# Real Madrid's Defense Under Xabi Alonso

An episode of [The Real Deal: A Real Madrid Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1807821669), 19 May 2025, 1 h 11 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/103607aa8/podcast/play/102902615/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-4-19%2F400607016-44100-2-ce1e64664d419.mp3

Jarod Hector joins Sid to discuss how Xabi Alonso will impact the individual impact of all our players on defense on a player-by-player basis: Bellingham, Mbappe, Rudiger, Valverde, Vinicius, and co. We grade their seasons within the context of how little defensive structure or organization they had, and then discuss what needs to change from them next season.

## Transcript

[1:04] Player development, What an exciting time you ready to draw
[1:07] to see players get better. I am so ready, Sid.
[1:10] You didn't know I was going to ask you this.
[1:11] I'm going to ask you now on the spot.
[1:14] So everybody's getting excited. Javi's coming.
[1:17] We're getting all these signings.
[1:19] If you're Carlo, are you like, yo man, what the FI asked you
[1:23] for Harry Kane, you said no, I asked you for center back help,
[1:26] you said no. This guy comes in and yes, well,
[1:29] and you give him whatever you want.
[1:30] Like, do you think Juan Carlos pissed?
[1:33] And two, is that a subtle way of the club being like, it's 'cause
[1:37] we trust Jopy to do the right thing and we don't trust you to
[1:39] do the right thing? It's definitely a sign of what
[1:43] they think about Alonzo that they saw the last few years as a
[1:47] transition period. I thought Carlos quote was
[1:49] funny. He's like, I think like, he's
[1:51] just funny how effectively he wrote the company line when he
[1:53] had to. He's like, hey, they, I, I don't
[1:56] think it was bad. They got me Bellingham.
[1:59] They got me like whoever I need it, you know?
[2:04] With the reality, if they were signing those guys anyway,
[2:06] right, Whether Carlo was here or not.
[2:08] No, no, yeah, Camo bingo was like, hey, like we're we're get
[2:11] they had a list and it's like we'll get go after the list
[2:13] whenever the market opportunity arises without jeopardizing our
[2:16] signing of em Pape. And yeah, that was really fun.
[2:21] I think Carlo's used to it though.
[2:22] That's my answer. I think.
[2:24] I think he is used to being criticized fairly or unfairly
[2:29] throughout his career. He also, I think, must be aware
[2:33] on some level that he's never retained a league title.
[2:37] I, I don't think he's not aware and I think he believed.
[2:40] I, you know, he obviously has so much self belief that he
[2:43] achieved what he did the last few years with us.
[2:45] You need self belief to say, like they call me dinosaur at
[2:47] Everton. I'll, I'll go win a Champions
[2:49] League with Real Madrid. Like he doesn't care and he
[2:51] still took the Everton job. Ultimately.
[2:54] I think he's used to it. I think he's used to the
[2:56] disrespect and I think for him it's kind of like a, a chill
[3:00] job. Like, I think he kind of likes
[3:01] the job and so it's not as big a deal to him.
[3:04] That makes sense. Yeah, I'm with you.
[3:06] No, I just thought it was funny. I'm like, man, this guy's
[3:08] getting every signing he wants. Carl was just like, I just want
[3:10] some defenders. And they were like, no, squad's
[3:12] complete. Deal with it.
[3:14] Yeah, I mean, even his last season here of 2014, fifteen, we
[3:17] were just like a little thin. And it wasn't his fault.
[3:19] I think we were supposed to keep Alonso and he had an affair.
[3:23] And so his wife was like, we're getting out of here.
[3:26] There were rumors that like, that's the only thing that could
[3:28] ruin our Alonso's time and reorder this time.
[3:31] Javi please, I don't want like the let.
[3:34] I don't want off field things to be the reason that this thing
[3:37] doesn't go well. Please my God.
[3:39] Javi, you're you're only allowed to be a family man while you're
[3:42] a coach. Once you're done being a coach,
[3:44] you can do whatever you want. Exactly.
[3:48] Like none of that. Go to some other club after us,
[3:51] do whatever you want, I don't care.
[3:52] But when you're here, please my God.
[3:54] Well go to city like I don't care where you go.
[3:56] Go mess around like blow up your family somewhere else.
[3:59] Just not. Here, don't blow it up here.
[4:02] And don't blow up your family. Please, I mean all all jokes
[4:05] aside, yes do not blow your family.
[4:07] But we love you, Jabi. And sorry, Carlo, that last time
[4:10] you didn't have as deep a squad. Like we were playing R below in
[4:12] Cointrow who look like corpses against Athletico when we lost
[4:15] 40. And I remember reading like an
[4:17] ESPN report, It's like these backups suck.
[4:19] Like, what the hell? Like they're really bad.
[4:21] That's something you got to realize.
[4:22] Like they have no backups. And we went and signed a deep
[4:25] team. I just think it's just funny
[4:27] that Carlo prolonged with his success the day that we were
[4:31] going to go back to being a super team again, he prolonged
[4:34] it for so long. And when we got, by the time we
[4:36] got Mbappe, you almost just ride that team out.
[4:38] It's like, OK, we added Mbappe to a perceived non super team.
[4:41] Let's see how they play before we really stack them up.
[4:44] And I mean, I, I hope Carlo ends well at Brazil.
[4:49] At least. I don't think this is the end.
[4:51] Yeah, I, I, I have some doubts about that Brazil team because
[4:53] they got some problems. Yeah.
[4:55] And so on that note, today we're going to talk about the players
[5:00] last season, how they played defense under Ancelotti and
[5:03] we're going to give them a rating on how we felt their
[5:05] defense was kind of accounting for how Carlo optimized them
[5:08] actually including like a Carlo adjusted rating for each player
[5:12] defensive. Not not everyone was a zero like
[5:15] they tried, they just they couldn't do it together.
[5:17] And so Luda, Carlo, and then we want to talk about what we would
[5:21] like from them next year under Alonzo.
[5:23] So let's start with the attack. I mean, I mean, I know we're
[5:27] going to start with the front, but let's just start with like
[5:29] the more goal contributing players.
[5:31] Let's just do the easy one first.
[5:32] Jude for me, 10 out of 10 because he literally does it all
[5:38] the instructions restrict how well the team can defend, but he
[5:42] never stops giving it all. I'm saying 1011 out of 10, like
[5:45] I don't know, 10 out of 10. That's all.
[5:47] Yeah, I used letter grades. Whatever, 1010, I agree with
[5:50] you. A for me on, on Jude on on
[5:53] defense for his deployment. Carlo used him and this is not
[5:59] great for Jude. This is Carlo.
[6:01] I give him an F because I feel like he used them incorrectly,
[6:04] like he this is the second year in a row Sid we've seen Jude by,
[6:08] I don't know, in January ish just be exhausted.
[6:13] I'm like we got four more months to go.
[6:15] Like what? Like that's not good.
[6:17] I mean, again, I, I said it before, I'll say it again, the
[6:21] first match of the season, the UEFA Super Cup at halftime when
[6:26] they're coming out to start the second-half, Jude, you can hear
[6:29] it cuz the mics pick it up. He tells Vinny and Bape, you 2
[6:33] have to finish the attacks because I'm effing killing
[6:36] myself running around. And that was match one.
[6:39] And of course he felt that way because they just finished.
[6:41] He just played the Euro finals like a week ago, right?
[6:44] And so, yes, so Carlo gets an F for his deployment because this
[6:52] guy should not have had to be running himself ragged into the
[6:55] ground like you did, because now you're taking years off his
[6:58] career like you will another player who will mention as we as
[7:00] we move further down the pitch. Yeah.
[7:03] And also on that note, I was going to add, we have a little
[7:05] CHEAT SHEET coming up and I was going to add a fourth column
[7:08] about Carlos optimization. Then I realized what am I doing?
[7:10] It's F all across the board like.
[7:12] It's nothing. It's all FS, all FS.
[7:14] That is an F season. In fact, if you as a coach need
[7:17] to study what a bad defensive season looks like, I would study
[7:19] this one from reality. Is the textbook example
[7:22] everything wrong? Not professional.
[7:24] How can you mask it with top players?
[7:26] Go watch. Like this is literally the case
[7:27] study. If I were in a coaching school.
[7:29] Be like what do you not do? Show them this.
[7:31] No, it it's true and to continue on Jude because of the freedom
[7:38] Carlo gives on offense, right when we now are out of
[7:43] possession, Jude is often out of position right because he was
[7:47] all over the place. Oh, I had to go drop deep
[7:49] because I had to help us in our build up.
[7:50] And it's, and again, I, we just, I said it before, I'll say it
[7:54] again. We don't want Juego de Possessio
[7:57] on football here at Real Madrid. That's not, that's, that's we
[7:59] don't need that, but we do that chaos that we saw this year.
[8:03] We don't need that either, right?
[8:04] Like there has to be some sort of regression to the mean to,
[8:08] to, to steal a statistical phrase, right where we have a
[8:10] little bit more structure. And obviously I think because
[8:13] Javi likes control, I believe again, not maybe it's the extent
[8:17] of Pep, even though he didn't learn under Pep.
[8:19] I think that'll that'll help help things out a bit there.
[8:22] Yeah. So what are our expectations?
[8:24] We have to like summarize in two lines.
[8:26] I just feel like make him either get more bang for your buck when
[8:29] he runs or make him run less. Do not make him run.
[8:32] I mean, but that's like kind of common sense.
[8:33] Just like that just means create a system around him, right?
[8:36] That's really our expectation. Nothing with him.
[8:39] I will add one thing. I don't want him stuck on the
[8:42] left of midfield. Like, OK, it works like it
[8:45] worked against Barcelona and like Bayern, where like, it's
[8:47] like Jude, Vinny, Rodrigo, and then just one of them goes up
[8:50] and the defense doesn't know who's coming from where.
[8:52] But Jude gets a little trap down there for me.
[8:55] And I think I like him. I think I would like to see a
[8:58] winger defend on the wing and like what?
[9:01] And then I would like to see Jude press from the front.
[9:03] So I'll just say have Jude augment press from front, like
[9:10] let's say played Jude higher up defensively.
[9:13] I mean, look, I agree. I mean, I think we're not
[9:15] talking about offense today, but I think we both agree that Ham
[9:18] or or Jude constantly starting on that left side is not ideal.
[9:22] He should be, right, a central attacking midfielder, right?
[9:25] That's where he should be at the top of if you want a diamond
[9:28] formation, right where he is the midfielder that's here in man,
[9:31] you got the your two, your two strikers on opposite sides that
[9:34] that's where Jude should be, right?
[9:36] And that's that's his zone. So he can press from there,
[9:39] right? And he can defend that area as
[9:41] well. Yeah, like, like I want him
[9:43] pressing if we like, like I want him pressing the other teams,
[9:46] Cruz or Rodri or Busquets, I want him on their playmaker.
