# How Alonso Can Develop Real Madrid's Attackers

An episode of [The Real Deal: A Real Madrid Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1807821669), 22 May 2025, 1 h 19 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/103607aa8/podcast/play/103059087/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-4-22%2F400815034-44100-2-c3ea70e2b80d4.mp3

Jarod Hector joins Sid to discuss developmental and performance goals for Alonso to set for our squad next season in attack. How did they fare this last season, and what needs to change?

## Transcript

[1:03] You know, when I hear that music, it always just takes me
[1:05] back through all the good memories and today especially
[1:08] hits the fields you're on. My favorite player ever,
[1:10] personally, and a lot of our favorite players ever.
[1:13] Luca Modrich, one of the ideal midfielders, is leaving the
[1:16] club. Any initial thoughts before we
[1:19] get into our episode? Yeah, end of an era, man.
[1:22] Luca Madrich, as you said, just, I mean, when you think of at
[1:26] least Real Madrid fans doing, I think many world football fans
[1:29] do, When I think of like a classic midfielder, like that's
[1:32] who I think of. I think of Luca Madrich and just
[1:34] his ability to create for himself, create for others.
[1:40] He was at his peak the best midfielder in the world.
[1:44] I mean, he won the ball and door.
[1:45] He won FIFA player of the year. Like, I mean, dragging.
[1:48] And I don't, I'm not denigrating like the rest of the Croatia
[1:51] squad, but taking that Croatia squad to the World Cup final,
[1:54] that was an act of heroism. Like, that's how amazing he was,
[1:57] right? Because Croatia's talent
[1:59] relative to let's say, France, right?
[2:01] There's nowhere near as high, right?
[2:03] But Madras was so good, he he bossed right?
[2:07] Like he was just the man and all the memories he's had for us,
[2:10] the the assists to Cristiano for Champions League goals, like I
[2:14] mean, that we have. There's so many memories.
[2:16] And you know the club will give him the proper send off on
[2:20] Saturday like his last match to burn about our last match of
[2:23] this dreadful season. Thank God, and he will play out
[2:27] the Club World Cup with Javi Alonso.
[2:29] I think it's kind of cool because he was teammates to
[2:31] Javi. So I think it'll be cool just to
[2:32] like have him share the pitch and you know, he'll play a
[2:35] little bit in the Club World Cup and hopefully help help the
[2:37] squad win. But I think going forward it's
[2:40] the right move. See it.
[2:42] One of the hardest parts about sports and life in general is
[2:44] nostalgia, right? Like, and it's such a powerful
[2:47] drug, which is why it's commoditized.
[2:49] And because people just, it 'cause the fields and you're
[2:52] trying to recapture something that was just so warm and iconic
[2:55] and it makes you all the positive endorphins it gave you.
[2:58] You're always trying to tap back into that, right?
[3:01] But the reason why it's a thing you're trying to get back is
[3:03] because the reason why it was so perfect is because of it
[3:05] happened in that moment. That's why it was so good.
[3:08] And you're never going to recreate that no matter how hard
[3:10] you try. And so with sports as legends
[3:13] age and it's and it's time for them to move on.
[3:16] We shouldn't be sad about that, right?
[3:17] We should be like, OK, yes, we're never going to be that
[3:20] again, but we honor it for what it was, the most the most
[3:25] decorated player in club history, if I'm not mistaken, in
[3:27] terms of trophies won. And we honor him for that.
[3:31] But him leaving now opens up a roster spot for a younger player
[3:35] to develop. And it will those minutes that
[3:37] Javi might have felt inclined to play him more because that's his
[3:41] guy and because, you know, he trusts Luca, that's now Arda.
[3:45] It's sink or swim time, my friend.
[3:47] And you know, we'll talk about Arda when we get to him.
[3:49] But I think this year is going to be critical for him going
[3:52] forward into what we think he could be for Real Madrid.
[3:56] Yeah, definitely. And when we, if you guys didn't
[3:59] TuneIn, we did a keep sell loan episode a couple weeks ago or
[4:01] almost a month ago probably by now.
[4:03] But where we talked about who we want to keep at the club, we
[4:06] were both there in agreement that it's probably time to let
[4:08] Madrid go. Unless, you know, he doesn't
[4:11] care to play, which is just not why a guy like him wants to stay
[4:14] for one more week. He's staying because it's like
[4:16] 40 year old Madrich on the pitch in the Champions League.
[4:19] Like that's what he wants. I get it.
[4:20] I I would want it if I were him. So there's no point keeping him
[4:24] if he's going to take away Guler's minutes.
[4:26] I'm excited. I hope we win a trophy for him
[4:30] and with him moving on, we're officially like at the end of
[4:34] the era of like the 2 controllers, the Cruz and
[4:36] Madrich era. And really it was a much more
[4:38] complex era, but they were the stimulus.
[4:40] Like they come in then OK, we can play Marcelo and Eastco and
[4:43] play at their pace. They can They all play the speak
[4:46] the same football language. Ronaldo spoke a very heavy metal
[4:49] football language and like it was great.
[4:53] I would argue like even in 2012 when we won, it almost was going
[4:56] against where Guardiola was taking the meta and it was going
[5:00] like sometimes wasted dribbles. And again from 2009 to 12, he
[5:05] cut the waisted dribbles in half and doubled the goals, which was
[5:07] crazy. And and yet it was still a lot
[5:10] of dribbling reliance. Sometimes in transition we were
[5:13] still the best play making like Art, like Benzema, Di Maria.
[5:17] Ozil the way they would. Yeah, they would ping the ball
[5:19] back and forth, no question. But when you got into like the
[5:22] so-called half court offense, that was our big problem.
[5:25] We we lost to Byron in 2012 because Cruz played incredible
[5:29] half court offense. We didn't have that half court
[5:31] play and Ozil was that guy. But wait, when we use them, it
[5:35] was too much of like like the associations built where Ozil to
[5:38] Ronaldo direct. There was no hey, let's let's
[5:41] move Ozil into a Modrich role. That was never going to happen.
[5:43] He was a 1920 assist per season guy.
[5:45] Why would you do that? So now we're officially at the
[5:49] end of the era. And I think it's a good moment
[5:50] because Alonzo has seen the tactical evolution of football.
[5:54] He was his last season here was when he and Modrich, my opinion
[5:59] like somehow carried. I still don't get how Alonzo
[6:02] Madrich and Di Maria made a midfield work.
[6:04] Dude. Like yeah, it's like they don't
[6:06] look like they can make a midfield work with Bale,
[6:09] Benzema, Ronaldo, like the so-called lazy riometer
[6:12] galacticos in front and like, you know, Marcelo the the rogue.
[6:16] I mean, I guess Cohen Trowell played more that year, but to
[6:18] give it to him. But I just see that a perfect,
[6:21] this is a perfect moment because Alonzo gets the Club World Cup
[6:24] with him, like you said. And I think he's a coach with
[6:27] enough ideas that you can truly move on.
[6:30] And it's just different to when Zadon came back when it's like,
[6:33] OK, like you got to lead in on these guys more.
[6:35] It's just a different time. But and, and so in that, I think
[6:39] it's awesome because now all our current players, their
[6:42] development in possession gets prioritized instead of like
[6:45] leaning on Luca. And that was my big thing with
[6:48] when Carlo was here. And I understand, look, Carlo
[6:50] got a lot of blame for his circle and never expanding it
[6:53] and trusting who we trust. But I understand why he trusts
[6:56] who he trusts, right? He has decades of and
[7:00] experiences of saying, I know leaning on Madrich gets me this
[7:04] result because I've seen it with my eyes a billion times.
[7:06] I don't know if Arta can do this thing.
[7:09] I have not seen him do it right. And so I don't trust that.
[7:11] And when you're a manager and your job is wins and losses and
[7:14] you will get fired if you lose, I get why you think that way.
[7:17] But I think job is different in that he has more ideas and has
[7:20] different ways in which he can figure out, OK, what's the best
[7:23] way to utilize Arda and and help his development.
[7:26] And I think Sid, it's the closing on another chapter of
[7:31] Real Madrid in in our club's decorated history with with
[7:34] Mondrich going right, because you know, Carvajal is sort of
[7:37] the last one left of like that group, right?
[7:40] And he's going to be a bench player, no doubt starting next
[7:43] season. So now it's the new era of
[7:46] potential legends. And who is it going to be?
[7:49] Is it going to be Vinnie Jude, you know, Arda Hoisen who,
[7:55] right, Trent, whoever is this the next era of the way and way
[7:58] in which we talked about Cristiano Benzema, Bale, Madrid,
[8:03] Cruz E right. Is it going to be this the next
[8:05] with this group? We'll see.
[8:06] Time will tell and we'll see if this is going to be the crew.
[8:09] That's our next set of legends. Yeah, definitely.
[8:11] I think it's kind of like that era where you had some holdovers
[8:14] like Ronaldo Ramos and in this case the the holdovers are
[8:17] younger. That's the main difference.
[8:18] We have a way younger team. We won way more with like a
[8:21] weird like old and young team. Whereas before we were in our
[8:24] prime and playing like the best team ever or right there like
[8:28] top. We were, we were one of the top
[8:29] five teams and they were too. It was ridiculous and that's why
[8:33] I'm excited. Like, even Barcelona are not
[8:35] really as scary if we get our things right.
[8:37] It's like Alonzo's going up against like such a nerf
[8:39] juggernaut domestically. I love it.
[8:42] A nerf juggernaut. Dude, like you can win.
[8:45] Like you can't lose the league with 90 points anymore.
[8:47] Like that used to be a thing, dude.
[8:49] Like it's still the only era where 90 points met.
[8:52] Like you might finish second or even third, dude, which is
[8:55] ridiculous. And I'm excited 'cause I think
[8:59] Alonso really leans in on athleticism.
[9:02] Defensively is like last season, he struggled to integrate Alex
[9:05] Garcia from Jerome, but that was the worst team where you need to
[9:08] play the back three. You need all these guys to make
[9:10] sure there's a like baseline competence here.
[9:13] Everyone's good. We already talked about what
[9:15] he's going to do defensively. He's going to structure everyone
[9:17] and give it to them. Now let's talk about what he's
[9:20] going to do for everyone offensively.
[9:21] Now, I know you wanted to start with the back line, but if we're
[9:24] just going off first, we had last year, who is there anyone
[9:27] we talk. Ascencio is the only one who's
[9:29] going to be playing anytime soon, right?
[9:30] That's true. Out Rudiger out all about who
[9:34] knows Militao? Alba's hurt too.
[9:36] Yeah, he's not playing either. So Ascencio is literally the
[9:40] only player who has played from the back line this year that
[9:43] will be playing next year. I think we both agree we like
[9:47] Ascencio on the ball. I mean, I think we talked about
[9:49] on the last show, his first, literally the first time he
[9:52] touched the ball as a member of the senior Real Madrid team was
[9:55] that long pass to Jude assists for that goal.
[9:58] I was like, well, that's a pretty high bar set my friend as
[10:01] your as your first freaking touch of a ball Real Madrid.
[10:05] And I wonder when we are in possession, is that going to be
[10:09] when we are three at the back? And when I say 3, meaning that
[10:15] let's say it's Ascencio, let's say it's Trent, and let's say
[10:17] it's Housing, just for sake of argument, those are the three
[10:20] best you would say, right? Said on ball defenders that we
[10:24] had in terms of passing, progressing the ball and helping
[10:27] us in our build up. Yeah, I mean, I I mean, if we
[10:29] get Carreras too, he's good. It's like we're going.
[10:31] Not kind of, because he's not here.
[10:33] Yet. But yeah, yeah, yeah, I'd agree.
[10:35] And I guess that's where with Ascencio, it's almost like I
[10:37] think on the ball there isn't much you need to change in terms
[10:40] of like how good he is. You don't need to teach him how
[10:42] to make the right read. I feel like he has that now.
[10:43] So it's kind of weird like you get AU team center back who's
[10:46] super polished in possession. If anything, you Polish him out
[10:48] of possession. I would say if he's really that
[10:52] good where he can make those passes, like weaponize him like
[10:56] like a like an Arteta or a Pep kind of does.
