# Real Madrid 2-1 Mallorca Postgame Reaction

An episode of [The Real Deal: A Real Madrid Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1807821669), 31 Aug 2025, 1 h 19 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/103607aa8/podcast/play/107586409/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-7-31%2F406587050-44100-2-4f046853b52c5.mp3

Jarod Hector, Loconte, and Taalib break down Madrid's 2-1 win over Mallorca ahead of the international break.

## Transcript

[1:02] Hello and welcome to The Real Deal, a Real Madrid podcast with
[1:06] me, Jerrod Hector, joined by Le Conte and Talib.
[1:09] What's up guys? Yeah, what's?
[1:11] Up pretty good. How's it going?
[1:13] Good joining you all after Madrid's 21 win over Mallorca.
[1:20] You know, I feel like this fan base is so interesting guys.
[1:22] Like it's like the sky is falling when things aren't going
[1:26] perfect. That's like, you know, slow.
[1:28] We talked about this Lecante once Javi Alonzo got named the
[1:31] head coach, we said that there's going to be a slow burn, slow
[1:34] process. Development's not linear.
[1:36] We're going to see good things. We're going to see a lot of
[1:38] problems still too, and we're going to have to just manage our
[1:41] expectations over time. The reality of the situation is
[1:44] that through three games which the team admitted where they
[1:47] were treating like pre season before they head into the
[1:49] national break, Madrid is 3 for three with three points each and
[1:53] have 9 points and sit atop of La Liga.
[1:57] Ultimately, I don't think we could ask him more, right?
[2:00] Exactly one goal conceded to round it up and that with a
[2:05] bang. So I don't really know what the
[2:10] expectations of people were to begin with.
[2:12] But yeah, it's like one of these things where it's skewed where
[2:15] they accept expect like Football Manager slash FIFA type of like,
[2:21] yeah, things are going to change in a flip, but it doesn't have
[2:25] it like that. I think that we're seeing
[2:27] development, but it's a little bit slow and as you said, it's
[2:30] still a preseason for us. Yeah, what about you tell?
[2:34] Yeah, same thing. Are we going to see 4 ones and
[2:36] five ones like we used to see in the past seasons?
[2:39] Probably not this early in the season.
[2:42] But again, it's a transition. It's a new coach, new style of
[2:45] play. La Liga teams are not still
[2:49] difficult to beat, even sometimes with the Bernabeu, but
[2:52] I think we played a pretty gritty game and good three
[2:57] points. Yeah, we'll start with the
[3:00] lineups in the first half. Javi Alonzo went back to what I
[3:03] think as of right now, given who was helping, who was available
[3:07] is what he considers his best 11 with of course, Courtois
[3:11] Carreras, Hoisin Militao, Trent Chuomeni, Gulair, Valverde,
[3:18] Vinnie Mbappe and Mesantuano. I think for for Chavi Alonzo
[3:23] right now with who is healthy and available, that is who he
[3:26] considers his best 11. Now he will rotate, he will
[3:29] change over time. By the way, I I think it's very
[3:31] obvious guys that he's not set in stone with that like that
[3:34] eleven could change very simply like, oh, now this is my best
[3:38] version of my 11 as things develop, as players get in and
[3:41] out of form, as players come back healthy.
[3:43] So again, I don't think we need to read too much into who's
[3:46] starting right now, but for sure those, those, those are our
[3:48] players. And it, it was, it was what I
[3:50] expected. We started the game as we have
[3:52] generally the last two games, which is on the front foot,
[3:55] dominating possession in the 1st 15 minutes.
[3:57] And then kind of a little bit of a lull, right?
[4:00] Like a kind of a sort of slowing down a little bit of the tempo
[4:04] and pace. And then that goal by Mallorca.
[4:10] You know, look, I'm not going to sit here and say that it was
[4:13] lucky. However, 4 Madrid players
[4:16] basically ran into each other on that play and the ball bounced
[4:20] off of the back of Mariki. Now, yes, Mariki's the guy who
[4:24] everybody knows they're going through.
[4:25] You should mark which they were doing and they ran like a little
[4:28] sort of, you know, screen action to try to get to a many off him.
[4:32] But still the Madrid players just sort of in that moment I
[4:35] thought lost their lost their heads, ran into each other and
[4:38] the ball glanced off his back in for in, in for one nil.
[4:41] What'd you guys see on that goal?
[4:43] Yeah, I mean, that's kind of the thing.
[4:45] Funny enough, conceding to the guy who I wanted, if you
[4:48] remember, on the episode on the team for this exact reason.
[4:52] Of course, he's the guy with the most headed goals since he's
[4:54] come to La Liga. No shock there.
[4:57] As you said, there was a little bit of confusion, but I feel
[5:00] that that this was the best start to the game that Madrid
[5:05] have had. I'm concerned the opponent, the
[5:08] coach, the preparation time and what they were lined up to do.
[5:13] It felt that Madrid were breaking everything that Arasat
[5:16] had sat his team to do from the first minute.
[5:19] Yes, things have tendencies to go wrong and not work out at all
[5:23] times, but this was the most impressive of the three games
[5:27] for me. Yes, we completely blocked the
[5:30] Sasuna for playing, but it didn't seem like they were there
[5:33] to play. Then it was Ral Oviedo.
[5:37] Who? Actually.
[5:38] Kudos to them as we spoke on the last show where they actually
[5:42] wanted to do things on a pitch and then this was like the first
[5:46] real challenge to see how Alonzo's team is going to really
[5:51] get through it. And first say, with those
[5:54] minutes and the way how it started, this team looked
[5:58] prepared. Like finally I saw a team that
[6:01] is genuinely thinking for the things that they want to do.
[6:05] A lot of training ground things were being done on the pitch and
[6:09] this like this is the development.
[6:12] It's not always the score at the end of right down, but the
[6:16] performance to that point. Really good.
[6:18] Yeah, we'll get to that and tell it.
[6:19] Before I get to you, I want to say that you know Lakanta, you
[6:22] always talk about it's football, it's a low margin sport right
[6:25] before the Mariki goal and Boppe is so slightly offside by a
[6:30] shoulder, not even the whole shoulder like.
[6:33] Is he what I'm saying? According to when I saw the VAR,
[6:36] he was a kid, yeah. Yeah.
[6:38] That's my problem with the VLR footage, right?
[6:41] Last year we had the Nicolas Pepe goal against Barcelona
[6:45] which was going to tie the game up.
[6:46] If I'm not wrong and VLR shows the footage where where is
[6:50] clearly outside at one point attackers are going to be
[6:52] outside right? But what we are never supposed
[6:56] to do or most of the time is when the ball is played.
[7:00] We never got footage of the ball leaving Transfoot while Bop is
[7:05] in that position. Boppet starts in an offside
[7:08] position, as every elite attacker does by the way,
[7:11] because they want to have the edge.
[7:13] Boppet comes back right in a line with Valiant before he
[7:19] triggers his run and you can tell that current is waiting for
[7:21] it. So yeah, I'm not buying that it
[7:23] was inside. I'm not here to complain about
[7:25] the office reading. I'm just here to say that I'm
[7:27] not gonna buy the that also side.
[7:29] He just want like if the league wants to say, hey, my look, we
[7:33] know that we didn't respect their protocols When you open
[7:36] the league and this is where you're going to get the the
[7:38] makeup, Well, this your game. Yeah, OK, fair enough if the
[7:43] league wants to say that. But this gimmick of VMR taking 7
[7:47] minutes on a semi off site call league, yeah, with technology, 7
[7:54] minutes. Yeah.
[7:55] And you don't even show the whole action.
[7:58] Right, like. OK, If they want to show to you
[8:01] they use the technology, you're seeing the ball league and
[8:03] transferred and in that moment and Bobby's shoulder is outside,
[8:09] then I'll accept it. Before I get the footage, I'm
[8:11] going to stick to what my eyes saw and my eyes saw a player on
[8:14] side. And that's fair right?
[8:16] Because VR always shows a steal, but the steal is always of where
[8:19] the players offside. It does not show the full blow
[8:21] up of did when did the ball leave the the the player's foot
[8:25] right. That part we don't see.
[8:26] So that part is true. But be that as it may, I think
[8:29] what you're seeing there is what is so great about having Trent
[8:32] is that when Trent has these kinds of attackers and bop a
[8:35] mini we saw at Liverpool when he had Mosala etcetera, man, you
[8:39] just run and he will, he will hit you with that pass and he
[8:43] will. It's a jailbreak, right, just
[8:44] about every time. Tell him back to your.
[8:47] Point. About that.
[8:48] So I think it's pretty much same thing.
[8:49] What Lecante said. We don't know exactly when that
[8:53] pass was made for us to judge when, if whether it's an officer
[8:55] or not or we don't have that footage right.
[8:57] But going back to the start of the game, I think Madrid started
[9:01] with lot of energy, Trent doing some nice passing line, line
[9:07] cutting, passing, long passes. I think that was great that that
[9:12] offset goal was pretty unlucky going to the Majorca goal.
[9:15] I think before the Majorca go, Madrid kind of slowed down a
[9:19] little bit because of that full energy shot from the beginning
[9:22] and that's when Myocus are attacking and then they led to
[9:25] the corner right again. One thing I'm afraid that
[9:30] happened last season was players getting beaten in in the air,
[9:34] something that probably we should be improving with.
[9:36] We have a lot of tall players right deed into a mini militaus
[9:40] back. So I think this is something
[9:42] that needs to be improved when you're facing Majorca, this is
[9:46] something you should be clearing.
[9:47] So imagine if if he's tough for a team.
[9:49] So again, true, how many Militao getting beaten in the air?
[9:52] True. How many do not even jump on
[9:54] that play, by the way? So it was Militao jumping and
[9:56] then getting beaten. So I think that's things like
[10:00] this probably if you have a Ramos or a Pepe, you know,
[10:03] they're probably clear about right.
[10:05] But again, learning curve for these players.
[10:07] No doubt. And I think, you know, look, we
[10:10] saw the good of clearly what Madrid worked on in training
[10:12] ground and we'll get to that in a minute.
[10:14] But that was the bad right, in terms of miscommunication when
[10:18] they're going to run, because it's very common for when an
[10:21] opponent has a set piece to run some kind of in American
[10:24] football, you'd call it a brush screen, right?
