# Why Xabi Alonso Is Choosing Defense First

An episode of [The Real Deal: A Real Madrid Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1807821669), 22 Aug 2025, 1 h 02 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/103607aa8/podcast/play/107227488/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-7-22%2F406129200-44100-2-15a4e33f9362f.mp3

Jarod Hector and Loconte discuss major talking points around Real Madrid this week, including Xabi Alonso's defensive approach in his first game in charge, attacking dynamics, the importance of the international break for Real Madrid's health, and more.

## Transcript

[0:59] The. Hello and welcome to The Real
[1:04] Deal, a Real Madrid podcast with me, Jerrod Hector.
[1:06] I am joined by Le Conte. What's up, my guy?
[1:10] Yo. Good.
[1:11] So I was thinking about something I wanted to do a, a
[1:17] show and hopefully we can at least once a week you and I get
[1:20] together and we talked about sort of a larger, bigger picture
[1:23] things as it relates to Real Madrid and sort of where we
[1:28] think the discourse is going in the conversation.
[1:29] So not so much getting upset about or happy about specific
[1:33] games, more like big picture. Where do we see things going?
[1:37] What do we like? What don't we like?
[1:38] And as always, again, thank you for everybody for tuning in live
[1:41] right now. Please like the video, please
[1:43] subscribe to the channel, please share it to your friends,
[1:46] family, whoever. And also, if you just want the
[1:48] audio version of this, we are on Apple podcast and Spotify.
[1:51] So you can find us there at the Real deal.
[1:53] So I was thinking about American sports and in particular
[1:57] American football. And so there's this thing that
[2:00] happens in American football, right?
[2:01] Your training camp in the summertime.
[2:03] And then when the media, when the coaches come out to the
[2:05] media almost to a man Lecante, they all say this, the defense
[2:09] is ahead of the offense right now.
[2:11] And it's it is it is just a every coach and you can see it
[2:14] when you watch a preseason match.
[2:15] Whatever defense just looks better.
[2:18] And it made me think about Real Madrid.
[2:20] And I was like, huh, that's kind of how we look right now.
[2:23] The defense well ahead of the offense and.
[2:26] You're going to say. Watch Nico.
[2:27] Harrison, Nico. Shout out to Nico, by the way,
[2:32] Nico, who got friggin Cooper flag in the draft and has a
[2:35] pretty good squad right now. So Dallas fans, I don't I don't
[2:38] know why you're so upset. I think you're fine.
[2:39] I think I think you'll be fine. But yeah, so I was I was
[2:45] watching Real Madrid and I was thinking, yeah, defense and I
[2:47] think the content. Tell me if you agree with this.
[2:50] The reason why defense is always looks better when you have a
[2:56] coach change or looks like it's up to speed faster is because so
[3:00] much of defense, not all of it, but a lot of it is just about
[3:03] effort and giving a shit and wanting to on that end.
[3:06] Whereas on offense it's about timing, rhythm, patterns,
[3:11] tactics, knowing like right, it's a lot more of that.
[3:14] Not now defense has that too. Like when you're pressing you
[3:16] have to know who's going where, but it's about giving a shit
[3:19] collectively. You you you agree with that.
[3:24] Yeah, like I agree with it because like, you know, as they
[3:30] say, attack wins games, defence wins titles, right?
[3:34] Like that's always been a board. Like I'm going to become a
[3:36] broken record at this point, but football is a low margin game.
[3:39] If you don't defend well then it doesn't matter.
[3:42] Like Barcelona scored a shit load of goals but they allowed
[3:45] more than one more than enter so they were sent home.
[3:49] So it's just like one of these where I'm not saying that you
[3:53] have to be like ultra defensive, you shouldn't attack, but
[3:56] defense for the most part they never scored.
[3:58] Just like you said, the NFL, even basketball, right?
[4:01] OK see the Champions like they're way more known for
[4:04] defense than offense. It's just the trend and
[4:07] direction of the sports. Also due to the load, if we
[4:10] really want to be honest, because I am of the idea that
[4:13] defence is easier than offense. If you're focusing more on
[4:17] defence, so it's a more efficient way of becoming a
[4:23] champion rather than being one of the most.
[4:25] You're not going to be the one of the most entertaining and
[4:28] such. But generally speaking, I
[4:30] believe that defence is like the unlocking key.
[4:33] So success, which is what Madrid's club are for the.
[4:37] Yeah, it's funny that you said attack wins games and defence
[4:41] wins titles. You know, the American version
[4:43] of that is offense sells tickets, defence wins
[4:45] championships, right? Like it's, it's the same idea,
[4:47] right? And look, who doesn't like
[4:49] offense? That's the best part of any game
[4:50] with the ball. Listen, scoring means you get
[4:53] more money in your contracts. You get girls or boys, if that's
[4:57] how you that's your flavor, right?
[4:58] It's the thing that is popular that makes you like, that's what
[5:02] everyone loves. And when you are fan and you're
[5:04] watching with your eyeballs, that's what you gravitate
[5:06] towards because that excites the synapses in your brain defense.
[5:10] For most people, it doesn't do the same thing right?
[5:12] Because it's a little bit harder to see.
[5:13] It's like, wait, what are we doing here?
[5:15] What's this thing? And I think that one of the
[5:18] biggest issues I I said about Madrid last year was when the
[5:23] freedom on offense and interplay is not working, it is because
[5:27] everything's helter skelter. When the counter attack comes,
[5:30] this team has nothing to fall back on except for Tebow.
[5:34] Be amazing and have 75 arms and bail us out, which he does
[5:37] because he's arguably the best goalkeeper in the world.
[5:39] But maybe we don't want him to do that all the time.
[5:43] Exactly like last season. I mean just to prove your point,
[5:49] last season we had the Golden Boot winner, literally more
[5:52] goals than any player in European football, but didn't
[5:55] win the title. And nobody can sit there and say
[5:58] that Madrid deserves to win the title because as you said, too
[6:01] many chances allowed. No real ideas how to orientate
[6:05] against the ball. It is just a process of the
[6:10] moment when system falls apart as a whole, the defense is the
[6:15] one that suffers the most like the defenders.
[6:17] Look at our injuries for the most part, like the Acls, the
[6:22] long term injuries or mostly coming to the defensive players
[6:27] who have to overcompensate for the, well better put, lack of
[6:35] structure really the the. Unsettled situation that we find
[6:38] ourselves in right that's that's that was Madrid's issue last
[6:41] year right Le Conte we were in unsettled situations 99% of the
[6:45] time by unsettled I mean oh shit it's six on five it's 5 on 4/4
[6:49] on 2 like we were caught because someone lost the ball up top
[6:52] they didn't run back oh shit now we're in trouble right that
[6:54] just. Happened Spectrum, right?
[6:56] Petra's goal in Cova del Rey is just a normal turnover by June.
[7:01] Like no circumstances that should be a goal.
[7:04] But for some reason Pedro just get a long range shot which is
[7:09] clearly wide open because, well, nobody's there to cover the
[7:13] space because nobody knows where to be.
[7:15] And that's something that you genuinely have to work on as a
[7:20] team, as a unit, as a whole. That's when the coaches come in
[7:23] and they have to kind of create the solutions for these
[7:27] problems. I, I know that I took a minor
[7:29] problem, but that was a moment where we got punished.
[7:33] If you didn't see that thing like 1000 times repeatedly over
[7:37] last season, then I don't know what to say.
[7:39] It's just that that's one of the key moments where we really paid
[7:43] for a mistake like that, which you normally shouldn't pay, like
[7:47] your team really pays at least top team.
[7:50] But we did. Yeah, I look, we you guys
[7:53] already did the post game show, so I'm not going to be late for
[7:55] this point. But in the last match that we
[7:58] played against Osasuna last on Tuesday, that was a match
[8:03] Lecante that last year we likely draw or lose because.
[8:08] Like 89 because you turn. The ball over.
