# Arsenal Postgame

An episode of [The Real Deal: A Real Madrid Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1807821669), 16 Apr 2025, 1 h 10 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/103607aa8/podcast/play/101394357/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-3-16%2F398530597-44100-2-6fc6cc5122426.mp3

Jarod Hector joins Siddharth Ramsundar in the aftermath of Real Madrid's loss to Arsenal to talk about Real Madrid's direction and tactical flaws this season, stats behind the team's successes, Ancelotti's struggles to give the team structure that helps them, Jude Bellingham's position, the team's inability to replace Toni Kroos, what needs to change at the club going forward, and a whole lot more.

## Transcript

[1:03] Hello everyone, welcome to the Real deal on our new YouTube
[1:07] channel. Just going over a sad day, the
[1:11] end of our Champions League season and feels like an end of
[1:14] an era as we got cooked by Arsenal, players went out,
[1:17] fought hard but it didn't matter.
[1:21] Gerard. Hector joins me from True Hoop
[1:23] and Madridista. Welcome, Gerard.
[1:27] Kind of a lot of lost for words here.
[1:28] How are you doing? You know, in, in so many ways
[1:32] I'm fine because this is what I expected.
[1:35] I, I know a lot of Madridistas had the idea of Ramanthada in
[1:40] their head because of all the stuff we've done in the past,
[1:43] etcetera. But I didn't have that in my
[1:46] head. I saw how this Arsenal team
[1:49] plays, not just against us, but I'd, I'd watch the feel of out
[1:51] of them during the season and, and during Champions League.
[1:55] And they're just extremely tactically disciplined
[1:58] defensively. And we as a club, attacking wise
[2:02] have not played up to our potential.
[2:05] And so I was like, that's not a good combination for, for a
[2:09] comeback, right? We're 'cause we're gonna need
[2:11] mistakes by them and we're gonna have to put away every one of
[2:14] our chances. Well, one, we didn't even have
[2:15] many chances there, so there's that.
[2:17] And two, they made one mistake and that's the one that Biddy
[2:20] scored on right over the, over the course of two legs.
[2:23] And so I, I, that wasn't something that that I thought
[2:26] was going to happen. And so really now my focus is on
[2:30] just some stuff that happened during the game, what some
[2:32] certain players were doing. And what does this mean for this
[2:35] team going forward? Because I also believe that not
[2:38] only are we clearly we're out. So Champions League is over.
[2:40] I don't think we're going to win the league either.
[2:42] And Copa del Rey, I mean, look, I know Barsa's like everyone's
[2:46] like Barsa's on fumes. Barsa's on fumes.
[2:48] They might be, but I'm telling you like something.
[2:51] They find extra reserves when they see us this season and so I
[2:57] I don't think that Copa del Rey finals going to be pretty
[2:59] either. It's also just a fact, like fact
[3:02] that we're going up against a more organized team.
[3:05] Barcelona know what they want to do before they get out onto the
[3:08] field. They don't have to read and
[3:09] react. When they make their attacking
[3:11] runs. They're overwhelming you.
[3:14] When they intend to force mistakes, they force mistakes.
[3:17] We don't have that. We don't have a way to create
[3:19] danger this season. I think what stood out today was
[3:24] just how bad our offense was. It's it's kind of felt this way
[3:27] all season. But we're we're like, it feels
[3:30] like a little kid who doesn't know how to pass the ball in
[3:33] FIFA picked up the controller and just spammed the ball to
[3:36] Vinnie and Mbappe like he was playing with the sticks.
[3:38] That's what it's felt like all season and some games like the
[3:41] kid is so good with the skills and he just shoots and he goes
[3:44] in and you're like, wow, this is like a FIFA team.
[3:47] And then reality hit today. And I think all season the
[3:50] promise of being able to maybe get through a tie like this is
[3:54] all that kept us going. But the signs have been there
[3:56] all year. You know, some years you're
[3:59] you're surprised by the team that you you think maybe they
[4:02] don't have it, maybe they have it.
[4:03] They surprise you. And this year we were surprised
[4:05] just in the bad way where there was nothing in the tank, there
[4:09] was nothing extra we didn't know.
[4:11] Like all the tactical ineptitude did fail.
