
[14:55] And they didn't. You're right.
[14:56] So that's also them. They wanted the money like it's
[15:00] sometimes the simplicity of it is they wanted the money.
[15:04] But in and of itself is its own problem, right?
[15:07] Is that a club like Villarreal, which is a small club which we
[15:09] talk about, that these small clubs are now seeing?
[15:11] The only way for us to get extra cash is to do shit like this.
[15:16] I mean Spanish teams in Europe, right, for the most part, like
[15:19] look at the Champions League, like they don't even care about
[15:22] it. They just care about the money
[15:24] that comes with their tennis, Flora said.
[15:25] They can push it. It's more of like them treating
[15:28] it as pre season. When I say Spanish flops, I mean
[15:31] outside of the big three of course.
[15:33] So that would be Athletic Club and we are out this season.
[15:37] There's a lack of seriousness with them within the
[15:39] competition. We can argue that there's a
[15:42] ceiling with them, yes, but do their performances match their
[15:46] performances on league? Not really.
[15:49] So Sevilla for example, like they used to drop off of the
[15:53] group stages back then. Sometimes he felt that they
[15:56] wanted to just go to the Europa League and win it, but when?
[16:00] You win A3P. Can you blame them though?
[16:03] Yeah, exactly. But let's keep in mind they kept
[16:06] falling off the group stages, right?
[16:08] By the way, Barcelona has done the same too, twice.
[16:11] So yeah. But yeah, for the most part,
[16:15] don't agree with it. Like Seri also issued a
[16:18] statement a few months back now about how how we should expand
[16:24] it. How about you actually allow us
[16:27] to even share clips to begin with if you want to expand your
[16:30] sport, right? Like you don't allow us to share
[16:34] clips. Our accounts are endangered if I
[16:38] put up a goal or a skill. But you're taking teams to a
[16:44] completely different continent to play one game.
[16:48] That's how we're. Going to in the middle of the.
[16:50] Season. Us using clips, God forbid.
[16:54] Yeah, yeah, you're right. You're in the middle of the
[16:56] season, right? Like just I don't know.
[16:59] One last thing I want to say about it is, and and this is the
[17:03] last time I'll mention our our rival opposition last year.
[17:08] Keep in mind they requested to play most of their home games in
[17:12] the first half of the season because of their stadium
[17:14] construction. They also got the same privilege
[17:16] this year, and now they're also getting a game scheduled in
[17:20] Miami on their behalf. And yeah, but Madrid have that
[17:23] too, when Bonobo was not ready. Yeah, back back in COVID, we we
[17:27] did that for one season in COVID.
[17:29] Yeah, we did that for one season, but naturally they've
[17:32] shown that they're open to doing that for so many teams.
[17:34] Agree. Well, here's the question I have
[17:36] about that. Let's say the camp now is ready
[17:40] in January. It probably won't be, but let's
[17:42] just assume it is. Is UEFA gonna allow them to be
[17:45] like, OK, you can now play your Champions League matches there?
[17:48] That to me is wild, right? It's like gonna happen.
[17:51] If it wasn't ready at the beginning of Champions League,
[17:54] why do you get to all of a sudden have it now in the middle
[17:56] of Champions League? There's a there's a reason why
[17:59] LaPorte is breaking away from the Super League, right?
[18:02] And you see it, he's he's now getting comfortable with Al
[18:06] Khalifi. He's sending, you know, he's,
[18:09] he's getting comfortable and using language like, hey, we're
[18:11] willing to, you know, have better relations with UEFA.
[18:15] He's met with Zephrin several times in the past year and a
[18:18] half. So like, the writing's on the
[18:20] wall for me. You kind of see where the power
[18:22] dynamic is going. And we'll see how that plays out
[18:26] 'cause I, I, I really think there will be some sort of
[18:28] implications on this between real and bars and.
[18:30] And and this is right, because if the narrative holds, right,
[18:34] that that's how the clubs present themselves, right?
[18:37] Real Madrid is seen as the club that is always in a fight
[18:40] against every major sport body, right?
[18:42] La Liga, UEFA, whoever, right? We're anti everybody.
[18:46] And if Arza is cozying up to UEFA, right?
[18:49] And like, Oh no, we're in lockstep.
[18:50] We want what's best for the whole of the, of UEFA.
[18:54] Watch that tale get spun now and be a whole different set of
[18:58] things. Yep.
[19:00] I mean, yes, but I'm going to be honest, Madrid has put
[19:04] themselves in that position. I agree.
[19:06] I agree. So I mean, there are a lot of
[19:09] politics played right then La Porte is like a master
[19:12] politician, for example, Like you have tweets of people going
[19:15] like, oh, Florentino Perez must be so annoyed by the fact that
[19:20] he always gets overshadowed by La Porte.
[19:22] It's like, yeah, of the pitch. Because on the pitch, definitely
[19:25] not. Like, that just can't happen.
[19:27] La Porta can't live long enough with that fat belly of his to be
[19:31] more successful than Florentino Perez.
[19:33] But there's a reason he's a master politician.
[19:38] If he ran for the President of United States literally right
[19:41] now with a broken English, I genuinely believe he would win.
[19:44] Like that's how much I rate La Porta's ability to politically
[19:49] shift things. Registration of FOMO,
[19:51] registration of Kunde. He's just always finds a
[19:54] political way and. All the financial, all the
[19:58] financial trouble they're in and they still managed to still
[20:01] sign. I'm like what?
[20:03] I mean he goes and celebrates 900 million revenue right?
[20:07] Making their fans believe that they're generating such
[20:10] ridiculous revenue. 900 million was broken by Madrid before
[20:15] COVID even started. Like their revenue for this year
[20:18] was 1.6 billion. So this is the difference.
[20:21] But guess what? From Madrid's revenue, nobody
[20:24] talks it. It's not really a thing.
[20:27] Well, for Barcelona, who, by the way, have increased depth to 3
[20:32] billion right now, for them, it's celebrated.
[20:37] So that's why I say like, when it comes to power dynamics, when
[20:41] it comes to politically shifting the goal posts to everything,
[20:45] you just can't play with them. You just can't.
[20:48] Barcelona has a negative debt to income ratio right now.