[10:59] Because you don't need the you don't need the midfielders to be
[11:02] the only ones doing the controlling.
[11:03] If when you have this much talent, you can kind of invert
[11:05] the fullbacks and the defenders can take care of the same job
[11:08] instead of advancing before maybe moderate crews drop the
[11:10] defenders advance. Now we don't need the
[11:12] midfielders to drop at all. And I think I would like to see
[11:17] it weaponized because that type of aggression is really good in
[11:19] possession. It's like what you pay for in
[11:22] Carreras and Hudson, you know, you pay for this.
[11:24] And yes, those guys are higher volume.
[11:26] Yes, they've been superstars established.
[11:28] But yeah, I think if you have one goal, it's like turn them
[11:33] into like a God tier ball player.
[11:37] Do you? So one of the challenges we had
[11:39] this year was when our defense was high up the pitch, right,
[11:44] progressing the ball. And then if we turned it over,
[11:46] which we did often because guys were just all over the place, we
[11:49] were screwed because now we're scrambling back and everybody's
[11:51] out of position. I think Shabby will change a lot
[11:54] of that and not have too much that happened.
[11:56] Whom do we want advancing forward with the ball from this
[12:00] back line? I mean, Trent can pass so well.
[12:02] Do we want Trent advancing? I know Carreras can.
[12:05] He's very much good at overlapping at that left on that
[12:08] left, left, left backside. So do we want him advancing
[12:11] Hoisen's also, do we want him? Who do we want advancing in in
[12:14] possession from that back line? Yeah, I think we want Trent
[12:17] playing like the crew's right side role almost in some ways,
[12:20] like we want, I think we want Fede moving wide.
[12:23] I think we're going to use Fede as like move from midfield.
[12:25] It's going to be a lot of like, hey, you guys go in front, we
[12:28] take up your positions. We might see less advancing
[12:31] because Carreras. I don't want to see Carreras
[12:33] advancing and I don't want to see because I mean, I we can't.
[12:38] I think he will advance, but like that's not a traditional
[12:41] like go get the ball up the field, drive it full back.
[12:44] If anything, like the guys who can do that.
[12:47] My think is like get Fran good when you need it.
[12:50] When you need someone for that, use Fran, bring him off the
[12:53] bench, throw him up the line. If you need someone to advance
[12:56] it right back. Actually, you get Carvajal,
[12:59] Carvajal and Fede. Now.
[13:00] Now you don't need him all the time.
[13:02] That's perfect for him. He can play the traditional
[13:04] fullback role. And I think, yeah, I think
[13:07] Carvajal, Fran and Fete are going to be the guys who attack
[13:11] wide areas. And I don't know if Fete ever
[13:13] becomes a right backer or anything.
[13:15] I just put him out there because like this guy, just like tucks
[13:18] in with the back line in defense and then he makes the runs the
[13:20] team needs. So he's so versatile man like
[13:23] and we'll we'll get to him in a minute.
[13:24] We can get to him now. Do you think Sid, his
[13:28] versatility has hurt his development in that because he's
[13:32] so good, Carlo can just plug him anywhere, but he's not getting
[13:35] enough reps at what may be his best position and skill set is.
[13:39] And I mean, that's the question. What is Fede's best position and
[13:43] skill set? Yeah.
[13:44] So let's let's just touch on what we thought of him last year
[13:47] that for context for everyone, I feel like last year was his
[13:50] chance to reach a new level in terms of in possession dominance
[13:54] passes. No, And also we're not going
[13:57] over all the metrics yet. Let me pull them up.
[13:58] But in general, he had a career high in 2324 and across the
[14:03] board in possession. So expectations were sky high
[14:06] going through the season did not come close to meeting them.
[14:09] And as we talked about, he he kind of sees himself as a role
[14:11] player, like, all right, I got the ball back.
[14:13] Let me just give it to the creators.
[14:14] Let me move, get out of the way. And I think if you rotate him
[14:18] properly like he has shown elements of being able to do
[14:21] more many times, it's mainly because he can dribble and he is
[14:23] press resistant. But he had the same problem 2 of
[14:27] many and frankly most of our team had this year where because
[14:29] the coach was so hard in my opinion and it was a new
[14:32] situation which the coach was not prepared to deal with.
[14:35] Everyone looked confused and was slow.
[14:37] And I definitely think there is more available from him in
[14:41] possession that we saw this year.
[14:42] I agree. I'm with you 100%.
[14:44] I, I obviously we know long range shots from outside the
[14:47] box. Yes, Betty, please do more of
[14:49] that. He's excellent at that.
[14:51] And I think to your point, very press resistant and he's got
[14:55] such a pace when possessions did like charging up the field, like
[14:57] you can't take the ball off him. He's a really excellent dribbler
[15:00] like in in in that in that space.
[15:02] And I wonder, can Javi unlock more of that?
[15:05] I thought your point about him being behaving like a role
[15:09] player is interesting because I think that's Fetty's
[15:11] personality. If you hear him talk or just
[15:15] he's a natural No, no, no, let Jude and these other guys go up
[15:19] front. I'll stay in the back.
[15:21] That's that's that's his personality.
[15:22] Just as a person like in the world.
[15:24] He's not a demonstrative voiceless, like I'm taking
[15:27] charge of this. That's just not him, right?
[15:29] And I think that plays in on the field to your point of let me go
[15:33] give it to Benny or these other guys because they can do the
[15:35] thing. And I think if we can get him to
[15:37] take a little bit more of that out of him because it's there,
[15:39] the skill sets there, we see it, right?
[15:41] When he plays for for Uruguay, for the national team, we see it
[15:44] there, right? Like we can bring a little bit.
[15:46] And I think again, Alonzo might be the coach to do it, bring a
[15:49] little bit more out of them. And you mentioned the key thing,
[15:52] if we rotate him properly, he will be rested better and have
[15:56] more of the ability to do that instead of having to put out
[15:59] fires for literally everybody in the field because he's got to
[16:02] play 10 billion minutes. So I I I think my my development
[16:06] goals are ready for this season would be in possession Kinjabi
[16:09] unlock him more utilize that press resistance to our
[16:12] advantage and unleash him more as that sort of like press
[16:16] resistant attacking from deep midfielder.
[16:20] Yeah, and I think he's also just yeah, I think if he if he
[16:24] chooses like, OK, I'm I can't give 100% somewhere.
[16:27] It's going to be offense first. He he's not going to stop on
[16:28] defense. That's really what it is because
[16:30] like 100% Fede can probably give you both ends really well.
[16:34] But like you can't do it twice a week for all year for multiple
[16:37] years in his prime. Playing 9,000,000 minutes a
[16:39] season like he has been. In in a in a non existent
[16:42] defensive system that also over exerts him relative to most
[16:45] players in his position in history.
[16:48] So just going over his stats, he he did start scoring again this
[16:52] year more like a goal every five games compared to like not many
[16:56] last year and his output was pretty close to career high as
[17:00] well. His XG went down though like
[17:04] lower than the last two years and then point O 7 where he was
[17:08] at .15 in 2223.11 last year. Progressive carries have gone
[17:16] down this year by 1. He was around the three mark the
[17:20] last two years, 3.7 the first year 2122, but he was coming on
[17:24] the scene so I'm not really counting that.
[17:25] I'm looking at the last two years and then this so.
[17:27] He's very good at progressive carrying, very good at that.
[17:30] I think that dropping off by one kind of shows you exactly what
[17:33] happened this year. Like he just he was cooked.
[17:34] He was no longer driving it. So one less 10 yard carry per
[17:38] game towards the penalty area. His progressive passing was kind
[17:41] of similar to last year. Progressive receptions went down
[17:44] by 1, so he's also not he. So he basically was not
[17:47] advancing it with the ball as much and receiving it advantage.
[17:50] That's just like total. That's just that's just points
[17:53] to like coach couldn't figure out like got worse on every
[17:56] aspect. Let me just also get the passing
[17:58] real quick while we're here. And to your point, Sid, I think
[18:01] you're right in saying that because he has to do so much.
[18:05] If he's going to give a little bit less on one end of the
[18:08] pitch, it's going to be on offense because he's just, he's
[18:11] his, his, his natural nature is to protect and save, right?
[18:14] And so let me help everybody that's defense, right?
[18:16] So I'm going to give all out to protect us on that end.
[18:19] And on offense. We got enough guys.
[18:20] You guys figure it out? 100% and just going at his
[18:23] touches. So he did have a career high in
[18:25] touches this year. I think it's interesting how a
[18:29] lot more than or just from the defensive penalty area and
[18:32] defensive third. Touches in the middle, third
[18:34] went down, touches in the attacking third went down this
[18:36] year. So he's getting more touches.
[18:37] They're all deeper. We're not getting out of our
[18:38] half guys. It was horrible, like.
[18:40] Horrible it. Was so bad.
[18:42] Actually, this is vindicating. I'm glad I'm looking at this for
[18:44] the first time on the show. This is good attacking penalty
[18:49] area touches divided by two from two years ago and kind of like
[18:52] almost half of last year or two. And then let's see, as far as
[18:57] his take ONS, he was attempting fewer take ONS than before as
[19:03] well. Yeah, got super, super
[19:05] conservative. It's like, OK, if I beat, if I
[19:06] don't beat someone that don't have a cruise to like do 20
[19:09] passes where I don't feel bad about losing the ball.
[19:12] You know, it's my responsibility to keep the ball.
[19:13] I can't risk it. So that's interesting as well.
[19:16] And his number of carries was roughly similar, so he was just
[19:20] getting less efficient. Lastly, just going to the past
[19:23] types or actually I'll pull that up in a second, but you know
[19:27] metrics down across the board you're on.
[19:29] Yeah, which which I think is again, systematic to what we've
[19:32] been saying. Carlo didn't utilize him
[19:34] properly because he had to be a Swiss Army knife on defense and
[19:37] plug up all the holes we had. That's where all his energy
[19:39] went. You mentioned, yeah, touches
[19:40] increase in the defensive, 3rd right down everywhere else.
[19:44] So yeah, more touches, but they're in the back because he
[19:46] had to save us. I mean, my God, like imagine if
[19:49] we had no FEDE this year, what would our defensive I mean, we
[19:54] had no federation had a just an average person in his spot.
[19:57] Are we where where are we in the table?
[19:59] Are we like not even second? Are we third?
[20:01] Like, do you know what I mean? Like, like how?
[20:03] How many more goals have we given up this season as a
[20:06] result? 100% it would be bad and last
[20:09] metric we're here we go at passes.
[20:11] Finally found it. Passes are career high attempts
[20:16] similar to It's funny, he actually has a career high
[20:18] attempts and similar completion to last year.
[20:19] And we see with all the other metrics less receptions.
[20:22] Les carries similar progressive passing.
[20:25] All the touches are happening deeper.
[20:26] So instead of being this all action feta who was released up
[20:28] the pitch, who was released behind teams, who's also
[20:31] contributing in possession, he became like cornered, easy to
[20:35] box in and the other teams half feta who kind of doesn't get
[20:37] loose. And the his yeah, I mean, he
[20:41] he's it's cool to see that he's passing more and also just
[20:44] interestingly higher passes, but his short passes went down.
[20:47] So he's completing 4 or less short passes around.
[20:50] This is exactly everything we've been talking about.
[20:52] Less of the simple moves, less of this methodical stuff to get
[20:55] people open. As a result, he's scared.
[20:57] He's just playing the 10 yard obvious pass.
[20:58] He knows how to box that in. But yeah, 4 or less short
[21:01] passes, four more medium passes and a couple more long passes
[21:06] without cruise obviously, but that's.
[21:07] OK, with that, I think the. Medium flit is exactly what we
[21:10] were looking for. Like you're you're averaging a
[21:12] few more passes without cruise. Why are they all going medium
[21:15] range? Because nobody like we're not
[21:16] coming short. We're not playing together.
