# Villarreal v Real Madrid Preview, Valverde Drama

An episode of [The Real Deal: A Real Madrid Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1807821669), 3 Oct 2025, 1 h 35 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/103607aa8/podcast/play/109186501/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-9-3%2F408628774-44100-2-3c248aab14b27.mp3

Loconte and Xavier hang out and discuss the Villarreal game, the fans being toxic to a tired Federico Valverde, and more.

## Transcript

[1:03] Welcome, everybody, to the Real Deal Podcast, Real Madrid
[1:07] Podcast, and I'm your host, Loconte.
[1:09] I'm joined by year. Welcome man.
[1:13] Hey man, thanks for having me on again here.
[1:15] We are what week we about, you know.
[1:19] Man, what a week. What a week, honestly.
[1:21] Honestly. I forgot we were.
[1:22] Alive. I forgot we were alive because I
[1:25] remember we were just talking about it right Where?
[1:27] Yeah, exactly. You know, interesting, right.
[1:31] First of all, let me address the comments.
[1:32] Appreciate the comments. For my microphone, this was
[1:35] always the microphone. I'm just very smart with the
[1:38] placement of it. So, yeah, second of all, like
[1:43] kind of last past six days, I want to say started with that
[1:46] Derby, you know, like that result, then a roller coaster of
[1:51] a 10 hours flight when we get into a lot of things, like
[1:56] literally a lot of things happening just in between a few
[2:00] days. And it's kind of like sometimes
[2:02] you're a Madrid fan, right? And you start thinking like,
[2:05] what the hell is going on here? You know it's.
[2:08] It's unbelievable and it it reminds you the roller coaster
[2:13] ride of being a Real Madrid fan. From Saturday to Wednesday, your
[2:19] life can literally go from the best to the worst part.
[2:24] Exactly. Like we're like, Alonzo, you
[2:26] have changed my lives, this and that.
[2:29] So we absolutely suck. We can't play big games.
[2:33] We can't do this, we can't do that.
[2:36] And you know what's the worst thing out of this, all right, is
[2:39] the media aggregators. He's just like, they needed his
[2:43] face coat. They just needed a player that
[2:46] they can blame. Vini was pretty hard because he
[2:48] still has some numbers to throw at her face.
[2:51] And I think they have kind of done the whole Vinicius spiel at
[2:55] this point. So they went like, hmm, who's a
[2:58] good player who's underperforming right now, who
[3:02] has a high role as the second captain?
[3:05] And they just went like, oh, there's Federico Valverde, so
[3:09] let's try and steer some things up with them.
[3:12] And he's just like, it's frankly insane.
[3:15] It's genuinely insane what they're trying to do.
[3:18] And, and really it's, I think you bring up a couple good
[3:21] points there, because the fact that Chavi Alonzo had to address
[3:25] this in a post game press conference was where it kind of
[3:29] started. And then the media, doing what
[3:31] it always does from there, took the quote, chopped it up, only
[3:35] showed a part of it, and then ran with it.
[3:38] From that point forward, social media absolutely exploded.
[3:42] We had Kulares asking us about Fete Valverde.
[3:46] We had Madrid fans talking about, is Fete Valverde not good
[3:50] enough to be a Madrid player any longer for getting seven years
[3:54] of beta to show that he is. And before you know it, Fete has
[3:58] to come out and make a public statement.
[4:00] It's like, come on, where? Where have we gotten to?
[4:03] Like I got far away. Or we know like reality, we
[4:06] could have said a lot of things about his performances, like
[4:08] have been on record on this show saying that Fede feels a little
[4:12] bit off on the bench right now, but questioning his
[4:16] professionalism. That for me is like, OK, you
[4:20] have crossed any possible line. Like this guy has played with
[4:24] injections. We literally have pictures of
[4:27] him with like a swollen leg just plain injected.
[4:33] And now suddenly he's making demands and he's telling Alonzo,
[4:38] OK, I'm just going to play here. And no, no matter what.
[4:41] And even today on the presser, Alonzo was again questioned
[4:45] about, has Valerie made any requests about this position?
[4:48] And Alonzo still go like, well, actually, not really.
[4:52] Every player seems to be happy with their role and they're
[4:55] willing to give everything. And I'm like, where have we gone
[4:59] to? Like are we really going in that
[5:02] direction? Exactly.
[5:04] It's like, are we really here? Is it like have we arrived to
[5:07] this destination? I mean, how did we get here?
[5:10] And I, I also think besides the Fete Valverde front on, on the
[5:15] Vinnie side, it's funny cuz Chitinghito has been trying to
[5:18] find an angle continuously. Cuz remember, Vinnie cut off
[5:23] interviews with Chitinghito a while back.
[5:26] He does not allow, he does not take a single question from
[5:28] them. They showed the clip the other
[5:29] day where he walked right past them as if that was the first
[5:32] time by the way, right? Cheating Geeto doing the classic
[5:35] thing. And then remember after it was
[5:37] the Levante game, they went to the car park and asked the
[5:41] captain if there was any beef between him and Vinnie.
[5:44] And the captain had to come out and literally say, I'm not
[5:46] saying anything about this. Like, I see what you're trying
[5:48] to do here This. They were trying to show a clip
[5:53] of Chabi Alonso talking to Vinnie in training and then
[5:56] immediately after, if you see the full clip, Vinnie's just
[5:59] smiling. But the way.
[6:01] They just love. Those talking to him, they can't
[6:06] find an angle on him this season.
[6:07] I, I, I love that. To be honest, we can't talk
[6:10] about. Also, he scored well.
[6:12] He had the assist in the Derby and his performance in China,
[6:16] let's call it what it is, right where you.
[6:18] Need it. Yeah, it, it wasn't anything.
[6:21] Yeah. We won five nothing.
[6:22] So in the grand scheme of things, really, how much can you
[6:25] even take away from what happened there?
[6:26] We know we're not going to get that type of space at any point
[6:29] the rest of the season. So like, let's just forget that
[6:31] piece. So they have no angle on Vinnie,
[6:33] right from a from an on the field standpoint or from an off
[6:36] the field standpoint. So I think that's also another
[6:39] good part, because remember kidding Geetos also if not.
[6:42] The leader from a feeling don't forget that Cheringito was like
[6:47] the biggest aggregator of all this racism alone on the Spain
[6:51] happening to Vini and what's happened.
[6:53] They were the ones escalating everything because well they
[6:57] needed three shows per day to talk about it.
[6:59] So of course that Vini cut ties with them, but like even the
[7:05] next target, right, Because it's clear that players needed to be
[7:08] targeted like Jude is being targeted in England Daily Mail
[7:12] like Bro and he. Didn't get selected today and
[7:16] you see he. Didn't get selected right and
[7:18] Daily Mail comes with an article and they go like oh, Tukle
[7:23] actually is not a fan of his on pitch behavior.
[7:26] By the way. Mind you, Tukle has coached Jude
[7:28] for two games and he brought him on in both of them and then took
[7:33] the last to have a press conference.
[7:35] Not has to have. He does have his annual press
[7:37] conference, right, and he just says that.
[7:40] I understand that there is a level of responsibility with a
[7:43] player like Jude, but I don't think he has enough rhythm for
[7:49] us to disrupt the group of players and what we're trying to
[7:52] build. AK Jude has his place.
[7:55] I want to test other players on this just so I'm ready for the
[7:59] World Cup next year. And somehow Daily Mail spun it
[8:03] as in Jude's behavior. Jude's on pitch.
[8:06] Jude's this like, bro, look, we understand that you guys have
[8:11] heard that the best English player doesn't play in England.
[8:14] We understand he took all of your biggest clubs and he told
[8:19] them, no, I'm not going to join you.
[8:21] Like I know that there's a little bit of pain in that, but
[8:25] to go into direction like it's some sort of a Hollywood was
[8:29] really weird to me because the way how that article was
[8:32] written, I even forgot by who it was written, but that says
[8:36] enough. It's generally written like a
[8:41] Hollywood article where you find like, you know, a celebrity
[8:45] that's doing drugs and they, they are the first ones like
[8:50] TMZ. Like it's written like that.
[8:53] And it's just like. Actually the coolest.
[8:56] Just took this article down 2 minutes after you published it.
[8:59] So what was the point of writing it to begin with?
[9:01] And. Well, and let's also be honest,
[9:03] the only reason why you don't see a front page article about
[9:06] Trent right now is because he's injured.
[9:09] Oh. Whoa, yeah.
[9:10] That's just the only reason why the pitchforks aren't out in
[9:13] England right now for Trent is because he's hurt like and.
[9:16] And yeah, he's just hurt, so there's nothing there, right?
[9:19] But let him be fit. Him and Jude are probably going
[9:23] to join, just like Alonso said in November, right on the next
[9:26] international break, the dreaded 1.
[9:29] And they're probably going to go through this scrunity all over
[9:33] again. But again, my mind is still
[9:35] stuck on that feta thing, right? Because the angle of it was just
[9:40] terrible. You know, it's just like this
[9:44] guy's given his soul for the club.
[9:45] Like we can criticize his performances, we can say XY and
[9:50] Z, he's not doing well, but questioning his professionalism
[9:54] to the point where he has to give a statement to to tell
[9:59] people that, hey, I have never made any demands.
[10:03] I have always given my best for this club and will continue to
[10:06] do so. And I'm hoping to do anything
[10:09] and everything just for Madrid to win, for him to have to come
[10:12] out and say this after at bare minimum we have five year sample
[10:16] of him doing that constantly is just it's really shameful.
[10:22] I don't know who to shame more, the journalists or Madridisas
[10:26] that fell for it to begin with. It's to me a problem with
[10:31] society in general, right? Society's always looking for the
[10:35] next rage bait moment and and the thing to be angry at when we
[10:40] have a result, such as what happened in the Derby.
[10:43] Somebody needs to get the blame, whether we agree or disagree
[10:48] with it. They they need some place to
[10:50] vent their frustration and anger.
[10:53] They didn't come out for the coach this time, so I think that
[10:57] was at least somewhat good, right?
[10:59] Because if if that hot. Season kind of defended himself,
[11:02] right? Because he's playing this PR
[11:03] game pretty nicely, so yeah. Yeah, yeah, some of these quotes
[11:07] are very questionable at times. So we could get into, but I
[11:13] think Fetty was a result of everyone in the fan base being
[11:18] angry to begin with and then the media playing off of that anger
[11:22] and giving them essentially a a place and target to go to,
[11:26] right? And they took their chance.
[11:29] They found their 5 seconds of fame in which Fetty literally
[11:33] puts his hands behind his back to watch the game for five
[11:36] seconds. And that was a clip that was
[11:38] essentially used for the outrage that then followed, if we think
[11:42] about it. So and another thing, an element
[11:46] of it is here we are end of week, if we have a really good
[11:51] result against Villarreal tomorrow, everyone's going to
[11:54] forget about this, right? As if it was just A1A one week,
[11:57] you know, fling and if. We have a bad result.
[12:01] Though. But here's the thing, if we have
[12:03] a bad result tomorrow going into the international break, it's
[12:06] just going to ramp. And now it's going to be
[12:08] betting. Right, so we.
[12:09] Also got to be clear about that. So it's a.
[12:12] It's a fine line, yeah. And I and I think that somewhat
[12:15] does, you know, plea, you know, bleeding to tomorrow, which
[12:18] we'll get into in a bit, but I'm just saying it's it may not be
[12:21] over, right? It could actually get worse if
[12:24] things don't go well this weekend.
