# Mailbag, Endrick Situation, Xabi Alonso's Tactical Plans

An episode of [The Real Deal: A Real Madrid Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1807821669), 25 Oct 2025, 1 h 19 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/103607aa8/podcast/play/110179307/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-9-25%2F409957589-44100-2-024b3ff4b725e.mp3

Loconte, Jarod Hector and Xavier discuss El Clasico from more of Real Madrid's perspective, the Endrick situation, Yamal's comments and more. Note: due to a temporary copyright issue, our intro music and reel will not be available on audio platforms. We are diligently working to fix this. Find us on YouTube if you want the complete experience in the meantime, we will update as soon as the situation changes here.

## Transcript

[0:02] That music is hitting especially hard today because it is
[0:07] classical weekend. Welcome to the Real Deal in Real
[0:12] Madrid podcast with me, Jerrod Hecker, joined by my guys Xavier
[0:17] and Lecante. Fellas, one word to describe
[0:21] your feelings going into this weekend.
[0:23] Just one word. Xavier, you first.
[0:25] Ecstatic. Love it.
[0:27] Lecante, one word. Yeah, I'm all that.
[0:34] Took 5 seconds. Since I'm the host, I'm going to
[0:37] cheat and use 2 words. Cautiously optimistic.
[0:41] All right, we got a big match up this.
[0:42] Week that's obviously would have said let me.
[0:46] I let me, I'm all 2 words. No, it it listen, classic, Of
[0:50] course, the biggest fixture in world football coming up this
[0:53] weekend. And I, I want to just really
[0:55] quick off the bat and look, we know there's clearly a pro
[0:59] Barcelona agenda by a lot of the mainstream media.
[1:02] But it is wild to me how all I keep seeing on social and
[1:07] hearing from mainstream media is will Barcelona continue their
[1:12] dominance over Real Madrid? And I'm like, yo, we won four in
[1:16] a row prior to this and no one said shit about that.
[1:19] Like, what's the deal? Like these things happen like
[1:22] that sometimes. Wild anyway, Parsons won four
[1:25] straight. The idea is can they win their
[1:27] 5th to equal the record of Pep Guardiola who gets all that
[1:32] shortly First some quick news and notes.
[1:34] Laconte, I want to start with you on this one because this is
[1:37] a player who you had high hopes for this season and it's looking
[1:41] like he is going to be out on loan probably in January and
[1:46] that is Mr. Andrick. Look and I I don't think it's a
[1:50] a thing where it's like Madrid is like Andrick sucks.
[1:53] It's just as Javi Alonso said, the competition to get minutes
[1:57] as an attacker on this squad right now very high and clearly
[2:01] he is not doing enough to warrant playing time right.
[2:05] That's the only thing I can take from this situation.
[2:08] Feels bad, looks like his camp are the ones making the
[2:11] decision. Well, they deem it as
[2:13] reasonable. You know, that I've held the
[2:16] stands that I'm. I'm against it.
[2:17] Like there are a few loan spells which have left me scarred,
[2:22] including them Martin Odegard one.
[2:24] I like to think that you develop players in house, but players
[2:28] need to play. The best way to develop is
[2:31] playing. And clearly Alonzo just doesn't
[2:34] seem enough to warrant giving him minutes ahead of a number of
[2:39] players on that offensive line. So January seems to be that.
[2:44] There was also the news that he wants to be very picky with the
[2:48] club. He wants a competitive club,
[2:50] preferably a team that plays in European competitions by that
[2:54] point. So he's holding himself to a
[2:56] high standard. Can I appreciate that what I
[3:02] would send him if you were to ask me Como like I know.
[3:06] Como seems to be our. That seems to be our spot.
[3:09] Como seems to be the spot. For us, he already has his two
[3:12] bodies in there, like let's get a third one.
[3:15] Fabregas also seems to be like a very promising coach with some
[3:19] very good results, seems to be able to get like good output
[3:24] from his attackers. So again I'm disappointed by it.
[3:30] I think Hendrick would have fit them all really well of that
[3:33] right hand side, but I don't think that this Madrid is
[3:37] playing the way how I expected it to play before we kick the
[3:41] ball with Alonzo. If this was Club World Cup,
[3:44] Madrid I would say still stand a chance, but with this current
[3:48] Madrid I don't think so. Yeah, what about you, Xavier?
[3:52] Yeah, the Andrick situation, it's man, this is a tough one
[3:55] because I was, I was so hot. Like I believe his talent is top
[4:00] notch. I believe when the if deployed
[4:03] right, if he develops correctly, can be one of the best players
[4:07] in the world in terms of just pure talent.
[4:09] I will never forget the goals he was scoring at 15 years old for
[4:11] Brazil, the overhead kick in particular, right?
[4:14] I mean, the goals he was scoring at Balmedos, even even the year,
[4:17] you know, before he came to Madrid, I saw that talent.
[4:21] I saw him in the Copa del Rey last year.
[4:23] He was the Picchi until the final where Ferrantores equaled
[4:26] him and then won it because they won the tournament by default.
[4:30] He's got the talent and it's there.
[4:32] It's just unfortunate that he plays behind a player that needs
[4:36] to be on the field for 95% of the available minutes as long as
[4:40] he's healthy. And it's killing Imbape.
[4:42] And that's unfortunate for any player who's behind Imbape is
[4:46] that you're just not going to play.
[4:48] And it's it, it's, it happens in football when you have that
[4:52] level of a talent, when you have a Messi, a Ronaldo and Imbape,
[4:57] these guys are just going to play no matter how good you are.
[4:59] And unless Edgar proves that he's better, which he has an
[5:04] opportunity to go do out on loan, he's not going to get the
[5:07] fair chance to prove his talent here at Madrid.
[5:09] So therefore he's got to go out on loan.
[5:13] The one thing I don't like is they're starting to be a little
[5:16] picky about what team you go to. Put certain conditions around it
[5:19] for me. You still haven't necessarily
[5:21] proving yourself in Europe, in my opinion, to put conditions
[5:25] around your loan to that extent. I like the idea that he's
[5:28] challenging himself, but the idea that you're now trying to
[5:31] cherry pick a club, it's like you're you're 19 years old, you,
[5:35] you haven't really proven yourself as a starter yet.
[5:37] Yes, you might be talented, but I would also pump the brakes on
[5:41] this. I'm going to cherry pick my next
[5:42] club because he cherry picked his way to to Real Madrid and
[5:45] hasn't proven himself. So that's the one element of it
[5:47] that I got to take into consideration.
[5:49] But overall, the move makes sense.
[5:51] I support it. I believe in his talent as a
[5:54] player. I just hope that you know, he
[5:56] stays grounded and and you know, the the loan does go well and
[5:59] get out of to be honest, like I would rather see him leave and
[6:03] the winter time rather than wait until this summer.
[6:06] Yeah, look. I think it's a January move,
[6:08] yeah. January move.
[6:09] That's a fair take, Xavier, and I don't really disagree with
[6:13] what you said. The one thing as Le Conte said
[6:16] and I will agree with, I give him props for challenging
[6:19] himself and wanting to put himself in a situation to play
[6:23] for a team that plays in Europe. Obviously it's also a World Cup
[6:27] season and he wants a chance to impress Ancelotti so he can play
[6:30] for Brazil as well. That's a big part of this.
[6:32] So look, I respect him for wanting to push himself at the
[6:36] top level and be in all of those things, right?
[6:38] Go bro. Like, look, the the common or
[6:41] the thing that most fans don't understand is if you're going to
[6:44] make it as a professional athlete in any sport, you have
[6:46] to have a healthy amount of ego or else you won't make it.
[6:49] You'll fucking get crushed, all right?
[6:51] Because these are the best people in the world at what they
[6:54] do. So if you don't believe in
[6:55] yourself, you have zero chance you will not make it.
[6:58] So #1 happy for him on that. The second piece is again, as as
[7:04] Lecante said, and I've said all the time, players need playing
[7:08] time like you need oxygen to breathe.
[7:10] You cannot develop sitting on the bench or in training that
[7:13] you need to go into the fire, fuck up a million times and be
[7:17] like, all right, This is how, because you need those real live
[7:20] reference points. That is how you get better.
[7:22] And he's not going to get the chance to do that here.
[7:24] Clearly. I mean, even let's say he
[7:27] stayed, the most he would get is maybe Copa del Rey.
[7:30] And that's just not enough for him at this point to start
[7:32] developing into what he wants to be.
[7:34] So if there's a chance when we go to Como or Benfica or Porto
[7:39] or wherever to get playing time, great.
[7:42] So we can see what you do. So I'm rooting for him.
[7:44] Obviously, no doubt Madrid will do all the right things to make
[7:48] sure the loan is with the right buyback numbers and missed that
[7:51] in the third so that everything works out in their best
[7:53] interests for sure. And hey, it might be a situation
[7:56] where he develops so well. They say, you know, we can sell
[7:58] them really high for X whatever they decide.
[8:01] I generally trust them. But I hope he has the
[8:03] opportunity to develop and come back here and play because I
[8:06] I'm, I'm really, I, I enjoy this kid and I'm a fan of of his
[8:09] talent and ability. We also had that report come out
[8:13] from The Athletic and Mario Cortehenya about just, you know,
[8:18] Javi's time here and some of the challenges inside the Madrid
[8:21] dressing room. And, you know, after the
[8:25] Athletic loss, which is, you know, obviously the one loss of
[8:27] the season and easily our worst game, some conversations between
[8:31] the older players on the team, talking to the younger players.
[8:34] And they said it was a very frank conversation amongst
[8:36] everybody about what they did wrong and what wasn't happening.
[8:39] But some of the older players being upset about the mentality
[8:41] of the younger players. And I always hate when these
[8:44] things come out like this because I'm like, OK, which
[8:46] older players and how do you define old?
[8:48] OK, I know Courtois, Carvajal and Rudiger, they're old, right,
[8:55] Right. Like, were they the ones and who
[8:57] were the young people they were mad at Dean Carreras?
[9:02] Like, I, I like, I, I just like, I mean, technically Benny's
[9:06] young, right? I mean, do you know what I'm
[9:07] saying? Like I I, so I hate when these
[9:09] like silly reports come out because you don't have the full
[9:12] context of who said what to whom.