[21:18] Yeah. No, I mean, you hit the nail on
[21:20] the head. And This is why I think it's
[21:21] perfect that we start with Fede because we're going to stay in
[21:23] the midfield now, because now I think ultimately when Javi
[21:28] Alonzo brings more structure and control to this, this midfield
[21:32] unit, What is this? I'm assuming we're going to play
[21:35] 4 midfielders is my guess, right?
[21:37] They that's so Jude is like the attacking midfielder at the top
[21:40] and it's Fede, Chua Meni and Camovinga or Arda, right?
[21:47] One of some, some, some combo of that of, of that four.
[21:51] And so if we move to Chua Meni, well, let me ask you this
[21:56] question. What is the ideal for to have
[22:00] more of that what you just talked about, which is that
[22:03] ping, ping, ping, one touch passing, right?
[22:05] And again, I'm not asking for freaking bousquettes and he has
[22:10] to like, you know, that's not what I'm asking for.
[22:12] But we are so bad or we were this past season at that one
[22:17] touch and that connectivity between our midfield and our
[22:19] build up, right? So what's the ideal for for us
[22:22] to do that? I think it's going to be true or
[22:26] many Fede. I think Fede is part of it
[22:27] because of defense and mobility. I think between you could go 1
[22:32] of Fete or Camelinga and Guler. If we're being really going
[22:34] there, it's going to be one of those two and Guler plus
[22:36] Bellingham and Chua many or like a Sibios instead of Guler, or
[22:41] even a Sibios and a Guler. But you really want to control.
[22:45] To be honest, I think the gap between Chua Many Fete
[22:47] Camelinga, I hope and like a Sibios or Guler, I hope it
[22:51] shrinks a little in terms of how we see them in possession with
[22:54] Alonso. And that's where maybe we want
[22:56] to jump right into Chua Many right now.
[22:57] Yep, that's my next player to go to for sure.
[23:00] So yeah, I'll pull up his stats in a second.
[23:02] Yeah, so. So I thought overall QMNE, you
[23:05] know, he played too much center back this season, obviously
[23:07] because we had no depth and that hurt kids defensive midfield
[23:11] development. But once he started playing DM
[23:14] again, said he was awesome. Like he he was our player of the
[23:17] month two months in a row. Like he was awesome at DM.
[23:21] Like I just wish he played there all season instead of having a
[23:23] shuttle back and forth. I said it before, I'll say it
[23:25] again. I think he has the potential to
[23:27] be the best DM in the world. Like I really do like he's and
[23:31] he could be in a single pivot. Like he could be double pivot,
[23:33] but he could be single pivot and be the best DM in the world.
[23:35] He is that good. I would like to see, and I'm
[23:40] sure you're going to bring up the stats now.
[23:41] I'm sure they're going to be convoluted because he probably
[23:43] played the majority of his minutes to center back.
[23:45] Who's just going to say, you know what, like the stats for
[23:47] this are messed up guys because the too many center back minutes
[23:49] the last two years. And So what are you even
[23:51] comparing it to? We're going back a couple years
[23:53] at this point. So it's kind of a mess, but we I
[23:54] will go over in a SEC. Yeah, I, I and so now the
[23:58] question is right, because I, I think too many can I think he is
[24:02] press resistant. I think he can he can do long
[24:05] passes. He can do switch to play.
[24:06] Obviously no one is Cruz. No one can do like stock rules,
[24:09] but we're not asking. He doesn't have to do it to that
[24:11] level. You can just unlock him to do it
[24:13] more. And I think with structure will
[24:15] be better. He's an athlete too, Sid, right.
[24:18] So he can he can progress the ball through passing and through
[24:22] like he may not be, he's not he's not an an elite, a dribbler
[24:26] in my opinion as Kama Venga and Fete.
[24:28] But he's not poor, he's not terrible at it, but he can
[24:32] progress the ball. 100% And just I guess looking through his
[24:37] stats, progressive carries went down the last couple years.
[24:40] Again, he's playing center back. I don't know how that affects
[24:42] things. Progressive passing is vaguely
[24:44] stable. Last two years progressive
[24:47] receptions have went down. I mean, that's obvious because
[24:49] he's playing back. Oh my God, passing.
[24:54] Honestly, this is kind of depressing.
[24:55] Jerrod. Let's like, let's not like, what
[24:57] are we going to learn from this? We're just lying to ourselves.
[24:59] He played half his minutes at center back.
[25:00] I'm I'm not looking at the stats, but is there anything
[25:03] here? Maybe the possession his touches
[25:06] have went down the last few years.
[25:08] Out of position, I think. So let's look at him when you
[25:12] see him playing at his best for France.
[25:14] So let's go back to that World Cup, right?
[25:15] You're like, that is the true of many that he can be.
[25:19] Can Jabi Alonso unlock that in that midfield?
[25:21] Then what does that look like for us?
[25:25] Agreed. Agreed.
[25:26] And I think I think he can. I think the fact that he
[25:29] stumbled into it under Carlo is a proof.
[25:30] And I think that's the one I'm confident will happen.
[25:34] And I think, yeah, there's like a more Alonso might see a more
[25:37] athletic version of him that can has a lot of the same technical
[25:40] qualities. I think people underrate him
[25:42] because like he just has this reputation now.
[25:44] Like he makes lapses on and off the ball.
[25:47] And so he's so underrated. Like, dude, he's an athlete.
[25:49] Like he, he has a vision. He can shoot.
[25:52] We just got to like give him enough time in the same
[25:55] situation. And I think he really has is
[25:57] going to thrive because he's the one who's complained before
[25:59] about being reactive. I mean, like he, he tells us
[26:03] every time, look, Carlo wants him to play that, so I'll do it.
[26:05] But I don't like playing center back, right?
[26:07] Keep being very upfront about it because when someone says that,
[26:11] what there's actually saying is it's more than I don't like it.
[26:15] I am uncomfortable in this spot. All of the things I think about
[26:19] football don't jive when I'm in this position of the field
[26:22] because I don't understand. So that's why your lapses have
[26:25] because that's not where he's supposed to be.
[26:27] But because he's an athlete, Carlos, like, oh, you're
[26:29] athletic. We can put you there.
[26:30] It's like, that's what it's more than that, right?
[26:32] You have to have awareness and know like, it's a different
[26:35] place than. I mean, the joke is he plays
[26:37] center back like a defensive midfielder.
[26:39] Yeah, because he's a defensive midfielder, right?
[26:42] And so I think, and I think to your point is perfect, perfectly
[26:45] brought up, it's chubby sees a more athletic version of
[26:48] himself, right? And it's like, wow, all right.
[26:50] I think this guy could really do it.
[26:51] I think we could. Again, we can unlock a secret
[26:54] weapon that's been literally sitting here the whole time.
[26:56] A lot of the fan base I know is soured on him.
[26:58] And it's because, again, I don't think fans understand how
[27:02] different, how different center back and DM are.
[27:05] They're not the same thing. Like they like they require
[27:07] different skill sets, your roles, it's all different,
[27:10] right? It's complete.
[27:11] And he's still young too when he's 24, like so I just feel
[27:15] like we we have the chance to with the with honing in this
[27:20] group. This could be a generational
[27:22] midfield. Yeah.
[27:24] And also just to know his touches have gone let's say 85
[27:28] two years ago, 76 each of the last two years it is touches in
[27:32] the defensive penalty area have gone up each year from 3.6 to
[27:36] 5.7 to 7. This last year, defensive third
[27:39] gone up 19.4 to 23.5 to 26.8. Middle third has gone down and
[27:45] then attacking third has gone down every year.
[27:47] So just giving you guys context. Next, let's go to Camo Vinga
[27:52] because I think I actually think 2 of many is the one who like
[27:55] 4th like double pivot or single pivot, double pivot or single
[27:59] pivot. He works.
[28:01] However, someone like Camo Vinga needs to be next to Truman in a
[28:05] double pivot or in a 433. Can't be the single pivot on his
[28:09] own. I think Fete as well.
[28:10] Like I think Fete and Camo Vinga do better next to him.
[28:12] And so we want so and Fete. We talked about what he needs to
[28:17] do in possession. Camo Vinga, I think he's too
[28:19] versatile, like he's a better dribbler than Feta in short
[28:22] small spaces. Oh, good in tight spaces, Sid,
[28:25] he's 6 foot one. People that tall should not be
[28:28] that good at dribbling in tight spaces because they're right.
[28:30] There's just too much distance between their legs.
[28:32] And like the like he, he dribbles like a 5 foot seven
[28:36] person in tight spaces And it's it's I love watching it.
[28:39] It's brilliant. Yup, it's completely brilliant.
[28:42] And let's look at his stats. Progressive carries went down
[28:46] the last like compared to couple years ago, they've been around
[28:49] 2. I think he needs to be at 3
[28:50] progressive carries. He should be ripping through the
[28:52] defense. But I think he's an important
[28:54] case of actually teaching him how to dominate the game without
[28:56] that because he's so good at it. And it's just such a young guy
[28:59] skill that like old heads don't need as much like Cruz and
[29:01] Martyrs aren't trying to beat their man every time.
[29:03] You know, I think that's I think dribbling and transition in
[29:07] general are just young man game sort of thing in in this and
[29:10] like you need it, can't win without it in every sport.
[29:13] You need that young player, the raw athleticism.
[29:15] But Camovinga is just an example of someone who the more you can
[29:19] teach him to like use it and leverage it without overusing
[29:22] it, the better. And just looking at progressive
[29:26] passing went down each of the last two years, but I guess the
[29:28] receptions were higher a couple years ago.
[29:30] I mean, that's just the kind of theme like this team stagnated
[29:32] this year. Just what did that happen?
[29:36] Kevin Vink is 22, so he's even younger than chewing many.
[29:39] We talked about this on the defensive side.
[29:41] The biggest thing for Kevin Vink is an offseason program where he
[29:44] gets healthy. That's the biggest limiting yes,
[29:47] that's the biggest limiting factor for him is he's always
[29:49] injured and and also he has to play left center back.
[29:53] He has to play left back sometimes and it's like he's
[29:56] another one. I don't want him playing left
[29:57] back. He's not a left back right like
[29:59] he's a left sided midfielder. Let him play.
[30:01] Let him play there again. We can unleash this change, this
[30:06] athlete who can dominate a pitch like that's how good he is.
[30:10] He is a freak athlete so fast. We know what he can do in terms
[30:13] of his slide tackles and like he is just incredible at that.
[30:17] I want a healthy Kem of Venga. And again, I think because Java
[30:20] can see it as like weapons, right?
[30:22] Like in his mind, like, Oh my God, here's what I would do with
[30:25] a weaponized, fully healthy Eduardo Kemavanga.
[30:28] Guy was super with blazing speed, incredible defensive
[30:32] acumen, tight dribbling, right? Like I just think we could do
[30:35] one. And again, progressive carriers
[30:36] like Freddy, right? Not only can he progress the
[30:38] ball up, you can dribble. He's also a very good
[30:40] progressive passer when he does it enough, right?
[30:42] And I think that's another thing that we can we can get him to do
[30:44] more of. So it's right now Sid with
[30:46] midfield, it's all excitement. I'm just excited for what Javi
[30:50] Alonzo can do, provided we have health.
[30:54] Definitely. And Lassie also, his touches
[30:57] went down in the middle of an attacking third, went on the
[31:00] defensive thirds. I'm pretty sure that's just
[31:02] going to be trend for the yeah. And I know we one player we
[31:08] missed last time is Cebios. And you know he because he's in
[31:11] a more of a bench role at fringe minutes.
[31:12] We're not going to focus on him when we missed him on defense
[31:14] and offense. I think he's actually a rare
[31:16] case where like he kind of gave the team what it needed when he
[31:18] played and I don't know if there's much change.
[31:20] It's like keep him happy. He's really all on both ends of
[31:23] the ball. Yeah, I think he's a great squad
[31:25] player for us and his profile is what we needed this year, right?
[31:28] He job, you will love him because he's a controller,
[31:30] right? Like he's that guy that is that
[31:32] connectivity, one touch. He doesn't always play the safe
[31:34] pass, right? He's like, no, no, no, let's
[31:35] skip the triangle working this way, right, So we can progress
[31:38] the ball. And I think you'll see him.