[12:26] Yeah, but look, there's an angle, right, Saying that a A
[12:30] player is not performing up to the standards.
[12:32] I believe it's fine. I believe that they had a
[12:35] hundred ways to pick home over. They're being late to the press,
[12:38] not having the same energy while retention, being weak.
[12:42] They had 1000 of things that they could have used right.
[12:46] But getting a clip where he's watching the game, you know,
[12:51] like probably I would assume fully knowing that he's not
[12:54] going to enter the pitch at all. He was just there getting his
[13:00] warm up, I guess just in case we need him because I think that
[13:04] the the whole plan always was that he doesn't play at least
[13:08] for that game. So you're using that and it's
[13:14] just very, very low of the media.
[13:22] Yeah, I think we may have lost Lecante shortly.
[13:28] Yeah. Did I like out?
[13:29] I think I did right. Yeah, but you're back.
[13:32] Yeah. OK.
[13:34] Apologies for that everybody. So what I was saying is that the
[13:40] whole sensation of Vulverde is just bad because the angle that
[13:48] they went with just wasn't correct.
[13:51] It's not something that you can really use against Vulverde.
[13:56] It's not something that you go and really say, here's a
[14:03] problem, right? At least in that regard,
[14:06] professionalism wise, yeah, pitch we can discuss and have a
[14:09] whole different really episode. But in terms of his sacrifice
[14:16] for the team, yeah, that's just that's what I draw the line.
[14:20] Yeah, and I agree it it hurts as a mother, Dadista, honestly, to
[14:25] see the fan base turn on on one of our own because Fede is truly
[14:29] one of our own. Exactly.
[14:32] And you, you expect to see better.
[14:36] You then remember how large this fan base is.
[14:39] And I also think it is a reminder of the expectations of
[14:45] what comes with playing at this club and how high they really
[14:48] are, right? Like 1 bad performance at this
[14:51] club can can make or break, you know, your perception from the
[14:56] fan base. And that's it's sad that it's
[14:59] it's that way, but it is a reality check as well that that
[15:05] to to, you know, wear that bag that is Real Madrid.
[15:07] There's a lot of weight that that carries.
[15:10] And yes, there's, there's parts of this fan base that took it
[15:15] far, way too far with the feta. Hey, and and shame on those
[15:19] fans, candidly speaking, that just forget about the
[15:24] contributions because you know, Feta may not be a top tier, you
[15:30] know, ball playing center midfielder, but at the.
[15:35] End of the day of energy after we have used him like a like a
[15:40] bar of soap for the past five years, you know well.
[15:43] Well, here's the part I want to kind of highlight is there's
[15:46] also a part of the fan base that is, is using this moment to come
[15:50] out of the to to come out of the woodwork and essentially say,
[15:54] well, I always knew Fetty wasn't good on the ball.
[15:57] And none of his, you know, none of his metrics show that he's a
[16:01] top five ballplaying, you know, center midfielder.
[16:04] And but you're doing that now. So it's convenient for you to
[16:07] come out of the woodwork now and bring this up and say, Oh, well,
[16:11] why can't he pass the ball like a Tony Kross and a Luka Maldrich
[16:14] or a Kevin de Bruyna? And I think like that part of
[16:18] the fan base should be a little bit ashamed of of themselves
[16:22] because you're ignoring all of the positive contributions that
[16:26] this man has given this club. And if there's any player that
[16:31] if you want to say, you know, how much credit do they have in
[16:34] the bank at Real Madrid? I would think Fetty Valverde has
[16:37] one of the longest credit lines at Real Madrid based on the body
[16:41] of work he's put in. And that should be respected.
[16:44] And that I agree with you on. Yeah, also, I'm sorry, but if he
[16:51] got #8 for example, and you expected that he was suddenly
[16:54] going to inherit Tony Cruz's ability to bypass the press,
[16:59] pass the ball, retent it, well, I'm really sorry, but that's not
[17:03] how it works, right? Players have these strengths and
[17:06] weaknesses and all of them. It goes for all of them.
[17:10] Like it depends on your set expectations, what you want from
[17:16] the player correctly and how that player is going to perform
[17:20] up to the center, For example, my criticism has been he's
[17:23] pressing, which would normally play to his strength, but I
[17:27] think he's so void and depleted of energy to the point where he
[17:30] cannot complete the task. Therefore, I want to give him
[17:33] the benefit of the doubt. We're still very early into the
[17:37] season. Again, we can criticize his
[17:39] performances. I just don't want to get into
[17:42] the other line of thinking, which is that he's a
[17:44] professional. He's making the monster, the
[17:46] coach. He's ruining like the
[17:48] atmosphere, the environment within the club because that's
[17:52] not the case. How many more times does Alonso
[17:54] need to come out and say that no player is really a problem?
[17:58] He's had to do that so far with Benicio's Rodrigo and Naval
[18:02] Verde. Like we're like 9 games into the
[18:04] season you know? Like enough is enough.
[18:08] The more we realize that these people are humans and that they
[18:12] might not give the best reaction at all times.
[18:15] Like Vinny when he got subbed off, right?
[18:17] It's a normal thing for a superstar, not the one to
[18:20] acknowledge the fact that he might be the bleed of energy.
[18:23] Or maybe another player is more fit for those circumstances, but
[18:28] even that is being phased out. Therefore, just let's leave it
[18:32] play out at least us as fans who have gone through the turmoil, a
[18:36] lot of years of suffering and a lot of years of success.
[18:40] At the same time, we should know better than to overreact this
[18:44] way because of one loss. Does the there be Madrideno loss
[18:48] hurt a lot? Yes, because, well, we're not
[18:51] used to those things normally. But there's another side of it
[18:57] to let's allow them to respond on the pitch.
[19:01] I don't want to see Instagram posts, right?
[19:03] I don't want to see tweets. I don't want to see any of that.
[19:07] I want to see them taking accountability on the pitch and
[19:10] improving. Like that's what I really want
[19:13] to see from the coach himself and the players, and that's what
[19:17] I'm expecting to see. Yeah.
[19:20] And, and you remember, you know, a week ago I was on the podcast
[19:23] and I said for the Atlanta Derby, I want to see these
[19:27] players with a, a desire and a, and a willingness to win that
[19:33] game. And I said that's going to be
[19:35] the big differentiator between the teams.
[19:37] And we saw it play out from minute one through 95, right
[19:42] from every minute of the game. They had more desire, more
[19:46] intensity and more hunger to prove it on the pitch.
[19:49] And my concern is well, and I don't want to project too far,
[19:52] but going into the Classico as well is the same mentality that
[19:58] we've been applying now for far too long, right?
[20:02] We had we had it in 2324. Last year we didn't have it in
[20:07] terms of a mentality standpoint. We saw a different set of
[20:10] tactics, a completely different coach, different players, and
[20:14] the mentality was still lacking. And, and I agree with you, I
[20:18] want to see the team respond on the pitch the way they did
[20:21] midweek, even though I know it was Carrot.
[20:23] I want to see that continue on the pitch.
[20:25] Do you're talking there? Tired of seeing posts from the
[20:29] Barber shops, right? Getting getting a fresh fade and
[20:31] saying hey game day. Exactly.
[20:33] Yeah, guys, look, I know I we didn't do that well, but we go
[20:36] next time. I don't.
[20:38] Want to see it. I don't want to hear that from
[20:39] the coaches. There, please.
[20:43] Thank you. For our players.
[20:44] I generally want to see a reaction on a pitch, like look,
[20:48] sometimes overly emotional, just like Alonzo said, right?
[20:51] No win should be too big and no loss should be too big.
[20:54] There needs to be a middle ground of OK, this loss needs to
[20:59] hurt. It should be a wake up call to
[21:01] the point where it brought us down to the ground.
[21:04] We were 100% leading up to that game.
[21:06] And you saw it even on the attitude of the players that
[21:11] they felt unbreakable up until that game.
[21:15] And then they're facing adversity and they don't know
[21:19] how to react to it. And that was clear.
[21:22] So that could be a lesson which now heads into we're arguably
[21:27] playing the 4th best team in La Liga this season.
[21:31] Like third in terms of expected points, but fourth in terms of
[21:36] quality. The players, the coach and
[21:39] everything else. I would rank them as 4th come
[21:42] end of the season, but right now they're sitting pretty nicely on
[21:46] the table and they managed to get a pretty good result result
[21:50] midweek against Juventus. So that's VRL.
[21:54] That's our game. That's something that we're
[21:56] going to preview and it's it's a really interesting one because
[22:01] normally I hate it. I use I will always hate playing
[22:05] Marcelino teams. I'm I'm one of these real
[22:07] guests, right. I don't want to play arasate.
[22:09] I don't want to play Marcelino. I just don't want to play these
[22:13] coach because they always have a curveball to throw at you, which
[22:17] is always so simple when you look at it, right?
[22:20] It's always so simple. It looks very simple to the
[22:23] naked eye, right? But the fact that these guys are
[22:28] so capable of generating their teams to play such football at
[22:32] such high pace and level constantly just irritates me as
[22:37] their opponent. So we are all are going to be
[22:41] quite the challenge in my eyes tomorrow.
[22:45] Well, yeah, and and when it comes to Villarreal, I do hope
[22:50] that them playing in Europe this year a that speaks to their
[22:53] quality. But BI also hope that because
[22:55] they had the midweek game against Juve, it's kind of
[22:58] thrown a little bit of a ranks in Marcelino's plans going into
[23:01] tomorrow's game. Because remember he has a rotate
[23:03] players. He had to also think about Juven
[23:05] and make sure he got a result there.
[23:07] Think he also knows that Villarreal's floor is probably
[23:11] 6th in La Liga but they can probably get back to 4th.
[23:14] I don't want to say relatively easily, but they can compete
[23:17] with Bilbao for 4th this season and.
[23:20] I think that's better suit right now in terms of.
[23:22] Exactly. And that and that's kind of
[23:24] that's kind of my point. He may be putting a little bit
[23:27] of an emphasis on on Europe and then hey, let's get through the
[23:30] weekend and get to the international break.
[23:32] I'm just thinking from Marcelino standpoint in that sense.
[23:35] But yeah, traditionally he's always given us a headache.
[23:39] It's also Chavi's for, for me from a from a tactical
[23:43] standpoint, I think Marcelino is is a good challenge for Chavi.
[23:47] And let's see how he responds. Let's see if he overthinks it
[23:53] again. Or does he go with more of a
[23:56] simplified approach saying, hey, it's the last game before the
[23:59] international break. I have a hunch he's going to
[24:03] keep things simple, to be honest with you.
[24:05] But we can, we can get into it and, and, and into what that
[24:08] means. But yeah.
[24:09] For example, last game on the Champions League, right, like me
[24:12] and Sid had an kind of like an opposite view into how Alonzo
[24:16] should have approached it. My idea was that we should have
[24:19] gone high press, full swinging just to get, you know, just to
[24:23] get the team back out there. While Sid agreed with Alonzo's
[24:26] approach, which was a little bit more laid back, a little bit
[24:30] deeper and let the attackers do that thing.