[8:12] No energy and then? It's just no, we don't know
[8:13] what. To press defense really like
[8:16] nothing is there to defend and we can see we can't hold the
[8:19] ball because we can circulate it to tire them out.
[8:22] And therefore where we just concede because that more energy
[8:25] than us because we are expelling more energy usually for the most
[8:29] part. And what made like last game
[8:33] don't want to go too many into that.
[8:35] More impressive is the fact of what we talk no pre season and
[8:38] the team was capable of holding off.
[8:40] So that's a big part. Correct.
[8:42] And I think that's the biggest piece of this too.
[8:44] So going back to the analogy of NFL coach is saying the defense
[8:48] ahead of the offense, right? As preseason goes on, you start
[8:52] to see the offense begin to catch up.
[8:54] And I think the way the season's structured right now from
[8:56] Madrid, it's kind of similar in that way, right?
[8:58] And Danny Carville, I believe, even said it like where they're
[9:01] looking at it as these three games we have before the
[9:03] September international break is like our preseason.
[9:07] That's what Carol said. You can argue if that's
[9:09] disrespectful to the opponent, but whatever.
[9:11] I mean I, I get it. Mean we.
[9:13] Could argue that, but on the other hand is a reality because
[9:17] we for postponed the game so and they said no, we do the search.
[9:20] So it's like they kind of made their bet to be honest with that
[9:24] disrespect. Even if we say it's
[9:27] disrespectful, right? It's the reality of it.
[9:29] And it's like. A preseason?
[9:31] There you go. Right.
[9:33] And so we have real Oviedo next and then Mallorca before the
[9:36] international break before the last one.
[9:38] And now Mallorca's at home, I believe.
[9:40] So I think that is an interesting way to look at it
[9:43] and then head into a break and then we'll talk about a little
[9:46] bit later about that break because I think there's going to
[9:48] be some advantages from Madrid with the international break
[9:50] coming up. All right.
[9:51] So I think for Javi, would you agree with this Lacante that he
[9:58] he has a clear idea about ideas about what he wants to do in the
[10:01] build up phase, but he knows and he knew that the first thing I
[10:04] have to fix is this rest defense in this out of possession
[10:08] situation is. Catastrophic.
[10:10] We can't, we can't have this shit.
[10:12] So that's number one. And, and I think so far it
[10:14] wasn't perfect, but so far we're trending in the right direction.
[10:18] I mean, sample of the games is small.
[10:22] Even heading back to the Club World Cup to now, sample of the
[10:26] games is very small. There isn't enough window for
[10:29] the coach to be able to figure out everything.
[10:31] But there are like clear structural things being changed.
[10:36] For example, last game, right? Or even in Club World Cup, to be
[10:39] honest, you just didn't see this team be able to press against
[10:43] the ball that well. By the way, pressing, because I
[10:46] see this misconception a lot, pressing is not always on the
[10:50] final third and the goalkeeper, It can be done on the middle of
[10:54] the pitch after we have trapped them.
[10:56] You just up the intensity and win the ball back.
[10:58] It doesn't always have to be all we have to push and run on their
[11:02] final third. It's about picking the moments,
[11:04] picking the time. This team is not always going to
[11:08] press on that demonic way. If you really want to say it,
[11:11] like we have the Jobby and Vinnie video, right?
[11:14] We showed up where Jobby screaming, Vinnie defence and
[11:17] defence and basically come back to the fan, to the fan, which we
[11:21] saw, right, Vinnie did the fan. Somehow it's been spun into a
[11:25] narrative, which is like very normal coaching thing.
[11:29] Like the coach is just reminding his layover and so he's not here
[11:33] anymore. Come back in the fan and he's
[11:36] just like Vinnie responded to that.
[11:39] You saw a lot of that defensive sequences there and yeah, we saw
[11:44] a little bit of more pragmatic team.
[11:46] I want to say which Alonso has strong tendencies of being
[11:49] especially when players are out. There are some major injuries
[11:53] like slash suspensions, even with this Leverkusen, right.
[11:57] The reason why they called them Neverkusen is because they would
[12:01] never lose, they would never give up.
[12:03] And that's kind of like his theme as a coach.
[12:07] And we're starting to see it. We're starting to see that
[12:12] translate into the team. Yeah, that that first season
[12:16] where he he where he went undefeated, won the league title
[12:19] and won the DFK Coppola and Believe and then went to the
[12:22] final, the Europa League. I remember watching matches and
[12:27] being like, damn, this squad just doesn't stop.
[12:30] They just keep going and we're seeing glimpses.
[12:33] Not fully. We're seeing glimpses of it.
[12:35] So I have this question for you. As we get better with our rest
[12:40] defense and pressuring the ball at certain points when we need
[12:43] to and we get turnovers and win the ball back, will that then
[12:47] because of the repetition of doing that, will that eventually
[12:50] help our offense and help people understand the patterns of where
[12:54] teammates like to be? I mean, naturally, right?
[12:58] Because some people, let's say PSG as example, since they are
[13:02] currently their European champions, Lucio didn't get
[13:05] there this January and just made the same click.
[13:08] It took him about a year and a half to get everything right
[13:11] because a lot of coaches go between trial and error and now
[13:15] they seemingly are back to reverting to the natural level.
[13:19] You're seeing it on the performances.
[13:21] Do I agree with them complaining about the rest?
[13:24] Yes. But apparently we're not allowed
[13:26] to do that even though they play less games.
[13:29] But I took them as a major example due to the fact that
[13:36] coaches need time. They need time to figure out
[13:38] what players like. What tendencies do players have?
[13:42] Because again, Liverpool and Madrid are two different teams.
[13:47] You you can see that there are patterns that are being
[13:50] followed, but you can also see the adjustment, right?
[13:54] That adjustment is being made to cater towards what the players
[13:58] enjoy doing on a pitch. I mean, obviously you I, I would
[14:02] like my team to have too many cruisers normally so nobody can
[14:05] touch the ball, right? But it's very unfair to actually
[14:09] ask them to do that. Or would they like to bring a
[14:12] pic Marcelo to hold the left wing by himself and just utilize
[14:16] the physicality of the Smithfield to cover up for him?
[14:19] Yes, I would, but those are just not possible.
[14:22] So as a coach, you see like a lot of Carreras, how many roles
[14:26] is being used? Dean Hoisen, Trent, all of these
[14:31] players, I'm just talking about the players that came.
[14:33] All of these players are being utilized differently time to
[14:36] time because you see the coach tinkering and he even said when
[14:40] it comes to the offensive scheme, right, He said we're
[14:42] still not used. We still haven't trained for low
[14:45] blocks because they there was so much that need to be done to the
[14:50] point where low blocks just have to be on the end of our
[14:55] priorities lowest on the packing order.
[14:58] And guess what it goes to show how bad it was right?
[15:01] Because you know that in La Liga are going to face low blocks
[15:04] right. Alonzo knew that, it's just that
[15:07] there was so much that is wrong with this team to the point
[15:12] where, OK, I'm going to have to revert a little bit into a Carl
[15:16] thing where let these guys figure out offensively, cuz I
[15:19] have a name, Boppy, Vini, Valeri who can strike a shot.
[15:23] Dean was taking shots from like 50 meters and actually getting
[15:26] them on target. Just figure out a way to score
[15:29] the goal, right? So yeah, to your point, as they
[15:33] put more reps in, as they improve more defensively,
[15:36] they're going to naturally improve more offensively.
[15:38] They're going to be more comfortable, they're going to
[15:40] win the ball back. They're going to be more
[15:42] accustomed to news and therefore they're going to get more
[15:44] opportunities in front of goal. Just the first game of Lolly.
[15:48] Literally as we yeah, I mean, we have So I mean, the, the, the
[15:51] room for improvement guys is like, I can't even measure it.
[15:55] There's so much. And to your point, Laconte Javi
[15:59] had a list probably OK, here are the 75 million things wrong with
[16:01] this team. He had three weeks.
[16:03] That's not enough time to fix all those right?