[10:26] Something to throw the defender off of the main target guy as
[10:29] running interference. You know they're going to do
[10:31] that. That's just going to happen.
[10:33] So it's about you and your teammates communicating.
[10:34] Here comes the screen switch, right?
[10:36] Just so you you make sure that no one comes through unblocked,
[10:39] right? And for whatever reason, their
[10:41] communication was just off on that.
[10:42] They ran into each other and and the ball bounced that way.
[10:45] And a low margin sport, that stuff matters, right?
[10:47] So we're down one nil before we get to our goal.
[10:51] I want to talk about Massa and Tuano and Trent on the right
[10:53] side because you saw them working through some things,
[10:58] right, figuring out who to go where, right, some time and and
[11:01] and understanding who runs where and where like to be.
[11:04] Both of them tend to like to cut inside, right?
[11:07] And I think they'd be running into each other a little bit
[11:09] there, number one. Number two, I also feel like,
[11:12] and this is not a it is a criticism, but it's not like I
[11:16] think he's bad. It's just he needs time to
[11:17] develop Massa and Tuano to me looks a little bit hurried when
[11:22] he's on the ball and like in a rush and just he needs to, you
[11:26] know, we talk about elite players and he's not there yet.
[11:28] The elite players look like they're going in slow MO, right?
[11:30] They, they, they can go at half speed because they just know the
[11:33] timing, the pace, the pause, right?
[11:35] He doesn't quite have it yet, right?
[11:36] He's a little bit too rushed. What do you guys see with Mas in
[11:39] Tuano? I mean, I made a tweet about
[11:42] him. He was the player highlighted
[11:44] from the first half in my opinion because well, football
[11:48] is 2 things right on the ball and of the ball.
[11:50] Normally the kid is very rough on the ball.
[11:53] Like it's now we can say three games, it's not 3 league because
[11:57] he came on on the first game, but you can he's.
[11:59] Doing it very. Rough on the ball, so but of the
[12:04] ball, like that's where he's making everything out.
[12:07] Is he more comfortable on the inside?
[12:09] That's clear. But I don't agree with the
[12:11] notion that he shouldn't be on the wing because there were
[12:15] instances where he was so good coming from the wing on the
[12:19] inside, which opened both Zimbabwe and Vinnie up
[12:23] completely. The receipt.
[12:24] How many times have we seen Vinnie like today on that First
[12:29] off, just receiving such free match spots?
[12:33] All of that is happening, dude is happening, sorry, due to that
[12:36] dynamic that Trent and Frank or are bringing to the team, which
[12:41] is completely different. And I have one scary thing to
[12:45] say for the opponents, but the fans can be happy.
[12:47] Although there's some of that. He's just not running as well as
[12:51] he should when the phases are being progressed.
[12:54] Wait. Who?
[12:55] Who? Who is this one?
[12:56] Who? Was that?
[12:58] Who who'd you just say is not running as well overnight?
[13:00] Yeah, overnight, I mean, this kind of been like a general
[13:04] theme of the three games, right. But when Valverde gets there,
[13:09] which he will this even scare because if you're given Venice
[13:14] use that kind of space and momentum against attackers,
[13:18] which is what we expected to begin with on consistent basis,
[13:24] like Talib said at the store, Yeah, it's still not the five
[13:27] one for one team, right? It immediately becomes that
[13:31] 51414 nil, 5 Nils, even 7 type of team because those looks are
[13:37] going to become consistent. This is like it's just that
[13:41] killer thing. And I think that for now, Franco
[13:44] is the enabler of that on this team.
[13:47] You saw the moment when he got tired that the team was getting
[13:51] clogged. You saw the spaces being clogged
[13:53] easier and my uncle was taking more of the game under better
[13:57] control for as long as he's as energetic as he was until we
[14:01] figured it out with Jude coming back, coming all of that until
[14:05] the team kind of reshuffles. This is your guy.
[14:09] Not because of what he's bringing on a ball, but the
[14:12] value that he's bringing to everybody around him.
[14:15] And that's majority of it of the ball.
[14:18] A lot of great runs on the channel.
[14:20] This wasn't was it's why I wanted Nico Williams into the
[14:23] team. But Franco seems to be providing
[14:25] exactly that. And that's what I like to say
[14:28] from him. This my view of him.
[14:30] I think he had an excellent result.
[14:33] I think he he ran a lot right? So he he was off the ball, he
[14:37] was running into spaces a bit too much.
[14:39] He was trying to press a bit too much.
[14:41] And then maybe Trend didn't have a passing lane.
[14:45] Madrid probably playing A4231 with Valverde on the double
[14:49] pivot and the rest of the four players pushing up high.
[14:53] So I think there was a little bit of a gap on the right side
[14:55] and most of the play was coming from the left with Carreras and
[14:58] when he was absolutely amazing in my opinion.
[15:00] So I think Mason Tuna on the ball was a bit too quick.
[15:05] I wouldn't say he's rash, but he was.
[15:08] He was trying too much with the ball and off the ball he was
[15:13] could have slowed down a little bit.
[15:15] Yeah, look, I, I, I think that it's clear that Chavi Alonso is
[15:20] going to give him a lot of game time to work things out.
[15:23] And by the way, game action, it is where you learn best, right?
[15:29] Because it is real time, real speed and an opponent trying to
[15:32] beat you as except for the training pitch is not important.
[15:35] It is. But for a young player who you
[15:37] think is going to be someone who's going to be very
[15:39] important, which obviously Chubby does and the club does
[15:42] this is, is learning by fire, right?
[15:44] It's what we called for Arda to get all these past two years,
[15:47] right? It's just a man.
[15:48] Throw them in the deep end and sink or swim.
[15:50] Figure it out, my guy. Now the challenge when you do
[15:53] that on a team like Madrid is we are not some development team
[15:56] that just hopes to do whatever. We're trying to win Champions
[15:59] Leagues. And so it's, it's a balance you
[16:02] have to, you have to maintain. If if you remember the River
[16:04] played game during the Club World Cup where Massington
[16:07] played, he wasn't this. He was energetic but not this is
[16:10] energetic. So coming to a new team, I think
[16:13] probably he wants to show the coach working hard, pressing
[16:17] hard, I think you know, so maybe positional player needs to be
[16:20] probably improving. That's probably he's going to
[16:22] learn. It's a new environment for him.
[16:24] I would say that it's a new environment and you can tell
[16:26] like this, the last guy to join the group ultimately.
[16:31] So I saw. I agree with you, Jared, when
[16:35] you said that we're not a developing club.
[16:37] We're not. But I am still going to stand on
[16:41] the fact that the value that he brings offsets the.
[16:45] Yeah, things that he's doing poorly for time being, of course
[16:50] things are going to change. Of course things are going to
[16:52] change. He has.
[16:55] Well, Talib didn't want to call him rash, but I think he is
[16:59] rash. I.
[16:59] Would say rash, but yeah he was trying a bit too hard.
[17:02] Again, not rash. Wrong word.
[17:05] He tries a bit too much and too hard sometimes, which I
[17:07] understand, right? Because this is the gap.
[17:11] Jude is coming back in a month, a month and a half.
[17:15] And these players just want to secure them when it's as much as
[17:19] they can. They want to become as important
[17:21] as they can as quickly as they can, which for an 18 years old
[17:25] might lead to this type of play. Correct.
[17:27] And reality is that it's not that with a loan.
[17:31] So you get the old duty is a guaranteed starter.
[17:34] Well, yes, he is a guaranteed starter, but not because of the
[17:37] money that he's making. It's because of the quality.
[17:40] Quality, right? You saw him benching Beanie last
[17:42] game, right? Like Alonzo is not that you're
[17:46] the highest place you're going to play type of coach, he's
[17:49] going to go with what he believes is the most useful for
[17:55] the circumstances. So all of these guys want to be
[17:58] as useful as possible to the. Game.
[18:01] Yeah, and I want to be clear about something.
[18:03] I'm OK with Jabi playing Franco as much as he is because I trust
[18:07] Jabi in that if it gets to a point where he is not seeing the
[18:12] improvements he wants to see, he will sit him down and figure
[18:16] something else out. So I am totally fine with him
[18:19] using the game as development for him.
[18:21] Even though yes, we are not a development club.
[18:23] He understands the importance of developing this player because
[18:26] this kid is going to be important to this club this
[18:29] season. So again, I'm I'm good with that
[18:32] and I trust Javi implicitly to decide when OK, I got to sit you
[18:36] now for a while or whatever he decides.
[18:38] I I trust him wholeheartedly until he proves.
[18:40] Otherwise, and and just to back the contest point right there,
[18:44] we've seen Brahim and Rodrigo start in the past this season
[18:48] and we didn't see this much energy from either one of them
[18:50] and they're starting and that's exactly what we're seeing with.
[18:52] Frank, correct. Yeah, I mean, and he's saying.
[18:54] This is him going with Argentina.
[18:56] Look, I look at the positives. Where where where?
[19:00] Where else could he? Where else could he have played?
[19:01] Is he you? Oh, you mean like because he's
[19:04] going with the. National, the national team,
[19:06] he's believing with the national team, he got called up.
[19:08] I I thought your man, he had another option, a different
[19:10] national team to. Play for us.
[19:11] No, no, what I meant is that the training now, especially during
[19:16] international break, becomes so important, so you want to have
[19:19] as many guys as possible in because the pace varies so you
[19:24] want the guys to be there at all times.
[19:28] Look in one hand, I'm happy because he gets to train with
[19:31] somebody like Messi. It's always a positive thing
[19:34] when you're training with some of the all time grades, always a
[19:39] positive thing. He can learn a thing or two,
[19:41] which I'm not against it, and he might get 1020 minutes a game
[19:46] and get to show a little bit more maybe than he could at
[19:50] Madrid due to the way how we play.
[19:53] We don't know how that is going to roll out.
[19:55] But on his case specifically, like last year I was celebrating
[19:59] when all that was being called up by Turkey because we knew
[20:02] what's happening in Madrid. This time around with Franco, I
[20:06] just felt that I wish he stayed. Yeah, because those two weeks
[20:12] are really, really important. They're not just important right
[20:17] now. We get out of this preseason
[20:19] time. Right now is where the players
[20:21] have to come back. There's some reason, by the way,
[20:23] why Coma Vinga didn't play today or wasn't called.
[20:26] Oh, yeah. I don't think it's injury.
[20:27] It was just to avoid. Keep him away from France.