[24:33] The more I think about it, I'm leaning on the angle of Sid on
[24:37] this case because, well, it took only 24 hours just to see what
[24:42] taking too many risks happens with Barcelona and PSG game,
[24:45] right? And last thing you need is to be
[24:48] kind of like not in the best place mentally and you're
[24:52] struggling to break down a team and you're constantly facing
[24:55] transitions. The game doesn't feel
[24:57] comfortable at any minute, so and you have VRL on the weekend
[25:01] on the weekend too, right? It's just like you don't want to
[25:04] start that Domino's effect, I guess, because you lost the
[25:08] Derby Madrino. So with that said though, VRL
[25:15] definitely should be depleted of energy.
[25:17] At the very least, that's what I would have expected given the
[25:20] performance that happened midweek against Juventus.
[25:24] When I say depleted of energy, I don't mean they're not going to
[25:26] be able to run. I just mean that there will be a
[25:29] few rotations probably or a few tired players.
[25:33] We should inherently allow us to dominate the game or at least
[25:40] get territorial control a little bit more.
[25:43] Go back to where we were pre Derby, Madrillano.
[25:47] We always noted that things are not perfect on a pitch, right?
[25:50] We had a lot of composure issues even when we were winning.
[25:55] It's not like we were on the 7th heaven and we were like no team
[26:00] can beat us. No, there were some glaring
[26:02] holes there. We've got exposed and now we're
[26:05] paying even more attention to them, which can be a good thing.
[26:09] And a Marcelino team, it's always a team that is going to
[26:15] challenge you. Especially Job is a tactical
[26:18] acumen, I want to say. Oh yes, especially after what he
[26:22] saw Simeone do to Chavi last weekend.
[26:24] And you know, he's like, he's, he's sitting there looking at
[26:26] shops like, OK, Simeone could, could do that to, to Chavi.
[26:30] Let's see when it comes to Chavi's approach and and he
[26:34] mentioned it. I tend to learn more on sit side
[26:39] with this conversation by the way, And I hope that Chavi
[26:43] realizes the issue with the high press right now is and and, and
[26:51] we have to be honest about it. After 60 picks, after 60
[26:54] minutes, the players legs completely fall.
[26:57] Off and. And we absolutely can't
[26:59] steamroll. I think that that's one piece.
[27:02] I think another element of it is you.
[27:04] You just still don't get enough of it from Mbop and Vinny for it
[27:09] to collectively work for 90 minutes first and foremost, but
[27:13] then against better opposition. It's pretty obvious to me.
[27:18] And and you see it off the ball then he does not cover space
[27:22] where he doesn't have the ball. We have to be honest and and
[27:26] Bobby will have his moments. Don't get me wrong, right, Like
[27:29] he's pressing more than he ever has.
[27:32] But in a truly in a chubby system where everybody's
[27:36] pressing the entire time, those two to me just still haven't
[27:40] shown that they're committed enough to do it at the level
[27:44] where it makes sense to do this for the course of the whole
[27:47] season. I think we're going to get
[27:49] individual games where he's going to deploy the tactic for
[27:51] sure. I also think against weaker
[27:53] opposition we can probably get away with and Bob and Vinny not
[27:57] doing as much within the high press itself and like still be
[28:00] able to overwhelm them by having Franco and everybody else
[28:04] swarming around. I think we'll get away.
[28:06] But when we're talking about that higher quality opposition
[28:09] in, in in terms of ability to beat that press and get the ball
[28:13] through that first layer of press, we're going to get
[28:17] exposed. And another thing that concerns
[28:20] me is Dean Houston isn't the fastest, right?
[28:23] If you take away got Edison's base, I got Lethi did he may not
[28:27] make the best decision yet, right?
[28:29] There's they're young players in developing and I think the
[28:31] blueprint potentially might be out 'cause we saw Carrot try to
[28:35] try to do the Atlante thing, high press us, go all out, be
[28:39] physical in in a sense from a defensive standpoint against us.
[28:43] And it kind of worked for the 1st 15 to 20 minutes, even
[28:46] though they didn't have the quality to really beat us or or
[28:50] or make us pay going offensively, they were stifling
[28:53] the attacks to an extent until Franco got the penalty.
[28:56] We have to be honest here about what what kind of even played
[28:58] out in Carrot. And my concern is will every
[29:02] team now come out and try to deploy the athletic blueprint on
[29:05] us, which is essentially be physical with us so?
[29:09] Basically, Athletic gave the blueprint against Borsa last
[29:13] year and against us this year. Nice.
[29:16] Yeah. Yeah, essentially the the
[29:18] blueprint of playing against Borsa literally came from Simoni
[29:22] and the way how we utilized solos.
[29:25] And this year, I guess it's solos again, but just
[29:28] differently. Yes, I inherently agree with the
[29:35] point, right? But it depends on how Alonso
[29:38] sees the team like this. What we still don't know like
[29:41] this is the problem when you have like a young coach first
[29:45] who doesn't have like 10-15 years of experience in top
[29:49] football where you go like, OK, he might go back to this.
[29:52] You have only Slaverkusen to really look at and the fact that
[29:59] we had injuries, right? Injuries are part of football.
[30:02] But this is maybe the first time where he has the full midfield
[30:07] and we can kind of see how the rotations are going to play out
[30:12] if this midfield sticks for too long before another injury
[30:16] happens. Look, injuries are part of
[30:18] football. You have to always account for
[30:20] them. But with Alonzo, I really want
[30:25] to see what sort of real identity he wants to use.
[30:28] Like we began with a very high press, but as you said, it was
[30:33] unsustainable. Unsustainable because once it's
[30:37] marched, these players are not going to be able to run at the
[30:40] pace that we were pressing. It was working in terms of
[30:44] getting the the results, suffocating the opponent.
[30:47] Like it's been a while since we have seen Madrid kill teams off
[30:51] and have teams give up. Like Levante gave up against us,
[30:54] Espanol gave up against us. So that was nice.
[30:58] But that is another side of it, which is can these players
[31:02] maintain it? And you can only make so many
[31:05] Subs, right? And if the whole team is
[31:07] running, you can't replace the 11 players with 11 or 9:50 if
[31:12] we're going up field. Therefore, Alonso needs to find
[31:15] a balance between how can I strike, strike each game?
[31:19] Is he going to be flexible? There are a lot of big games
[31:22] coming, Viral is one of them. I consider it one of the biggest
[31:25] ones, even though it's at home. I think also for tomorrow, the
[31:32] way how fans are going to welcome the team is going to
[31:35] matter a lot. Or or they, because we know that
[31:38] Benovel can be a very hostile environment even for our
[31:42] players. How are they going to actually
[31:45] welcome the men? Are they going to Boo them or
[31:48] are they going to give them a chance?
[31:50] And then like 10 minutes before they start, like and the whole
[31:54] stadium is striking and you're like, holy shit, that's your
[31:57] thing. You're making the appointment
[31:59] deal at home. Look, I actually appreciate that
[32:02] side of the fans because it definitely does make make
[32:05] players stronger mentally like show many.
[32:08] Like show many. I was going to say show.
[32:10] Many. Yeah, You know, it's like that
[32:14] can have its positive effect, but it can also negatively
[32:17] impact. It just depends on the player,
[32:19] on the situation. I don't think that it's the end
[32:22] of the world with that loss. Again, they bounce back
[32:27] tomorrow, let's say like a three nil win.
[32:29] Let's just say that right and you're heading into
[32:32] international break chilling. You just know that you're back
[32:35] to being good or there are no real question marks left.
[32:40] Fans are more comfortable with the team and when you enter that
[32:44] phase of Hitafe way, Juventus, Barcelona and all of these tough
[32:49] schedules that are awaiting post the international break.
[32:52] So tomorrow's result generally means a lot because it's between
[32:57] what sort of feeling are we going to have for the next two
[33:00] weeks now and we're going to Hitafe way to begin with.
[33:04] So you you get a good performance and a good win and
[33:09] there's call, right? You get bad performance and
[33:12] maybe a bad result to go with it.
[33:17] It's really going to be ugly. Well, what, what I really loved
[33:20] was Mbapa's quote after the Carrot Game in which he, he
[33:24] spoke about how, you know, today's results.
[33:26] It's essentially he he's inferring, or I'm inferring here
[33:31] that he said, you know, Wednesday really didn't matter.
[33:33] Like we're still thinking about what happened last Saturday,
[33:36] which I guess you can determine in two ways you like from a
[33:38] good, from a good way. It's like all like good to know
[33:40] that you know what matters and what counts.
[33:43] But then like it's bad. Like I need you to also get over
[33:45] it. Like we have another game coming
[33:46] up on on Saturday. And when it comes to I think
[33:51] this, this idea of, of what we're going to line up tomorrow,
[33:55] I think there's a question on this.
[33:56] We could save that for later. But with Chavi, I hope he finds
[34:01] the balance between tinkering too much and stability, right?
[34:07] With the foundation, we thought he had found it.
[34:09] But at the same time, at some point, you got to mentally just
[34:14] know that this is my strongest 11 in my head, right?
[34:18] And, and know that that's your foundation.
[34:20] The one thing I have to give Carlo credit for, I mean, he
[34:24] took it to the extreme of your starting 11, but he knew what
[34:29] his strongest 11 was, yes. And I.
[34:32] Mean that takes a while, right? Even Carlo when he came the
[34:36] first time or the second time needed a little bit of, you
[34:41] know, like trial and error, for example, like Zidane's second
[34:44] stamp came at perfect time in my opinion, because he had that
[34:49] death season to test the players out right?
[34:52] And then he had the preseason and he went into the season
[34:56] fully knowing that OK, if this doesn't work, I can always fall
[35:00] back into this. Which when we got like the
[35:02] Valverde starter introduction into the team.
[35:06] So Alonzo didn't have a pre season.
[35:09] So and also came in at Club World Cup, which technically was
[35:14] competitive tournament. Whatever way we want to describe
[35:20] it, club saw it as competitive. These players weren't going
[35:24] there to play 45 minutes and get out.
[35:27] He actually needed to win at least a few games.
[35:29] I don't think they told him you need to win the whole tournament
[35:33] here or you're at risk or anything, but he definitely
[35:36] needed to take it seriously. And now no pre season again.
[35:41] One game or request to get the Sasuna game postponed for a week
[35:45] gets rejected. Therefore we just don't have
[35:49] enough time to even test jute surgery injuries.
[35:54] Franco Mas Santuano arrived late as example.
[35:58] Like all of these are things that Alonzo needs to figure out
[36:02] the best 11 will take time. That's why the timeline always
[36:07] was like December, January. For him to have this sorted out,
[36:12] for him to know that, OK, I have a big game coming, right?
[36:18] This is my best lemon. If everybody's available and if
[36:23] everybody has energy and all of that, he can maybe tinker, work
[36:29] around it. He will know what his best lemon
[36:32] is 8910 games into the season. There are a lot of things
[36:38] because games change so much. There are so many different
[36:42] styles that you're facing and your own players haven't fully
[36:45] adapted. You mentioned Vinicius as
[36:47] example. Vinicius hasn't fully adapted as
[36:50] a player under Alonzo as of yet and that's why we struggles
[36:57] really are. Alonzo needs to find the
[36:59] identity to begin with. So what fits this thing on his
[37:04] head? Well, on Tuesday he says or does
[37:10] best or the way how he's seen or the right now is like a #10
[37:14] between the lion's presence. Yet today he's like Jude and
[37:17] Orda can play together and Orda has shown that he can play a
[37:21] little bit deeper. So that's like 3 days in
[37:23] between. Which one is it, Mr. Alonzo?
[37:26] You know, like you can tell that even he is finding it difficult
[37:32] to balance out all the talent really because you know, it's.