[20:51] A big one, but to hear them tell it, oh, we're perfectly fine,
[20:56] everything's good, OK, cool. Anyway, we don't want to spend
[20:58] all day talking about Barcelona, but that's just the reality of
[21:00] what's happening larger within the sport.
[21:05] Let's drill down a little bit closer to home, obviously in
[21:08] Madrid. Dean Hoisenhausen, excuse me,
[21:11] was sent home from the Spain camp because of calf injury.
[21:16] And then guys, you know me, I am sounding the alarm bells because
[21:22] what that means is I'm worried about an Achilles for this young
[21:26] man right now. Like once the calf, you start
[21:28] feeling these kinds of injuries, that's the next thing.
[21:30] And now we're getting them, just getting two weeks to rest.
[21:33] Maybe he comes back for hit TAFE.
[21:35] I don't know. Here's the thing, though.
[21:38] You can't not come back and play hit TAFE and then start him
[21:40] against Barcelona like in the Super intense game.
[21:44] That's not a good idea, right? We saw what happened with Jude
[21:47] didn't work out so well. Now it's different because
[21:49] Dean's been playing, but from an injury standpoint, if he hadn't
[21:52] gotten any run before class go and then you want him to play a
[21:55] full 90 in that match. Bad idea.
[21:57] And I hope Chavi Alonso's learned from that with with the
[22:00] with the Jude mistake in the athletic match.
[22:02] Yeah, and you know that it's a real injury when the La Fuente
[22:05] agrees to send you home because that man is stubborn.
[22:10] So I really don't know how that situation really is like his
[22:16] case. It could be like a small thing
[22:18] because. Let's, which I hope.
[22:19] Let's also keep in mind if you're feeling pain and you're
[22:22] tell your national team, hey, I'm feeling pain, you can
[22:25] confirm it. I want to go home.
[22:26] They allow you to go home. So maybe that's the case.
[22:30] I'm hoping for that scenario. But regardless, I would kind of
[22:33] count him out of a tough game at bare minimum at this rate.
[22:38] Yeah, yeah, I I would agree. So with Dean, there's there's a
[22:45] lot there. First off, yeah, Dela Puente is
[22:48] not playing you. Something's definitely.
[22:50] Wrong. You're.
[22:52] You're you're beyond, you're injured.
[22:53] You're not hurt. You're.
[22:54] You can't play like you literally cannot play.
[22:57] However, I'm looking at this from a Madrid standpoint, like
[23:01] how cautious do we have to be with Dean over the next couple
[23:04] weeks here we have, as we've already discussed, a very
[23:09] difficult schedule coming up. I don't expect him to play
[23:12] against Gaddafi in next weekend, but if he doesn't play against
[23:17] Gaddafi and it's Gaddafi away, correct me if I'm wrong.
[23:21] Yep, it is. Who's going to be the center bag
[23:23] pairing if Dean isn't healthy and Miley Tao most likely is
[23:29] going to be rested against? Gaddafi because he's got to play
[23:31] classic. He's playing for Brazil, right?
[23:34] Right. Yeah, yeah.
[23:34] And you're going to save him for the Juve game, right?
[23:37] And probably go in the Classico. So who's going to play center
[23:41] back against Gaddafi if he is out 'cause Millie Tao?
[23:45] I don't expect him to play against Gaddafi.
[23:47] That's a. Good point.
[23:49] Carreras gets slotted into center back and France.
[23:52] Lepback we also have the news of Juan Martinez actually playing
[23:58] with the first team, now finally back with the first team.
[24:02] So that's something maybe that Alonzo is taking some steps
[24:07] towards. OK.
[24:08] The schedule is just way too much.
[24:10] The squad is very short so I got to start using few defenders
[24:14] here and there. So that's good for you right
[24:17] there for Joan Martinez. Now that you're there, Lecante.
[24:19] So let's say, let's assume so he before they took their break,
[24:23] they they, he gave them off Thursday, Friday, Saturday,
[24:25] Sunday, back training on Monday. So let's assume he trained well
[24:27] those two weeks. In your mind, if you're Alonzo
[24:30] and how he operates, A what was he need to see in training and B
[24:34] how soon would he start giving him cameo minutes?
[24:38] I mean, Madrid already played the game and I'm pretty sure
[24:43] they have another game next week as a warm up game inside closed
[24:47] doors. So those might be the games
[24:51] where he has to show what he's made of because Alonzo again,
[24:55] seems to just the players based on what they can do rather than
[24:59] what they're actually showing on the pitch.
[25:01] Like that's why you have the Franco Masantuano join in on
[25:04] August and immediately to start in 11.
[25:07] It's because of what he can do rather than what Alonso requires
[25:11] at at that moment on the pitch. So he plays more on that side of
[25:16] things. So there's a chance that he gets
[25:20] used like a sentio. He's just always falling back
[25:24] into his old mistakes, like a good performance, then follows
[25:27] it up with same old thing. And I think that Alonzo has
[25:31] grown tired of it. Yeah, that's, that's a shame
[25:34] too, because he was a revelation, right?
[25:35] In many ways, last, you know, the body we were counting on
[25:38] this season and now we have to replace that body with somebody,
[25:41] right? Maybe it's John Martinez.
[25:42] I don't know. Trent is progressing well
[25:47] according to reports. I don't know what that means,
[25:50] how soon he'll be back. There are stuff saying that he
[25:52] may be back in time for Classico again.
[25:56] That cannot be your first match back.
[25:57] Like you have to get mop up duty somewhere else before the
[26:01] Classico. Even if you're back, that's not
[26:03] his ideal match up anyways, even if he's back.
[26:07] So yeah, that's really good. Really.
[26:09] He's dealing with speedy wingers?
[26:10] Yeah, Not, not, not good. It's not his ideal match like
[26:14] especially if you, I mean, would he be very good?
[26:19] Yes, for sure. But I do believe that the squad
[26:22] can be constructed a little bit better without him for that
[26:25] specific game. Of course I'm going to win here.
[26:29] Yeah, what do? You got I'm going to take a
[26:31] different approach with the Trent situation, especially as
[26:34] somebody that's been Trent out for since day one and still not
[26:37] fully convinced on him. However, and maybe it's because
[26:42] it's international break and I've had some time and the
[26:44] Liverpool fans based on the week that they had, I've just seen a
[26:47] lot of noise saying we missed Trent.