[20:30] Yeah, 10 minutes and that's it. That's great.
[20:33] But look, that's going to be great for us.
[20:34] The Brazilians are staying. Carreras is staying come a Vinga
[20:38] stay like Trent. Yeah, this listen.
[20:41] So I like that for those guys and my my guess is and my hope
[20:45] is is that they will come out of the break kind of like like a
[20:48] house on fire, a little bit like sharp and and ready to roll.
[20:52] I want I want to go to the goal because this to me is the best
[20:55] of what you can work on the training ground.
[20:58] And it's very clear that that was worked on the training
[21:00] ground. So we get a corner and Franco
[21:05] gets the ball out to Carreras. And by the way, I know we talk
[21:09] about him every show and how amazing he is, but my God.
[21:12] Have your strength, Trent to. Carreras, Yeah.
[21:14] Frank, go to. Frank, go to.
[21:15] Trent, I think they were talking something just before they were
[21:18] taking the corner. And Trent, I mean, Carreras is
[21:22] just so beautiful on the ball, like never hurried, like knows
[21:25] exactly where he wants to go. He's a beautiful, beautiful left
[21:29] back. And he's only 22, so he can even
[21:31] get better. He's very big too.
[21:33] He's very big. Like, he's very big for that
[21:37] technical quality. He's such a big.
[21:41] He's at, he's at least six. He's at least a six, six feet
[21:43] tall at least, probably same size.
[21:46] Oh, look, look at that. Even tall.
[21:47] Yeah, and he jumps. He always wants to jump.
[21:49] And yes. Exactly.
[21:51] That's the best part, which I love.
[21:52] I love that the. Tenacity.
[21:54] The tenacity of him is just. He.
[21:57] He, by the way, is just. In the end, Fran basically just
[22:00] much better because Fran is tenacious, Fran just always
[22:03] wants to be full gear while Wendy's very laid back while
[22:06] Carter is kind of like the middle of the both of them.
[22:09] It is, and she's got that, yeah. Wants when to win a nuts.
[22:14] Like when I watch careers, he almost has that.
[22:16] Like I'm too cool. Like when he's on the ball,
[22:19] right? Like it's just like everything's
[22:20] like flicking off him, like I'm OK, don't worry at which which I
[22:23] love. Because.
[22:27] He, he, by the way, much like Chuameni and Hoisen, is an, I
[22:32] mean, indispensable now, right? It's like when he doesn't play,
[22:36] we have major problems. I mean, we haven't seen Fran
[22:39] that, but no. But Fran is nowhere near as good
[22:42] as. Right.
[22:42] No, no, definitely not. I mean, we saw Fran on club
[22:45] board. Yeah, he did well, but it's not
[22:47] this. Yeah, you're right.
[22:48] He can't do this. And so Carreras has this
[22:52] beautiful ball into the box to Hoisten, who times his run
[22:57] beautifully, jumps, heads the ball perfectly back across the
[23:01] center of goal. I mean, Lecante, you or Taleb or
[23:04] me, we could have headed that in because it was.
[23:07] We're just wide open. It was a thing of beauty.
[23:10] And by the way, kudos to Arda because if you watch the replay,
[23:13] he's he's tracking the play the whole time.
[23:15] He's like, oh, there goes the ball in the air and he just
[23:17] follows, follows, follow. I'm going to just sit and wait
[23:19] for the ball at the ball lot. I'm going to be here to knock
[23:22] it. And I thought it was a
[23:22] beautiful, beautiful goal. That's the ultimation side of
[23:27] Alonzo's game, right? Like that's where you have to be
[23:30] a little bit more focused to the action.
[23:32] Like we spoke about defensive laps, which happens.
[23:35] Here's an offensive one where the focus is only there.
[23:40] Players are tracking, Nobody's getting on the space of the
[23:44] other. They're actually opening the
[23:45] space because they know the drill.
[23:47] They know what's going to happen once that happens, As Stella
[23:51] mentioned, Trent and Front Row were already talking to one
[23:54] another with what was going to happen inside the action.
[23:58] So everyone's a goal, really. I say Alonzo, but every goal
[24:03] that we have scored on the Alonzo era has kind of be like
[24:07] very much an Alonzo goal. It's like the action.
[24:13] It's not happening out of nowhere.
[24:16] It's not a shot that's coming from 40 meters with 11 defenders
[24:21] ahead of them and hoping it can squeeze in.
[24:24] It's being worked out or that kudos.
[24:28] Great read, but it goes the show right?
[24:30] You don't have to be the most physically dominant player to
[24:34] actually be a value on a box for as long as you understand and
[24:38] know what you're doing and what the team has to do.
[24:41] Sometimes you can be the decoy and sometimes you can be the guy
[24:44] that nobody expects it. Like going back to Carl's goal
[24:47] of the Champions League final, who expected Carl to have
[24:50] correct a goal from a corner on a Champions League?
[24:55] It's a training drill goal, and this is another one of them.
[24:59] Sometimes those guys can be your guys because, well, Raio, he's
[25:05] not going to focus on Orna. He's probably going to try to
[25:08] take out a Militao, A Truamini. And when you have so much
[25:11] firepower that can come with the head, well, maybe you try to do
[25:17] something else. And that's what we're trying to
[25:19] do. We just completely caught them
[25:21] off guard and scored. So that's kind of like the whole
[25:26] drill of it. It's just all about finding
[25:28] these holes on what the opponent might think and what you're
[25:33] actually going to do. You need to be ahead of them,
[25:37] first of all, tactically. So mentally you need to be spot
[25:41] on and expecting that, change that.
[25:46] Yeah, I think it's, yeah, pretty much what Lecante added.
[25:49] I think who would who would have we seen in that position?
[25:52] Probably Jude coming in from behind and kind of had that
[25:55] ball. And that's what order does these
[25:57] these kind of players, they're intelligent.
[25:59] They know how to make their own went to make the run simple as
[26:02] Ronaldo being there a few seasons ago.
[26:04] He knew exactly where to be right and that and we we can get
[26:07] half of that from some of these players, I think, and that's a
[26:10] good thing in terms of goals. It's football IQ and
[26:13] intelligence, right, Like knowing where to be to your
[26:16] point, being locked in following, tracking the ball and
[26:19] being Johnny on the spot, right for like a better term, right?
[26:21] Hang around the box because good things tend to happen when you
[26:24] right. It's like we're on mark.
[26:26] Here we go. Easy goal.
[26:28] Sorry. And that's what I, I probably
[26:30] wanted to see from Asantuno. Maybe he can RIP in some of
[26:34] those balls in somebody could make that run.
[26:36] And again, Jude coming back in October whenever I think that's
[26:40] going to be massive. Yeah, no, for, for for sure.
[26:43] And that's good. I mean, look, and we're going to
[26:44] need Jude, right? Because we, we saw the Champions
[26:46] League draw came out and we've got a busy October since
[26:49] November, right, With fixtures that are in a very short,
[26:52] congested, congested window, Good players right after that
[26:55] athletic game at at Metropolitano, we fly 10 billion
[26:58] miles to Kazakhstan, right? So it's, it's, it's a lot.
[27:01] It'll be a lot of matches coming full and fast.
[27:05] The second goal you mentioned also a Javi goal in that it was
[27:09] started because they won the ball back, right job.
[27:12] We lose possession, you fight to win the ball back, Valverde gets
[27:15] the ball to Vinny and Vinny just goes on.
[27:17] All right, I'm I'm going on a solo mission here.
[27:20] He could have passed the. Ball to Franco.
[27:22] Franco, Franco was open on the right.
[27:24] He could have, he could have been on the ball.
[27:25] But then he was like, yeah, Nah, bro, I'm, I'm taking this, I'm
[27:29] going to go. And I like that about him
[27:31] because tell have you mentioned this Vinny and Carreras on on
[27:35] that left side? They were so good today.
[27:37] Vinny had I felt he had that Balandor Vinny back where he was
[27:41] like, I feel good. I'm going to take guys on
[27:43] one-on-one, not waste dribbles in possession so much like he
[27:47] was really kind of feeling it cutting in, making right passes.
[27:50] But that goal was was, you know, that was vintage Vinny, right?
[27:53] Super special. And yeah, now we go up to 1 And
[27:57] I thought what a response to going down one nil, right?
[27:59] Remember last year this team when we conceded, we would see
[28:03] it, right? Guys, heads are dropping.
[28:04] It's like, oh, end of the world. And you're like, Oh my God, is
[28:07] this team going to be able to come back?
[28:09] None of that happened. The goal scored, OK, fine, no
[28:12] problem, let's do what we're doing because they were
[28:13] confident in that. We know we can dominate the
[28:16] game, which we were possession wise.
[28:18] We just got to convert our chance when we get it and we go
[28:20] up to 1. I mean, immediately after
[28:23] conceding, right, you could tell how my worker were getting
[28:25] suffocated like this where I really want to get to do this.
[28:29] Like Arasati is one of the best coaches in La Liga.
[28:32] He is very and there was a little bit of misconception of
[28:35] the Madrid fans, which I don't understand that not everybody is
[28:38] going to sit there and watch piece of Sumati more.
[28:41] Now he's my work. He's a very tricky coach to deal
[28:44] against because he's very wing oriented, so you have to
[28:48] maneuver on his way and you can tell the specific profiles that
[28:52] he puts into the team and they always have to mesh and black
[28:56] together. He actually did show a lot of
[28:58] respect to us going with the three and back and changing it
[29:02] into a more defensive setup where our right hand side was
[29:06] not going to be as much targeted by somebody like Mojita, but
[29:10] rather we got a more defensive back from them because he wanted
[29:14] to contain that trend from whole day.
[29:17] And Bape, actually, he's taking notes of Bape just going off the
[29:23] right side now and finishing those rebels.
[29:26] You could tell that he wanted to completely shut that down.
[29:30] But this where Alonzo's beauty to me came in.
[29:34] He knew what to expect. He knew that there's a team
[29:38] that's going to heavily attack the Wings is coming in.
[29:42] So what you do to these teams, the moment when they trigger
[29:46] going wide, you trigger on the inside.
[29:48] We mentioned the goal that Muppet scored right from Trent.
[29:53] It's not just a a moment moment of brilliance from the players,
[29:57] it's also what they were instructed to do.