[4:15] Like it's just sad seeing a collection of great players
[4:19] hamstrung like this, right? Yeah, I think that's the biggest
[4:21] thing you hit the nail on the head is that this is not a team,
[4:25] said. This is a collection of
[4:26] individuals. And you see it particularly when
[4:29] we're out of possession, right, Because there is no cohesiveness
[4:32] to anything. They do literally nothing when
[4:35] you watch the best teams in the world when they press, when
[4:41] they're on defense, whether it's whether they're a highline where
[4:43] they're a mid block, low block, everyone moves In Sync and knows
[4:47] what their partner and everybody else is doing.
[4:49] Real major have no idea. Is Vinny going to press high is
[4:52] about I don't know is you. Nobody knows because if you are
[4:56] disciplined when one player goes up and presses the goalkeeper
[5:00] right, other lanes and avenues are shut off by your team
[5:04] because they know how to Rd. That never happened.
[5:06] So how many times have we seen this year where balls just
[5:09] easily come out of the back? Like fly through 2 lines of
[5:13] defense and you're like what? It's just like, I mean it's
[5:15] literally like 8 and under kids on US right against like grown
[5:18] men. It's just like 2 passes whoop
[5:20] and we're and we're done. And it's like guys, we we cannot
[5:22] win that way. And you know, we talked about on
[5:25] the last show, this idea of, you know, letting the guys play and
[5:30] have freedom is great when it works, when it doesn't, this is
[5:33] what you, this is what you have. And when the players, the
[5:36] players lack discipline, Sid, and you cannot win at the
[5:40] highest level, I don't think anymore without true discipline.
[5:44] Again, I go back to last year and last year we were able to
[5:49] have better discipline in moments, right?
[5:52] But there were there were games where it was like, oh, we're a
[5:54] little we're a little sketchy, not out of control here, right?
[5:57] But we really got lucky and Lunan had a Courtois S season
[6:00] last year, right? Like he saved us in many, many
[6:03] games. And I think again, to your
[6:05] point, a team that is has this many talented individuals, we as
[6:09] an organization have to find a way to get them to feel free,
[6:14] but play well enough to that to the, to a standard that a team
[6:18] of this caliber should be playing.
[6:19] Look, it's OK. I'm, I would be, I would have
[6:22] been fine if we lost to Arsenal or whatever.
[6:24] But like this, that is not worthy of a club of Real Madrid
[6:30] standards. The way they lost these these
[6:32] 2000, the way they played all season really has not been
[6:34] worthy of a club of Real Madrid standards.
[6:37] Yeah, definitely. And I mean we let's go over both
[6:39] sides of the ball just I think cuz defense is recurring issues
[6:43] we've seen every single year. Offense I think is mostly new
[6:46] issues that have been exacerbated this year since Cruz
[6:50] left. So defense, yeah, like, like you
[6:53] said, when we press, it's either like a high man to man press
[6:57] where everyone has to be on their man and you can't miss or,
[7:02] and that we don't really bust it out too often.
[7:04] We don't train it. So it's not like an Arsenal or
[7:07] City press where they have precalculated like how to
[7:11] position their men. They know like, OK, they have a
[7:14] back four or because ultimately when you press, your goalie's
[7:17] not going to press. And if the other goalie gets
[7:19] involved, you are playing 10 versus 11.
[7:21] So you have a trade off somewhere.
[7:22] And teams like Arsenal, Liverpool, Man City at their
[7:26] best, they'll they'll know like, OK, we're going to leave.
[7:29] Like they're going to pick a guy, decide he's a spare man.
[7:32] They're going to decide these are the scenarios where we kind
[7:35] of let him receive it. Or maybe they're going to decide
[7:37] to close down and leave someone open on the far side where you
[7:40] have to exist. So they're deciding in advance.
[7:43] For us, it's like when we decide to press, we're just going man
[7:46] to man, which which is fine. A man to man press is effective,
[7:49] but no team that presses all season does man to man all
[7:52] season. Like like Arsenal, they they go
[7:54] 3V4 sometimes they'll, they'll have calculated trade off.
[7:57] So when we're not going man to man, we're disjointed where
[8:00] Vinnie and Jude press and and Bapi's standing around.