[26:49] So I'm like, ha, let me go, let me let me go watch the tape real
[26:51] quick. And if you give him that space
[26:54] that Hansi Flick is playing right now, I want Trent on that
[26:58] field because he's going to exploit that almost better than
[27:02] anyone else on our team right now that isn't named Art de
[27:04] Guler. Like we got to be frank, I kind.
[27:07] Of want that pass on the team. So, so this is something, this
[27:10] is something I was thinking about because there's an article
[27:11] in The Athletic which I shared with Lecante this week and ways
[27:14] in which the Barcelona highline is getting murdered.
[27:17] First of all, how it was getting exploited last season and even
[27:21] worse this season. So I wonder.
[27:23] Who called it out? Shout out to Lecante.
[27:27] So Trent on that right side, making that diagonal path right
[27:32] to a flying down the left flank. Benicius Junior tell me that
[27:37] it's not sweet music to your ears against Barcelona matchup
[27:40] or shit anybody. The Majorca goals, the Majorca
[27:45] goals, like that's kind of what you're looking for.
[27:47] You bathe the press, you get Trent Mape because Trent has
[27:52] that ability to play it on any zone that he dares like.
[27:56] That's what makes him special. As I said, he's the best passer
[27:59] on team by a long margin. Have we utilized that to the
[28:03] best as so far? I don't think so.
[28:05] I think there's more that he can give to us, but I think that
[28:08] he's done the job that he was required to.
[28:11] In terms of a classical though, I would much rather have a
[28:14] Volvo. They wear, I'm being honest,
[28:16] even if Carvajal and transfer fit because I, I think Vulverde
[28:21] switches are excellent #1 #2 his ability to bait the press by
[28:27] carries, that's something that both of the other two lack.
[28:32] And three, the athletism is just as simple as that sometimes.
[28:36] And I would pair, I would just try to abuse those flanks.
[28:39] Carreras, Vinitius on the left, Valverde and Franco Masantuano
[28:44] on the right and just abuse the flanks basically.
[28:47] Like because with Barcelona, it's a clear blueprint.
[28:51] You either want a drop back push high or you want to move to the
[28:55] sides and try to just isolate their the feathers, which is
[29:00] something that I mean, last year they beat us in every game,
[29:04] right, except the Super cool. But no game was clear cut in
[29:07] every game. We could have come back or we
[29:09] had the lead at some point, and that was a team that generally
[29:15] was damaged a bit. I like to call it winners
[29:18] fatigue. With Madrid, it happens a lot.
[29:21] They come off a great season and they just look very sluggish.
[29:25] It takes them a long time to come back, and sometimes they
[29:29] never come back like last season.
[29:32] So classical. Yeah, but I don't know, like I'm
[29:36] just looking at the schedule and it's just insanely packed.
[29:41] It's rough, right? Go ahead, Xavier.
[29:42] Yeah, well, I was going to say for I'm I'm going to take the
[29:45] lens of what I saw last season, maybe have PTSD again.
[29:50] I remember very clearly seeing Fete Valverde getting skinned by
[29:53] Ruffina in Classicos. Yeah, that was him covering for
[29:57] Lucas, though that's a much harder job because he's going
[30:02] from center to the right constantly.
[30:04] But but he also played right back in a Classico last year.
[30:06] If we, if we. Remember, yeah, I know, but he's
[30:09] always having to do 2 jobs at 1:00 because he inverts due to
[30:15] the way how they use the number 10 and then he has to cover the
[30:18] flank. So with Alonzo, I feel that we
[30:22] don't have that problem like you have seen, a lot less isolation
[30:25] of the players. So let me.
[30:29] Propose a question in this way, given what we've seen from Fete
[30:32] Valverde this season with his tank depleted right and Fete
[30:35] running on 65% fumes right now. Yeah, would.
[30:38] Would you take a 100% fit Trent Alexander Arnold in in two weeks
[30:45] from now in the classical or a 85% Fete Valverde that may not
[30:51] have the legs to catch up to her?
[30:53] Oh, OK, that's a different question.
[30:55] Definitely 100% Trent. Like I'm just going by a simple
[30:59] math of this guy can keep up and and I don't know if this other
[31:03] guy can. So yes, but generally I'm just
[31:07] speaking on how would would I profile the team that doesn't
[31:11] mean that along with. You on paper, in an ideal world,
[31:14] yes, like Fede would be, would be perfect.
[31:16] For all Fede, because I feel that if you remove Fede from
[31:20] there, I feel that you're going to remove Mansantuanam from the
[31:24] right wing and I feel that you're going to take away a lot
[31:28] from us. Yeah, a lot of with.
[31:29] Because well, flash news to people Belgium and are going to
[31:34] start together like that's the reality.
[31:36] Alonzo has spoken a lot about it.
[31:38] It all makes sense. And we also I'm seeing a bit of
[31:42] reminiscent of our football in Club World Cup with some of the
[31:46] automated attacks. Well, Arthur and Jude were key
[31:49] parts of that happening. So Alonzo will definitely want
[31:53] to go back to that. Jude not being fit, which even
[31:56] too cool, confirmed that the reason why Jude wasn't taken
[32:00] with the national team was he he is off rhythm so he didn't want
[32:05] to disturb that. So once Jude is on the rhythm,
[32:08] which I would believe that once international break is done,
[32:11] Russ kind of hits players. Therefore he would be on the
[32:15] same page as the majority of the others.
[32:18] Jude is going back to the starting 11 and I believe that
[32:20] he's going to be alongside Arda, but on the classical
[32:23] specifically. You want as much width that can
[32:26] be provided. Therefore that's why I have
[32:29] Franco Mastantuano starting the game.
[32:32] It's not always about the quality.
[32:34] I'm just going by profiling of the players and I don't think
[32:38] you see that. I don't think along the CC's
[32:40] team. We love over there.
[32:41] By the way, for people that also like to believe that there will
[32:46] be dropped for some reason, no, I don't think well.
[32:50] It's also Fede and Franco talked about this in separate
[32:53] interviews and they were asked about, you know, what's it like
[32:56] working on the job. Alonso, he's like, the first
[32:57] thing we do won't even match coming up is we watch film on
[33:00] the opponent, right? So with that thought process in
[33:04] mind, I think Job Alonzo is in line with how you're thinking
[33:07] Lacate, which is okay, This is what Barsa does well.