[37:38] Too much talent that time. It's too much talent on the
[37:40] team. So however you think of a line
[37:42] up, you'll always leave a quality player out.
[37:46] And it doesn't matter what sort of line up you're going to throw
[37:49] out there, let's say on Twitter as what you believe to be the
[37:53] best line up. There's always going to be
[37:55] somebody that's going to have a case for a player that you left
[37:57] on a bench because that's the talent and the depth of the
[38:03] squad overall. Are there like holes?
[38:05] Yes, but I'm just talking more of a general scope of things.
[38:12] That's how I say it. It's very hard to find the best
[38:15] level. They certainly.
[38:17] Yeah. Well, and, and the reason kind
[38:19] of why I, I, I said it is if you're looking at the upcoming
[38:22] calendar, but we have Valencia at home and that's probably The
[38:28] only exception within the next month for not having a difficult
[38:33] game. Everything else is difficult on
[38:35] that calendar except for maybe Valencia at home.
[38:38] And we have Juve. We that's not going to be easy.
[38:43] We have the Classico, that's not going to be easy.
[38:46] We have Liverpool, that's not going to be easy in the
[38:48] beginning of November. Valencia is really the only
[38:51] other game that he's going to be able to rotate any players, any
[38:54] of the big players that wants the ones that are on the non
[38:57] rotation list, even though apparently everybody can be
[39:00] rotated. Yep, so.
[39:01] I figured out what that means, but I'm looking at it from the
[39:05] lens of if he doesn't at least get most of that 11 right, how
[39:12] are we going to get the results against these good teams, these
[39:16] quality teams, right? Because it can't be with
[39:18] experiments. You got to need, you need
[39:20] something you can rely on. And I know we're not going to
[39:22] fully have that or fully have it, you know, scoped out until
[39:28] about January, hopefully February, but I need some
[39:31] assurance here as well at minimum, right I.
[39:35] Can't of course, I mean this one trip, right?
[39:40] Results are a must, like it doesn't matter of the process.
[39:43] Results are a must. Like, look, on hand side, we can
[39:48] say we would have taken a draw on the on the Derby Madrid Lino,
[39:52] but let's be real, we wouldn't we we went there only for the
[39:56] win and for the win only, right? Nothing else mattered.
[39:59] We would not have been like, OK, draw away at that Lady.
[40:02] That's a good result. No, we would have overreacted to
[40:06] that. So let's say a few things would
[40:08] have gone right in that game. And I mean, we had the lead at
[40:13] one point, but it's just what I'm saying is that.
[40:20] It's a combination of everything.
[40:22] I think that right now as it currently stands, the mental
[40:26] side with the players, it's a little bit more important than
[40:29] the tactical side of it. Like to quotes it again, if you
[40:33] can grind the results out without really having a fully
[40:36] polished a way of playing, that's completely fine.
[40:40] But you need to grind the results out.
[40:42] How do you grind the the results out?
[40:44] You need to have like a mental resilience for these players to
[40:47] be able to pull it off on constant basis.
[40:50] And when I say constant, I mean every three days quite
[40:53] literally. So they have to buy in into the
[40:59] idea that they can beat any team at the same time.
[41:02] They need to just tactically to be able to perform on later
[41:06] stages. But yes, the post this
[41:11] international break coming up, it's kind of like not do or die
[41:15] situation. It's too early to say do or die
[41:17] into anything. But it's it's that schedule
[41:20] where everything is jam packed into like one giant hole, which
[41:26] you need to get out of. So that's what's expecting the
[41:30] same. But that also it gives the
[41:32] importance of tomorrow's game even bigger.
[41:36] You need to win at all costs really if you want to think
[41:41] about this international break, the two weeks without Real
[41:46] Madrid, the Alonzo time for him to re watch film, see really
[41:52] where his mistakes were compared to where the players mistakes
[41:55] were. He'll have in around 2 weeks,
[41:58] right? Like to figure all of that out.
[42:01] Hepafe, Juventus, Barcelona, two weeks.
[42:05] You have a sakosh layer which can be a luxurious thing.
[42:09] If he gets the result tomorrow, grind it out.
[42:11] I'm not expecting the best performance, I'm just expecting
[42:14] a good result like this. My stance on the game tomorrow.
[42:19] Yeah, absolutely. I I couldn't agree more with you
[42:21] in that sense. If you go in with the right
[42:25] mentality tomorrow and if Alonzo from a tactical standpoint plays
[42:31] it safe quote on quote, we should be able to get the
[42:34] result. And the big part is to to what
[42:37] you said when you're at Real Madrid, we all know this.
[42:41] There is there's on the field results, but 95% of what we talk
[42:45] about as Madrid fans is what happens off the field.
[42:48] From the fans to the pressure, from the board to everything
[42:52] else that happens day-to-day with this club that drives us
[42:55] all crazy. If you have a chance to cut the
[42:59] noise, go into the break with the clear focus, go away to your
[43:03] international teams and for the players that don't go take a
[43:06] quick holiday to Ibiza, right? Go go clear your mind noise
[43:11] free. Your Instagram comments are not
[43:13] going to be flooded with vile Madrid fans that are out there
[43:17] right blaming you for the result.
[43:18] You have a chance to essentially go from a week ago where we were
[43:24] down in the negative to being able to come back for the next
[43:30] month of tough games that we have and be able to apply
[43:34] Chavi's hopefully learnings that he's going to be, you know,
[43:38] studying during the international break.
[43:40] What works, what doesn't. And the last thing I'll say on
[43:43] this piece on on a side note is can we Madridistas please put
[43:50] the brakes on our praise for Dean Housen, Alvaro Carreras and
[43:57] allow these players to grow into the players that they will be?
[44:01] Because I feel within the 1st 10 games of this season, some of
[44:05] the takes that are are being placed by Madridistas and being
[44:08] pushed forward by Madridistas are on list that they will get
[44:13] to 1 day in terms of world class and potentially, you know, world
[44:17] 11 status players. But let them grow into them.
[44:20] We saw with Athleti that there are are learning curves that
[44:23] need to happen with both players and we don't need to be too
[44:27] negative about them. I just want to make sure we're
[44:29] realistic at times and that we're not like opponents, fan
[44:33] bases who deem every net new youngster in the squad as the
[44:38] world's greatest. I think we have to give them
[44:41] time to grow into it cuz they both have the potential and I
[44:44] think that's the good part is that the ceiling is extremely
[44:47] high and so is the floor with both of those players.
[44:49] I just want to make sure that we don't put unrealistic
[44:52] expectations on them. And then we come back in a month
[44:54] from now and we're ABS and they're the new Fede's, right?
[44:57] Like they shouldn't be. We're hammering them, yes.
[45:00] Hammering them, right? Because you put this expectation
[45:03] that this is, you know, Virgil Van Dyke of Real Madrid or this
[45:09] is Nuno at PSG, like let's, let's let them grow with that
[45:14] being said, because I think that that, that that bolts into that.
[45:16] What I'm saying with being able to go into the international
[45:18] break nice and clear. If we get the result that we
[45:20] need tomorrow, and that's where it starts, right?
[45:22] It's like we need that result. I like today what Vinny posted,
[45:25] right? He was playing FIFA with Fede
[45:28] and, and a bunch of Real Madrid players that look like the
[45:31] harmony's good in the locker room.
[45:33] I, I like to see that piece. I want to keep that piece.
[45:36] You know. If we don't get a result
[45:38] tomorrow and the noise, the noise really ramps up and.
[45:41] We Yeah, that PlayStation is getting thrown out of the
[45:43] window, you know what I mean? Well.
[45:45] Yeah, and you can look at the timeline, right?
[45:47] If we go into this international break after a loss tomorrow, the
[45:51] next month until the Classico is going to be negative no matter
[45:54] what we do against Gaddafi. No way to spin it positively.
[45:59] Even if you beat Gaddafi, you beat Juventus, you're
[46:01] comfortable, everybody is still going to claim you can't play
[46:05] big games, you lost what lady you lost or drew to Villarreal
[46:09] at home. Therefore the importance of the
[46:14] game lies beyond the three points because the league season
[46:18] is very hard, very long. Just like we drop points, our
[46:23] opponents are going to inevitably drop points.
[46:27] Like that's just the nature of the league.
[46:30] But you don't want to be headed into the biggest game yet with
[46:36] fans that are out there for your neck.
[46:39] Quite literally, they're out there for your neck like your
[46:43] own fans. Like add the opponents there and
[46:46] you're basically playing against everybody, not just the
[46:50] opponent, because it adds another layer of pressure into.
[46:56] You don't only want to win at that point, you also need to be
[46:59] dominant. You can't sit back.
[47:01] Like, remember with Angelotti when we beat them four times in
[47:05] the season, right? Nobody seemed fully happy with
[47:08] the performances except the Super Copa one where we need to
[47:12] score the first S hat trick, right?
[47:14] You know, though we won all four classicals, we always had the
[47:18] oh, I hate these players because they slow it down.
[47:21] We never really go for the five to six score lines, right?
[47:25] And that was a team that hammered them four times.
[47:29] That team lost twice, by the way.
[47:30] That team lost twice, by the way, in the season, right?
[47:33] Playing that way, we exactly, we lost twice.
[47:38] And do you really want to go internal classic while you have
[47:44] basically you have like 4 points?
[47:47] Let's let's leave it at that. Let's assume Barca wins at
[47:50] Sanchez Pijuan, they are one point add right now we lose to
[47:54] VRL. Let's say Barcelona wins it's
[47:56] war points. We we beat the TAFE, we beat
[47:59] Juventus, whatever. None of these are going to
[48:01] matter to the fans. The result against the Tafi is
[48:04] not going to matter to the fans. Juventus game is not really
[48:08] going to matter to the fans because of this, this Champions
[48:10] League structure really and the fact that it allows you to make
[48:13] up for mistakes. So with all of that being said,
[48:19] VRL game is definitely a game that we have to win no matter
[48:26] what. Like this last time that I'm
[48:27] saying this because I've said this about 10 times, in this
[48:30] world Castle War, we have to win like there's no other choice.
[48:34] You have to grind out the result.
[48:37] I couldn't agree more because the cloud that will hang over
[48:42] this club, our conversations for next month will be, you know,
[48:49] along the negative mindset and and thought process
[48:53] unfortunately, and I don't see how that clears up unless we get
[48:58] a good result against Barcelona or a Liverpool and that is
[49:01] unfortunately a minimum 4 weeks away.
[49:06] So we have we, we have a long way to go and, and I, I'd rather
[49:10] the team continues building from what we saw midweek.
[49:15] We get the result that we need. We I'm not going to put a score
[49:19] prediction you you might want. To I'm not doing that today.
[49:23] No score prediction today. We were all wrong.
[49:25] We were over three last week. So we're feeling clear on that.
[49:30] So OK, I think that the reason why we didn't fully touch into
[49:34] the VRL thing was also because we have questions for the mail
[49:39] from the mailbag for this game itself.
[49:42] Therefore it's time for us to go there.
[49:44] So I'm going to start by the order here, which X slash
[49:48] Twitter has given us. By the way, guys, every Friday
[49:51] we're going to have this show. So make sure you go on on the
[49:55] Twitter and leave those questions for us so they get
[49:58] answered during the show on Fridays.
[50:01] So let's start talking Madrid with three questions.
[50:06] The first one is thoughts on Gilberto Moras links.
[50:13] Personally haven't seen them and I'm not sure what to make of
[50:17] them really. That's my answer.