[9:14] And look, honestly, I'm of the believe, having been around the
[9:17] NBA a long time, what players say amongst each other in the
[9:20] locker room. That's none of our fucking
[9:21] business anyway. So like whatever, like I don't
[9:24] care. Like let them hash out what
[9:27] their issues are and let them show what they need to show on
[9:30] the on the field or on the court the next time they show up.
[9:33] What say you guys? I mean, there was that report of
[9:36] Madrish insulting Lucas like it doesn't happen, or when people
[9:41] made a big deal out of you just telling Shells that you're shit
[9:45] at football when she was right. And basically it's just a normal
[9:50] sense that after a bad result somebody's going to lash out.
[9:54] They take that day off. Actually, I was having a
[9:58] discussion with the coach right today and it was because of
[10:02] lately it's our clearing loss of the season and we were talking
[10:07] about the differences of Ancelotti and Alonso.
[10:11] Ancelotti usually would have given them the day off or they
[10:14] would have travelled immediately to Karat.
[10:16] Alonzo took them to training in the morning and then they flout
[10:20] to play. So do I think that there was a
[10:25] bit of tension? Yes.
[10:26] In terms of the article, we just don't need to pay attention to
[10:30] that because it's a lot of nothing.
[10:33] It's a piece written in words that says nothing if you're
[10:37] reading it. There is no like message between
[10:40] in there hidden somewhere where Mario's trying to kind of do
[10:45] smart journalism, I guess. There's nothing in there.
[10:49] It's just, oh, some older players were mad at younger
[10:53] players because the younger players gave up.
[10:55] We don't know who the younger players were.
[10:57] The older, the older players seem just as lost in that game.
[11:01] So I really, it just doesn't make sense.
[11:05] There is no way for us to tie up any of that together.
[11:10] I. Agree.
[11:11] Yeah, For me, it's I, I think it's more about optics with this
[11:15] one. I think looking at the Classico
[11:19] happening on Sunday, I think Mario wanted to get ahead of the
[11:22] narrative, no doubt, and get some clicks off throughout the
[11:26] week, knowing that the Classico was building.
[11:28] You know, if you put a report out like this, specifically five
[11:32] days before a Classico, it's gonna get folks talking.
[11:35] He wanted to kind of get it. There was also no major talking
[11:39] points from a Madrid standpoint besides the fact that we haven't
[11:41] beat them because there hasn't been any controversy in the
[11:43] locker room so far this year. Yes, we have the bad result too,
[11:47] Atlante, But I look at more of the timing of when the article
[11:49] came out, where it's just like the substance of what's in that
[11:51] article. But see your point?
[11:52] Look, Ante, I agree with everything you said.
[11:55] It's a whole lot of nothing. So for me, it's like, OK, if
[11:58] you're reporting a whole lot of really nothing, why are you
[12:01] dropping this on a Tuesday before the Classico?
[12:04] You know, a month ago now already 3 weeks ago, the lefty
[12:08] match was. Why didn't you say it then?
[12:10] And also because I'm going on schools a long time.
[12:12] You know, and and that's where I'm like, OK, so the timing of
[12:16] it, it's like all right, for five days before the Classico
[12:19] Mario wanted. To get his fix off.
[12:20] For the athletic, that's what I look at it as.
[12:23] The commentator here said that Rudiger is going to leave on
[12:26] January because he fought with Bellingham.
[12:29] After that, no news of that, nothing of that.
[12:33] He just goes there and just spins it out whenever Jude gets
[12:37] the ball and I'm like, where the hell did he get that?
[12:40] Then I see that some random website on the Internet with
[12:44] like nothing on it, literally where they try they just went
[12:49] like, oh, Rudiger and Bellingham fought after there be Madrileno
[12:53] and I'm like this guy didn't even do his research, probably
[12:56] got like a notification or something and just went like,
[12:59] yeah, Rudiger is slaving in January because he fought with
[13:02] Jude Bellingham. And I'm like, OK, you should not
[13:05] be saying that. But again, I'm saying like the
[13:07] reason of articles like this is people gullible like that that
[13:11] are going to fall part of it because they've never really
[13:15] read much into what's going on, let alone.
[13:19] They've never been around a professional sports team, folks.
[13:22] News flash, those things who haven't after losses.
[13:25] This shit happens all the fucking time.
[13:29] Like all the time. These are the most competitive
[13:32] people in the world. When they're when they lose,
[13:34] they're pissed and they yell at each other.
[13:36] Shit happens like whatever. Simple.
[13:39] As that. No, nobody likes to lose,
[13:42] especially on that level. On the high competitive level,
[13:44] they're just going to be like shouting to one another, why did
[13:47] you do this? Why did you do that?
[13:48] Next morning they're just going to have a handshake problem.
[13:51] They're going to be fine. Go out the next day and we're
[13:53] fine. You know, high level
[13:58] professional sport people just kind of seems to completely
[14:01] eradicate the psychological impact that such things can
[14:05] have. Like these guys are not at the
[14:07] highest level because they're soft.
[14:09] They they were there because they have had to go through the
[14:12] grueling growing pains of every little thing that happens.
[14:16] Imagine you're an 18 years old getting getting shouted on by a
[14:19] legend, right? And you have to pull through
[14:21] that. You have to understand from it.
[14:23] Like let's say Benicius for example.
[14:25] Benicius was completely frozen by Zidane for like 2 months
[14:29] because he wasn't performing but here he is.
[14:32] Like should have been a Bolland or winner but here is like I'm
[14:34] just giving a Madrid only example.
[14:37] I'm not saying Zidane shouted at him.
[14:39] I'm saying Zidane. I'm sure he did.
[14:41] I'm sure he did it many times, shouted at him.
[14:42] I'm. Sure.
[14:43] Yeah, yeah, yeah. But what I know is the fact that
[14:47] Vinnie didn't play for two months, not even one minute
[14:52] during that period. And that tells me that, OK,
[14:56] Vinny was doing a lot of things wrong, which Zidane was not
[14:59] like, therefore he was just allowed to grow.
[15:03] And we need to troll mental strength to get out of that and
[15:08] get back on the pitch. So that's one example I think
[15:10] that we're giving Mario and those type of articles, to be
[15:14] honest, a bit too much attention.
[15:16] Later, Mario. OK, folks.
[15:18] Classico Sunday. Big one at home at the
[15:24] burnabout. It's going to be rocking.
[15:26] Oh my God, so much, so much, so much.
[15:28] I want to start here after the UVA game, Of course, all the
[15:32] questions were about they started switching towards Barsa
[15:35] Barsa Barsa, right. I mean, for all the obvious
[15:36] reasons lost foreign foreign wrote to them last year.
[15:39] All all the things right. So are we going to be better?
[15:42] I like sort of the the the message coming out from many of
[15:45] the players after Cortois was like, we need to be tactically
[15:48] ready and prepared. We've been we're in a good
[15:50] moment. A lot of them said we want to
[15:53] continue that against Barcelona, Javi Alonso said.
[15:55] We know this is not a normal game.
[15:56] It's been circled in red on our calendar, so they're not shying
[16:00] away from the moment. This is something I said to you
[16:03] guys after athletic and we'll get to the tactics.
[16:07] But first and foremost I want their mindsets to be right from
[16:13] forget about opening whistle from fucking yesterday.
[16:17] I wanted their minds to be right and ready so that come Sunday
[16:22] there'll be no question about effort or O When adversity hits,
[16:26] they all unraveled because guess what?
[16:28] It's a classical adversity is going to hit, right?
[16:32] How do you respond when Lakanti, what did I, this is what I said,
[16:34] right? Lakanti a few shows ago, when
[16:36] adversity hits, how was his team going to respond?
[16:39] It didn't look so great against that lengthy when adversity
[16:41] hits, when it hits on Sunday, how are they going to look?
[16:45] And we won't know that obviously until Sunday.
[16:47] But this is the area where I'm looking at is what their
[16:50] mentality is going to be like. All right, let's get into first
[16:54] whom we think the starting 11 will be.
[16:57] I think we did it last time. Nobody, nobody was has guessed
[17:01] right once this season, right? It's just so I know it's it's
[17:06] it's it's it's a fool's errand. I know.
[17:08] But listen, we'll try the question I don't know with well,
[17:13] we know Courtois playing and we know about base playing.
[17:16] We know that actually we know more than that.
[17:18] Here's the question I'll ask. I'll ask it this way.
[17:20] Do you think Javi is going to start the 18 year old Frank
[17:25] Gomez on Juwano on the right side?
[17:29] Oh. 'Cause that's the one.
[17:31] Because it that's that's the spot.
[17:35] I mean Franco sad the last game so you wouldn't.
[17:40] Ask. That's why I think, but I don't
[17:41] know. I don't know.
[17:43] But. He's also 18 in his first class
[17:46] ago. I don't.
[17:47] Know but I would have been so sure of that.
[17:49] I'm leaning I'm 6040 but I say no.
[17:53] OK, what say you, Xavier? Well, given that I have his
[17:56] jersey, I'm, I'm hoping that he starts on Sunday for sure.
[18:03] That's that's one of the reasons.
[18:04] Why we're That's why I'm rocking Jersey.
[18:07] But yeah, but listen, Chavi's confused us.
[18:11] Every game I've said it's been an experiment after an
[18:15] experiment after an experiment hoping to get the right formula
[18:18] together here. And I know what Conte is going
[18:22] to get into each individual thing he's done that hasn't been
[18:25] an experiment building towards continuity.
[18:27] But for me on the outside looking in as the casual that I
[18:31] am in this sport, what what I'll say is if Franco starts, I'll
[18:36] feel a little bit better that we're going to have more of a
[18:40] presence on the right hand side versus a Brahim or even a
[18:43] Rodrigo. I didn't really love Brahim's
[18:46] cameo in the last game. I, he tried hard, don't get me
[18:49] wrong, but you can see the limitations and it's clear as
[18:53] day, right? So for me, I I do hope that
[18:56] Franco starts. Shameless funnel.