[30:00] You can tell immediately when the ball breaks there and Bop is
[30:05] already getting positioned. And that's why I said that the
[30:10] offside can be or cannot be. Whatever is the action that
[30:13] matters. You saw that action happen from
[30:16] Trent three times during the first half.
[30:18] It didn't happen once. It wasn't one and gone.
[30:21] That's what I said. The design was the wing oriented
[30:25] teams. You want to cut them centrally
[30:28] as much as you can and that's what that is really what was
[30:32] happening. There were times when our left
[30:34] wing was completely open. What I mean by that is the fact
[30:39] that neither Carreras nor Venicius were by the byline.
[30:43] Both of them were on the inside. Carreras was basically
[30:46] midfielder there with Hoisin because we were pushing that
[30:49] line so high and Vinnie was on the inside near Mbappe once,
[30:54] Mayor Carver on a block. This wasn't your standard team
[30:59] where the ball is going to go to the touch touch line, the
[31:02] dribbler is going to get it. Look at Vinnie's dribble
[31:05] sequences, Majority of them start very near the penalty box.
[31:10] It's by design when the switch happens, and I really like that
[31:14] the attention to detail that much because this is arguably
[31:18] the scariest question. Well.
[31:22] What what you're seeing guys, right, Talib, is that unlike
[31:27] under Ancelotti, where we were? Like I was going to say that.
[31:30] We weren't sure or no, we were sure there was no real strategy
[31:34] or plan to deal with how a coach works, right?
[31:37] Where's Alonzo Morphs? Oh, this is what we're doing
[31:40] today. And Leconte just so articularly
[31:42] pointed out, attacked centrally, right?
[31:44] Like to shift and morph and change.
[31:47] And again, because the squad has that drilled into them prior to
[31:50] the match and because they know they have a, a, a structure to
[31:53] fall back on out of possession, which is when the ball back high
[31:56] up the pitch. So right, like you, you have
[31:59] something to rely on with Ancelotti ball.
[32:01] It was like, OK, this is happening.
[32:03] What do we do? I don't know because we have no
[32:05] plan. Yeah, compared to that, compared
[32:07] to last season, what I see different now is transition play
[32:11] that moves together, players moving together close to each
[32:14] other, quick passing. Last season we saw somebody from
[32:20] the midfield show many passing all the way to Winnie and
[32:22] there's a big gap in the middle and when he tries to dribble or
[32:24] whoever he can. But now we see players working
[32:27] for each other, moving in transition together, and that's
[32:32] why you see Carras on the left hand side with Winnie.
[32:35] Winnie has enough time, you're cut, cut inside, but as cut as
[32:38] it sits right behind that. So you have players close to
[32:41] each other and then you have that central play of Arda or
[32:44] Mbappe coming to get the ball. So you have a lot of good
[32:48] players together that we probably didn't see because
[32:51] there's too much of a gap players playing for themselves
[32:54] compared to now. It's more of a very team
[32:57] oriented play or tactical play that Alonzo Strands comparison.
[33:02] Yeah, yes, without question. And before the half, we have our
[33:07] second goal hauled off. Vinny wins the ball back.
[33:10] Hello, Mr. Vinny out of possession, working to win the
[33:13] ball back, right. So I think he's doing clearly
[33:15] much more this season. He wins the ball back, gets the
[33:18] ball, springs it to him. Papay again off ruled off sides.
[33:22] But you see it we it's there, right?
[33:24] We see when the team presses and wins the ball back, like because
[33:29] of the attacking prowess on this club, when everything is
[33:33] crystallized and we have it together, What you guys said
[33:36] earlier, this is the four nil, 4 O 1/5.
[33:38] This is this team because you can't stop that, that attacking
[33:41] group when we're doing that. Yes, by the way, just saying,
[33:45] because we have this pressing, you know, Vinnie's not having to
[33:48] run 14 kilometers a game to win the ball back.
[33:52] That's what was my point all this time.
[33:55] Just provide an environment. They're going to do it.
[33:58] True many either. Also true many.
[34:00] I'm sorry, not true many Valverde.
[34:01] Valverde. Yeah, he.
[34:02] Doesn't have to run up and down. Anymore, for one thing, that
[34:06] I'll say, Jesus, he's impeccable when it comes to the moment when
[34:12] that turnover is forced. He's just unbeatable.
[34:15] He he's just, he's going to get that ball like once the ball has
[34:19] slightly moved out of the receiver's faith.
[34:23] Well, yeah, he goes like, yeah, this is mine.
[34:25] And there's just an artificial transition generated exactly
[34:29] that. And that you can see the field
[34:31] how it deals in Madrid's favor no matter what, no matter the
[34:35] circumstances. So it's just so many evil Verde.
[34:40] I think he got like great base to work on off there for the
[34:46] first of yeah, couldn't have asked for more.
[34:50] No, at the end of the first half, we had two big chances.
[34:53] Create a 1.35. XGI want to say that we had 61%
[34:59] possession. I want to say something like
[35:01] that. Yeah, 10 to three shots, 61%
[35:04] percent possession. At the half we were we were
[35:06] dominant and in control as a club.
[35:09] I also thought too, what you're starting to see in terms of the
[35:12] progression. La Conte, you mentioned this.
[35:13] Let me know if you guys noticed this as well.
[35:15] It isn't perfect yet, but in the final third, the one twos are
[35:20] getting a little bit better and you see what everybody's doing.
[35:23] They are trying right though it's a little bit faster and
[35:27] you're it's making sense. It isn't perfect yet, but you
[35:29] see it. I'm like, oh, OK, they're
[35:30] getting the ideas of what they need to do when that it's acting
[35:33] third. He needs a shoot there.
[35:39] Don't we all need the best midfielder in the world to make
[35:41] everything better? Yes, well, but you, but you see,
[35:48] you see it happening, you see where the the progressions
[35:52] coming. And again, I feel like it's like
[35:54] a sleeping giant, right. It's like we're not there yet,
[35:57] but it's coming. It's and to me, because we're
[36:00] able to win these matches without being fully there, this
[36:04] is all a good sign and good, good things to come.
[36:07] Now we do have issues to talk about, which we will in the
[36:11] second-half, right? Which is around the same time
[36:14] between the 60th and 70th minutes, somewhere around there,
[36:18] shit falls off a Cliff. It's like if you know when you
[36:20] play video games and you're looking at your, your guys
[36:22] energy level, it's like we're on red and blinking at that hour.
[36:25] It's like, OK, you got. Problems now.
[36:28] Right, that's exactly what's happening here.
[36:30] And we got nothing. And it's like, OK, and to be
[36:33] fair, my orcas also, they switch things up a little bit, right?
[36:35] They go to up top now next to Mariki and then it's like, OK,
[36:39] they're they're pushing because they figure we can get a goal
[36:42] and get a result out of this right And push.
[36:44] And of course, and we saw some incredible, brilliant individual
[36:47] interventions from players. But what did you guys see in the
[36:51] second-half? And I thought, you know,
[36:52] obviously the the the first, the goal, the the Gulair goal that
[36:57] got called back. Massa Antuano created that.
[36:59] All right, that was a quick one too in the box.
[37:01] He makes the quick turn, gets the shot off, unlucky bounce
[37:05] comes back. It hits Gulair in the side of
[37:06] his shoulder. I'm like, what's he?
[37:08] I mean, unless you cut off your arm, it's going to hit your arm
[37:10] there. There's no there's nothing you
[37:12] can do there. It's going to get you in the
[37:13] arm. It's here so people can see arm
[37:16] is here. It's not spread like this.
[37:21] It's inside the body, but. Yeah.
[37:23] But yeah, I think the the problem is in the box.
[37:26] If you have, if the ball hits the hand, whether it's on the
[37:28] back, if it's in the front position, that's automatic
[37:31] penalty, automatically fault, right, So.
[37:34] Yeah, the commentator said that the rules were shifted into.
[37:39] If it's a penalty, then yes, it's different.
[37:43] The hand rule applies differently.
[37:46] But if it turns into a goal for being a hand contact and the
[37:50] hand was spread a little bit, they can call it off.
[37:54] Which is insane insanity to me if that's really the rule.
[37:59] Like we didn't have enough time to go and look now if that's the
[38:03] rule or not. But.
[38:06] Because you know when you watch it, right?
[38:08] OK, was the hand the reason Arda scored the goal?
[38:14] I say no, yes, it hit him in the hand.
[38:17] But remember the shot rebound the goalie say it was a rebound,
[38:22] right? Had the goalie pushed it out
[38:24] somewhere else? Arda doesn't get it right, but
[38:27] he pushed it right back to him. It wasn't the hand's fault,
[38:31] right? Like so you know, this is when
[38:34] we get into that sort of like. If the ball if the ball hit the
[38:38] hand. Clearly just shoot it on other
[38:40] player's hands and you're fine because I'm dealing with that.
[38:44] If the ball hit the hand versus the chest, the bounce of the
[38:47] ball, maybe we need to look at how much ball.
[38:49] It's still going the same I don't think.
[38:52] That's genius. Great green line.
[38:55] Very, very great line there. Yeah, I, I, I think it happens
[38:57] the same way. But so, I mean, look, Madrid had
[39:00] three goals call back today. I mean, you know, so when people
[39:03] talked about, you know, they love to online call us VAR Drid,
[39:07] you know, for VR is always working in our favor.
[39:09] And I saw someone in the chat wrote this since the extraction
[39:11] of VAR, we all had 37 goals disallowed Barsa 14, right?
[39:15] And I'm not saying it's a conspiracy.
[39:16] All I'm saying is is that people love to say we get all these
[39:20] calls beneficially go our way that OK, if the total number
[39:24] says that we also have the most calls go against us also, right?
[39:27] So ultimately it washes out right, Like most goals given
[39:32] because of our, most goals taken away because of our.
[39:34] What are what are we doing? Ultimately, I think that Madrid
[39:38] are more favored than they're hurt when 38, eight games are
[39:42] said and done. I stand by that.
[39:45] But I also believe in the idea that there are way too many
[39:51] swinging moments, which we saw happen last season and today,
[39:57] three goals conceded, 2 of them you could make a genuine case
[40:02] that should not be. If the role is that doesn't
[40:06] matter where the hand is, the goal will be disallowed.
[40:09] If that's really the rules set in stone, we said I don't think
[40:13] football as a rule set in stone. It's always up for
[40:15] interpretation. That's why a long check, right?
