# Rayo Vallecano v Real Madrid Preview

An episode of [The Real Deal: A Real Madrid Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1807821669), 8 Nov 2025, 47 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/103607aa8/podcast/play/110864486/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-10-8%2F411048607-44100-2-5196e65aec6ed.mp3

Loconte and Jarod Hector preview the Rayo Vallecano game with keys for Xabi Alonso's side and things to watch out for.

## Transcript

[0:00] Hello and welcome to The Real Deal, a Real Madrid podcast with
[0:04] me. Jerrod Hector joined as always
[0:06] on my guy Lecante. What's up, Lecante?
[0:07] Yo, what's up? How's it going?
[0:10] It's going well, man. It's Friday, end of the week,
[0:13] I'm feeling good. I'm over the Liverpool loss.
[0:16] Like that should happen days ago.
[0:18] Whatever, life moves on. Like I did a long twat on the
[0:22] thread on Twitter about this and I was like, guys, the sun rose
[0:25] the next day. Like life goes on, like it's in
[0:28] November. We're fine.
[0:29] Like it's fine. Like everything's fine.
[0:31] Like what? There are things the team needs
[0:32] to get better at, for sure. No doubt.
[0:34] We thought we'll talk about some of that today, but the sky is
[0:37] not falling. So that note is just suggested
[0:40] to touch some grass. Guess as the kids say, go touch
[0:44] some grass man. Yes, a little housekeeping and
[0:48] update for you guys. We normally do the Friday show
[0:52] as a full on mailbag. We're doing a little bit
[0:54] different going forward. We're gonna preview the Rabbi
[0:57] Icono mashup this Sunday. We're going to answer some
[1:00] questions on towards the end and there's some questions I have
[1:05] for the Conti as well. And then on Mondays, we'll
[1:08] switch that to the news show day where we do this week in Real
[1:11] Madrid where we discuss any news that happened and anything else
[1:14] that's going on. So I wonder and as always, thank
[1:18] you everybody for tuning in. As you know, please like this
[1:21] video. We appreciate it helps in the
[1:22] algorithm. Please subscribe to the channel,
[1:24] share it with your friends, tell all your Madridisa friends and
[1:27] even your anti Madridisas who like to hate watch us to tune in
[1:30] and subscribe to this right 'cause we got we got good stuff
[1:33] here. But Dante, here's something I
[1:35] was thinking about in terms of, you know, as as you often do,
[1:40] you watch matches after they're already done, when you know the
[1:42] outcome because the emotions gone, you already know whether
[1:44] we won a law, so whatever. So you're not watching it for
[1:47] that reason. You're like, OK, what did we do
[1:49] right? What did we do wrong?
[1:51] What needs help, all that sort of thing.
[1:53] And I was thinking about the squad as I was sort of
[1:55] rewatching the, the the Liverpool match.
[1:56] And one of the things that came to my mind is this idea of
[2:01] understanding time, space and movements.
[2:05] And I think this is true of just about any sport.
[2:08] Like if you watch little kids play basketball or football,
[2:13] especially like 8 and under, right?
[2:14] So really young, they all tend to run and gravitate to where
[2:17] the ball is, right? And it's very clustered and
[2:19] crowded and it's just like, it looks like shit, right, 'cause
[2:22] they don't, they don't know any better.
[2:23] But as they get older, they understand, OK, space, I gotta
[2:26] go where the spaces, I gotta go where the space.
[2:28] Space. Bring my defender away from my
[2:30] man so that he and you learn and you learn and you learn.
[2:33] And it sounds crazy to say, but I feel like in Javi Alonzo's
[2:37] system, we still have players who don't understand.
[2:40] Look, there's space. Just take two steps up and you
[2:43] have space. You are now an outlet and now
[2:46] you help us in our build up, right?
[2:48] One play I was thinking of in particular was Chu a menu
[2:52] everyone knows I love and he's a monster taking care of zone 14
[2:55] for us, right? But when we're building up and
[2:57] our center back gets the ball to Jude in that right hand space,
[3:00] right? And let's say he's in like zone
[3:01] 11, right on that right side, we have just above 14.
[3:06] There's like space, like, right, It's empty in that part, but too
[3:09] many still back towards the center back.
[3:11] And I'm like, my guy, if you just take one step forward, Jude
[3:14] can find you. And look, I'm going to ask you
[3:17] to be pedry in there. You can just receive the ball.
[3:19] You can either probably give it right back to him because he can
[3:22] run behind his defender, or you can carry the ball forward until
[3:25] the defense shifts to you. Then you play it off to the open
[3:28] man. And I feel like he just hasn't
[3:30] quite figured out how to do that yet.
[3:33] It's also the freedom, it's also coaching the instructions, like
[3:37] there are a lot of question marks with the team itself.
[3:39] But yes, as you said, if Chomini for example on that play just
[3:43] makes the run forward, he would immediately push Liverpool back
[3:48] and there is space to work with now we can release, we can move
[3:53] it forward, we can build it again.
[3:55] Football, as I always say, it's a sport of low margins.
[3:59] A mistake like that can be very costly and if you're doing that
[4:02] constantly then that's a clear problem.
[4:06] But more broader picture is what is the coach looking for the
[4:09] same? Naturally the game against
[4:12] Liverpool is the game where you felt something that we have
[4:16] spoken about post games that this team is simply still over
[4:19] reliant on creativity from the players and there are clear
[4:24] dynamics that need to be fixed in on the offensive end.
[4:27] Because his focus was way more shifted towards the defense
[4:30] compared to the film that this was last from last season.
[4:34] Fair enough. To that extent, what I have
[4:37] picked up since the El Clasico at bare minimum is the fact that
[4:41] he wants Vinicius to be the offensive engine.
[4:44] He wants the ball to go through Vinnie's issues at any cost,
[4:47] which is really understandable as we have spoken about Vinnie's
[4:50] countless times. But he's trying to facilitate
[4:54] the play with Jude Bellingham and Ardagulaire and and Bapa is
[4:58] kind of then left in a bit of a void and the right hand side is
[5:03] also left in a bit of a void. We'll have to see that and just
[5:06] that when a right back comes back.