[50:19] Yeah, I don't know how I haven't seen any credible sources pose.
[50:21] If you if you have credible sources, please DM them to me.
[50:24] Yeah, OK. So personally I haven't seen
[50:27] them and I'm not sure what to make of them either.
[50:30] It just feels like they can throw any name out there right
[50:34] now with the tabloids because it's just going to stick.
[50:38] So yeah. Contract status, we'll start
[50:41] there. Does he need a renewal?
[50:43] If he's a free agent next summer, I'm more likely to
[50:45] believe it. If you were in oh, OK, let's say
[50:51] thought intriguing one. If you were in charge of squad
[50:54] building and had unlimited budget so you're playing FIFA,
[50:58] who would you buy to complete our current squad?
[51:01] Oh. Complete our squad like on
[51:05] October 3rd, 2025 or next summer?
[51:10] What's the timeline? OK, so there's no transfer
[51:17] window open, right? But let's go a few months back,
[51:19] right? Let's go.
[51:20] Last summer, the summer that just passed, we splashed quite a
[51:25] bit of money. Dean Housen, not a lot of
[51:28] Carreras, the wages, signing bonus on Trent, also paying
[51:32] Liverpool that 10 mil to get him early.
[51:37] So we're adding into that that you have unlimited budget and
[51:41] you have full control. Who are you signing?
[51:44] First and foremost, I'm getting both the PSGS full backs this
[51:47] past summer. Both of them.
[51:49] Gimme Nuno and Hakeem. Yes, I I would, I would get the
[51:53] I would get the full backs if I had an unlimited budget this
[51:56] past summer right? We don't have cadet S yet.
[51:57] We don't have. Yeah, yeah.
[51:59] No, no, no. You have the signings.
[52:01] So this is the squad. OK, OK.
[52:04] OK. So we do have the signings.
[52:05] All right, All right, that's. They do have the signings but
[52:08] you also have unlimited budget to still spend like you.
[52:11] There is no limitation out there.
[52:13] What are you trying to convince the problem?
[52:15] So I'm still getting the full backs and then making Trent the
[52:18] backup, and then I'm making Carreras my backup, right,
[52:21] 'cause then we could apply Chavi's, you know, full back
[52:25] system and see a better version of Frimpong in it, right?
[52:28] In Hakimi. I'm going and getting Vitinia
[52:31] tomorrow for this midfield. Like immediately go get me
[52:34] Vitinia and I might even get John Nevis as well as my DM and
[52:41] just do the Portuguese double pivot system and go from there.
[52:46] And then get me early Holland up top and figure out who's sitting
[52:49] on the bench. I think we'd be.
[52:50] Able basically you're just having conversations with Nasser
[52:53] Al Kolevi and you're just going like I want this this this this
[52:56] this give me the price I'm going to sign sign the check going
[53:00] against and. Then the last person I'm getting
[53:04] is Michael Olisey. That's what I'm getting from
[53:06] buyer. Olise, OK, Yeah, interesting.
[53:09] Yeah my bad olise if I said the wrong.
[53:11] Yeah, it's, it's fine. OK.
[53:15] Personally for me, I'm definitely signing something
[53:17] back. I spoke about him.
[53:21] Who are you getting that was out of the table, But Van Dyke
[53:27] probably, probably also getting his partner whom we're linked
[53:34] with. I think that his profile does
[53:37] fit better. So Ibrahim Akonate and I think
[53:41] this squad would have been me feel like Vitania away from like
[53:48] top of the world. So I would keep the same.
[53:50] I would just probably add one day Konate and just see how this
[53:55] plays out. I'm keeping it more different.
[53:58] I guess now that I'm disagreeing with yours.
[54:00] I just wanted to be a little bit different in terms of squad
[54:03] building and the profiles. Maybe, just maybe Nico Williams,
[54:09] he would have come in handy as a channel runner.
[54:11] He was somebody that I really wanted when the transfer window
[54:15] opened, but we saw that whole spiel play out.
[54:18] So basically there was nothing in there.
[54:21] So yeah, that's our fix really. And the third question is, with
[54:27] Saliba renewing and Konate is still up in the air, should the
[54:32] Real Madrid adjust the transfer policy and who should we target?
[54:39] Oh, first and foremost, let's remember it's a World Cup year.
[54:44] We know, we know weird things happen in World Cup years when
[54:47] it comes to transfers. So that's that's what also makes
[54:50] it tough to like have your crystal ball.
[54:54] I am, if I, if I had to say this right, because it's on record,
[54:58] if I had to pick between Saliba and Kanate to come to Real
[55:01] Madrid, I'm picking Saliba. Personally.
[55:04] So if he the fact that he renewed his contract is is more
[55:08] upsetting to me, I may not be as bullish on canate as a lot of
[55:12] folks are. I have a theory around getting
[55:17] and maybe it's because I'm scarred from the hazard
[55:19] transfer, but players who put in a ton of mileage in the Premier
[55:24] League tend to put in some hard miles on those on those
[55:28] ligaments in their legs, on the knees, on the ankles.
[55:32] And I just, we, we've kind of seen it with Rudiger in the past
[55:36] year and a half of, of what happens in, and granted, he
[55:39] started playing a bit later in his career than I think most
[55:41] players, like we all know that, but those miles count in the
[55:45] Prem. They do they, in my opinion, I
[55:47] think they do. And I think they do wear down
[55:49] players. So I am a bit skeptical of
[55:51] bringing in this big wage because think about it, right?
[55:55] Like Trent's on the same wages that essentially Fede's on,
[55:57] right? You're going to bring a center
[55:59] back who's going to be on these massive wages?
[56:01] Did we run into the Aliba situation where he gets an
[56:03] injury and. Aliba would have been like the
[56:06] best choice for your analogy because Aliba was playing since
[56:10] 2011 as a starter by many Champions League football
[56:14] constantly. So you could see that the
[56:17] mileage is actually did start to show even prior to the injury
[56:22] you had lapses, you had that showing and.
[56:26] It's like the little niggles, right?
[56:27] Like, oh, hit for a week this, for a week that.
[56:30] Yeah, exactly. Or not fully fit for like a
[56:33] month straight and just pulling through the pain until he gets
[56:37] back up again. Yeah, I'm a bit.
[56:39] Concerned. I'm a bit concerned about that,
[56:41] but if I had OK, so if I had to sign a center back I.
[56:44] Actually. I I'm calling, I'm calling Al
[56:48] Khalifi again and I'm getting Batchel.
[56:50] I think he, I think he's very, I think he's very underestimated
[56:55] as a center back. I, I, I think somebody's going
[56:58] to tell you just to go and support PSG.
[57:00] That's right bro. Go get every PSG player.
[57:05] I mean, there's scouting department has been really good.
[57:08] So yeah, of course had two picks on this summer on an episode
[57:14] with Cerbroni at Luis Bada and Christian Muscara as like two
[57:19] players that would have been like under the radar, sneaky
[57:22] good signings. Both of them go now.
[57:26] So I think La Liga is actually quite good for Sunderbags.
[57:32] Like you can see Alderete with Sunderland from a TAFE it La
[57:38] Liga can be sneakily good. Like Inigo Martinez was
[57:41] Barcelona's best center back last season.
[57:43] I don't care what anybody tells me.
[57:45] Inigo was their best center back by far.
[57:49] So And you can even tell this season that they're missing
[57:53] Inigo's presence a lot of the back.
[57:55] I'm not saying that they don't suffer from the same issues.
[57:58] I'm just saying that La Liga is kind of like your inigos, your
[58:02] El theretes those you're look bad.
[58:05] They have those type of layers can genuinely be very useful
[58:10] signings if you're going to bank on the current group, right,
[58:13] because it also depends. I don't think that there are
[58:16] ceiling razors. I think there are floor razors
[58:20] for the most part is what you're going to find in La Liga more of
[58:24] like a squad player rather than a starter.
[58:26] You can find a starter, but I think it's a little bit more
[58:30] rare and scarce rather than if you're going worse for somebody
[58:34] like, well, as you said, Pacho or Konate or Pomicano, depending
[58:40] on where you go. You're kind of aiming for that
[58:43] starter level type of player who you would believe you can start,
[58:49] you can trust week in and out rather than.
[58:53] A development project. Yeah, exactly that, a filler.
[58:57] So yeah, with that I think we have answered the first
[59:01] questions. Thank you to Talking Madrid for
[59:03] that. And oh, this is a hot username
[59:09] OON Real with double OS underline.
[59:16] I'm sorry I messed that up completely, but he's asked
[59:20] what's your preferred starting 11 for the team and how would
[59:25] you guys platform the squad if you were Javier Alonzo?
[59:29] Second question is how would you guys platform Vinnie and Bape in
[59:34] order for them to become successful together as a duo?
[59:38] I put both questions into one because I think that they are
[59:42] interlinked with one another. Cause normally if you're
[59:44] building the team you're trying to cater towards both Vinnie and
[59:47] Papi being platformed the best. So what's your line up looking
[59:53] like with those two in mind? Yeah, for sure, 'cause I think
[1:00:01] there's two formations that we're we're going to see the
[1:00:04] most for either 433 or 352. Yeah, and for me, I think in the
[1:00:15] 433, my best line, I'm sorry, I was just thinking about it for a
[1:00:19] second, is going to be is going to be the the back four when
[1:00:22] healthy, Trent Dean, Militao, Guerreras, We're going to have
[1:00:28] the three in the middle be a double pivot with A10 in my
[1:00:31] opinion. I think it's going to be Shu and
[1:00:32] Meni and I hope this player goes back to his natural instincts as
[1:00:38] a midfielder and and can be Drew Bellingham in that, in that role
[1:00:42] next to Shua Mini with Arda in front of them playing
[1:00:46] essentially the 10. You put Franco on the right and
[1:00:49] Boppe up top and you put Vinny on the left because I think the
[1:00:53] chemistry is getting better between Vinny and Boppe
[1:00:56] actually. And I think it's overblown not
[1:00:59] having that connection. We're seeing it game in game
[1:01:02] out. Even last game, they both had a,
[1:01:04] a, a key pass for each other to score a goal, right?
[1:01:07] In that sense. And I still think in the 433,
[1:01:10] you can get the Best Buy being able to isolate Vinny on the
[1:01:12] left wing, go one-on-one with his full back.
[1:01:15] Where I still think Vinny has to grow in that role, though, is he
[1:01:18] needs to recognize when Carreras is making those overlaps and
[1:01:21] look for Carreras a bit more than my liking so far.
[1:01:25] And I think Vinny's going to learn that, right?
[1:01:26] He's learning how to play with Mbappe and he's going to learn
[1:01:28] how to play with Carreras there and then Mbappe, he's just a
[1:01:31] cheat code right now. You can put him in kind of any
[1:01:34] formation. That's the striker right now and
[1:01:36] he's going to find goals. So I'm not even really worried
[1:01:38] about how to get the best out of Mbapa.
[1:01:40] He's fine in that role. I think it's platform perfectly.
[1:01:43] Yeah. And then the thing with Franco
[1:01:46] on the in the right channel is he's the only player that can
[1:01:49] really play that Channel and have the the work rate to do it
[1:01:54] for a majority of the game. I'm saying he's going to do it
[1:01:57] for 90, but he can get you those hard 70 minutes to start.
[1:02:00] And then he bring in Brahim to do the Brahim things and exploit
[1:02:03] that tired defender, right? I don't think Rodrigo should be
[1:02:05] on the right hand side and Arda needs to be the 10.