[31:39] He'll direct. No, no, pass that way, that way,
[31:41] that way. Like, And I wonder if because
[31:43] he's a squad player, he doesn't have the voice to come man, that
[31:46] people will be like, all right, yeah, I'm going to pass that
[31:48] way. But I think he's exactly what we
[31:50] need. I'm happy to have him as a squad
[31:51] player on both, on both in possession and out of
[31:53] possession. Yeah, definitely.
[31:56] And now let's go to Guler, the big one before we moved to Jude
[32:00] and the other guys bring him. Guler, I think he's the big one
[32:03] that is like you can make him someone who's a generational
[32:07] player or you could end up like I said, BIOS or you could end up
[32:11] like somewhere in between. Like you sell him for 50
[32:14] million, like Kovachic maybe better than Kovachic.
[32:16] Maybe he has a better career than Kovachic.
[32:19] There's a lot of outcomes on the table and it's really this is a
[32:22] big year for him. I think the first thing is just
[32:26] let him play in the same zones or give him freedom.
[32:28] If it's like, hey, you get freedom to be the playing front
[32:31] of a double pivot, you get that consistently give him some
[32:33] freedom. I think he is the one I want to
[32:36] see grow into the monitor. Like, I don't know, we spent a
[32:38] whole year not really getting there, but have him play like
[32:41] dinked through balls that like kind of test the defense but
[32:44] aren't like risk at really losing risk of losing the ball.
[32:47] Have him be aggressive in like the areas like finding full
[32:50] bags, guys between the lines. But also like as soon as you're
[32:54] at risk, you should immediately be aware of how they're pressing
[32:57] you and dial that back move, move the ball somewhere else and
[33:00] constantly force the defense to wonder, like should I press him
[33:02] or sit off and just let them cook us?
[33:04] And that's what we're missing. I want to see that.
[33:07] I just think that's what it given his size, that's his role
[33:09] in the modern game. Like he's not going to turn into
[33:11] someone exceptional beyond like 10 and higher Mark.
[33:15] I don't I just don't think he's there.
[33:17] So play him where he gets time and space.
[33:19] I, I think you're, you're right. You're right on Sid.
[33:21] So Art is 20 now, if I'm not mistaken, I believe he turned 20
[33:25] this calendar year. It is, it is possible that he
[33:30] could grow some still. He could still grow another inch
[33:33] or so, whatever. But I think ultimately your
[33:35] point is the right one, which is I think height wise, this is his
[33:38] size. Can he get physically stronger?
[33:41] I think yes, he can certainly get physically strong.
[33:42] He's only 20, right? So we can he can develop there.
[33:46] I'm with you. This is a critical season and
[33:48] not because I want to see the finished products.
[33:51] We're far away from that, but I think Javiolano's going to give
[33:54] him the opportunity, as I said earlier, to sink or swim.
[33:58] Here's the opportunity I'm going to give you with them.
[34:01] You better take them by the you know what's and grow them.
[34:04] That doesn't mean you're going to play perfect.
[34:05] You're going to make mistakes. That's fine.
[34:07] But you better take advantage of this opportunity because Sid, if
[34:10] through the Club World Cup and let's say the first half of the
[34:15] season before the January transfer window, if whatever
[34:19] metrics and check marks that Jabi and his staff have designed
[34:23] an outline for him are not checked.
[34:26] To your point, that option of being on the cell table or loan
[34:29] table or whatever is going to be there because we have to have
[34:34] players who are going to help us achieve our ultimate goals,
[34:36] which at this club, everyone else is always win the Champions
[34:39] League, right? Like right.
[34:41] And if you can't do that, we can't have you here taking up
[34:44] space, not doing that thing. Again, I want to be clear, I'm
[34:47] not saying he has to be the finished product version of what
[34:49] that's going to be, but you have to be making steps in the right
[34:52] direction. Yes, developments, not linear.
[34:54] So we'll have weeks where he's looking really good and weeks
[34:56] where it might go down a little bit.
[34:57] That's to be expected. And I'm sure smarter job is a
[35:00] super brilliant football mind. He knows that.
[35:02] But if we have poor play all around every time, that's not
[35:07] going to be good for him going forward.
[35:09] Yeah, I'm very curious to see if he ends up, how necessary he is
[35:12] when like, you know, he could be something where Zabi really uses
[35:15] him in a bench role, like chasing a game.
[35:17] We need a guy who comes and starts dictating possession.
[35:20] Eco's been used in that role before.
[35:21] Moderate has been used. Cruz like the last couple years
[35:24] when we rotate them, maybe some games we don't want them to
[35:26] start. I think that's, I think the
[35:28] promise with Alonzo is that like it's unlikely he doesn't develop
[35:31] at all and it's very unlikely that he gets not utilized.
[35:34] If he doesn't, that would be concerning.
[35:36] But I think the amount of athletes we have, I think there
[35:39] are going to be minutes for him where if you're in possession
[35:41] setup is good, you he should be a clear plus.
[35:43] Where he not doesn't become A plus is if you're unable to set
[35:46] up a positive out of possession game with him on the field.
[35:49] And in general, like even when we were worried like not the
[35:53] best coached, bringing like playmakers off the bench still
[35:55] work against these tiny teams that just can't defend us, they
[35:57] can't get the ball off us. Like there's a very low bar of
[36:01] possession in possession coaching that suddenly amplifies
[36:04] his abilities, and I'm confident we get there.
[36:06] Without question, and he has such he's such a creative player
[36:09] and he's got such vision that that left foot is I love it.
[36:13] Like it's like right and look, and we've seen I want to be also
[36:15] clear, like we've seen him play elite football at the at the at
[36:20] the club level, at the national team level, right, like in so he
[36:24] can do it. It is there.
[36:26] And so the question is, and I think you're right, there's no
[36:28] world under Javi Lonzo. He doesn't get better.
[36:31] The question is, is that what does that look like, right.
[36:34] And to your point out of possession, does he hurt us or
[36:38] is it so structured where he doesn't and we're fine, right?
[36:41] I think that's the big key. And what he again, I don't know
[36:44] what he's going to develop into. I don't know if he's ever, you
[36:47] know, and also De Gala, I don't know.
[36:50] I don't know if that's the thing, but I think he will be a
[36:54] useful player on the job and the question is how useful, and only
[36:57] time and opportunity will tell us that.
[37:02] Where do we go here? Bellingham, the big one.
[37:07] Bellingham the the. I think for him, I've always had
[37:10] the conviction. Too athletic and like, too
[37:13] effective in your goal to play deep.
[37:14] Camo Vingo is like creative, I think.
[37:16] Oh yeah, that's another area. I think you can make Camo
[37:18] Vingo's final third decisions a little better, yes.
[37:20] You'd. I don't lean towards trying to
[37:22] suddenly make his first and second phase decisions better.
[37:24] That's something you do when you're old and you lose your
[37:25] athleticism, man. Like he's too young to do all
[37:27] that crap right now. Like you're not.
[37:29] You can preserve his athleticism in a higher role.
[37:31] I think that's what I want. And so as we talked about
[37:33] defensively, we want him playing a little higher up, maybe
[37:35] helping him. Boppy, don't let Mbapi and Vinny
[37:38] be the ones who decide how to invest together.
[37:40] Even with a good coach, you want someone like Jude kind of
[37:42] barking at Mbapi, like right next to him.
[37:45] And then you get Jude up there and I think in possession as
[37:49] well. I I he's just so dangerous
[37:51] higher up. Like if he's if he's up there,
[37:53] you have to be afraid of the run behind you, but he can also get
[37:57] the ball defeat. Talking about tall dribblers.
[37:59] He's ridiculous back goal and like the way he can wiggle out
[38:02] of a press. I think use that, but don't
[38:04] overuse it. Like you don't want him
[38:06] constantly stitching play together, but you want him
[38:08] drawing double S all the time in the half space.
[38:10] You want him crashing the box. You want him to have the freedom
[38:13] to play a little wide and dribble because he can be a
[38:16] pseudo winger in transition. I want all that from him, but I
[38:20] want it to be in a system where like he's not the only box
[38:24] crasher that has to run up every time.
[38:26] Like little less all action like actually like let him play like
[38:30] we did last year. Let him play ahead of the ball
[38:32] like Cruise or these playmakers take care of it.
[38:34] He needs to be the like tip of the dagger for me.
[38:37] He he's too like and that's a compliment because when you're
[38:40] that good a problem solver, we want you closer to Cole.
[38:42] You're a good a problem solver for us to waste your time trying
[38:45] to create a little more space and also being the kind of
[38:48] problem solver that opens space for others with your passing and
[38:50] timing is not something like he has it, but to the extent of a
[38:54] moderate, he doesn't need to have it.
[38:55] He's too good at too many aspects of the game.
[38:57] Why are you going to go develop that in him when you can just
[38:59] play in your goal? And so I'm very clear in what I
[39:02] want from Jude in that regard. I'm with you there.
[39:04] Is he our only player, Sid? You think that can receive the
[39:08] ball at his feet back to goal from a physical standpoint?
[39:13] I think Vinicius can as well. Like might have messed up at
[39:17] points this year. This year was a whole weird
[39:19] thing, but like Vinicius has never been bad at that for me.
[39:23] So I think Vinicius does that really well.
[39:26] I think Rodrigo was decent. Obviously not like the best at
[39:28] spinning him and moving after that, but like sort of actually
[39:30] keeping it. I thought he was awesome, but
[39:32] yeah, I would say Jude. Yeah, physical freak.
[39:36] I think it was worth pointing out that it has been decided by
[39:38] the club that he will in fact get shoulder shoulder surgery
[39:41] whenever the Club World Cup World Cup ends for Real Madrid.
[39:44] So let's assume we get to the final, right?
[39:47] So that's mid-july. 12 weeks is looking like the timeline.
[39:50] So you're looking at mid-october for him to return.
[39:53] Said You brought up the interesting point on our last
[39:54] podcast that Jude's so smart. You're not worried about him
[39:58] missing all that time training with with the club because he'll
[40:02] be around and Jabu's message will be get very clear through
[40:04] to him on what he wants him to do.
[40:06] I am with you in that I want him up out ahead of the ball, up in
[40:09] that attacking third of the field.
[40:11] I think we're obviously, I think you know.
[40:15] His finishing was probably a little bit off this year, but I
[40:17] feel like it was off because of all the work he had to do
[40:20] leading up to that, right? And just exhausted like all the
[40:22] deep line play work you had to do trying to link up between the
[40:26] the back and getting the ball advanced forward into the
[40:28] attacking thirds. I think that was a large reason
[40:30] why he's his attacking wasn't wasn't his finishing wasn't as
[40:34] strong. I think the shoulder surgery
[40:37] also will help now that nagging pain will be gone and he can
[40:40] also move freely. Like guys, I mean, you know how
[40:42] bodies work, like it's very hard to run and move effectively when
[40:46] you have issues going on above the waist, right?
[40:48] That's just cause your body has to move and sync.
[40:50] And when you have this huge big strapping brace over it, like
[40:54] you're just not able to move and turn the way you want.
[40:56] And so he's super technical, tall dribbler.
[41:01] Again, he can hold people off because he's he's a strong dude
[41:04] and he's only 2122 is getting can get stronger.
[41:09] I love him up there. I think he can be creative in
[41:11] terms of that, those little touches just getting freeing up
[41:15] Mbappe and Vinicius, right, getting in behind the defense
[41:17] for easy finishes. So his assist and goal total I
[41:20] think and greatly approved. Like it's not going to be
[41:23] scoring 20 La Liga goals. It might be OK, 12 La Liga
[41:26] goals, but like 1518 assists just from being where he is at
[41:31] that at that point of the pitch. And I liked your point about
[41:33] still give him, allow him the freedom because when we're on
[41:36] transition or whatever, he can be a winger, right?
[41:38] He can get out and run. He's got blazing speed.
[41:41] I think to your point, let's preserve that athleticism,
[41:43] right? Don't have him like Carlo did.