[5:10] But it feels that while I have advocated for that going
[5:15] forward, in a setup like the Liverpool game where you want to
[5:18] be more static and more proactive defensively because
[5:21] you don't want to let them run at you, you will end up having
[5:25] those struggles. But with that being said, you
[5:27] mentioned the rewatch and while rewatching it, Venusius got like
[5:30] 7-8 or nine good looks against Conor Bradley and just couldn't
[5:34] beat him. And that's the reality of the
[5:36] story. Venisi Venisius beat him two or
[5:39] three more times and maybe we'll be talking things a lot
[5:43] differently. It's about the gravity and what
[5:45] he's trying to do. Yeah, no, it's yeah.
[5:49] And we'll talk about this later. Some questions I have for you
[5:51] and the sort of our our mail baggy portion about low margin
[5:54] sports. But it, it's just so and I and I
[5:57] get it, right. It's because if you make that
[5:59] mistake, you can concede and one goal may be all you need to
[6:02] concede to lose the match, right?
[6:04] That's just the nature of how the sport is, right.
[6:06] So it's again, it's a work in progress.
[6:08] What's going to have to be that sort of balance between we have
[6:12] to take a risk if we want to score here, but a risk that we
[6:16] know, OK, but I know that if we lose the ball, we're going to be
[6:19] able to get back into our defensive shape and not create
[6:22] numerical superiority for them and, and put ourselves in
[6:25] danger, right? And so, and that's gonna be a
[6:27] work in progress, right? It's like we always say,
[6:29] development's not linear. Look, if this is still a problem
[6:33] in April, well, then we have some serious questions we have
[6:37] to ask ourselves, right? But I expect it to get better
[6:41] over time. And I think as we transition to
[6:43] the Rio preview, Laconte Rio will be a good test for us in
[6:48] that way. Because when I watch Rio, the
[6:51] press, they press like monsters, like and they and they're very
[6:55] physical, much like a Premier League pressing team in that
[6:59] way. And it's La Liga.
[7:01] So I also imagine they're going to foul the shit out of us right
[7:04] and like and be coming in very hard.
[7:06] And so how do we respond to that overly aggressive style of play
[7:10] again, that we have to play the what I'm.
[7:12] Going from Liverpool to Royal, basically the same thing with
[7:15] just lesser quality of players really, and you're morally
[7:20] damaged on this game and you don't want to go morally damaged
[7:23] into the international break and have that and carry that burden.
[7:27] So this game means a lot to the players.
[7:29] We also play before Barcelona, so we don't know that result.
[7:32] There are a lot of things in place here, even mentally, but
[7:36] tactically on Alonzo's case, he just needs to fix a lot.
[7:40] Unfortunately, we got the news that Charmini has been injured,
[7:43] so he's going to be out for the game.
[7:45] Survivors also, so kind of like the two fillers, two players
[7:49] that you would put in there are not going to be there for this
[7:53] game. That means.
[7:56] What camafinga maybe or feta goes back to?
[7:59] Midfield, right back. I don't see him going
[8:02] differently. Yeah, yeah.
[8:04] And I. Think the Jude and Vinnian and
[8:07] Bopper. Yeah, OK.
[8:11] So let's talk about that. So you go back these, you go
[8:15] trend to trend it right back and you bring in Fede a kind of
[8:19] thing, a double pivot, right? So what does that now mean for
[8:24] our build up phase, right, Assuming that it's Carreras and
[8:28] and and house in as as our as our center back, center back and
[8:33] left back that'll help in the build up and Trent now is back
[8:35] to help us in that. But when you outlet to Valverde
[8:40] and Kemavango, what does that mean now for our build up?
[8:47] Hard to comment without watching it because kind of both want to
[8:50] roam a little bit, both want to push a little bit.
[8:53] There's no city player in there. Kamalinga is a city player if we
[8:58] want to do, but that's disservice to all of his other
[9:01] abilities. If he has to do it, he'll do it.
[9:03] I think he'll do it this game. Trent should make it easier to
[9:07] get out of that press. And we were on a group chat and
[9:13] we were talking about Golden State and all of that and the
[9:15] quote of Steph Curry that came out and somehow went.
[9:19] So we had a few hours until this podcast.
[9:23] It also gives people a little bit of story.
[9:25] Didn't have time until tonight. I went and watched Mind the
[9:28] Games with Steve Nash, LeBron James, and Steph Curry instead.
[9:33] Actually, what caught my eye when he said something was the
[9:37] fact that as much as we have reps and things that we want to
[9:41] do, a lot comes down to the way how we think.
[9:45] We know. It's the IQ of the players of
[9:49] the team that makes our style. Even though people have
[9:52] tendencies of thinking that all of this is just cautious work,
[9:55] it's actually also players thinking on a fly and adjusting
[9:59] with something that frankly, to be honest, we have lacked as a
[10:03] team this season. The IQ of the players just has
[10:06] not been there and that's why I wanted to mention it.
[10:09] I thought that it was like a very important quote.
[10:11] That's why I did noted. How are you going to navigate if
[10:18] you're alone? So like freedom is very
[10:21] important for the players and that cannot be taken away at any
[10:25] point if you want to have success, but you need to balance
[10:28] it out. There is too much freedom, which
[10:30] is Ancelotti last season, just way too much.
[10:35] And there's Liverpool game that I want to take as an example. 2
[10:39] rigid, 2 sticking to the structure, no players taking
[10:42] initiative. All look shallow themselves
[10:45] outside of Jude in that action every player is shallow
[10:48] themselves. Can Alonzo just transmit to the
[10:52] players that during those training sessions?
[10:55] Not much tactical drills, but more so on the mental side of,
[10:59] hey, if you see this action happen, you should be
[11:03] comfortable to execute it. For example, Arthur had an open
[11:07] look, I want to say against Liverpool, which he decided
[11:10] possible because that's kind of what he's told the rather than
[11:13] going with the instinct and taking a shot, because a shot on
[11:16] target has a lot of worth and mentally you break a table.
[11:21] So Alonzo just has to figure out to get the players out of
[11:25] themselves. For this game, I I I love that
[11:29] you brought up the Golden State thing.