[33:10] Here is the weakness that we can exploit, right?
[33:12] So not so much. Here is my tactical idea about
[33:14] what I like for a football team. Here is the best chance for us
[33:18] to win this match, doing this right.
[33:21] So I think, yeah, I I, I think that makes sense.
[33:23] And that's likely what he's going to do.
[33:25] It'll look, it'll be interesting again.
[33:26] We got Taffy away, UVA midweek, Champions League, Barcelona on
[33:29] Saturday. On on that bar, the health of
[33:32] the players at this one cause Kamaviga to begin with has like
[33:35] what, 150 minutes total? And let's, let's, let's hope he
[33:40] comes, let's hope he comes out of France fine and 'cause he
[33:43] could be a nice game changer off the bench coming up for us as
[33:46] well. And look, this international
[33:47] break I think is going to be good for Fede because in that
[33:50] last game against Villarreal, as I said to you, Laconte playing
[33:53] right back, his forget about his pace was just back.
[33:56] I was like, Oh my God, he can run again.
[33:58] Like so this two weeks being off, I think it's going to be
[34:02] very helpful for him and see him charge much like Alvini got that
[34:05] nice break in the first international break and then I
[34:08] would say the second or third game out of that, he really
[34:10] started trending up. That's what I think we'll see
[34:13] with Fede too, a nice a nice trend line upwards and and
[34:15] they'll start to play well. That's what we can hope for,
[34:18] anyway. I like the fact that Alonzo also
[34:20] organizes these behind the door games to just not let the
[34:23] players be rusty. Like a slow to used to do that
[34:26] but much lesser degree then Alonzo is doing it.
[34:30] Yep. And I really love that.
[34:33] I love how we end up seeing the clips as well from the behind.
[34:36] Yes. The Doors.
[34:37] Game like you saw Jude's goal right?
[34:39] Of course. Well.
[34:41] Listen, Real Madrid, as much as I like to say that we don't play
[34:46] the propaganda game, we play the propaganda game when it comes to
[34:49] this stuff, right? Anything that you see come out
[34:52] on the official social channels from behind closed doors,
[34:55] whatever or like some journalists got got video of
[34:58] that was 100% being like, OK, yeah, please show this and put
[35:01] that out there right so that everybody can see this that and
[35:04] the third is happening. It's fine.
[35:05] Everybody does it. It's all good.
[35:07] Look Jude playing well big for us right.
[35:10] I am worried about Arda a little bit not because he's not playing
[35:14] well though he wasn't great his last game is that remember this
[35:17] is a player who basically hardly played last year to now is
[35:20] playing every full 90 for club and country.
[35:23] I, I, I just like the, the, the, the energy tank for him.
[35:27] I am watching that. And again, I don't know when he
[35:30] gets time to sit down for a bit coming up.
[35:34] Maybe he didn't. See that with games, his energy
[35:37] depletes right within like 15 minutes, he's just out of
[35:41] breath. You see that?
[35:42] You can notice it. Yeah.
[35:44] So that that that's something that bears watching.
[35:46] Well, guys, it is Friday. So that means it is the listener
[35:49] question mailbag portion of the show.
[35:52] We've had great questions come in as always.
[35:54] Guys, when the Real Deal Pods puts out the link for the show,
[35:57] please go on there, ask questions, drop them in the
[36:00] comments here live if you want to.
[36:02] We'll try to keep up with them and we'll, we'll ask answer as
[36:04] many of them as we can. All right guys, this first
[36:07] question we have comes from Luke Manchow and he says really
[36:12] controversial, but would you guys sell Guler for 80 to $100
[36:16] million to a Premier League club and bring back Nico Paws
[36:20] question, Let's start with you look at they straight up no, all
[36:25] right, look at they. I mean the different profile,
[36:27] right? Ultimately I always go with like
[36:30] another same profile, like another same type of layer.
[36:35] Looks like the long term solution with RDE is always
[36:38] going to be deeper. Like Sid reference a lot of how
[36:41] Mesut Ozil would look in today's football.
[36:44] That seems to be the trend that RDE set it up.
[36:48] So he's going to come deeper and deeper as he ages up, as he ages
[36:53] as a player. Like to give an example, even
[36:56] Modrich used to be a number 10 before he started going deeper
[36:59] and deeper until we saw him as defensive midfielder in ML
[37:02] Classical, for the love of God. So it's a development phase.
[37:08] I think you can keep them both, you can play them both.
[37:11] Nico gives you a different dimension, different type of
[37:14] player and personally I would like to see a Nico Orda line up
[37:20] with Mbappe and Vini because I would like to see how that final
[37:23] pass responsibility being out of orders legs, but rather a Nico
[37:28] pause's legs would affect our disability to to control the
[37:33] game and to recycle more of the possession.
[37:36] To get that controller, everybody says we need Xavier.
[37:38] What say you? OK, so I'll take, I, I'm going
[37:41] to approach this from a different lens.
[37:43] First and foremost, if you give me 100 million euros, £100
[37:48] million, right now there is maybe three players on the
[37:53] roster I am not at least listening about, OK, Like I just
[37:57] want to be clear, right? There's like maybe 3 for £100
[37:59] million. I'm listening to just about the
[38:01] entire roster. Right.
[38:03] The only people you're not are are Bellingham, right?
[38:06] And Boppe Vinny. And Vinny, yeah, everyone,
[38:10] everyone else, if you're, if you have 100 right now, I'm at least
[38:13] listening, right? I'm at least going to be like,
[38:15] all right. Wait, what?
[38:17] You're not saying you're going to do it.
[38:18] You don't think you're going to do it.
[38:19] You're saying I will have a conversation?
[38:21] Exactly. But when it comes to Arda
[38:22] specifically, and and I, I said this with Guerreras and Dean, I
[38:26] don't want to get ahead of ourselves and putting
[38:28] unrealistic expectations on these players until they show it
[38:31] so that when they go through these dips, we're we're we're
[38:34] also honest about the situation. We don't go too high.