[9:49] So, and like, he's just so fast. Like you, you want him on a guy
[9:52] like that 'cause he can just cause problems for those people
[9:54] for real. And so.
[9:57] All right, that's Jude next. Let's do a slightly easier one
[10:02] too, Rodrigo. You know, Rodrigo actually
[10:06] defensively was fine this season.
[10:11] Yeah, I I I great amount. I think AB plus.
[10:14] For me. Yeah, and his effort was an A
[10:17] like again, the reason why the grade tanks is because
[10:21] deployment is an F, right because of the structure.
[10:24] And you know, again, it's not about offense, but this is a a
[10:28] player who he's in the not the top five in terms of salary, but
[10:33] like he gets paid a lot of money and he doesn't give us what we
[10:38] need for the amount of money that we've invested in him.
[10:41] And I don't know, Sid that dropping into some kind of
[10:44] defensive type of midfield that's that's that's not quite
[10:47] like the ideal use of his talent, right.
[10:49] And so we already said on our keep sell loan show that I was
[10:52] like, I think we got to sell this dude.
[10:54] It reminds me of, I hate to say this, but reminds me of like
[10:56] D'Angelo Russell and he's like, listen, I can only do so much on
[10:59] D I'm I'm going to try, but I'm an offensive player.
[11:01] That's Rodrigo. He's an offensive player.
[11:02] Like you can't beat him. Some plus defense, yeah.
[11:05] And I think the whole thing with him lies on offense.
[11:07] That's why I wanted to get out of the way.
[11:08] It's an easy little single. Yeah.
[11:10] So that's so that's nothing with Rodrigo A for effort P plus
[11:13] overall he got Carlo used them incorrectly.
[11:17] My only expectation I would change try not to let him get
[11:22] isolated. I mean, this is this is not a
[11:24] defensive expectations, it's offense.
[11:25] But when he starts on the right on defense, awesome and then on
[11:29] in transition, he just gets kind of isolated.
[11:31] He's like use. He's not fast enough to drive
[11:33] it. Correct.
[11:35] Beyond a point like he's not going to create that much danger
[11:37] driving the ball. He's going to create enough
[11:39] against a lot of teams, but not so much and.
[11:41] He's not. He's not Lamine Yamal on the
[11:42] right side where you're like, oh shit, like you.
[11:44] Know no and if honestly when he drives it on the right, it's a
[11:47] bad he's not a touchline winger animal like he's not he's just.
[11:50] So because he's not, he's on a left footer.
[11:51] So you're not worried about him cutting back on his left foot
[11:53] because I mean, look, he's got a better left foot than everybody
[11:57] else in the world who plays like, I mean, non professionals,
[11:59] yes, but he's not elite with that left foot.
[12:02] He's got to get to his right foot.
[12:05] So I'll, I guess I'll make the note, get it better attacking
[12:07] output. I mean, I don't even know how to
[12:09] say this, but not a defensive issue, I'll just say.
[12:13] Yes, he's the least of our defensive problems.
[12:17] Yeah, not a defensive issue. He can defend on the right
[12:19] pretty well. Next, I'll let you choose which
[12:22] of our famous attackers. Let's start with Vinny.
[12:25] I gave Vinny AC minus overall on defense.
[12:29] I thought for some big games he gave some effort for for the
[12:31] most part wasn't really there. So effort overall was a was AC
[12:37] minus as well and then again deployment F from Carlo.
[12:41] Yeah, I'm struggling to reconcile the deployment because
[12:44] it's like an F deployment can turn AB into like AD, an F
[12:48] deployment can turn like an A, like AB plus Season 4 Vinny into
[12:52] what we saw. So I'm really confused here.
[12:56] Well, because with Vinny, it's tough because we're talking
[12:58] about it. He he didn't also have he had a
[12:59] bad offensive output too. See, I think The thing is, if he
[13:02] had scored well, that would have colored how we thought his
[13:06] season went. But he not only did he not
[13:07] defend, he also didn't score on top of that.
[13:10] So it's like my guy. Like did you said C minus for
[13:14] him? C minus, Yeah, C minus with D
[13:16] plus. It's fine with me.
[13:18] I'm I'm actually going to go or, or see, I'm going to say C plus.
[13:21] I'm just putting both our ratings there, the range of
[13:23] ratings that we have. And I'm going to say that
[13:25] honestly, I'm I'm like it. It was bad enough where I assume
[13:29] Jabi can take him for a whole grade above.
[13:30] So he's like, he's not an A, but I'm telling you anywhere between
[13:34] B and DI. Don't know what Carlo did.
[13:35] Like it's I'm I'm really not convinced it's AC minus dude.
[13:40] I because we've seen because he's still talking for me, which
[13:43] I'm Boppe was for me and Boppe is the C minus and.
[13:47] Probably might be like an F. Yeah.
[13:50] All right. So Vinicia C minus or.
[13:53] Or C + C -, C plus yes. And I do think, remember, we've
[13:57] seen him defend right under Zadan.
[13:59] Zadan got him to defend. I think Jabi with a system will
[14:02] also get him to defend better. Like again, I think this is the
[14:06] thing about having Jobby. I think it just a structure is
[14:08] going to help all of them be better as a collective
[14:11] individual. It'll be better and the
[14:13] collectible because they'll know, oh, this is my zone, This
[14:16] is my area, right? Like this is what is required of
[14:18] me here. There's a saying that we're in
[14:20] in an NBA parlance, it's called guard your yard, right?
[14:23] Like if we're playing man, yo man, full pressure and you're
[14:27] playing point of attack, you cannot let your man just waltz
[14:30] right by you like a turnstile. Like you just like give some
[14:33] level of resistance, right? Like so that way the rest of the
[14:36] defense isn't taxed because of it.
[14:38] So again, I think Javi will simplify things in this because
[14:42] that's the other thing said is that Carlos freedom is chaos.
[14:46] And with chaos, particularly on defense, offense is a little bit
[14:49] different because you can kind of like, all right, we got the
[14:51] ball a little more juiced up. You're feeling different on
[14:53] defense. It's completely chaotic.
[14:55] You have no idea where anybody is.
[14:57] That leads to complete disaster, whereas jobs like no, no, we're
[15:01] not going to have chaos on defense.
[15:02] This is your zone. This is your zone.
[15:04] Are you taking care of your zone?
[15:05] No, why the fuck not? Yeah.
[15:09] And on top of that, I would add, I would therefore I would like
[15:12] Vinnie. Like I don't think you can have
[15:14] Vinnie Ann and Papay to get like that's what I was saying with
[15:17] Jude. You need Jude plus one of them
[15:19] up front, the other one on the left, 442.
[15:21] This is pretty easy guys. All we got to do, if you're
[15:24] doing a 433, it's always going to be someone talks.
[15:26] We Bale, Benzema, Ronaldo did not.
[15:28] When we defended in a 433 with them, it was not going to work.
[15:31] You just is not a defensive formation.
[15:34] So I would say have him sit deeper.
[15:36] Don't press CBS, defend with discipline within team concept.
[15:39] That's what I'm putting is the expectations.
[15:41] Stop calling solo, stop trying to press someone when you feel
[15:43] like it. Press when the whole team
[15:45] decides to. Correct.
[15:47] I, I think there needs to be some code word that Jabi has for
[15:50] them where he yells it and they know Oh, that means we're all
[15:53] pressing now. So because as you know, Sid, a
[15:56] press isn't a one man thing. All the dudes have to be In Sync
[15:59] because when one person goes up, what happens?
[16:02] And area is vacated behind them, which means someone has to fill
[16:05] and play the carousel to now take that spot up to cut off
[16:08] that passing lane, right? Like, but too often down the
[16:10] Madrid bad angle pressing by myself.
[16:13] Oh shit, the whole bottom behind me is wide open.
[16:15] Pedri passes up the middle and now they got five on one behind
[16:18] us and we're screwed. Right?
[16:19] Like this is we can't have that anymore.
[16:21] Cannot, cannot, cannot. You're on mute.
[16:29] Sorry and if you following on the podcast, I just threw our
[16:32] little CHEAT SHEET on the screen.
[16:33] So let's continue to Killian and BAPE now.
[16:36] Jesus. I mean, it is like like Carlo
[16:41] again comes into this. I just feel like he wouldn't
[16:43] even have a conversation with them.
[16:45] It was like, oh, Killian didn't defend like smoking the
[16:47] cigarette, David, like get the other guys to defend.
[16:50] We got to attack better. That's the key.
[16:51] Like he. Literally said in press
[16:53] conferences said Killian's job was to score goals, not defend.
[16:59] So here's the other part about that.
[17:01] If you're hearing the manager say that and you are a teammate
[17:04] of Killian's, well, how come he doesn't get to can get not to
[17:07] defend? And I have to, which is why I
[17:09] think you saw a lot of Vinicius being like, I'm the one that won
[17:12] the Champions League last year. Like if that, if that guy's not
[17:15] defending, I'm not defending either, right?
[17:17] Like why should I have to sacrifice and kill myself
[17:20] defensively? So Jabi's got to get that under.
[17:24] Look, ain't nobody. I'm not asking him to be the
[17:26] world's best freaking presser, but my dude, can you learn what
[17:31] the right angle is when you're coming to press somebody right?
[17:34] Can you learn to actually give effort?
[17:37] Can you how many times this season when we were out of
[17:39] possession said the the screen, no matter how big a screen
[17:43] you're watching, Kelly won't even be in the frame When we
[17:46] were on defense. I'm like, what the fuck?
[17:48] This guy Vinny too. Sometimes I'm like who are
[17:51] literally playing 11 on 9 because you 2 are doing whatever
[17:56] your own thing. Not not in frame.
[17:57] We can't have that. Can't.
[17:58] Yeah, I want to see. I'm going to call it the Ronaldo
[18:01] solution. All right, but what's your
[18:02] grade? What's your grade, though?
[18:03] Real quick. D minus DD minus.
[18:07] All right. I'll just say I mean it should
[18:09] be an F. If we're being honest, like it
[18:11] should be an. FD/D minus DROD.
[18:14] I'm going to have to do the first one.
[18:16] We're really different on. I'm saying by killer because I
[18:18] saw Ronaldo drop 60 and even when Zidane got him to defend,
[18:22] who was a little more short lived, like I always hype it up.
[18:24] It's like, no, it's still short lived.
[18:25] Ronaldo still like Messi never defended in my opinion.
[18:28] I do subscribe to the belief that like what Carlos said in
[18:30] the press conference wasn't wrong.
[18:33] However, it sounded like he wasn't going to work on it.
[18:35] But like I think and Bobby needs to do better.
[18:37] Doing better is still not doing that great for him, correct?
[18:39] Yes, that's the point. Yeah.
[18:42] So the bar is so low and that's why I'll say see sit because I
[18:46] think the bar will always be low for him.
[18:48] But I think when you put him on the worst defensive system of
[18:51] his career, like everyone looks like an F like like in terms of
[18:56] impact and he especially So that's what I'll say.