[8:04] Those really pissed me off because it's like, dude, that
[8:06] Sprint you did your, your body is never getting that Sprint
[8:09] back and it's wasted. Like you're, you're never
[8:11] getting that back. You're not getting younger.
[8:13] Sprinting's hard. Like I, I, I feel the stress on
[8:17] the body it puts and you never want to waste sprinting.
[8:20] So I think that's the biggest inefficiency here.
[8:23] Now this. But this has been the case every
[8:25] year. Like our office was just good
[8:26] enough to survive it last year. Courtois was ridiculous in the
[8:30] final, but Leipzig almost took us out.
[8:32] Lunan had to play out of his mind.
[8:35] And Rahim and a Galazzo right to save us like.
[8:39] Yeah. And I mean, this is like
[8:40] Courtois also had to like go crazy in the four nil before we
[8:43] went down 4 nil against city two years ago.
[8:46] Courtois saved us three years ago.
[8:49] Like that's not how it's supposed to go.
[8:51] I mean, even if like even if you say that's fine, I guess like
[8:57] that's where the offense comes in.
[8:58] Even if you say you got away with it, that's one thing.
[9:00] And two, the expected goals is what I keep coming back to.
[9:04] It was so sustainable. Why has no other team like the
[9:07] in Champions League history? Why don't teams just go and win
[9:10] that way? Why aren't they all like setting
[9:12] up in these poorest blocks? They're goalie making five saves
[9:15] and there's Tri attacker goes and wins it.
[9:16] Why didn't Man City do that and just win it?
[9:18] Like because it's not, it's not repeatable.
[9:21] Like it's not like a goalie, you you signed the best goalkeeper
[9:25] in the world, but you don't plan for them to have to play the
[9:27] best games of their career to right.
[9:29] Correct. Yeah, that that that's the idea.
[9:31] And I think again, that's what Madrid falls back on is that,
[9:35] well, we have the best goalkeeper, we have the best
[9:37] attackers with it. So they'll just figure it out.
[9:38] And it's like sometimes they can, but again, against well
[9:42] disciplined sides they can. And you talked about.
[9:44] So I want to bring to the offensive side of the game now
[9:47] you know, my podcast partner true Chris David Thorpe, the
[9:50] Godfather player development. He works and helps all of your
[9:54] favorite basketball players get better at their current game.
[9:57] And one of the things he likes to say is about the difference
[10:00] in in levels of players. He's like college players play
[10:02] the game, pros read the game. And when I'm watching Real
[10:06] Madrid, I just feel like said, we don't have enough players who
[10:12] read the game well and who also have the corresponding skill set
[10:18] to problem solve what the game is asking from them.
[10:23] And I don't know how you get better at that other than
[10:29] development and just more reps and you don't having that,
[10:33] having that bread and having the right kind of player profiles.
[10:35] But I feel like too often players, especially when we're
[10:40] trying to build up phase, they pre programmed in their head
[10:43] where they're going to pass the ball.
[10:44] And I'm like, guys, you, you have to have that ability to
[10:49] have Paul Zoellick we've talked about before in the past said,
[10:51] and now I'd be creative enough and skilled enough to pull off a
[10:54] different kind of pass. Now I know I'm asking for a lot,
[10:58] but to me, the world's best players should be able to do
[11:01] that. And for whatever reason, we
[11:04] don't have that. And yes, Cruz is a big part of
[11:07] that because he would get the ball.
[11:08] And we we talked about it last year, said when in pressure
[11:11] games and tight games, everybody just give it to just give it to
[11:13] Cruz, right? Because he would just slow it
[11:16] down and figure it out, right? And it's the same idea here.
[11:19] Guys are so nervous of getting the ball pinched off them or
[11:21] whatever. They're like, you know, hot
[11:23] potato, get off my feet, get off my feet.
[11:25] And it's like, that's not you're not helping yourself long term
[11:29] and your confidence and you're not developing.
[11:32] And again, it's always spam it to Vinnie, spam it to Rodrigo,
[11:35] Killian, drop deep and you guys make something happen.