[41:45] You got to drop and do that. We got Fede, we got Kemah Vinga
[41:48] back there. We got Arter in front of them
[41:49] and chew many. Let those guys create or never
[41:52] mind Trent and Dean, right? Like let those guys progress and
[41:56] create forward and let Jude to your point, to your verbiage, be
[41:59] the tip of the spear. And I think there's a
[42:01] possibility to go a little position less is probably where
[42:03] Alonzo will go. Like, that's why you have guys.
[42:05] Maybe. I think if we hadn't dropped
[42:07] deeper, I want to see real interchanging.
[42:09] It was a lot of like improvisation, like dropping
[42:11] deep. Let's make something happen,
[42:12] guys. Like that's like, let's go,
[42:15] let's go, Carlo. Like, clap it on the sidelines.
[42:17] Let's do it, boys. But it wasn't like it wasn't
[42:20] real. I think in a system he becomes
[42:22] way more effective and even if he drops, maybe he doesn't feel
[42:25] like like I'm like I want to shoot myself when I'm watching
[42:28] it like the season where he has to drop.
[42:31] And also just interesting. I didn't realize how much his
[42:34] finishing dropped off for what it's worth.
[42:35] So his career point like he .25 non penalty expected goals per
[42:39] 90 so goal every four-game worth the chances he gets on the end
[42:42] of and he scores .26. So just about, but I think
[42:47] initially when you said that Gerard, I was going to be like,
[42:49] no, he just finished like a God last year.
[42:50] So you'd think that's normal. It's not.
[42:52] But actually did under performance a little this year.
[42:54] So last year he was at .37 non penalty expected goals per year
[42:57] high per 90. He was at .55 goals per and
[43:02] minus. So that was just like, you know,
[43:04] for I might score two goals every five games.
[43:08] I'm scoring 1/3 just out of nowhere with some howler or
[43:10] something like something bounces off someone gets to me at a rate
[43:13] nobody else does. Again, that broke the database.
[43:15] So this year .34 non penalty expected goals dropped down to
[43:20] .28 goals without penalties for 90.
[43:24] So he's underperforming by point O 6 for the first time I think
[43:27] in his career. And looking at his progressive
[43:30] carries went down, which I think is OK.
[43:33] He doesn't always need to dribble, but it's also telling.
[43:35] It's also telling, just like the rest of the team.
[43:39] Yeah, it it was interesting because I just wanted to mention
[43:42] the stats and I was like, yeah, because for me, and this is part
[43:44] of the why we shouldn't I want to do it this way.
[43:47] I was going to start to talk about what my eyes saw and which
[43:50] Sid was able if the numbers backed it up.
[43:51] And I thought, yeah, the finishing was poor and it it
[43:53] bore out, right. Like I think it's because of the
[43:57] constant shuttling in a dude dropping deep coming up.
[43:59] I think he was just exhausted because that piece of finishing
[44:02] and being clinical, right, That's just about mind, body,
[44:07] physicality, just being like rehearsed and perfect in fluid
[44:10] motion, right, That you do a million times a day on the on
[44:12] the practice pitch. But when you're tired, you're
[44:15] not, you're not square to the ball, you're not all and again,
[44:18] it's little things. He's turned a little bit half
[44:20] step the wrong way. Like that's why they're off
[44:23] right. And I'm like, these margins are
[44:25] thin when you're talking about finishing and doing this kind of
[44:27] thing, right. So God tear or expected a year
[44:29] ago, right when he was fresh, not so much now.
[44:32] And to be fair, we kind of saw it towards the end of last
[44:35] season, right when he was exhausted, right?
[44:38] This season he just came in straight up exhausted because he
[44:40] played EUR. And so I think in many ways,
[44:42] while I don't love him missing all the time, this 12 week break
[44:46] will be huge just in terms of all right, man, just going to
[44:49] get a chance to actually recover and recuperate, which I think
[44:51] will be good for him. A. 100% and sorry my little mic
[44:54] thing fell off. Thanks for taking over there.
[44:55] I had to plug it back in. I'm just going to hold it now.
[44:57] Sound good? Everything sounds good.
[44:59] Yep. Cool because I'm holding it in
[45:01] my hand now, but if we get words, if we get also everyone,
[45:04] we upgraded the audio. Thank Gerard for that.
[45:05] He's been inviting us on how to do it.
[45:07] So if you like it, let us know. Still working on things, but
[45:09] this is the first I've got a fresh system here.
[45:12] Works if he joins. Part of the reason I feel like
[45:15] it's something we might entertain is because 1.
[45:17] Byron City out of the way, we just have to outfit Liverpool.
[45:19] It's we love doing that. Sid love sticking it.
[45:24] So like, let's just stick it to Liverpool.
[45:27] Well, I like, I actually like The funny thing is Liverpool are
[45:30] honestly like in terms of per dollar spend and how they're
[45:32] going to spend their money with Michael Edwards there.
[45:34] They are probably our biggest rival now, like in terms of
[45:37] because we're there's a reason we're always going after the
[45:39] same players. They know what they're doing.
[45:41] They really know who's good. They know what's up out there.
[45:43] Edwards is like the biggest rival you could argue to like
[45:45] Jose Angel, Sanchez and Perez in terms of like Caliphate in terms
[45:49] of what they know. Also breaking Alonzo in the
[45:51] chat. They're saying we'll be
[45:52] presented as new biometric coach on Monday.
[45:54] I'm so excited. Can't wait.
[45:56] I've been waiting for it since I was a kid.
[45:58] It's like Zidane comes in, criticizes.
[45:59] It's like, hey, Zidane was played here.
[46:01] He figured it out. Imagine the next guy who kind of
[46:03] realizes it's like Alonso 10 years later and he's here.
[46:06] I love it. No, it's going to be exciting
[46:08] era. I I think look, I I you should
[46:10] know Sid. You know me well enough by now,
[46:12] listeners, you know me well enough by now.
[46:14] I don't I'm not a hyperbole guy. I'm not a aura and like
[46:18] mystique. I don't none of that stuff.
[46:20] I want data and facts and that's what I to judge on what I think
[46:24] can happen given all of that and what I project based on what
[46:28] we've seen from Javi Alonzo as a player and a coach and what this
[46:31] squad has talent wise, this should be the start of the next
[46:37] dominant era of Real Madrid. Now a lot of factors have to
[46:41] work out for it to happen. Hell, all the things right.
[46:45] But we are setting up for what should be that.
[46:48] And, and I'm looking forward to to potentially seeing that.
[46:52] You know, I, I, I think again, just to to sort of wrap up on,
[46:56] on Jude. Yeah.
[46:58] Just want to yeah, just want to take his progressive a few stats
[47:02] if you want to add them to your context at the wrap up.
[47:04] Dropped his progressive receptions by two this year.
[47:06] That is the big one because like progressive passing and carrying
[47:09] fine. Like we don't want to over tax
[47:10] him as an on ball creator or even as a dribbler, but
[47:14] progressive receptions that needs to be high.
[47:15] He needs to be receiving holding up like a he's a way better Kai
[47:19] Havarts. Like, you know, he's like, he's
[47:21] like he's a half target man, half midfielder, half like with
[47:25] the with the some of the qualities of a winger, use him
[47:28] as this guy who is always able to hold on to the ball against
[47:31] mismatches. Oh, so I want to see him
[47:33] something that some coaches do. I would love to see is have him
[47:36] hold it up against mismatches more like especially like weak
[47:40] fullbacks in the air. Just send Jude to pin them.
[47:42] Like get Vinnie and Bobby out of there.
[47:44] Have Jude. Go along to them.
[47:45] And I think that's the sort of innovation I want to see, like
[47:48] really creative circuits that use Jude's unique abilities and
[47:51] circuits planned because his decision making in those
[47:54] circuits is going to be so rapid.
[47:55] He doesn't have to think because he can just we've seen it in a
[47:58] transition. He just knows, like some of the
[48:00] transition decisions he makes the Pazza are off the charts.
[48:02] Like I post a video on the real deal account the other day.
[48:04] I'm like dude what? How did he know that?
[48:06] Like it would get to a goal? Like he just slowed down and he
[48:08] knew it would work. He's, he's a brilliant
[48:11] footballer, has a really great, my high football IQ for, for
[48:14] such a young player. You know, you mentioned words.
[48:17] So if the words thing is real, I assume then we're not also going
[48:22] to bring back Nico Paz, right? Then we have too many people
[48:24] that play simply the same role, three players that need minutes.
[48:27] We might loan him, we might keep him a coma one more year.
[48:29] That's a possibility. So we'll, we'll leave Nico out
[48:31] for sure. OK, so but if we don't get
[48:33] words, we'll probably bring Nico, right?
[48:35] It's or do you think we're going to sign some other midfielder?
[48:38] I don't know, it feels like the summer of Wheeling and dealing.
[48:40] That's why I would I I'm just like everyone's asking, Hey,
[48:43] what about Angela Stiller? How about Florian words?
[48:45] Or how about like this prospect? And every time I'm just
[48:48] thinking, hey, like, I think there's so many ambitions.
[48:52] I want to just see it happen. I just like it's a lot of energy
[48:55] to just go entertain these things sometimes And like, you
[48:57] know, maybe they're like, hey, we got to deal with Arsenal for
[48:59] Nico pass for 40 million. You never know this the way the
[49:02] team moves is sometimes really random.
[49:05] I would love to see pass here. I also need to watch him more.
[49:07] So I don't want to talk too much about this, but also just Jude,
[49:10] one last thing. He his short passes dropped by 7
[49:14] actually from 32 to 25 completions that like his total
[49:17] passes dropped by four and seven of those were short passes and
[49:20] he tried compensating with longer passes.
[49:22] That's also an example of what we need to see change, like
[49:24] trust the short pass, trust the circuits.
[49:26] We don't want you to see you play hero ball because you don't
[49:28] have a choice. And again, he won't.
[49:30] That was on Carlo this year. And so now I guess like a more
[49:34] fringe player, not Nico Paz, but like kind of the guy in the Nico
[49:38] pass plot for our team, Brahim Diaz, whatever you want from
[49:42] him. I think honestly like this last,
[49:44] I think he's better the more controllers you have when
[49:46] there's a platform where he's willing to take risks and take
[49:49] and he can take them and you have other attackers who can
[49:52] also do that, he's so good. But when when like the team
[49:56] lacks structure like he also kind of like Jude and Fede
[49:59] really got hurt by that in possession where all the
[50:02] dribbling, if any risks are amplified, they suddenly don't
[50:05] feel like they're worth it. Yep, I agree 100%.
[50:08] I thought not having Cruz affected Brahim a lot, right?
[50:11] Like again, it affected the whole team.
[50:13] But that point you make about having that lack of control.
[50:16] So now Brahim's got to do a little bit too much, right?
[50:19] I want him to go back to being that super sub.
[50:21] He was off the off the bench for us, not this past this season.
[50:26] That's going to end the season before, right?
[50:27] We want he was awesome, right like the dribbling, the IT it
[50:32] was just the finishing like I wonder.
[50:35] My guess is all his numbers are down the finishing.
[50:37] Oh, I just looked. It's kind of scary, but like,
[50:39] well, forget finishing and nonfundancy XG .34.
[50:43] Yeah, no, he did. He finished worse, like .26
[50:46] goals minus penalty kicks for 90.
[50:48] But point 3-4 in the XG column and then progressive carries
[50:51] dropped by 1 1/2. That's a concern. 2.93 from
[50:54] 4.56. We want him carrying the ball.
[50:57] Progressive passes went up slightly.
[50:59] Progressive receptions went down by three.
[51:00] He was at a whopping 9.56 for 90.
[51:03] He gets on the field. We're finding him.
[51:04] Behind that's what we and that's what we want.
[51:06] We want that number to keep high and that fact that it dropped so
[51:09] low, not good. And I think Brahim and Jude, we
[51:12] want the same thing from them, get them back closer to goal,
[51:14] playing together, combining the half spaces that Brahim, Jude
[51:17] dance after Cruz got the ball up, won the titles last, Yeah.