[16:05] Maybe you would get you. You see the first thing he
[16:07] addressed, which isn't, as I said, not even perfect yet.
[16:09] The first thing is, guys, you have to give a shit out of
[16:12] possession. That's number one.
[16:13] You're not even doing that. So we're we've got that together
[16:16] a little bit and it's getting better.
[16:17] We'll start to see things improve.
[16:18] You mentioned you'd love to have two Tony cruises so that no one
[16:21] ever touches the ball manna from heaven.
[16:23] Who wouldn't, right? One of the interesting things
[16:26] that people outside people, you know, say, and I don't know what
[16:29] this is about football or if it's Madrid hate or whatever it
[16:32] is, but this idea of oh, but Mitchell still needs a Tony Cruz
[16:35] replacement. They don't have a cruiser
[16:36] replacement. They have a modular replacement.
[16:38] They need more creativity in the midfield.
[16:40] And I'm just like, guys, Tony Cruz's don't grow on trees.
[16:43] Please tell me who, who who is that we?
[16:47] Can get. Please tell me where we can find
[16:50] him and we'll happily go get him, but he's not out there.
[16:53] But like Dante, when we talk about creativity in the midfield
[16:57] and listen, I have to do this. This is ESP NS Craig Burley who
[17:01] whatever was like, Oh my, just a problem.
[17:04] If they don't have a pedry, Barcelona gets played little
[17:06] blocks all the time and pedry can just ping passes all day.
[17:09] I go, no, that's also not true. So, and by the way, pinging
[17:14] passes, that's one way to be creative, but there are other
[17:17] ways to be creative in the midfield.
[17:20] I mean, they do that, right? And then we get a stat which is
[17:24] like players with most passes to the final third, right?
[17:27] And number players is number. One Madrid players out of the
[17:30] top ten and he's just like, OK, you know, it's just like, So
[17:35] what are we lacking now? Because normally we control that
[17:38] game from every single area. You could say there are rough
[17:43] methods to breaking that low block down, but if the methods
[17:48] were a little bit better, like ball was moved wider, a bit
[17:52] better and. A little quicker.
[17:54] Again, lack of reps. I'll keep saying this, there is
[17:57] a clear lack of reps. There was intent.
[17:59] I think there was some profile clashing which is going to turn
[18:03] around, is going to change with time, but also just the players
[18:08] getting the reps together. How many times did Carreras make
[18:11] a run which Vinnie didn't even know?
[18:13] Yes, he's not used to it, correct.
[18:16] He's used to having for Lamendi or fucking like a grand.
[18:21] Stadium Courtois or Frank Garcia was going to be like already at
[18:27] the corner flag, right? He's just not used to a guy like
[18:31] this guy actually points and makes the perfect run at perfect
[18:34] time. So maybe I should look right.
[18:37] We pointed out on the last episode where there was counter
[18:40] and then he had to to get his head up about 5 times because he
[18:44] didn't know where the team mates were.
[18:45] That's lack of. I put that to lack of reps I put
[18:49] that to the lack of OK, these guys just are not automated yet
[18:53] on the way how they're going to move.
[18:56] Look, there is a big discussion between like the way hub teams
[19:01] work, like some are too robotic, which people like to call the
[19:04] Arteta pep teams, and some are too way too fluid, like the ones
[19:08] of Ancelotti, right? Alonzo kind of seemed or seems
[19:14] even now as kind of like the blend of the two.
[19:17] You see that players are getting enough freedom to move like a
[19:21] Muppet, for example. He was everywhere on a field.
[19:25] And then you see a little bit more of like, OK, when this pass
[19:29] is triggered, this move is going to be triggered.
[19:31] Although the push society looks like a #9 at times or the same
[19:36] Brahim. I don't know what Brain was
[19:38] doing, to be honest. It's still Brahim, right?
[19:42] You know, all I'm talking is they need reps and they don't
[19:45] have enough time for reps No preseason, not enough games, not
[19:48] enough even training sessions, let alone games.
[19:51] So yeah. I, I love your point on that.
[19:55] I, I, I see that with Vinny, right?
[19:58] And I, I talked about this before.
[20:00] You can see when a player is at their best, when they're, when
[20:05] they are at their peak level and their form is on, there's no
[20:08] thinking. They just, they know what to do.
[20:10] It's like second nature and everything.
[20:12] They're moving super fast, but in their brain and mind, the
[20:15] game is moving very slow for them.
[20:17] That's why they're able to do that.
[20:18] Vinny is the opposite of that right now.
[20:20] He is thinking about everything and you see it, it's causing him
[20:23] to hesitate. He's like, oh wait, shit, there
[20:25] goes, there goes Carreras. Should I pass to him now?
[20:28] Oh wait, but I don't want to dribble past he like he's
[20:29] thinking. And that's when you are.
[20:31] Changed deep I I can't move forward.
[20:34] Exactly. A lot of things.
[20:36] It's a lot of things and often times you have paralysis by
[20:39] analysis, right? Too many things flooding your
[20:41] brain at once. And it's like, oh shit, now I'm
[20:42] stuck. What do I do?
[20:43] Right? And so I think once the squad,
[20:46] to your point, more reps, more reps, more reps, we get better
[20:50] with that. I'm with you.
[20:51] Look, this idea that we need a pedry.
[20:52] I'm like, look, we got Jude Bellingham.
[20:54] We don't need pedry like like I would we're we're fine.
[20:57] I. Wouldn't mind the pedry but do I
[20:59] think a pedry is a must? No right?
[21:01] No, I just think a must is for this team to get the reps
[21:05] together and I agree, building the cohesion like that's my
[21:08] must. And I also think that guys, this
[21:12] is art. Does this is Art Kumar's most
[21:16] extended time at the club level. Starting games now, right now,
[21:20] from the Club World Cup to the start of this season, it's like
[21:23] aside from two years ago when we were.
[21:26] One of the. Right and it but like right,
[21:29] this is so he is going to have to get reps to understand.
[21:33] OK, here's where I make so here's where I do that.
[21:36] And you can see he's learning on the job too.
[21:37] We're essentially we have many players learning on the job.
[21:41] Don't forget what we talked about Chua many is changing his
[21:45] role with this team. Yes, he's a holding manipulator,
[21:47] but Chavi Alonso wants him to be.
[21:50] And here's a question I have for you, Acante.
[21:52] Can he be that tempo controller that everyone thinks that we
[21:58] need? And again, it may not look the
[22:01] way that Tony Cruz's tempo control looks, but can he tempo
[22:05] control a game in his way? I mean, me and Sarah Burnley
[22:09] touched upon that when we have the Kamalini and his own right,
[22:11] like Chomini was brought in for his ability to win the ball
[22:15] back, of course, because that's kind of the main strength.
[22:18] But he's playing a ball like World Cup 2022.
[22:22] He was one of the most progressive players out there
[22:25] and it's fixed volumes of his quality.
[22:28] Do I think that sometimes from time to time, his profile can be
[22:32] a little bit of redundancy on the team?
[22:34] For example, on a game like Osaka, I can make the case that
[22:38] he shouldn't be sorting that. I know that there was no other
[22:41] option, by the way, But if I had Kamavigno available, I would
[22:44] have gone with Kamavigno on that specific game.
[22:47] But in terms of a week in and out, can he pass a ball, make
[22:50] the right move, progress it? Yes.
[22:53] But I think that it's been taken away from him a little bit and
[22:56] he's starting to relearn taking risks.
[23:00] He's starting to get his brain to know that, hey, now I can
[23:05] make this pass. After two years of being told
[23:08] not you can't play the ball between the lines because we
[23:12] don't have a player between the lines.
[23:13] You have to consistently shift diagonally.
[23:17] So now, OK, give him time too. I mean, he he gives his uses
[23:23] outside of that, but in terms of coaching and him in a tandem,
[23:30] because I don't think he's a cruise where he can just mask
[23:33] coaching issues like that's just not going to happen.
