# Reviewing Carlo's Last Clasico

An episode of [The Real Deal: A Real Madrid Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1807821669), 11 May 2025, 1 h 16 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/103607aa8/podcast/play/102504649/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-4-11%2F400041699-44100-2-a6a613032abff.mp3

Jarod joins Sid to go over the 4th clasico defeat of the season and to look ahead. We discuss Vinicius & Mbappe's chemistry, the weak block defending, the need to rotate going forward with the Club World Cup on the horizon, and more.

## Transcript

[1:03] Can't believe we lost four in a row the season after we won all
[1:07] of them. We swept them.
[1:09] I was just thinking, this is like too good to be true.
[1:11] We had a, we had no, like conventional striker.
[1:14] We'd go into the season with Carlo and a deep midfield.
[1:17] Somehow we get 95 points sweep, the classic goes.
[1:20] And it was too good to be true. This season.
[1:21] We came back to reality. Yeah.
[1:25] You know, in so many ways, Sid, we knew this was going to be the
[1:29] the ultimate outcome. Even though you had that glimmer
[1:32] of hope in the beginning of the match and we went up two nil.
[1:34] There was something inevitable about this defeat.
[1:37] You know, Laminia Mall, who's someone I'm sure will talk about
[1:40] this episode, said after the Copa del Rey final or or in in
[1:44] the lead up to before the Copa del Rey final.
[1:46] It doesn't matter how many goals in Madrid scores.
[1:48] They can't beat us this season, right?
[1:50] And you know, listen, I've been talking to you in our side chats
[1:55] like somebody's got to humble this kid.
[1:56] And like when I say that, I'm always thinking tongue in cheek
[1:59] because it's sport, it's entertainment, so it is what it
[2:01] is. But hey, man, this kid can talk
[2:03] his cash shit because he backs it up on the field, has backed
[2:07] it up against us, and Barcelona's simply just been a
[2:11] better side, right? Like top to bottom, from the
[2:13] beginning of the season to the end, they've just been better
[2:15] than we have. And yeah, it's disappointing
[2:17] after sweeping them four O and then the Classic goes last year,
[2:20] right? The two leagues, the Super Copa,
[2:23] and what was the 4th one we won? I thought it was the 4th one we
[2:25] won. Maybe there's only three.
[2:27] I thought we played them four times last year and we were
[2:29] sorry. So super Cobo, we beat them and
[2:30] then the two leagues and then for them to beat us four
[2:32] straight this year, first time they've ever beaten us in four
[2:34] straight Classicos, by the way. Yeah, it hurts and it's it's
[2:37] humbling, but it's also said a lot of the stuff that you and I
[2:40] have talked about all season. There are clear issues that this
[2:43] club has that they need to address.
[2:46] And I hope that because in fact it was Barcelona and because
[2:50] they did this to us, that we will, in fact, you know, the
[2:55] club will and the board will be motivated to be like, all right,
[2:57] we really have to make some changes.
[2:59] Through those four matches this season, Barcelos outscored
[3:02] Madrid 17 to 7 as a + 10 differential.
[3:05] That's just ugly. Yeah, definitely.
[3:09] And it was very ugly. It was, it was sad.
[3:13] A lot of the same issues we've seen in all the classic goes, a
[3:16] lot of the same issues. But going into today, I will
[3:19] admit Carlos Handsworth a little tied because with the center
[3:22] backs just all injured at the same time to him and he has to
[3:25] play center back and immediately with chemo Vinga out as well,
[3:29] who also doesn't like play right in front of the defense like all
[3:31] the time. He needs more freedom.
[3:32] But with both of them gone, that's like our guys who can
[3:36] help us defend this match up successfully.
[3:38] He's gone like Jude and Fede are good, but we need like 4 of
[3:42] them, like not 2 as we've seen in previous years.
[3:45] And so I just thought defending would be hard going in.
[3:49] I I I just knew it would be hard.
[3:51] I knew even if we go up that the minutes like minute zero to 60,
[3:57] I knew we wouldn't defend between the lines properly.
[4:00] And even as we were going up, even at when we were up one nil
[4:03] before we make it 2 nil, they just start like slicing through
[4:07] US. Like they every time any one of
[4:09] them gets the ball, guys make movements.
[4:11] They know where to go and they're so instantly decisive.
[4:14] If someone presses them, they instantly look somewhere else
[4:16] and just move it. They're not like they're not
[4:18] thinking on the ball. Like a hot knife through butter,
[4:21] Sid. Literally and so I thought the
[4:25] first half going in, I just thought the the game would play
[4:28] out maybe kind of like the Copa final where survive till minute
[4:32] 6065, then make your push. So the first thing was can we
[4:37] survive? And then you know, all of a
[4:38] sudden we go up to a nil. Then he makes a perfect pass for
[4:41] Mbappe, the kind of pass that he should have been making all
[4:44] year. So at at first it seems like a
[4:47] fairy tale, right? But even during the fairy tale,
[4:50] I just feel like it's it's the goals and then everything else
[4:52] that's happening is a lot of just our defense barely holding
[4:56] it together. Yeah, it it's the stuff that's
[4:58] been plaguing us all season, right?
[5:00] So we go up two nil, we're excited we get the penalty.
[5:03] And one thing I want to say about penalties, and I don't
[5:04] know your thoughts about this, Sid, but I look, I get Paniekas
[5:09] and being cute and trying to like outsmart the goalie.
[5:13] I hate all that stuff, Sid. Like when you were the penalty
[5:15] taker, to me, you have the clear advantage, right?
[5:19] Because you are going unimpeded towards goal with a shot, right?
[5:23] And it's just a matter of is the goalie going to guess the right
[5:27] way and are they going to be quick and strong enough to
[5:29] defeat your shot? To me, I think, and it's just a
[5:33] an aside. Have in your mind where you want
[5:36] to go prior, right? When when you know you're going
[5:38] to take one, be confident, convicted and blast that MFR
[5:42] into the spot you want to blast it into, right, That's it.
[5:45] Like all this like nancying around and stutter stepping up.
[5:48] I that drives me bananas like so anyway, that aside, but you're
[5:52] right, like it. We go up, but we got the one
[5:54] that the penalty from from Mbapa.
[5:56] We go up one nil beautiful pass from Benny for the second goal
[6:00] and we're up to nothing and we're like, all right, we're
[6:02] cooking now. But there was something about
[6:04] Barsa that you and I know that's just inevitable, right?
[6:06] Because as you mentioned, there's a way in which whether
[6:09] you press them or not or whatever you do, they have a
[6:12] clear idea about how they want to attack and what they want to
[6:17] do. There's clear movements going
[6:19] into the right spaces. And especially against us and
[6:21] this team where we have spaces literally.
[6:24] So Swiss cheese has lots of holes.
[6:25] We got more holes in Swiss cheese.
[6:27] Like it's just everywhere. They just sit in pockets where
[6:30] they know no one's going to be. They pass out, they move on, and
[6:32] then they fly up the field and they put relentless pressure on
[6:35] us. And it's one of those things
[6:36] where you keep putting pressure, pressure, pressure, pressure,
[6:39] pressure. Eventually the dam's going to
[6:41] break and they're right. And that's what happens, right?
[6:43] They score three goals and what seems like 3 1/2 minutes.
[6:46] And I was like, oh, we're down, we're down a goal, right?
[6:49] And it, it is, it is. It's tough to watch because,
[6:52] one, the team would be better with tactical and structural
[6:55] discipline, as we've talked about, you know, and two,
[6:58] there's a way in which when that happens, Sid, the team, Real
[7:02] Madrid, they get defeatist, right?
[7:05] And they're already bad at defending, they get even worse.
[7:10] And instead of giving more effort, they then give less
[7:12] effort. And it's like, what what what is
[7:14] happening right now, right? And and I just.
[7:16] That is something that this side has to fix and has to change.
[7:20] Yeah, and I'm just going to pull up a clip I have on Twitter
[7:25] right now. But even at one nil, like we're
[7:28] just not looking good. Like there was a play where they
[7:30] just flash right across the goal.
[7:32] We're we're wide open and I'm going to pull it up in just a
[7:36] moment, but they, they're just creating at will.
[7:39] And I think the main thing is we want to defend in a deep 442
[7:45] kind of like, you know, 442 is there's a classic way to defend
[7:48] your kind of in a zonal block where you want your strikers to
[7:51] kind of take away their their deep line playmaker a little bit
[7:54] and they. Don't do that.
[7:56] Right. And they don't do that.
[7:57] And that was the problem. We're we're not taking anything
[8:00] away and let me get this clip here right now.
[8:03] But that, that first and second pass that Barsa makes to sort of
[8:08] get into our half of, of, of, of the field, Sid, it's the easiest
[8:12] 2 passes to make in all of football.
[8:14] I kid you not, 12 and unders or 10 and unders could make those
[8:17] passes against Real Madrid and get through because it's just
[8:20] too easy. And I know it's been like sort
[8:22] of the thing where we like everybody piles on and bop me
[8:25] and Vinny. But yeah, deservedly so, Sid.
[8:28] They are atrocious up front in providing any kind of
[8:32] resistance. Not only is their effort poor,
[8:35] their quality and technique on how to do it is also pour on top
[8:38] of that, they take bad angles to the ball.
[8:40] Like again, it's stuff that like, are you a 5 year old?
[8:44] Like how do you not know what to do when you're up there?
[8:46] And then once the pass or the player gets by them, Sid,
[8:51] they're walking and I'm like, what, what are we doing?
[8:55] Like they have 0 interest in trying to get back into the play
[8:59] to help their teammates out. And that is just that is that's
[9:05] being a poor teammate, Sid. Like you're not helping out your
[9:08] fellow outfield players on the pitch.
[9:11] Like you're being a poor teammate.
[9:14] And Imbabe and Vinnie this season have been poor teammates
[9:17] to the rest of Real Madrid. A lot of it, yeah.
[9:19] I mean, some of it is frustration from certain
[9:22] players, not from Mbappe. With Mbappe, it's just like he
[9:24] doesn't defend that hard. But that sequence I just put on
[9:27] the screen, if you saw it, if you didn't, if you watch the
[9:30] game, you'd remember like we're we're always trying to hedge.
[9:33] Barcelona play super centrally, so we're playing a narrow
[9:35] defense. We're always trying to hedge.
[9:37] But these team like we're we're you're always going to leave
[9:40] someone open on the far side. If the ball's on the left side,
[9:42] you're going to hedge a little bit.
[9:44] You're going to bring most of your team over to the left side
[9:46] defend. So what we're always hedging
[9:49] dependent on the strikers kind of completing that hedge, right,
[9:53] kind of putting pressure on the playmaker.
[9:54] And so that early play, they just waltzed through it.
[9:57] It was a bit like what Arsenal was doing where they just put a
[10:00] lot of guys in the middle. We don't cover every space
[10:04] fully. And they realized before us that
[10:07] something's going to get open and they get it.
[10:10] They access it easily. So that was annoying.
[10:12] And The funny thing is, like, not all of the goals in the
[10:15] first half, like came from that lack of lock defending.