[51:21] They they have a nice synergy. Yeah, they have a lovely
[51:24] synergy. We got to get that back
[51:25] together. I'm with you.
[51:27] That's what won us the league at least.
[51:28] You find the big games, Vinnie shows up but like in the league
[51:31] how many games where we were trailing?
[51:32] Brahim comes and it's over like and he was the highest goal
[51:35] difference for 90, so definitely want that from him.
[51:39] Where do we want to go from here?
[51:41] I don't know if he's staying. Yeah, I was going to say, is
[51:43] Rodrigo staying? Oh, well, it's funny.
[51:45] So reports came out that Arsenal's interested in in in
[51:48] getting him, but then another report said that Rodrigo's going
[51:52] nowhere. I think ultimately this comes
[51:54] down to his conversation and his team's conversation with Jabi
[51:57] Alonso and what the what Jabi's role is for him.
[52:00] And I know Le Conte had brought this out.
[52:02] He said this in our Real Deal group that the more and more he
[52:06] watches Bilever Cuisine and how Javi Alonso likes to coach
[52:09] A-Team, the less he sees where does Rodrigo fit with what Javi
[52:13] Alonso wants on this team? But since he's still here, for
[52:17] now, let's assume that he's going to be here.
[52:20] We know he's playing in the position he doesn't want to
[52:22] play. Well my friend, you're not going
[52:24] to start on the position you want to start.
[52:25] So to me Sid, his best role is going to be as an off the bench
[52:31] player if he's going to stay here.
[52:32] And I don't know that you can convince someone it's already
[52:34] won 2 Champions Leagues. You what?
[52:38] That she's going to be a bench player like and who's and who
[52:40] scored decisive goals, by the way?
[52:42] I don't know if you're going to convince him that he's going to
[52:43] be a bench player. I don't know.
[52:45] I don't think so either and I mean I'll pull up his stats, but
[52:49] it's a sad case and I think he is A10.
[52:51] If I had to go, whether he goes here or goes to Arsenal, I hope
[52:54] he plays at 10. Arsenal are interesting because
[52:56] I know they're in for Bruno. If they get Bruno and Rodrigo,
[52:58] that would be interesting. The problem is though, like
[53:01] Rodrigo doesn't get on the end of the Bruno chances enough.
[53:04] That's the whole problem with him.
[53:05] He he's not the end point for a playmaker and he's not the
[53:07] starting point for enough dangerous actions.
[53:09] So it's like you need him in A10 role where he gets the ball,
[53:12] like the grievous role. I always point to that at Man
[53:14] City, like a lot of the ball, but it needs to start becoming
[53:17] OK. You can't just beat the
[53:18] defenders. So you need to tease them, tease
[53:20] them with the possibility of them winning it back.
[53:21] Because when you want to beat them, you're not doing it
[53:24] enough. You're you're not fast enough.
[53:25] You're not quicker in thought in in athleticism and let's just
[53:30] look at his stats. But yeah, I mean, if he goes to
[53:32] Arsenal, the regarding the rumors, I guess briefly before
[53:34] we get to the stats, he's just like not he tanked his value.
[53:38] I was just talking to Ali and some other.
[53:41] And yeah, I mean, like, why would an Arsenal fan want to pay
[53:45] more than like 50 million for this guy at this point?
[53:47] Like you're not you might go 20 games with two goals from this
[53:49] guy. Like, OK, you play him at a 10,
[53:52] you get double the output and so maybe you get doubled out, but
[53:55] that's what you're betting on. But now you're betting on
[53:56] something you didn't see at Real Madrid, the better team.
[54:00] And God damn, man, like we that he scored the golden city part
[54:04] of me was just new. I felt it then I'm like, fuck, I
[54:07] like, I wish we could have sold it then.
[54:08] And it just wasn't feasible from a human's perspective, like as a
[54:12] team of a community, as friends. And also he was a good
[54:15] contributor the year before in terms of like like he wasn't as
[54:18] good as Mbappe. We criticized he wasn't he was
[54:20] Jew or Vinny, but he like that he was like he was positioned
[54:24] less in a way that let us beat Man City and buyer.
[54:25] Like he played on the left, he played up front.
[54:27] He he had a connection with Vinny.
[54:29] Credit there, man. No, he, he gets all the credit
[54:31] for that. And look, Rodrigo's in it.
[54:33] You ask all the Jude, Vinny, all those guys who's the most
[54:36] talented player on, on the, on the swat, they'll be like
[54:38] Rodrigo, like he's got a lot of skills with the ball at his
[54:42] feet. So some of the poor output was
[54:45] in coaching. I, I, I believe with Carlo,
[54:48] right? I think Jobby will get more.
[54:50] But to your point, Sid, you're going to play the 10 role for
[54:53] us. No, you're not going to play on
[54:56] the left side. So it's going to have to be the
[54:59] bench thing, right? And again, with a club that
[55:01] you've already established so much with.
[55:03] I don't know that you can convince him to do that.
[55:05] But also Real Madrid is not stupid.
[55:07] They're not going to be like because of that, we're going to
[55:09] let you go for $50 million and like that's peanuts.
[55:13] So but you don't have the other problem of he will be unhappy in
[55:17] a bench role, right. So the club's gonna have some
[55:20] you're gonna have to bite the bullet somewhere where I don't
[55:23] know. And that's gonna gonna have to
[55:25] be Jabi the club all that figuring out Rodrigo and what he
[55:29] his camp. What's gonna work out because
[55:32] you're right we're gonna got 100 million from City at the end of
[55:35] the season. Last season we won the Champions
[55:37] League. Now, if a team pays more than
[55:39] 50, I think we rush him to the airport and take it like,
[55:42] because, I don't know, Arsenal's probably like, why would I pay
[55:45] you more than $50 million for what?
[55:47] Yeah, I mean his he's like at .37 non penalty expected goals
[55:51] plus expected assists. So that's like .4 expected goal
[55:54] contributions per game. That's at .6 last year .7 when
[55:58] he was playing striker instead of Kareem.
[56:00] So you're trying to sell people on that.
[56:02] Again, it's it's easy to sell the underlying numbers when you
[56:05] overlook the goal droughts that happen all the time.
[56:08] That's like beyond XG like that is a serious problem.
[56:10] I think there's some players like I don't know if he still
[56:12] had this issue this year, but Nico Jackson was one these guys
[56:15] who don't finish properly sometimes and and his not XG
[56:19] just divided by two this year. That's just so on like that's
[56:22] just like the worst thing that could happen .2 so goal every
[56:25] five games. I know he was shunted around,
[56:26] but it was disappointing. His progressive receptions went
[56:29] up, so he was used as this like go run up and get the ball.
[56:32] Rodrigo winging and it just didn't work.
[56:35] His progressive passing, that's funny. 4.68 progressive passes,
[56:39] career high. Finally we get someone who
[56:41] actually did more this year in some way.
[56:44] Well, that's so funny to me. Out of nowhere I'm like, oh wow,
[56:47] he had a career. But that plays to your point
[56:49] though, that he should a 10 role, right, because if the
[56:51] progressive right, but I don't that's not a role he can play on
[56:54] this team right, like in the starting 11.
[56:57] Yeah, no, it's just like we haven't seen enough from a
[57:00] playmaker. We've seen a lot.
[57:01] Is that Eastco type 10? And in some ways he's kind of in
[57:04] the Eastco type stagnancy stage of his career.
[57:06] Every young Madrid, like Eastco had good years, maybe not enough
[57:09] to like be a surefire starter under every coach all the time.
[57:11] New coach comes in, it's like, OK, E goes back on the bench or
[57:13] he's a bench player. And it's kind of like that
[57:16] really comes down to I think he adds enough value sometimes as
[57:20] the backup to Vinnie or Mbappe. And so you might consider
[57:23] keeping him. It's just at that money, it's a
[57:25] lot. The other thing is like how much
[57:27] guys get hurt. You know, if we if we're like,
[57:29] OK, at 50 million, we can like we're more likely to have enough
[57:32] minutes to raise this value than having to get rid of them for
[57:35] this price. We might consider that.
[57:37] But yeah, I'm with you on 10. I, I don't know if City would
[57:40] have been the best for him because I think I, I, I don't
[57:42] know, something that just is starting to ZAP the creativity
[57:46] for me in some ways. Like, I'm not sure.
[57:48] I'm not sure if that's what I want for a fun young Brazilian
[57:50] attacker. But Arsenal also do that, don't
[57:55] get me wrong, but I see an upgrade on Odegard in
[57:57] possession. Oh.
[58:00] Yeah, a giant, Yeah, giant upgrade.
[58:02] Odegard, who after Arsenal beat us over 2 legs in the Champions
[58:05] League, was like, yeah, we knew those two forwards up front,
[58:08] they like to go forward, one like to run back.
[58:10] I was like, bro, you let Martin Odegard just burn you.
[58:13] Like you should be so offended by that.
[58:15] Like, I mean, he wasn't lying by the way.
[58:17] Everything he said was factual and true.
[58:19] But the fact that he said it, she should feel some kind of way
[58:22] about that. 100% All right, now we got I think our big 2 here
[58:28] and I guess let's start with Vinicius because we have more
[58:31] data for him and how he's done. I'll let you start while I.
[58:34] Just I mean, I don't even have to look the numbers I know are
[58:38] down all across the board. Certainly he's finishing, right?
[58:40] He just did not finish well. And I'll say it again, the loss
[58:44] of Balindor really, really bothered him and affected him.
[58:50] I, I think it brought him to a low.
[58:52] I don't think that he realized that he could get to in terms of
[58:56] emotionally. I started watching his
[58:58] documentary on, on Netflix like, and you know, me, I'm, I'm big
[59:03] into the human because these are human beings that play this.
[59:06] This is not machines or robots. They're humans.
[59:08] And he's an emotional person, as we know, like, and that's good
[59:14] and bad, right? And it's not just fiery because
[59:18] somebody said something about me or fiery because I proved you
[59:21] wrong that I scored goals. It's also he gets sad and very
[59:25] deeply upset and that brings him to a state of inactivity and
[59:31] just blah, right? And I think losing that
[59:34] Ballandur was such a huge disappointment.
[59:37] And I've said it before, I'll say it again.
[59:38] None of us know what it's like to lose on a professional level
[59:42] at that, at that scale, you're about to be crowned the best in
[59:46] the world. Every footballer dreams of one
[59:49] day holding that. You know, when you know you're
[59:51] good enough like to hold that trophy like Lili Min Yamal's
[59:54] already dreaming about it right now.
[59:55] The million times is going to hold it.
[59:57] And the fact that you were this close and you didn't, he just,
[1:00:01] it just gutted him, man. And you saw it like he just was
[1:00:04] just not himself the rest of the season.
[1:00:06] Because I thought early on, Sid. He did a really good job of
[1:00:09] trying to integrate and bop into things passing to him when he
[1:00:13] would normally just go, I'm going to take this myself.
[1:00:14] So, so Benny's not selfish. Like he was like, let me let me
[1:00:17] get Killian going like he. And then once that once the loss
[1:00:21] happened, it was just he was just shell shocked, man.
[1:00:23] And it's unfortunate because when this guy's at his best, as
[1:00:28] we saw this is he's the best player in the world.
[1:00:30] Like he's fucking awesome. You got to put two dudes or
[1:00:33] three on him because he's going to get by you.
[1:00:36] And so for going for what I want, I want Jabi to find to get
[1:00:40] that joy back in for him. And I think he will be in like,
[1:00:43] no, no, you're our left guy. Killing is not going out there.
[1:00:45] It's you. We're going to spam you on the
[1:00:46] left like and give you opportunities to cook dudes
[1:00:49] one-on-one like you like to do. I that that that's what I want
[1:00:52] from me. I was watching the goal he
[1:00:55] scored in the Champions League final because I was in Mumbai.
[1:00:57] I think I've told you guys are people before.
[1:00:59] Like completely jet lag. Just got the other day before.