[18:59] Shameless funnel. Me and Sid did a full breakdown
[19:02] of that on Wednesday. Shameless funnel, you guys.
[19:07] Can. So please go watch that that
[19:10] podcast. Definitely do that.
[19:12] OK. So we know because of our
[19:13] limited center back situation, it's going to be Militao and
[19:17] Ascencio. Starting center.
[19:18] Back I'm pretty sure because I doubt Hausen and is going to
[19:24] start when he hasn't played in what, 2?
[19:26] Rings. I mean, do we have central bags?
[19:30] We have Militow, Militow, militow, Militow's one.
[19:36] We have militow. That's one.
[19:37] Two ACL's. Who's playing well this season,
[19:40] right? But.
[19:41] He's playing well. We're putting too much on him.
[19:45] And and who's playing next to Ascentio on on his right hand
[19:48] side, I guess. I think it's going to be
[19:50] Valverda get right back again, right?
[19:51] What do you guys think? Nah, I think Dean Allison is
[19:54] going to start. I think so.
[19:56] Even without not playing with with not playing UBE this week,
[19:59] you think you'll start him? Yes.
[20:01] I mean he already hinted at it on Tuesday when he went like
[20:05] will I play on Sunday? Well, I already know, but I'm
[20:08] not going to tell it. So I think that basically some
[20:12] painkillers and get get on there.
[20:15] We need him. Rub some dirt on it.
[20:18] Rub some dirt on it. I think they're going to do
[20:23] that. Like I know that Alonzo has been
[20:26] very cautious with player's health.
[20:27] You can see like the smallest niggle of injury just goes like
[20:31] out. Like, you know, he doesn't test
[20:34] the waters with the injuries. Like he doesn't put the players
[20:37] back on. But I think that on this case,
[20:39] on the current situation, he's just going to, he's going to
[20:43] have to because then we have like 6 days of reshuffling until
[20:49] Valencia. So I think being good.
[20:51] Let's start at center again. So howson Militao?
[20:55] So now who plays right back? Valverde.
[20:57] Yes. OK.
[20:59] And obviously Carrera is a left back.
[21:00] OK, Yeah. I think obviously it's going to
[21:04] be Chuomeni, Arda and Bellingham in the midfield.
[21:07] I don't really see him doing anything different there.
[21:09] What say you? But.
[21:15] I agree. Yeah.
[21:15] I I Arda's not. He's not.
[21:18] He's not. He's not sitting Arda, right.
[21:19] I don't think he's sitting, Arda.
[21:21] No, no, he's not sitting in Arda.
[21:22] But the reason why I had Frank is sitting is because I think
[21:26] he's going with that Chuamelian Kamalinga double pivot.
[21:33] And then you think Bellingham's going to be in that like?
[21:36] Yeah. Sometimes.
[21:40] He's a striker, sometimes he's your defensive midfield.
[21:43] There's basically the renews the spinners, right.
[21:46] They keep pinning the center backs and open the gaps from
[21:49] BAPE and we need to run into and what's a better thing to do that
[21:53] than Barcelona like this? My thought Ross and I believe
[21:56] that the word is more than we did not hold the flag from this
[21:58] on because we have seen him do that.
[22:01] We have and to your point, you said this before, Lecante, when
[22:04] he's on the right, when he's playing right back and has to do
[22:06] that, he he's very because it limits what he has to think
[22:10] about and do right. He gets to utilize what he's
[22:11] very good at. Interesting, interesting.
[22:17] And then obviously the other two.
[22:19] I'll get a little bit more, but you know, we're going with the
[22:21] flow. I'll get a little bit.
[22:23] More, Yeah, Yeah. No, no, that, that is OK.
[22:26] Would you, as Patrice is asking, would that you'd say that is our
[22:29] best lineup right now? Yes.
[22:33] I think Kemah Vinga allows us to do much more as he put him in
[22:39] the double pivot with Cuomeni because of his line breaking
[22:45] ability, his obviously his amazing work rate, defensive
[22:50] capabilities, like I think he can exploit Barcelona in ways
[22:54] that we don't have a profile that really can do that.
[22:58] I'll get deeper, but they just suffocate the middle of the
[23:01] pitch so well to the point where it's unaccessible for anything.
[23:06] When these two are together, they just suffocate that
[23:09] completely and it's just OK. No entry point.
[23:13] It's literally like you're you're trying to get out of the
[23:16] house by a wall 'cause there's no dawn.
[23:22] Well, Xavier, you, you had some 2 of many concerns.
[23:26] So what? How do you like the Chua mini?
[23:29] Kind of make a double pivot. I have a little bit of
[23:33] hesitation around it. I like it on paper, right?
[23:38] I think like all logic on paper when I think about it in my
[23:42] head, like it all makes sense. I just haven't seen it on the
[23:47] field. And this is my issue with that
[23:49] double pivot. Is.
[23:52] Getafe, that's a little bit of a different quality than than what
[23:57] we're going against. Is it on Sunday and.
[24:01] Look at the gotcha. Is it?
[24:03] No, because I have probably play ball something that have her way
[24:06] and be not it's been. Merchant that where is #8 you
[24:09] know if you give him 5 seconds on the ball he's going to he's
[24:11] going to kill you. Which I know you're talking
[24:14] about how they suffocate from my issue I guess, but that line up
[24:17] is our best counter presser. Correct me if I'm wrong.
[24:21] At least for me is Fedeval Verde like when we lose the ball, I
[24:24] think Fede is the single point in our midfield who helps us or
[24:30] is capable of. Getting not Jude, I think Jude's
[24:32] a pretty good. Counterpresser I.
[24:34] Think Jude's a pretty good counterpresser.
[24:36] Because Jude is oftentimes though, coming from an like he's
[24:39] more, he's up the field more compared to like our midfielders
[24:42] in general, right? And that's where I think Fede's
[24:44] important because typically when we turn that ball over, Jude is
[24:47] essentially coming off someone's shoulder.
[24:48] So he's able to to, you know, use his ability, of course,
[24:52] right? You need the ability to do it.
[24:54] Whereas with Fede, he's always facing where the ball's almost
[24:57] being turned over at. And that's where I think he's so
[24:59] important to that counter press in the midfield and us being
[25:02] able to win the ball back quickly.
[25:03] When you when you when you attitude to a Fede, to a
[25:07] Shumani, to Akama Vinga in that midfield, you now have 4
[25:11] monsters right essentially of that counter press.
[25:15] Those are 4 elite duel winners. Those like right?
[25:18] Like those dudes? Right, right, exactly.
[25:20] And and they can use a variety of tools.
[25:22] They each have a specific skill set that kind of stands out from
[25:25] each other in that sense. But they all have this elite
[25:27] ability to help us win the ball back quickly.
[25:30] My thing with Fede is he also has this quickness about him
[25:34] where like he literally can cover spaces at an incredible
[25:38] level that I think people don't give enough credit for.
[25:40] And when you have a Shumani comma Vinga devil pivot, I'll
[25:44] bring it back to that piece. I just I need to see it more and
[25:48] I need to see it at a high level against high level competition
[25:50] for me to be fully convinced about it.
[25:52] I love it on paper, but I just again, I haven't seen it in a
[25:55] classic go up to this point. So I'm going to be a bit nervous
[25:57] that, you know, Peggery and Frankie are going to be able to
[26:02] pass the ball right through that, right.
[26:04] And and that's kind of my my concern with those two in
[26:07] particular. Are they?
[26:08] Going to be able to. We'll see.
[26:13] Pedri and Frankie can, right? The question is, has Madrid
[26:17] gotten to the point where when they're pressing their lanes and
[26:21] their assignments and spacing is correct so that Pedri and
[26:24] Frankie cannot make those passes now because we've shut down
[26:27] those? Lanes, that's my concern right
[26:31] now at this point in time where the team is now.
[26:33] Do I think by patterns of of repetition they can get better
[26:37] throughout the season? Yes.
[26:38] But it doesn't help when the coach has also been reshuffling
[26:41] every single player essentially bar Gillian and Bape throughout
[26:46] the entire 11, right? Besides in Bob and Courtois, no
[26:49] one else has played every game, so we haven't had time to build
[26:52] that continuity either. So essentially it is another
[26:54] experiment if you go with that line up.
[26:56] Right, this is interesting Lacante, I love your thoughts
[26:58] here. I, I, I love the fact that Javi
[27:01] rotates because it's a long season and guys need to need to
[27:04] be fresh. However, when you are
[27:05] implementing a new system, yes, a no preseason, when you're
[27:08] implementing a new system, you do need some level of
[27:12] continuity, right? So you can build habits with
[27:14] each other. So does that concern you that
[27:17] enough of the 11 haven't played consecutive enough minutes
[27:20] together to get the concepts down right?
[27:25] I mean, look, normally we go on paper, right?
[27:29] Because we don't really know what's happening on the training
[27:32] ground. For all we know, there's
[27:33] curveball and Brahim Diaz is suddenly a starter for all we
[27:36] know. Because along as we've seen
[27:38] things that we just don't. If if Brian starts tomorrow.
[27:47] I'm just saying that repetition is utterly hard and impossible
[27:53] in those circumstances. Injuries happen constantly.
[27:56] Like not all rotations have been made solely because he wants to
[28:01] test players. There's been a lot of injuries
[28:03] like the last two games. Biggest concern was the build
[28:06] up. How are we going to build up
[28:08] without Dean Howson and Carreras as the main guy who's going to
[28:15] take a responsibility out there? Because when we add those two,
[28:18] it was a lot easier to penetrate teams.
[28:21] But with just one of them, Well, as we saw in the last two games,
[28:26] there's a bit too much on Carreras play to be able to
[28:29] invert push forward than having his roles changed constantly in
[28:34] order to fit. So it's for the coach.
[28:39] I'm giving Alonzo just the benefit of the doubt here that
[28:43] in terms of to create a repetitive scheme, you need the
[28:47] players to repetitively play, but it's impossible to
[28:51] repetitively play them because you have the game every three
[28:54] days with international break constantly killing your
[28:58] continuity. So also is kind of set me at
[29:02] this point step at Bani for season where you can see that
[29:07] things are being laid out, but he still doesn't fully know how
[29:14] far he can take the team as it currently stands because he
[29:17] needs to test those players in different positions.