[23:36] But I think he's good enough to take upon a role like that for
[23:40] as long as you pair him with a more vertical threat, which
[23:45] would be like a Norda Kamadinga, wherever you're going to go.
[23:49] He needs that pairing, not going to deny that.
[23:51] But he's good enough to do it, to hold the team together, to
[23:57] literally be the holding midfielder in every sense, not
[24:01] just like defensively, but. I agree.
[24:03] No, he well you you already know I think he could be the best DM
[24:06] in the world at his at his full potential.
[24:08] So I I agree. With you agree on this one.
[24:10] Yeah, I agree. Do you think when fully healthy,
[24:14] so that's Chemovinga, that includes Jude and all the
[24:18] restaurant midfielders. Do you think that what again
[24:21] media people say about the squad is true in that Madrid lacks
[24:25] technical quality in the midfield?
[24:27] No. No.
[24:29] I I the issue with technical quality is that people reduce
[24:36] technical quality to can these players spin on the same place
[24:39] 100 times right Like but how much that spinning is actually
[24:44] helping? Like Jude is one of the highest
[24:48] efficient dribblers in the world.
[24:50] I'm sorry that the guy isn't a 5 foot Spanish midfielder, but he
[24:56] can do that and we have seen him do that correct.
[24:58] Guess what? Best midfielder on a pitch
[25:00] against Spain, All of these guys that can do this on a Euro
[25:05] final. Best midfielder on a pitch?
[25:07] Rhodri, but Balandor winner went out after 45 minutes because
[25:14] yes, I've tracked this. Rodri and Jude dueled themselves
[25:18] five times that game. All five were one way.
[25:20] Jude. He dribbled past him twice, got
[25:23] him on a yellow card and then he suddenly got injured.
[25:26] So he was injured. No issues coming back with
[25:32] Manchester City, but he was injured for the rest of 45
[25:34] minutes. But regardless of that, saying
[25:37] that players like Kama Vinga over the Germany or the Siberius
[25:43] even don't have technical quality, it's just disrespectful
[25:48] because they put that in such a small vacuum of I agree, you
[25:52] have to be able to do a certain thing or else you're not
[25:56] technical. They want you to look like Pedri
[25:58] and Gabi. That's that's what they want.
[26:00] If you don't, if you don't look like Pedri and Gabi, you're not
[26:01] technically, I'm like, that's not like, like, come on.
[26:06] He's just funny because I always argue Jude is just as tactical
[26:09] as Pedry, yet he's better than him in every other aspect of the
[26:13] sport really. So even if you're going to say
[26:17] OK, Pedry might be a better deep lying playmaker, maybe if you
[26:20] really want to go that route. We haven't seen Jude be
[26:24] attempted at that. Correct.
[26:25] And not because Jude can do it, but because he's so important
[26:29] elsewhere to the point where these coaches are willing to
[26:32] give that up because they go like, OK, look, I don't want to
[26:37] lose this box crashing. I don't want to lose this
[26:40] between the lines assets. So they try to work around it.
[26:43] For example, we've seen Hoisin, Militao, whatever put it in
[26:46] midfield for Madrid to try and make up for that.
[26:49] Numerical superiority is what the coaches care about in every
[26:54] area. Defensively, offensively, in
[26:56] terms of technique, A technique will allow you to do that.
[27:00] And technical players like it. It feels, it's very
[27:06] stereotypical and it's just sad because they've just taken on
[27:10] that notion of OK, these guys are physical 1st and that's why
[27:15] even on my list before, I have their physical capacities listed
[27:19] as last because that's the stereotype that these guys get
[27:24] put into. Maybe you could argue that there
[27:29] is a bit of nuance lacking with the passing.
[27:31] That doesn't necessarily mean that the whole technical thing
[27:35] is gone out of the window. It's just that the passing is
[27:38] slightly weaker than it would naturally be.
[27:41] Which maybe I would agree or disagree with it because I want
[27:44] to see them in an actual system with reps and before making the
[27:48] judgement. But aside of that, really I
[27:51] think that we don't have an any technical issues at all.
[27:56] I think it's just it's lazy, right?
[27:57] It's lazy analysis, right? It is all it is like, oh, Jude's
[28:01] a physical freak. Yes, and he's also technically
[28:03] sound like you can be two things at the same time, right?
[28:06] You can be a physical monster and also super technical that
[28:11] creates the greatest what I mean, Cristiano Ronaldo, hello,
[28:14] like a physical freak and also elite technically, right?
[28:17] Like that's how you're able to be the greatest player, LeBron.
[28:20] James. What was LeBron James and what
[28:23] is he like? First one list.
[28:26] So physical specimen and one of the best creators of all time,
[28:31] really in the NBA court. I know that I'm taking an
[28:33] extreme example here, but in football from what I'm saying,
[28:38] ESPN football wise would have gone like, oh, LeBron James is
[28:41] like a physical specimen while taking away like every other
[28:45] thing that he's doing on the court because he's able to bully
[28:49] well, people that are taller or heavier than him physically.
[28:53] And this is my problem, right? Like this what you said, it's
[28:57] lazy analysis. It's easy to say this guy lacks
[29:02] technique because he's big and that's that's why everything is
[29:06] happening. Like if you ask one guy what are
[29:09] the deficiencies, right? Like give me a nuance transfer
[29:14] to where the deficiencies are coming and are they going to be
[29:18] able to give you that answer? Because this is the real
[29:20] question. I don't think they will.
[29:22] I agree. Yeah, they, they, they, they
[29:25] just don't they it's look it, it's also part and parcel of the
[29:29] of the content game. And so Madrid bands, if you're
[29:32] watching stuff on ESPN, you have to know that, right?
[29:35] Part of it is they're going to constantly compare Madrid to
[29:37] Barcelona just because one, it's easy and two, for all the
[29:40] obvious reasons, right? And then everyone's still in
[29:43] love with that, even though they don't really do that anymore,
[29:45] like tiki taka, blah, blah and all that shit, right?
[29:47] Like it's, it's still in everybody's consciousness,
[29:49] right? So that's how they talk about
[29:51] that team and it will constantly be that's what they do.
[29:54] And Madrid just bombs the ball up the corner and they just do
[29:57] this because their guys are physically whatever and they
[29:59] write as opposed to look breaking down.
[30:01] I think now under Javi Alonzo, it'll be harder and harder to do
[30:05] that with this team because you're going to see a team
[30:06] that's going to be much better when showing their technical
[30:09] prowess as time goes on. And now what are they going to
[30:12] say? I'm like, oh, well, now they
[30:14] have to be like, those guys are legit.
[30:15] And that's what I, I, I, I hope I see it from those guys.
[30:18] You mentioned Cruz. One of the things that was great
[30:20] about Cruz Acante was he would invite the press, right?
[30:25] Because to get the, the, the defense to get those out of
[30:28] shape a little bit and then ping and go the other way as this
[30:31] crew gets better. So not just an individual, but
[30:34] as this crew gets better, do you think they will and should
[30:38] invite the press? I mean, that's kind of seems to
[30:41] be the goal, right? Because you see that sometimes
[30:44] they slow it down on purpose. Like players like Dean, I'm
[30:49] talking to you more of like technically sound like
[30:53] especially Trent, you're seeing that was Trent a lot.
[30:56] Trent is being doubled down on the press a lot and he's getting
[30:59] out of it. They wait, like not everybody
[31:02] will have the cruise step cruise ability to switch the play
[31:06] because we said there was only one cruise.
[31:09] Like Alonzo or Coach right now used to be like incredible
[31:13] player. He wasn't Tony Cruz.
[31:15] I'm just going to have to be honest.
[31:16] He just was not Tony Cruz. You could say that he was better
[31:19] maybe in some areas, but Tony Cruz level of baiting, inviting
[31:26] the press and then getting the team out of it just now.
[31:30] So having that expectation of cruise level, I don't think it's
[31:33] fair to put on anybody. But I do think they're going to
[31:37] go more of like, well, let's take this example.