[1:02:08] Like, let's be very honest, he needs to be handed the keys to
[1:02:12] the midfield. So you have more than Stan in
[1:02:14] Jude Deaver? Correct.
[1:02:16] That's that's that's for me the best team and how we get the
[1:02:19] best out of those two on the left.
[1:02:22] And my my other issue with Jude in the 10 hole and you see it
[1:02:25] throughout the game. They start occupying the same
[1:02:28] exact spaces him and Bob Evini becomes very left oriented,
[1:02:33] almost too much. And that's where Arda gives you
[1:02:35] the variance by checking into the right hand channels right
[1:02:38] and and all over the place. So I love I like the 433
[1:02:41] personally the most. You'll hear me say it.
[1:02:44] It's interchangeable though, if so many drops out of form, Jude
[1:02:47] drops out of form, you bring in Fede, you bring in Kama Vinga
[1:02:50] easily. If Arda needs to rest, you can
[1:02:52] obviously move Jude into the 10 and bring in a Kama Vinga, a
[1:02:55] Fede. And unfortunately, that means
[1:02:57] Fede might have to sit on the bench.
[1:02:59] But he's he's a loyal soldier who probably needs a couple of
[1:03:02] months of of some soft, soft playing time.
[1:03:04] Anyway, you just called him right back.
[1:03:08] Over Trent. How long, Trent, who you're
[1:03:12] sorting or did you already say Trent?
[1:03:15] I I said Trent, and that's just because.
[1:03:19] OK, I'm sorry. I must have missed the right
[1:03:22] back, right? Yeah, no, I said Trent.
[1:03:23] Sorry. That's the first name I said.
[1:03:24] I said Trent Dean. Yeah, sorry, sorry.
[1:03:28] I must have missed that. Yeah, yeah.
[1:03:29] No worries. No worries, because I was
[1:03:31] thinking of the right wing dynamics, right?
[1:03:34] So I was like, who's starting it the right back?
[1:03:38] So yeah, it's OK. I'm not the most sold on Trent.
[1:03:41] I'll be honest, as a Magic fan, I I don't believe in the hype
[1:03:45] that Liverpool fans have been feeding us for years about the
[1:03:48] guy. I think a lot of that is is a
[1:03:49] bit of a of a cult hero type figure kind of talk that they
[1:03:53] have, but he is a better right back at this point than Danny
[1:03:58] Carvajal. And the one thing about Danny
[1:04:00] Carvajal that concerns me, and I'm I'm the biggest Donnie fan.
[1:04:03] He's our captain. I was vouching for for Donnie to
[1:04:05] start over Trent when the season started.
[1:04:07] I'll be the first person to come out and admit it.
[1:04:10] However, that red card I can't defend by at all.
[1:04:16] I think we have to be honest. He completely lost his head on
[1:04:19] the field. And for me, given his age and
[1:04:23] the questions about should he be the starter to begin with.
[1:04:25] When you lose your head like that, I don't know if you
[1:04:28] deserve to be a starter over Trent, who's probably going to
[1:04:32] be trending in the right direction once he gets back
[1:04:34] fully fit. Let's be honest.
[1:04:36] I'd agree with that assessment. I mean, it's quite similar
[1:04:41] between us. You check the group chat, maybe
[1:04:44] Today I had like a template of how we could potentially look.
[1:04:51] I think that an Alonzo team isn't necessarily fully reliant
[1:04:54] on full backs. It's more reliant on width
[1:04:57] players that are going to operate with width.
[1:05:00] We saw that lacking on there by Madrid and which I think it came
[1:05:04] crashing down. And also why Franco Masantuano
[1:05:07] has been playing so much considering that he joined so
[1:05:11] late and he's still raw regardless whether we like to
[1:05:15] admit it or not. But it it's the fact that the
[1:05:17] profile does fit of the things that Alonzo wants out of his
[1:05:21] flair. So generally I would probably
[1:05:26] try to have a pivot, let that be Chuamini and Kamavinga,
[1:05:32] Kamavinga and Valverde, Chuamini and Valverde, whichever, I would
[1:05:38] still stick to that. I'll try to have the double
[1:05:41] double number 10/8 and Jude and Arda operating on different
[1:05:46] spaces. But for that I would need kind
[1:05:49] of need like a bumpy winger, not a winger, but a width provider,
[1:05:56] which I don't think I either of Karval or Trent fully are
[1:06:00] honestly. So maybe I give the nice of
[1:06:05] Franco man Santuano starting there.
[1:06:07] So normally my line up would look like a little bit more
[1:06:11] flexible because I would like to add that luxury of dropping
[1:06:14] Charmini into a center back role with two players that can fill
[1:06:18] in the wide roles. So Courtois, Dean Housen, Alvaro
[1:06:26] Carreras, Edemilitao, Franco, Mas Santuano, Chomini,
[1:06:31] Kamavinga, Ardaguila, Jude Bellingham, Benicio San Mbappe.
[1:06:35] So this like my best 11 and I like to think that the
[1:06:40] responsibilities can be fair between the players.
[1:06:48] Samavinga for me just has the nudge right now on that pivot
[1:06:53] because of his dribbling, because of the ability to
[1:06:56] penetrate the press using that and him being a semi decent
[1:07:01] passer and more vertical player. That doesn't mean that it cannot
[1:07:04] change in two weeks. I'm just going out by right now
[1:07:07] and the fit. This is how I see it personally
[1:07:11] in terms of meshing the profiles.
[1:07:13] I still think that when it all boils down, this thing is going
[1:07:17] to need Jude a lot. We're heavily of relying on
[1:07:20] Mbapi's goals for time being. Well I do agree that they do
[1:07:24] overcrowd the right area a bit too much.
[1:07:27] If I have a proper width provider on the right, which on
[1:07:33] this case would be Monsanto, Ano, and I have Arda, Guillaire
[1:07:36] entry from there, I think that I found a pretty good balance.
[1:07:40] I can drop a three at back. I don't need Carreras to push up
[1:07:43] at all. On that circumstance, he would
[1:07:46] act more like a material recycler, so there's less
[1:07:49] responsibilities. So naturally like this, my best
[1:07:54] platforming of the current squad as it stands, it's of course to
[1:07:59] be decided because even our coach himself doesn't know what
[1:08:02] the what the best 11 is. So we're just trying to
[1:08:05] brainstorm what we really believe in on that.
[1:08:08] But anyways, thank you for the question.
[1:08:10] Cool, so we can move into the next one which would be by the
[1:08:21] real entry. Hi, I guess seems like PSG, our
[1:08:26] current highline can be easily exploited and punished.
[1:08:30] How can we balance being more press conservative and maintain
[1:08:33] the threat of fast transitions, transitional attacks?
[1:08:38] Maybe this can be useful in general results against good
[1:08:42] teams this season? Thanks.
[1:08:45] OK, thank you for the question. Do you want to go ahead?
[1:08:48] Yeah. I think that kind of goes into
[1:08:50] the reason why I'm picking the 433.
[1:08:52] I guess that to not really tie tie in the previous question.
[1:08:55] But my answer to this piece is the reason why I really think we
[1:08:59] should go to the 433 is the team has not fully adopted his
[1:09:06] tactics yet. And like I mentioned earlier
[1:09:08] when I was talking about when we play against higher quality
[1:09:11] opposition, the tinkering and the the high pressing at all
[1:09:15] times has proven it can get exposed quite bad against a
[1:09:20] higher quality opposition. And in that classic 433, a few
[1:09:24] things. A, the team knows how to play in
[1:09:27] a 433. This is Real Madrid, we've been
[1:09:29] doing it for years, right? So players have it and ingrain
[1:09:32] their head how to play in the 433.
[1:09:34] You send the double pivot with a with a Shuamen.
[1:09:37] Any combination of Shuameni, Jude Comavinga, Valverde, Danny
[1:09:42] Sabayos, and we have enough protection in transitions with
[1:09:46] those those players in the midfield, especially if we have
[1:09:49] Shuameni and and Fede out there. The way they these guys cover
[1:09:52] ground off the ball is is incredible.
[1:09:56] I'll say that. But I agree that we need to find
[1:10:01] the balance between sitting lower in in a block, not not a
[1:10:05] low block, but a mid block. I would say more so kind of the
[1:10:09] the classic Carlo approach, the mid block that kind of turns
[1:10:12] into a low. Block that.
[1:10:14] Right. It kind of allows you to have
[1:10:16] the possession, but it's in reality that's actually an issue
[1:10:21] because you're going to push your team up against us, you're
[1:10:23] going to push your line up against us.
[1:10:25] And then all we need to do now is win the ball back, get it to
[1:10:29] Arda and a through ball Timbop is a guaranteed goal, right?
[1:10:32] And and this is one thing I think we need to work on.
[1:10:34] The problem with the high press is that you're pressing them
[1:10:37] high, but they're still have numbers back.
[1:10:40] And if we get exposed and leave the space AR defenders when
[1:10:45] Miley Talzan out there are not fast enough to catch up to
[1:10:47] anyone. Yeah, exactly.
[1:10:52] There is. There is the trade off and I
[1:10:53] think it's a higher quality opposition.
[1:10:55] Madrid has won Champions Leagues this way, baiting you in to
[1:10:59] thinking because we have the ball that we're gonna win.
[1:11:03] Well, if we allow you to have the ball on the outer channels
[1:11:06] right of, of, of zone 14 or anything around the box, if
[1:11:09] you're 2535 yards out with the ball, we'll allow you to have
[1:11:14] the ball there. That's fine, 'cause you're
[1:11:15] gonna, you're gonna get bored of having it and try to make a pass
[1:11:19] and, and beat the, you know, beat our defense.
[1:11:21] You might make a bad dribble. As soon as we turn that over, if
[1:11:24] Arda's in the right spot, when that ball is turned over and we
[1:11:26] get it to him or even a Trent can play that ball over the top,
[1:11:29] Dean can play it over the top. We have Mbapa and Vinny now in
[1:11:33] transition. Honestly, I think to get the
[1:11:36] best out of both Vinny and Mbapa, we do need to implement a
[1:11:39] layer of transition of sitting in in that mid block and, and,
[1:11:43] and allowing them to go one-on-one with the center back
[1:11:45] or a full back in transition and not just win it up high.
[1:11:49] Oh, but they still have 10 and 11 people in the box behind the
[1:11:52] ball. Yeah, but that's right.
[1:11:56] It's hard to judge when the team is not going to come at you
[1:11:59] because if you decide to trap them, they're just going to sit
[1:12:01] there in the middle of the pitch like server just passed around.
[1:12:07] Yeah, I think that's kind of why Carlos team just was a bit
[1:12:12] inefficient on the lake. It's because it was really
[1:12:14] unable to win the ball back against these lower quality of
[1:12:18] opposition. With all due respect, Alonzo
[1:12:24] team seems more equipped for a full like 38 game season.
[1:12:29] But yes, big games are a bit different and I would agree with
[1:12:35] you need a more conservative trap setting approach where you
[1:12:38] send either Vini or Mbappe out and just kind of let them do
[1:12:43] their thing really as you said. Or that can need a blood pass,
[1:12:46] Trent can need a blood pass, we can see Carreras and Dean being
[1:12:50] capable of doing that and sometimes we have even seen
[1:12:52] Tramini be able to play a very good vertical ball into the
[1:12:56] attackers. So I mean through clearance, but
[1:13:02] that count. OK, we have here a question from
[1:13:08] Blackjack 1337. OK.