[18:59] I'll just go like C/C minus it's not his best season, but like I
[19:03] think he can easily become AB and it's not his job to be more
[19:05] than AB as we talk about. No, I I just want him to be
[19:08] average. Just just be, just be average.
[19:10] Just be average. Right, right.
[19:12] Yeah. I guess if C is kind of closer
[19:13] to average, I'll just say C -. I won't, I won't be so generous.
[19:17] And yeah. Generous.
[19:20] With him, well, and yeah, that's where like kind of like Zidane
[19:24] with Ronaldo. Like Zidane with Ronaldo.
[19:26] And we get that right? Like you're going to have
[19:29] players in that system who aren't going to defend, and
[19:31] that's in Boppe. But we can't have in Boppe and
[19:34] Vinny not defending like you. You just can't.
[19:37] You can't because now it's all on Jude to provide any kind of
[19:40] press. And you can't press with one
[19:42] player like you, right? Like. 100% and honestly the best
[19:46] feeling in the world drought was January 2016 when Zidane came in
[19:50] and he's like, nobody's allowed to like be lazy.
[19:53] All of you run. And I'm just like, cuz at that
[19:55] point even Ronaldo, Bale, like none of them were playing well
[19:58] enough to like do this whole I'm not defending thing.
[20:00] Like come on guy. Like we, we lost to Barcelona
[20:03] where even Neymar and Suarez run.
[20:04] Why can't you guys just do this for us to win the game?
[20:06] Just run. Just run my guy.
[20:09] And I think what it came down to is like Benitez was weird.
[20:12] He tried, he sent Ronaldo Ausb telling him how to shoot free
[20:14] kicks. That was dumb.
[20:15] I. Mean you, you have to know who
[20:17] you're talking to and how to deliver the message.
[20:19] Like one thing you don't need to teach Ronaldo is how to fucking
[20:21] shoot free kicks, right? Like that.
[20:22] You don't need to do that. Yep.
[20:24] And I would argue the tactical, but regardless I would argue I
[20:29] bring points to that time because overall the tactics
[20:30] where they are, they're very much like end of 1415, we were a
[20:34] better team tactically. I would argue we were still a
[20:36] little like unusually offensive without it holding midfielder in
[20:39] that 1415 and as we as everyone knows.
[20:42] So for that season at the end of that year, Benitez did bring a
[20:46] lot of defense in. He got Castamero defending and
[20:49] like the way our line played was just way better even before he
[20:53] got fired. And then like for him to kind of
[20:56] set it up but kind of tease us. And then Zidane comes in and
[20:58] he's like, hey, Cristiano, like even I don't care if you're
[21:01] swapped down to the right wing, you're tracking Alba.
[21:03] If he's if you're on Alba's side, you track Alba.
[21:05] And I miss that. I miss that.
[21:07] And I think Alonzo really is so fun because he his last season
[21:12] here was that 1415 team or sorry, his 1314.
[21:16] And then the 1415 team happened the year after he left.
[21:18] So I just feel like he's seen this up and down evolution so
[21:23] much, even in an admire. And like Arturo Vidal was
[21:25] brought next to him. He knows that you need a mix of
[21:27] like Braun coverage and everything.
[21:29] He sees it and he as a midfielder, he's he and where he
[21:35] played, he recognizes offensive threat.
[21:37] And if you watch what he did at Leverkusen with that team, they
[21:40] were among the worst teams in the Bundesliga in terms of
[21:43] giving up expected goals, expected threat, like, and then
[21:46] once he took them over, you look at their numbers, he cut that
[21:49] dramatically and and stifled other teams threats.
[21:52] And so I think that we're going to have is a lot of, again, I
[21:55] keep using the word pragmatism. He's going to be very malleable
[21:57] and pragmatic with how he does it.
[21:58] I think a lot of times in when we're out of possession and
[22:01] we're defending, you might see five at the back, like in that
[22:05] two or many as the holding midfielder might even be like,
[22:07] yo, you know, we're like in that like 5th.
[22:10] So we have 5 lines, five guys back there.
[22:12] So there's nothing coming through and especially that
[22:15] because I think on we're in possession, not because we're
[22:19] going to start that way, but because of Hoisin's on ball
[22:22] ability and because of Trent's on ball ability, I think you're
[22:26] going to see those guys pushing forward a bit, right?
[22:28] And so in possession, it might look like 3 at the back, right,
[22:31] just because those guys are like that.
[22:33] They're they're excellent with the ball at their feet.
[22:35] So I think you'll see a lot of that sort of like switch, switch
[22:39] interchangeability with what it looks like.
[22:41] That's why I like when people are like, oh, are you playing
[22:43] three? Whatever.
[22:43] It's like that's just what you put out on the sheet to start
[22:47] the game so that everybody knows what whatever.
[22:48] But during the flow of the game, it's going to be a million
[22:51] different things based on where we are possession wise, what the
[22:54] game state calls for this, that and the third. 100% On that
[22:59] note, which player are we going to next?
[23:02] We're still up front, right? I feel like Brahim is just I, I
[23:07] don't even know what to say, 'cause like, I don't know what,
[23:08] like he plays coming off the bench, who knows what the
[23:10] defense, what he's asked to do on defense, I feel like.
[23:13] So that's, that's my biggest thing of Brahim.
[23:15] I, I want a clearly defined role for him.
[23:18] Like what, who, who and what are you?
[23:20] If you are the first sub off the bench, I wanted to be very clear
[23:23] what is expected of you 'cause he wasn't what he was last year.
[23:26] I know we're not, we're not talking about offense, but the,
[23:28] but the season before where he was our super sub literally was
[23:31] like, oh, Brahim's coming to the game.
[23:32] We're going to be awesome. Wasn't that this year.
[23:35] That's on offense defensively, I thought at times like he's
[23:38] always gives a forever, always give a good effort.
[23:40] But I felt like he was lost a lot as was his team this year
[23:43] because it was like, wait a minute, now who am I chasing
[23:45] here? They they've got the ball.
[23:47] They've got numerical advantage behind us.
[23:48] What the right? So Brahim gets an A for his
[23:50] effort. But again, this is this is down
[23:52] to Carlos like terrible deployment.
[23:55] Yeah, yeah, totally a for effort for Brahim, more clarity, I'll
[24:00] just say. Yeah, he just.
[24:02] Yeah. I want to know what you know.
[24:04] And you, you're, you're. You're on the on the side of we
[24:06] keep Brahim as a as our, as our off the bench player, right?
[24:09] You're not in the sell him category.
[24:10] Maybe you are, I don't know. You're not getting ambidextrous
[24:12] guys. We can take people off the
[24:13] dribble. Like damn, you're anywhere.
[24:15] Unless you're a really fast fullback, he can take you off
[24:17] the dribble. He you don't get those, Like
[24:19] where do you get those? You just don't.
[24:21] I think a lot of teams would kill for him and I think he's
[24:24] still in the his contract. As we talked about, he's in a
[24:27] place where you you want players like that who who don't deserve
[24:32] to be undisputed starters, who you can keep because they may
[24:35] not be so unhappy where they want to play somewhere else.
[24:37] And I think he's actually in that sweet spot.
[24:39] I. Do.
[24:40] Yeah, So Brahim, Yeah, I have nothing bad to say.
[24:43] Then who's next? That's kind of our attackers,
[24:46] right Next. I feel like someone like Guler
[24:50] didn't play enough. So we're we shouldn't even like.
[24:52] Well, so Guler overall, though, played over 1000 minutes this
[24:55] year. So, you know, that's enough for
[24:58] me. I'm going to give him an
[24:59] incomplete grade. I know that a lot of the fan
[25:03] base was like that. He didn't take advantage of his
[25:06] chances early in the season. I'm not blaming him for that
[25:09] Sid, because he came off and he played well for Turkey during
[25:12] the EUR last last summer, really well.
[25:14] And I just thought that because he had no defined role and
[25:18] Carlo, it's clearly something Carlo was looking at for him.
[25:21] I don't know what that thing was.
[25:24] He didn't do it. And I mean, remember, there were
[25:26] weeks he didn't play like on end.
[25:28] They were like, oh, and that fucked with his confidence, man.
[25:31] You're 1920 years old. Like you're.
[25:33] So yeah, of course he sucked on defense because what am I
[25:37] supposed to be doing here? Am I the goal scorer?
[25:39] Am I the So I would love for him to have a consistent role.
[25:42] And it sounds like from everything I'm hearing that Jabi
[25:45] views Arda as someone who's going to be a consistent player
[25:48] for this team, not a starter in every game, but maybe when they
[25:51] rotate, but he will have a consistent spot off the bench.
[25:54] Maybe it's like the second sub or whatever.
[25:56] And I think we both agree that it's the deep line playmaker
[25:59] role, right? That's the that's the that's the
[26:01] role for him. So.
[26:02] Yeah, yeah. It'll it'll depend on where we
[26:04] are in the game and what we need.
[26:06] Forgot about Endrick. I mean, again, I feel like it's
[26:10] incomplete. Like he's also incomplete.
[26:11] Not enough minutes. Like not even enough minutes.
[26:13] Yeah, and but he. We we we we we discussed this on
[26:17] keep sell loan Sid he we have to loan him out.
[26:20] So he gets an opportunity to play all the immaturity out of
[26:23] his game. And like, first of all, he just
[26:25] has to play and he's not going to play here like when who who
[26:29] are you we taking off to put you on the field for nobody, nobody.
[26:33] So he has to go play somewhere. Where, where else do we go from
[26:39] here? We know Guler and Rick is that
[26:41] are we going getting to our next big one, Fete Valverde, the next
[26:44] guy who does most of the defending?
[26:46] Yeah, I mean, fete A+ obviously like he just, he runs his heart
[26:51] out. I mean, what can I say about
[26:54] this guy? I that hasn't been said, You
[26:57] know, he is a, he is a physiological specimen from a
[27:04] lactate clearance standpoint. However, all that being said,
[27:09] I've said this to you privately and I'll say it publicly if I
[27:11] haven't. I'm worried about him, Sid.
[27:13] Like I think we've taken years off of his career by what we've
[27:16] done, that he is by far the number one person in terms of
[27:21] total minutes played in all of world football between club and
[27:24] country over the last two seasons by far.
[27:28] That is not a good you. You don't want to be #1 that's
[27:30] not unless you want to be #1 on. You just don't.
[27:33] Not unless you want to be one on.
[27:35] Yeah, you know, I think I forgot to add, but I got to add to
[27:37] Jude. Lower the load for Jude, play
[27:39] him higher up for Fete, literally just rotate him and
[27:41] prolong his career please. Like like we need that for Jude,
[27:44] but with Jude, like we also just use him like a bar of soap when
[27:47] he's out there. Like more than you would for
[27:49] most attacking players. Honestly.
[27:51] I'll but I'll add like rotate and get Jude's surgery.
[27:55] We honestly both him, like everything you said about Fete
[27:58] just kind of made me realize like 3 guys, three guys did 90%
[28:01] of the defending Rudiger, Fete and Belgium.