[31:39] The deserver out. He's Brighton.
[31:42] He's Brighton used to invite other teams playing it slowly,
[31:47] goalkeeper, defender, defender, defender.
[31:50] When that press is triggered the play, the ball is like either
[31:54] over the top or there's a quick vertical ball to the receiver
[32:00] between the lines and they move from there.
[32:02] Do I think they're going to go there?
[32:03] Yes, because Alonzo seems to love making artificial
[32:07] transactions, so they are going to develop to that.
[32:11] I also believe that Alonzo doesn't trust the team enough to
[32:15] be able to do that. Yeah, not yet to hold them that
[32:17] deep for time being. So for now, this is what we
[32:21] have, but I think they elevate and they go to that level by
[32:26] like December, January, when we get like a rougher, better
[32:30] example of where the team is, yeah, where the sample has
[32:33] grown. And I think one of the things
[32:35] that fans need to keep in mind also, Lacande, is that small
[32:39] sample size. Alonzo and the coaching staff
[32:41] are get an idea of what are all the things that these guys can
[32:45] do right. Everyone's ranting, and
[32:47] rightfully so. It's not a bad thing.
[32:49] We all love Dean Hoyson, but he's still looking to see, OK,
[32:53] what else can Dean do right, or what can't he do right?
[32:57] And then to your point, by January, February, OK, now I
[33:00] know what just about everyone can do.
[33:03] Now I know where I need to position people right and where
[33:05] you can exploit and take advantage of those things.
[33:07] And guys, I don't know what to tell you.
[33:09] That takes time, right? Like it.
[33:10] We're not going to know by next game or by Christmas or you
[33:14] know. Even profiling, right, Brahim
[33:18] and Trent definitely was a receipt for disaster.
[33:22] Two of the same guys, slow strides, you know, like guys
[33:27] that you kind of want to do the same thing on a pitch.
[33:32] So is that a mistake by Alonzo? Not really, because he wants to
[33:37] see it play out first. Like, do I think he believed
[33:41] that? It was like, do I think that he
[33:44] went with that fully knowing that OK, there might be some
[33:48] clashes? Yes, because he seemed that way
[33:52] and he made the necessary changes when it became required.
[33:57] But he needs to try things. We're going to see different
[34:00] line UPS, different variations. We're probably going to play a
[34:03] low block again this Sunday. We're probably going to see a
[34:08] different iteration of the team, not that 79% possession on the
[34:14] first half type of team. They're probably going to try to
[34:16] invite more, even if they can. Even if they can't do that, it's
[34:21] still probably going to be boring.
[34:23] To be honest. We don't know because a long
[34:25] shot on the 8th minute that goes in opens up the whole game for
[34:29] you and you score 567. But on paper is just what we're
[34:34] expecting. Would I expect the same thing to
[34:38] happen six months from now? No, like by then I would like
[34:42] the coach to have it figured out.
[34:45] So you said where did this week? What more can he do?
[34:49] What less responsibility should he get so we can maximize the
[34:53] other responsibility and that goes for like what, 25 players
[34:57] in the team? The whole squad or.
[34:58] Two, you know, it's 25. Maybe he realizes that isolating
[35:05] Vini like this doesn't seem the best idea of using a skill set.
[35:09] But now how am I gonna make all of these ten other players be
[35:15] comfortable while Vini is not isolated?
[35:17] Correct. It's too much work to happen to
[35:20] change in a day. Yeah, this is one of my senses.
[35:23] Yeah, now it makes perfect sense.
[35:27] You know, we, we we talked about Cama Binga earlier when we're
[35:29] discussing the midfield and I saw these awesome stats about
[35:32] him, which is why I remain so high on him.
[35:36] So he's the only one midfielder in the top five European
[35:39] leagues. Ranks in the 90th percentile for
[35:41] both possessions 1 and progressive carries.
[35:43] That would be Eduardo Cama Binga.
[35:45] He's in the 90th percentile for possessions won, 91st for
[35:48] progressive carries, 91st for percentile for forward passes
[35:51] completed, 85th percentile for forward pass completion, 78
[35:55] percentile for duos won. No top seven league player has
[35:57] more sliding tackles per 90 last season. 1.55 Kemah Vinga is a
[36:03] demon, an absolute demon on the pitch.
[36:07] The issue which we said a million times is just we haven't
[36:09] been able to have a nice run of consistency where he doesn't get
[36:13] injured and then it goes away. That's what we need to see.
[36:16] But when he's there, so you mentioned in a game against a
[36:20] low block, maybe like a guy like Kemah Vinga, because correct me
[36:23] if I'm wrong, Lakanti, is that where the creativity comes from?
[36:25] Who needs pinging passes when he can just dribble by everybody
[36:28] because you can't take the ball from him?
[36:30] You know, like, for example, like one Press of trigger and he
[36:34] beats two players up and then suddenly there is a lot more
[36:39] space. Just think of the goal that we
[36:41] score, right? Dean clears the ball, ball gets
[36:44] out. Brahim, By the way, I was
[36:46] praying to God that he doesn't take an extra touch and he
[36:49] passes it to Moppet and we win the penalty.
[36:54] As simple as that, right. And if you have a player that
[36:57] can carry the ball as well as Kama Vinga can, then you are
[37:03] just getting into a whole new spectrum because, as we said,
[37:07] profiles, right, Kama Vinga, you know, there are lots of things
[37:12] happening. Yeah, like we had a full episode
[37:16] of the name. Is there too many positions?
[37:18] Is there too much to think of it?
[37:20] Does he do too much with his body on top of it?
[37:22] Like as you said, the slight tackles, like if slight tackles
[37:26] aren't very normal, right? It's not that he's just sliding.
[37:29] You can see that like a spider. He gets the foot like somehow in
[37:33] between players to get the ball out and it's just or all of
[37:38] these muscle strains being caused by his play style, at
[37:42] least against the wall. Can we utilize that physicality
[37:46] in a better way, in a way where he doesn't have to be a spider?
[37:51] He can just go in in front of the attacker and be like, Nah,
[37:54] this ball is fine. And that, you know, like without
[37:57] over complicating a situation. For example, think of Kamabi on
[38:00] the last game, right? Let's be realer, like, just
[38:03] think of them. Yeah, I know that.
[38:06] Also. Soon I had two shots.
[38:07] I'm going to be honest, I don't think they would have had one if
[38:09] he'd like. Correct.
[38:10] Yeah. Because of his place, not
[38:13] because the other players didn't do a good job defensively or
[38:15] anything, but because of the way how he plays.
[38:19] It's very disruptive for other teams.
[38:22] You have to really get him out of that zone and if you have a
[38:27] coach that's giving players more positional awareness or the
[38:32] other team that's sitting so deep, so heavily reliant on 2nd
[38:37] balls, then yeah, Camavinga is going is just going to be fun
[38:40] fun. Yeah, yeah.
[38:42] Just the load. That's just how much load is
[38:45] that going to be on his money? So I was thinking about this if
[38:49] Camavinga is available and healthy for 85% of our matches
[38:55] this season. And not only that, Javi Alonso
[38:59] is deploying him in the best possible ways to utilize all his
[39:02] skill sets because that changed the ceiling of this team.
[39:08] Oh yeah. 100%, like 100% because when we spoke about Kamalina,
[39:13] right, like we even spoke privately, there are two fears
[39:16] for them. First of all is him not really
[39:19] becoming the player that we expected to go.
[39:21] And the second one is him being sold.
[39:25] I don't want to play against that.
[39:27] I just don't like, I don't want to be against a player like
[39:31] that. Like I, I think that the second
[39:33] one is even bigger issue than the first one.
[39:35] To be honest. I would rather have an Kamavinda
[39:38] that plays 60 games, but it's on my team, right?
[39:41] Like knowing that there's a chance that I play against him
[39:44] down the line, doesn't matter if it's a Champions League game.
[39:47] Like that's a quality that we're talking about.