[10:19] No. That piece, one of them, was
[10:21] just baskets giving the ball away.
[10:23] So yeah, so the the so one, the set piece not marking the the
[10:28] which by the way, to be fair, we do that all the time, not mark
[10:31] people. So that's common.
[10:33] Poor Real Madrid, poor set piece play.
[10:34] So there was that the IMBAP Sebios miscommunication,
[10:39] literally running into each other to lose the ball that led
[10:43] to another one of their goals. And again, you mentioned it
[10:46] about it's not Even so much that they that, that, that, that
[10:51] we're that they're, they're carving us up in that we're
[10:54] giving them every space. It's that we're just so
[10:56] undisciplined. There's just spaces to occupy
[10:59] because we're not, no one's three guys are in one area and
[11:03] that means two other areas are wide the fuck open because
[11:06] nobody else is there like that. This is where the tactical
[11:09] discipline comes from, right? Where it's like you cannot leave
[11:12] whole swaths of the pitch unmanned and wide open, But we
[11:16] do that all the time. And to me, that Mbappe and and
[11:19] Sabias running into each other, that's part of that, right?
[11:21] Again, it's both sides. It's on offense.
[11:23] We're in possession and out of possession, people just
[11:26] occupying the same area. This causes issues.
[11:28] And so naturally Barcelona pounce on that and then they
[11:31] have free run in front of us because again, we already
[11:34] mentioned how Mbappe does not run back.
[11:36] So you already one guy's not running back because he's too
[11:38] busy to get his hands up whining.
[11:39] I'm like, bro, it already happened.
[11:41] You lost the ball and don't stand there and whine run to get
[11:44] back in the play. So Bilos didn't get back in the
[11:46] play. We're we're we're down, we're
[11:47] down, we're down there. And then there's the one where
[11:49] Vasquez literally just gave the ball away.
[11:52] And again, that accounted for three goals.
[11:55] Those were three goals right there from just being clueless
[11:58] and mindless. The score of this game was 4/3.
[12:02] So I mean, right, like if we're just average at defending, this
[12:07] is probably a different outcome. But we're not even that.
[12:08] We are well below average. Yeah, and I mean the the way we
[12:15] kind of just let the game slow down.
[12:16] I remember at 20, I think they make it 21 quickly and there's a
[12:22] few minutes there before it's 22 where I think we're just kind of
[12:25] scared. Like, OK, we we don't want to
[12:27] blow the lead, let's sit off them.
[12:29] And after they kind of maybe they access the space a little
[12:32] faster because we were trying to press their pivot.
[12:35] So we kind of just sit off them fully for 10 minutes or maybe 5
[12:38] minutes and then Jamal scores. And even during those 5 minutes
[12:41] I'm watching, I'm like, this is a cook team that really
[12:44] shouldn't be running too much and we're letting them kind of
[12:47] slow it down in the first half. They're going to get whatever
[12:50] they want. Most likely they're just going
[12:52] to get what they want. We're going to leave with
[12:53] nothing. And that's what happened because
[12:55] they got we, we sit off them, they get everything they want.
[12:58] When we try to hit them in transitions, they're going to
[13:01] end up getting what they want eventually.
[13:02] When we set off them after we get what we want, the only way
[13:05] to beat them is like to score a late winner.
[13:08] And even then, like if there's even a minute, you know, they're
[13:10] getting something. But like on our end, I mean, we,
[13:13] we just, if we're up or if we feel like we can defend them and
[13:17] we're sitting off them and we're not chasing the game, we pretty
[13:20] much just get walked over by them.
[13:21] And when we're chasing the games, we only have a shot
[13:23] because it's just human psychology.
[13:24] I feel like more than anything, it doesn't feel like we're
[13:27] playing on the same field. It's just shocking to me that
[13:30] some people watching for me like that's where it's much more
[13:33] coaching than personnel. I I sympathize about you know,
[13:37] like yes, if we're fully healthy and true of Manny's playing the
[13:39] six Camovinga's playing with them.
[13:41] Do we have a decent block? Yes.
[13:43] Have we seen all those guys healthy and the blocks will
[13:45] suck? Also yes.
[13:46] So like, I'm not I'm I'm. Sorry, no, you're, you're right,
[13:50] Sid. And that's the thing.
[13:51] And you know, when you watch this, this match and you watch
[13:54] these teams, it's almost like they play two different sports,
[13:56] right? It's just like I'm like Madrid.
[13:59] I don't know what you're doing, but I I know clearly what
[14:02] Barcelona's doing, right? And it's very obvious.
[14:04] And I actually have a question for you.
[14:06] You mentioned that you still think that like it isn't like
[14:09] their players are so much better than ours.
[14:11] I do have this question for you, though.
[14:13] Do you think Barcelona's players are technically and sort of
[14:18] technical? Soccer skill.
[14:20] Football skill. More gifted than our players.
[14:23] I only think that their midfield has like I think they have the
[14:27] pedry profile, which we don't have, but it's just like just
[14:31] watching them play. They don't even like always use
[14:34] him to control the game full like that.
[14:37] He in some ways he's like cruising the chaos of last year
[14:41] of of of last year's team where he's the only one who slows it
[14:44] down. But no, I don't think they're
[14:46] better. No, I genuinely don't like our
[14:48] chewer Manis looked awesome. The chewer manis first classico.
[14:51] He just like cat. He was ball playing and we beat
[14:53] them 31 like we we invited their press.
[14:55] He was good. He bossed them, he did.
[14:58] Yeah, so like and it's hard to imagine a game under Carlo ever
[15:02] like that now. Like, I mean, we haven't really
[15:05] gotten that many big games where we just bossed a team that tries
[15:07] to press US ever since. So no, I don't think so.
[15:11] And like why are like, it just shouldn't make sense for Eric
[15:15] Garcia and and Gerard Martin to look like they're not out of
[15:20] place. Like they look out of place but
[15:21] not whereas like Basket looks like he's.
[15:23] Oh my God, yes, it it Garcia and Martine look like, you know, top
[15:34] class defenders, right when when they're when they're on the in
[15:37] in that system. Lucas Vasquez looks like a nine
[15:40] year old playing with adults like just and that's again,
[15:46] that's a yes. He's also old and not good
[15:48] anymore and all that. But there are ways that if you
[15:50] had structure, right, a lot less of the picking on him would
[15:54] happen because you would know, all right, we're more, we're
[15:56] more disciplined here, right? Our winger on that side is
[15:59] dropping a little bit better, covering his zone, right?
[16:01] There'll be more areas and ways in which to show and protect
[16:04] something like that. But because we don't have that
[16:06] and there's just free foam, free foam foaming, running and chaos,
[16:11] bad things happen, right? Like, and, and Vasquez, like, I
[16:14] mean, my God, I thought I was going to get subbed off at, at
[16:16] the half. I was like, or even before the
[16:18] half, I was like, he is killing us right now, which we knew he
[16:21] was going to do all season. But and so again, we, we blame
[16:24] the board for all that. I I just thought it was super
[16:27] interesting. Again, I made this comment
[16:28] during the Copa del Rey when Barsa have the ball in
[16:33] possession, it's like it's a Country Club out there like
[16:36] they're breezing through stuff. Nobody's around them.
[16:39] When we have the ball, it's like it seems like 95 players are
[16:42] around us and we can't and we can't escape.
[16:44] And it's just like guys like I just and this is the fourth
[16:48] time, so it's not like a surprise, right?
[16:50] Like, you know, this is what's going to happen.
[16:53] So this idea of trying to play out from the back Sid when the
[16:57] pass over the top was literally and we did it a couple times.
[17:00] That's wide open all game long. Why we weren't drilling and
[17:03] doing and working on that all week when again keep in mind
[17:07] Barcelona had two matches to prepare prepare for this week.
[17:10] They had Champions League semi final against inter and they had
[17:12] us. We had nothing to do but worry
[17:14] about Barcelona all week, nothing but Barcelona.
[17:16] So we should have been drilling that non-stop.
[17:19] Clearly we didn't. Yeah, and there's just a a lack
[17:23] of awareness of what needs to be done.
[17:25] And the willingness is not a willingness, I don't think.
[17:27] It's just a lack of awareness is what it feels like.
[17:29] It's like you have the rest advantage.
[17:32] You you go in with a decent game plan.
[17:34] And even then, like you're, you're up one nil and like Eric
[17:38] Garcia or whoever's like flashing or Danny almost
[17:41] flashing across your box, you have no shot.
[17:44] I mean, Garcia and Martin, though, really are the best
[17:46] examples. They're not like that good, but
[17:48] they come in and offense like they're not like they're
[17:51] definitely not like elite offensive full backs like
[17:54] Garcia's a center back like I don't.
[17:56] And so it just tells me that Flick's game is based on where
[18:00] you occupy spaces when, how quickly.
[18:03] And we don't have to do that. We just have to react to it and
[18:06] we don't. It's just sad.
[18:07] And yeah, I mean on offense you get the opposite.
[18:10] You get it's it's just weird. Like the first minute of the
[18:12] game, you get Vinnie making that pass to Mbappe early in the
[18:15] game, not first minute. And then later you just get some
[18:18] of the worst passes from Vinny, like, and he just blows open
[18:21] passes and you definitely see moments.
[18:24] I thought today was the day I felt it the most.
[18:26] When I'm Bappe is just like, dude, what are you doing?
[18:28] Like he's just looking at it like, just give me the damn
[18:30] ball, dude. Like why are you shooting this?
[18:32] And like, to be honest, if I was there, I'm just seeing a season
[18:36] full of all this pent up. Like, that's what I felt like.
[18:39] All these mistakes, it's just a season of like, OK, like this
[18:43] fucking sucks and I'm frustrated, but I'm going to
[18:44] give it one more shot. And oh, it didn't work.
[18:46] God damn it, dude. Like it just there's no
[18:48] momentum. The energy's dead.
[18:50] All the momentum, the sparks they give, they do it themselves
[18:53] and they don't last long because it's it's so fragile.
[18:56] It's builds on a foundation of nothing.
[19:00] I I don't want to talk about what I'll there's a point in the
[19:02] second-half. I'll, I'll get to, to talk about
[19:04] that again. But but but you're right, like I
[19:05] I just too many times this season and again, it's because
[19:11] of lack of and again, I want to be clear, it's like a broken
[19:15] record. I'm not asking for Pep
[19:17] Guardiola, juego de posicion football.
[19:19] That's not what I'm asking for. But there has to be something
[19:22] for this squad to fall back on both in possession and out of
[19:25] possession that they do not have.
[19:27] And so that constant everybody flooding the same area like it,
[19:31] it just causes issues. And when you couple that with
[19:35] the same lack of structure defensively, the lack of
[19:38] willingness from your front attackers to drop back and help.
[19:41] And if this is what happens, right?
[19:43] Thank God once again for Tebow Courtois, or else this game
[19:46] could have easily been, I don't know, 7-4, like 7, three, excuse
[19:50] me? Like, I mean, Tebow had huge
[19:53] saves in this match. Like once again.
[19:57] Yeah, I got to pull up the expected goals on that note.
[20:00] SO43 to Barcelona, surprisingly we we did do decently me shared
[20:05] on the screen, but we were at 3 expected goals created.