[1:01:01] It's like midnight. I don't know what's happening,
[1:01:02] but I just pull up like the second day, like honestly barely
[1:01:05] got there in time. It was scared the WhatsApp
[1:01:07] wouldn't get through. They wouldn't know who I am and
[1:01:10] so sorry, just plugging this in. Basically what happened was that
[1:01:15] moment I remember was one of the heights as a rounder fan, like
[1:01:18] he scored the dance he did the way the the room felt.
[1:01:21] I'm just like, Oh my God, we have reached Nirvana like
[1:01:23] nobody. What is this feeling like when
[1:01:25] you win as a in a transition here?
[1:01:27] They're not supposed to be here. You whooped everyone.
[1:01:29] You're here and and it's just very rare that a player can lead
[1:01:34] the team that far and then has to accommodate someone.
[1:01:36] So I want to first say Vinnie had a bad year, but a weird
[1:01:39] year. And I think I don't think we'll
[1:01:41] see a year like this for a long time ever.
[1:01:44] I think things will get better. So but like firstly, like you
[1:01:47] said, having to incorporate Mbappe, I want to get there
[1:01:49] first because this is where like this happened before the
[1:01:52] Balandor during and frankly, his form didn't drop off till
[1:01:55] January. Like Atlanta.
[1:01:56] He got hurt, came back. The Balandor thing was still
[1:01:59] fresh on his mind. He cooked Atlanta who were
[1:02:01] really good at that point. And that's the moment I'm like,
[1:02:04] damn, you just come off every time you come off injury.
[1:02:06] How are you this good? This even like a great player,
[1:02:08] like a Messi, Ronaldo doesn't always do it.
[1:02:10] Like you're you're getting hurt a lot and you're turning it on
[1:02:13] every time you're back. And then January everything just
[1:02:16] kind of started falling apart. Now the big mistake I thought
[1:02:19] from Alonzo was like not realizing Mbappe is the off ball
[1:02:22] guy. Then he's the on ball guy I
[1:02:24] think. Carlo.
[1:02:24] Carlo you mean? Yeah, Carlo, Carlo, just dude,
[1:02:28] that was so obvious going into the year for me.
[1:02:29] And my big disappointment was seeing him experiment and not
[1:02:33] realize all those things, like not realize that the and Mbapi
[1:02:40] on the left wing and Venice's striker thing is a very weird
[1:02:43] thing. I know.
[1:02:44] Maybe it was a weird way to get his confidence back.
[1:02:45] To me, it came across as like, hey, maybe Mbapi's a left winger
[1:02:48] and Venice is a striker. Like you genuinely thought that.
[1:02:50] You genuinely thought like let's make Mbapi a primary creator and
[1:02:52] force feed him and like. Mbapi's not a is not a as good a
[1:02:56] dribbler as Venny. He's just not like it.
[1:02:58] Vinny's just better at that. Like he just is like Mbapi's an
[1:03:01] incredible off ball movement finisher, like maybe the best
[1:03:05] ever, right? Like he's so good at that but
[1:03:08] can we get more of let Benny be the creator on that left wing
[1:03:11] not in Bop and Bop is going to move that.
[1:03:13] The striker rolls him. That's where off ball runs.
[1:03:15] That's his role, not spamming on the left.
[1:03:19] Yeah. And also on that note, what's it
[1:03:22] called the the whole thing where sorry, I'm just totally blank
[1:03:26] had something really. Cool to say it's going to and
[1:03:28] I'll I'll to your point about the Ballindor thing, yes, he did
[1:03:31] say right after he lost it, I'm going to come back stronger,
[1:03:33] which he did. But that you're for that like
[1:03:38] vindictive is the wrong word. But that like me against the
[1:03:40] world thing only lasts for so long.
[1:03:43] Right before all your energy, like the the downs coming right.
[1:03:47] And then I think he'd gotten he'd gotten injured or something
[1:03:49] again in early and it was like, OK, then it was like, now, now
[1:03:52] comes the other the other side of this right?
[1:03:53] Like so yeah, he's fine. Again, bad season, but in the
[1:03:58] beginning like he was fine. Like and then I think it all
[1:04:01] just started to nose dive as you mentioned January.
[1:04:04] Yeah, and on that note, I remember now.
[1:04:06] So it was he started the season in the Lamine style role where
[1:04:09] very little shooting or high, like not some great goal scorer,
[1:04:13] but he started getting his passes through the roof and he
[1:04:16] was really playing like I say Lamine in the sense that like
[1:04:18] Lamine is a very creation oriented winger that we don't
[1:04:20] normally see. Like now he's starting to score,
[1:04:22] but let's see him do it for a while.
[1:04:24] Like people need to realize they're.
[1:04:26] I love it. Let me tell you guys a little
[1:04:28] behind the scenes. The reason why I said saying it
[1:04:29] is because I'm like Sid, I think Lamine's going to win the ball
[1:04:32] and he's like, no, they're not giving it to a 17 year old.
[1:04:34] This is the year they're going to say no.
[1:04:35] And I'm like, I don't know, Said the PR is too good.
[1:04:39] I'm just rooting for Usman, but my point?
[1:04:41] Is I am I am not let me be very clear, I am not rooting really
[1:04:46] means mountain when I do. He plays for Barcelona.
[1:04:47] So of course I don't like him right.
[1:04:49] I'm rooting for Dembele as well, but I just feel like that
[1:04:51] fucking Barcelona PR man. It's I mean, who else you look
[1:04:55] on social media? Who else has the Bollandor
[1:04:58] official account putting out tweets?
[1:05:01] Oh, I mean Jamal, could this be the youngest?
[1:05:04] Like what is it for anybody else in the future?
[1:05:06] I'm just saying. I'm just saying.
[1:05:08] No, for sure. And we'll have to do a whole
[1:05:10] other episode about Barcelona public relations and how they're
[1:05:13] so good at it. Or, and I don't know what the
[1:05:15] just they have an occupy weird place in this cultural zeitgeist
[1:05:18] that we have. Weird, Sid.
[1:05:19] Very weird. It's like neutrals in this
[1:05:23] rivalry between us and them. A neutral is 100% on Barcelona's
[1:05:28] side, and I don't understand why.
[1:05:29] I'm just like, yeah, I just don't get it.
[1:05:32] Yeah, I mean, you saw even Cassias came out the other he's
[1:05:34] like some weird things in the 2000s.
[1:05:35] Now I look back like the way the referees were like, damn.
[1:05:38] Like it's just funny how I, I don't know, conversations are
[1:05:41] biased and I know we don't do ourselves favours.
[1:05:42] We talked about with the way you gaslight referees, that's not
[1:05:44] something you want to do through official channels ever.
[1:05:47] Never. It doesn't help, doesn't.
[1:05:49] Help. Oh, it's dumb, but yeah.
[1:05:50] And on that note, Vinny started the year.
[1:05:52] So in the Yamal role, like in a Yamal creator role, he started
[1:05:56] making these crazy bendy crosses, all the grasses.
[1:05:59] Yup. And at the end of the year he's
[1:06:02] still finished with .36 non penalty expected goals, which is
[1:06:05] actually the lowest since his breakout fine lower than 2122
[1:06:08] which was .38 point 4 the year after .52 career high last year
[1:06:12] where he became a better goal score, expected assisted goals
[1:06:15] went up to .32 career high .29. The thing is he was at .4 + .292
[1:06:21] years ago. This year he was at .36.
[1:06:22] Lost little expected goals, but the expected assists bumped up.
[1:06:26] So his overall production is .67.
[1:06:29] Non penalty expected goals plus this similar to two years ago.
[1:06:33] I think that's solid. Last year he was at .77 and 2122
[1:06:36] he was at .65. So he didn't really like
[1:06:39] mathematically regress too bad in that sense.
[1:06:41] And you could argue like some of the early season was like a
[1:06:43] little luck, like everything was going in sometimes with his
[1:06:45] passes. Progressive carries somewhat
[1:06:49] similar. Progressive passing went up a
[1:06:52] little and progressive receptions have gone down each
[1:06:56] of like they were 14.8 his breakout year and the 2223 last
[1:07:00] year 12.6 this year 10.1. So not finding him high and wide
[1:07:05] as much, maybe maybe a little more ball defeat a little too
[1:07:08] much. Like let me try and beat my man.
[1:07:10] And like this is never the most efficient way to play football.
[1:07:13] You can do it sometimes, right, And he he clearly can't because
[1:07:16] he's that elite. But yes, to your point, you want
[1:07:18] more giving him ball defeat right in those out wide areas.
[1:07:21] So it's really just like, yeah, it's it's space and it's one V1,
[1:07:25] but it's not really a duel because he's just gonna he just
[1:07:28] blaze right by him, right? As opposed to let me drop my
[1:07:31] shoulder, duck and do all the stuff over it.
[1:07:33] Like, you know, like that. You're wasting a lot of energy
[1:07:36] on that. You can do it and we've seen him
[1:07:37] do it and you can 100. But like you, you, you want
[1:07:39] more, you want him to have for sure receive more, more balls in
[1:07:43] the final third in his feet. Absolutely 100% want to get that
[1:07:46] number back up. Touches went down a little, but
[1:07:49] because not so much that you wonder like it was similar to
[1:07:52] last year and then his attack take ONS actually so are
[1:07:55] interesting 6.5 the year 2122, the breakout year and then the
[1:08:00] year after when we started dribbling a lot 9.8 So he's
[1:08:03] really trying to just beat people at that point and then
[1:08:06] attempted. These are just attempted and his
[1:08:10] last year 8.27 this year drops to 7.4.
[1:08:12] So it's like 6.5 boobs up and then starting to get back down.
[1:08:16] Success rate is pretty stable. He's at around 40%, so it's not
[1:08:21] that that's pretty promising. I think ultimately it's the
[1:08:24] role, as we talked about, get him the role, get guys moving
[1:08:26] off the ball and that kind of tucks us into our last player
[1:08:31] here. And like how he and Vinnie need
[1:08:33] to fit together in this team concept.
[1:08:34] It's really the thing they both need to do, and that's why the
[1:08:37] thumbnail is just such a funny thing, like they need to fit in
[1:08:40] a team concept together. And I think that means Vinnie
[1:08:43] accepts he's on the ball, but that means there are certain
[1:08:45] cues that trigger him to release it, and Boppy accepts he's off
[1:08:48] the ball. There's certain cues that see
[1:08:49] him take on the secondary on ball creation duty in the chain
[1:08:54] of passing. Correct.
[1:08:55] I think you could not have said it better.
[1:08:57] And also from a a number standpoint, Vinicius,
[1:09:03] understanding that my goal total is likely not going to be the
[1:09:07] highest on this team, just straight goals, right?
[1:09:10] It's probably going to be in Boppe likely will be, but that's
[1:09:12] OK because my goal contribution numbers will probably be the
[1:09:16] highest on this team, right? Like that, That's the thing,
[1:09:19] right. So if Boppe may score 40, I'm
[1:09:22] only only scored 25, but I'm going to have another however
[1:09:25] many assists, right, because of the off ball movement by Mboppe
[1:09:28] and our our understanding of our symbiotic relationship.
[1:09:31] And in transition Sid, there should be no scarier sight then
[1:09:36] Vinicius and Zimbabwe bearing down on you and and and you're a
[1:09:40] goalie and A and a defender. 22V1 As I've said, a million, as
[1:09:44] we've said on this show, how many times this season did the
[1:09:46] two of them not even get a shot off?
[1:09:48] Forget about scoring. They didn't even get a shot.
[1:09:50] And I don't mean shot on goal. I mean actually strike the ball
[1:09:54] to shoot. They didn't even do that.
[1:09:56] So that's got to get better for sure.
[1:09:59] It was so bad. It was the worst we've ever
[1:10:00] seen. Some of the most like hero ball.
[1:10:03] It wasn't. And the worst part, it wasn't
[1:10:05] always hero ball. It was like frustration ball
[1:10:06] too. Like, OK, like last time I gave
[1:10:08] it up. You didn't do anything with it.
[1:10:09] I'm taking it this time, man. It wasn't like I don't want to
[1:10:11] give it to you. I don't respect you.
[1:10:12] It's like I'm fucking sick of this.