[1:13:12] So this kind of like 2 questions in, in not in one, but it's more
[1:13:17] like I think you touched on it, but still worth given the effort
[1:13:20] that this person has still put in on this.
[1:13:23] OK. So he said basically the
[1:13:28] question is about Jude and order.
[1:13:33] So he means that they need to find flow, feel comfortable
[1:13:37] because OK, no, your main question is lost there
[1:13:44] basically. But I can read between the lines
[1:13:46] and what he's trying to say, right?
[1:13:48] He's questioning where are those and Jude's coexistence and what
[1:13:52] their roles should be. So first it starts with the
[1:13:55] quote of Javi Alonso on Jude Bellingham and Abdul Gilaire
[1:14:00] playing together. They can complement each other.
[1:14:04] We'll have to see how we place them with the other pieces, get
[1:14:08] into the number 10 position. Jude position is very important
[1:14:12] to me. Guillen has played further back
[1:14:14] and can do it. So Blackjack 1337 continues.
[1:14:19] They need to flow, feel comfortable because I've seen
[1:14:22] them play comfortably. They can do that and they will
[1:14:24] for sure. That was a continuation of
[1:14:26] Javi's quote and in the end said I think that order is better
[1:14:32] suited as a #10 and Jude as an 8.
[1:14:35] What's your thoughts on this? You touched upon it.
[1:14:38] You believe that order should be the number 10 and Jude should be
[1:14:41] more like that number 8 where he's kind of connecting line, I
[1:14:46] guess, between all of the phases.
[1:14:49] You want him to drop a bit deeper and the opposite I want
[1:14:54] order deeper because of the ball recycling.
[1:14:56] I would like Jude Jude between the lines because he can receive
[1:14:59] a bit better with his back, but I don't think there's a problem
[1:15:02] either way. It seems that at least in
[1:15:05] Alonzo's quotes, Alonzo leans more into the thinking of same
[1:15:09] as mine due to him going like we have seen order deeper and feel
[1:15:13] more comfortable. Therefore, he would appreciate a
[1:15:16] bit more box crashing of Jude and Jude's physicality to deal
[1:15:19] with the players be able to turn so that over the final pass, I
[1:15:27] guess, of the order. I'm not saying that order cannot
[1:15:29] manipulate because we have seen him do that.
[1:15:31] That's number ten especially we saw that on the last game of how
[1:15:34] good he can be on the pockets. But I do believe that as an
[1:15:38] overall package, I would rather have Jude, Leonarda especially.
[1:15:43] Well, they can be interchangeable anyways, so
[1:15:46] nothing is fully static. But yeah, like that's my take on
[1:15:50] it. So Shuri, Jamal, Dean, sorry
[1:15:55] again if I'm completely butchering your names.
[1:16:01] So it says what do you think should be or starting 11?
[1:16:04] Also, how do you accommodate you then the layer in the same
[1:16:07] lineup? We asked for this and there is
[1:16:10] another multi layered question. I guess this is coming from
[1:16:16] username. Oh well, Cal stipulation, OK it
[1:16:24] wasn't that hard, my bad. Do you expect players to employ
[1:16:29] high energy counterparts against VRL or would would Javi Alonzo
[1:16:33] play it safe? Would prefer to see the team
[1:16:36] taking initiative on the opposition, something that was
[1:16:39] certainly lacking last season. And #2 is thoughts on Real
[1:16:43] Madrid's chances on El Classical and early gas.
[1:16:47] So do you expect them to press tomorrow a heavily again, which
[1:16:52] was missed last season or with Ancelotti in general?
[1:16:56] And the second question is like early classical predictions I
[1:16:59] guess. Well, tune into the Friday
[1:17:03] podcast before El Clasico. We'll give you our thoughts on
[1:17:05] how that game goes. I'm just kidding.
[1:17:08] So my thoughts on tomorrow's game are Chavi.
[1:17:13] Play it safe and conservative. Don't expound any additional
[1:17:16] energy. Let Marcelino show you his hand.
[1:17:19] Don't go out there and take too much risk.
[1:17:22] And then Marcel, like you said, and then that wrinkle absolutely
[1:17:25] catches us on the blind side. I don't want to be blindsided by
[1:17:28] Marcelino tomorrow. He's a very good coach.
[1:17:30] He's going to be prepared. I do think that Chavi also is
[1:17:35] going to learn his lesson from last weekend in which Simeone
[1:17:41] absolutely outclassed him completely from top to bottom by
[1:17:44] him taking a ton of risks. And I could see him playing it
[1:17:47] safe. And we've seen Chavi and even if
[1:17:50] you think right Club World Cup, he was tinkering with a lot of
[1:17:53] things even worse than we've seen in the in the season so far
[1:17:56] this year. I mean, there's been different
[1:17:58] line UPS, but so far you can kind of see the the foundation
[1:18:00] kind of remaining the same in that sense.
[1:18:03] And I think for tomorrow, I'll say it again.
[1:18:07] I've said a couple times on the podcast already, Tavi, do not go
[1:18:10] out there and tinker too much. For me, it is.
[1:18:13] It's not the business end of the season, but it's one of the
[1:18:16] hardest points of our season coming up for the next month.
[1:18:19] Do not go out there and and Einstein it, do not Pep
[1:18:22] Guardiola it, do not Arteta it. Keep it safe.
[1:18:25] Go with what Madrid knows. That's what I'm saying.
[1:18:30] It's like you don't need to reinvent the wheel for tomorrow,
[1:18:32] right? Like don't overthink yourself.
[1:18:35] Go out there and and yeah, play it safe.
[1:18:38] It may not be the most enjoyable game in the world.
[1:18:39] I'll be honest with you it. Depends, right?
[1:18:43] It's all going to depend. It's very momentous type of
[1:18:46] game. Yeah, I don't want to see a A5
[1:18:49] four-game or three-game, even though I think there's.
[1:18:51] Yeah, yeah, it's not. I think there's going to be a
[1:18:54] lot of game. You want the one nail, 2 nail.
[1:18:56] But yes, OK, I'm not on the edge of my seat every single minute
[1:19:00] of this game, but I'm actually quite relaxed over the last 20
[1:19:03] minutes at bare minimum. So I would agree with that.
[1:19:07] I don't expect very high press either, even though we need our
[1:19:12] old body Rafa Marine, who I was very high on.
[1:19:16] So that's going going to be interesting to see how he
[1:19:20] handles Lebanon bell pressure and everything else.
[1:19:24] So Ryan 24 ask my my question is seeing the Vitinia performance
[1:19:31] against Borsa, why can't Jude be played in the same role like
[1:19:35] Vitinia? Jude out of all the players
[1:19:38] controlling that midfield and not just bomb informer.
[1:19:42] I don't think any midfielder can do that based on profiles we
[1:19:45] have. Think he kind of answered his
[1:19:47] own question there. We don't have that profile of
[1:19:50] player like outside of Sibios. It's tell me wrong.
[1:19:56] It's not that it's not reachable, but it needs to be
[1:20:00] within your system as a player to be able to do that.
[1:20:03] I don't think Jude has that in him.
[1:20:06] I'm not saying that Jude can drop deep and spread the ball
[1:20:08] across, because I most certainly think that he can.
[1:20:11] But I do believe that his skill set is better utilized elsewhere
[1:20:14] rather than having him spread passes for 90 minutes.
[1:20:19] I think that's a waste of all of his talent and I don't think
[1:20:22] that Jude would be the best at doing it.
[1:20:25] On this squad itself I only have Dennis Sabios as as a player
[1:20:31] that can do it. Not to that level unfortunately,
[1:20:34] but as it currently stands I think Sabios is the only one
[1:20:38] with the technical and tactical acumen who can generate 100 plus
[1:20:43] passes per game comfortably. Yeah, I think you covered it
[1:20:48] extremely well. My hot take for the season is
[1:20:51] that subbios is going to get more minutes than we all think
[1:20:54] and not necessarily in in small games.
[1:20:56] I think we end up seeing subbios, cameos in bigger games
[1:20:59] than we expected because of what you just mentioned.
[1:21:02] It's the only profile and this summer and this summer it's very
[1:21:09] important we get a center back. It's just as important that we
[1:21:12] get a 10 times better version of a Danny subbios.
[1:21:15] That is the profile we need in that midfield for sure.
[1:21:18] This summer is is that profile, but on steroids, Barry Bond
[1:21:23] style. You know, like way better.
[1:21:26] Yeah, that style, yes. OK, out of Mastantuano and
[1:21:34] glare, who's got the higher ceiling?
[1:21:37] Also, how can Alonzo optimize Franco's creativity as this
[1:21:43] hasn't happened yet? Who do you think has a higher
[1:21:47] ceiling between Olga and Franco? Mastantuano, man, Why?
[1:21:51] Is it going to make me think this, you know, fun fact, by the
[1:21:54] way, I I just got my math Antoano jersey in blue.
[1:21:58] I'll wear it. I'll probably wear it on the on
[1:22:00] the pre classical podcast on here for my my wife's parents
[1:22:04] bought it back from from from Catalunya.
[1:22:06] They bought it in Barcelona this week and and they're they asked
[1:22:10] me if I want a present. They gave me the math Antoano.
[1:22:11] So I'm really high on Franco. I have been for quite some time
[1:22:17] been following this kid ever since I was made aware of him at
[1:22:20] 15 and I really do think he is going to be at least the Maria
[1:22:28] level which is amazing. That's amazing, yes.
[1:22:32] Gulair ceiling? We don't know either and Ozil.
[1:22:39] So it's like pick between De Maria and Ozil.
[1:22:40] It's kind. Of like, you both played on the
[1:22:42] same team literally. So it's very hard, right?
[1:22:46] Pick a guy that had 80 assists in three seasons as a Madrid
[1:22:49] player, or an Anhil de Maria who helped us win the big trophies,
[1:22:54] right? The ones.
[1:22:54] And the big play, literally anywhere where we asked him.
[1:22:57] And yeah, I'm really I. Like the De Maria profile?
[1:23:01] That's what I'll say. I like the De Maria profile
[1:23:03] better so. I'm torn, right?
[1:23:06] I do believe that ceiling, ceiling, ceiling, ceiling or
[1:23:09] that could be better, but based on the physical profile and how
[1:23:13] much that matters, I you just got to give it to Franco Mas
[1:23:16] Santuano in terms of like who's going to be like the better end
[1:23:21] product by the time when they're 242526, if that's making sense,
[1:23:26] right? Is that physical profile which
[1:23:30] not many people pay a lot of attention to?
[1:23:32] But it does indeed matter a lot. So that's why I'm edging that
[1:23:38] way. In terms of Franco Masantuano's
[1:23:41] creativity, it's hard to platform 11 players at the same
[1:23:47] time. This my answer right now.
[1:23:50] I think it's going to happen at some point, but I think right
[1:23:54] now he's there to fill in a big gap into the squad and then
[1:23:57] probably proceeding forward with utilizing his skills more and
[1:24:02] more. This is my answer to to the
[1:24:04] second question. Yeah, yeah, it's a tough choice.
[1:24:09] How are you going to make us pick between Guler and
[1:24:11] Matantwano Man I? Mean yeah, they're also two
[1:24:13] different players, right? I don't think that a coach is
[1:24:17] going to come to picking between them really because I mean,
[1:24:24] they're best together, I would imagine because I think that
[1:24:27] order has that needle final pass while Franco has that physical
[1:24:31] profile, that tenacity, which is sometimes lagging.