[20:12] Is it up on the screen? Not here.
[20:14] Now here we are. So we were at 3.84 expected
[20:17] goals created for Barcelona, 3 for us. 3 is not bad, I think
[20:21] that's the most we've got against them all season.
[20:22] Yes they have way more expected threat possession field till
[20:26] field till it's crazy 85 to 15. I mean, it's just.
[20:29] That's like that's a that's a that's the seesaw when you're a
[20:32] kids in and like you're you're the Super small kid and the big
[20:34] heavy kids on the other end. That's that's what, that's what
[20:37] that is. That's crazy.
[20:38] I mean that means, I think that just means that 85% of their
[20:41] passes like I think 85% of the passes happened in our half is
[20:45] my understanding or? Something they they lived, they
[20:47] lived in our half of the of the pitch, the the all game, I mean.
[20:51] Yeah. And you know, we don't rank well
[20:53] in any of these little metrics. Obviously we're we're going for
[20:55] quality over quantity. But it's it is striking how like
[20:59] all our chances came from Yeah, like our first three goals came
[21:02] from three shots. We we didn't create anything
[21:05] else just fine. We were going for quality over
[21:07] quantity. I get it.
[21:09] The yeah we they generate 9 high turnovers, 4 leading to a shot.
[21:18] That was a lot of the problem we. 3 high turnovers leading to
[21:21] zero shots. On our yeah, we don't generate
[21:24] high turnovers that you don't even have to look on that.
[21:26] Our side of things, we don't do that well, we did again, like we
[21:31] we did for a few minutes when we were chasing PSG at home in
[21:36] 2022. We started pressing them and
[21:37] Benzema scored three goals. But it's all emotional pressing.
[21:40] I I call all that emotional pressing like and like I would
[21:44] call it emotional and even like one of the few games where
[21:47] Carlos also prepared a little harder than the the entirety of
[21:50] his four years year, like the Champions League knockouts where
[21:53] that matter and some certain classicos like these 5% of games
[21:57] he tries way harder. Maybe they're slightly more
[21:59] prepared. They've been resting and Pintas
[22:01] methoding for that game all year.
[22:03] And then for 15 minutes they go all out man pressing.
[22:06] And yes, at that point when you have the best players in the
[22:08] world, they will spook you if they're if they're really
[22:10] cohesive. But yeah, we never get that
[22:12] consistently. And this was the same problem.
[22:15] Carlos first belt. I know the football was better,
[22:18] but people miss Benitez screwed up a lot.
[22:21] But the defensive fundamentals the first few months were
[22:24] already way better. Like we we would we could go and
[22:26] play a nil nil instead of a three three.
[22:28] And we just had that in us, which we didn't before under
[22:30] Carlos. But yeah.
[22:32] And lastly, I mean, I guess, you know, Cruz was praising him, so
[22:36] we'll just throw it here. But Pedri.
[22:38] Pedri Boss does this game as he always does, like as he always
[22:42] does. There was a moment when Henry
[22:45] was in the left half space, like we're kind of in the cruise
[22:48] zone. He picked up the ball, turned,
[22:51] knew the guy was pressing him, got fouled, Jude fouled.
[22:53] And I'm like, damn, Jude, You went from watching your teammate
[22:55] do that to having to to be up against that in one year.
[23:00] Yeah, it it, it, you know, we talked about this thing last
[23:03] show or, or an episode a week ago or so where wow, what this
[23:08] team would look like with a pedre profile on it, right?
[23:10] Like it would be right to someone way better who, who can
[23:13] control. And I think that you mentioned
[23:15] Jude. You know, obviously Jude is a
[23:19] world class talent to me. I mean, the best attacking
[23:26] midfield in the world. Like I, I, I just think he's
[23:27] awesome. We have to find a way.
[23:33] And, you know, obviously Carlos leaving at the end of this
[23:36] season. And I hope whoever the new
[23:39] manager that comes in, if it is indeed Chabi Alonso, has a plan
[23:43] for how to unleash this man and make him into what he can be for
[23:49] us, which is just this Dynamo. And I know that most people
[23:55] agree that, you know, crashing the box and being upfront is
[23:57] probably the, the best spot for him, whatever that is.
[24:01] I, I, I, I want to have that and I want to have the right
[24:05] profiles in the team that allow him to do that, right?
[24:08] And if that means he has to be the new profile, what, whatever
[24:11] it is, I want that to happen, right?
[24:13] I don't want to go through another year where he's
[24:18] frustrated, which he clearly is. And not only is he frustrated
[24:21] from running up and down in these gas and all that, as you
[24:24] know, Sid, it's been two years now, he needs shoulder surgery.
[24:27] And I, I just like I, I don't know when he's going to do it.
[24:30] The club is not saying it's going to happen.
[24:31] And she'll know what date I'm like, guys forget the Club World
[24:34] Cup. Like actually, well, we'll get
[24:36] to the second-half. Season's over.
[24:38] I'd be like Jude surgery now, like the season's done.
[24:42] We're not winning the league, so go get it now like I just.
[24:46] Well, they're probably like, dude, we'll get you a nicer
[24:48] surgery if you get us that 150,000,000, we'll we'll get you
[24:51] the the nicer one. We'll get you the $2,000,000
[24:53] surgery instead of the one and a half million.
[24:57] It's in the incentives in his contract that he signed two
[24:59] years ago, so. Bad We'll, we'll, we'll, we'll
[25:01] get to what the club should do the rest of.
[25:03] This well, I mean, what is there to talk about in the
[25:05] second-half, Gerard? Like, to be honest, I feel like
[25:07] once we went down, yeah, big hope is like what has been
[25:11] happening to Barcelona. They get fatigued, we come back
[25:13] into the game and I feel like we brought Madrich on because,
[25:16] fine, Arda was like, you know, he wasn't doing enough on
[25:19] either. And we're not going to keep the
[25:20] ball just with any possession plan.
[25:23] But even with it this season, yeah, fine, it's not going to
[25:26] happen. I mean, the The funny thing is
[25:29] like even someone like Cruz would look pretty bad in games
[25:31] like this without a plan in previous years.
[25:32] So it's not it's not just isolated to him.
[25:35] But yeah, Madrich comes on. We can see the 4th and did we at
[25:41] this point between the disallowed goals, did we concede
[25:43] that 4th? When did we concede that 4th?
[25:45] Let's pull it up. We had early in the second-half,
[25:48] we had, we, we, we sprung past their suicidal highline.
[25:53] And I want to say it was Fran. Was it Fran?
[25:59] No, it was Vasquez sprung that past and Vinny and Bape were
[26:04] literally in the same zone where the past was.
[26:07] If we just if we just one of them there, it was a one on
[26:10] nothing with the goalkeeper and it would have been a score, but
[26:13] they were both in the same spot and it resulted in nothing.
[26:16] And it made me think of something Sid, as we said on our
[26:18] on our Last Post game show, how many times this season and then
[26:21] later in the game it happened again.
[26:23] Had there been and in Bop and Vinnie 2 on one or two on nil or
[26:28] two on the goalkeeper where forget about the save.
[26:31] We don't even get a shot, Sid, not even a shot.
[26:35] And it happened again and I'm just like this for two world
[26:38] class offensive threats like them.
[26:40] We cannot have that stuff happening, which is also why
[26:43] it's not something you bring up all the time.
[26:45] We got to stop comparing the greats of the game, your
[26:51] Cristianos and your Messy's and even your your your benzamas to
[26:55] these players because in no world does a Messi not get a not
[27:00] only does he get a shot off, he's going to score most likely.
[27:02] Same with Cristiano. Like that never happens with
[27:04] these caliber of players. They will at a minimum get the
[27:07] shot off on goal and more often than not probably score.
[27:12] We for the amount of money those two make, we cannot have that
[27:17] kind of thing said. We just can't.
[27:19] We can't. Yeah, and I think the club is
[27:22] just going to let Alonzo go with that.
[27:25] But yeah, though the second-half really proved to me that the
[27:27] coach will help and that we need any change because firstly,
[27:32] yeah, whatever happened, like you keep Carlo for offense, like
[27:34] that's why you haven't. The whole thinking was like, we
[27:37] renewed Carlo because we want him to make it easy for Mbapi to
[27:40] come in and join This environment was like the word
[27:42] around the club. Yeah, he didn't do any of that.
[27:44] Not even close. In fact, to be honest, like
[27:47] considering how much he experimented and how much things
[27:49] went wrong, this is like the worst type of season.
[27:51] You could have a 35 gold season. And he.
[27:55] Yeah, it's just the regression. Like in the same game where
[27:58] Vinnie makes the right pass, then later in the same game he
[28:00] doesn't make the same pass. That touch was so bad.
[28:04] Like, I, I remember just looking at him up his face.
[28:05] I'm like, dude, if I were you, I'd be so pissed and like it
[28:08] doesn't matter what Vinny's done before this.
[28:10] Like that's just childish sometimes.
[28:11] Like it feels childish sometimes the things he does for sure.
[28:15] And you know, there's no heading the ball with Bale and Ronaldo.
[28:18] It's like guys just run to the box.
[28:19] Whichever 1 you gets to it, it's yours.
[28:21] It's not like that right now. It's like, hey, you're in my way
[28:24] because we're just ground crossing it because we can't
[28:25] head the ball. Like it's like jump and bicycle
[28:29] kick it over before Ronaldo. Now it's none of that.
[28:32] You you mentioned Vinny's port touch and he's had a a swath of
[28:36] port touches all season. I think that's what made me
[28:39] think about when I asked you the question about our Barcelona's
[28:42] place technically more gifted than ours.
[28:44] It seems to me so that their first touch is always on point
[28:47] and our so many times has never like especially this season.
[28:51] I think that just Barcelona's players just look like they know
[28:53] what to do because Raffinia's first touch was pathetic under
[28:56] Chavi. That's true.
[28:57] It was. That's where I just see the same
[29:00] things that happened to Barcelona the last two years.
[29:03] I see that now affecting us like Barcelona last season is us this
[29:05] season, coach doing 0 negative for the team.
[29:09] The team playing well in moments because of individual quality
[29:13] that makes it feel like the foundation is greater than it
[29:16] really is. And so you run with that
[29:18] foundation and then when the results get bad because you
[29:21] never went back and realized, hey, we don't have a foundation,
[29:23] You're just banging your head against the wall.
[29:25] You're wondering what's going wrong.
[29:26] Answer is staring you in the face.
[29:27] Your coach is messing around and bullshitting you in the media,
[29:30] lying like. And it's the same thing we saw
[29:32] with Barcelona last year. I thought, look at how decisive
[29:35] their players look this year. Look at how much better they
[29:37] look. And I mean, I just watched them
[29:41] and marvel at what coaching can do.
[29:43] And I know they're tired. I know they're burned out, but
[29:45] it's just proof to me. Like, like, they don't even have
[29:47] Lewandowski right now. They don't have a tall guy.
[29:49] They. Even bring him in the game.
[29:50] They haven't even put him in the game.