[11:38] And I'm like that again against the best teams, which is what we
[11:42] phase in Arsenal today. From a tactical defensive
[11:44] standpoint, you have nothing. I mean, Sid, we had one chance
[11:47] to enter a chance second or I guess the Mbappe chance with the
[11:51] penalty, but he didn't like get his foot on the ball then like
[11:53] trying to think what were our actual offensive chances.
[11:58] Well, today, today was pretty bad.
[12:01] And I mean, I think today was really bad.
[12:03] I guess there were two things. We're not controlling it and
[12:06] we're also resorting to. I felt like a lot of times when
[12:09] we had a half chance, we just crossed it and there's nobody to
[12:12] head the ball. Like two things really pissed me
[12:16] off from Fede. One, yeah, like when he gets the
[12:18] ball against the block, it feels like he's deciding what to do so
[12:22] far in advance that the defense knows or he's like deciding on
[12:27] the spot in a way where the defense reacts like it's it's
[12:29] the opposite of Cruz, where if he had made-up his mind, the
[12:32] defense knew too, and they couldn't stop him from getting
[12:34] there. If he hadn't made-up his mind,
[12:36] it's because he could throw the defense off.
[12:38] And so none of that is there. It also feels like if the
[12:42] defense wants to shade the season a wave, like if they if
[12:46] they're like, OK, we don't want Jude to get the ball, we're
[12:48] going to shade towards him. We never access Jude then like
[12:51] we're, we're just never, we're afraid to play through the
[12:55] press. It's like the press angles
[12:57] itself in a certain way. The ball goes around and we
[12:59] dodge them. Whereas with Cruz, they could
[13:01] angle their press in the right way.
[13:03] And even then we play right through it.
[13:06] So that's missing. And I, I just don't get why
[13:08] they're crossing it. Like in October, I got it.
[13:11] I'm like, all right, guys, it's October.
[13:12] You have Mbappe who's out of form.
[13:15] You guys are nervous. You're playing too fast.
[13:17] Your coach isn't like the type to go and figure this out,
[13:20] which, you know, that caveat was there in October, too.
[13:23] But I'm like, you know, you probably see this, right?
[13:25] And I still don't get what they're doing now.
[13:27] And there was just one sequence. It was like a 20 pass sequence,
[13:31] 15. Betty gets the ball at like
[13:33] deep, deep on the right side of the like, not in crossing
[13:37] vicinity, and he just plays an early cross.
[13:39] I'm like, who's that for, dude? Vinicius, Like Vinicius Ronaldo,
[13:42] who's like who's like 5-5? Erin Rodrigo, like who?
[13:47] Who's the one? But I think you're right.
[13:50] There's it. Honestly, I've been just
[13:52] throwing it in the crossing into the box, hoping some magic
[13:55] happens, hoping a lucky bounce happens and clicks on somebody
[13:58] and it falls to someone, right? That's honestly what I think
[14:00] they're doing because there's no way when you're coming up in
[14:02] your who, who is going, Jude is the only person who might get
[14:06] ahead on it. And if he's, I mean, you can see
[14:09] if he's time to run or not. If he's not there, you know he's
[14:11] not getting it. I think it's just hope that
[14:13] someone mistimes it from the defense and we get it to fall at
[14:16] our feet and we get lucky. Like that's not a strategy.
[14:19] Guys hope. Hoping for something to happen
[14:21] is not a strategy. And again, for a team of this
[14:24] caliber with the resources that it has, the type of football
[14:29] they play and not having a plan, to me it's just that's not up to
[14:33] the standard of a club like this.
[14:34] It's just not. So I think what happened was
[14:38] like, I think what we're seeing is just a cascade of a lot of
[14:41] random things kind of bouncing into accidental success.
[14:45] And so we have this one year that's a result of that.
[14:49] What I mean is like 2021 when 20/20/21, Zidane's last season,
[14:56] it's funny because the complaints were, oh, we're
[14:58] boring, we're not playing good football, we cross it too much.
[15:00] Well, that all looks beautiful now.
[15:02] Like because sustained possession, no good attackers
[15:04] like Vinnie wasn't who he is now.
[15:07] You could argue Carlo helped facilitate that, but that's
[15:09] besides the point back then, like 84 points with a team that
[15:12] really had nobody to help Benzema back then, like very
[15:16] good structured possession and too much crossing was to
[15:19] complain. And I just think like now, look,
[15:21] this that same team the first year after he left, the build up
[15:25] got way worse. Like I think that's what that's
[15:28] the thing people need to realize.