[38:36] We don't go too low. That's one thing about young
[38:39] players with Arda, though, and you, you said it yourself,
[38:43] Gerard, we've never seen this guy put in a full season playing
[38:47] 8085% of the available minutes in his position and putting in
[38:52] that 8 to 9 star performance like we've seen from Luka
[38:56] Maldrick. So we like, I need to see that
[38:59] body of work because if I continue to watch what Nico's
[39:02] doing at Cuomo and putting in the minutes he's doing it as and
[39:05] carrying the way he's doing it in a First Division, you have to
[39:09] have an honest conversation. Like if you can get 100 million
[39:13] for Arda and Nico continues on this trajectory, yes, they are
[39:17] different profiles, right? I, I'm with you there.
[39:19] But if Nico continues on this trajectory, he makes an
[39:22] uncomfortable conversation, not just for Arda, but also for Jude
[39:25] Bellingham, if he's that good, right?
[39:27] If he's truly this this asteroid of a of a talent that's just
[39:31] just taken off and you can't stop and you have to bring him
[39:34] back in. Well, then if I can get 100
[39:37] million for Arden, I can go get myself Adam Wharton or I can get
[39:40] myself more of a deep lying midfielder and I have this
[39:43] absolute juggernaut of a 10 now, right.
[39:45] Maybe I'm considering it. I'm not saying I would do it,
[39:48] but I think this season's very critical for both players to
[39:52] have this discussion after because again, if Nico continues
[39:55] on this trajectory, he goes to the World Cup.
[39:57] He and Argentina wins it. Nico's a starter.
[40:00] Oh. Shit.
[40:02] Yeah, again, we're having a whole different conversation,
[40:04] but I think it's also on Arda to put in yeah, the work.
[40:07] I can't see him disappear after 50 minutes.
[40:09] I'm with you. You know to.
[40:10] Put in 7075 minutes and and and do it at that level before I can
[40:14] comfortably be like, no, I would absolutely turn down the money.
[40:17] That's all. I'll say it, it's it's itching.
[40:19] Go ahead contact. I'll let you get in there.
[40:21] And and. No, I see the point.
[40:24] I'm just like, I just don't see the correlation between Odda and
[40:27] Nico, right? It's more of like Franco
[40:29] Masantuano, Jude Bellingham type of situation when with Odda or
[40:34] that's very specific profile that first of all is quite
[40:38] Unicorn in football. It's not often you'll find a
[40:42] player that can needle through pass anymore.
[40:45] It used to be a way more common thing and #2 when I'm discussing
[40:49] the money for the players, right?
[40:51] Even Kamarina was on that because of his health.
[40:55] But I lay back into, Oh yes, but those controllers and those type
[41:02] of players, they just don't exist.
[41:04] Like they're so scarce. Like who are you realistically
[41:09] going to buy? Yes, that's that's, that's,
[41:11] that's also be the question, right.
[41:13] And that's why I look at it too. You any smart sporting project
[41:18] leader listens to anything realist, reasonable, right?
[41:21] They listen to all the time. They don't just hang up the
[41:24] phone, right? They listen all the time.
[41:26] So you have to weigh in your head, OK, $100 million, OK,
[41:30] that's one thing. Art of Guler is a separate
[41:33] thing. If I were to replace Art of
[41:35] Guler with €100 million, how am I going to replace what Arta
[41:40] Guler specifically does? And does this €100 million
[41:43] afford me the opportunity to do that?
[41:45] Yes or no? I have to know that ahead of
[41:47] time that yeah, I've already identified this guy or I have
[41:50] him somewhere else in my whatever and I whatever.
[41:53] Two, you also have to think about it from the from the
[41:57] standpoint of, you know, Nico Paz is still under our buyback
[42:04] clause, everything you don't even need that much money to get
[42:07] him back. You could get him for a way less
[42:10] right? To your point.
[42:12] To your point, Lecante, if you were to bring Nico Paz back into
[42:15] this roster, what does that mean for Jude Bellingham and Franco
[42:19] Mastantuano, right? Because here's a guy, let's say
[42:22] Nico continues, as you said, Xavier, and he continues to
[42:25] dominate Syria. You know what I'm saying?
[42:27] Not dominate, but B basically the the Tri player of the year
[42:31] or like top midfielder in Syria, right, like he gets like that
[42:33] kind of designation. Well, if he comes back to Real
[42:36] Madrid, I can't imagine he's going to expect to want to be on
[42:39] the bench right? He's like well, but I just was
[42:42] in this league voted as the guy. Now you want me to come here and
[42:46] play second fiddle or third fiddle?
[42:48] I'm, I'm not doing that. So if he were to come and be
[42:51] the, the, the main guy, what then happens to Jude Bellingham?
[42:54] What then happens to Franco Mesa and Juano, right?
[42:57] These are the questions. And This is why the people who
[42:59] run Real Madrid get paid way more money.
[43:01] We do because that's their responsibility to figure out who
[43:04] they're bringing back, who they're not, who's getting
[43:06] moved, right? That's what they get paid the
[43:07] big bucks for. You will always have
[43:09] uncomfortable conversations about players.
[43:11] That's the reality. Like but I always go with
[43:17] profile, the rarity of it, how much can you really find it?
[43:22] How much of that profile is being seen because Nico pass to
[43:25] me right now seems like a Martin Odegard type of case rather than
[43:32] anything else really. Odegard was great with Vitesse
[43:37] and came back to La Liga, went alone to let out, became one of
[43:41] the better midfielders in Spain, came to Real Madrid, just
[43:45] couldn't find a place because his profile didn't fit.
[43:48] He didn't feel according to his sports, he didn't feel like at
[43:52] home inside the training ground. So he requested to leave.
[43:55] Went to Arsenal, had two good seasons I want to say and
[43:59] progressed as a player to the one that he is today.
[44:03] Like could that be the coaching? I don't know what's happened
[44:06] with him, but the guard is definitely not the same player.
[44:09] So there was a similar level of hype.
[44:14] Actually other guard was considered like to be a Balandor
[44:17] level of footballer really when we signed him like at 15 years
[44:21] old. But it.
[44:25] Doesn't pan out. It doesn't pan out.
[44:28] Sometimes that profile of the guard Nicopause I struggle to
[44:32] see at Madrid. Just going to be honest.
[44:35] Nico pause to me seems to be more like, OK, I'm going to
[44:38] bring him back and then I'm going to sell him 2400 million
[44:42] and that's my 100 million. Instead.
[44:44] I'm going to keep all that because I have already invested
[44:47] extra amount of years and I have a clear direction with them.