[11:32] So obviously the big parallel or the big point of difference is
[11:36] this is year, I don't know, 9 billion that Steph and that core
[11:40] is playing within that Stephen within that Steve Kerr system.
[11:43] And they know each other like they know the back of their
[11:45] hands. So there's no thinking.
[11:47] It's just they I already know he's someone who's going to be
[11:50] here. It it is.
[11:52] It's a beautiful thing to watch, right, Because they just
[11:54] understand and it's by the way, it's a hard system to grasp.
[11:57] That's why rookies often struggle when they go to Golden
[11:59] State because they just don't. It's very fast and they just
[12:02] don't know how to read and react.
[12:03] Well. At Madrid, Chabi's implementing
[12:07] a brand new thing. So one, it is obvious to me,
[12:10] Lecante, I think you would agree the players are not 100%
[12:12] comfortable in the system yet #1 so on top of that, I'm not
[12:16] comfortable. So of course my natural
[12:18] instincts are also neutered because I'm like, wait, shit,
[12:20] should I just go off my instinct here or wait?
[12:22] Chabi wants me to sit back and pass and wait.
[12:24] And what did I say on the last show?
[12:26] When you're stopping and thinking you're dead, right, too
[12:29] late, over right? This is professional sports.
[12:32] There has to be a level of instinctualness and if the
[12:35] breakdown is not there, and this is part on choppy too, you have
[12:39] to be able to convince your guys to know.
[12:41] If you don't see this part of the structure, I trust you to
[12:44] break off and go instinctually what you know is the right play
[12:48] to make here and that that that balance isn't there yet.
[12:51] And I don't know what it's going to get there, but it's not there
[12:53] yet. It's not that they like composer
[12:56] on the ball, the way how they circulate the ball seems a
[12:59] little bit scary. You see players getting their
[13:01] heads up and checking where their team mates are is simply
[13:04] not automated enough because as you said, with Golden State,
[13:08] they are automated. They just don't.
[13:10] They already know the drill and to quote again, staff IQ, it's a
[13:14] very important thing grasping and understanding every single
[13:18] situation where you're in. Well, they get paid millions.
[13:21] People seem to think that they don't deserve those, but those
[13:24] are the hard things that come with it is the fact that there's
[13:27] no switch off for any second because any professional just
[13:32] can take the better of you. Like let it be example.
[13:36] We attribute all those over dribbling in deep areas.
[13:39] Well, by going back and rewatching those situations,
[13:43] he's kind of forced into them from time to time.
[13:46] You can say he's not physically imposing.
[13:47] Yeah, well, yeah. Guy cannot change the his
[13:51] genetics now and just suddenly become a tunnel specimen free
[13:56] gets you Bellingham. Well, he cannot really do that.
[13:59] But what I noticed is that he's not always taking the wrong
[14:03] decision. He's kind of put into that
[14:06] position because our players just are not rotating well
[14:09] enough for him to be able to release it.
[14:13] The simple answer might be, hey, boot the ball when you're in
[14:16] that position. But The thing is they're told
[14:18] not to boot the ball. They're told to keep the ball to
[14:21] dominate the game. So he's not going to do that
[14:24] because if he boots it, that's my response.
[14:28] Because are they supposed to be an on ball leader?
[14:30] Kotwa can boot it because Alonzo knows that hey, this is the best
[14:34] shot stopper in the world. So even if he boots it, well,
[14:37] guys make up for it. But order, he's a humble leader
[14:41] so he cannot really boot it and he's being forced into some of
[14:45] these positions which he can get off, but other players should do
[14:49] more to support him. I, I love that you went there
[14:53] because in that example, Lecante, to your point, you as
[14:58] the IQ you have to know, I cannot have Arda in a position
[15:02] where the other, the opponent midfield is bearing down on him
[15:06] because I know Arda physically cannot match up to them.
[15:09] So I don't want to put him in a position where I leave him out
[15:12] to dry. So even if it means we're going
[15:14] to lose possession, I'm going to boot the ball away because
[15:17] better to boot it down feeling have them come back and build up
[15:21] or we can try to win it. I have to build against them,
[15:23] then give it to Arda. He loses it closer to our box
[15:27] now. Now we have a numerical
[15:28] disadvantage and now we give up a goal and it's right.
[15:31] I think you said it a million times.
[15:32] When Collapse says a team scores a goal, it's never because of
[15:34] one person's fault, right? This person did the wrong thing,
[15:36] That person did the wrong thing before that.
[15:38] It's cyclical. 5 people at a minimum did something wrong that
[15:41] led to the goal being scored. On a positive note, but I don't
[15:46] think we're ever going to see coming as right wing anymore.
[15:49] It just takes so much away from him.
[15:52] The angles. Like I saw people questioning
[15:55] his passing and saying that it's below average and I'm like it's
[15:58] above average. It's not elite.
[16:00] I wouldn't call it elite. His line breaking passes are
[16:04] among the elite but his recycling is a little bit.
[16:08] Needs more work. His angles were completely shut.
[16:13] Martin Slot knew what he was doing and for this game against
[16:16] Rio at bare minimum, well, the fortune of the injury, we know
[16:20] that we're not going to see a repeat of that because there is
[16:22] no way for Alonzo to be able to do that unless somehow he calls
[16:26] up a caste midfielder and just goes back to that which
[16:31] realistically it has zero chance of having.
[16:34] So angles do matter. What angles are we generating?
[16:39] Like, for example, let me take this case.
[16:42] I'm not having Chris Paul defend LeBron.
[16:45] I'm going to have a big player that I know that at very least
[16:49] can contest him. And this kind of like the thing
[16:52] with Artha, right? Artha is the Chris Paul.
[16:56] He's not the most physically gifted, but he's passing the way
[17:00] how he's reading passages of play.
[17:02] He's so good that Alonzo keeps insisting with him.
[17:05] And I see the angle. Why?
[17:08] I do see the angle of why you would go a different route, but
[17:13] the other supporting cast need to make up for it.