[40:19] So just if you're not given that offside as a goal where you know
[40:26] that you're taking a very long time, you need to take a more
[40:30] lenient stance into the second one that's controversial.
[40:35] Like that's kind of always being the role of Fair officiate.
[40:39] Like we have referees saying that I gave Griezmann a penalty
[40:42] on the Champions League final because I realized that we made
[40:45] a mistake. On the other hand, which evens
[40:47] it out, but sometimes there are a few things that are a bit too
[40:52] much and this officiating in general, not Madrid only.
[40:55] Don't take this Real Madrid only.
[40:57] I think in La Liga is bottom of the barrel or that should have
[41:01] been booked on the Resolve on his spot.
[41:04] By the way. Yeah, and I don't know how he
[41:08] left the game without a yellow card to begin with.
[41:11] So it's just can we have some consistency on the calls, at
[41:18] least from the same referee during those 19 minutes?
[41:21] I don't want to see one action get called one way and not
[41:24] another. It doesn't matter which way it
[41:25] is. I just want to see more
[41:27] consistency from them. I think every game in La Liga we
[41:30] see some sort of bad calls going on and we've been seeing this
[41:33] for many, many years now. I think for the last 5-6 years
[41:37] it's gone up more because now war and everything, media,
[41:40] social media is all coming up. But in terms of Arda's hand hit,
[41:46] right, I think that should be, it shouldn't take 7 minutes for
[41:49] the, for Wardo decide or if you decide that there should be a
[41:53] fixed rule. If in the penalty box, if the
[41:56] ball hits the arm and if it goes in as a goal, is it, oh, is it,
[42:00] is it a foul before? Even if it's the, it's the hand,
[42:02] right? So I think that's the problem.
[42:04] Even referees are not able to make the decision properly.
[42:08] Yeah, no, it, it, look, we took it, talk about it all the time.
[42:11] Consistency. That's what fans want.
[42:13] That's what players want. That's what coaches want.
[42:15] It's just be consistent. And listen, there's no, it's no
[42:18] secret that La Liga refs are not good, right?
[42:20] And there's a reason why in the biggest European matches,
[42:24] they're not the main referees, right?
[42:26] Like it's very obvious why, because they're not good, right?
[42:30] That's all that's all there is to it.
[42:32] We mentioned that every you know the the the pattern has been in
[42:35] these last three matches between the 60th and 70th minute.
[42:38] Battery low battery low. It's when we see disaster
[42:40] happening, but we did see two incredible individual plays to
[42:44] keep the game at 11 nil for or keep Mayaka only the scoring one
[42:48] goal in the 60th minute. Trent has an incredible save on
[42:54] a clear and that that that ball would have gone in scoring
[42:58] chance for Mallorca after the cross and then Carreras in the
[43:03] 64th minute. I mean, that goal was in and my
[43:06] man did this incredible ballet like acrobatic.
[43:10] I was like, how'd you even get that thing out of there?
[43:12] It was amazing. A king amazing.
[43:15] That guy's so good. So kudos to those guys for
[43:18] making, you know, literally point saving plays, right,
[43:21] Because those that ball goes in. Now it's 22 and life is very
[43:25] different. It was it was not just clearing
[43:28] of the ball, it was how he read the ball right for him to track
[43:31] back. He knew there was a big portion
[43:34] of the goal posts that was empty recotor on the other side.
[43:37] So I think for him to run back, yes, and then kick the ball out
[43:42] right, literally off the line was.
[43:44] Excellent point. Because we it's the same as what
[43:48] we talked about with Artist scoring the goal on that, the
[43:50] goal on that set piece, right? Carreras was locked in
[43:53] defensively and tracking it the whole way and he saw oh, look,
[43:56] Corte was all the way over there.
[43:57] Shit, we're we're wide open back here.
[43:58] Let me go cover, right. That kind of teamwork is what
[44:02] job is trying to install on this team.
[44:04] And that would not have happened last season, right?
[44:06] It just it just wouldn't have. We can see there.
[44:10] Well, right, we probably lose that this game last year.
[44:12] Probably right. This is this is the reality.
[44:16] And then we publish a bit on Real Madrid TV about the referee
[44:19] and we called it a day. So our.
[44:24] Our, our, our goal. They'll show it five times.
[44:29] Yeah, you get every angle possible of it.
[44:32] And then like over the years, that goal has been given.
[44:35] And I think also what you mentioned Lecante on the offside
[44:38] with Mbappe, we don't get to see that video probably metric.
[44:40] Has that. Video, they delete it.
[44:42] They delete it a lot like Nicolas Pepe goal.
[44:45] Where would they be like the highlight?
[44:47] Because it's against Larsa. He's the last player.
[44:50] It's a running behind by the way, for people that don't know.
[44:53] This got proven that VR just manufactured the picture that
[44:58] they showed. That's why I took that as an
[45:00] example because we got proven like step by step that VR got it
[45:05] wrong. So now let's get into something
[45:08] that really worried me. I don't know how you guys felt
[45:11] the Subs were terrible. We were just.
[45:15] Getting this up, Brahim comes on for Masai Suwano.
[45:19] For Brahim, right? Brahim came on.
[45:22] Fair enough, don't hate that. I would have liked to see a
[45:25] three-year back return when you're defending and low in
[45:28] energy. I would have liked to see also
[45:30] seen a bit of dynamics between Carvajal and Trent.
[45:34] Maybe add a little bit more important thing with Trent or
[45:37] Carval. Both can do it.
[45:39] Alonzo didn't seem to experiment with that at all, but I don't
[45:43] think that's the worst call. Do you think it's because the
[45:46] game was only two one? If it was 3/1 he might have done
[45:49] something, but because it was only one goal he was like not
[45:51] feeling so confident. Yeah, probably, yes.
[45:54] But then the Subs that followed, like you could tell that order
[45:58] being tired for like 10 to 15 minutes now when Sergey Dar
[46:02] there just spins him and he gets clear through pathway and order
[46:09] doesn't even he can't even chase because he doesn't have the
[46:12] energy that's along those cue to OK, this needs change.
[46:17] He took a bit after that. Of course, our that was taken
[46:20] off with a normal a lot of running.
[46:23] But where I didn't agree with is not bringing those all on, but
[46:28] bringing really well. This is a game where you're
[46:31] chasing and Bobby, surprisingly, I don't know what he's done.
[46:35] You can tell that he's lost weight, so much energy on him.
[46:39] And I'm getting replies. People are saying, oh, why isn't
[46:42] he rotating him up? Maybe because this is the
[46:44] freshest guy that we have right now.
[46:46] Literally. Yeah, he, he, he's.
[46:49] You can see the energy. He's as good as Ronaldo, so you
[46:51] don't take Ronaldo out, right? So it's the same thing.
[46:53] If you have somebody who can change the game in one second,
[46:57] you don't take him out, correct? Go ahead.
[46:58] Look on this right that is that because this guy has a goal in
[47:02] him at any point, but it's also the energy levels, right?
[47:06] He he just seems much higher. He brings Rodrigo, so that
[47:10] naturally slows the team down and asks them to hold the ball.
[47:15] So normally you're putting Rodrigo on fire here, and you're
[47:19] putting the team on fire. And the same way Rodrigo doesn't
[47:21] run. Rodrigo just doesn't have the
[47:23] athletism to run to the expected levels during those moments.
[47:29] Yeah, if you had those, although, though, you're adding
[47:31] a channel runner, a player that you can find from the defense,
[47:35] literally because you have a lot of passwords.
[47:39] I didn't agree with the Subs. I felt they made the game for us
[47:42] much worse to control. And this is the first time where
[47:46] I'm kind of questioning Javi's decision making on the momentum
[47:51] of the game and how he's reading it.
[47:54] This is how I saw that. You know, I, I think we always
[47:57] talk about this, right, game state is so critical and it will
[48:00] determine what's what right and what, what a manager wants to do
[48:04] in any situation. My Orca had at this point
[48:06] growing into the game and going into the game in the
[48:08] second-half, right? They were creating some
[48:10] opportunities. And you know, I think and it's
[48:14] look, coaches are human. Like we all love Jabby and think
[48:17] he's great and we do, but he's also allowed to be more
[48:21] conservative and nervous when he thinks like, I don't know if we
[48:24] can hold on if I go X, so let me do Y, right?
[48:26] And I think that was his thought process.
[48:28] Like I got to just basically hold on for dear life here,
[48:32] right? And hope that we don't and in
[48:34] some ways slow the game down, right?
[48:35] Keep possession, take the air out of the ball a little bit as
[48:38] as we like to say in basketball, that didn't quite work out to
[48:41] your point, because maybe Rodrigo wasn't the right guy.
[48:43] And when we did have a couple chances, I thought Lakante
[48:48] Rodrigo just got in the way there.
[48:51] There was an opportunity where Killian was on a semi break and
[48:54] I'm like, Rodrigo, why are you running into his space?
[48:57] Like go somewhere else, Like just drag away.
[49:00] You're you're crowding the area. There's a bit of desperation
[49:03] with him too. Right.
[49:04] Yes, he wants to go. He wants he wants to come back
[49:07] in. So I get that on Rodrigo's side.
[49:10] I just felt that the management I do understand like human
[49:14] emotion thing of there, but the rate of the game was pretty
[49:18] easy. That was an an choloty type of
[49:21] sub where he's throwing players for the sake of it.
[49:24] Survivors had no other option. That's fair enough.
[49:26] Helped wind down the storm a little bit, but it felt that he
[49:31] slowed the team down by way too much.
[49:33] There was 1 action where I wanted to speak about Carreras.
[49:36] The clearance was definitely his highlight of the game, but this
[49:40] was like the best thing that he's done outside of it.
[49:43] Hoisen has the ball and he's under pressure by two players.
[49:47] He needs to let the ball go and he has the confidence to move
[49:51] the ball to Carreras under pressure also.
[49:56] And Carreras just slowly takes the ball, dribbles past the
[50:01] player and goes back to Kurtafo. Doesn't panic, doesn't do
[50:06] anything and knows that his teammate trusted him and he just
[50:11] chills. And guess what?
[50:13] The way how his body was handled when he's receiving is that even
[50:18] if he loses the ball, he will always follow.
[50:20] He will never let that transition happen, which is
[50:25] spectacular thing for him. Like that was something that
[50:28] impressed me the most because teams now know that Hoisen is
[50:32] such a key player to our build up.