[39:50] He can always be nurtured. He's so young.
[39:52] He's just the fact that he made the debut at 16 years old and it
[39:58] feels like he's been around for a lifetime.
[40:01] Also, by the way, that can have something to do with injuries,
[40:05] right? 16 breaking through.
[40:09] I know that now it's becoming more of the norm.
[40:11] When Kamalinga did, it wasn't. You weren't seeing a lot of 16
[40:15] years olds on a pitch, especially after the guy got #10
[40:19] on his jersey, given what Rene expected him to do.
[40:23] So yeah, Kamalinga is just. You can't say one player is like
[40:29] the line between becoming the best team in the world and not
[40:32] right? But.
[40:34] We're not saying he's not. Yeah.
[40:36] Kamalinga just gives you that higher chance of becoming that
[40:40] team. Like this how I see it.
[40:42] I agree 100%. To me, if he is that version,
[40:48] then I say we have a as good a shot as anybody winning the
[40:50] Champions League, right? If he is that version of
[40:52] himself, like that's how good we are.
[40:54] I think we win the league anyway, but we then become that
[40:57] much more difficult to beat in the Champions League because of
[41:00] a player like that. Now mind you, all that being
[41:04] said about Kama Venga, because of the injuries and everything
[41:06] else, no doubt his confidence and mentality has been is going
[41:10] to be affected a little bit. So it's going to take him time
[41:13] as well to ramp up. So even if he is healthy, we
[41:16] probably won't see the best version of him until same time
[41:20] we see the team's best version, right?
[41:21] January, February, sometime around then probably assuming
[41:25] one. Training session correct?
[41:27] Assuming he can train play uninterrupted without injury,
[41:30] which who the hell knows what that's going to be.
[41:36] You know, one of the things about about the squad and we
[41:39] talked about how Chabi wanted to fix the defense 1st.
[41:43] And I think to a lot of Madrid fans, they saw a lot of still
[41:45] left sided heavy attack going on right with Carreras, who by the
[41:48] way, you guys talked about him. I love like just seeing him on
[41:51] the ball so much. I was like, I love this guy.
[41:53] Can we he's just great. Like I just, and I know it's
[41:56] because we had fucking Mendy and ran before that.
[41:59] So it's skewing our, it's like when you go from someone who
[42:03] can't to just like competence, it looks like.
[42:06] I don't think it's killing like, you know, that we went through
[42:10] the Benfica tape, right? And you could tell immediately
[42:14] that, OK, there's even more to him than what you saw at
[42:17] Benfica. You you see a player that's more
[42:20] than capable defensively, but you see a player that's very
[42:24] technically sound. A player, as we said before came
[42:27] in, can even slaughter left center back in back three
[42:29] without a problem because he's so comfortable doing so many
[42:33] things. And normally, normally, yes,
[42:37] we're starved of a left bag. But I also think it's due to the
[42:41] fact that he's that damn good. You know, like it comes to a
[42:45] certain point where we have this tendency of underrating our
[42:50] players. Right.
[42:50] Yeah, we do. You're right.
[42:53] In a world, because that casts on like we win the Champions
[42:58] League and 1st the Ballindor goes to Benzema and then our
[43:03] next player, if I'm wrong, is at 7th.
[43:06] And he's just like, so this team that beat every single big team
[43:11] out there has the best player in the world and the 7th the best
[43:15] player in the world and he's just underneath.
[43:18] After that, you know, he's just it's a syndrome that we have
[43:22] tendencies of face. And like I said, I'm not
[43:24] exaggerating. I said this on Twitter.
[43:26] Not even. I'm sure Dean Hoisen is one of
[43:29] the best central backs in the world already.
[43:31] Yes. Already.
[43:32] He's already that. Yep.
[43:33] Like, it's not about him playing for Madrid, it's about what he
[43:36] can do on the pitch. I'm going to say he's the best,
[43:40] but if you have a guy that's likely to reign supreme, like be
[43:45] Virgil Van Dyke of this generation, is this.
[43:49] This is the question I have for you, right?
[43:50] Okay, he may not be the best right now, but if you're asking
[43:53] me, I had to start a team today and I had to pick from the best
[43:57] center backs in the world. I'm taking him over Saliba,
[44:00] Gabriel, Van Dyke, all them. Why?
[44:03] Because he's 20 and he's already up at that level, which means we
[44:08] think he can be even better when he's at his prime.
[44:11] And even if you ask me to make the perfect lineup from every
[44:13] plan, I'm just putting him on Van Dyke.
[44:15] And I'm just calling it today because Van Dyke is great with
[44:18] the ball, don't get me wrong. But I would like more of like a
[44:20] leader and I would have voice him to be more adventurous,
[44:24] dictate more, more with the ball and do XY and Z.
[44:27] And I think you have the best pairing in the world of
[44:29] football. That's because the profiles mash
[44:32] so well with one another. So Dean is that special.
[44:36] He's not just. He's a Madrid player.
[44:39] Yeah. And you know that I used to be
[44:40] one of the guys that went like, I'm not very impressed by this
[44:43] guy, you know, early. And then I went on back on the
[44:48] tape because to be honest, Washington, Bournemouth is fun
[44:50] because I love you available. So I was like, OK, I'm going to
[44:53] do this with lots of joy. And I'm like, I'm seeing him
[44:56] doing this, doing that. And I'm like, OK, you guys are
[45:00] right. You're like you.
[45:02] Guys are right. You guys are just right, but
[45:04] that's what's wrong. But that's the thing, like
[45:06] Kante, right? You have to watch the film,
[45:08] right? You can't just go off like, oh,
[45:10] or watch a YouTube mix tape. You got to be like, all right,
[45:12] let me go watch his last ten matches and see, you know?
[45:16] We used to have a comment. Remember when people on this
[45:20] channel tend to think that I had a Rodrigo agenda and that I
[45:23] wanted him sold? That was before we kicked the
[45:25] ball. By the way.
[45:27] I said Rodrigo does not fit the Alonzo prototype of player.
[45:33] Maybe Alonzo can make it work again to this I stand by that.
[45:38] But by watching Liver Cousin film, I just struggled to see
[45:43] where he fit and I made the point is the physical
[45:46] deficiencies that he has nothing to do with technical.
[45:50] I mean, I know that there are bigger issues with him, but for
[45:53] me was struck out the most was just how different the wingers
[45:58] and the players under Alonzo were compared to what Rodriguez.
[46:02] Rodrigo wants to be more on the inside, more of a carrier.
[46:05] Alonzo doesn't like that, doesn't ever use that.
[46:07] Maybe he might go to that at one point, but what we have from the
[46:11] film available, that just wasn't gonna happen.
[46:14] So yeah, watching film is just very important.
[46:17] Teams do that to prepare week in and out.
[46:19] They literally have a failed team to do the scouting.
[46:23] If the coach, let's say there are two days apart from a game
[46:26] to a game which just happened before, right?
[46:28] A coach can sit there and watch like 7 hours of film and then
[46:31] draft up the whole plan. He has a team with that, does it
[46:36] for him, gives him the plan, tells him, OK, from the film we
[46:40] saw, there's, there's, there's this.
[46:42] He'll go. They will highlight those
[46:44] things. While I'm speaking here from the
[46:46] experience on the football a little bit.
[46:48] He will get that film, that tape, those moments, what they
[46:52] deemed as crucial. He'll watch them.
[46:55] He'll notice a few different things and go like, OK, we
[46:58] penetrate this way against this team.
[47:02] So yeah, that's why, like, for example, you see a breakthrough
[47:06] player at 1617 years old, then just start to regress.
[47:12] He's not really regressing. It's just that the film on that
[47:16] player is more and more so teams are getting more accustomed.
[47:20] Film matters more than anything else.
[47:23] You watch the film, you line up the data, you put those, you
[47:27] merge those things together, and then you get a product.
[47:30] And that's what coaches have to do on daily basis, by the way.
[47:33] And then the, the, the players have to execute, right?