[17:17] Because now I'm not gonna sit here and say that OK, athletic
[17:21] and Liverpool overrun us because our regulator is not imposing
[17:25] physically, right? Because hey, we have one of the
[17:28] most athletic teams in world of football or any sport.
[17:33] So we're saying that players like Federico Valverde, Cama
[17:36] Vinga, Dermilita Chaumeni, Jude Bellinger, Denise Junior and
[17:41] Killian and Babic can't make up for one player deficiencies
[17:44] physically. We can't set up to the point
[17:47] where teams can target him because other than, you know,
[17:52] football and basketball, even though I take a lot of them,
[17:55] they're different sports. You can't hide the player in
[17:57] basketball the same way how you can hide the player in football
[18:00] because there are more players, there is more ground, the
[18:04] attacks are definitely coming at you less.
[18:06] There's no shot clock, which you have to respect.
[18:10] So can we please do something where I can see the idea?
[18:16] But these players need to be able to make up for that.
[18:20] This is what I'm asking about. I agree I've said it before.
[18:24] The advantage we have is that midfield again, I call them our
[18:27] monstars. Those monstars have to protect
[18:30] Goulair right? If he's going to be Chris Paul.
[18:32] OK, that's fine. Then you guys make up for the
[18:35] fact that you know physically like he is not imposing as as
[18:39] the rest of you are. You have to cover for him in
[18:41] that area. That's the IQ point that you
[18:43] were you were mentioning right. We cannot leave him out high out
[18:45] to drive with these passes that get him stuck in a corner right
[18:48] and he gets the ball taken off him right.
[18:49] That's not right. We have to win duels.
[18:52] We have to move and createspace for him where he we can then get
[18:55] that ball orchestrate and get us into final third, do whatever we
[18:59] have to do to to to to put shots on goal.
[19:02] I I love that shout out to Anthony Tharp and he's like,
[19:04] this is a real major broadcast. I'd love to hear your thoughts
[19:06] on the Blazers draw. What's your NBA pod?
[19:08] So just for those of you that don't know, I work with David
[19:12] Thorpe and Henry Abbott over at true David Thorpe is the
[19:16] godfather player development. So any of your favorite NBA
[19:19] players over the past, I don't know, dozen to two dozen years,
[19:24] David's probably worked with them in the offseason on getting
[19:26] their skills better. That's what he does.
[19:28] He's just not a social media guy.
[19:29] So he's not you're not going to see him on mixtapes like Drew
[19:32] Hanlon on Instagram or any of that stuff.
[19:34] But trust me, he he works with some of the best players in the
[19:37] world. MVPS, all that and troops where
[19:40] we do our podcast. Now we are on a bit of a hiatus
[19:43] on the podcast. We're hope to be back soon, but
[19:46] a lot of stuff going on. My quick thoughts on the Blazers
[19:50] are you got a team that can guard like nobody's business.
[19:54] They are woo those that team can guard.
[19:57] I worry about them scoring and scoring efficiently and well.
[20:00] But you know one thing at a time, right?
[20:02] Kind of like Real Madrid defensively, right?
[20:04] We've gotten better. We haven't figured out a way to
[20:07] convert all of our our shots. I saw a chart in the day that
[20:10] goes from. That the data and B chart like
[20:13] Conte where it was like shots on target in across Europe's 5
[20:16] leagues and we are among the top right.
[20:18] It's like Bayern, US, Barcelona. Yeah, but I'm like, but when you
[20:22] look at like actual goal story, we, we start shifting back the
[20:27] other way. So the good news is we're
[20:29] getting shots, which is a positive.
[20:30] We just got to be better on on on converting them, you know?
[20:34] Yep. I was going to say thank God we
[20:37] don't play against Nick Smith Junior, who was out of week.
[20:40] But yes, I know that though. But yeah, we just, there are a
[20:53] lot of good things. Like on this podcast so far, I
[20:55] probably have come across as like a big ass hazer of Alonzo
[20:59] because I have questioned some of the not actually a lot, a lot
[21:03] of. I just think that the approach
[21:06] needs to be less rigid at times and he needs to be less scared.
[21:11] Yes, we. I know that he was an X Madrid
[21:14] player. He's still kind of coaching like
[21:17] he's a Biolaver cruiser coach. I'm going to be honest, it feels
[21:20] like he doesn't have that 100% faith on the players.
[21:25] Oh. So you know what, let me ask you
[21:26] this because I was going to do part of this in my questions for
[21:30] you, but I'll ask you now since you brought it up.
[21:32] There is a different mentality when you walk into Anfield or
[21:37] the Metropolitano as the head coach of Bio Leverkusen because
[21:41] you are likely going into those matches as the underdog, right?
[21:45] That's generally how how those work.
[21:47] However, when you roll into those matches as Real Madrid,
[21:51] even away from the burnabout, you are Real Madrid.
[21:55] So I want to talk out of both sides of my mouth here.
[21:57] You guys always know I say it doesn't matter that we won three
[22:01] titles in a row 2016 because nobody on those teams are on
[22:05] this team now. So it we don't get any special
[22:08] juice from that squad to this squad.
[22:11] However, when we go to other teams, they see Real Madrid and
[22:16] that is part of what they see. They see the greatest team that
[22:19] wins all the Champions all the time.
[22:20] So in everybody's mind, this is the best team.
[22:24] So we always get everybody's best shot and best version.
[22:28] Liverpool was minus the Aston Villa game and Aston Villa's
[22:31] kind of not playing that well this season, right?
[22:33] Liverpool hasn't been good. They played their best match of
[22:36] the season against us. Talked to a bunch of our
[22:37] Liverpool buddies. They're like, Oh my God, they
[22:38] played so well against you guys. Connor Bradley look, he is a
[22:42] starting right back for Liverpool.
[22:44] So by definition he's a world class footballer right just
[22:47] straight up on definition. However, Vinnies just junior
[22:50] made him look like the best right back in world football
[22:53] right like and his he rose his game level to meet the moment as
[22:59] a Real Madrid player, you have to and a coach you have to know
[23:02] that is par for the course. Every match you play is the
[23:06] greatest match for your opponent.