[44:51] Nico pause. Unfortunately, it's way more
[44:54] disposable in today's football than an articularis.
[44:57] Just simply going from a profile standpoint, the fielders can
[45:01] give you goals. You see a lot of them.
[45:03] They can be a final third tickers.
[45:06] More often than not nowadays you've seen a lot of automatism
[45:09] on a on a final third where these type of individual players
[45:13] get taken out of the game. So the reality of the situation
[45:18] is, who do you need more? If you're sitting and talking
[45:21] about 100 million, do you need more a Nico type of profile or
[45:24] an order type of profile? And I think I the answer is
[45:28] written on a wall. Yeah, right.
[45:30] Right now we need an ARCA profile for sure.
[45:32] So I got my eye on one. By the way, we already have, we
[45:35] already have him under our possession and he's playing in
[45:37] EU 20 World Cup right now. His name is Diego P Dark.
[45:41] Anybody has been paying attention to the way he plays?
[45:47] I don't know. I think he's going to cause a
[45:49] headache after next summer because I don't know how you
[45:52] keep this kid out of the first team given given the way he's
[45:55] performing. Once again, good, good problems
[45:58] to have. Dave, this is this is your
[46:01] problem, my guy. You figure this shit?
[46:02] Out profile. I'm thinking if, if if I got the
[46:05] 100 bill and it's like wait, wait, what do I do?
[46:07] I wouldn't even go to the market I'm bringing.
[46:08] I'm promoting Thiago tomorrow. And.
[46:11] Let's also talk about Chema, right I?
[46:13] Was gonna say yeah and the DMS but Chema is playing very well
[46:17] so far to start the season for Stuttgart.
[46:18] So again, again, these are all great problems to have, and This
[46:22] is why these people get paid millions of dollars.
[46:24] Figure it out, my friends. All right, next question, What
[46:27] do you think Brahim's best position in this team is?
[46:30] And don't forget, he's going to be going for AFCON in December.
[46:33] Xavier, we'll start with you. So for me, as long as he's
[46:37] coming off the bench, let's start there.
[46:41] His best position when that whistle blows, he's right
[46:44] behind. On the bench row 2.
[46:46] Section, Section 3 OK, because we all know that when Brahim
[46:51] starts, there's like some some, I think it's like a mental block
[46:55] that happens when he starts for Real Madrid.
[46:58] But you could put him at the 10, you could put him at the right
[47:00] wing. You can play him in different
[47:01] formations. But as a starter, he like loses
[47:03] all his powers. He forgets how to dribble, how
[47:05] to make the right pass. And we've seen this in his time
[47:08] at Real Madrid. It's like when he's a starter,
[47:10] just something doesn't click. Except for that one game against
[47:15] that was that was Leipzig, right?
[47:17] Yeah, Champions League. Game won that game for this one.
[47:19] Yeah, that dribble, that was the exception.
[47:21] But besides that moment, there isn't many moments that you can
[47:24] think of as Brahim as a starter where it was like, OK, he looks
[47:27] like he belongs as a starter at Real Madrid.
[47:31] He's a bench guy for sure. What's a Yuli?
[47:32] Conte, he's a bench impact player, but yeah, go ahead.
[47:34] Yeah, filler Taba player on the back end of the roster if you
[47:40] have everybody healthy. I don't know what to make of
[47:44] Brahim. Like very inconsistent, lacks
[47:46] discipline. To answer why he's not as good
[47:49] as a starter is because of the discipline.
[47:52] Tactical discipline. I mean, not discipline as a
[47:54] footballer. Just sorry to say, but some
[47:58] footballers just don't have their cue to be starters.
[48:01] Like Marco Essencio was one of these guys.
[48:05] Whenever you bring him off the bench on a more chaotic
[48:07] environment, he thrives. Ask him to do just a little bit
[48:12] more discipline things and he's going to vanish of the face of
[48:15] the earth. Brahim is kind of the same
[48:17] problem, except that Brahim is just physically more
[48:22] trustworthy. I want to say in duels and such
[48:25] we have seen Brahim lose them, but he's tenacious as a player
[48:29] so for the most part he should be on the back end of a roster.
[48:33] Personally, how do I say it? In an ideal world, right, if
[48:37] you're Real Madrid and you're healthy, I'm with these guys.
[48:39] He's a bench player, but he is not your first sub off the bench
[48:42] He's in that back end off. If all things going well, that's
[48:46] the kind of player you want on the back end of your bench,
[48:48] right, like, but you know, injuries happen shit happens,
[48:52] and we have to use people more than we would like to continuing
[48:55] on with these questions. We got a lot.
[48:56] So an article came out this week about Andrick and you know, his
[49:00] situation. He with the Atafi game coming
[49:04] up, it will be almost five months since he last played a an
[49:07] actual competitive football. Imaginary questions.
[49:11] Jabi Alonso told him, look, it's gonna be hard for you to get
[49:13] minutes in this squad. He said that's OK.
[49:14] I want to stay and earn my way. He said, OK, What is is the
[49:19] question we have from our our our listener, the real MG.
[49:22] What's the best case scenario for Andrick?
[49:25] Go ahead, Lecante. Oh, depends on the perception.
[49:32] I think Enrique is quite athletic.
[49:35] I think he has his uses, but that attack is pretty deep.
[49:42] In profiles it's pretty deep. So you have a Gonzalo who's more
[49:47] like a one touch type move player.
[49:49] You have an Mbappe of course, V of course.
[49:53] Rodrigo, nothing needs to be said there, yeah.
[49:55] You know, like Rodrigo technically very sound, you have
[49:59] a lot of profiles that are covered while Hendrick finds
[50:02] himself kind of like in between everything.
[50:05] He's like very athletic has a great shot on him.
[50:08] You can make use of him. But when it comes to high
[50:13] minutes first this season at the very least I just I'm struggling
[50:18] to see it. Like Gonzalo's minutes have
[50:21] rapidly gone down because the team is just struggling to find
[50:25] balance and now you add another player on top of it makes it
[50:30] even harder. Best case scenario, probably
[50:33] right hand sided attacker with Mbappe alongside him.
[50:40] Probably. Yeah, so Edrick played 600
[50:43] minutes last season, which is pretty much nothing, however.