[47:36] You can have the, they have to do the thing.
[47:37] If they don't do it, well, your great plan is out the window
[47:40] 'cause they're not doing what, Of course, what, what, what is
[47:42] being being asked. So we saw Carreras and Vinnie on
[47:46] the left side. And to your point, I they just
[47:49] need reps, I think that will be a very beautiful left.
[47:51] Side. Happening on the right side,
[47:55] like you mentioned, Brian Heeman, I thought he and Trent
[47:58] just, it just didn't work. Just don't play him and Trenton,
[48:01] you're good. Right.
[48:02] I mean, right. But I wonder, so does that mean
[48:05] that in order for him to be unlocked, it's got to be Trent
[48:08] and Mastantuano on the right together?
[48:11] Like currently that's the ideal, but I think once Jude is back,
[48:16] you saw Bape going off the right a lot.
[48:18] His best actions maybe were coming off the right.
[48:21] So once Jude is back, probably you'll see a lot more Trenton
[48:25] and Bape. And although they're pushing a
[48:27] bit higher with Shamani screening for them, I think
[48:30] you'll see that a lot. You'll see a more aggressive
[48:33] right center back, which is why I really want another right
[48:36] center back that's aggressive to be signed.
[48:38] But you'll get like, my prediction would be that you'll
[48:43] get more of like Trent by himself.
[48:45] When I say Trent by himself, I don't mean lonely in a
[48:47] Wonderland, but I mean that he's not going to have a player in a
[48:52] very close proximity like Brahim was at all times because Trent
[48:55] doesn't want that. Trent wants your Salah, your
[48:58] Mbappe, a player that can read the play well, connect with him
[49:02] like Valverde or Jordan Anderson.
[49:04] By the way, I'm not even saying that those players are fully
[49:07] similar, but what I'm saying is that players that will combine
[49:11] with him and understand where he wants to go.
[49:14] Trent needs to be an on ball leader.
[49:17] When you have a player like Brahim, he just can't.
[49:20] You saw Franco, right? He came into the game
[49:23] immediately. He was coming on the inside
[49:24] between the lines because he was opening the site for the full
[49:30] back to enter. It's as simple as that.
[49:33] Some players sort to say, but a player at Brain Sage needs to
[49:36] understand that. But at this point, you know, you
[49:39] get to a certain level where some things are just very hard
[49:42] to be wired in your brain. I've said that about a sense you
[49:45] in the past, some players just never get over that hurdle and
[49:49] you have like a more natural player that has taken more
[49:53] responsibility on his team, like Franco Masatuano with River
[49:58] Plate, because at 18 years old he already has reps with the
[50:01] first team. So therefore he comes just a
[50:04] little bit more adult, a little bit more grown, even though his
[50:07] age doesn't show it. So yeah, until Judy's back, I
[50:11] expect Franco to be like Transporter in crime, if we
[50:15] really want to say that on the right.
[50:17] Yeah. And I, I think you know, and if
[50:19] you between Carreras and Bitty on the left and Franco and Trent
[50:24] on the right, that could be some, we could see fireworks
[50:27] first. Again, not right away can take
[50:30] time for everybody to to get cohesive, but this could be the
[50:32] kind of balance that we're looking for.
[50:35] All right, Lacante, as we wrap, I was starting to think about,
[50:37] we started the show about how it's Madrid is treating this
[50:40] like the preseason, right? Three games and then we have
[50:42] that break, the September international break.
[50:44] Now, of course, many of our players will have international
[50:47] responsibilities and we'll be away, but a lot of our players
[50:50] won't. And I do wonder who is going to
[50:53] get to benefit from those two weeks of staying in Madrid,
[50:57] right, and training with Jabi and linking up and being able to
[51:01] sort of connect and and get themselves together.
[51:03] We already know Carlo's not calling Vinny up for for this
[51:06] one. Neither Milital, by the way,
[51:08] right? Which he has a huge favor.
[51:10] He has a red card already, so he wouldn't play the first match
[51:12] anyway. And Carlo's like, well, I'm not
[51:13] going to call you up for one match.
[51:14] So when I get some rest, thank you, Carlo, for doing us a
[51:17] favor. So he's staying.
[51:20] I mean, look, I don't know where this player's bits in the depth
[51:22] chart, but the reality is he will be staying as well.
[51:24] Is Aliba Carreras does not play for Spain?
[51:28] Is aliba staying? I, I think so.
[51:31] I don't. I don't think he's getting
[51:32] called up. I'm not sure because Austria,
[51:34] he's kind of like the guy that it doesn't really matter.
[51:37] We'll see. I mean, for Alibi it would be
[51:40] good because gives him reps, gives him time to play, actually
[51:44] get a feel for the football. I would actually like, you know,
[51:47] international break. Is this like with Order last
[51:50] year, I wanted him to go and play for because I wanted him to
[51:53] actually start to feel the game again.
[51:55] Yes, this is how I feel for some of the players.
[51:58] For the others like I would love if Mbappe doesn't go if we get
[52:03] that Mbappe and Vinnie on the training ground for.
[52:06] Two weeks, right? I would be.
[52:09] I would be. Wanted external pressure.
[52:11] That would be heaven. That would be heaven.
[52:12] But he will, right? Realistically.
[52:14] So if I had to pick a top three player that's going to benefit
[52:17] one. Vinnie clearly needs it. 2 is
[52:20] going to be Andrick. He won't go even if he's fed.
[52:23] Correct. 3 Kama Vinga 1 go even if he's fed.
[52:26] Like the song can be a real cunt and call him up, but you're
[52:31] still going to play Rabio for the love of God.
[52:33] So why even call him up? So I would hope that that Lacey
[52:36] doesn't that favor goes like, OK, Kamaviga hasn't played in
[52:39] like 6 months, just let him sit there.
[52:41] I do wonder if the club is the end.
[52:43] Might actually might be like, you know what Kamaviga hasn't
[52:46] played for like 6 months. Why?
[52:49] What if we just don't let him play for the next two games so
[52:52] we don't make him eligible to go with the national team?
[52:56] Like that's also another option. Players that have have had the
[52:59] least reps, let it be with the team or they haven't played.
[53:05] Players that haven't really played would be good for them to
[53:08] go with the national team. Aloha, right?
[53:11] Give me 10 minutes a game sometimes to close the games out
[53:14] so. I give them some rats you.
[53:15] Know who is an injury right because normally one for one
[53:18] Aloha should be his most suitable replacement it.
[53:22] Should be. Maybe a Rediger Nichols swan
[53:24] does us a favor, Leaves Rediger home for once, that.
[53:27] 'D be nice with. Different players, you know,
[53:30] like leave Rediger at home. Little apparently staying too.
[53:34] That would be good. Alaba can go get some reps
[53:37] Karvajal hopefully stays. Don't want anything to happen to
[53:40] that guy. But the other option is
[53:43] Mingezza. So that's highly likely because
[53:46] we already played Karvaal. I'm not even knocking Mingezza
[53:49] out, by the way. I think he's been great.
[53:51] I just think that there are levels and Karvajal is that next
[53:54] level of player. Yeah.
[53:56] So international break judging is very hard sometimes.
[54:00] It can be very important sometimes get the players out of
[54:03] this pressurized environment of Madrid and allow them to at
[54:08] least breathe a little bit more. But most of the times depends on
[54:13] your results. Like last season, I was
[54:15] celebrating international breaks because we were so fit to the
[54:18] point where I went like and salute.
[54:20] You have two weeks to study film from a law of goth Comedy, you
[54:25] know? But now with Alonzo, it's like,
[54:27] I actually want to see how the team develops with these guys.
[54:30] So it's not really all that good, you know?
[54:32] Yeah, yeah. No it it'll be easy to see.
[54:35] Hurtful like too many international breaks.
[54:38] Why do we have one in September for two weeks?
[54:41] Why do we have one in October for two weeks?