[23:08] You have to have a way come back and deal with that and I don't
[23:12] know if Chabi understands that. I know he played here, but as a
[23:16] coach I don't know that he's quite understand that yet.
[23:21] I do understand a lot of injuries.
[23:23] There's been a lot of shape shifting, so a lot of things are
[23:25] coming with it. But he's coaching like he's
[23:28] still at Bar Leverkusen. A lot of people love it
[23:31] tactically because there's a lot of attention to detail, like the
[23:36] way how players move, chase, shadow screen, the when, the
[23:41] timing of the jumps. Everything is very calculated.
[23:44] You know what they're going to do.
[23:46] Players stick to the plan. So you also believe on the idea
[23:50] that yes, the players are loving it because they are on the
[23:55] general scope of things. But as I said, sometimes it's
[23:59] better to let it loose a bit of momentum, a bit of telling, you
[24:03] know, like telling them Bapa or Jude or this or that.
[24:07] Hey, it's not really working for Venus, is it?
[24:10] Like he's lost like the 7-8 dribbles that he's made.
[24:14] How about we shift this a little bit?
[24:16] And that's where, like, Carlos Brilliant came into winning the
[24:19] Champions Leagues because he didn't stick to one thing.
[24:22] You didn't know what was coming. How many times did we see like
[24:27] when Jude came in and we played that for midfielder set up and
[24:32] Rodrigo would play off the left and Vinicius would be a number 9
[24:35] as a holder player? I vividly remember the Monster
[24:38] City game that I'll always reference.
[24:41] Vini was so good at holding the defenders.
[24:45] Why not ever using it? Why never go into it?
[24:49] Vini can have a bad night, but if he's spinning Van Dyke, who
[24:52] kept following him up by the way, because he's high IQ
[24:55] defender, why not change it a little bit?
[24:59] Why not tell Mbappe, go to the wing, let Venice's commonly
[25:03] inside, Let's see how their player shifts.
[25:06] Let's see how how comfortable Connor Bradley feels now that he
[25:10] has to deal with Mbappe, because he feels that he kind of took
[25:14] Vinnie out of the game and Mbappe at the same time with
[25:17] such approach. You can't maximize every player
[25:19] on a big game, we know that, but you need the moment.
[25:23] You know, one of the things that we praise Javi Alonso for Le
[25:26] Conte is his pragmatism, right? And is willing to change.
[25:29] But maybe he's not being pragmatic enough, right?
[25:33] And I wonder if part of it is, OK, this was a Champions League
[25:42] match and it doesn't, you know, we already won three out of
[25:45] three. Even if we drop points here,
[25:47] we're still going to finish. We're still in the top 8 as of
[25:49] right now versus in La Liga. Well, we can't lose a match to
[25:53] Rio by Icono because now that means that Barcelona wins.
[25:55] We're only two points ahead, right?
[25:57] Like I I wonder if that plays a role into how he goes into these
[26:02] matches. It might, but I think we have
[26:06] shown to be a very good league side.
[26:08] Like we have had teams give up, just not come at us.
[26:11] That's really incredible thing to Shiva Sakois very early on.
[26:18] I think you want to win it, but I also think that there is that
[26:22] mentality of it's OK to lose, which I think it's OK to lose.
[26:27] It is OK to lose during the group stages.
[26:30] But if you lose on KO, well, good luck with that.
[26:33] So you don't want to install too much of it.
[26:35] Correct, Correct. No, Yeah, yeah, that that that's
[26:37] what I think going back to Ryo, they're one of the more fun
[26:42] teams to watch in La Liga. I love Izzy Palazone.
[26:47] Like that dude is just like a maniac.
[26:49] And it's just constantly running.
[26:51] He's just constantly running around and I'm like, I'm kind of
[26:54] afraid of him actually. I'm like, oh shit.
[26:56] That dude might cause massive chaos if we're if we're not
[26:59] minding our PS and QS. And Albert Garcia has been
[27:04] scoring for them. They're a dangerous side.
[27:07] Look, they should have beat Barcelona in that match.
[27:10] Barcelona was lucky to escape with a tie.
[27:13] I if we are not careful and especially it's at Ryo now, it's
[27:17] not a night game, but still it is at Ryo and that pitch is kind
[27:22] of funky, right? Like it's kind of weird and
[27:26] right, it's a bit bouncy. They know how to play on it
[27:28] because it's their pitch, right? We don't like, again, I always
[27:33] talk about adversity, right? Adversity is going to hit in
[27:36] that match and I know how they're going to respond and how
[27:39] their crowds are going to respond.
[27:40] They being Ryo, I want to know is how are we going to respond,
[27:43] particularly if let's say we go down one O early, right, because
[27:46] they just do do their thing, right?
[27:49] We have a giveaway in a bad zone.
[27:51] They pounce, right? Like, how are we responding now?
[27:56] Also the approach, are you going to be the dominant team or are
[28:00] you going to be the team that's going to wait on them and
[28:02] exploit them along with wannabe kind of mix of the both.
[28:07] He wants to mix it up, not sure how many of this time around.
[28:10] So you're zone 14. Good luck with that.
[28:12] Yeah. It can be.
[28:14] Tough, but think he goes into more like dominant.
[28:19] I want to earn the territory of this page.
[28:22] I'm just not going to let them. An introduction of a player like
[28:25] Trent helps a lot with it. Again, IQ, physicality might
[28:29] still not be later because he's still recovering, but still,
[28:32] there's a lot of IQ. You even saw some of the moves
[28:35] against Liverpool, while they didn't pan out because he was so
[28:37] rusty, he still gave a little bit of life to your right wing
[28:42] by cutting inside, getting into space, just making them a little
[28:47] bit uncomfortable. Not not saying it was a game
[28:49] changer or anything, but you you saw some of that.
[28:54] So naturally I expect that I expect Trent to be I expect them
[28:59] to feel to be very energetic. Volverde Camavinga like that's a
[29:02] duo from hell if you're really an on ball team.
[29:06] But right, I've shown that they can do both.
[29:08] Like since they get all the days they haven't taken a step back
[29:12] as a team and it's hard ground to go to.
[29:16] I'm saying a hard ground. We could we could really escape
[29:20] the games. The three nil win.