[29:19] I think that now he's found out that Vinnie's just better.
[29:23] If he's floating like you're, you're seeing Vinnie floating a
[29:25] lot more. That is opening a whole new
[29:28] attack in dynamic. Now he has to figure out how is
[29:31] Jude going to be with this 11? Now he has to figure out how are
[29:36] we going to deal with the turnovers that come from the
[29:38] right side? Let it be Franco Masantuano or
[29:40] Brian Diaz. Both are very turnover prone.
[29:44] Different ways, but both are very turnover prone.
[29:47] Turnovers lead to transitions. How is the material set up
[29:51] dealing with the transitions and the quick attacks of the pops?
[29:54] How are the jumps going to happen?
[29:56] Are there players that are going to be late on them?
[29:58] For example The Avengers game since he was late in majority of
[30:02] the jumps token and yield is because we were he was so afraid
[30:06] that Lovich might just run in behind them, therefore he was
[30:10] giving them an option. So all of these things stay up 1
[30:13] to 1 to another. And normally the way how I
[30:17] perceive El Clasico is mitigation of these minor
[30:23] things. It's not about the big picture
[30:25] on that game of the tactical scheme.
[30:27] It's more about what players are going to mitigate some of the
[30:30] problems there. We Madrilliano just kind.
[30:33] Of. Tell me that he believes that 11
[30:39] specifically or those type of players or the players that are
[30:43] going to give him the highest security on, on and off the
[30:46] ball. It didn't go perfectly for
[30:49] variety of reasons. By the way, if you go back and
[30:52] watch the film, it's not as bad as the score line does show.
[30:55] The ideas are there. The execution is pretty poor,
[30:58] but the ideas are there and you can see what he's trying to do.
[31:00] And this theme to that theme are vastly different.
[31:04] And we're going to say this month in and out because the
[31:06] team is developing. So leading internal classical.
[31:09] It's a very hard predicament to make that you can survive
[31:14] turnovers and that a midfielder is going to be able to do 2
[31:17] players jobs in order to win on the ball back against some of
[31:21] the highest technical quality players.
[31:23] So that that's why I lean towards Alonzo and taking a more
[31:28] cautionary approach. Internal classical.
[31:31] So it's interesting that you go there, right?
[31:35] You talked about taking a more conservative approach given how
[31:37] the Derby Maddaleno went, right, where you maybe tried to be
[31:40] aggressive, you know, in last year's, the first one at the
[31:45] Burn about the Classico where Mbappe got called offside 8
[31:47] times. But the the Highline was a
[31:51] record. The Highline was a big
[31:53] conversation, right? And bars's Highline was better
[31:56] last year. Clearly anybody who watched them
[31:58] last year versus this year has seen that, correct?
[32:00] And that's the absence of Inigo Martinez who led that.
[32:03] Now he's not there. And so they are much more
[32:05] vulnerable as we've seen this year.
[32:07] They lost Sevilla this year, right?
[32:09] For one, if I'm not mistaken, we'll score that match and the
[32:15] he said, he said, I studied Barcelona for years.
[32:18] Every team that sits back and waits ends up losing 98% of the
[32:21] time. You have to look for other ways
[32:23] to beat them. And so I was thinking about that
[32:26] and Octa analysis had had a really good article about this.
[32:30] And they said in the three matches where boss has struggled
[32:31] this season, they recorded fewer than 10 sequences of 10 plus
[32:35] passes and every other game had at least 15 such sequences.
[32:38] So that ability to stop them from doing that play on the ball
[32:42] they love to do is the question. Now that requires you to be
[32:46] aggressive on your press. However, we just talked about,
[32:49] right, how, how aggressive do we want to be?
[32:52] So the question now is we're going to press at some point
[32:55] during the how much? And then when we don't, what are
[32:59] we looking like out of possession when we are not
[33:01] pressing? Well.
[33:07] It's very hard, right? Because it depends on Borsis 11
[33:12] to begin with. Because my predicted Borsis 11
[33:17] is the fact that Hansi Flake is definitely going to be afraid of
[33:21] that Heinlein, but he's not going to give up on it.
[33:23] No, he can't. Right?
[33:24] So. What?
[33:25] He starts that up? Yeah, he starts that up to
[33:30] mitigate that, probably starts Kubarsi and ballet and it's a
[33:36] battle between Kunde and Eric Garcia, and I think Eric Garcia
[33:40] is actually going to win that battle.
[33:41] For somebody. He's less prone to be beaten.
[33:45] Yeah. He's been better, but also he's
[33:48] less prone than Kunde to be beaten what we want.
[33:51] And if Madrid can find Venetius there, well, good luck to them.
[33:55] Basically, So my theory was the fact that Ferran Torres, I think
[34:02] he's bad for them, but I don't know what his fitness levels are
[34:05] going to be. Torres back No.
[34:08] No, no, no. Yeah.
[34:15] So I thought that my idea of Flick and the way how he sees it
[34:21] is the fact that he's going to want to battle that midfield
[34:23] with midfield. So it's going to be like Marcus
[34:26] Sado, Pedri and Frankie Deong. I think that this is where Pedri
[34:29] gets pushed up a little bit and they play with Fermin on the
[34:34] inside of the left. They play with Rashford as a
[34:38] number 9 and they play with aluminium all on the right side.
[34:42] So if if my guess is correct on the level, then that's your go
[34:48] to in order to press them. You press them them
[34:52] uncomfortable and you don't let them breathe, you fall a lot.
[34:56] Like that's one of my key points.
[34:58] I've always made the claim need to fall and we're seeing an
[35:01] increase in our fouls, right? Like there was a point against
[35:05] Adafa where we had zero and then we went to 9.
[35:08] The moment when Adafa started to get hold of the game a little
[35:11] bit, we just went like, Nope, momentum broken restart.
[35:14] So that's a smart thing to do. You need to fall a lot if you're
[35:18] beat and on the way. How you approach that is the
[35:23] fact that there's only one fair. What if the ball Ratford in
[35:29] behind Militao and Dinausen, because this is where you're
[35:34] going to have a disadvantage. Blovich beat Militao last time
[35:39] and I'm not sure what the difference is, but I would
[35:42] imagine Marcus rush for this slightly bit quicker than
[35:47] Duchamp, Lovich, Basher, even though Blovich for number 9 and
[35:51] that size is a pretty quick layer.
[35:53] So yes. So another thing is Barcelona or
[36:04] well people hate me for this, I pointedly since the beginning.
[36:08] No surprise that they look better with aluminium all than
[36:11] with them, because luminium all is too turnover prone.
[36:17] He is too turnover prone and people need to accept that.
[36:20] That kid loses the ball in every area of the pitch and gives you
[36:24] a free transition against that line every single time or stun
[36:32] it. Is he a quality footballer that
[36:35] does incredible things? Yes, but is he also hurtful to
[36:40] the team on this flick setup just as much as a big quality as
[36:45] yes. There is 0 shock to me that
[36:47] their worst results, worst performances have had him on the
[36:50] pitch. PSG game he did that minute 1,
[36:54] whatever the hell we want to call that.
[36:57] Dusted for the rest of it. Loses a ball, loses a duel,
[37:01] doesn't track back, the right back is put in bad positions.
[37:04] Of course you don't want him to track back because you want him
[37:07] to sustain the energy, but when you're that high turnover prone
[37:11] then you have to. But he doesn't, so you need to
[37:16] let that happen. As crazy as it sounds, I think
[37:20] Alonzo's plan is simply going to be like, OK, we need to push
[37:24] Borsa to accelerate the game and get the ball to aluminium all as
[37:28] quickly as possible. If I'm judging Alonzo correctly,
[37:35] I think this what he wants to do.
[37:37] He wants to get Laminium all on the ball as quickly as possible.
[37:43] He doesn't want to let Borsa rotate the ball, shift the block
[37:46] across. He wants to let Laminium all get
[37:49] the ball. So he wants to be yes,
[37:51] heliocentric Isobol, right? He he he wants them to play
[37:54] Helios heliocentric Isobol to steal right, to steal a
[37:58] basketball. Tournament.
[37:59] Yeah, I so you want, you want that, right?
[38:02] And you know, that's crazy, but it sounds crazy to tell
[38:07] somebody, you know, It's of course.
[38:08] Kind of like. What Golden say did the later
[38:10] well last correct. Let me take this Yeah, third
[38:13] look do whatever Golden say just went like OK can deal with look
[38:16] at anxious. You know what, I can stop the
[38:18] rest of these. Let the guys.
[38:19] Go. That's and.
[38:21] You saw how comfortable it. Was for that.
[38:22] That's the key to heliocentric ball.
[38:25] Look, these are the best players in the world, so stopping to use
[38:28] it to go to basketball, stopping Luca or these guys is not easy.
[38:32] However, if you know the entire offense is just that well, you
[38:36] know what your job is, it makes your job that much easier.
[38:39] The rest of these dudes ain't doing shit.
[38:40] We just got to worry about that guy.
[38:42] So to your point, no, no circulating the ball, no passing
[38:45] with you, the other, just him. That's all we have to worry
[38:47] about. Take the other 10-9 outfield
[38:49] players out of the out of the way and we just worry about him.
[38:52] Yes, that that's possible. What say you, Xavier?
[38:57] I mean, we've seen Chavi Alonzo's plans go up in flames
[39:01] in the PSG final in the Atlantic game.
[39:03] And that's my concern is, is. You guys keep talking.
[39:06] I got to step out for. 2 seconds, yeah for sure.
[39:10] But my issue again is I don't want to hear TiVo Courtois
[39:15] interview post game and say these were Chavi's instructions.
[39:18] We just decided not to follow them and that's been the
[39:22] concerning theme against the highest level of competition for
[39:25] far too long. For the past 12 months, you
[39:28] know, it's just we've, we've had different tactics.
[39:30] We've had different. We've had different game plans
[39:33] and they still and they just crumbled right.