[29:53] I'm I'm not I'm sure yes, they're crossing set pieces
[29:56] well, but like in open play, they're still creating danger
[30:00] and feeling like there's variety to their attack.
[30:02] Even though like I'm not that scared of their guys in the air.
[30:04] I'm scared of their guys arriving kind of like Jude, but
[30:06] I'm not scared of like anyone back to goal tall just going to
[30:10] blind side the defender where the center backs can't handle
[30:13] him. So they don't have that.
[30:15] They're doing well again. They don't have full backs who
[30:17] can do anything. They're playing these like.
[30:19] Yeah, Kunde, Kunde's out and they still had no problem down
[30:21] that flank. Yep, Yep.
[30:23] And I mean even against Inter, like they go down to nil in
[30:25] Italy. Yes, you can criticize them, but
[30:27] the way they just go and score and come back against Inter with
[30:32] those same full backs, like these are not good full backs.
[30:36] I don't Inter, we're missing players, but everyone's missing
[30:37] players and last year we were missing players.
[30:41] It wasn't talked about as much. I know we're missing more now,
[30:43] but I just think the coaching has fallen apart.
[30:47] I really think even the same group could have played way
[30:50] better with a better coach. That's when I felt leaving
[30:52] today. And I think what you're topping
[30:54] into Sid, is the mentality, right?
[30:56] And that's the thing that Barcelona have this year that we
[31:00] don't have Barcelona go down to nil.
[31:04] They're not panicked because they know what they're going to
[31:05] score like they they know it. They're like, we're going to
[31:07] score like somewhere, somewhere in the past where and this is
[31:13] kind of can be your gift and your curse.
[31:15] Barcelona knows they're going to score because they have faith
[31:18] and believe in their system that it will eventually create enough
[31:20] chances for us that we will score.
[31:22] Whereas for Madrid last year it was, well, we're just so
[31:25] individually brilliant with Jude and and, and, and and and Vinny,
[31:29] they'll find a way and we'll score.
[31:31] And that type of reliance on just individual brilliance has
[31:36] its limitations, right? Whereas Barcelona know as a
[31:40] collective, we can make this happen.
[31:42] Whereas for Madrid it was spam, Binny, spam Binny, spam Binny
[31:46] make something happen, right? Like, and I think there's a big
[31:48] difference that it's psychologically when you know,
[31:52] as a unit versus Barcelona, I'm talking about now that we're
[31:54] going to make it happen. That's greater than in your math
[31:58] equation than spamming an individual, particularly an
[32:01] individual in Vinnie or in Boppe to that matter, who are not at
[32:05] their peak levels this season. Barcelona by Understat have more
[32:13] expected points this season with the games left than we did all
[32:17] last season. I think it's just like, and you
[32:21] know, understand, inaccurate, blah, blah, blah, whatever.
[32:23] Like if you go at a different model, they're probably
[32:26] finishing with more underlying expected points.
[32:29] Are they a better team? No, because you know, when
[32:31] they're up, they won't sit back and let their goalie make a few
[32:34] tough saves. Instead, they'll go for it and
[32:37] they'll give up like open chances.
[32:39] But I think that's just a great example of where we started to
[32:42] like even last year, even this, to be perfectly honest, like our
[32:45] offense last year, looking back, it's like those moments where we
[32:48] dominated, we were technically great and we emotionally tried
[32:51] coming back. And on top of that, we had a
[32:54] very good team that the coaching staff put it together.
[32:56] But Barcelona, when they come back, it's automatic.
[32:58] It's a little more like when we were coming back, maybe under
[33:01] the Zadan years in 2016 and 17, where team is stacked and there
[33:06] were clear mechanisms of progression.
[33:08] Last year was a little more random.
[33:09] Even when it was going well, the main theme was like Rahim Juhu,
[33:14] Cruz, Vini kind of like, and Rodrigo, all those guys would
[33:18] combine really well when things were going well.
[33:20] And they would float, they would roam.
[33:22] And there was no strict rules. Like you didn't have to like
[33:24] occupy every space. You could play Rodrigo and
[33:26] Vinnie on the left, leave nobody up front.
[33:28] That's all cool. But yeah, I mean, it's all gone
[33:32] now. It's it's over.
[33:33] Like it, it all sounds fun. It's a drink the kool-aid when
[33:35] you're winning and it doesn't work now.
[33:37] And to be honest, even last year, like there were select
[33:41] games when I felt like we could do better against the deep
[33:43] block. But hey, we got 95 points.
[33:45] And you got the and you got the double, right.
[33:47] And I think that's what you and I have been talking about all
[33:48] the time is that it is dangerous to get high off your own supply.
[33:52] Arlo comes back and in his, how long is this?
[33:56] Three years or four years he's been with us.
[33:57] Now this second stint is the end of his fourth year or third
[34:00] year. Yep. 4th year.
[34:01] Fourth year. He wins 2 leagues, 2 Champions
[34:04] Leagues and a Copa del Rey, right?
[34:06] But in a back, anybody who parachutes in and doesn't know
[34:09] context and reads that says that's very successful, which of
[34:13] course it is. But it papered over a lot of the
[34:16] underlying cracks that we've been talking about this whole
[34:18] time, right? Because of the individual
[34:20] brilliance. And yeah, I think it, it is come
[34:23] back to bite us. And now again, the the club as a
[34:26] whole has to be like a we have to look long and hard and stare
[34:29] at ourselves in the mirror and be like, is the spine of what we
[34:33] want here? And if yes, what are the
[34:36] appendages we need in terms of coaching and everything?
[34:39] Not just coaching and squad depth, but performance, staff,
[34:42] trainings, have all the other things that make a squad run
[34:45] well. Do we have to look at seriously
[34:47] to make sure we're in a better position to perform in the way
[34:49] perform to perform to the level acceptable?
[34:52] Because I think anybody would agree the way this club
[34:54] performed this season was an abomination.
[34:56] It's just terrible for a squad of this caliber, right, with the
[35:00] wage bill that it has. And I'm not someone who like
[35:02] cares about money like that because I want to eat my money.
[35:05] So I don't give a crap, right? Like, it's it's the club, so
[35:08] whatever. But ultimately, right, this it
[35:11] has to be better. And yes, we had injuries, but
[35:14] why, right? Like we're not the only club in
[35:17] the world playing this many matches.
[35:20] Lots of other clubs are doing it too.
[35:22] Why is it affecting us so much? Right.
[35:24] Like and that's something I think I think we should look at.
[35:27] Yeah, and Flick, whatever he did, is a great example.
[35:29] Like Pedry, healthiest season in years, did a great job.
[35:33] You can't have it every year. Like if Flick was here five
[35:35] years, Pedry's probably not healthy every year, even if
[35:37] Flick is here every year. But it's definitely something we
[35:41] got to work on the Rodrigo situation.
[35:45] Yeah, I guess just to reiterate, second-half, I saw a team that
[35:48] they didn't have enough off the bench for a team that these two
[35:51] of the last four years, a lot of the winning came from having
[35:54] three more guys off the bench than the other team.
[35:57] So with that out of the way, I didn't really see much hope.
[36:00] I'm like, OK, you have Madridge on now.
[36:03] Midfield looks really like defensively at that point, no
[36:06] true of many, no Cam of Inga like no traditional like
[36:09] destroyer in midfield. So it kind of went as I expected
[36:13] like Barcelona held the ball. We create some because they
[36:17] always give some up, but nothing special.
[36:20] Just Vinnie making a mistake and it's just funny because Vinnie
[36:22] then goes and creates one for him.
[36:25] That's when I saw that I'm like OK, like the amount of times you
[36:28] get into situations, it can't be hard for another coach to figure
[36:30] out and like I think for the next coach going ahead one like
[36:35] there's the Rodrigo situation 2. I think it's getting Mbappe
[36:37] Vinnie to defend, like the egos there.
[36:39] So I guess let's unpack like the two Brazilian ones.
[36:43] Like Rodrigo Ancelotti says he was not healthy.
[36:47] It was a lot of talk when he didn't get subbed on when we
[36:49] brought our Castilla guy on. Who knows that maybe Rodrigo
[36:54] fell out with Carlo or Perez Also saw a report this morning.
[36:57] It might have been some fake aggregator talking about how
[37:00] Real Madrid want him to go to Man City.
[37:02] Like there might be an offer from there that there might have
[37:05] been one last year, if it's the same offer as last year, that we
[37:08] should let him go. I don't know what happened.
[37:10] I just know that he's tanked his value this year.
[37:14] That if you need someone to like run in behind and score like he,
[37:17] he just doesn't stretch the pitch.
[37:19] He he, he's the one in the middle who benefits from others
[37:23] making the runs. Like, he doesn't do The Dirty
[37:24] work, and when he does The Dirty work on the ball, he ends up
[37:28] losing his effectiveness because he's like, he's not fast.
[37:31] So when he's running up and down the right, he doesn't beat his
[37:33] man. So I was like, I wasn't sure if
[37:36] he could have done much coming off the bench on the right in
[37:38] this game. Maybe for Vinny upfront.
[37:40] He's just not that fast, honestly.
[37:42] Well, that, I mean, look, the big thing is like, you know,
[37:44] Rodrigo has to play and I'd look, Rodrigo's obviously a
[37:47] talented player. I want to get that out of the
[37:49] way. It's not so we're not saying
[37:49] he's some kind of scrub. I just think that on this squad,
[37:54] he just doesn't fit for what we need given how much money he has
[37:57] to get paid, right? Like you don't want, first of
[38:00] all, like the right wing is not his natural position because
[38:04] he's not a left footer, right? So cutting in and it's just not
[38:07] that's not his thing, right. And to your point, Sid, he's not
[38:10] fast. He's fast.
[38:12] He's not top half percent in world football fast.
[38:17] He is not. He's an elite dribbler.
[38:20] But again, he's not like that top one or two dribblers on that
[38:23] side of the floor. He's not let me and Yamal, who
[38:25] we'll get to in a minute, right? And so ultimately he's going to
[38:29] drop a little bit running behind.
[38:30] Come on the left, you're going to defend, you're going to pay
[38:33] however much money to a player like that.
[38:34] Why like it? It doesn't again, in terms of
[38:38] squad building, if again you knew and Bob, it was someone you
[38:42] were and we've been trying to get him for six freaking years.
[38:45] So if you knew that the person who was coming in, why wasn't
[38:48] moving Rodrigo a priority before, right Last year you
[38:52] moved him when he played super well, his value was very high.
[38:57] I was ready to move him last summer.
[38:59] I I felt like it. It felt like they were trying to
[39:02] horseshoe him in. And I think the prediction was
[39:04] maybe that, hey, he's going to come and Bapi's going to come
[39:08] in, Rodriguez going to score another 20, and then we're going
[39:10] to convince everyone he's worth it.
[39:14] I just don't get how you ever platform him to the point where
[39:16] you get his value back. It's just a disaster.
[39:19] And so the question now is because last year at the end of
[39:22] last season, 80 to 100 million was reasonable to to get for him
[39:26] in a transfer transfer fee. What do you think is reasonable
[39:28] now? I think closer to like 60 to 70
[39:32] is. OK, so not terrible.