[28:03] That's it, That's it. Only once.
[28:05] Who gave a shit on defense? Look, so Bellingham picked up
[28:08] the yellow card last game in the game against who?
[28:11] We play whoever we played on Sunday.
[28:13] So it means he's out for the last game against Sociedad.
[28:15] Fucking why isn't he on the surgery table this morning?
[28:19] Like what are we doing? I think he'd.
[28:20] Be 100% for the Club World Cup. That's why they're they're
[28:22] gonna, they're waiting for after so.
[28:24] Because because what? What's that injury take?
[28:26] Separation like 6 weeks. Yeah.
[28:28] So the point is like, even if you did at the end of the
[28:30] season, you, you can't come back like day one for the Club World
[28:33] Cup, like or yeah, you, you need like 3 weeks.
[28:35] So they're like adapt. Yeah.
[28:37] So that we're like fine, just practice against Mallorca.
[28:39] Like chill out at the like, don't train here.
[28:41] Use Mallorca as practice because they're a little more
[28:43] unpredictable, which I actually I I don't disagree with playing
[28:47] them now, Jerrod, like you got you want to compete in that
[28:50] tournament. I think using La Liga as
[28:52] practice instead of training hard internally between your
[28:55] guys is just genius And like it, it's not genius.
[28:58] I would call it genius considering how many things you
[29:00] do bad, But it's like not that dumb.
[29:02] Like it's no, no. No, Sid, you're right.
[29:04] My issue isn't with I, I think that's dead on you.
[29:08] You play you use these last two games as practice.
[29:11] My issue is that we're playing the Club World Cup.
[29:13] That's my issue, right? And so because they're not been
[29:16] able to get the right the rest they need.
[29:17] And so because of that, yes, you have to use these last two the
[29:20] the the last game done on next Sunday as practice and whatever.
[29:23] And that's, so I agree. That's the that's the right way
[29:25] to do it instead of burning them out on the training pitch in
[29:28] between these games, right? Use that as practice.
[29:31] So I'm totally down for that. I just wish we weren't playing
[29:33] the Club World Cup. Yeah, so with Jude, so if he if
[29:37] it's at the end of the Club World Cup, which ends on like
[29:40] July 14th or something like that, that would mean 4-6 and
[29:44] then he needs three weeks to adapt.
[29:46] So that would put him out until the beginning of September.
[29:51] But the reason why I don't like that Sid is because although
[29:55] maybe Jude's, I mean, he is very brilliant, he's not going to get
[29:59] that time on the pitch working with Javion what he wants him to
[30:02] do. So when is he you know what I
[30:04] mean? So like, when is he supposed to
[30:06] learn his new role and get his time to be up there right,
[30:10] Because I'm. I'm less worried about that.
[30:11] I'm I'm, I think he he's the easiest plug and play superstar
[30:15] we've ever seen. The only reason is because of
[30:17] that. But like I, I will say it could
[30:19] be a concern with a lot of players, though.
[30:21] I think luckily he's such a plug and play guy.
[30:25] It's just he's a lot more plug and play than a MAPE where OK,
[30:27] he's not defending, he makes certain runs.
[30:29] He wants the ball defeat. No, this guy just will do
[30:31] whatever you ask them. He will make off ball runs.
[30:34] What I love about him is how like he's fast for a midfielder,
[30:37] maybe not for a winger, but very for a midfielder and then he
[30:41] always makes the selfless run. It's just you just don't see
[30:44] that all the time, dude. I mean, and even when he gets
[30:46] frustrated, I'm like, holy crap, like if I were you, I would just
[30:49] stop trying sometimes. Like I would just lose it and.
[30:52] And I mean, and he does, he gets so pissed, he could say.
[30:53] Yes, he does. Yeah, Yeah.
[30:54] And instead he does instead of like, not stop trying, he'll
[30:57] just like let the frustration boil all the way over in certain
[30:59] place, which is what I would do. I would do that.
[31:01] Like I would lose it. He's also said like he's like
[31:04] thick, like physically like in his like chest and shoulder
[31:06] area, like he's like what 61 like he's a solid, like solid
[31:11] dude. Not I mean we're we're we love
[31:13] Jude here, Jude and I I think your your point is well taken in
[31:16] that he's can through osmosis and just talking to job.
[31:20] Yeah, like, because I can see him being like, all right, I've
[31:22] got my I'm in my sling. I'm at practice and I'm watching
[31:25] and job. He's like, yeah, this will be
[31:26] your and he's picking it all up. Like, all right, I know what I
[31:28] got to do Like so I, I, I see that.
[31:31] He's also like the only guy who can head the ball in the squad.
[31:33] Like there, it's pretty hard to keep him off the team when he's
[31:35] the only like, like he's the he's the most dangerous, like
[31:38] box threat aerially. Like only him and only him and
[31:41] Truman. He can head, that's it.
[31:42] No, I mean rugger I guess can head too, but.
[31:44] Yeah, and so tricky 1 here. Camelvenga, I feel like I'll
[31:49] just say I don't think it was his best season defensively
[31:52] impact wise, but with that he. Had moments, though.
[31:54] He had moments. Yeah, and that that's where I, I
[31:57] feel like Camo Vinga is a sign of the how bad the coaching was
[32:00] because it's really hard to deploy someone who's that good
[32:03] long. Like it really hard to get
[32:04] around. And every time we've had a game
[32:07] where we get embarrassed with him is when I want Carlo out on
[32:09] coincidentally because it's hard to do that with a guy like that.
[32:12] You must be doing something wrong to make him get spun
[32:14] around. Like what are you doing, Carlo?
[32:16] I agree at at at six foot one, he's another preternatural
[32:20] athlete. He's 22 Sid like so so I know a
[32:23] lot of the fan bases like soured on him or whatever.
[32:25] I'm like, you guys are nuts. This dude is 22 years old.
[32:28] I am not giving up on Eduardo Kemvinga, Not in the least.
[32:31] I. Seen a lot of porn anywhere.
[32:32] I don't want to ever see him anywhere for now.
[32:34] Like only when he's 30, when he's on his physical decline.
[32:37] I agree we've seen him boss World Cup finals right?
[32:41] We see we saw him. We saw him do it right like him
[32:43] and Truman bossing messing in a World Cup freaking final like we
[32:47] saw it. OK, so we know he's got the
[32:49] goods in him. He is the king of the cobra sly
[32:52] tackle like unbelievable tracking back be able to and
[32:56] hold on to the ball. That dude who has it now is
[32:58] dispossessed falling over himself.
[33:00] He can turn on the other way and take off and go.
[33:02] But Carlo F minus even worse than an F for deployment on him.
[33:07] Like how do you mess up that dude?
[33:09] So I and I believe that Javi will realize, yo, this is a I've
[33:13] got a Ferrari in my Lamborghini in my garage.
[33:17] No, no, I know how to use this dude like I know how to use him.
[33:21] Rolls Royce or I don't know what you want to call it, like.
[33:23] Aston Martin, Whatever. Like like intergalactic
[33:27] spaceship like, yeah, it's like, no, he's something else.
[33:32] Because the it's actually ridiculous that we haven't seen
[33:34] it. I wanted to see some of this
[33:35] under Carlo. I used to go on old pods back
[33:37] when I was on managing Madrid, just talking about how Camovinga
[33:41] and Trumeni could bring like a Carlo defensive renaissance and.
[33:45] He's never deployed them right. I think you're right.
[33:47] You. Can't, though, like coach, if
[33:49] you don't know how to play defense as a coach, like good
[33:51] players aren't going to change that.
[33:52] He doesn't know how to rotate. Yeah, no.
[33:53] Correct. I think you're right though.
[33:55] He is not the holding midfielder at six, right?
[33:57] That's two and many. However, I do think Kemah Vinga,
[34:03] you know, I I think you can play him at times in the double pivot
[34:08] if you want to do that sometimes with with too many, if we're
[34:11] rotating Fede out for whatever, you know, because we need to
[34:13] rest or whatever. I think you can totally play a
[34:15] double pivot next to too many because of the advancing that he
[34:19] can do, right? Like that, that too many won't.
[34:22] Too many is, by the way, when we get to him switch to play like
[34:25] he can switch, play like we've seen him do it like, yeah, like
[34:28] Jabi will unlock that as well. Where's the rating though?
[34:31] I feel like it's for me it's a effort and like honestly for me
[34:35] it's hard to not say AI mean if we say he wasn't covering in
[34:38] some places you could say like B plus to A at work.
[34:41] He's a effort for sure, I just thought Carla deployed him wrong
[34:44] like. Yeah, 100%.
[34:46] And honestly, he, it was, I just remember watching games where it
[34:49] was like Camo, manga, Jude, Fede, they're all there.
[34:51] And for all their talent, they've never had to deal with
[34:54] fires like this where like 2 guys aren't defending, the other
[34:56] team knows they won't defend. Your coach is asking you to
[34:58] still go win the ball. You're pretending you can win
[35:00] the ball back as a team without your top 2 defending.
[35:03] And then everything just keeps going wrong again and again.
[35:05] You make an awesome play. Oh, look who we got.
[35:07] And then by the end of the season, the narrative is
[35:09] everyone's souring on you because your coach just didn't
[35:11] set it up. And I hate it.
[35:13] On that note, I think Chuomeni as a whole, we're going to,
[35:16] we're only grading him as a holy midfielder here, in case you're
[35:19] wondering, not counting as a center back.
[35:21] I would say hey, like I think. Listen, I know I said it to you
[35:24] before. I think he can be the best DM in
[35:28] the world. Like better than Rodri, like I
[35:31] think he honestly can be. The problem is is that K to kick
[35:35] and shuttle to center back and he plays center back.
[35:37] I think what Conte said this on your last show, he plays center
[35:40] back like a defensive midfielder because that's what the fuck he
[35:42] is, because he's a defensive midfielder, not a center back.
[35:45] So I hope Jabby never plays him at center back ever, ever.
[35:52] Like I don't want him back there.
[35:53] It's different when he's dropping job is like, OK, I want
[35:57] I want five guys back on the that's different like because
[35:59] he's still he's not a center back.
[36:00] He's just a defensive midfielder that's playing within within the
[36:02] five lines. I with with four of the guys on
[36:05] the line. I want him to be a defensive
[36:08] midfielder, the holding midfielder, because I think and
[36:11] in a single pivot he can be so good.
[36:12] Sid like I think his switch plays excellent.
[36:15] Like his long range passing is actually better than people
[36:18] think it is. He just needs to do it more
[36:20] right. And the reason why I can't do it
[36:22] more is because there's no structure into what's going on
[36:24] right. Like he's putting out a fire.
[36:25] Then he's like, OK, I got the ball where where's my outlet?
[36:28] Like who, who am I getting getting rid of it too right.