[39:35] We've had him Bob to score a hat trick against these guys and
[39:37] gave up five like like I need to see I I maybe I need some shin
[39:42] kickers out there right like I don't know, but like give me
[39:45] some passion, give me give me Puerto pacion out there and I'm
[39:48] gonna and I'm gonna feel a lot more confident that the press
[39:52] might sustain that we actually might be able to take the ball
[39:54] from them finish your chances be clinical.
[39:57] That's another thing we don't talk about.
[39:59] I saw is that. It was a foot mild comparison
[40:02] between Erling Holland and Boppitt and the conversion
[40:05] percentage stood out quite a lot to me.
[40:08] I'm sure you saw that Leconte, Erling Holland's at like 89%
[40:11] conversion percentage and BOP is at 66%.
[40:13] I can't have a 66% in Boppitt on Sunday, right?
[40:17] I need him to be clinical, score 2 out of five shots, not 2 out
[40:21] of 11. You know, I don't need 8
[40:23] offsides. Another thing I think maybe I'm
[40:26] sick and tired of hearing about is this Highline.
[40:28] I think the highline might be in our players heads by this point.
[40:31] They go out and play Boris. They're like, all we got to do
[40:33] is take advantage of the highline and we win the game,
[40:35] you know? And it's like, forget the
[40:36] highline, go out and play good football with the game show
[40:39] intensity. My other concern is Firmin is
[40:43] gonna be starting. Who's gonna match the intensity
[40:45] of Firmin in the midfield 'cause you know, he's gonna bring the
[40:48] energy, he's gonna bring the hatred.
[40:51] If I watch him go up on the on the screen and do the Jude
[40:53] Bellingham celebration in front of our crowd again, I'm gonna
[40:56] lose my mind, right? And that all comes back down to
[41:00] bring the passion because to your point, Lecante, I think
[41:03] Chavi's going to be clear with his instructions where he wants
[41:05] the ball to be, what zones to cover, who should be counter
[41:09] pressing in what zones, where you should be forcing to turn
[41:11] left, right, be a spin top merchant so Jude can come in and
[41:14] make the second tackle. Do those things.
[41:17] But here's the problem. If you don't bring the
[41:19] intensity, all that goes right out the window like we saw
[41:23] against PSG, like we saw against Atletico de Madrid.
[41:26] We saw Carreras play like he's like he had two right feet.
[41:29] We saw Dean think he was overconfident.
[41:31] We saw odd that taking overconfident touch get turned
[41:33] over a quick goal. Like those things happen when
[41:36] you don't come in focused, when you don't bring the intensity.
[41:39] And this has been, and I said it before the Atleti game, my
[41:42] biggest issue with these big matchups has been how on earth
[41:45] can I start to break down the game when I'm watching my
[41:49] players literally look like they don't know how to touch a
[41:51] football? Like, like, what are we doing
[41:53] here? Right?
[41:53] And that's the, I think the frustrating part about like most
[41:58] of these matchups, yes, we've had a chance in some of the
[42:01] class. He goes, right.
[42:02] We, we, we fought a bit, but I can't see the defense crumble
[42:05] the way they have, right? You let Lamine Yamal dribble.
[42:09] I mean, yes, I like the Lamine ISO ball.
[42:11] If I had Ferlin Mendy out there, right, if I had my and I'm going
[42:15] to go with I'm going to use an NFL reference real quick.
[42:18] Everybody knows what Rivas Island used to be, right?
[42:20] Well, I used to say don't go to Mendy Island because one-on-one
[42:23] you're not getting past them. I would I would be much more
[42:27] confident personally and and seeing that happen on Sunday.
[42:30] But I know it's going to be Carreras.
[42:32] And guess what? Carreras has somewhat also
[42:33] looked shaky at during certain games, especially in big moments
[42:37] so far for Real Madrid. So I need to see that intensity
[42:40] from. The game.
[42:43] Of course. But what I'm saying is my
[42:44] confidence level will go up if we come out from the beginning
[42:48] with the right intensity. But what I don't need to see is
[42:51] we're making slow pass. Come on, Vinga's making slow
[42:53] passes, right? Shumani's not showing for the
[42:55] ball when he should be. Jude's lost right up top, not
[42:59] tracking back. What I need to see is all of
[43:01] them locked into the game plan for 90 minutes.
[43:04] And not 30 minutes, not 40 minutes.
[43:07] If we're going to choose to press for certain moments of the
[43:09] game, fine, I'm with you. We don't need to run like
[43:11] hooligans the whole game. Be collected and be committed to
[43:14] it. Yeah, this is stuff we talked
[43:16] about, right? And I think to that end, right,
[43:18] we can all admit that Barsa has had some faulty play this year,
[43:22] right? Lakanta, you said you're 2
[43:24] Afflict. You see it coming, right?
[43:25] But much like Athleti, they will turn up for this match
[43:30] specifically. So they will look like a
[43:32] completely different squad. All of a sudden when they play
[43:34] out, it's like, oh, how come last week you look like shit,
[43:36] but today you're playing in 10s? Everybody's doing like all of a
[43:39] sudden for this match, they will play well, right?
[43:42] Like that's just how things were in terms of their focus and
[43:45] their mindset. So can we match that?
[43:47] Because if we match that, I do believe tactically Jabi has the
[43:51] right game plan and game ID and we have the right players to
[43:54] overcome them. But both those things have to
[43:56] happen. The mindset has to be right to
[43:58] then execute whatever we're being asked to execute.
[44:02] Yep. Yeah, I mean, I definitely don't
[44:06] agree with any of that, but I kind of disagree with the fact
[44:10] that these players don't want it as much as the other team.
[44:16] I think that there's a line in which they feel that there's no
[44:21] coming back and unfortunately to be spoiled.
[44:26] This team has made some historical comebacks, Like when
[44:29] the way how we discuss Madrid, it's not on the same length that
[44:34] we discuss any other club. 2020, one 2122 season, for example.
[44:39] That's not repeating like I'm sorry to say, but if people
[44:42] believe on that. I'm not anti that La Conti, but
[44:45] I think part of the problem with Madrid players is, is this idea
[44:49] of falling back on red Montanas, our DNA.
[44:52] I'm like, no, no, How many of you were here?
[44:55] You're not Cruz, you're not moderate, you're not just none
[44:58] of you, right, Vinny? Yes.
[45:00] Rodrigo, yes. Jude, a little bit yes.
[45:02] The rest of you have no DNA in that.
[45:04] You're not going to. Suffer they've done nothing
[45:07] right none of those guys have done any of that so this idea
[45:10] that. All yeah, but they have to go
[45:11] through it. Yes, but that's my point.
[45:14] My point is my point is you're right.
[45:20] You have to go through it, but not with the way they did
[45:23] against Athletic. Look, when they when we tied it
[45:25] up and was 22 and once I think he scored again to go up 32, did
[45:29] anybody on that pitch look like Ramontano's coming?
[45:31] Not a soul on that pitch. Look.
[45:33] Like no, but I'll say this right, a week before all
[45:38] classical in 2011, we were on what looked our best form in
[45:45] literally since I was alive. Cristiano Ronaldo comes out
[45:49] there and he goes like, let's see and pitch and we can we.
[45:54] Can't do that. That didn't happen again.
[45:57] We drew Bell and be in Copa del Rey.
[46:01] It's a matter of I'm not gonna sit here and call all of these
[46:06] players like we they didn't show it, whatever the better.
[46:09] Thing I'm not saying they didn't show.
[46:10] No, it's no saying we didn't show it is not that it's more
[46:15] what I'm pushing back on is the idea that once you sign on to
[46:20] Real Madrid, the Reminzada DNA just gets automatically injected
[46:23] into your veins. No, that that's that's not how
[46:25] it works Like you have to experience it.
[46:27] What happened in 2011? None of you were there in 2011.
[46:31] So none of you have any of that to draw on.
[46:33] So that doesn't count for you. You have to do your own thing.
[46:36] And to me, when things go bad for this team, nobody has shown.
[46:41] We need to go through it right. But how many times?
[46:45] How many times you going to get your ass?
[46:46] This is where the athletic game is going to show, right?
[46:50] You should. This is.
[46:50] Where the athletic game is going.
[46:52] To show it should it should get it right, it should.
[46:55] It should. This group of players hasn't
[46:58] shown. Us What were the wounds of that
[47:00] game? What were the what?
[47:02] What were the wounds of that game, right?
[47:05] Have they just gone like, OK, we won every single game since?
[47:09] Or have they gone like, OK, I just can't get over that.
[47:12] Like this is the difference between because they're not one
[47:16] of the games, if we really want to be honest.
[47:18] They've been challenged like Villarreal is a big challenge.
[47:22] Hitafi away is a big challenge. I know that they'd even on last
[47:26] week's show, post game show that Barcelona have scored one game
[47:29] on their last five meetings on that stadium.
[47:32] It's they beat Juventus as comfortably as it gets,
[47:36] literally to the point where they even stopped playing.
[47:40] So it's more of like or what is on their head would be right.
[47:51] Are they like, OK, so at Lady Beaters, but if I was the film,
[47:56] it's no near as bad as the final result shows, which is a fact.
[48:02] And I'm chill. We're good.
[48:05] Like we're a good team. We're going to fall back to what
[48:07] we know to do and that's it. Or are they going to be like,
[48:11] OK, that athletic game just stinks, we need to get rid of
[48:16] that, You know that demon. And obviously we're not going to
[48:20] get rid of it fully by BT Barcelona, especially crippled
[48:23] one, but you're way more at peace.
[48:28] Yeah, it will go a long way. I think that's important, right?
[48:31] It is. It's about mindset, right?
[48:33] I don't, I never call professional athletes weak or
[48:36] whatever because you don't make it to this level by being weak.
[48:39] So that's, that's just not a thing.
[48:41] My question is, again, when you again, when the adversity hits,
[48:45] is it pack up our bags and crumble or is it no, we have to
[48:49] fight, right? Like, are we going to fight?
[48:52] Like that's what I want to see. And again, this game will tell
[48:54] us. You mentioned something Lecante
[48:56] about, you know, the UVA game and how we won that.
[49:00] And if you look at our underlying stats, right?
[49:04] I mean, no, I know it's not Champions League, but we have by
[49:06] far for the first 3 Champions League matches the most shots of
[49:11] any team in the competition by far, right?