[39:34] No, because but only on the assumption that you can convince
[39:38] one of those positional Artetas or Peps.
[39:40] Hey, like he can play midfield winger hybrid for you, I think.
[39:44] I think if you tried selling him as a winger, you're screwed like
[39:47] 40 to 50. Like I just don't get why you'd
[39:49] pay for a winger who's barely gives you output but like in
[39:52] front of gold. But if you if you sell to a team
[39:54] and you're like, hey, he's your Jack Greilish upgrade and
[39:56] replacement. Oh yeah, easy.
[39:59] So I love that. So we can get 60 to 70 from Citi
[40:02] for that. I think that's we take that and
[40:04] run and now with that 70 Madrid don't be cheap asses now use
[40:09] that 70 to figure out OK, where do we where do we have need
[40:14] obviously one and two, what profiles fit with who is going
[40:18] forward in this team thinking about not just our starting 11,
[40:22] but when we come off the bench for different game states.
[40:24] What do we need? And I just look, I'm sure the
[40:29] club is thinking about this, but I'd like to see it in action and
[40:33] an actual practice, right? Like do something.
[40:37] Yeah, I think the Club World Cup and also just having to offload
[40:41] so many guys as we've talked about means they're they're just
[40:43] being careful on how what they tell people they don't want
[40:45] anyone knowing. Like, hey, we're desperate to
[40:47] like, replace half these guys. Like they don't want anyone.
[40:50] Else I mean anybody with a brain will realize what Madrid's death
[40:53] right? Any smart or club is gonna be
[40:55] like they want to get rid of like 7 dudes.
[40:57] But like to your point, I agree and we'll get to the Club World
[41:00] Cup and rest season in a second. I want to talk about Lami and
[41:02] Yamal for a second since I brought him up with the Rodrigo
[41:04] thing. I mean what can I say, it's
[41:08] freaking incredible. I think you had a a Neymar comp
[41:12] for him right now is where where you see him going.
[41:16] He he, he's just so electric. I was thinking about something
[41:18] in terms of defending him. And obviously you see teams now
[41:21] it's two dudes on him because you can't you, you, you can't
[41:24] put one who's going to cook them.
[41:27] During the broadcast, former Real Madrid midfielder, what's
[41:34] his name McNamara was was talking about why are you just
[41:40] letting him advance the ball on you?
[41:42] You got to close them down. And I was thinking, OK, if you
[41:45] are Frank Garcia and this is the calculus that's going through
[41:49] Fran's head, if I come up, if I try to close it and get up on
[41:52] him, he is going to blow by me. But if I sag off of him, I'm
[41:57] giving him way too much room to shoot past like so Sid, what is
[42:01] the optimal way to defend him if you are Frank Garcia out on out
[42:05] on that flank? I mean not, not individually.
[42:08] And I mean you need a, you need a team plan.
[42:11] I'm not. I mean like.
[42:12] When, But if you're stuck, if you're stuck in one and you, you
[42:14] have no choice, what are you doing?
[42:17] I mean, if I, if I'm stuck one-on-one, I mean in most cases
[42:21] you're looking to see where the closest defender do is and then
[42:23] you're hedging him towards that. That's what I that's what.
[42:25] I That's the best you can do. Yeah, you're you're hedging him.
[42:28] But dude, I just man, I'm I'm from the days of Marcelo, like
[42:33] the the attacking full back, being able to play in Classico
[42:35] is where we defended Messi because Zidane had it locked
[42:38] down. And just it's like you can
[42:41] defend guys like that. What I like about Lamine and
[42:44] what he's doing is or just Barcelona is there's no question
[42:47] who the creator is on that team. It's like Pedre has the ball to
[42:50] safely get it to Lamine. Then from there, it is Lamine's
[42:53] job and everyone from there has a job to open space and make
[42:57] Lamine as dangerous as possible here when Vinny has the ball and
[43:01] Bobby makes the run for himself to get and like.
[43:04] And yeah, I mean, today we we definitely will spotlight Vinny
[43:07] making a couple mistakes. Some people are asking for him
[43:09] to be sold for a billion, others pointing out that you can't
[43:12] maybe get actually a billion for him.
[43:14] And is it is a sticky situation. You want him to stay.
[43:17] You want the coach to convince him you don't want it to give
[43:20] him an extension for a large fee right now, I think, I think the
[43:23] problem is the end of the season was kind of uncertain as to
[43:26] whether you give him 30 million a year.
[43:28] I know I'm so confident he said you give it to him.
[43:30] I think I'm very confident in saying you don't piss him off.
[43:33] Like you, you want to be clear to him internally.
[43:36] We know you've done more for us than in Bath.
[43:38] We know you tried helping accommodate him.
[43:40] But you know, at the same time you need both of those guys to
[43:44] get each other as like allies on the pitch.
[43:46] It feels like they don't see each other as like allies.
[43:49] I, I feel like I see an Mbappe who's just looking for his route
[43:53] to go, a Vinny who's looking like, how can I like go get get
[43:56] something going. And when there's open space that
[43:59] both of them have created for each other in those two V runs,
[44:02] 2V zeros, they don't like see it.
[44:04] They're just on a vision towards like, how can I get mine?
[44:07] And. I, I, I, I love what you're
[44:09] seeing here, Sid, because I think I might have told you this
[44:11] story before. You've heard it before.
[44:15] Vinny and and Mbappe are clearly elite world class.
[44:20] Arguably, if you're taking the five best players in the world,
[44:24] I don't know that you're picking five players ahead of either of
[44:26] them, right? Like that they are the best of
[44:28] the best, but despite being the best of the best when we're
[44:35] trying to accomplish team goals. And that is what Mbappe said
[44:38] that he's coming here for. He wants to win the Champions
[44:41] League, which by the way, Killian, your former squad in
[44:44] the final and they might win the Champions League and that ain't
[44:47] going to feel so great. But that's a conversation for a
[44:49] different day. This level of sacrifice that
[44:53] everybody has to make. And Vinnie and Mbappe did not do
[44:57] that this year. Wherever the new coach comes and
[44:59] has to do it. But it reminds me of Greg
[45:02] Popovich, the now retired head coach of San Antonio Spurs, who
[45:06] said Hawaii got to the elite level when he realized when I
[45:12] diagram a play, it's not for you to score, it's for us to score.
[45:18] And when Vinnie and Bobby get that in their head and it's
[45:23] about the team scoring, not me winning my Bolland Door or me,
[45:26] whatever, then the visions that we have said of this team where
[45:30] it's like, oh, how frightful is, you know, Jude springing the
[45:35] ball to Benny and Papaya like out on the counter.
[45:37] Yeah, that's when we when they and when we when they understand
[45:40] that when that is unlocked by better positional play, by
[45:44] sacrificing, that's when this club is devastating.
[45:47] And that's when it's like, oh man, look out like because now
[45:51] it's just it's on, right? Because now we're just scoring.
[45:53] It's like what people thought this club would be this year.
[45:55] They were like, OK, we'd be poor defensively, but we're we could
[45:59] average three 3 1/2 goals a game.
[46:00] Kind of like what Barcelona's doing, except we ain't on the
[46:03] offensive end. Yeah, and it's funny, like one
[46:06] of the most iconic images of my young football fandom was
[46:09] Ronaldo and Bale handshake, holding their little Gucci bags
[46:12] or whatever. And everyone's like, oh, the
[46:15] moment when the two, like, superheroes meet.
[46:18] And it's crazy for all the ego talk, all the reports and
[46:21] everything that ever happened, like they never played like they
[46:24] didn't care about, like they always played like they wanted
[46:27] the team to score on the pitch. Like fine, Ronaldo had moments
[46:30] were fine. Like he would throw a tantrum
[46:31] with like Bill, like maybe he wouldn't celebrate his heart if
[46:34] it was a tap in and he was behind it.
[46:36] It didn't get to him. But in general, there was a it
[46:41] was just so seamless. Like I'm looking back, I'm like,
[46:43] God damn. Like even if they even if there
[46:45] was ego, you couldn't tell here. Even if there is an ego, it's
[46:48] not obvious. It's the other way around.
[46:50] Like it the what we saw on the pitch was, and I think I don't
[46:56] want to overplay it, where I don't think it was a case of
[46:58] Lincoln, Papa and Vinnie hitting each other at the end of the
[47:00] scene. But I think there's a lot that's
[47:02] been built up. You need to process it.
[47:03] You. I think the next coach needs to
[47:05] sit down, play the film and talk to them because if you don't
[47:07] have that convo this summer, we're screwed, dude.
[47:10] Like if they don't sit down and be like, all right, we fucked
[47:12] up. Like they need to look and be
[47:13] like we fucked up. We were stupid all year.
[47:15] What are you doing? What am I doing?
[47:17] I'm sorry, what I saw now was like a case of maybe they talked
[47:21] about on the training ground and then Bapi is like, dude, we just
[47:23] talked about this. Like this is the vibe I got from
[47:25] like, we just talked about this. What are you doing?
[47:27] And he's not even like showing it so much.
[47:29] I feel like because he's like you guy here, I can't get that
[47:31] pissed at Vinny, honestly. Team dynamics is again, fans
[47:38] often bypass this stuff and it's not about everyone has to be
[47:41] best friends off the pitch and hang out all the time.
[47:43] It's not about that, but it's about when the 11 are on the
[47:47] pitch together. There is a symbiotic nature
[47:50] where everybody is willing to pull for everybody else because
[47:53] everybody trusts that whoever's going to be where they're going
[47:56] to be and like, and they're going to back each other up.
[47:58] And again, what Barcelona have seemingly right as a as a squad
[48:02] that this club does not right? It's too many individual
[48:05] disparate parts trying to do their own thing versus 11 is one
[48:10] right, 11 much stronger than one right?
[48:15] That's just the that's how math works.
[48:17] So can a new coach get that in? Can it get the and not just the
[48:21] starting 11 get the entire squad to buy into?
[48:24] This is how we play. It's about us and we on the
[48:27] pitch every time. Yeah.
[48:29] And with Mbappe, I think what's paradoxical for me that kind of
[48:32] breaks my brain, I'm realizing. And I've been watching it all
[48:34] year and I've never had to like create vocabulary for what I'm
[48:37] seeing. But generally an off ball player
[48:40] in sports, as you know, like off ball stars are the most valuable
[48:44] because like you can then put them next to an on ball star.
[48:47] And yet like 2 1/2 times the output you would not just double
[48:50] but and so it's. About their gravity, right?
[48:53] It's about their gravity. What they what they pull away
[48:55] because the defense is so afraid of them.
[48:58] Exactly. And it's just, there was just no
[49:02] world where it could be this bad for me because I'm like, OK,
[49:04] just just bring his gravity. And no matter what, even if they
[49:07] hate each other, like they want to score, put his gravity there.
[49:10] But what's happened is like his gravity is always being used for
[49:14] himself. I mean, it's not firstly, he's
[49:15] not using gravity. Instead, it's like I'm running
[49:17] to get the goal. If he could make vertical runs,
[49:20] like just holding it a little wide right, a little wide left.
[49:23] No, it's always curved. Like me, me, me, I'm open, I'm
[49:25] in the middle. It's not like, hey, there's
[49:27] another guy on the right half space.