[36:31] And I just there's just too much chaos, like he is the kind of
[36:34] player that with. So let's I'll I'll say it this
[36:38] way. Imagine there there's no Rodri
[36:43] that exists and Chua many is the DM holding midfielder for city
[36:47] under pet. How fucking how fucking awesome
[36:50] is just Chua many? He's awesome.
[36:51] And I think here's the thing, he maybe doesn't get to the point
[36:53] where he's playing 107 passes for 90 like Rodri in his pest
[36:57] season 2324 Rodri was ridiculous.
[37:00] And because even Cruz, like we don't have anyone in the
[37:03] database who played that many passes per 90.
[37:05] But that being said, Cruz was pretty much just as good per
[37:07] pass, if not better and then and still pretty much just as good
[37:11] usage relative to context and structure.
[37:14] And on top of that, yeah, no, I'm with you.
[37:16] I think I think 2 or many and Cruz would be better than Rodri
[37:19] and Gundo again for. For sure.
[37:23] Or like, whatever, Kovachic. I mean, Kovachic just doesn't
[37:25] belong on the name. He doesn't belong on the pitch
[37:27] with the other three. But like, I like the guy.
[37:32] It's just like he's the kind of guy like, that's an example of
[37:34] like, even Pep could only get so much development.
[37:36] Like, he's good. I think if he like, yeah, I
[37:40] don't know. He never picked it up.
[37:41] He he still makes mistakes. Yeah.
[37:42] And and so for me again, I think Javi will see because he because
[37:47] he and Truman are kind of similar in terms of how they
[37:50] play, but I think too many is a better athlete than Javi, than
[37:55] Javi was at his peak, right? So I think all of those things,
[37:58] I think he's like you're you're me, like you're a boss version
[38:02] of me, right? Like, and I I think that would
[38:05] be he more than more than more than anyone except for Jude,
[38:08] because I think he'd do well with Jude.
[38:10] I think he will do wonders with Q and many fucking wonders.
[38:15] And then I'll love to hear what the fan base has to say about Q
[38:17] many because it's another one the fan base is down on.
[38:19] And I'm like, you're down on him because again, Carlo F minus for
[38:22] deployment. Why is he playing center back
[38:24] and out of position? Yeah.
[38:27] And on that note, I would say that I think the Quartet Q and
[38:31] many Camminga, Valverde and Bellingham, I think he
[38:33] weaponizes them and minimizes the weaknesses of the rest while
[38:36] rotating Q and fete. That's what we hope for.
[38:39] And yeah, I think camel finger Trumani are going to be awesome.
[38:41] Yeah, like Trumani has the same like distance and range in terms
[38:46] of his ball striking ability as Alonso.
[38:48] It's pretty ridiculous, honestly.
[38:50] Some of his passes are. Shot we've seen him with France
[38:53] long past which. Or he's a goal against England
[38:56] like. What are you?
[38:57] So what are you trying to tell me?
[38:59] When he plays for France, it's like he's a different player.
[39:01] I mean, yes, he is because he's he's a defined role, knows what
[39:04] he's doing. So what that means is the skill
[39:06] is there, right? And the execution's there
[39:08] because we've seen it happen. So why can't we replicate that
[39:11] here? What's the problem?
[39:12] Yeah. And and I, yeah and I think the
[39:16] pivot area will really be solved like the the double pivot,
[39:20] single pivot, how are we covering the half spaces?
[39:21] How are we doing rotations around the full backs?
[39:23] Who's covering? Because I feel like 1314 Madrid
[39:27] did that better when Carla was here because like they, they
[39:30] don't have a traditional destroyer.
[39:32] Like I, I don't think people realize like Alonzo was like a B
[39:36] like B to B plus press resistance, honestly, B press
[39:38] resistance, A+ technical ability and A+ effort and like a plus
[39:43] positioning on D and maybe like B dueling like better than Cruz
[39:47] at dueling. But he wasn't like the A like he
[39:49] wasn't the athlete Chew a man. He is right.
[39:50] He wasn't the A+ destroyer. Casimiro is right, but he he was
[39:54] the best defensive player along with Modric in that midfield.
[39:56] They made it work. Di Maria was worked hard.
[39:59] He didn't tackle. They made it work.
[40:00] And I'm so excited just talking about it because that team did.
[40:04] A lot more defensively with less than Carlo has a whole 10 years
[40:07] later with. This that that's exactly what
[40:08] I'm saying that between fucking Fede Chua Mani and game of
[40:13] Venga, the amount of destruction they can do defensively,
[40:17] breaking up all entry passes and like there's and Chua Mani, by
[40:20] the way, when he remember when he when the when the burnabout
[40:23] crowd booed him, were whistling him like, and then after that he
[40:25] like he played like the best holding midfield the rest of the
[40:28] season. He broke up so many offensive
[40:33] interventions, like on a regular basis.
[40:35] He was bossing people like this is the freaking Q of many we
[40:38] need. And that was again under crap
[40:40] Carlos system. So imagine with with Javi's like
[40:43] understanding of like positioning where to be.
[40:45] I think they can be destructive. So let's say we're playing
[40:48] against, I don't know, Barcelona or something, and we're like,
[40:50] all right, we're we're go Kemah Vinga and chew him any a double
[40:54] because you know, we're going to we're going to take out, you
[40:57] know, all, all their anything. They play towards the the
[40:59] middles and the sides, right, because then you can have chem
[41:03] of Venga shuttle out to take care of to help with Lamine.
[41:05] Although if we get Carreras as a left back, I'm feeling pretty
[41:09] good. Right, which that's, that's the
[41:11] rumor anyway. Yeah, I, I, I, I'm excited, man.
[41:15] I, I, I can't wait to see what Javi Alonzo does with, with this
[41:19] crew. Now going to the defense here,
[41:24] we're almost done Homestretch. That's just some of these names.
[41:27] It's like, OK, let's get let's get this over with.
[41:29] OK, so Carvajal, Aliba and who? Else I got the names on the
[41:33] screen. Here it's it's like we got a big
[41:35] list, but it's still. Oh no I mean I mean who am like
[41:38] not even going to grade them So Aliba and carnival and carnival
[41:40] not even getting graded and militat like what?
[41:42] They didn't even, they didn't play, so I got nothing for them.
[41:47] Yeah, I'll just put NA for Carvajal.
[41:50] Yeah, I got nothing for. I mean he got rushed back
[41:53] Militaus. He's a bad idea.
[41:55] All I'll say is expectations next year.
[41:57] Like expect to never have him back.
[41:59] Right, Don't. Don't do that shit again.
[42:01] Do not rush him back, please. No, I mean, oh, not only that,
[42:04] just you might just assume that you ruined his career with what
[42:06] you did too. O2 Acls probably definitely did.
[42:10] Ruined his career I expect we'd love to acknowledge this, that's
[42:13] all. Assume you ruined his career.
[42:14] Don't rely on. It and and and aliba take he's
[42:17] he's and a too, because I, I don't even like like know what's
[42:20] happening there. The one thing I'll say though,
[42:22] about Aliba. Oh, we didn't mention Madrich.
[42:27] Madrich. Yeah, We'll, we'll throw him in
[42:28] right here. So Madrich gave tons of effort
[42:34] because he always gives effort, but you saw his physical
[42:37] limitations, especially in a squad that had no defensive
[42:42] structure. So he's he's already, he's
[42:44] already limited because he's 40 years old, but it made it even
[42:47] worse because it's 40 and then the system where there's no
[42:49] structure whatsoever. So he's trying to run back.
[42:51] I mean, come on, a 40 year old Madrich ain't catching an
[42:54] average sprinting midfielder in world football today.
[42:56] He's just not. So we're again, that's that
[42:58] numerical disadvantage. We're out at the back.
[43:00] So I think Javi can help with a better structure.
[43:04] Here's what I will say about Madrich overall and supplies to
[43:06] Alibatu. And by all accounts looks like
[43:09] Montrez will be back next year because Javi actually wants him,
[43:13] which I don't mind from a someone's got to understand how
[43:17] Javi wants to play and like an adult in a lot in the dressing
[43:20] room. I'm down with all that.
[43:22] What I don't want to happen is that means it's stifles artist
[43:25] development or whomever that would be.
[43:28] And Javi, because he trusts Lucas so much, he leans on him
[43:31] too heavily and that stunts a younger person's development
[43:35] because I do think that could hurt us in the long run.
[43:38] But I love having him there because he played with with
[43:42] Javi. Obviously he knows what he
[43:43] wants, as did David Aliba, by the way, in Javi's last year at
[43:46] Bayern Munich. So again, if an extension of a
[43:51] coach in the dressing room and someone who can again, another
[43:54] adult in the in the dressing room because these younger guys
[43:57] are done, they still need that, right?
[43:59] They need to understand what it means to be a Real Madrid
[44:01] player, what he's looking for. And it's also like, you know how
[44:04] it is, Sid the coach says something and you're feeling
[44:06] some kind of way. You're in your feelings, right?
[44:08] But in a teammate like brings you over and hugs you.
[44:10] He's like, man, don't worry about him.
[44:12] Like all he's trying to tell you is like, dude, right?
[44:13] Like that has value. That has that has definite
[44:15] value. So if Madrich and Alabar are
[44:18] going to do that, I'm down. Yeah, I'm just making a note for
[44:21] Oliver. Do not play him at left back
[44:23] against Saka ever again. I mean, if if, all things being
[44:27] equal, that dude ain't never going to see the field next year
[44:29] unless it's a situation where we're playing like, you know, a
[44:33] relegation team and we're already up five nil or whatever,
[44:36] like fine, like and it's mop up duty.
[44:38] Cool do. Not play him at Yeah forget
[44:41] forget against Saka. Do not play him at left back.
[44:43] If we ever see him, please let it be at center back in my
[44:46] opinion, or like back three. Do not want to see him ever in a
[44:49] in a back 4 left back roll. All right, Ascencio.
[44:54] I think impact and effort were like AI think actual rating is
[44:58] like I think AB plus AB. I'd say it's so hard because
[45:03] like I think in the F system, paradoxically like a like AC to
[45:07] B center back can't look that bad dude fault half the time
[45:14] because they're exposed to so many situations So what can you
[45:16] do? It's kind of like Ramos and
[45:17] Varan really used to hate on them in the late twenty 10's and
[45:21] like now before Zidan set up the defensive system, dudes like
[45:23] Zidan's leaving them one-on-one. He doesn't ought to coach a
[45:25] transition defense. It's not their fault they're
[45:27] playing 2 on 2/3 on three and when they do they play really
[45:30] well so. Fires to the sense you have to
[45:33] put out this year like and I love the effort.
[45:36] He has such pace and because of his pace, he was able to put out
[45:40] a lot of fires. Did he make mistakes?
[45:41] Of course he did. He's a 22 year old playing first
[45:44] time senior Real Madrid center back.
[45:46] Like of course he made mistakes. But B plus given context, and
[45:49] again, I think Javi can work wonders with him.
[45:53] I would say actually for Javi, he just manages expectations,
[45:57] has great I think like he has potential.