[49:15] So my. Question is that lead any
[49:20] offensive? We, we, we have, we create so
[49:23] many chances and shots, but we are not being clinical and
[49:28] efficient at the final ball and and finishing.
[49:31] And is this a thing for us now Where?
[49:36] I mean, look, I'd be happy that Barcelona would be the game.
[49:38] We'd figure that out and we scored fucking seven goals and
[49:41] like, right, that would be awesome.
[49:42] I would fucking sign me up for that every fucking day.
[49:46] I would take that right. But is that something the team
[49:49] can draw inspiration from? It's like, damn, guys, we are
[49:52] doing what is necessary. We have to just put the ball on
[49:55] the fucking net. I mean historically a little bad
[50:00] finishing thing if we want to be honest.
[50:02] Historically we are a bat finisher there.
[50:05] We are a high chance creation team but.
[50:10] I was, I was going to say, except the two years we won the
[50:11] Champions League recently where we had a player massively
[50:14] outperformed their XG, right. And that kind of got.
[50:17] Us. Oh yeah, but that's an outline,
[50:19] right? That's.
[50:20] What I'm saying, Yeah, Yeah, No, I'm agreeing with you like that.
[50:22] That that means, Yeah, unless somebody goes superhuman, you
[50:28] know, at which I mean, we have. Scoring A volley from a furlough
[50:33] Mindy Cross. I don't know what to say bro,
[50:36] you know? Look, we got him Bobby right,
[50:39] who is a clinical in front of net finisher we have.
[50:42] Benny, I mean, he's scored the hasher against them for a lot.
[50:45] Correct. We have Jude Bellingham, who's
[50:47] an excellent box crasher We have right we we, we got Arte Guler
[50:51] who's got a magical left, but we've got guys who can put
[50:54] Fede's got a Thunder shot from out.
[50:56] We've got guys who can do the thing I got.
[50:59] To see it though, but we got to see it though.
[51:01] Like we have to see it because we're unfamiliar, I mean.
[51:04] And it's been concerning. Outside of IMAPI for a while by.
[51:08] The way outside of Super Copa, which I give Barcelona full
[51:11] credit for, which that's the. One, they whacked to say 5.
[51:14] Two we got. We got killed in that one.
[51:16] We're we're literally facing a guy that smokes.
[51:17] Cigarettes outside the club game, right?
[51:19] Like like if we don't score on this goalie, this guy literally
[51:22] takes cigarette breaks at halftime.
[51:25] If if you are the. Best athletes in the world.
[51:28] You cannot score on this goalkeeper.
[51:30] I'm going to be disappointed, all right?
[51:34] What are we doing? Here, I mean boys pretty good
[51:37] goalkeeper, but I'll say this like from last season, yes, they
[51:42] beat us four times. It's 40 technically.
[51:45] Which game outside of super Hoba didn't feel winnable That's.
[51:50] True, yeah, Super Cob was another one because we we had to
[51:52] lead in the Copa del Rey final and then.
[51:54] Copa del Rey, we would have won. If Angelotti just went like
[51:58] Rudiger, actually you're injured and he could actually track
[52:02] back. We would have won that game.
[52:04] Momentum was in our side. Game completely changed.
[52:07] And guess what? If you win that game and you go
[52:10] 2 nil up that early in La Liga, you won both because now you're
[52:13] confident. But in La Liga you had zero
[52:15] confidence. You're 2 nil up the quarterly.
[52:18] Cruz it never felt like they were going to win it 2 nil back
[52:22] on that low block, but we don't even know how to make one and
[52:29] let them play right. But now it's a bit different
[52:34] because if on this team you're going with that super, with that
[52:41] Copa del Rey final and last La Liga game type of plan where a
[52:45] Bap just kind of gets to enjoy himself, I'm sorry, but they're
[52:50] not winning. Like it doesn't matter.
[52:51] It's not about mentality, it's just about the fact that you
[52:54] have a better tactical ingredient to deal with them.
[52:58] Imbabe figured out that highline after the first match like and,
[53:01] and you could even potentially argue he kind of maybe even
[53:05] figured it out in the first match because if we go back to
[53:07] all eight of those offsides, some were egregious, but others
[53:10] I'm like, sure. So anyway, I have a tactical
[53:14] question for you, Lecante. So Rafinia was a big part of
[53:19] triggering their press and why it was so effective last year
[53:21] and causing the turnovers. Rafinia is not playing.
[53:26] Is that an area where it makes it easier for us to break out of
[53:30] their press and then get ourselves in some numerical
[53:33] advantages down the pitch? Makes it easier for us to press
[53:40] rather than for them because you can just pinball Verdun Valde
[53:45] and you just have numerical superiority immediately
[53:50] immediately you can pinball Verdun Valde and Valdez and beat
[53:53] him Alberta physically. So already that's your advantage
[53:57] when Rafina is playing. You just know that he's very
[54:01] good at because of space and playing the pass Fermi Lopez,
[54:05] those credit you have from me from two years ago, incredible
[54:09] between the Lions player. But the reason why I picked up
[54:13] midfield is the fact that these guys are not going to let you
[54:16] receive between the lines. End of story.
[54:20] These guys are not going to let you receive.
[54:22] That's the truth. Vast difference between an L
[54:25] classical with Charmaine in midfield and without.
[54:28] Charmaine is huge because Barcelona relishes on that
[54:32] between the lines action and Chomini takes that away from the
[54:36] game completely. You can't Pinchomini because,
[54:40] well, guess what? You have center backs not even
[54:44] being challenged. Therefore Madrid can spread
[54:45] across the pitch as much as they can.
[54:47] You Pinchomini, OK, you just gave us an advantage because
[54:50] you're losing a player on your action.
[54:52] So basically he becomes a catalyst of the fact that OK,
[54:58] there's no entrance between the lines here.
[55:00] It's like it's a no go. It's not just Barcelona here,
[55:05] it's every team. If you take two Armeni outside
[55:10] of the Madrid 11 in a team that wants to hold the ball, you'll
[55:13] immediately fill the holes. Immediately you'll see how
[55:17] easily everything is bypassed. It's very easy for me to sit
[55:21] here and be like, OK, but 2 Armeni, it's a little bit slow
[55:24] at rotating with the ball. A lot of times if you pay
[55:28] attention that's actually him being instructed to this because
[55:33] Alonzo really wants that quick switch to happens when the ball
[55:38] gets to Arda or a more proficient vertical pass.
[55:42] So you always adds to OK one more touch so.
[55:46] When you have it, make the safe pass, but when Arda or these
[55:49] other guys get it, they can make the vertical pass, the
[55:52] aggressive pass. Is that right?
[55:53] Basically, he's asked to play it safer, not that he can't play
[55:59] it. You see it with France, like
[56:01] this guy did it a month ago. It's not that he's changing day
[56:05] in the night and somehow he's losing that ability when wearing
[56:08] our shirt. But the difference here is the
[56:10] fact that the song goes like, hey, you know what we have when
[56:15] boppy teams are leopard, just throw a ball, vertical ball, and
[56:20] then Boppy is going to get to the end.
[56:22] More often than not happens. Alonzo was like, well, these
[56:26] teams have a lot more reps, These teams are better prepared.
[56:30] I don't want you to take risks because I don't want you out of
[56:32] position. I want you to protect me.
[56:34] And that's why you said Xiaomi is going to be the cornerstone
[56:37] of this. Whole.
[56:39] And that's what we're saying. All right, folks, it is mailbag
[56:43] time. So we're going to go rapid fire
[56:45] through these mailbag questions. First up, we got a question here
[56:49] from Abdul Malik. He's Oh no, sorry, not Abdul
[56:54] Malik, my bad, from Devanish Raoul, he says.
[56:57] What are your thoughts on Lamin Yamal's comments from yesterday?
[57:01] Those of you that don't know, Lamin Yamal was on a YouTube
[57:03] show talking about the Kings League and he said about a team
[57:06] in the Kings League. Yes, they rob, they complain,
[57:09] they do things just like Real Madrid do.
[57:14] See these Barcelona dudes, they can't go 5 seconds without
[57:17] mentioning Real Madrid. Talking about something
[57:19] completely has nothing to do with Real Madrid.
[57:21] They bring up Real Madrid. What'd you guys think?
[57:23] Not much to do about nothing, that's just how they are always
[57:26] talking about Madrid. Yeah, well.
[57:29] I mean you can. Throw this.
[57:33] We, we have to understand, I mean them all is 18 years old.
[57:37] All of us when we were 18 years old probably said a lot of
[57:40] things that we regret or may have not put much thought behind
[57:44] at the time. I think he's going to learn over
[57:47] time as he ages 'cause we have to give, you know, give him I
[57:51] think some leeway there. As much as I love to troll the
[57:56] mean and all his comments and everything that comes about the
[57:59] hustle hard package, I'll give the kid the benefit of the doubt
[58:03] in this case. That he's young, he's gonna
[58:06] learn. You can't let it rattle you.
[58:08] I think there are far bigger things that our team need to
[58:11] show on the field or they can even begin to try to speak back.
[58:15] And until you do that, you really got nowhere to really say
[58:19] anything because what he said inherently isn't exactly false.
[58:24] I mean the part about us robbing things is, but the fact that he
[58:27] said that they did beat us for nothing in our ground and we
[58:30] literally did nothing about it is true.
[58:33] So for me, I hope the team responds on the field and puts
[58:38] an ass whooping in rather than go back and forth about some 18
[58:42] year olds comments on the biggest streamer in Spain's show
[58:46] in which they asked him his thoughts about Real Madrid.
[58:48] Is that what it was the biggest streamer show in in Spain?
[58:51] EBay, eBay, like in terms of football, Twitter, like like
[58:55] football and Spain and Twitch, like he's #1 like all, all the
[58:59] entire Real Madrid locker room knows him.
[59:00] He hangs out with me, hangs out with all of them, right?
[59:02] He's he's, you know, in those circles.
[59:06] All right, Abdul Malik's question now we kind of touched
[59:08] on this, but let's kind of put a fine point on it.
[59:11] Who's asking how real magician play on Sunday from all the bars
[59:13] of games he's watched where they struggle?