[50:48] Had a high XG per 90 though. Well, he was the Pichichi well,
[50:53] actually until the final. He was the leading goal scorer
[50:55] in the Copa and then and then Veran obviously got got the ward
[50:59] because they won. I think he has earned the right
[51:02] to start the Copa again year 2. I think he he's earned the right
[51:07] to to play the Copa games. He scored in every single one
[51:10] last year and and Boppa needs to rest at some point.
[51:13] And Boppa didn't play the Copa games until the final last
[51:16] season. We still made the final.
[51:17] So I think if there's a case for Andrick to carve out minutes
[51:20] again, it's going to be the Copa.
[51:21] I know it doesn't start till December.
[51:23] I I also think this conversation changes after the World Cup next
[51:28] year because Rodrigo's not sticking around if he keeps
[51:32] playing these minutes, like we just have to be honest, there's
[51:35] there's no way he's going to go through another season playing
[51:40] relatively low minutes and stick around at Real Madrid.
[51:42] In my opinion. I think he's kind of gone, which
[51:45] then opens up the door for Edrick to potentially get
[51:47] minutes. But he needs to play.
[51:50] I mean, he's too talented to be sitting as the fifth or sixth
[51:53] option at Real Madrid. For me and for him to develop
[51:56] into the player that I think he can become, he needs to be on
[51:59] the field somewhere, hopefully not in La Liga playing against
[52:01] us. See, and, and this is where I'm
[52:03] going with it. Development is so key.
[52:06] And those of you who follow my my work on true know that my
[52:10] podcast partner, David Thorpe is a player development coach with
[52:13] NBA players. And this was true for all
[52:16] sports. Players need playing time like
[52:18] they need oxygen to breathe. That is how you get better by
[52:22] playing, not by sitting on the bench and watching.
[52:25] You have to play and experience it.
[52:27] Fuck up and make mistakes, get yelled at, do all the wrong reps
[52:31] right? So that it becomes, ah, I get
[52:33] it, I get it, I get it. As you all just mentioned, who
[52:36] is he displacing right now? Nobody.
[52:39] So where are these minutes coming from?
[52:41] And it's a World Cup year on top of that.
[52:44] So if he wants to play for the World Cup, he is not going to
[52:47] have the opportunity to showcase anything that he's going to get
[52:50] called up because at most he's going to get is Copa del Rey
[52:54] minutes at most. I don't think that's going to be
[52:56] enough. So to me, what's best for him is
[52:59] a January loan somewhere where he's going to actually play and
[53:03] get minutes and can develop and then he gets called up by
[53:06] Brazil, what happens, blah, blah, blah.
[53:08] And then we see to your point, Xavier, does Rodrigo leave?
[53:11] Does someone empty a space so we call him back, all of that.
[53:15] And then it's also or situation, as you mentioned with Nico Paz
[53:18] de Conte is what Andrick does when he's developing.
[53:21] Is it so unique that we can't find it anywhere else we have to
[53:24] bring him back? Or is it he's playing well right
[53:28] now, Let's sell high and get, I don't know, X amount of money
[53:32] and bring somebody else in. Again, These are the things that
[53:35] the people high up at Madrid get paid millions of dollars to
[53:37] decide. This is what they have to
[53:39] decide. How many players do we send on
[53:42] loan and bring them back? Not that many, no.
[53:44] Just honestly speaking, like once you're out, most of the
[53:47] time you're out family. Speaking, yeah.
[53:50] So that's my fear if we're saying to send and drink out
[53:54] some loan is that you might never get him back, something
[53:59] goes wrong or something that just aren't many second chances
[54:05] with Madrid. So yeah, I don't know, like he's
[54:09] in tough situation. He is, he is.
[54:12] But again, play for a minute, right?
[54:16] There are a lot of games. I don't think the six hundred,
[54:21] 700 minutes barrier, it's hard for him to break this season.
[54:26] I think it's doable naturally with Jarvis rotations and the
[54:31] way how he fits the profiles. Like if we're complaining now
[54:36] about the schedule, like go and look at the schedule in January.
[54:39] You're going Saudi, you come back, you're playing coma Del
[54:43] Rey games all of a sudden again, you might get a harder path on
[54:49] Coba del Rey. La Liga games are stuck in
[54:52] between. Your one La Liga game gets
[54:54] pushed immediately into a midweek game if you make the
[54:57] final anxiety. So like hard, but not like he
[55:04] won't have opportunities to get out there and show that he can
[55:08] actually play. And Javi Alonso said this,
[55:10] right, the schedule is hellish and nightmarish and everybody's
[55:13] gonna have to play, right? And so we look, we already see
[55:16] it, right? We have so many injuries, at
[55:17] least in the back line right now.
[55:19] The guys have to play. So to rotate to keep our forward
[55:22] attackers fresh, we have to do the same.
[55:23] All right. Last question.
[55:26] What does Franco Mesantuano? This is also from the Real MG
[55:29] Great job with his questions today.
[55:30] What does Franco Mesantuano need to improve as our right winger?
[55:35] Thanks. You can go.
[55:41] Awesome. All right.
[55:42] So we can get into like individual things he can work on
[55:46] as a player, which I know Lecante will will go into depth.
[55:48] So I'll leave that piece for him.
[55:51] But with Franco, I think we have to just first appreciate the
[55:55] context of his situation. This is a player who joined us
[55:59] without a pre season, coming from South America, who was
[56:02] essentially given the keys to river play and told you go do
[56:05] everything. You go make everything happen
[56:07] with a lot less talent around him.
[56:09] He's now come to a Real Madrid where there are better, There is
[56:14] better everything essentially than him right now at Real
[56:16] Madrid because I don't think he has an individual skill set
[56:18] that's better than anyone on the team as of this point in time,
[56:22] especially with how young he is given that context.
[56:26] I think he's been able to adapt well given the role that Chavi's
[56:29] asking him to play. He brings a certain edge to his
[56:32] game that I absolutely don't think we have, except for maybe
[56:36] Jude Bellingham and moments of Fetty Valverde.
[56:39] And when Vinny's mad, let's be honest, and when Vinny's mad, he
[56:42] brings that edge all the time. But I I appreciate a young
[56:46] player not being scared of the moment, not being scared of the
[56:50] pressure that it comes with, wearing the Real Madrid bags and
[56:53] still showing that tenacity and that strength.
[56:55] Now what he lacks for me is time.