[46:01] He does. I don't know if he's undisputed.
[46:03] Once we have a good like like once Seliba Rudiger, healthy
[46:06] Rudiger, Seliba Hudson, like when, when those are the
[46:08] options. I think he gets going into a
[46:11] Nacho role potentially. That's where I say manage
[46:14] expectations, try to keep him around.
[46:17] And honestly said, he showed us that he's decent to I think as a
[46:22] ceiling to be good on ball to very good like he can advance
[46:26] the ball forward, he can pass well long range.
[46:29] Like, I think he's actually better on the ball than without
[46:32] it. Like I think he's feeling on, I
[46:33] think on the ball he's actually like, which is surprising.
[46:36] You don't just see that out of nowhere usually, but he has real
[46:38] balls on the ball. Was very surprised how I wasn't
[46:41] nervous when he gets it. And yeah, he made mistakes, but
[46:43] I feel like his on ball mistakes were less proportionate and less
[46:46] concerning than maybe the defensive ones where But again,
[46:49] I. Structure clubs clean up those
[46:51] off ball those off out of ball mistakes.
[46:54] I think a lot of people are reacting in saying Ascencio's
[46:56] world class or Ascencio's trash. It's just a bad team.
[46:58] I think it's all just like the it's a noisy season, Gerard, but
[47:02] we can't risk interpreting too much from this year.
[47:05] We need like kind of like Zidane came in with Solari, gave
[47:08] everyone 10 games before he told Perez to sell.
[47:10] It's almost like that now. You, you don't want to rush to
[47:13] judge anyone after what just happened.
[47:15] All right, Mandy on Jesus Christ, just on defense.
[47:19] I mean he's he's incomplete too many didn't even play all year.
[47:22] What the like he played like 3 games?
[47:24] Like let me see Mandy's minutes. No, I think he played more than
[47:26] three, but like he he was getting better.
[47:28] Remember the Liverpool game when he just got?
[47:30] Because he was freaking atrocious.
[47:33] Yeah. I think I gave him ADAD minus
[47:36] overall need for effort. Like I was just like.
[47:41] Question. And, and he was, and he was
[47:43] injured like for a lot of the year, like I just so you know,
[47:48] you know, I, I, I put what my hope is for me.
[47:50] You know, my hope is for Mendy because I don't think we're
[47:52] going to get rid of him. Can we design an offseason plan
[47:58] for him from a physiological and biochemical step, biometric
[48:02] standpoint where we get this man healthy?
[48:06] That's what I want. And a plan to keep him healthy
[48:08] throughout the season. Is that too much to ask?
[48:10] I think so. They say he's not playing the
[48:12] rest of his contract. He's that badly hurt.
[48:14] He might be overt. I don't and I don't think
[48:16] they're renewing him next time to try and get him on that diet
[48:18] plan that you have in mind. But I I'm not serious though.
[48:22] I think it's, I think. It's because he's there's
[48:26] something wrong with his effort or he's such a high twitch
[48:32] certain muscle guy that he was not trained correctly and
[48:35] properly to deal and manage with that.
[48:40] Cuz he is a unique Musk. I mean every human being is
[48:43] unique like, but he, more so than the others, is a unique
[48:46] musculature. Yes, he is.
[48:48] He is. I, I can't say I, I honestly,
[48:51] frankly can't tell with him. He's, I've never ever paid ultra
[48:55] close attention to his situation because he's always been in this
[48:57] weird, like in and out type situation since the first, like,
[49:01] for so long. Yeah.
[49:03] Yeah, it's just been weird. I think maybe early under
[49:05] Saddam, maybe like he was solid defensively.
[49:08] You could criticize him a little on ball.
[49:10] But ever since then, there's been a lot of debate over
[49:12] whether he's worth keeping. I don't know what's going on
[49:15] with him. And frankly, like I haven't
[49:17] always looked because I just can't believe that they have
[49:18] relied on it for so long. And also I can't believe that
[49:20] they won the title last year with him like kind of making
[49:23] this mid season comeback. It just didn't feel real at that
[49:25] point. I'm like only at this club.
[49:27] Like this guy looked horrible. We we all saw it with our eyes
[49:29] and then he just turned it around, turned it on, completed
[49:32] his passes, just did the Zidane Roulets every once in a while.
[49:35] And Joe, he turned it to Zinedine Mendy in the Champions
[49:38] League. I was like, what is this guy
[49:39] doing? This is incredible.
[49:41] Which, and it's still an awkward moment, you're still scared, but
[49:43] then it works. But again, Sid, so we've seen
[49:47] the execution happen. So what is the situation with
[49:51] the consistency? You could argue it's the
[49:53] injuries which don't allow him to play consistently to get more
[49:55] minutes, but why is he always injured?
[49:58] Is he just someone who's injury prone or is our medical and
[50:01] training staff not giving him what he specifically needs that
[50:04] he is healthy? Totally something to wonder
[50:07] about him and I'll just say next season, if any expectation, if
[50:09] he ever plays again, play him as a big game defensive specialist
[50:13] kind of like Cointreau, Fabio Cointreau, like fat Cointreau.
[50:18] Because cone Trout in 20/13/14 he was I think Marcelo played
[50:21] more but like the first leg in Munich, we got cone Trout there
[50:24] or or first leg at home. He's locking up Robin because
[50:27] Carlo didn't trust Marcelo in that situation.
[50:29] So because. Because at at his best, and this
[50:31] wasn't this year, but last year, Lamine was like, who's the
[50:34] toughest backing of the pace? He's like, oh, from LA Mendy,
[50:36] without question. Like, and you know.
[50:40] Yeah, that's where like, I don't know what to say.
[50:42] That's why I left two question marks.
[50:43] This is a very confusing one where it's also the problem with
[50:46] him. If we were to be honest.
[50:48] It's like you could remove his grade and just be like problem
[50:51] isn't defenceful. Yeah, right.
[50:54] Yeah. Kind of like Rodrigo, but in the
[50:56] grade side. I'm throwing it here like, can't
[50:57] even. No point grading it.
[50:58] That's not the issue. All right, Carvajal.
[51:01] Yeah, not applicable. As far as when he played, he was
[51:04] solid. Maybe.
[51:04] I don't know if he would have survived the year and he didn't,
[51:07] and I don't think he would have even if he did have one of those
[51:10] people thinks injuries are freak injuries.
[51:11] I don't know. I think he was due an injury.
[51:12] Like honestly, even the year before he bet like the gluten
[51:15] free, like Vasquez played some good minutes for us the year
[51:18] before we lost Carvajal and we had to play like Vasquez who
[51:21] already looked shaky if he was overextended the year before,
[51:25] overextend him. So I would just say assume his
[51:29] career, like assume his career is over.
[51:32] I wouldn't say he might not be over, but yes, I I think he's
[51:35] clearly not coming back as well. Trent's coming.
[51:37] So he ain't the starting right back.
[51:38] Like that's duh, he is a squad player now.
[51:40] Like that's, that's, that's your role.
[51:42] Like you're a squad player. Yeah, like I'd say usher him
[51:46] into the next stage of his career.
[51:47] That's exactly whether it is, whether that's like off the
[51:50] pitch. Yeah.
[51:51] And then, Oh yeah, Vasquez, but. Like what do we even need to say
[51:55] here? Like I mean a 30 something year
[51:57] old who should should not have even been playing as much as he
[51:59] did, so I think. I think leaving it blank is the
[52:01] best way to smoke. Correct.
[52:03] And he won't be back next year. So that's what it is.
[52:05] Yep. And Rudiger, I'm just going to
[52:07] say he he's that Callahan's here.
[52:09] Yeah, I, I, I thought Rudiger had a really good season, not at
[52:14] this last year, but he effort wise always there.
[52:18] I think he's another one Sid between club and country.
[52:21] He's played a lot of full 90s, a lot, a lot, a lot too many.
[52:26] I mean, he basically came out and said, yeah, I played the
[52:28] last like 8 weeks injured. I'm like, that's probably not a
[52:31] good idea. My God like and he had no choice
[52:33] because we had no other center backs.
[52:34] So he had to play injured for basically two months.
[52:38] I already said this to you. I know you're not concerned
[52:41] because you're like, we don't get as many miles on him, but
[52:43] I'm like, but these injuries already going to SAP him from
[52:46] some of his athleticism that he has and he's in he's a very good
[52:48] athlete. Like it's already going to SAP
[52:50] some of that. I know in center back it's less
[52:52] concerning, but I am worried about that.
[52:54] I think the club has to start looking at which I think they
[52:56] will not this summer, although I've been hearing stuff not to
[53:00] rule out the possibility of signing another center back this
[53:02] summer. We got to start looking at
[53:05] phasing him out into the squad player level where you're like,
[53:08] you're not starting. It's like, OK, if you play on a,
[53:10] on a, on a Saturday, you're not playing Champions League
[53:13] midweek, like you're not playing until the following weekend La
[53:15] Liga game. Or if you're playing Champions
[53:17] League, you're not playing La Liga.
[53:18] Like that's because we, you just can't like I don't think we're
[53:21] at a stage now where he can do that.
[53:22] And This is why it's important for me to have A&B squad depth.
[53:25] Like we need that. We need it desperately.
[53:28] I think we, I think what's tricky is like, I think what
[53:31] happens is Rudiger, we, we lot, we assume he plays the next
[53:34] couple years, but we see if we can get rid of Alabama mill
[53:37] tower, we bring someone else in. But I think Hutchison, Saliba
[53:40] and out of our whole crop, Rudiger is the one I would keep
[53:43] because of what happened to Militao.
[53:45] I would try to offload like Militao and Alibo.
[53:48] I would keep Rudiger and Oh. Yeah, of the three, I'm keeping
[53:52] Rudiger for sure. The tricky part is this year
[53:56] because he needs this year as the break and so if we could get
[53:58] some leva now that would be ideal.
[54:00] I would love it. I don't think we can though
[54:01] because I think he's still under contract.
[54:02] Right Fucking on that. I think for the rest.
[54:04] Of yeah, yeah, and I don't he's not going to go tell Arsenal
[54:06] like, hey, like I want out like 100 million.
[54:08] Don't give it to me, just Get Me Out.
[54:09] No, he's going to be like, he's going to tell Florentino.
[54:11] Just save that signing bonus, bro.
[54:12] I got you G. Say that, say that. 100 mil my
[54:22] guy. Text from Florentino Hey,
[54:25] hearing rumors you are a little upset.
[54:27] Should I come in this summer? He's like, no, would rather just
[54:31] win more titles with you, not strengthen them and support my
[54:33] family better or something. Just like Nah, it's good.
[54:37] Like and also I'm I'm working on I'm working on like how I defend
[54:40] a certain shape. I want to practice one more
[54:42] year. I'm just kidding.
[54:44] Here's the other question I have.
[54:46] I think it's too early to judge him.
[54:47] I know fans already like Jacobo sucks.