[1:24:35] So for the last question of the day that comes from age
[1:24:40] underlying Manku 4. What are Job Javi's principles?
[1:24:45] How he uses them in a team while giving freedom.
[1:24:48] OK so this for me how to gain knowledge about football like
[1:24:54] tactics, profiles and more. OK so the second part is about
[1:24:59] me. I can answer that after so you
[1:25:01] can go. What do you think of our job is
[1:25:03] principles as a coach? His core principles are, First
[1:25:07] off, he likes to win the ball back fast, right?
[1:25:09] Like that's that, that philosophy of win the ball back
[1:25:11] under 7 seconds. Just kind of like that mindset
[1:25:14] he he fundamentally believes in as compared to a Carlo Ancelotti
[1:25:18] who was a bit more conservative in in that mid block.
[1:25:21] Let them come to us, right? He wants to be proactive, not
[1:25:24] reactive with his football. He wants high intensity from
[1:25:27] every player out on the pitch and he wants profiles that will
[1:25:30] fit his mindset of attacking the various channels on the field.
[1:25:33] So your players have to a be very fit to play under Chavi
[1:25:38] Alonso system. I think B they also have to be
[1:25:41] have a high level of IQ to understand the coaching error or
[1:25:46] project his projection of the message and be able to interpret
[1:25:48] it in real time on the field. And I still think we don't have
[1:25:52] the full 11 in terms of profiles to do this at the highest level
[1:25:55] with Alonzo. I still think we're missing that
[1:25:57] center, that central midfielder and the other center back that
[1:26:02] has a a good touch in possession to to really implement Chavi's
[1:26:06] like dream vision here. I also think we're missing the
[1:26:09] 9:00 with the work rate that Chavi usually likes if you look
[1:26:12] at his Leverkusen team and who played it.
[1:26:15] So there are certain elements of it for his his system that I
[1:26:18] think we're missing at Madrid, which is why we're not seeing
[1:26:21] the Level 5 version of Chavi, Alonzo Ball being played out in
[1:26:25] real time. I think he's making some
[1:26:26] concessions with what the roster he has, the players he has to be
[1:26:30] able to implement a system at Madrid now that kind of blends
[1:26:35] what he likes to do in terms of that high intensity, winning the
[1:26:38] ball back, playing it out from the back.
[1:26:40] A lot of people call that woke ball.
[1:26:42] I don't call it that. But he also doesn't believe in
[1:26:45] this idea that you need to be pressing, you know, gung ho
[1:26:48] style like Pete Club was doing in 2019 with Liverpool.
[1:26:52] He likes to time it throughout the game.
[1:26:54] And what I really like about him as well is when we have long
[1:26:57] periods of possession with Chabi, and I said this on the
[1:27:00] podcast last time, his default is shoot the ball.
[1:27:04] Like when in doubt, shoot the thing.
[1:27:06] Don't just keep passing it around for the for the, you
[1:27:08] know, for no reason, just aimlessly recycling possession
[1:27:12] left to right. And that's where it's different
[1:27:14] from this new idea of, you know, total football and total
[1:27:17] possession at all times and with the ball is better than not
[1:27:21] having the ball. And the best defense is offense,
[1:27:24] right? In that sense, Chavi blends that
[1:27:27] style or some of its principles from that style, but modernized
[1:27:31] it with the way he likes to play.
[1:27:33] And then he goes with the classic Madrid style of like,
[1:27:36] shoot the freaking ball when you're 25 yards out and you've
[1:27:38] had it for a minute and 1/2. This is this is real.
[1:27:41] Madrid. Exactly.
[1:27:43] So that's kind of how I view Chavi's ball so far.
[1:27:46] I also think we need a one year sample size at Real Madrid to
[1:27:49] have some clear definitions of like Chavi ball at Madrid and
[1:27:53] what we think he's actually trying to do.
[1:27:54] Because I still think it's still a little pre emptive, right?
[1:27:56] The the sample size is 10 games essentially this year, right?
[1:28:00] Yeah. It's way too small to make a
[1:28:02] judgement. Yes, Yeah.
[1:28:05] So, OK, so the second question for me was how to gain knowledge
[1:28:09] about football, like tactics, profiles and more.
[1:28:14] To put it simple by reading like I've gone through the Ancelotti
[1:28:17] book, the Pep Guardiola book, all of the both of the books are
[1:28:21] completely different. Like I'm just saying like a
[1:28:23] primary example, both of them are like completely different.
[1:28:26] You get a different outlook. It's more about the way how you
[1:28:30] also view and perceive it. It's not always what what I'm
[1:28:34] going to say that's going to be factual.
[1:28:36] It's my perception of what the coach is trying to do based on
[1:28:39] on the profile of the player. Therefore, as we said earlier
[1:28:43] about Jude, which would be an example, so Jude and Orda can
[1:28:46] both be perceived as number 10's.
[1:28:48] The way how they're going to play the number 10 role is
[1:28:51] completely different to one another.
[1:28:53] Like Jude is more of like a box crasher, a player that will get
[1:28:56] the ball, spin the defender around, try to seek out maybe
[1:29:00] the 1-2 and be the finisher of it.
[1:29:02] While our day is more like this needle player who will look for
[1:29:06] the runner and try to pick them apart or maybe see that space to
[1:29:10] get the shot out. But our day is more like quick
[1:29:13] and zippy with the decisions, while Jude is going to be a
[1:29:17] little bit more breaking of the other team system.
[1:29:22] But overall, he's going to play it a lot differently because of
[1:29:26] the tendencies that he's shown on the pitch over the years.
[1:29:30] So to get to know that, you kind of have to look into what the
[1:29:33] player is seeking to do when they're receiving the ball.
[1:29:36] Tendencies to change by the coaching, but not a lot.
[1:29:39] Coaching can only temper down so much.
[1:29:42] As you can see with the Alonzo, there are still things players
[1:29:46] are still admitting that they are reverting back to the old
[1:29:49] things. And Alonso is also going to have
[1:29:51] to understand that there needs to be a certain level of freedom
[1:29:56] that is given to these players because of the way how they're
[1:29:58] used to be playing football of their lives.
[1:30:01] So yeah, for example, a player that comes from Brazil doesn't
[1:30:05] necessarily mean he's less talented or less controlling
[1:30:09] than a player that comes from a Spanish Academy, as example.
[1:30:13] But a player on the Spanish Academy is far more developed on
[1:30:18] the tactical side of things because they get that very early
[1:30:21] on instead of them getting it at the pro level.
[1:30:26] So that's why you see, like your pedres, yours will be Mandy's,
[1:30:29] your rodres. That's why Spain has much less
[1:30:33] of a problem to develop such profiles because they are taught
[1:30:37] from so where they are, they are.
[1:30:41] Again, I went for way too long. I would say I would start with
[1:30:46] the books like look for like very enjoyable to read and
[1:30:51] Chelotti's book is very enjoyable to read.
[1:30:53] Guardiola's book is very enjoyable to read.
[1:30:56] I would start to do that and then you, you'll get a good
[1:31:00] grasp of everything afterwards. And you can only go from there.
[1:31:05] You can look out of course, things I think nowadays with I,
[1:31:09] you can always ask it questions like YXY and Z and it well, it
[1:31:15] might not always give you the most well, the best answer.
[1:31:21] It does get pretty close, at least on my end of it.
[1:31:24] And to quote JJ Redick there, chatty PT has become one of my
[1:31:27] best friends. So it it does indeed serve a
[1:31:31] purpose at the very least on the questions that you're going to
[1:31:34] ask, depending on how elaborate you are.
[1:31:37] But again, don't forget the books.
[1:31:38] Don't forget you can watch the videos, retweets.
[1:31:41] There are a lot of great accounts out there.
[1:31:45] So with all of that being said, it's not really one thing.
[1:31:48] It's a yearly experience. It's also my experience of
[1:31:51] playing the sport which plays a huge part in the list.
[1:31:55] Like I kind of have personally, I have a feeling towards the
[1:32:01] sport a little bit more. If you have played it, you know
[1:32:04] it and you understand it because you have been taught about it at
[1:32:10] very least a certain degree, not all of it, but a certain degree.
[1:32:14] So yeah, for the most part it's it's a combination of
[1:32:16] everything. Try to get some reading, try to
[1:32:21] play a bit more football maybe. I know that a 5V5 with friends
[1:32:25] is not as structured as football match, right?
[1:32:29] But it's always fun, gives you that feeling.
[1:32:32] You feel a little bit like, OK, so this is where my strengths
[1:32:35] are, my weaknesses, what profile I do believe I am, what type of
[1:32:40] player who do I like to be? Because I know that there's a
[1:32:44] time where I wanted to be at Ronaldo, but I realized very
[1:32:47] early that my ceiling would be more like an Alonzo type because
[1:32:50] I didn't have the physical qualities or the genetics to be
[1:32:54] able to keep it up. Just as an example, I'm not
[1:32:56] saying that I was as good as any of them or even close, but what
[1:33:01] I'm just purely strictly talking on the profile and
[1:33:05] understandable limitations of it.
[1:33:07] So yeah, with that tangent being said, I think that we have gone
[1:33:09] long enough for today. Another from Friday show.
[1:33:13] Thanks everybody for joined in. Thank you for coming in again.
[1:33:17] And let's see what happens tomorrow with the game, right?
[1:33:21] No predictions. As we said today, we're not
[1:33:24] predicting anything. Exactly.
[1:33:26] And and one last thing here, I just want to thank everyone that
[1:33:29] put the time in to put those thoughtful questions together
[1:33:32] for us. I know it's not easy, so just
[1:33:34] want to thank you all. Keep doing that for us, like and
[1:33:37] subscribe. Lagante is one of the best
[1:33:38] accounts on X as well, by the way, so make sure you follow him
[1:33:42] and and we'll see you next. Week.
[1:33:44] How did I forget my spiel? By the way guys, everything is
[1:33:48] free, right? You can find us here on YouTube,
[1:33:51] on Spotify, Apple Podcast, everywhere.
[1:33:55] We're for free. If you want to tell your friends
[1:33:57] about it, like have some chatter on the coffee shop about some of
[1:34:02] the rubbish that we might potentially ramble on here, well
[1:34:05] feel free to tell them too. So yeah, we want to thank you
[1:34:09] all for really great support so far with this channel.
[1:34:12] With a direction that we're going.
[1:34:14] We're looking to expand it. We're looking to become better
[1:34:16] day by day. I hope that you guys are seeing
[1:34:19] that we're taking feedback in into account.
[1:34:22] Feel free to leave that in the comments down below.
[1:34:25] Your questions always for the mailbag or Friday's show are
[1:34:29] going to mostly feature the mailbag, if not always, because
[1:34:34] of course we can't always promise this, but most of the
[1:34:37] time a Friday show is going to be filled with a mailbag.
[1:34:41] So make sure you guys are on lookout for it.
[1:34:44] You can always see that the Friday show is consistent and
[1:34:48] we'll see you guys tomorrow after the game.
[1:34:50] It's not that far, so yeah. I said Hala Madrid, huh?
[1:34:57] Yeah, let's just move forward, right?
[1:35:04] Listen, we're going to get a win tomorrow.
[1:35:05] Be confident. Confident, let's confident as
[1:35:10] you can see from my voice. All right, guys, I'll see you on
[1:35:14] the next one. Bye.

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