[29:22] Don't forget they're coming off a comeback on during the
[29:26] European football. They went two nil down and then
[29:29] they came back 94th minutes scored the winning goal and the
[29:32] referee just blows the vessel. So morial they have a grim to
[29:39] them, which is it doesn't matter if they're doing bad, they could
[29:44] go to my Orca and get smashed come a big game like a Madrid,
[29:48] Madrid, Atleti, Barcelona viral, whatever you want to consider
[29:53] like one of these top Barcelona teams, they're there to hunt You
[29:58] always been that team that verbally.
[30:01] Yeah, no, they're they're an excellent team.
[30:04] I I love how they play. They are going to press us
[30:06] maniacally. I Trent will help us in our in
[30:10] our press resistance. I do wonder because again, you
[30:14] mentioned no Chu and many in zone 14.
[30:16] So good luck to what's there. You know, a player who has had
[30:20] trouble seemingly passing the ball, at least in his last
[30:23] match, and passing is probably his best attribute has been
[30:27] Dean, Dean Houston. And look, this is not, I love
[30:32] Dean. He's 20 years old.
[30:34] He is clearly a center back of the future.
[30:35] I still think his ceiling is best center back in the world.
[30:38] Like I all those things are still there.
[30:40] But this is what happens when you have young 20 year old
[30:42] players. They're going to have ups and
[30:43] downs and dips because it's just they need more reference points
[30:46] to get better. And he's playing a lot of
[30:48] minutes. He got called up by Spain again.
[30:49] He's not getting a whole lot of time to rest.
[30:50] That's just the reality of where we are with him.
[30:53] I do though, want to know what you think about his decision
[30:58] making, right? And it's just something where
[31:00] it's like, OK, he's young and just needs to get better at
[31:02] making those decisions. And then two, and I love it.
[31:05] But this chill guy routine that he has right where I'm the chill
[31:08] guy and I love it. Be yourself, be whoever you are.
[31:12] But my dude, it's almost like I need you to like switch your
[31:15] brain on when you're on the pitch and fuck all this chill
[31:18] guy shit and do what you're supposed to be doing.
[31:21] Yeah, I mean, you kind of made majority of my points except
[31:25] that I just want to add that I think he has a tad bit too much
[31:27] responsibility for 20 years old. So his passes are bound to be a
[31:34] bit wrong from time to time or he's rushing of the play might
[31:39] just not be aligned with the other players on their
[31:41] positioning because Dean, well, he will just breakthrough with
[31:45] Erola. And we know that there's a lot
[31:48] of automation with there. We know that he kind of can
[31:51] close his eyes and know where his players are.
[31:53] Well, that's not really the case still here.
[31:55] And I don't think it's going to be.
[31:57] And about the chill guy. Yeah, you can jump.
[32:01] I mean, I love it. You're all awesome.
[32:04] Like because he has so much size advantage towards the others, it
[32:09] just he kind of feels like he doesn't have to jump and he's
[32:14] just like, no, you do have to jump because these are still
[32:17] freak athletes and you keep making the same is like we saw
[32:21] it against Karat for example, post that Lady game where a good
[32:24] beat, you could tell that he was taking responsibility and he was
[32:28] jumping for everything and winning every duel.
[32:30] And I'm like the right step. It reversed back because he's so
[32:34] used to being a little guy, so that's going to need some
[32:37] drills. Yeah, we got to work on that
[32:40] chill guy Anthony Tharp's got some interesting stuff.
[32:42] So there was a little bit of turmoil at Rio after yesterday.
[32:45] Nigo Perez skipped his push, mass pressure after the fallout
[32:48] from subbing Bailu. There's supposed to be an open
[32:50] training today and they cancelled it.
[32:51] So I do wonder like you know, you mentioned that because their
[32:54] their Europa Conference League matches on Thursday, yesterday I
[32:57] believe, right. So they only have Friday,
[32:59] Saturday, they have two days off before the match.
[33:01] How much of that will affect them?
[33:04] I mean, to me, yes, I think it might matter, but it's still
[33:07] technically a Madrid Derby, right?
[33:08] That are in the so and it's as I said, when we show up somewhere,
[33:14] it is the most important match of the season on that team's
[33:17] calendar. So whatever shit they have going
[33:19] on, I think he's going to get them ready and riled up to be
[33:22] like, let's go fuck Madrid up. I just that's what they're going
[33:25] to want to do so. That's good and bad.
[33:31] That's normally you take that as good.
[33:33] Sometimes I take it as bad because it feels that both
[33:36] parties have something to prove that.
[33:38] So there's an extra motivation coming on there.
[33:40] And as you said, Madrid are here, which better opponent than
[33:44] them, they're coming off a loss, so that's extra motivation for
[33:47] them to do things right. I don't know.
[33:51] It's a bit of turmoil, as you said, cannot be expected because
[33:55] they're not really used to get in this many games for season
[33:58] and now they are having to recycle and the coach is having
[34:01] to adapt and it just a lot of things with them.
[34:05] Two less days of rest on top of it.
[34:08] Like Spanish clubs, as I always said, don't inherently do well
[34:11] in Europe because there is lack of talent across the squad, not
[34:15] the 11th but across the squad for the replacement.
[34:18] So naturally they prioritize keeping up heading into these
[34:22] European competitions and making that money rather than trying to
[34:25] win it, right? But in Ryan's case, seems that
[34:28] they are actually hell bent on the idea that we really want to
[34:31] be good on Conference League and actually be able to win it.
[34:34] So yeah, it's going to be a tough match of like, it's very
[34:39] hard to predict it. It's very hard to predict what
[34:41] Jarvis going to do. Like how did that loss against
[34:44] Liverpool affect? I keep referring to Liverpool
[34:48] because this is not going to be a very different game.
[34:50] Liverpool already gave you a blueprint.
[34:53] And guess what? Ryan has the players to stick
[34:56] where Florian Words was going. Do they have Florian?
[34:59] What's call it quality? Not really.
[35:02] But they still have the players to damage the lab.
[35:04] How are you going to handle that?