[54:51] I don't know because he's only played like three matches so I
[54:54] don't know if he sucks or not. There's not enough samples
[54:56] asking me to judge anything. I do wonder again, with a
[54:59] structure, is he someone that we can count on for squad depth
[55:03] next season? Is and if he Because remember,
[55:08] Raulosencio was allegedly the worst of the three between
[55:11] Jacobo, Joan Martinez and him and John Martinez, he has come
[55:15] off ACL, but he's 17. So this summer will he because
[55:20] he's going to travel with the team to the Club World Cup.
[55:21] So you might get some burn like in those matches against like
[55:24] Petruccia or like those teams that we're going to beat.
[55:27] Is he someone that job is like, oh, I can work him in and he can
[55:30] be part of squad depth? These are questions.
[55:32] I don't know. I'm I'm wondering.
[55:34] Yeah, I think we might have seen it so much from him.
[55:37] Again, it's in F season so you never know what's going on, but
[55:41] I'm going to go ahead and not assume he's part of plants for
[55:44] now. I think Martinez is more I think
[55:45] they're more likely to want to look at Martinez then I think
[55:48] that yeah, I think they might be like we might have seen enough
[55:50] of you. I don't know.
[55:51] They might be fed up. Like the reality is like as AU
[55:54] team player, like if you if you show up like Ascentio, your at
[55:57] least is going to be pretty long.
[55:58] Like even if you make an occasional mistake, show up bad
[56:00] off the bat at first, it's just it's.
[56:01] The the anchoring effect, I talk about it all the time like it's,
[56:06] but it's a form of cognitive bias though, right?
[56:08] And it's like it, it can make you make bad decisions.
[56:11] Like just because like the first time you saw him and he sucked,
[56:15] doesn't mean he is a player who sucks.
[56:17] Maybe he is, but we don't have enough evidence to suggest like.
[56:21] And that's where when Javi comes in in the training, what does he
[56:24] see on the pitch in training? And also what kind of training
[56:27] can we even do? Like if these are see, This is
[56:29] why it's all and and you know, so this is the reality of it,
[56:33] Sid, because of the crowded fixture schedule and the way in
[56:36] which football's going right now, there's not going to be any
[56:40] opportunity from a lot of these young guys to prove anything in
[56:42] training. It's when you get your shot in
[56:44] an actual match, if you don't deliver right away, that's your
[56:48] chance and it's over. And lucky for Raul, he showed in
[56:53] literally his first action with the ball was a long pass to
[56:57] shoot for a goal. And they were like, OK, you're
[57:00] staying, right? So that's a high bar to set for
[57:03] every young player, right? The first time you touch the
[57:05] ball better be amazing or else that's it for you. 100% it is a
[57:10] high bar and we'll see how that goes.
[57:12] Also just one note, I didn't get too deep into the stats because
[57:15] honestly on offense it's going to be more fun anyways.
[57:17] Defensive stats are sometimes a proxy of how your team is set
[57:20] up. For example, Jude like Mendy
[57:23] just doesn't average anything. Like he averages because he's
[57:27] like he's plays in this like one-on-one role where he's not
[57:29] intercepting things. And then Jude actually
[57:31] paradoxically averaged more tackles and interceptions this
[57:33] season. Breaking all that down is its
[57:36] own data story. And the reality is like when the
[57:38] defense gets worse, like I think the story is Jude had a higher
[57:40] load on him for no reason last season.
[57:42] He had already a high load, but it was like covering.
[57:45] I think this season the load became just just as much
[57:48] covering and then more dueling is what we saw.
[57:50] So that's kind of something where maybe you don't want, like
[57:53] if you got more tackles and interceptions from him this
[57:56] season than in a year where he was already incredible
[57:59] defensively, maybe that's something you don't want.
[58:00] But again, defensive stats are a little fickle.
[58:03] You keep the ball offensive stats year to year.
[58:05] That's a very going to be a fun comparison, which we will do on
[58:08] our next episode, probably later this week.
[58:12] Alderod about a wrap up here. Before we do, I just want to
[58:14] shout out some of the people in the chat.
[58:15] Some of them asked about Alvaro. Listen, we're excited about
[58:17] Alvaro. We're going to go and dive into
[58:20] them. Someone asked about Angela
[58:21] Stiller. Listen, we will dive into all of
[58:23] them. We do not just release things
[58:24] for the sake of releasing it. We will break inbound.
[58:27] We we have a like we're building a team here.
[58:29] We want to scout the players. It takes time to scout players.
[58:32] We will give you statistical impressions, but we're really
[58:35] trying to make sure we do our research before we release that.
[58:37] So Stiller other players. Maybe Castilla, who's Alonso
[58:40] could use all that as we catch up with film we'll get to.
[58:43] And also want to shout out savvy, the dude who's on the
[58:45] spaces all the time on Twitter. What's up, man?
[58:48] Thanks for thanks for being in the chat, and we'll definitely
[58:51] be setting up some Twitter Spaces with you sometime soon.
[58:53] That's cool. Yeah.
[58:54] And I'll, I'll say this as well, Sid, like we do need to dig in,
[58:58] dig into things. I will say I I've been watching
[59:00] Dean and I'm going to watch him again this week.
[59:02] He has two more matches left. I think this season Premier
[59:04] League. I like a lot of what I've seen
[59:05] from him and the problem with Carreras and still are.
[59:11] It's not a problem. The only thing I've seen is
[59:14] their 12 minute YouTube highlights and everyone's 12
[59:17] minute YouTube highlights are literally the best things
[59:18] they've ever done on a football field, a football pitch in their
[59:21] life. So it's going to look amazing.
[59:23] So yes, if you, if you want to hear that, the 12 minute
[59:25] highlights I saw for both of them look amazing, right?
[59:28] But we need to watch them closely to see what's what.
[59:31] Totally. I think us letting Kirk has go
[59:33] to Liverpool and getting him is very instructive.
[59:35] We don't want to because Kirk has is a traditional left back,
[59:38] because Liverpool Robertson's the traditional left back, left
[59:41] back. Trent, really, you don't want
[59:42] him high and wide. If we talked about on our last
[59:44] episode, you want him playing deeper because he's a weapon.
[59:47] And it's just it's like you, you take him out of position on
[59:49] defense for a very little gain on offense when he's already
[59:52] threatening. Kurkas is a direct Robertson
[59:54] replacement. Primpong is not for Liverpool
[59:56] Primpong. Ted Knutson pointed it out on
[59:58] Twitter that Primpong is more of a wingback replacement.
[1:00:02] Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
[1:00:03] So that's a change. We could have got Kurkas as a
[1:00:06] wingback. We chose to get Carreras on
[1:00:08] purpose, and I wonder if that's because of the rest defense.
[1:00:12] Honestly, my opinion is it's all for the rest defense.
[1:00:14] When you don't have to advance your full backs, you can when
[1:00:17] you don't have to, you have a little more versatility on
[1:00:20] offense where you can play settled possession with inverted
[1:00:23] full backs. We've seen this positionally
[1:00:24] before. So yeah, the I think Carreras
[1:00:28] and Trent, I think Carreras was because also he can play left
[1:00:31] center back. I really like what we saw.
[1:00:35] To me it seems like he's the direct Olivet replacement more
[1:00:38] than anything. If you want an Olivet
[1:00:39] replacement, you get him. If you want like a Marcelo type
[1:00:42] replacement or whatever you want a wing back traditional, you go
[1:00:44] get Kirk has. Right.
[1:00:45] Yeah, I, I think you're dead on with that.
[1:00:47] And I think these signings are also instructive as to what I
[1:00:51] believe Jabi's first order of priority is going to be.
[1:00:55] And I guess coincidentally it's or like lucky for us is what we
[1:01:00] started with. I think his number one thing is
[1:01:02] going to be shoring up this defense.
[1:01:03] Like I think Jobby is like looking at the film and it's
[1:01:05] like, what is this garbage that this is atrocious?
[1:01:09] Like we have to stop this madness.
[1:01:11] So in many ways that I would say expect to see changes on defense
[1:01:18] before you see any changes to like our attack build up and all
[1:01:21] that stuff. Although because of the way that
[1:01:24] football works, if your defense is short up, funny how that will
[1:01:27] lead to a more consistent build up and attack on offense because
[1:01:30] you're not putting out fires all over the place and you're down
[1:01:32] on a numerical advantage and you're just scrambling to save
[1:01:35] your life. So it's it'll be interesting to
[1:01:37] see how that plays out. 100% Jerrod.
[1:01:40] There's been a lot of fun. The people are even asking for
[1:01:42] an NBA show. That's how much fun they're
[1:01:43] having in the conference. And hey, Jerrod has an NBA show,
[1:01:47] in case you don't know. True Hoop, it's phenomenal.
[1:01:50] Like just one of the best places in NBA media.
[1:01:52] One of the few places I consume. I don't even consume media, but
[1:01:55] like if I do, there are a few places I would always go to and
[1:01:58] True Hoop is undoubtedly one of them.
[1:01:59] So definitely check that out. Appreciate that, Sid.
[1:02:02] Yeah, I'll give you my quick NBA takes OKC and six Indiana Pacers
[1:02:07] in six. Oh yeah, I will.
[1:02:11] I'm with you, I'm with you. OKC in six, Indiana Pacers in
[1:02:13] six. The the same depth problems we
[1:02:15] see in this sport. Really, I think the reason OKC
[1:02:18] went in six is because they have an extra rotation piece or two
[1:02:21] that Minnesota doesn't have and Minnesota are deeper and they
[1:02:23] that extra depth still almost doesn't matter in this matchup,
[1:02:26] which is. Pretty much.
[1:02:27] And the Knicks have no depth. So here's the thing.
[1:02:29] The Knicks better win game one because if they have to chase
[1:02:32] Indiana from behind, they're going to wear themselves out.
[1:02:34] How is New York drought after that last win?
[1:02:36] Was it I? I wish I was still in the Jersey
[1:02:39] area. I wish I could have driven to
[1:02:40] the city that night. I miss it.
[1:02:41] I feel like a Knicks fan right now.
[1:02:42] Girard. Let me so listeners may or may
[1:02:45] not know. I have lived in this area for
[1:02:48] the majority of my adult life and I am an old man.
[1:02:50] I did spend some time out in Silicon Valley and on the West
[1:02:52] Coast, but for the most part, I've lived in New York City and
[1:02:55] went to College in New Jersey. As much as this is a baseball
[1:02:59] town because of the Yankees. And when they're going, when the
[1:03:00] Mets are good, it's even crazier.
[1:03:02] There is nothing like this city when the Knicks are good, people
[1:03:07] lose their God forsaken minds. Like I step outside my apartment
[1:03:13] and people that know what I do, they like attack me the minute I
[1:03:16] come outside and I'm like bro, like calm down.
[1:03:20] Like I get it, you're excited. I know I feel you.
[1:03:23] But calm my brothers, calm. It's cool, it's cool.