[1:10:13] I'm sick of this shit. I'm and I just felt it all over
[1:10:17] them. And I think the comp is also in
[1:10:21] a sense like Barcelona. Like look at how Yamal and
[1:10:23] Lewandowski have a separation of responsibilities or Rafinia.
[1:10:26] This is just Rafinia. It's.
[1:10:27] Rafinia. It's Rafinia.
[1:10:29] And Bape needs to be more Rafinia, Vinnie needs to be more
[1:10:31] Yamal. And that's like it's not even,
[1:10:34] it's just comps guys. We're not saying they need to
[1:10:35] play like that. We're not trying to be like
[1:10:36] Barcelona. We're just saying on and off
[1:10:38] ball profile have clear hierarchy.
[1:10:40] It's Vinnie one on the ball. Jude and Mbappe are like playing
[1:10:43] for him, through him, around him, and I just need to go back
[1:10:46] through the tape. But the messy Neymar Suarez date
[1:10:48] is the way they played. Just go watch that tape, dude.
[1:10:50] They they didn't care about who got to do it.
[1:10:53] They just were like as soon as they saw the other person
[1:10:55] generate a micro advantage, they seized it and they just had fun
[1:10:58] ripping you apart together. I want to see them have fun RIP
[1:11:01] teams apart together. And I think early on, that's
[1:11:03] going to be a lot of Alonzo going to them and saying, hey,
[1:11:06] like yelling at them, showing them the tape and be like, dude,
[1:11:08] this is what we do. And and part of that is like,
[1:11:11] they're going to be situations they mess up that are not as
[1:11:13] egregious, that are not as egregious.
[1:11:15] And it's about actually coaching them calmly when they get
[1:11:17] composed because you have to keep them composed.
[1:11:20] Look, coding them accountable, right?
[1:11:23] That's the biggest thing. And I don't know that Carlo was
[1:11:25] quite able to was kind of losing his grip on that towards the
[1:11:27] end. I think Javi Alonzo will do that
[1:11:29] again through the similar methods Carlo does.
[1:11:31] Javi's not so much a he will raise his voice and yell if he
[1:11:34] needs to, but he's going to come to it first from a human like,
[1:11:38] let's build a relationship standpoint just like Carlo did,
[1:11:40] right. But here's how I want you to be
[1:11:41] accountable because against it, to your point, Bellingham,
[1:11:46] Mbappe and Vinicius, like that trio should be as devastating as
[1:11:52] Messi, Neymar, Suarez. Well, like, right, It should be
[1:11:54] just as devastating, right? Like, and we should see that and
[1:11:58] we it's there. To your point, I love how you
[1:11:59] you broke it down. When one of them sees the other
[1:12:02] one make a micro advantage, everything plays to that micro
[1:12:06] advantage. That's a symbiosis though.
[1:12:08] You and you only get that through synergy of knowing roles
[1:12:10] and being aware, right? And big word I use all the time,
[1:12:14] trust. You said when we talk about the
[1:12:16] two on ones, the reason why they got frustrated because they
[1:12:18] stopped trusting each other in those moments.
[1:12:20] You messed up last time I gave it to you, you didn't do X, you
[1:12:22] didn't do Y right? That finger pointing and
[1:12:24] blaming. Let's get rid of all that
[1:12:26] bullshit. There's no me.
[1:12:29] We as a team have to do this. And if those three get on that
[1:12:32] page, look out. Rest of the rest of the rest of
[1:12:35] world football, look out. Yeah, no, they're they're the
[1:12:39] highest ceiling attacking front three if they get on the same
[1:12:41] page. And and Bobby just statistically
[1:12:43] .59 non penalty expected goals per 90 last year was .56 a lot
[1:12:48] of years at PSG outside the Tuco years he was at around .6.
[1:12:52] So in line outside the two cool years.
[1:12:53] I would love to see that leap actually, I, I think if we're
[1:12:56] really gone there, I'd love to see leap.
[1:12:57] But to be honest, his goal output wasn't the problem.
[1:12:59] I think if we can get it within the concept of the team offense
[1:13:02] better, that's what we want. Like not like just spam chances
[1:13:05] till something works. Like get it within the concept
[1:13:07] of the team where if you get it, it's because it was the best
[1:13:10] option, not because like we just tried forcing it through you so
[1:13:13] many times. It eventually worked and the
[1:13:16] expected assistant goals went down career low.
[1:13:19] He was not like getting in front of Golden squaring it as much
[1:13:22] for someone over. I think that's really probably
[1:13:23] what changed. No, for sure.
[1:13:25] You know what's interesting said you mentioned something the goal
[1:13:28] scoring within the team's, the within the team concept and not
[1:13:31] just oh, we're giving to you because we want you to score.
[1:13:35] It's like, no, it's because this is the this is the advantage.
[1:13:37] If someone else has it, you play through to that.
[1:13:39] Do you think that because we have nothing to play for and him
[1:13:43] going for the not only the Pacheci but the European Golden
[1:13:46] Boot, do you think that is going to make it harder for Jabi to
[1:13:52] get that? Because right now Killing is
[1:13:53] just playing for himself and his individual stats.
[1:13:55] Right now there's nothing team related going on.
[1:13:59] I think it's possible, but I think so much of that was just
[1:14:02] bad coaching. I I think my conference is when
[1:14:06] Katie went from Oklahoma City to the Warriors.
[1:14:08] All right, In basketball, some of you might not.
[1:14:10] Oh, some of you might. He's going from a team without
[1:14:12] spacing where he has to do all the shooting and carrying to a
[1:14:16] team that has crazy spacing, but they're running ISO through him
[1:14:19] like. And so I think a lot of it is
[1:14:21] like if you call to play for KD ISO like like Warriors did, he's
[1:14:24] going to go take a fate. It might not be the most
[1:14:26] efficient. He's going to do what you asked
[1:14:27] him to do. And I think there was an element
[1:14:29] of that this year. I think like the spacing around
[1:14:31] him. We didn't use it.
[1:14:32] We didn't like make them all their gravity add up and
[1:14:35] multiply. Instead it was like, which is
[1:14:38] the most archaic thing I've ever seen.
[1:14:40] That's what I'm saying. Like, how do you mess up KD on
[1:14:42] the Warriors? That's kind of what I felt.
[1:14:46] And so and KD won finals MVP just by playing within the team
[1:14:49] concept. That's my point, right?
[1:14:50] That's all Like it's I don't think.
[1:14:51] I think if you actually fix it in the team concept, like you
[1:14:54] get both and you don't have to think it's like, OK, I'm getting
[1:14:57] mine because we're good you. Know that's how it's supposed to
[1:14:59] be. No, I love it.
[1:15:01] This is This is why we have these podcasts.
[1:15:02] I have these to break this stuff down. 100% and and BAPE, just a
[1:15:08] couple last stats. Progressive carries went down a
[1:15:10] little. I don't care.
[1:15:10] You don't need to carry the ball.
[1:15:11] You should sometimes. But.
[1:15:14] Yeah, yeah, you should sometimes because you're fast and in big
[1:15:17] games, please like if you're saving it for Kyle Walker types
[1:15:19] like every year, go for it. But like, you know the the big
[1:15:22] game full back Kunde. I want to see.
[1:15:23] I don't mind seeing gross Kunde but like your job week to week
[1:15:26] is not to roast the other teams right back.
[1:15:28] And then progressive passing went down.
[1:15:30] That's fine. Again I think you're too good in
[1:15:32] front of goal to like be trying to attempt 10 yard passes.
[1:15:34] Like how far are you from goal if you can make a progressive
[1:15:36] pass in the 1st place bro. Yeah, exactly, exactly.
[1:15:40] Way too farther than you should be clean about being away from
[1:15:42] goal. And then progressive receptions
[1:15:45] went down that I'm sure we'll get back up.
[1:15:48] It's 11.2 is as low which is kind of absurd if that. 11
[1:15:50] point, that's wow, That's wow. That's low for him.
[1:15:52] But that goes to show you, to your point, how bad the design
[1:15:55] was this year. 100% and just seeing is there anything with
[1:15:58] his, I think we had some things with his touches earlier in the
[1:16:01] year. Let me pull that up.
[1:16:02] So his touches went down, which is good.
[1:16:05] We want like you shouldn't really need to touch the ball
[1:16:07] much or it should be similar, let's say.
[1:16:09] And so 45 punches compared to 50 or 55 some years lowest since
[1:16:13] 20/18/19 when he was at 43, when he was a young Killian, he got
[1:16:16] less touches. The attacking penalty area, OK.
[1:16:20] By the end of the season, his touches in the penalty area are
[1:16:22] similar, attacking 3rd, somewhat similar.
[1:16:25] OK, it's stabilized. He just took a few less touches
[1:16:28] in the middle third, but he's still getting the ball.
[1:16:30] It's good to know. I think the main thing is like
[1:16:32] for those who worried about him earlier in the year, I think we
[1:16:35] saw the talents there. He scored so much.
[1:16:37] It's just the weirdest high volume goal scoring season I've
[1:16:39] seen in a long time. Like very little towards adding
[1:16:43] to the team, but still useful for winning and maintaining the
[1:16:45] level, but not like symbiotically elevating the team
[1:16:48] and. Also just the key.
[1:16:51] And also at points, frankly, the team had to cater to him for him
[1:16:54] to get anything in November. And like, that's where it's not
[1:16:57] a typical 40. Don't compare it to Ronaldo's.
[1:16:59] First, no, no, no, no, no. Not compare it bro.
[1:17:01] Like I don't want to hear any of that.
[1:17:02] People are so disrespectful with Cristiano.
[1:17:04] Like this was kind of bad guys in some ways and it got better,
[1:17:07] but there's work to. Do because people look at raw
[1:17:09] numbers and not impact. That's why I asked you the
[1:17:11] question is it possible to score 40 goals in a season and be
[1:17:14] empty stats in a way right? Like because in many ways they
[1:17:18] were stabilizing goal, not what we think they could be under the
[1:17:22] right system, which are superlative, transformative
[1:17:24] dominance goals, right? Like that, that's the
[1:17:27] difference, right? That's that's what Cristiano
[1:17:28] does for for you when he's going 4050 goals a season, right?
[1:17:32] 100% and that and that's where again, it was so much.
[1:17:34] I feel bad because Carlo is part of the problem and I'm hoping
[1:17:37] Alonzo, with his clarity fixes all this going into next season.
[1:17:42] I think that's pretty much all the things we wanted to talk
[1:17:44] about, Gerard. Yeah, Any last thing I want to
[1:17:45] say is just let's give Alonzo time, all right?
[1:17:48] This ain't gonna happen. The flick of a switch.
[1:17:50] And then like the first time we see they're gonna be awesome.
[1:17:51] There's gonna be some growing pains and some.
[1:17:53] It's gonna take a while. If we don't win the Club World
[1:17:56] Cup, Gerard, should we continue with them?
[1:17:58] I'm. Kidding.
[1:18:01] I'm kidding. I think he'll get time, but the
[1:18:04] squad is stacked, so there's some pressure.
[1:18:06] I think it's good the squad is stacked, which means he has
[1:18:08] things to do. He doesn't have to deal with the
[1:18:10] board trying to attack him and gaslight him into thinking the
[1:18:12] squad is better than it is. Like Zadan the.
[1:18:14] Squad's complete. You don't need.
[1:18:15] You've got everything you need. Yeah, yeah.
[1:18:16] So the gaslighting, you can't gaslight him because it's good.
[1:18:21] But yeah, I mean, we'll see how the rest of the window goes.
[1:18:23] Luca retiring today means everyone.
[1:18:25] We're definitely going to be doing probably the next episode
[1:18:28] will almost certainly be a retrospective on him.
[1:18:30] Why not? And we have a lot more content
[1:18:33] coming up going forward. We're reading all the comments
[1:18:36] on the channel. Please leave your comments.
[1:18:37] We really appreciate it, the feedback.
[1:18:38] Audio got better today. Website is under development.
[1:18:41] It's just taking time. And thank you all for listening.
[1:18:45] Please like, subscribe, comment, tell your friends.
[1:18:47] Yes, Sir. We'll see you next time.

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