[35:06] The good thing of this game is the fact that they don't really
[35:09] have a pin in #9 like Hugo Kitika, for example, who took
[35:12] Melita out of the game completely so we couldn't get
[35:14] those proactive defensive interventions that he does.
[35:18] So yeah, he. He gave us a ton of trouble,
[35:21] like just his constant off ball runs and I'm like oh shit, there
[35:25] he goes again. Right, like so speak to that
[35:27] point Lecante right about how, as I started the show, talking
[35:30] about time, space and movement. I think he didn't score in that
[35:35] game, but didn't matter. He caused so much havoc every
[35:38] time he like it caused us to panic back there, right, And so
[35:42] it allowed them to have have easing their build up, get shots
[35:47] on target, right, make life difficult for us and we don't
[35:50] seemingly have the same thing happen on our side, right.
[35:53] If Minnie doesn't create and break his guy out one-on-one,
[35:58] we're seemingly still kind of limited in that regard, right?
[36:01] Whereas there's not enough off ball runs.
[36:03] And I know people are going to be like, see, This is why we
[36:04] need Erling Holland or this, that and the 3rd.
[36:06] And I'm like, no, it's just a matter of this idea of with
[36:11] Gonzalo Garcia, right? When you know, when he makes a
[36:13] run, it's not, it's not a he knows it's not about me scoring,
[36:16] right? Like I don't this is going to
[36:17] help us all right, And I don't think there's still enough of
[36:19] that there yet, right, where guys know this run is crucial
[36:22] for us to be better. Doesn't matter if I get the
[36:25] ball, this is going to get them out of their their defensive
[36:27] shape. Yes, that we spoke post the
[36:30] Liverpool game that some of them papetas just feel a bit forced
[36:33] because they want to keep him hot on the game.
[36:36] So we end up recycling a little bit more than we should.
[36:41] Ultimately is there are few players tendencies that you can
[36:44] get rid of and that's one of the things like a one off thing.
[36:49] Yes, game to game basis. I don't think so.
[36:53] Some tendencies just stick forever.
[36:56] Like even will bail himself even though for some reason he was
[37:00] overly critical of few of the things.
[37:02] And I'm like used to have a completely different tone on
[37:06] your interviews like a year ago. What changed?
[37:11] Well. You know I don't think his
[37:14] points were correct. Like with all due respect to
[37:17] bail and the the player that he was as we have a track record ex
[37:22] footballer doesn't necessarily mean the smartest guy to read
[37:24] the situations and bail with that post game kind of fell into
[37:29] that. As I said 7-8 times.
[37:33] Vinicius won one against one with Conor Bradley, three out of
[37:39] seven. One.
[37:40] We would be speaking a lot differently.
[37:42] Yeah. He took Venice as an example.
[37:43] He went like, oh, he has to put, actually, Henry was who did
[37:47] this. He has to put his head up and
[37:48] check where his teammates are because there's no box presence.
[37:51] And I'm like, well, actually, he needs to realize that and take
[37:56] the decision when he's carrying the ball and see where his
[37:59] teammates in beforehand. If he has a huge gap with them,
[38:03] maybe recycle the possession and try to get back there again.
[38:07] Not always, OK, this guy, when we want to kind of want to burn
[38:11] him alive, there are decisions that can be taken as a team.
[38:15] Like what aerial presence did PSG have on their front three?
[38:20] Like last year we went from OK, teams need to press now because
[38:23] look at how good PSG now. Now apparently Arlene, Holland
[38:27] and Eric and are scoring goals. So now you most certainly do
[38:30] need a box presence because there's no other way to win.
[38:33] And I hate this stroke because it follows you throughout the
[38:37] whole season, let's say low and beyond.
[38:39] Hopefully I'm putting this into existence.
[38:42] If we win the Champions League, then you need two number tents,
[38:46] Artagua and Jude bowling. They're the keys to everything,
[38:50] yeah. It's just narratives, not what's
[38:52] actually happening on the pitch. Right, Right.
[38:55] It is. There are multiple ways to win,
[38:58] right? And there are multiple ways to
[38:59] score. Whatever is in vogue and
[39:02] seemingly working well, that's what they're gonna talk about,
[39:04] right? I mean, it's gonna be right.
[39:06] You need the Pep Guardiola style, dominate, control,
[39:09] possession, possession. And it's like, OK, but
[39:11] possession never won a game. Because if I force you to
[39:14] possess the ball in areas that don't hurt me, you can have the
[39:16] ball all you want. Knock yourself out.
[39:18] You didn't you can't do shit because you're you're non
[39:21] threatening positions, right? So I think it's just it, it's
[39:24] the it's just easy and simplistic in a way in which you
[39:27] you can describe what's happening, right?
[39:29] And we all know that there's so much more that goes into it than
[39:32] that. And look, we always talk about
[39:33] the players getting better. Chavi Alonso's got to get better
[39:36] and and he will like it's all it's all learning.
[39:38] As I always say, this is his second senior head coaching job.
[39:41] Like he's what, late 30s, early 40s, like who he is, who he is
[39:47] now as a coach, he's going to be miles better three years from
[39:51] now, five years from now, seven years.
[39:53] Like it's just, it's like everything else you need
[39:56] development and time and reps. That's how you get better at
[39:58] these things. And you got to go through it and
[40:00] fuck up and be like, oh shit, I was bad.
[40:02] I really messed up on that. Now I know what didn't work
[40:05] right. Like you.
[40:06] Trial and error, man. I really want to lose early.
[40:09] I've always said this, I want to lose early.
[40:11] The PSG game, this game, the athletic game, those are early
[40:16] losses. Those are losses that ultimately
[40:19] are not going to swing anything. Teams are going to lose.
[40:22] No team is going to go perfect. They're going to have an off
[40:25] night. Every single one of them.
[40:27] There's perfection just does not exist on football field.
[40:30] Yeah. How much alone learns from them
[40:33] is basically the make or break when we talk about the pressure
[40:36] because he's in an environment that he's fully aware that he
[40:39] needs to win. So but he's also he also knows
[40:43] that ugly ones are accepted, not like they're we're not here
[40:47] telling him a if we don't do 120 passing sequences before scoring
[40:52] a goal, you're out of the door. No, no, no, we're just telling
[40:55] him a find a way to get those players to score the goals and
[40:59] he knows that. Not like he hasn't approached
[41:01] games ugly Liverpool One would have been that you can even say
[41:06] on El classical you could have been even.