[15:29] Like we won in spite of tactical deterioration.
[15:32] And that obviously leads you to wonder what do tactics mean?
[15:36] And I think on some level people at the club know that tactics
[15:41] don't matter as much all the time because they've seen it
[15:44] first hand. But I think it's, it's been the
[15:46] kind of players you have, right? Yes, Benzema was a great goal
[15:49] scorer, but he's also a great creator.
[15:51] Like as a, as a nine, right? Like and I, who is our nine
[15:54] creator? And Bobby has potential, but
[15:58] he's never been like that. Like like and he's, he's shown
[16:01] bursts of that. But Benzema was that for years.
[16:05] And so and that's OK, I don't need because I expect Killian to
[16:09] be a monster finisher, right? He hasn't been that this year,
[16:14] Sid, right? Look, he's having a fine season,
[16:15] 33 combined goals, I think in all competitions fine.
[16:18] But you know, the the Cristiano Ronaldo comparisons, like peak
[16:23] Cristiano puts away every single chance and we're not right.
[16:29] And so you know about margins. So if you want to play this
[16:32] style where it's who cares about tactics spam Binny, spam
[16:35] Killian, spam Rodrigo, fine. Everyone must be clinical and
[16:40] finishing at the upper echelon of their ability.
[16:42] And we have, I mean, what? Everybody was subpar this year.
[16:46] Everybody's subpar. Yeah.
[16:53] We lost him momentarily. I'm back, I don't my phone.
[16:58] Something my phone rang. Yeah, my phone.
[17:02] Apologies, just decided to connect to my Mac.
[17:06] Always the worst when that happens.
[17:07] There we go. Yeah, no.
[17:09] It's just sad technology. It's just sad.
[17:12] I'm like, dude, you're just sitting there.
[17:13] I didn't ask you to do anything. You just decided to screw up my
[17:15] street. And but, but yeah, I mean,
[17:21] things got to be better. But ultimately what I mean is
[17:24] Carlo came in when expectations were lower around the club.
[17:27] Like it was a we don't have money.
[17:30] We're building this stadium that's going to make us money
[17:33] with concerts, which we can't host anymore.
[17:37] If you've heard about all that, like the they constructed the
[17:39] stadium to be able to host concerts and the the concerts at
[17:44] the stadium are now not being able to be held.
[17:48] But back then expectations were low.
[17:51] They were, they were just not expected to do well.
[17:55] Carlo was seen as like, like it was almost seen as we don't have
[17:58] a squad that can win much. We need to bring a guy who can
[18:01] just kind of hold us over like in a period of low expectations.
[18:06] And Carlo at that point was a Unicorn in the sense that like,
[18:09] nobody else wanted him. He'd succeeded here before.
[18:14] He actually when he signed like he he was the exact type of
[18:18] opposite change up to Zidane. You want like the curveball to
[18:21] Zidane's fastball, just very different.
[18:23] He is exactly the opposite of doesn't care about build up,
[18:26] which we got, likes playing faster which really benefited
[18:29] the young guys like Vinicius and you could say made us
[18:33] unpredictable which is why we were like hit teams the way we
[18:35] did in the Champions League that year.
[18:36] And we over a shot expectations that he won two for the
[18:41] Champions Leagues, right? Like so I mean, and then when
[18:44] that happens, everybody's like, well, wait a minute and we're
[18:47] just fine as right. It fools you into thinking we're
[18:50] just fine the way we are. But it's like, no, it's not
[18:52] replicable. As you said, like, look, because
[18:55] we can't do it this year. And here's this is something
[18:57] that I said to you last year before it was official that we
[19:01] were signing in Bop AI was like, is this the best way to spend
[19:05] $100 million or whatever the the signing bonus was and all that?
[19:09] Because I, you know me, I'm always looking at age of players
[19:12] and I'm like, no, our backline is getting kind of old.
[19:13] We have some injuries back there, right?