[56:59] He doesn't have time to become the player that we know he's
[57:02] going to become because you see the elements of whether it's the
[57:07] link of play with with other players, whether it's the
[57:10] willingness to cover for empty spaces that other players are
[57:13] leaving open, which most young players don't even have the IQ
[57:16] to do. He's a super high IQ type of
[57:18] player. Shumani's let him down multiple
[57:20] times already on assist, right? Like, I don't know how Shumani's
[57:23] missing half these headers, by the way, but he should have more
[57:25] assist. I think he is a little too
[57:28] tenacious when choosing to shoot as well, which you see bad
[57:31] attempts. And then he'll also take on
[57:33] players one-on-one 'cause he was used to doing it in Argentina.
[57:37] And he's been failing more times than he's been succeeding.
[57:40] Of course. However, that all to me is less
[57:43] about his ability and more about his youthfulness and his
[57:47] eagerness to prove something. And once that starts to slow
[57:50] down and the game slows down, you're gonna see him take on the
[57:53] right one-on-one situations. You're gonna see him know when
[57:56] to shoot, when to make the right pass.
[57:57] But what from what I've seen so far, I've seen a lot more
[58:00] positives than negatives when it comes to the kid.
[58:03] That right footed finish, by the way, incredible for a goal.
[58:07] Just the willingness to even think about going up for 90
[58:10] there for an 18 year old, right? I mean, that was Laminia Mall
[58:12] against Lunan Classical last year, right?
[58:15] Like there's just, you know, there's certain things that
[58:18] players do where you need a certain level of IQ like we've
[58:21] spoken about to even not only attempt it, but complete it.
[58:24] And I've seen more of that from his game than I've seen on the
[58:27] negatives. But I, I do think he's still a
[58:30] bit tenacious in the sense of trying to prove himself.
[58:33] So I'll I'll land it there. I like it.
[58:35] What? What's the Yulah Kante?
[58:36] Yeah, I mean, it's simple, it's mechanical is a way how he moves
[58:43] his body, the way how he orientates with it.
[58:45] So basically what he lacks in normally would be coaching.
[58:49] As you already explained, he was given the keys to a team at a
[58:53] very young age. Therefore not much coaching was
[58:55] happening there. He was more of like, okay, this
[58:59] your talent, just go and show it.
[59:01] He wasn't being taught how to shoot, how to dribble, how to
[59:05] drive, how to pass. More or less everything comes
[59:09] with him instinctually, which is not always the best.
[59:13] Very reminiscent of majority of South American player.com.
[59:16] Vinicius had to go through it. Rodrigo to a certain way less
[59:20] extent, but Vinicius comes to mind.
[59:23] Like Vinicius had a lot of body mechanism issues with the way
[59:27] how he was moving, even his dribbling.
[59:29] I know that a lot of people miss the old Vinicius when it comes
[59:32] to dribbling, right? But this new version of him is
[59:36] so much more dangerous and polished because knows when to
[59:40] take the step, how to move it, how to move his body, how to
[59:43] orientate his foot, how to use the standing leg.
[59:47] For example, Rodrigo legs. With that, to this day,
[59:50] especially with the standing leg, you notice that a lot with
[59:53] Franco Masantuano. That's why he misses so many
[59:57] shots. Like, I appreciate the
[59:58] willingness of the ability to generate the shots more than how
[1:00:02] many shots does he make at this current stage of his career?
[1:00:07] But for that next level, for him to become the fully polished
[1:00:12] product, he definitely needs to work on his body orientation,
[1:00:15] the mechanisms, the way how he plants his foot, the way how he
[1:00:19] attempts his tribble. He doesn't need to look so
[1:00:22] flunky, not always stay on top of his fingers, but rather plant
[1:00:28] his foot sometimes have not have a better acceleration because he
[1:00:32] has a good acceleration but know when to use it.
[1:00:37] There was, there's also that over dribbling where he loves to
[1:00:41] nutmeg players right he loves. And and not nutmeg them like he
[1:00:44] tries to and it doesn't happen. Yeah, You know, it happens once
[1:00:48] and maybe a second time, then a third time.
[1:00:51] It's not going to happen. Like, it's more like, fool me
[1:00:55] once you know. Like, you know.
[1:00:57] The same right at the fact that you don't try.
[1:00:59] Too much. For the third time, Look, I
[1:01:02] appreciate him as a player. I think he has a lot of
[1:01:04] mechanical issues, but that's what makes him scary because
[1:01:08] being a starter with all of these issues that he has who it
[1:01:13] speaks volumes about the ceiling of his.
[1:01:15] And that's ultimately, yeah, we'll wrap it here and I'll
[1:01:17] basically combine what you guys are saying.
[1:01:19] It's what I said about player development, right?
[1:01:21] It's like oxygen to breathe. You need time to become what
[1:01:25] he's going to become. Ultimately, the challenge is
[1:01:28] that when you are in a club like Real Madrid and you're competing
[1:01:30] for every major trophy, you have a situation where you look on
[1:01:34] the pitch and you're like, one of these things doesn't look
[1:01:37] like the other, right? Like, And that's what causes the
[1:01:39] consternation from fans, right? It's like, but no, no, no, no,
[1:01:42] he's not doing OK. He's 18 years old.
[1:01:45] Like of course he's not doing it the right way yet.
[1:01:47] Like but you're on his club that you want him to be the 25
[1:01:50] version year old of himself right now.
[1:01:52] And I don't sorry, there's no time machine.
[1:01:54] Nothing's going to happen for that unless until time.
[1:01:57] That's it, right? You have to deal with the ups
[1:02:01] and downs along the way. If you believe he is someone
[1:02:04] that you want to build around. And it is obvious Javi Alonzo
[1:02:07] believes heavily as Le Conte said, otherwise he would not be
[1:02:10] starting all the important games.
[1:02:11] All right, guys, this has been another Friday episode.
[1:02:13] Thank you all for tuning in. Thank you again.
[1:02:16] Please like this video, please share it with somebody, comment,
[1:02:19] subscribe, hit that, get the notification button.
[1:02:21] So you know, whenever we go live, if you want to hear the
[1:02:24] audio only version, we're always on Apple and Spotify.
[1:02:26] You can just listen, follow us on social medias.
[1:02:29] And until next time, everybody, take care.
[1:02:32] Bye, yes.

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