[59:15] It's because constant pressure was put on the ball and would
[59:17] not make you feel comfortable. That backs up the opt analyst
[59:19] stat, right? And the games they struggled,
[59:21] they didn't put together a bunch of sequences of 10 plus passes,
[59:24] right, less than three. And the ones they were fine in,
[59:26] they had 15 plus. So our press can do that, but it
[59:29] struggles at times. So again, let's put a fine point
[59:32] of that. How should we play Le Conte?
[59:34] How often should we press right? Like, and when we don't see this
[59:38] is what I think, I think we might do it early to try to go
[59:41] up and get that first goal, maybe even go up two nil and
[59:44] then maybe all right, enough of that shit, right and settle into
[59:48] a more mid block, right, Maybe bring our bring our line back a
[59:52] little bit, right, just to just to absorb a little bit.
[59:55] What say you? Football is all about traps,
[1:00:00] right? We might in a low block and just
[1:00:04] let them play, make them feel comfortable and then you just
[1:00:07] sit down. We don't know it's all about
[1:00:10] traps due to the margins of how small the sport has.
[1:00:14] Normally in normal circumstances, you don't want to
[1:00:17] let them circulate because you don't want to be suffocated
[1:00:19] because they're very good at clogging the space.
[1:00:23] But again, we have seen in a pivot or their pivot be
[1:00:27] stretched a bit too much. A lot has to do with the and
[1:00:32] aluminium alls turnovers, so I don't want to get really much
[1:00:37] deeper than that. But I think that there will be
[1:00:39] sequences where this team is going to press heavily like we
[1:00:42] saw against Juventus, but sequences where they're going to
[1:00:46] have to tamper it down and wait for their midfield or Lamine to
[1:00:50] get the ball before actually activating into a more
[1:00:54] aggressive style. I don't think that they're going
[1:00:56] to let Barcelona play as 11. I think that their whole point
[1:01:01] is maybe let pedrin be, let aluminium all get bald and just
[1:01:07] blogs and don't leave passages of play.
[1:01:10] It's more about focus, it's more about cohesion.
[1:01:14] And I think that so far they've shown us that they're pretty
[1:01:17] good at communicating what they're going to do.
[1:01:20] Yeah. And this this ties into sort of
[1:01:22] the next the the same question look, Dante, which is should
[1:01:25] Alonzo start Trent, Carver Hall or continue with Alverde?
[1:01:27] I think we said, we all said Valverde.
[1:01:28] I don't think he's going to start Trent or Carver Hall.
[1:01:31] You're already going to start. And then should Yamal be doubled
[1:01:35] up on the left flank while defending?
[1:01:39] No, right, No, because once you go to that right last run, like
[1:01:48] you saw with Kahulu, Vini wasn't tracking back, to be honest.
[1:01:51] But you want to avoid that Kahulu thing with Kundeo writer
[1:01:54] Garcia, whichever Hansi Flake decides to play.
[1:01:59] So no, you let him 11 You block the passages of play and once he
[1:02:06] saw center centrally, you kind of hope that Kamalinga just
[1:02:11] spider towels him and there you go.
[1:02:15] I love this question because it doesn't know what we talked
[1:02:17] about before about the the amount of shots and and chances
[1:02:19] we create Real Madrid in the Champions League.
[1:02:21] Their XG is consistently over 3 but their finishing is not good.
[1:02:24] Does this high XG really mean they're in control of their
[1:02:27] matches and should we expect this to correct itself soon with
[1:02:30] a three plus goal explosion in an upcoming game?
[1:02:35] I had OK, I actually saw this question and I actually had
[1:02:40] notes for this so I have notes for this.
[1:02:42] FG does not mean control. FG means the quality of chances
[1:02:45] created. So your expected goals were at
[1:02:49] 3. Whether you score that or not,
[1:02:51] it's a different story. It's mostly the measurement.
[1:02:55] How you assert dominance on the page is by who dominating which
[1:03:01] territory of the pitch and where they're coming more successful.
[1:03:05] Normally. For example, like between the
[1:03:07] lines which she is more successful at entering them
[1:03:11] because that is going to lead into a more that is going to
[1:03:16] give the play of the other players more options to tuck in
[1:03:20] or move on the inside because that creates actresses of space
[1:03:23] for them to do so. So with that being said, XG does
[1:03:27] not mean domination, but XG means that this team is creating
[1:03:31] chances at very. High level.
[1:03:35] Unsustainable. I want to say volume because
[1:03:39] three XG per game is just unsustainable.
[1:03:42] Like there was a like a goalkeeper against us at this
[1:03:46] point has made eight or more saves on Chinese.
[1:03:48] Like, that's three-game sample, but three XG per game.
[1:03:52] It's unsustainable necessarily. For the second part of that
[1:03:57] question, it was does that mean we're going to score three goals
[1:03:59] in the next game? No, Normally with 3GS you have
[1:04:02] scored 5 or 6 because XG is not calculated by one chance, one
[1:04:07] goal. Naturally, a penalty, which is
[1:04:10] the highest chance of scoring has 0.75 S 0.25 is still left
[1:04:16] over there as a as a metric for you to miss it, which does
[1:04:20] happen. There are a few like missed, you
[1:04:23] know like opportunities where the ball is just going across
[1:04:26] and you just put it in, which would be kind of considered a
[1:04:29] higher easy, but those are very rare.
[1:04:31] Normally that goes to show to you that the shot creation has
[1:04:35] been absolutely ridiculous. Well, you have the number 10,
[1:04:39] which is a muppet 10 on the back whose tends to be pretty
[1:04:44] ridiculous a shot generation literally ridiculous.
[1:04:48] Like he's the only one besides Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel
[1:04:53] Messi that have seen create chances, such social value on
[1:04:57] every single game basis and numbers back that up.
[1:05:02] Yes, big chances missed, for example, are looking pretty bad.
[1:05:06] But as always in football, the more you're there, the more
[1:05:10] you're going to miss, correct? So I think.
[1:05:12] We, we, we'd rather argue on that side, right?
[1:05:14] Let him create as many chances as possible because the law of
[1:05:16] averages says at some point they're going to start going in,
[1:05:19] right? And we're going to get some
[1:05:20] bounces to go our way. So we keep generating high
[1:05:22] chances and just shots in general.
[1:05:25] Get. The ball at the net, good things
[1:05:27] happen, so we'll take that. That's why I asked question last
[1:05:30] year when people should be out about the MAPE, right?
[1:05:33] Because he wasn't scoring at the level, but he was missing
[1:05:35] chances a lot. I went like, yeah, this guy has
[1:05:37] the highest €16 by far. Like just no shot that this guy
[1:05:42] doesn't score. Lo and behold, Golden Boot at
[1:05:45] the end. And he's still scored 40 just to
[1:05:47] play and down here, right? And and he's obviously playing
[1:05:51] much better this year. All right, this last question.
[1:05:53] We'll, we'll all tackle it. How concerned are you guys about
[1:05:56] how vulnerable the team is to counter attacks?
[1:05:58] Do you think the team needs more presence in the box when they're
[1:06:00] in the final third? And do you think the team can
[1:06:02] finally match the intensity of our rivals in the big matches?
[1:06:06] So let's start with the counter attack one, because at least
[1:06:09] once a match, sometimes twice or three times, we are vulnerable
[1:06:13] because our line's high, right? And often times we get away with
[1:06:16] it because the people who are doing those final two passes are
[1:06:19] not the most technically sound players, right?
[1:06:22] So we get a little lucky there. Well, we're going to be playing
[1:06:25] a team on Sunday that's got a couple technically sound players
[1:06:28] so that if we get beat over the top, I don't know that they're
[1:06:32] going to waste too many chances, right?
[1:06:33] So is that a concern for you? Go ahead, Xavier.
[1:06:37] Yes, it is a major concern, absolutely.
[1:06:42] Again, whether it's for me and Casado, it really doesn't seem
[1:06:47] to matter Who bars ends up starting out there against us.
[1:06:50] They find a way to pass through our line, break the supposed
[1:06:55] high press that we have. As long as I'm Bob Ben Vineyard
[1:06:58] there, I still don't believe that it's a coherent press.
[1:07:00] I still believe there's ways to bypass it actually quite easily.
[1:07:05] And we saw bars exploited time and time and time and time
[1:07:09] again. I hope these players learn
[1:07:12] specifically between those two to cover that gap because
[1:07:15] everyone else can do their jobs in that press in terms of our
[1:07:18] midfield, in terms of the counter press.
[1:07:19] But if those two aren't fluid, you're going to see the ball go
[1:07:22] to Kabarsi, you're going to see him bop a fake, press it, and
[1:07:25] it's going to create that quick space that Frankie's going to
[1:07:27] drop into and then bypass our line just like Pesri does on the
[1:07:31] on on the other channel. So for me, I hope that they've
[1:07:36] they've learned, they have the motivation for 90 minutes and
[1:07:40] understand that this this halfway pressing that we've been
[1:07:43] kind of doing against other teams between those two has
[1:07:45] worked out because we have the inherent quality to beat those
[1:07:48] teams, even though we barely beat Juve.
[1:07:52] I I really think that if I watch Hansi flick utilize Kubarsi and
[1:07:58] Frankie as essentially dummies for our press and we just create
[1:08:02] that space behind them for Peggy to just pick out the next pass.
[1:08:05] So the mean, whoever it is, we saw Casado even pick out that
[1:08:09] pass by having that same amount of space.
[1:08:11] And that's just my concern. When you have Binion and Bop it,
[1:08:14] it looks great against 90% of teams.
[1:08:17] But when we're talking about this tier of of opposition and
[1:08:20] quality, they know that both of them are not going to commit for
[1:08:24] an extended period of time to to pressing collectively.
[1:08:27] Those two in particular, there's going to be a weakness between
[1:08:31] the two and whether it's Vinnie taking too long to press and
[1:08:34] giving up after 20 minutes or whether it's Imbabe not wanting
[1:08:38] to inherently put the center backs under any sort of pressure
[1:08:41] throughout the game, I don't know how we fix that gap in the
[1:08:44] short term. Personally, I think this is a a
[1:08:47] great time to start somebody like, call me crazy a Gonzalo.