[49:29] Let me keep making my run straight so he's wide open.
[49:32] No, like they keep curving into each other because they don't
[49:34] care. It's it's infuriating because
[49:37] like I used to watch the old Rihanna streams and wonder like,
[49:40] did they work on this? How are they so perfect?
[49:43] And now I'm like, OK, like they did work on it or they talked
[49:45] about it somewhere like they did because these guys, this is what
[49:48] happens when you don't work on it.
[49:49] Yeah, it it's also but again said, I also think it's football
[49:53] IQ and it's buying into the team concept and knowing that we all
[49:59] I succeed when we succeed. What good is it That and Pompe
[50:04] might win the Pichichi. He might have a forty goal
[50:06] season, all competitions, but we didn't win any major trophies.
[50:10] Who gives a shit? Great, you win a forty goal
[50:12] season. We won zero major trophies.
[50:14] Congratulations, and your former side is probably going to win
[50:16] the Champions League. Great, like right, like what
[50:19] what a shock. They defend better without you
[50:20] right like it, it's it's about us, man, like into your point.
[50:24] It goes back into what I said, like they run into it.
[50:27] It's like, guys, Finney, the pass is coming right up that
[50:31] flank to break one of you. Both of you don't need to run
[50:33] into that spot like you're also dragging your defender with you.
[50:37] Just stay like, why are we doing this, right?
[50:41] It doesn't matter who scores the goal.
[50:44] Like and by the way, about Benny, I think I saw reports it
[50:47] looks like his contract's going to get renewed like any day now.
[50:50] The ESPN put it out. So I Benny, you're going to get
[50:53] paid. Don't worry, Like it's fine.
[50:55] But guys, these are things that matter, right?
[50:57] Benny has to get his ego soothe now, right?
[50:59] And feel like, no, I'm the most important player because I'm
[51:01] getting paid the most. Then it's going to be Jews turn
[51:03] right. And so again, I just really
[51:05] would like, and this is where I preach about this in Sports,
[51:11] Club management, head coach and staff and players have to be in
[51:16] lockstep when there's not trust and, and, and lack of
[51:19] communication and people feeling like, well, oh, this one's favor
[51:22] more than this one. Like it spills over onto the
[51:25] pitch and creates problems, right?
[51:28] And this isn't a sport like basketball where, all right, one
[51:34] guy still can decide, well, F all of you, I'm going to go out
[51:37] and just do my thing and I can still have your team win.
[51:39] It don't work that way in this sport, right?
[51:41] You can't, you can't have that. Like you cannot have that.
[51:44] And you know, too many disparate parts.
[51:46] And we're we're seeing it. Yeah, that's what let us I think
[51:49] the everyone pulling together is what let us overcome the moments
[51:52] last season where we were clearly ill prepared for games
[51:55] and just honestly playing below our talent level in moments to
[51:58] many who come out say, I don't know why we're reactive, but
[52:00] hey, we're. We fought as a team.
[52:03] Yeah, there was a clue and it's gone now.
[52:07] I'm I'm it's funny, the karma of like, not coming to play here
[52:09] while Kareem was still here is is hurting Mbappe badly.
[52:12] Like there's no world where you have Kareem and he's like, like,
[52:16] he's probably if if you do this in front of Kareem, he's telling
[52:19] the team don't pass it to Vinny or Mbappe.
[52:20] Don't give him. The ball ever like.
[52:24] Yeah, it's just funny because and yeah, I guess I did under
[52:28] appreciate Kareem. Like I think because we won last
[52:30] year, it's easy to forget what he brought.
[52:32] And you know, Mbappe comes in then you see, OK, this guy
[52:34] stitched it together. We had one year where maybe like
[52:38] we just had less. And I guess maybe that space he
[52:41] left allowed Vinnie to go into it, really Jude to go into it.
[52:43] But and and they played together, though Jude didn't
[52:47] have the hero complex. Now with Mbappe, there's a
[52:49] complex of like, yo, just get the ball down fast enough.
[52:52] We'll do the rest. Bro, what are you waiting for?
[52:53] Like bring the ball. And it feels like everyone's
[52:56] just always like in a rush, like waiting, like almost impatient,
[53:00] just waiting for the next pass to come to them.
[53:02] Yeah, but but you said it come to them, right?
[53:05] Like connectivity, is that about the past coming to you?
[53:08] It's about what is the right pass for us to be in the
[53:11] advantageous situation. So we score, not about me
[53:13] scoring. We Real Madrid has to score here
[53:15] we are down a goal, not you are down a goal.
[53:17] We How do we get a goal now? Yeah, and that's where this is
[53:22] probably like the Zidane teams were infuriating because we
[53:24] played slow against the blocks without talent.
[53:27] So it was like death by 1000 crosses.
[53:29] It was boring. But like that dude, they just
[53:32] didn't have the guys to go get the space.
[53:34] This team has the guys and just throws it away and.
[53:37] Every time. Every time.
[53:38] And and so in that regard, this was the worst season I've seen
[53:42] as a Real Madrid fan. I know I started watching
[53:44] towards the Mourinho years like later and the Mourinho's time
[53:48] here and 2019 at least. We got Regalon, Vinicius broke
[53:52] out, we got Marcos Laurente broke out.
[53:55] We got some money out of those guys this year.
[53:58] I just feel like we kind of lost value in a lot of players.
[54:01] We lost held years of like valuable years, prime age years
[54:07] of of many key assets that we have at the team were burnt for
[54:10] nothing in return. And I think this was the worst
[54:14] season I've seen as a Real Madrid fan for like 50.
[54:16] It it I it's pretty bad, Sid, like, I mean, I started to being
[54:19] a fan a little bit earlier than you 09, but it's up there.
[54:22] It's it's pretty bad. I will say one of the things
[54:28] that I'm looking forward to this team going forward, not only the
[54:31] signings and all that stuff with the new coach.
[54:34] Look, I love Carlo. I love his belief in things and
[54:38] his hierarchy and all of that, but I believe that stuff is
[54:41] earned, man. And because team is a leader and
[54:47] the leader or leaders, the leader doesn't have to be the
[54:52] the highest paid player. I'm I'm not I'm not a person
[54:54] who's like, oh, well, the person makes more salary.
[54:56] It's whatever your nature is. I think that's right.
[54:58] Like that's, that's and to me, all of these guys that are
[55:02] healthy and playing right now, Jude is the leader to me of this
[55:07] squad. And I don't care that he's 21.
[55:10] It doesn't matter. Like who gives a shit?
[55:12] Like I don't like, oh, wait, he's not he's not old enough.
[55:15] Like I don't care about that stuff, man.
[55:16] Like this to me is the guy that can rally and get people to fall
[55:22] in behind him. And I think he has to have that
[55:26] voice. Hopefully he'll be empowered to
[55:28] have that voice from a new coach.
[55:30] I know, I know, look, I know Madrid has its way of doing
[55:32] things right. It's like, Oh, that's how they
[55:33] keep long standing players all the time.
[55:35] I I know all that, but we cannot let the history of our club and
[55:41] all of that blind us from the realities of the present and
[55:45] modern day, OK? Because no one at this club
[55:49] currently who's on this roster going forward into next season
[55:53] besides possibly Carvajal, right?
[55:56] And again, as I said to you on our keep keep cell alone show,
[55:59] Sid. I'm already in that.
[56:01] We're facing Carvajal into his bench role now because we're
[56:04] getting Trent, well, Trent Stanton, not car ball, right.
[56:08] So like, how much voice can you have when you are a bench player
[56:12] versus a starter, right? You can have some still for
[56:15] sure, But on the pitch, it's the guy who's there.
[56:17] And to me that is Bellingham and he needs to be empowered to have
[56:20] that kind of that kind of leadership.
[56:23] And I I think he wants it and he wants to grab all the scruff of
[56:25] the neck. I go back to again the Super
[56:27] Cup, the first UEFA Super Cup, first match of the season when
[56:31] he's running his heart out and he's like, yo, Vinnie and Boppe
[56:34] finish the freaking plays. When I get you the ball up there
[56:37] because I can't keep running up and down this pitch, I'm it's
[56:40] killing me. He's the guy to me.
[56:43] Yeah, I think, I think the accountability will come from
[56:48] the coach, no question. I think I think the next coach
[56:51] should do a good job with guys like Chu, a many, Cannavino,
[56:55] Bellingham. I think the club is in a moment
[56:57] where they kind of have to trust the coach a little.
[57:00] And if things go wrong, like, I think like there are moments
[57:03] where you can lead on a coach and then when they've won a
[57:05] couple of years, you know, the squad's good.
[57:07] OK, Like, stop complaining. We have evidence.
[57:09] I think now it's the flip where, OK, what went wrong this year?
[57:12] Maybe listen to the coach. And I hope Alonzo is kind of
[57:15] trusted the way Zidane was when he can.
[57:17] And Zidane even had to claw and earn it.
[57:19] But once you win that first Champions League, it's like, OK,
[57:21] we, we have to listen to you. No doubt and I think you know
[57:25] he'll get Alonzo will get buying from the players I think right
[57:27] away. But his pedigree and what he's
[57:29] won, that's the key. And Vinny, like can Jude and
[57:35] Alonzo and Vinny, can Jude and Alonzo successfully create an
[57:39] environment where Vinny and I'm honestly, it's not Vinny, it's a
[57:42] Bombay. We've won with Vinny, we've won
[57:44] with Vinny defending the. Way it's a Bombay, it's a Bombay
[57:47] and there has to be a wasted in which Alonzo comes and his staff
[57:53] create an environment. To your point with Bellingham,
[57:56] with Val Verde, I know Freddy's quiet, I know, but with Val
[58:00] Verde, with Trumani, with Kemah Vinga to the French guys as part
[58:03] of that where it's almost peer pressure, right?
[58:07] Where it's like, bro, everyone else, all other 9 outfield
[58:11] players have bought in except you, right?
[58:14] Where you can during film session, right after you have a
[58:17] match where you shows, hey, these are our stats.
[58:20] Look at all the run stats, everybody in the whatever
[58:22] percentile, Cillian, look at you in the first percentile, not
[58:26] good. And not even the coach calling
[58:28] it out, his fellow players, his teammates, Because nothing worse
[58:31] than when your peers call you out, right?
[58:32] When they're like, bro, you got to be better, man.
[58:35] We're all sacrificing and giving up.
[58:36] And you're not, you're not giving the whole, everyone's
[58:39] seen the video where Enrique is saying, oh, Michael Jordan's
[58:42] your favorite player. That's not going to work because
[58:44] and Bobby, for whatever reason, doesn't respect Enrique.
[58:46] Whatever, right? It's not when your peers are
[58:49] calling you out to that level, you, you're one of two options.
[58:53] I either got to do what I got to do or this is going to be a
[58:56] problem, right? And I I don't know that Mbapi
[58:59] wants to be that kind of problem in the locker room.
[59:01] And will they then have the ability to say, if it's not
[59:05] happening, will Shabby Alonso have the backing of the board to
[59:10] go to them and say, look, man, I got to put this dude on the
[59:13] bench because he's not playing. It's the capability that we
[59:15] need. He's not defending.