[50:34] So they're double the medium. And Hoisen was reeling a bad
[50:37] swat. I'm not like I wouldn't wear
[50:40] flat upon my literally enemy, as they say.
[50:43] But Carras was just there as a savior because Hoisen could just
[50:47] hoop the ball there. You could tell that it was a
[50:50] look Hoisen wasn't thinking. He was just like, okay, if I
[50:53] lose the ball here, we're done. We're going to concede is going
[50:57] to be there. That's that synergy between
[51:01] Hoisin and Carreras is just it's so magical on that back line and
[51:05] the two of them are I mean, it goes without saying, it's
[51:08] obvious so critical to our build up phase and advancing the the
[51:11] two of them in Trent, it's not watching.
[51:14] It. You know what?
[51:16] I just hope that de la Fuente, the Spanish, listen, he's not
[51:21] watching this. I hope he continues his anti
[51:24] Madrid bias. Fine by me now.
[51:26] I. Feel sad for the players that
[51:31] they don't get to go, but I will be happy for us that he doesn't
[51:34] grind them into the ground and screw them up.
[51:37] No, you keep grinding Yamal and Kubarsi.
[51:40] Yeah, wear those dudes out. Fine by me.
[51:43] I don't give a shit like but leave our guys alone.
[51:46] But I know they want to play with their national team, so I
[51:48] get it. I get it.
[51:49] So, so when was the last time we saw a good left back in our team
[51:53] since Marcelo, right? So who can control the ball?
[51:55] Who who doesn't lose the ball? And that's something that we're
[51:58] seeing with Cara S now. He's so good at the ball, with
[52:01] the ball and he can, even if he's pressed, he can get out of
[52:05] that press. Something we haven't seen since
[52:08] Mandy or Fran come, a winger we saw a little bit because he got
[52:12] good skill, right, but he hasn't played extensively as a lead
[52:15] factor. We don't know.
[52:17] So that's exactly what we're seeing with actually the.
[52:19] Point of Carla Winga is so correct.
[52:21] Cara is is like if Carla Winga knew how to be a leadback.
[52:27] And Cara is fast, right? He's he's no he's and I think we
[52:31] haven't seen the top most speed of Cara S yet running up and
[52:35] down. We haven't seen that because in
[52:37] Alonzo system we don't need that.
[52:39] Probably non slotty system you need to run up and down but here
[52:42] we have players when synergy close to each other so you see
[52:46] cameras more with the ball than running on the left.
[52:51] Side I wonder though, when because finance to play right,
[52:54] is a Lonzo going to go back to that?
[52:56] Can I trap the team's deep? Because that's a bit a risky
[53:00] move like desert Beatles that a lot trying to trap the teams and
[53:05] affect that running behind. But when France has to play, I
[53:08] wonder if we're going to get like that where the team is just
[53:13] close to one another and France just triggers that running
[53:17] behind into a shed load of space that's been manufactured.
[53:22] Because I think that's ultimately what's France role is
[53:25] going to be in terms of Canada's up and down.
[53:28] I personally feel that I want to leave that to the attacker
[53:35] because we are already very left heavy team if we really want to
[53:40] be honest in terms of where our players like to operate.
[53:43] So having a player that's previously also played the
[53:47] deeper with Benfica for long stretches where he was either
[53:50] filling in as the left center back in the back three or a deep
[53:56] let back for them, feel that Carreras is just set for the
[54:01] roles that he's given because this the most comfortable he's
[54:05] also going to be. Go.
[54:09] Ahead, I don't disagree. And I think, look, Carreras and
[54:12] Vinnie, which I'm so happy that they're going to be together
[54:15] during the international break because they get to keep working
[54:17] on their synergy. It's getting better but there's
[54:20] so many times where I'm like Vinnie, look, overlap.
[54:24] All that pass of Carreras where Vinnie couldn't get Vinnie was
[54:28] just an inch away from getting the ball.
[54:31] And like, maybe you shouldn't slide there and see if you can
[54:34] get the ball for the giver, but whatever.
[54:36] Yeah, yeah. I want to see against better
[54:42] teams, right? Better teams that keep position
[54:45] and we hit them on the counter. I think that's where we're going
[54:48] to see Carreras in a different side of play.
[54:52] Yeah. Oh yes, that's what I agree.
[54:54] We haven't seen the games. Attacking the space because I
[54:57] think Weenie is going to be with such a decoy way more in big
[55:00] games Weenie. And and I think that that piece
[55:04] of us is still very good. We are still very much at our
[55:07] core at counter attacking team right like and that piece is
[55:10] still there. And to your point, guys, in
[55:12] those big games, when again, we win the ball back, right, like I
[55:18] just think we're going to be able to spring and it's going to
[55:20] be, I think we're going to be even better.
[55:21] Like we'll look, when Bombay came to this squad, we all
[55:24] thought, Oh my God, all these attackers, we're going to score
[55:26] like a zillion goals, whatever. And you know, it didn't quite
[55:29] happen, But I think under this system of what we're seeing
[55:32] hasn't it hasn't happened yet. But I think once the spout turns
[55:35] on, it's going to be like a freaking waterfall that you
[55:37] can't stop and we're just going to be on fire.
[55:42] Good articulated attacks from your goals, right?
[55:45] And we're seeing a shit load of them and those are going to turn
[55:50] into goals sooner rather than later as the team gets adjusted
[55:54] to it. Like you mentioned some first
[55:56] half stats, right? We have 27 touches on the
[56:00] penalty box. Like that's a ridiculous number
[56:03] to think about. That's 1/2.
[56:05] I didn't check the full time stats because we dropped off, so
[56:08] they couldn't have been that much higher.
[56:11] But is that first of all, team control on the second-half at
[56:16] least until until the 70th minute when time for
[56:19] substitutions comes in? That's when this team is hitting
[56:22] all of the gears. Until we start seeing that,
[56:25] you're going to see a depletion through time.
[56:29] There's also injuries, of course, players that need to
[56:31] come back, which is going to allow more because for example,
[56:34] if Jude was available today, you're getting well, Franco
[56:37] instead of Jude maybe. And then you're getting the
[56:40] first whole thing again with the dynamics is available.
[56:45] So you're not getting some bias to slow it down, but you're
[56:48] getting a little bit more aggressiveness or energy is It's
[56:52] all going to matter profile wise.
[56:54] But in terms of how Alonzo just close the game, you know, like
[56:57] in NBA, it's how you close the game, what 5 players are going
[57:01] to. Close.
[57:01] It doesn't matter who starts, it matters who closes.
[57:03] It doesn't mean exactly right. It's it's about who closes the
[57:06] game. You want the profiles to mesh
[57:08] well in football and I don't think that Alonzo closed the
[57:12] game with good profiles. So this was my concern.
[57:16] But again, the human side of it, the fact that I mean, he didn't
[57:22] close it actually with bad profiles because the Rodrigo and
[57:24] Gonzalo is actually a pretty good duo.
[57:27] But that was too late in terms of management, other than the
[57:34] Subs, which I think put the rest of the guys in bad, in trouble.
[57:39] In terms of the outside of that, I think that this was an
[57:42] excellent managed game from Alonzo.
[57:45] Because I was really scared of like, that's one of my fears.
[57:49] I'm way more scared of them than if you tell me we're playing
[57:51] Borsa tomorrow and like, just bring it on.
[57:54] If I'm playing another set of team and like, what am I going
[57:56] to expect here? Are they're going to bombard us
[57:59] on the wings with these crosses? Morici is in there.
[58:03] It's just too much, too many tools to deal with for a big
[58:08] team that wants to be assertive. And they're good at dropping, so
[58:13] they're very uncomfortable to play against.
[58:15] So for me, this was the best. It's not personal.
[58:18] I know how they're going to handle.
[58:19] It we we saw from the 70th minute when the Subs came in
[58:23] 6668, whenever that was, we control the game much more.
[58:27] It was very slow. We kept the ball more.
[58:30] It wasn't rush. It wasn't, you know, it wasn't
[58:33] Rodrigo was doing his thing from the left.
[58:35] But I think from Alonso's point of view, maybe something that he
[58:38] saw was we needed to control the game in a very slow tempo and
[58:42] just see how the game now, if my uncle had scored a goal,
[58:46] probably things would have been very, very nervous, but didn't
[58:50] happen. So maybe we don't know what
[58:52] Alonso's thinking, but I I think he saw that there was too many
[58:55] tired legs. That's one thing first for Subs
[58:58] came after that, Yeah, again, just to slowing the game.
[59:03] Kind of worked in our favor this time.
[59:05] Yeah. Because if Minorca conceded, how
[59:10] is that group going to change the group of players that were
[59:13] there? Look, on the natural science, it
[59:15] would have made sense. It worked out in the end.
[59:18] But if you conceded, how are you sorting that out like this?
[59:22] My question, this was like the most questionable thing about
[59:25] Ancelotti last season. And that's how these Subs felt.
[59:28] It's just not on the momentum of the game he needs, at least
[59:35] today, I don't think that was an issue on the previous two ones
[59:39] because we were in control for a good portion of that or he put
[59:43] us back in control for this game.
[59:46] I don't see control if you're passing the ball around just
[59:49] slightly more. I see control of how much of the
[59:52] ground you're taking out. From, from a defensive point of
[59:54] view, sorry, we, we had a excellent game, right.
[59:57] So we pretty accept that first goal.
[1:00:00] It was a solid defensive game. There was hardly no, I mean from
[1:00:04] a defensive point of view. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[1:00:08] Again, I mean, that's kind of been a theme, right?
[1:00:11] First three games it's kind of been a defence first type of
[1:00:13] team, but I'm just saying a goal can have like a shot from 40
[1:00:19] minutes. Or well, like, like the goal
[1:00:20] they like the goal they scored, right?
[1:00:23] The goal they scored, yeah, there you go.
[1:00:24] Like with the back, you know, it's it's not even with this
[1:00:28] hat, it's with the back. So it's just like Antilote used
[1:00:33] to fall track of this a lot, but Antilote used to suffer from for
[1:00:37] it. I mean, he's used to be way
[1:00:40] worse decisions, but a long this one for me.
[1:00:44] That was kind of like the minus of giving him a 10 out of 10 for
[1:00:48] today. Literally just as.