[1:03:26] We'll talk about it, we'll talk about it.
[1:03:28] But it's also just like, it's the mom with her baby stroller
[1:03:31] on 79th and Central Park West with her Nick's hat, Nick's
[1:03:34] shirt. And you're like, what?
[1:03:35] The like, they it's just, it's they love it.
[1:03:38] And honestly said, like, there's nothing like sport.
[1:03:41] Sport is one of the few things in the world that has that kind
[1:03:46] of gravitas and ability to sort of unite people, even though
[1:03:49] it's also extremely divisive. But it it it, it's just it's a
[1:03:53] wonderful thing for people to rally behind.
[1:03:55] And so this is the next first trip to the conference finals in
[1:03:58] 25 years. Some of you weren't even born
[1:04:02] the last time they were in the conference finals.
[1:04:04] That's how long it's been. So kudos to New York City and
[1:04:07] the next man. I know they're excited about it.
[1:04:09] Yeah, like I said, I missed my days being in high school in
[1:04:11] Jersey. I wish.
[1:04:11] I feel like I'm still there just watching them when I'm like, I
[1:04:14] just, all my friends in high school still live there and I
[1:04:16] know that some of them are having fun with it.
[1:04:18] To be honest, I didn't think the Knicks would do well.
[1:04:19] I didn't even hit him up. I didn't make fun of my old high
[1:04:21] school Celtics friends because like, I just didn't think they'd
[1:04:24] do it. And, and honestly, it ended
[1:04:26] tragically. So I'm not going to go text them
[1:04:27] making fun of them. It was a tragic end of the
[1:04:29] Celtics. Yeah, it was.
[1:04:30] It was. But yeah, we will.
[1:04:32] We'll be back on OK C and six, yeah.
[1:04:34] OK, C and six, I, I think their depth, I think they they grew up
[1:04:37] a lot against Denver in that series.
[1:04:39] And look, we have a, we have a large enough sample size.
[1:04:42] OKC was the best team Oracle this season long by wide
[1:04:45] margins. And their two wins against
[1:04:47] Denver, two of their four wins were blowouts like 'cause
[1:04:50] they're just better like. And I think that they will have
[1:04:52] learned a lot and they're ready for for a.
[1:04:54] Minute savvy says Knicks are Arsenal.
[1:04:55] Do you agree with that? Like.
[1:04:58] I like that. I like that team.
[1:05:00] That's a little lacking in areas.
[1:05:02] That's like never playing you off the park, but super gritty,
[1:05:04] always there, yes. And and they're just, they're
[1:05:06] annoying to play against because it's hard to and Knicks are
[1:05:09] annoying to play against man. Like look, they got dogs on that
[1:05:12] team. Like it just those guys defend
[1:05:14] hard and Cat's The X Factor in this series.
[1:05:16] If Cat really is like OK, when they decide to put Nemhard or
[1:05:21] Nesmith switching on me, I have to punish that match up every
[1:05:25] time. And, and, and you know when Cat
[1:05:28] already made fun of him, like I'm the best shooting man of all
[1:05:30] time. Like he's not lying.
[1:05:31] Like there aren't 5 big men in the history of basketball
[1:05:34] shooting wise. You're taking over contain town.
[1:05:36] They're just not. And when I say big man, I mean
[1:05:38] actual centers. There aren't.
[1:05:39] There are not. 5 centers are taking over colon, 3 towns so.
[1:05:43] Awesome. I'm happy to see him succeed on
[1:05:44] the big level drug because for years, you know, I mean this in
[1:05:47] 2019 there was a convo with every big man if they could even
[1:05:49] make it in the league, if they could guard Steph, and now we're
[1:05:52] in this era where they actually can and it's just crazy.
[1:05:55] We went because looking at can't like there were timelines when
[1:05:57] the whole league thought he would be out of the league by
[1:05:59] now like type of crap. Same with yoke Yoke.
[1:06:01] It was like can yoke defend like Bam out of IO like now that
[1:06:04] sounds dumb. You know, like it don't matter
[1:06:06] because he's the greatest problem solver in basketball, so
[1:06:08] who cares? These were these were real
[1:06:10] questions that were being asked five years ago.
[1:06:11] So it's cool to see the league go big.
[1:06:13] And yeah, we're excited for the rest of the NBA.
[1:06:15] You know, we're definitely more exciting NBA playoffs after the
[1:06:18] way the Real Madrid season ended like.
[1:06:19] Good God, one more match to Ghost in this abomination's
[1:06:22] over. Yeah.
[1:06:23] I mean, I don't know about you guys, but like when I know that
[1:06:26] names don't matter or when I know the tactics have failed, I
[1:06:28] kind of zone out, dude, because you're honestly just getting
[1:06:30] more angry and it's failed, dude.
[1:06:31] You're not learning anything. And I don't know why some of
[1:06:34] these I don't know how some of y'all do it.
[1:06:36] But the last thing I'll say is how does this team against a
[1:06:39] squad with 9 men, they were down to 9 men and we could not
[1:06:43] generate what the we have two extra people.
[1:06:47] It's funny. I'm going to, I'm going to cut,
[1:06:49] I'll criticize him for all the four years, how much court tried
[1:06:51] to bail him. I'm going to cut him slack.
[1:06:52] Like it was a practice. This is the one game.
[1:06:54] Like I'm kind of kind of slack guys.
[1:06:57] Like we're we're just like trying to make sure that we stay
[1:07:00] a little fit. Honestly, it was like an
[1:07:01] elaborate dance, not even a practice.
[1:07:04] I was like, this is some horseshit.
[1:07:09] Yeah, it's like, you know, it's like when you pick up the
[1:07:10] controller and you just kind of want to try something like and
[1:07:13] and you kind of want to just try it.
[1:07:14] You want to get warmed up maybe before you play the first game
[1:07:17] of the day. I don't know but are.
[1:07:18] You How excited or excited is the wrong word?
[1:07:22] How invested are you in the Club World Cup?
[1:07:24] I will be invested as soon as our new coach is announced
[1:07:27] because I just need to. I just like, yeah, I just need
[1:07:31] to see him get announced. Like once I know he's training
[1:07:33] the guys, I really have a lot of like longitudinal ideas that tie
[1:07:38] into the last 10 years. And once the reports come in,
[1:07:40] like, like a lot of it is the lens of like what he saw as a
[1:07:43] player, how he saw the balance teams.
[1:07:44] And once Alonzo's here, I'm going to be excited.
[1:07:47] Once we get Trent to Mbape, I'm going to be excited.
[1:07:49] And I'm, I'm, I am excited now, Jerrod, I'm quite excited for
[1:07:53] the Club World Cup, to be honest.
[1:07:55] I feel like, I mean, it's happening here.
[1:07:57] I mean, it's not happening in Chicago.
[1:07:58] I don't know what the hell they're doing.
[1:07:59] And neither the World Cup or the Club World Cup, no.
[1:08:01] There there are no matches in Chicago.
[1:08:03] No matches in Chicago Dude, I'm just sitting here like, what is?
[1:08:06] Wild. Like what's the what's the
[1:08:08] closest city? That's what's the closest city
[1:08:09] to you? That's that's gonna have a
[1:08:10] match. I gotta look probably like, I
[1:08:12] mean Ohio, Indiana, like Saint Louis.
[1:08:14] I mean, there's a lot of places, probably not Saint Louis,
[1:08:16] definitely not Saint Louis, but I'm sure.
[1:08:18] How did they not pick? So they got Philly.
[1:08:21] I know Charlotte. I know New York, New Jersey.
[1:08:23] For a Giants stadium, that is wild.
[1:08:26] Lai would imagine. Probably, yeah.
[1:08:29] And then Miami, probably. Let me pull up the spots here as
[1:08:32] we. You know, let's do it now.
[1:08:33] Might as well. Yeah, yeah, people are going to
[1:08:35] be curious anyways. So the locations we're going
[1:08:38] Philly, East Rutherford for NJ, Charlotte, Pasadena and LA,
[1:08:44] Atlanta and because they got a big soccer following Philly,
[1:08:48] Seattle, Orlando gets 2 stadiums dude.
[1:08:51] Orlando. Why do you do they want to like
[1:08:53] cross sell Disney World tickets? Is that the goal here?
[1:08:56] Must be Orlando over Chicago. Oh my, it must be some cross
[1:09:00] selling thing. It must be that they have some
[1:09:01] math or data that Chicago is not going to produce as much like
[1:09:04] they may even then. Like what?
[1:09:06] Dude, this is like a big city. It's the cleanest big city.
[1:09:08] It's cleaner than New York come out.
[1:09:09] I mean, well, yes, most cities, most big cities are cleaner than
[1:09:12] New York. Well this is only real big other
[1:09:14] city. Big city though.
[1:09:15] Like not all the others are imposters.
[1:09:16] They're too small to county. LA is not a big city.
[1:09:19] It's a little downtown and a bunch of villages.
[1:09:22] Sit coming for all the LA heads. I went there, man.
[1:09:26] I've, I've been in LA, Chicago, New York.
[1:09:28] I, I Yeah. You were, you went to UCLA, so
[1:09:30] you're. Yeah, I, I, I will say I do love
[1:09:32] Westwood, though. Westwood is nice.
[1:09:34] Westwood was nice. Brentwood, Beverly Hills being
[1:09:36] next door is nice. It's well policed.
[1:09:38] It's it's clean. It's like, I mean, as clean as
[1:09:40] LA is disgusting, as as clean as LA is going to get.
[1:09:44] And 100% I did like Westwood. I thoroughly enjoyed my four
[1:09:47] years there, no question. And lastly, so the Cincinnati, I
[1:09:52] think. Is going to be closest to me.
[1:09:54] Man, I'm, I'm not feeling going down.
[1:09:55] I mean, I don't know, Wild. No one in Chicago.
[1:09:58] That seems so poor to me, but they must think you said this.
[1:10:01] World Cup's the same Gerard, same story, I believe.
[1:10:04] World, that is, that is wild and not the World Cup.
[1:10:06] Well, listen Sid, you might have to move.
[1:10:10] I am moving, but I'm moving to Denver.
[1:10:11] Where away from the city where they don't play games.
[1:10:13] I'm going to watch Yo kitchen go to the mountains.
[1:10:15] Probably. Listen not not a bad life.
[1:10:18] Not a bad life. Well, Jerrod, thank you so much
[1:10:20] for coming and elevating the show and providing everything.
[1:10:23] Thank you all you listeners. We will be back soon, Savvy.
[1:10:28] We will have to get in on the spaces with you.
[1:10:29] We got to get in on all that drama.
[1:10:31] And you know, we, we hope to even bring you on this team,
[1:10:33] Savvy, as we've talked about in private.
[1:10:34] So if any of you are interested in contributing anyway, even for
[1:10:37] fun, you feel free to reach out. We're building a family here.
[1:10:40] Thank you. Tell your friends, subscribe,
[1:10:42] comment, see you guys next time. Yes, Sir.

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