[41:08] I mean I'm saying we could have been even more proactive, but we
[41:11] have 4 XG on that game each other.
[41:12] The finishing was so God damn bad, including missing a
[41:15] penalty. But what I'm saying is that
[41:18] there are games where Alonso has taken a step back and just go
[41:21] like I want the result here and not much more because I don't
[41:24] care about other things, which I think is a good trait.
[41:27] That's a coach Yes, you need to be able to win ugly.
[41:30] It's not always that flashy spinning in the middle of the
[41:34] pitch and then playing a through ball.
[41:37] Sometimes it just needs to be like, OK, Millie Tao is taking a
[41:42] shot from 40 meters away and it goes in and that's all I care
[41:46] about because this opened the game up.
[41:48] This is literally it. But for as long as there's a
[41:51] plan for the players to hold back on, which we saw it happen
[41:55] time and time again alongside single spot so well, there is
[41:58] pressure. There's always pressure.
[42:01] I wouldn't say that he's like under fire and that Florentino
[42:05] Perez is knocking on his door and being like, hey, look, I
[42:08] know that we have played 16 games this season and you have
[42:10] won fourteen of them, but be, you know, like.
[42:13] What are we doing? Yeah, 14 out of 16.
[42:16] That's why I said again, the sky is not falling.
[42:19] We're looking for improvement in in certain matches.
[42:21] And I, I think we'll we'll, we'll see that.
[42:24] I want to sort of leave you with this question, Lecante and we'll
[42:27] we'll wrap here. You always say we we know
[42:30] football's a low margin sport, right?
[42:31] Often one goal will decide the game.
[42:35] A lot of talk after the Liverpool match was, you know,
[42:39] we got to get better away from home, away from home, away from
[42:42] home, away from home and, you know, home field homecourt.
[42:48] Like that's always a tricky thing for me and how I talk
[42:51] about it because I am not someone who puts the onus of a
[42:59] loss on a player's inability to deal with an opposing crowd.
[43:05] Like the crowd is not on the pitch, they're not kicking the
[43:08] ball, they're not doing. They have nothing to do with
[43:10] what happens on the pitch. They're not touching the ball,
[43:13] they're just not right. So as a professional, hostile
[43:17] environments are part and parcel of the right.
[43:20] That's just how it works, man. You have to know that.
[43:23] But again, in a low margin sport, I wonder if because
[43:28] that's it, you lose 1 nothing. You couldn't handle the pressure
[43:30] of the crowd. If it's an easy crutch we fall
[43:33] back on, it's because you couldn't deal with the the away
[43:36] pressure. And I'm like, is that really it
[43:39] or is it just you just weren't good, right?
[43:43] And it had nothing to do with Homer or what you just didn't
[43:45] execute well. What say you?
[43:48] I'm with you. I do think the crowds do play a
[43:52] bit of a part in terms of like you're getting booed, you're
[43:54] getting whistle, like all of that can get under your skin.
[43:57] But I feel that those players going enough of that throughout
[44:01] their careers to the point where it doesn't really matter that
[44:04] much. Like we went to Etihad and won
[44:06] the game with like RC players, not even B, we won the penalty
[44:11] shot out. So the mentality of majority of
[44:15] the players, I wouldn't really question it.
[44:18] I don't think that oh, they chickened out.
[44:20] Oh, they're falling under the pressure.
[44:22] I just Simply put that game as bad game plan and you were not
[44:28] expecting what you got. Yeah, that's it.
[44:31] Yeah, yeah, I, I would agree. I think, yeah, I think it's too
[44:34] easy to kind of fall on on, on those sort of tropes, Right.
[44:39] All right We got Ryobi Icano on Sunday.
[44:43] Hopefully we finished that with a win and heading to the break
[44:45] feeling good. Everyone who expected to get get
[44:48] called up got called up Carreras staying home again.
[44:51] Thank you Luis de la Fuente for hating Real Madrid players.
[44:54] We appreciate it. I wish you would hate Dean
[44:56] Housen as well. That would be awesome.
[45:02] Jude will be called up as as expected Trent not quite yet.
[45:05] I think this will be good for Trent.
[45:06] So I'm trying to get some time to get some some time on the
[45:08] pitch with Jabe and I think Jabir really wants him to.
[45:12] I think he has some ideas and some plans for what he wants
[45:14] trying to be able to do and some one-on-one time with him I think
[45:16] will be very helpful. Absolutely.
[45:19] He could do us a favor, but we're kind of playing for that.
[45:22] I know I I, I don't know if Fede is going, but my guess is he's
[45:25] going I I. Yeah, my guess is too, I don't
[45:27] think he can come with bills that twice son of Colon.
[45:31] I know we we, we listen. We got lucky and true money's
[45:33] out which listen. That worries me, right, because
[45:36] we have no natural replacement for him, right?
[45:39] I know those guys who have to deputize and fill the role would
[45:42] have been Sabios. He's out coma Binga, but what
[45:45] Truman he does and this is what I worried about, right, OK, when
[45:49] he gets hurt, what do we do? By the way, a little watching
[45:52] Real Madrid players. I know that the club is happy
[45:54] with how Kim Andres is playing and and you know, so that's a
[45:58] player that you know is someone who you know, could be back at
[46:01] this club in the future. We'll see.
[46:03] All right, folks, we will see you on Sunday after the riot
[46:07] Vayacano game. Thank you all for tuning in.
[46:10] We appreciate it. Anthony Starp for keeping the
[46:12] chat going and the Miriam is here Cocoya 47 FG.
[46:17] Thank you guys we appreciate all the love again, like the video
[46:21] subscribe share it with your friends.
[46:23] This audio only version will be up on apple and Spotify later as
[46:26] well. So if you want to listen to it
[46:28] only you can do that as well. We'll see you guys next time.
[46:32] Take care. Bye, guys.

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