[1:00:50] I'm going to go to some Alonzo quote shortly, but one thing
[1:00:52] that that really could serve me late in that game, my ARCA
[1:00:56] secured a corner kick and Brahim was checking Mariki.
[1:01:00] I was like, what the hell is going on right now?
[1:01:02] Right? It was like 4 foot 11.
[1:01:04] What are you guys doing? Like it's just these random sort
[1:01:08] of like moments of you. Saw the last season also things
[1:01:12] like this quite a lot. Yeah.
[1:01:13] And it's like, hey guys, let's just be mindful of too many.
[1:01:18] It's like, you know what? Like like after you watch a lot
[1:01:19] of NBAI don't know. If you do tell Lib like you'll
[1:01:21] see where a defender switch and you'll see a big guy take his
[1:01:25] little teammate and throw him out of the way.
[1:01:27] And come here like you can't check that dude.
[1:01:29] Like, it's got to be do this like true man.
[1:01:31] He's got to be like, get lost and go get somebody else.
[1:01:34] I got this guy, right? Yeah, that awareness.
[1:01:37] That's where though Brahim might be because as was mentioned,
[1:01:42] Brahim can be a bit of maybe a very uncomfortable player to be
[1:01:46] against because he might be a bit too physical on him, like
[1:01:49] because he's so small. Right.
[1:01:50] It's so funny. So he might be uncomfortable,
[1:01:53] doesn't even let him, you know, it might be dumb for that.
[1:01:56] And maybe the defensive scheme was pretty much just you have to
[1:02:00] be proactively looking to get the ball out rather than
[1:02:05] challenging, which is what they did.
[1:02:07] One thing of question here is that people used to come out of
[1:02:11] this line a lot more during corners.
[1:02:15] We've not seen it all that much this time around outside,
[1:02:18] outside of that transition which he created for all that where we
[1:02:21] saw that all these knackered when he attempted the dribble.
[1:02:24] I would like to see people come a bit more because goalkeepers
[1:02:28] are favored a lot in that ball. Situations like one touching
[1:02:31] them and it's called the vault. Literally like they're favored a
[1:02:35] lot and you, you have to manipulate these roles just like
[1:02:39] Guardiola does, for example, with tactical following.
[1:02:42] Like you can see Man City just racking up follow up, follow,
[1:02:45] follow, follow, follow, follow. But they're not getting any
[1:02:47] cards, They're not getting anything because it's just these
[1:02:50] small ones to kill the rhythm. And you can abuse this with a
[1:02:55] goalkeeper though, you literally have a guy that's 2 meters tall
[1:03:00] and that can jump on top of it. Maybe get him into attackers a
[1:03:04] bit more and get him if you feel that the situation is too
[1:03:08] uncomfortable. Just get him to do some
[1:03:10] shenanigans just so you get the. That that, that that's a way to
[1:03:16] control games too, right? So whatever ways you can do is
[1:03:20] necessary, dependable. I brought him before I get to
[1:03:21] that Jabby quotes are so right because one of the things that
[1:03:25] he is good at is he's very got a very low center of gravity.
[1:03:31] He's very strong like in his base.
[1:03:33] And you can't shrug him off the ball very easily the way you can
[1:03:36] Arda, right? Like you can just kind of push
[1:03:38] Arda off the ball. You can't really push Brahim off
[1:03:41] the ball like that. And you know, that's an area
[1:03:44] where for Arda to be what we want him to be.
[1:03:47] He cannot get pushed off the ball so easily, right?
[1:03:50] Like he has to be much stronger on the ball.
[1:03:52] And I think he's 19 so or 20. He has time to still physically
[1:03:57] get stronger in in that area and I think he he needs to do that,
[1:04:02] Shabby said after the game. We weren't good at pressing in
[1:04:04] the opponent's half after losing the ball today.
[1:04:06] Our attack was better today, but our pressing was worse.
[1:04:09] We need to work on that. What do you guys see on that?
[1:04:11] I I thought there were moments where the press was not very
[1:04:13] good. Attacking wise.
[1:04:14] I thought we created quite well, but we didn't.
[1:04:17] That's one thing I didn't know. We were a couple big moments.
[1:04:19] We won the ball back, but our In Sync collective was not as as
[1:04:24] good. It has been the first two games
[1:04:25] to my eye. Yeah, off the ball, yes.
[1:04:30] Yeah, off the ball there was some issues with the pressing
[1:04:34] wasn't sync. We didn't we didn't see a low
[1:04:37] block Majorca so they didn't play the game, you know,
[1:04:41] compared to the other two games. So I think yeah, maybe I didn't
[1:04:44] see a huge problem with pressing because we just had the ball
[1:04:48] wave too many times, right. It was we've won possession.
[1:04:52] More than three shots, so I understand what that quality is
[1:04:54] coming. I think again this two week
[1:05:01] break, international break, yes, some of our players will be
[1:05:04] away, but the ones that stay, this will be a nice sort of
[1:05:07] build out of the preseason for jobbing and his squad.
[1:05:10] I think you'll see OK, we're some things that we know that
[1:05:13] we've got established at work. We're going to keep some things
[1:05:16] I've tried that we got to throw away because we're not good.
[1:05:18] But we and he's also seeing profile wise what the players
[1:05:21] can do. Earlier this week, Friday's
[1:05:24] press conference, he mentioned how excited he is about Kema
[1:05:27] Vinger. And he's like, I can't wait to
[1:05:29] have that guy back because he's going to be so critical to what
[1:05:32] we want to do. And we talked about it ad
[1:05:33] nauseam. Lecante, he is the kind of
[1:05:36] player that, again, if healthy and fit this season, he will tip
[1:05:39] the scales in Real Madrid's favor to a point where you're
[1:05:42] like, OK, we already think they're going to win the league.
[1:05:45] Now we're like Champions League. I'm like, yes, now I'm like,
[1:05:48] because this guy is playing at a high level, right?
[1:05:50] Like and I think fingers crossed that like he's helped me and he
[1:05:54] gets to that point that will be so exciting.
[1:05:57] And I think you mentioned Enrich is someone who you think will be
[1:06:00] have a vital role. That's the guy for the squad.
[1:06:02] He's like. The guy that I want to watch, I
[1:06:04] want to watch Enrich and they say I want to see him how he's
[1:06:07] going to attack the space because I feel that is going to
[1:06:11] have a lot of users for him. Like you saw what Franco was
[1:06:14] doing that I mentioned that I appreciate a lot.
[1:06:16] Well, Enrique is just much better at doing that.
[1:06:19] That might be the only thing that he does like in terms of
[1:06:22] what he's given the team, but that's going to up the
[1:06:25] production and this thing that we like to call goals by a lot
[1:06:30] by simply having that gravity of pulling players out.
[1:06:33] Like in NBA terms, for example, we have a Nicolayoki, for
[1:06:36] example, or a Luka Tonchish for going to pull the gravity by
[1:06:40] themselves or Steph Curry watch. They pull the gravity by
[1:06:44] themselves away and they open those gaps for the other guys to
[1:06:48] get open looks. And kind of like in football is
[1:06:52] the opposite where it's not the ball handler or the guy with the
[1:06:56] ball on his face. On the opposite on football is
[1:06:59] the guy that's running the shots that's going to make things.
[1:07:02] Happen. But even even in in in the NBA,
[1:07:04] a player like Steph Curry, his off ball gravity is what's so
[1:07:07] good, right? It's the constant threat of him
[1:07:09] running off screens that has the defense panicking.
[1:07:12] Where is he? Where is he?
[1:07:13] Where is he? Which is why you give up
[1:07:14] backdoor layups to train him all the time because you're too
[1:07:16] worried about him scoring 3 layup layup layup because you're
[1:07:19] so nervous. Right, the same idea.
[1:07:21] There are different ways, right? I took Don Shish and Yolkish
[1:07:24] more of like points on ball. But it's just you need that in a
[1:07:31] team, as much as you want to be good with the ball, you can be
[1:07:35] good with the ball without having things figured out off
[1:07:38] the ball, correct? And to be good off the ball, you
[1:07:43] also need to be good against the ball.
[1:07:45] It's kind of like this curve that a Lonzo is going with.
[1:07:49] So first you can tell he's prioritizing against the ball.
[1:07:52] This team needs to be great against the ball.
[1:07:55] Once they're great against the ball, I want them to be great of
[1:07:58] the ball. We had the quote where he said I
[1:08:00] told Fran to run more into the penalty box.
[1:08:03] That's why they go, right? Like those are early signs of
[1:08:06] Balozo's coach. He understands what is required.
[1:08:10] He was a midfielder himself to begin with.
[1:08:13] I mean, Fielder gets freed up to make the pass when the run is
[1:08:16] triggered. That opens up the holes and
[1:08:20] we're seeing that little by little improve a lot.
[1:08:24] Yeah, absolutely. All right, so we have now two
[1:08:28] weeks until the next Real Madrid game.
[1:08:31] Some of our players will be away at a national duty.
[1:08:32] The rest will be here one. Do we think on Monday when the
[1:08:37] transfer window closes, that anybody else will be a part of
[1:08:40] this team? I don't think so, yeah.
[1:08:43] I think this is the team's pretty much close.
[1:08:46] Tobias would have been the last one.
[1:08:48] I think that was the one then so.
[1:08:50] I don't see a lot happening. Yeah, I, I agree.
[1:08:52] I I no one's coming for Rodrigo. That's that's a non I.
[1:08:56] Mean it's too late now, even if they offer the 100 million, the
[1:08:59] quarter price Madrid or just going to say no because it's too
[1:09:03] little of a window time for them to actually start.
[1:09:06] Thinking. Somebody else?
[1:09:08] Yes. So just to just to go back to La
[1:09:11] Counte's point on Enrique, I, I haven't seen, so we've seen bits
[1:09:18] and pieces of Enrique last season and off ball movement.
[1:09:23] We didn't see much from that because he always had cameo
[1:09:26] performances and whenever he had the ball, he used to run with
[1:09:29] the ball and sometimes he's lose it and sometimes you just throw
[1:09:32] the score those glazos. But I, I would like to see
[1:09:37] Henrik play that Masantuno role, how he can contribute to this
[1:09:42] team because in my opinion, he should have gone on loan
[1:09:44] probably, but he's here and I think I'll be interesting to see
[1:09:48] how he's going to. Play I think he's here for a
[1:09:50] reason because they rejected calls and from watching just
[1:09:55] liver cousin right, I'm just going by liver cousin Phil and
[1:09:59] it should be the perfect fit. I think Alonzo is going to love
[1:10:04] him and he also brings a bit more balance to that.