[54:43] And why the hell do we need another one late November as
[54:46] fixtures are ramping up? It is like This is why I'm
[54:53] looking forward to it. For Vinny is the rest and the
[54:56] work with Alonzo and not having to travel to a second
[54:58] hemisphere. I worry about Fede of course.
[55:00] Thankfully Jude will not get called up.
[55:02] Yay. He gets to stay back as well
[55:05] right? For once that's good, because
[55:08] once they're back from international break, folks, oh
[55:10] by the way, guess what starts the week?
[55:12] Champions League group stage or a league phase starts that week,
[55:16] so we're by. The way right, we're going to
[55:18] back to. To two games a week, right?
[55:20] And so listen that the fact that Chavi wants to rotate is going
[55:24] to be so, so important because my God, these guys are going to
[55:28] need it. They're going to need some rats.
[55:30] He's going to have to be able to play other people.
[55:33] Definitely. Oh, art is definitely going.
[55:35] Art is going for. Sure.
[55:36] Thing is that too many play like when you're a top team, right?
[55:40] There's not a Madrid only thing, but when you're a top team,
[55:43] you're going to see 9080 to 90% on average of your players
[55:47] leaving for international duty. We see some cases like players
[55:51] sometimes get rest. But for example, when I think of
[55:54] November, right, November is majority of the big teams, big
[55:59] international teams like your France, your Spain, they're
[56:03] going to play friendless, right? What's the need to play a
[56:07] Carvajal and Bapa? Like what are you really going
[56:12] to do? Jude?
[56:13] You know, because guess what, Jude is going to be like one of
[56:16] the toughest guys with the position.
[56:19] He's going to come back probably like let's say mid-october.
[56:22] Let's just be like a little bit more lenient with the timeline.
[56:27] Let's say he comes back mid-october.
[56:29] Alonzo is trying to slowly integrate him.
[56:32] Two goals just goes like that. You're coming.
[56:34] Yeah, you're, you're, you're playing, you're playing full
[56:35] 90s, two full 90s. It's like.
[56:37] Guess what, you're playing 90 minutes on this because I need
[56:40] reps for the World Cup and it's just like we already see so many
[56:45] unprepared teams on international football anyways.
[56:48] We don't need pointless friendlies or a bare minimum
[56:51] makeup protocol which says well guess what, on three
[56:57] international breaks in a row same player can be called, At
[57:00] least give them one off. Make a protocol where you stop
[57:03] coaches from calling the same players.
[57:05] You know, give the players the younger ones like this.
[57:08] Also something like young players never seem to even be
[57:11] getting chances nowadays because even friendlies are being taken
[57:15] by the same elevens. It's just that, oh, instead of
[57:19] 90 minutes, he played 82. Yeah.
[57:22] No, listen, my hope is, is that Madrid, as best as they're able
[57:26] to utilize that two week break to get the people who can stay
[57:31] rest and the people who are coming off injury to get
[57:33] themselves reps and work themselves backups.
[57:35] By the way, just watch. He probably will be.
[57:38] He probably will be. Yeah, 'cause it's a ball,
[57:41] Morata. It's not like the best possible
[57:46] choices. Like I don't think Joselu is
[57:47] even playing football at this point.
[57:49] We used to get called. So are you really going to test
[57:56] out the guy that we're testing out, you know, like the guy that
[58:00] we're trying to see what we can do with them?
[58:02] Are you really going to do that? And he's just as a club.
[58:05] Unfortunately you don't have the power to solve it right.
[58:08] From my understanding, correct me if I'm wrong, NBA teams are
[58:11] actually able to stop their players from international duty
[58:15] contractually because they have that we're paying their wages.
[58:18] Well, except, see, here's the little the little trick of that
[58:22] the NBA calendar goes from July 1st.
[58:25] I'm sorry, from October, whatever.
[58:29] Yeah, let's say October to April, right?
[58:31] Right, Or June 30th is when it ends.
[58:33] So because all those competitions happen in the
[58:35] summertime, they can go because technically they're not being
[58:38] paid by the team, their contact. They're off of team salaries by
[58:42] June 30th now. They can't say that.
[58:45] They can tell the player I don't just want, I don't want.
[58:48] December to organize the tournament, let's just say that.
[58:51] And the big team, from what I heard, has the power to go like,
[58:54] correct, be paid this day, correct.
[58:55] They'll say no, Football teams don't have that power.
[58:57] No, because if you want to declare a player on fed, well,
[59:02] the international team is going to send their medical staff.
[59:06] Don't make sure that you're not lying.
[59:08] So look, of course, you want to represent your national team, of
[59:14] course, right? But I don't think Bapi cares
[59:17] that much to play Latvia in a friendly.
[59:20] After he scored like. 50 something goals for them, the
[59:23] dude. Already the dudes already won a
[59:24] World Cup and scored a hat trick in the final, but other like I I
[59:27] think he has bigger goals in mind than friendly's in the
[59:29] middle of over November. Like he already knows what
[59:34] you're going to do, like give a chance to, I don't know, a young
[59:38] player that's. Coming.
[59:39] Yeah, let let, let, let Duay and those guys go play play up
[59:43] there, you know? International break is sometimes
[59:46] can be good. Like I said last year I was
[59:48] praying for it to come just so maybe it gives Sancholotti a bit
[59:51] of time to rethink and it can be bad in times like this.
[59:54] It's not just about orange of watching it, it's also about the
[59:58] coaches breaking algorithm. It's all in one.
[1:00:01] So normally I'm not looking forward to this one.
[1:00:04] It's not that it's taking football away because actually
[1:00:07] this time it's quite important. It's work of qualifiers so you
[1:00:10] can get some good games out of there.
[1:00:12] But. It's more about OK, you're going
[1:00:15] to break the rhythm now again, like 3 games into it and we're
[1:00:18] A-Team without a preseason. So can we have some peace at
[1:00:22] least if we have some preseason, if La Liga did us a favor, just
[1:00:25] like, you know what, we're going to send bars in Miami and we're
[1:00:29] going to postpone you guys game, you know, like.
[1:00:32] Barcelona La Liga will never. Away game.
[1:00:35] La Liga will never give a do any give us for us, so you.
[1:00:38] Know if they did that to us, at the very least we could have
[1:00:41] squeezed one more pre season game in you know and not have
[1:00:45] our captain go like well our next three games are
[1:00:47] practically. Pretty needed.
[1:00:50] Because we have that one. So yeah, it's just it's a whole
[1:00:55] lot of mess to be honest. Club, as much as I enjoyed it,
[1:00:59] going to be on see through and everything, I just.
[1:01:01] Got to be honest, it did because it it made them play later a
[1:01:04] longer season. They wanted to it cut the the
[1:01:06] the offseason short, made them start at the second in this
[1:01:09] season way too early. Look, we're going to be sorting
[1:01:12] out the mess of this for a while and we're going to see some
[1:01:15] disjointed play again with this international break.
[1:01:17] So the players who do stay, yay for them to get some much needed
[1:01:20] rest, recovery work with the guys who are going to be away.
[1:01:22] We're going to see some disjointed stuff happening
[1:01:24] still, but the big thing we want to preach guys is patience.
[1:01:28] This team will get better. We are already starting to see
[1:01:30] the signs. But be critical.
[1:01:32] And we are critical where there are areas to be critical of and
[1:01:35] we will be. But we've had one, one match
[1:01:37] officially of the season that go by.
[1:01:39] So nothing to lose our minds over yet.
[1:01:40] Not fair. It's just.
[1:01:42] Not fair, but thank you to those of you who tuned in live.
[1:01:45] Please remember like subscribe, comment, share.
[1:01:49] We will definitely take your comments under advisement if you
[1:01:52] want to listen to this again later or listen to the whole
[1:01:55] thing later. Just the audio version.
[1:01:57] We're on Apple podcast and Spotify.
[1:01:59] We are at Real Deal Pods on all social media platforms and until
[1:02:03] next time, take care. Take care guys.
[1:02:06] Bye.

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