[59:18] Will you support me on this? And it flows like, yeah, then
[59:20] cool, let's let's make it happen, right?
[59:22] That's the environment you need. Luis Enrique in 2014, fifteen
[59:26] got such crazy defensive output of a team with Neymar, Suarez,
[59:30] Messi on the same team. I keep going back there.
[59:33] Shorter guys, not the tallest, super gifted.
[59:36] Maybe you could say ego problems where obviously Messi started up
[59:39] front, Suarez started on the right wing.
[59:41] Messi didn't want to leave striker at the start of the
[59:43] season. Enrique is a different breed to
[59:46] Alonzo. Like he's like the Barcelona
[59:48] strongman breed. They they like their very coachy
[59:50] coaches over there for sure. Whereas we, we don't always
[59:54] respond as well to that. But we're as we talk about their
[59:56] cycles and we're back in that cycle that we were in 2016, that
[1:00:00] we were in 2010, where we need the tactical coach.
[1:00:04] So I it really has come to a moment where we have to solve
[1:00:07] this and we're not going to move forward without it.
[1:00:10] Maybe we get through a month or two at some point.
[1:00:12] It should come to a head this season.
[1:00:13] I hope it doesn't. End up like that 1415 Barcelona
[1:00:16] because that team was volatile, they almost fell apart.
[1:00:18] Enrique could have been sacked when he benched messy Neymar mid
[1:00:21] season in January, he could have been sacked.
[1:00:24] I hope it doesn't get that tenuous.
[1:00:26] That's my hope. My hope is that it's a very
[1:00:28] smooth transition into Mbappe playoff ball, make decoy runs
[1:00:32] and you you plunder goals. I hope it's there and it's not
[1:00:36] like a month of them figuring out like we already went through
[1:00:39] all that this year. I hope.
[1:00:40] I hope they use the data. Look at look at what we use the
[1:00:43] film we saw like Learn in a season.
[1:00:47] That, that that's, that's the beauty of, you know, people will
[1:00:49] always ask like, oh, you know, God, that's been so bad this
[1:00:53] year. Like what do you even take away
[1:00:54] from that? I'm like, plenty.
[1:00:55] Look at all of the problems you have nothing but problems to
[1:00:59] diagnose when you watch Madrid film this year.
[1:01:01] Nothing but problems. On every end, yeah, it's
[1:01:03] annoying. It's not like, oh, they need one
[1:01:05] guy or they need this. It's like, OK, you have to learn
[1:01:07] to defend in a block again. You got to learn to play
[1:01:09] methodically again, you got to get your attackers out of their
[1:01:12] head and egos and play together. You need a striker.
[1:01:15] Your board's not really in the team.
[1:01:16] It's everything. And yeah, I'm, I'm excited
[1:01:20] though, because I as listen, I've seen a Champions League
[1:01:22] every other season as a fan. And I've been through these
[1:01:24] moments where I'm wondering, are we going to win another soon?
[1:01:26] And we always do. And we usually get the depth.
[1:01:29] So we we get the depth, we get a different coach and eventually
[1:01:33] what happens is like better talent eventually wins.
[1:01:35] That's how the world works, is my understanding.
[1:01:37] Generally speaking, yes, I think one of the the fears though is
[1:01:41] that we don't fall into that or we're Madrid.
[1:01:43] We'll just get who we need and it's going to happen.
[1:01:44] I still think that a new coach and a different type of
[1:01:49] discipline needs to be brought into the squad and I think squad
[1:01:52] depth because Sid, the fixture calendar is not getting smaller
[1:01:56] as we go forward. It's just getting bigger and
[1:01:57] bigger and bigger. And Real Madrid is obsessed with
[1:01:59] playing in every tournament because we need money
[1:02:01] apparently. So if there's potential for us
[1:02:04] to play 70 to 80 plus matches every season, we cannot do it
[1:02:08] with this then of a squad. We have to have a true A&B squad
[1:02:12] here. We have to.
[1:02:13] There's no other option. We're not going to make it if we
[1:02:16] don't do that. And because guess who can do it?
[1:02:19] All the oil back teams can do it.
[1:02:20] PSG, Man City, like they can do it because they've got infinite
[1:02:23] money. So if you want to come into me,
[1:02:26] that's what's going to decide who wins champions going forward
[1:02:29] is who has squad depth top to bottom.
[1:02:31] And if we don't have it, we're going to be at a severe
[1:02:35] disadvantage. So just because we won six of
[1:02:37] the last 11 doesn't mean that up we're going to go on a similar
[1:02:39] run like that. Again, look through the history
[1:02:41] of this competition. Besides us, no team has gone on
[1:02:45] that kind of run ever. Why?
[1:02:47] Because it's highly unlikely. It's just not feasible, right?
[1:02:50] It's just not normal. Think about it, freaking the
[1:02:54] second most successful club is what AC Milan in in this
[1:02:56] tournament, they've won seven if I'm not mistaken.
[1:02:58] When was the last time AC Milan was in the final?
[1:03:01] Yeah, no, under Carlo it. It just this takes time, man.
[1:03:06] Like you're not shit in this time since Barcelona last one at
[1:03:10] the Champions League, which was 2015, if I'm not mistaken, we've
[1:03:15] won. We won five in that time.
[1:03:17] This is it's not normal people. So this idea of all where Madrid
[1:03:21] is going to happen again, that's not how I would bet on it.
[1:03:23] I would bet on getting my house in order in terms of proper
[1:03:26] coach. We want in here proper squad
[1:03:28] depth so that we can again, we have everything set up leading
[1:03:33] into next season. And on that subject, Sid, I want
[1:03:36] to finish here. The season's obviously over,
[1:03:38] right? Like we're not winning the
[1:03:39] league because we're a billion points behind and not enough
[1:03:41] games, whatever. So that's over.
[1:03:44] Why is Fede Jude, why are any of these people playing football
[1:03:48] for us club wise, the rest of this La Liga season?
[1:03:51] They should. They just shouldn't.
[1:03:53] Yeah, they just shouldn't. I mean, there have been a lot of
[1:03:55] moments this season, big losses, where we should have rotated.
[1:03:57] We never did and we just kept playing them hoping to find
[1:04:00] discover something before the next big game.
[1:04:02] No more big games. So discover what, what?
[1:04:05] What do we discover? No season's over.
[1:04:07] I hope they, I hope they take a look.
[1:04:09] It's just like like 2019, we our season was over early.
[1:04:13] Zidane came in, he just played everyone to see who he should
[1:04:16] keep and who he wants to sell. And we did that and it looked
[1:04:18] bad. But that's what happened.
[1:04:20] And I, I don't really care how bad it looks the next few games.
[1:04:23] Yeah. I don't.
[1:04:24] Care, yeah, but I think they definitely should just let other
[1:04:26] guys play. We're we're in no danger of
[1:04:28] dropping out of Champions League.
[1:04:31] So like we're, we're fine in terms of where we finish in the
[1:04:34] league. So it is what it is, right?
[1:04:36] I think for the most part, the club knows who they're going to
[1:04:39] keep at least from like it's big names.
[1:04:41] So got Valverde, we know we're keeping him.
[1:04:43] Let him rest, right? We we know that.
[1:04:46] Like, I think Guler should play a ton.
[1:04:48] I think Brahim should play. I think Hendrick should play
[1:04:50] right? Like call it some Castilla kids.
[1:04:52] Jude should get his surgery, as I mentioned.
[1:04:55] And this goes to Club World Cup, which we can't avoid.
[1:04:59] We're obviously going because again, that starts June 14th or
[1:05:02] whatever. So literally like a month from
[1:05:04] now, these guys aren't going to have a proper summer break.
[1:05:07] So let them have the summer break now.
[1:05:09] Let Jude get his surgery now Camo bingo's already out.
[1:05:12] Like again, just play the kids, man, Play the kids and Andrick
[1:05:16] and Arta and all. Just let those guys.
[1:05:18] And by the kids, I mean call up Castilla kids collect them.
[1:05:21] It doesn't matter what happens now.
[1:05:23] Like it really doesn't. You know who you're keeping
[1:05:25] unless you want to spam and bopping the ball.
[1:05:27] So he wins the Pachichi. But to me that's a bad idea said
[1:05:30] because that fits into the idea, the precedence of what we talked
[1:05:33] about before, which is about me scoring, right?
[1:05:35] It's even though it's a little, it's a little thing.
[1:05:38] It's giving him that idea of, oh, this club's going to cater
[1:05:40] to what I want and I want to win the Pachici, right?
[1:05:42] No, you don't get to win the Pachici.
[1:05:44] Like, sorry, you know what I mean?
[1:05:46] Like we don't care about those awards.
[1:05:47] Like we care about winning Champions League, winning
[1:05:50] league, like, and we didn't do those.
[1:05:52] So later for you and those individual awards, that's
[1:05:55] personally what I would do. And I'll finish with this, you
[1:05:58] know, the Barcelona thing and Hansi Flick and well, you know,
[1:06:02] he's going to wear his guys out. So in like 3 years or 2 1/2 or
[1:06:05] whatever, they're all going to be dead, blah blah blah.
[1:06:07] Maybe because here's what I'll say, that Barcelona has a huge
[1:06:10] edge that we don't have. They're not playing Club World
[1:06:12] Cup this summer, so they're players.
[1:06:14] And there's no major international tournament this
[1:06:15] summer either. So guess who's going to get a
[1:06:17] full 2-3 months off this summer is Barcelona, Right?
[1:06:22] And don't be surprised next year if they race out to a big jump
[1:06:26] yet again because they're gonna be fresh and healthy.
[1:06:29] Meanwhile, we would have already been played Club World Cup and
[1:06:32] all that other bullshit, right? Like, I just like the club's
[1:06:36] gonna do it because they need the money.
[1:06:37] So they're gonna or they're gonna play it.
[1:06:38] I just don't love it and I hope that we find a way at least in
[1:06:42] the group stage of the Club World Cup when it's against
[1:06:43] teams that like are below us in level, that we don't need to
[1:06:46] burn Vinnie and Jude and all these guys into the ground
[1:06:48] playing them 90 minutes in matches like that and we can win
[1:06:51] with other players it we'll have to see what happens there.
[1:06:55] Yeah, I'm curious to see if they when the new coach comes in
[1:06:59] Alonzo, when the new fitness plan is implemented, because you
[1:07:03] can you can play the Club World Cup and then accept that you're
[1:07:05] going to have a slow start to next season and give your guys
[1:07:07] off. Or maybe you can do something
[1:07:10] where you take now off fully and you start ramping them up.
[1:07:15] Maybe you have a slow start to the Club World Cup, but then
[1:07:18] you're you. They don't need to make much
[1:07:20] time before pre season, which as a player, I I don't even know
[1:07:23] how you like this. Like damn, don't you want to
[1:07:25] just go like you? Like you would sign these
[1:07:27] contracts to go spend it on vacation like.