[1:10:08] Vinnie and Boppe, we want to be a little bit heavier on the
[1:10:12] ball. Duo gives them more of the ball.
[1:10:14] I think that he's going to allow Vinnie and Boppe to be more
[1:10:17] natural. This where I'm standing.
[1:10:20] I'm not saying that they're not doing the things that they were
[1:10:22] supposed to do, but in terms of feeling more organic and
[1:10:25] natural, Enrich is that partner for them.
[1:10:28] Doesn't necessarily mean that this week in and out.
[1:10:30] It just means that at certain moments on games that they're
[1:10:34] going to need to break, Enrich is going to be the guy to go to.
[1:10:38] Yeah. Look, it's very clear that
[1:10:41] Enrich has a place in this team. To your point, it's been
[1:10:44] reported that not only he and the team have refused loan
[1:10:48] offers because he he has a role he wants to play here, Andrick
[1:10:51] also is this kind of guy in this player that wants to prove his
[1:10:55] spot and earn playing time, right.
[1:10:57] And we've seen that was very clear, like it doesn't matter if
[1:11:01] you're the highest paid player in the team, whatever, whatever,
[1:11:04] if you I think they're going to work for what I want, you're
[1:11:06] going to give an opportunity to play.
[1:11:07] So and I think you will get that chance, right.
[1:11:10] We're already seeing it with my son Juano.
[1:11:12] So I think I think this is all good stuff.
[1:11:14] We mentioned the international break is coming.
[1:11:16] Thank you everybody who tuned in as always.
[1:11:20] You know, you can find us here on YouTube.
[1:11:22] Please like the video, subscribe, share it with your
[1:11:24] friends. If you want the audio only
[1:11:27] version, we are on Apple and Spotify, so you can also find us
[1:11:30] there Real deal pods, social media, you can also do that.
[1:11:34] And we'll be back during the international break with some
[1:11:36] more larger Bigger Picture episode talking about a few
[1:11:39] things. We'll talk about this Champions
[1:11:41] League stuff a little bit more, you know, really quick before I
[1:11:45] don't want to get too deep into it, but just my quick overall
[1:11:47] thing about the Champions League is if you're going to win that
[1:11:50] tournament, you gotta beat good teams.
[1:11:52] That's just how it works. Like so this idea of like our
[1:11:55] draw is so look, man, like you're gonna win that
[1:11:58] tournament. You have to be really good
[1:12:00] teams, period, end of story, right?
[1:12:02] Like I think the the league phase is 1 where Madrid should,
[1:12:06] if they are playing well, be a top 8 finisher and advance out
[1:12:10] of the league base. And then it's all about the
[1:12:11] knockout rounds, right? And then once again, that's by
[1:12:14] that time, that's 2026. Then you did NBA style too,
[1:12:17] right? You're kind of thinking about
[1:12:19] your ranking and who do you want to match up with?
[1:12:21] Correct. They're allowing you now.
[1:12:23] They're giving you that opportunity.
[1:12:25] There are some teams like Monaco, Marseille, Benfica and
[1:12:30] the team from Kazakhstan. We need to get points right
[1:12:33] there. Well, I think the the problem
[1:12:35] with that Kazakhstan game is it's three days after athletic.
[1:12:37] That's the problem with that game.
[1:12:39] So it's like. I, I, I don't think it's
[1:12:41] September in Kazakhstan. I don't know how cold it is, but
[1:12:43] it's, it's not snowing. I guess it's not freezing.
[1:12:46] So at least we didn't go there in.
[1:12:48] December. I mean, I don't know if you guys
[1:12:52] remember the Morena time when we used to play Tesco Moscow and we
[1:12:56] would go in Russia and it's just like.
[1:13:01] What are we doing? We're.
[1:13:03] Like we're like playing on ice skates.
[1:13:04] What, what is happening here? This is this is madness.
[1:13:07] Yeah, but the 12 points? Yes.
[1:13:09] From those teams, I think at least nine should be there.
[1:13:12] Right. That should be kind of like a
[1:13:13] rotator team, too. Yeah, by those.
[1:13:16] It's not like you're and Vinnie and Jude starting these games.
[1:13:21] That's your end trick and your Rodrigo and.
[1:13:26] Rodrigo, you're Franco. Maybe at that point gets demoted
[1:13:31] from the starter to the player. We don't know what's going to
[1:13:34] happen with order. Like I'm still not set in stone
[1:13:38] that order is 100% starter Once the group is fully fit, fit.
[1:13:47] We don't know what coming is going to bring.
[1:13:49] Like that's going to be the key thing.
[1:13:50] And I also think that the big games coming is going to be
[1:13:53] there due to Alonzo's thing of being a bit more pragmatic, even
[1:13:59] though he's very adaptable, he's a bit more on the pragmatic side
[1:14:02] of the coaches. So we have to wait and see.
[1:14:05] Of course, there's a lot of concerns, as you said, how
[1:14:08] listen that in general Champions League, this schedule, it should
[1:14:11] be managed even though this squad is so young, right?
[1:14:15] We keep talking about the players or we're talking about
[1:14:17] 18/19/2020 years old player, you know, like the oldest player on
[1:14:23] the pitch outside of Courtois, Valverde and bopping most of the
[1:14:27] time. Like that's ridiculous to think
[1:14:30] that those guys are going to be the veterans.
[1:14:32] If we want to discount really Carol Hall, I guess and
[1:14:37] Courtois, the veterans are Valverde and those guys and it's
[1:14:41] just insane. The squad is young.
[1:14:43] They should be able to, but. But we didn't do a good job in
[1:14:46] last season. Shamusly group stage we we ended
[1:14:49] up getting tougher opponents and we got less prize money and I
[1:14:52] think this time founding of Perez probably knows you need to
[1:14:57] go become first, second, third, at least in the group stage I
[1:15:00] think because you can get a better knockout round team and.
[1:15:04] You and you and you and you skip that, you skip that extra
[1:15:06] playoff game. Now, to be fair, PSG want it
[1:15:10] without being the top, right? So it can happen, right?
[1:15:14] It can happen, but you want to look, you want to avoid that and
[1:15:17] you want to have yourself best prepared so that you guys have
[1:15:19] the best rest. So you can set your line UPS the
[1:15:21] way you want to set them and play who you want to play and
[1:15:23] not be like, shit, we have to play this playoff game just to
[1:15:25] get into the knockout round. Like you want to avoid that at
[1:15:28] all costs. I don't like this system, but I
[1:15:31] think it allows you to rotate a little bit more.
[1:15:33] Experiment. I don't like this system, but it
[1:15:36] gives you that. And then also, let's also
[1:15:38] remember, guys, this is only Chubby's second time dealing
[1:15:42] with a team that has to play domestically and in Europe.
[1:15:44] So as a young coach, Keith, look, I'm not saying that This
[1:15:48] is why Leverkusen wasn't good last year, but I think managing
[1:15:51] Europe and Bundesliga, I think was a challenge for him last
[1:15:54] year. And so it's going to be, hey,
[1:15:56] buddy, you got to manage Europe and La Liga this year, right?
[1:15:58] Like how to what did you what did you learn from what happened
[1:16:02] there to you as you can take care as lessons.
[1:16:06] Yeah, sure. The burnouts, you need some
[1:16:08] manage them, the loads all of these come into as a coach
[1:16:12] because we can talk about the tactical pattern, but player
[1:16:15] management is just as important. So yeah, too many games.
[1:16:20] Thankfully Copa del Rey style has been changed, so we don't
[1:16:24] get that added until January at the very least.
[1:16:27] But guess what, we're travelling to Saudi in January to play
[1:16:31] Super Copa, Super Copa, right? So it's just like, OK.
[1:16:35] There's there's a big squad, right?
[1:16:36] There's there's a pretty big squad compared last season, no
[1:16:39] defenders. Remember the time when we there
[1:16:41] was nobody to defend and we had to call up everybody.
[1:16:44] So I think that's not there, right.
[1:16:46] So I think this time if Alonzo can.
[1:16:48] Right. If we can rotate properly, if he
[1:16:52] does that and everybody like Enrique you said, gets minutes
[1:16:56] before before the Champions League comes around, at least
[1:16:58] you know that. So that's going to help.
[1:17:00] And and Chabi said it after today's press conference,
[1:17:02] someone asked him about Ascencio and Alabunnis of the players
[1:17:04] haven't played yet. He's like, I've spoken to all of
[1:17:06] them. They're all going to play at
[1:17:07] some point, right? So it's very clear that we're
[1:17:10] those guys are going to get working and he's going to and
[1:17:12] first of all, you need to because of the way they play
[1:17:14] now, right, with this idea of with the win the ball back, you
[1:17:17] can't play these starters 90 minutes plus because they won't
[1:17:20] make it as as we see, right. So he's going to rotate over
[1:17:24] time. It's just what's the?
[1:17:25] Pattern are you hope to be more clinical, right?
[1:17:27] You hope to be more clinical early on, killed the games
[1:17:30] earlier. For example, if today, let's say
[1:17:32] three goals were just allowed, all of these goals were in,
[1:17:36] that's five one by that time Dean Hoisen goes out, a lava
[1:17:41] comes in, right? Like Mappe probably goes off
[1:17:45] much earlier. Gonzalo comes in, Vini goes like
[1:17:49] Valverde doesn't finish the game to begin with.
[1:17:52] It's just you pray you're more clinical during the opening 15
[1:17:57] minutes. When you get the lead, you open
[1:17:59] the other team up, you manage them, you facilitate
[1:18:03] transitions, you kill them on a break and by that point you're
[1:18:08] more free to do things. Defence Force is good until you
[1:18:15] need this right The load. The physical load needs to start
[1:18:20] to drop and a loser knows that. Yeah, absolutely.
[1:18:24] Talib Laconte, thank you for joining us today, guys.
[1:18:27] Again, remember, like, subscribe to the channel, share it with
[1:18:31] your friends, Apple, Spotify, all that to get the audio only
[1:18:34] version. We'll be back during the break
[1:18:36] with some Bigger Picture episodes.
[1:18:37] And until next time, take care. Take care guys.
[1:18:40] Take care guys. Bye bye.

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