[1:08:52] That's at least gonna make Kubarsi uncomfortable on the
[1:08:54] ball, right? That's good.
[1:08:59] Rock with me here. My my issue is I wanted Bopit to
[1:09:03] to put them under pressure cause Kubarsi's a quality passer at
[1:09:05] center back, better than any center back we've played so far
[1:09:09] in possession and he's. And he's over the top and he's
[1:09:12] even better when he's gets to stand and do what he wants with
[1:09:15] no pressure right as anybody is if you.
[1:09:17] If they have no pressure, I'll push back.
[1:09:18] That's why we give him. No attacker has one possession
[1:09:20] more than imbabe. This is it.
[1:09:23] Yes, he's he's been good. No, what do you think?
[1:09:25] I think he's just saying like, look like, no.
[1:09:27] Question. No attacker has one possession
[1:09:30] more than imbabe. The, the, the question I have
[1:09:32] here is this is the kind of game where we can't be wasteful with
[1:09:38] our chances, right? Because we're going to get them,
[1:09:40] but we can't waste and not convert because they're going to
[1:09:44] convert their chances. Like they're just, they're more
[1:09:47] technically sound than most teams we play.
[1:09:50] So we can't be like, oh, we had three chances and fuck we didn't
[1:09:54] because they get one or two of those.
[1:09:55] They're going to probably score one out of those two, if not two
[1:09:58] out of two, right? Because they're just, they're
[1:10:00] just better. They're just better than teams
[1:10:01] we faced in that final third. So we have to take advantage of
[1:10:04] our chances too and score when we have the opportunity to
[1:10:07] score. Yes and no.
[1:10:13] Like if you want, like there was one thing right, Chelotti last
[1:10:17] year versus Javi this year. If you're going to be a high
[1:10:21] pressed team, you need to make peace with the fact that you're
[1:10:24] going to give up chances. That is a reality of it.
[1:10:27] But Guardiola face said any team by Muni faces that any team that
[1:10:33] wants to press high are going to be caught at some point of the
[1:10:37] game. There's no game where you can
[1:10:38] control 100% of it. The reason why Peg Guardiola
[1:10:42] even won a Champions League is because he gave up on that
[1:10:44] ideology of press keep the ball, press, keep the ball because he
[1:10:49] understood that the momentum can shift at any point.
[1:10:52] So you're going to naturally be prone to transitions and some of
[1:10:59] them there is just you can't prevent them because that's the
[1:11:04] nature of the sword. You can prevent everything, you
[1:11:07] mitigate it, but you can't prevent it.
[1:11:10] My cue of concern would be how often Kalu entered their box
[1:11:14] against Juventus or the fact that we were about to concede
[1:11:17] against Nanang Hita because the players just clocked off
[1:11:19] completely. Those are my, but if we're
[1:11:25] talking strictly of classical, well, both teams are going to
[1:11:28] give up, give these up and Barcelona where or have shown to
[1:11:32] be where way more likely to give up these and they've won games
[1:11:38] of the margins which naturally they shouldn't have.
[1:11:41] For example, the Girona game which was just last week should
[1:11:46] not have won that. Even on, even if you're looking
[1:11:49] at the underlying matrix, it does not bond well for Barcelona
[1:11:55] so more. Chances than any team in the in
[1:11:58] the league of this year. That's that's a fact.
[1:12:00] Verona had ten shots. Six of them are big chances.
[1:12:03] Yep. So let's keep saying is on on
[1:12:05] our end. We have to score when we get
[1:12:08] when we get big chances. That's what I'm saying because I
[1:12:11] think they're going to score when.
[1:12:12] They have. They're going to listen to you.
[1:12:14] I have bad news, of course. Of course we will, yeah.
[1:12:18] Because it's what we play. But to your point, this, this is
[1:12:22] a low margin sport, right? This, this is a low, there's a
[1:12:24] low margin sport. So if they score on two out of
[1:12:28] their four big chances and we score on one out of five of our
[1:12:30] big chances, guess what? We lost 21, right?
[1:12:33] Like we have more big chances. Just yeah, I mean, that was
[1:12:40] glad, you know, like we kind of tried that million against
[1:12:45] Juventus still, right? That we always rely on that.
[1:12:49] It's mostly of, yes, chance conversion.
[1:12:53] I think chance conversion was way more important against
[1:12:56] Juventus than Barcelona due to the players fatigue and rest.
[1:13:00] I don't see Barcelona being able to contain this team at point.
[1:13:04] So they're going to give them up at consistent basis.
[1:13:07] So I don't worry about being outscored because they're
[1:13:10] clinical and they're not. But my worry is the fact that
[1:13:18] are they going to claw off like we saw against Yuva, we saw
[1:13:23] against Hitafe there's a clock off period with the same.
[1:13:27] Are they going to clock off? Is the fatigue going to hit
[1:13:31] Because they have had to play such 2 gruelling matches to get
[1:13:35] to this. Is that going to hit?
[1:13:37] Then what's the Plan B if that does it?
[1:13:40] Because sometimes it seem that the Plan B is basically
[1:13:43] substitutions and you can't make a substitution on 30th minute.
[1:13:48] So are you going to give up the game there and hope to be alive
[1:13:51] by the whole time? There are a lot of small things
[1:13:55] that I do take into consideration when I predict an
[1:13:58] all classical or I think about an all classical.
[1:14:02] This is, I don't know, like this is the most confident I've felt
[1:14:06] since Jarvis Barcelona. It's not a long time ago, but
[1:14:10] they're just as that they're not good.
[1:14:16] For example, like here, I'm going to put have you described
[1:14:21] them? I was like, oh, wow.
[1:14:24] And peak Brazil in here. Like they're not that.
[1:14:28] Like they make a lot of simple mistakes, a lot of mistakes
[1:14:32] which often lead to really bad rates.
[1:14:36] Naturally, I'm going to say this this season, as said it last
[1:14:40] season, they're not that great of a team.
[1:14:43] That is the truth. They are they have glaring
[1:14:47] weaknesses which can easily be exploited and Madrid should and
[1:14:53] could have exploited last year. What Angelotti decided to do was
[1:14:57] a completely different thing. Let's keep things in mind.
[1:15:00] I'm all in for talking about mentality.
[1:15:02] You got out coached on the games and that's the truth.
[1:15:06] You got out coached because you simply did not want to take that
[1:15:12] game on head on. And we saw cultural complaining
[1:15:16] about it. We saw a lot of players
[1:15:18] complaining about the fact of how we were approaching the
[1:15:20] games. This season is completely
[1:15:22] different. This season is a team that is
[1:15:25] going out there to match team 5050 in every game.
[1:15:29] Then we Madrino didn't come out, but it was a 5050 decision and
[1:15:34] that's what I like. I like the fact that.
[1:15:36] Game right got down to nil and fought back 22 right.
[1:15:38] It was a brand new game. I mean we.
[1:15:42] Had a chance. It's just that the margins, are
[1:15:49] we actually going to be the team that was like last season on the
[1:15:54] first game where we're dominating for 60 minutes and
[1:15:59] Mbappe, as you guys said, broke the record.
[1:16:01] But let's keep in mind he also missed 2 only ones on top of it.
[1:16:05] Kamalinda had that chance. Like we could have finished that
[1:16:09] game way before they scored. But fatigue extent at that
[1:16:16] point, you need to make sure that you have a Plan B.
[1:16:18] You need a Plan B. It's not the right approach
[1:16:21] without Plan B. It is prediction time.
[1:16:26] Xavier, I will start with you. What happens on Sunday?
[1:16:30] 32 win. Hala Madrid Alicante, what say
[1:16:35] you? High scoring M2 nil.
[1:16:40] Look at that. Just to be different because I
[1:16:42] was going to go 3/2 as well. I will say Madrid 31.
[1:16:47] All right, folks. Oh, OK.
[1:16:50] So I'm the only clean St. guy? You're the only yeah,
[1:16:55] absolutely. I just, I think they're gonna I
[1:16:57] mean, listen, I just I I'm worried.
[1:17:00] Listen, I'm on a PTSD from last year.
[1:17:02] I don't know, but I'm like I made.
[1:17:04] M13 every game last season against them.
[1:17:07] So yeah, I need to see it first. All right folks, on Sunday.
[1:17:14] I mean they went from letting 4 to having a clean sheet.
[1:17:17] So how about our Verza and? They kept the clean sheet
[1:17:20] though, but they kept them. I would love it.
[1:17:23] Listen, nothing would make me happier than, you know, someone
[1:17:26] said this in the bathroom. I don't remember where, but it's
[1:17:27] like when they play us, they're down to try to like embarrass
[1:17:31] us, like 5 or 6 or 7 nil, right? That's just how they play.
[1:17:33] Whereas we're happy to win 3, two or two, one or one nil or
[1:17:36] whatever. I would just like for once, if
[1:17:38] that's if we have that in US, fucking just embarrass these MF
[1:17:42] first. Just just one.
[1:17:43] Just one. Time not blame Carlo.
[1:17:45] Blame Carlo for telling the ref to blow the whistle.
[1:17:48] Never forget we had the chance to do it.
[1:17:50] Carlo Ref. Just do it.
[1:17:54] Just just make these kool aids feel like dog shit.
[1:17:56] Just do it just. Really, it was like if you were
[1:17:59] watching NBA game one or or night one, it was Houston.
[1:18:02] It was the Houston Rockets against OK, CKD has no time outs
[1:18:05] left. He's just sitting there with the
[1:18:06] ball. That was.
[1:18:08] Carlo in the 93rd minute, but we're about to score a sixth
[1:18:11] goal in Barcelona to the side. Rep Like Carlo, what are you
[1:18:14] doing? What are you doing?
[1:18:18] We'll see what happens Sunday, folks.
[1:18:20] As always, thank you all for tuning in.
[1:18:22] Please like this video, subscribe to the channel, share
[1:18:25] it with your friends. If you want the audio only
[1:18:27] version tomorrow because you want to dive back into some of
[1:18:29] the tactical stuff, we're on Apple and Spotify so you can
[1:18:32] hear that. And until Sunday, take care
[1:18:35] guys. Bye.

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