[1:07:30] If you were a player, you want two months off to go to the
[1:07:33] beach and do what? And by the by, two months off,
[1:07:35] unless you're Eden Hazard who didn't give a shit about
[1:07:37] anything. These guys don't like literally
[1:07:39] do nothing for two months. It thinks of about the most of
[1:07:42] them two weeks Max before they're back in the gym working
[1:07:44] out again because they're just psycho freaks like that.
[1:07:46] It's just who they are, so, and that's fine.
[1:07:48] The point is to keep them off their feet playing fucking world
[1:07:51] class football, right? I don't want them doing that for
[1:07:54] two months. No world class football for two
[1:07:55] months, thank you very much. Like they need a break from
[1:07:58] doing that. Yeah, and I'm I'm just curious
[1:08:00] to see if if and when they decide to put this brake like
[1:08:03] you're you're you got to cordon off a section of your squad or
[1:08:06] like you make everyone like you play the bench.
[1:08:09] Maybe you keep the starters in the fray now and like use them
[1:08:13] some minutes and use the games as practices.
[1:08:15] It's just I see what like that ten days between the end of La
[1:08:18] Liga and the Club World Cup. It's just time where like it's
[1:08:21] an opportunity to rest them. I just see it as a waste if you
[1:08:24] don't, But if you do rest them fully, then you know, you get
[1:08:28] more risk of injury, you get more risk of not being sharp.
[1:08:31] The first few games of the Club World Cup.
[1:08:33] You play them and you keep them healthy.
[1:08:35] You you keep them training mildly between the end of the
[1:08:38] season and the Club World Cup. Then you get to the end of
[1:08:41] mid-july and these guys have not had a rest for God knows how
[1:08:44] long and you're screwed. It it's just a trade off.
[1:08:46] But, and it's also like if you don't get rid of Carlo, Alonzo
[1:08:50] needs to have some sort of sway in terms of how we're doing
[1:08:52] this. So when is Carl gone?
[1:08:55] All things answered. He has to have time to implement
[1:08:58] his new system. It's not going to take a day to
[1:08:59] do that. Like he needs a full like camp
[1:09:02] to work with these guys. Yeah, that's where there was an
[1:09:05] idea that we might just float some guys six week contracts and
[1:09:07] keep things together until the end of the Club World Cup.
[1:09:10] That does make sense to me. If you want to like close the
[1:09:12] chapter on this era of Real Madrid more neatly, it might.
[1:09:15] Maybe that's something they do? Hard to say.
[1:09:18] The reports seem to vary every day.
[1:09:20] But. Literally every day I I do
[1:09:22] wonder Sid. Like what could be disastrous
[1:09:26] for this club is we go into the Club World Cup, we get into the
[1:09:31] knockout phase and we don't win it, but we just get more miles
[1:09:36] on our body. So we don't win the big prize
[1:09:38] money. Check the guys have more miles
[1:09:41] and we don't have the like. I just This is why I hate this
[1:09:44] competition with the fiber of every fiber of my being.
[1:09:48] Hate it so much and I hate that we're that we agreed to
[1:09:50] participate in it. Yeah.
[1:09:53] I mean, the money makes sense. So I see why we did, especially
[1:09:55] because it's once every four years and they they agreed to
[1:09:58] cut out the the one they do every year in return, which at
[1:10:01] least I guess that's a little fair.
[1:10:04] Do you get the winner? OK, so it is, it is like
[1:10:07] cumulative where if you win the final you get 40 million.
[1:10:10] If you make the final you get 30 separately.
[1:10:12] So it's 70 for making and winning the final, 21 just for
[1:10:15] making it to the semi right? So it's 91.
[1:10:18] Yeah, yeah. So there.
[1:10:20] So your total prize money is 150 if you win the whole thing,
[1:10:23] right? That's the yeah.
[1:10:24] Yeah, yeah. And it seems to happen in grades
[1:10:26] of like 20 to 30, depending on how far, like group stage you
[1:10:29] get 2,000,000 per win, making the round of 16 is 8 million
[1:10:32] quarterfinals, 13. So in each round you get more.
[1:10:35] That's smart, that's smart. That really makes you want to go
[1:10:37] far. See, and this is the problem and
[1:10:40] I in in many ways, Sid, I wish we just like don't advance out
[1:10:44] of the group and like, you know, and that way like we have more
[1:10:47] offseason. I I get that like the club wants
[1:10:49] the money, but like man like. Understood on we would have
[1:10:55] managed it quite well like the two the two squads things.
[1:10:58] So it'll be interesting to see like.
[1:11:00] Unless, unless we sign that squad that they'll talk about
[1:11:03] where we're going to have legit, legit A&B squad, then OK, then
[1:11:06] I'm down. But I just don't have no
[1:11:07] confidence that we're going to do that.
[1:11:09] That's the thing. I think what happens is we get
[1:11:11] another year like some people have alluded to, we had a post
[1:11:14] World Cup style season where nobody knows who's healthy until
[1:11:17] the very end. And you might you might look
[1:11:19] healthy till no December this coming season and then fall
[1:11:22] apart, which is just more unpredictability.
[1:11:26] It doesn't hurt some of the IT doesn't hurt the bottom line of
[1:11:28] the industry. I think that's where it's like a
[1:11:31] season like this, everyone like where Man City get hurt.
[1:11:33] It changes it up interim Paris in the final.
[1:11:35] We're going to get more of this where teams go into seasons
[1:11:38] prepared. And if maybe a team with a
[1:11:41] lesser squad gets a better roll of the dice and they win it all
[1:11:43] that year, I feel like that's where we're going in football.
[1:11:46] More competitions, more injuries, more like randomness
[1:11:48] with who's healthy and wins. And so the team that wins is the
[1:11:52] team that happened to put five guys on a minute's load and not
[1:11:56] get any of them hurt that year. And and maybe it's a multi year
[1:12:00] thing now where the team that wins is the team that over a
[1:12:03] three-year span didn't like burn out their guys because they
[1:12:05] weren't going for it one year. It's just.
[1:12:07] Had had the least injuries, all those things, which is why
[1:12:10] again, you, you, you fit right into the point I made earlier.
[1:12:13] You know, this is what the calendar schedule is going to
[1:12:15] schedule is going to look like. You have to plan accordingly and
[1:12:18] have the proper squad depth and appropriate rest minutes and all
[1:12:21] that sort of thing. So that you're doing this in
[1:12:23] like 3 year increments, right, where you're like, OK, because
[1:12:26] this idea of all right, so where next year we'll win it all or
[1:12:28] what it's like that's not going to happen guys.
[1:12:31] Like it's just this is not going to be the strategy to do it
[1:12:33] going forward. Yeah.
[1:12:34] Then you like win the year, you're healthy.
[1:12:36] Then you get hurt the year after and then you happen to get
[1:12:38] healthy again. It's it's like it's not, you're
[1:12:40] not controlling everything in your hands for sure.
[1:12:44] And yeah, it'll be fascinating to see.
[1:12:46] So yeah, we're going to wrap it up here.
[1:12:49] It's been a fun. I mean, not honestly not.
[1:12:51] It hasn't yet. It's been fun talking with you.
[1:12:54] That's been fun. I'm going to be honest, this has
[1:12:57] been the least fun I've ever had watching this team.
[1:12:59] I hated this season. You could see the writing on the
[1:13:01] wall after a point and like this is the same feelings you you you
[1:13:05] feared with Carlo when he signed you just happened to put it off
[1:13:07] for four years. Very grateful for that.
[1:13:09] Thank you, Carlo for for whatever you achieved.
[1:13:12] But yeah, like not not been fun, but I hope we have more fun
[1:13:17] following this team during the Club World Cup.
[1:13:20] Definitely just going to our next episode's going to be like
[1:13:23] when we know it's Alonzo. I don't know if we're ever going
[1:13:25] to talk about a Carlo post game ever again on this, if even
[1:13:28] news, even news, we will be back in.
[1:13:31] I mean, he won't, but we would have been back in 2027.
[1:13:35] He's not renewing. But no, it's, it's, it's been a
[1:13:37] tough season, Madridistas. But you know, look, all is not
[1:13:42] lost, right? I've said it before, we have a
[1:13:43] lot of talent on this team. We just need the right sort of
[1:13:46] alchemy to get it all together. And we need some other pieces,
[1:13:49] right? We we need to, again, within the
[1:13:51] team itself, we need our fitness, performance training,
[1:13:55] health, medical staff, all that needs to be revamped and done
[1:13:57] better. And you know, the club has got
[1:13:59] to strengthen us at positions with true squad depth and
[1:14:02] different profiles. Will they do it?
[1:14:05] All those things I mentioned? I don't know.
[1:14:06] So that's what I'm going to be much more focused on this summer
[1:14:09] is what are we making any of those kinds of moves versus, you
[1:14:13] know, Club World Cup? I'm excited for the post game
[1:14:16] shows to be interesting again. Like their tactics are a thing.
[1:14:19] You might forget when you run the same tactics for four years
[1:14:21] and you get bored of like like, damn, is it fall 21 or 23?
[1:14:25] Like I don't know when it's literally the same thing.
[1:14:28] It's like years. It's like, oh, the press sucks.
[1:14:29] Like oh, we're not building up. Like oh the.
[1:14:31] Press sucks. Spam mini like it's.
[1:14:34] The same things and it's like it's just funny because like I
[1:14:37] just remember when saw Zidane implement all this in the 1st
[1:14:39] place, I'm like, oh hell yeah, mid block like no Ronaldo, we
[1:14:42] win the league and we we go and we don't concede a goal to Messi
[1:14:45] in both classicos and to see all that undone in real time and
[1:14:48] then to like not know what I'm on the show for anymore Like
[1:14:52] what? Like we don't talk about
[1:14:53] anything new. That's been a trip.
[1:14:55] And with Alonzo, I'm a little confident at least he tries
[1:14:58] things and I'm I'm confident he does it like Zidane where maybe
[1:15:02] he gets things wrong. Well, Saddam was weird.
[1:15:04] He was more of a rookie than Alonzo is coming in.
[1:15:06] Saddam was a pure, like much more of a pure rookie.
[1:15:09] Alonzo has done this stuff in the Bundesliga.
[1:15:11] So I'm excited to just see games where we try to do things and
[1:15:14] like differently. We try things and we're actually
[1:15:16] trying something different than what we've seen all year.
[1:15:19] Like it's not a different lineup, like with the same
[1:15:21] tactics, it's going to be different tactics in the same
[1:15:24] line up for a change. I feel like sometimes if we try
[1:15:26] to break down this real, like you have to like see things
[1:15:29] where they're not there. It's just guys just trying to
[1:15:31] pull the shit off all the time. Like it's nothing cohesive.
[1:15:34] He's not like there is no geometry to it.
[1:15:36] There is no playbook where you can see what we're trying to do.
[1:15:39] Pragmatism will be Alonzo's best friend. 100% Well, thank you all
[1:15:44] for tuning in. Please subscribe, like check us
[1:15:47] out, stay locked in. We hope to have our website and
[1:15:50] a lot of more short form content and everything expanded soon.
[1:15:53] So thank you all. And you know, forget about Real
[1:15:56] Madrid. Just go enjoy your Sunday.
[1:15:57] Go eat out, do something else. All right, guys, take care.

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