[19:16] Can we sign some younger players who have a chance to be really
[19:20] good and like, can we get some more depth in the midfield,
[19:23] right? Again, if this team this year
[19:27] had no and Bafe, but we had younger developed back line,
[19:33] right, maybe, maybe we got maybe we got Lenny Euro and maybe we
[19:36] got, I don't know, some other some other left back.
[19:41] And then maybe we got a, you know, a #2 central midfielder,
[19:46] right? Like so to play with or with
[19:50] Sabias or with you many as ideal like Sabias.
[19:52] Wouldn't hypothetical cruise replacement, Yes.
[19:55] Would we be better than we are right now?
[20:00] So there it's tricky because the main thing you wonder is like,
[20:07] can Jude carry us when Minnie's out like last year?
[20:10] So let's just I would, I would just start there.
[20:12] Let's because you that's where I think people need to realize how
[20:15] many different things like happened in outlier fashion to
[20:18] get us wherever it is. But this is 1.
[20:20] So firstly, you're assuming that Jude can replicate that, which
[20:24] was one of the craziest outlier seasons in football history.
[20:27] He himself may not replicate it. And if I pull up the stats now
[20:31] it would probably sound kind of sad to be honest.
[20:33] Like he scored a lot. I'm pretty sure he's nowhere
[20:36] near the goal to XG region last year.
[20:38] I'm definitely. Not right.
[20:40] And so okay, let's say Jude does that.
[20:43] Yes, having yes, we probably are if Jude does that only on the
[20:47] basis that we have someone to control games because that's
[20:50] like this team has two toddler issues.
[20:52] They're crossing the ball with the guys who can't head it.
[20:54] They're dribbling everywhere instead of trying to play
[20:56] together on the ground and they can't because like before it was
[21:01] like Cruz passes it, then Vinny and Rodrigo do a dance and if
[21:04] their dance doesn't work, they can even pass it back.
[21:06] Now it's like Fede releases it. They do a dance and if the dance
[21:09] doesn't work, God damn it, I'm frustrated.
[21:11] I'm taking it myself. Oh, we lost the ball.
[21:13] Oh, I'm going to try and press myself.
[21:14] Oh, the rest of us, we're not pressing.
[21:16] We're disconnected. And that's the whole season.
[21:18] There is no like keeping the ball.
[21:20] So yes, I think if you had a medical cruise replacement,
[21:23] here's the problem. They don't, those don't like
[21:27] grow on trees usually and so usually what happens is you get
[21:31] players who are 7080% is good and the coach fills in the rest
[21:34] Now like our players aren't so bad that they should like like 2
[21:41] and many has improved as the season went on.
[21:43] Where was this start? It's because he improved by
[21:45] accident. They're not trying to go and
[21:46] work things out like, you know what I mean?
[21:49] He improved by accident. Like the coaching staff, even if
[21:53] like they know he needs to control games, I feel like when
[21:55] they actually go practice it, they do the opposite of what
[21:58] needs to happen. So whatever happened yet you
[21:59] approved by accident? Yeah, that's the other question,
[22:03] right, Is that given the calendar, the fixture schedule
[22:07] and the amount of matches that that every club plays, I wonder
[22:12] what do we actually do in training.
[22:15] And I don't know that it's much tactically, Sid, if I'm, if I'm
[22:17] being perfectly honest, because it certainly doesn't show up on
[22:20] match day, right. And so, you know, is the summer
[22:26] when you're building and you're in your training, is that the
[22:28] time when you put it in your right?
[22:30] Because that's what Barcelona did, right.
[22:32] Flick installed this system in the summer, got them set right,
[22:35] because they don't the way they play, they don't they don't
[22:37] train hard because they can't right.
[22:39] Like now, at this point of the season, like all of that was
[22:42] done pre season and to get to ready for now, because of the
[22:44] style they play, there's no way they go hard during the week
[22:47] because it's impossible. They'd be dead, right.
[22:49] It's more fine tuning, right? So, and it's now it's so it's
[22:52] all second hand, second hand to them.
[22:53] Like what is it that we actually do?
[22:55] We actually do one thing. We actually do, I can tell you
[22:59] for sure, we do actually go kind of hard in there.
[23:02] Carlo, for better or worse. Now I don't want to take a
[23:05] stance on it, but I think Pepe said in 2014 that Carlo's
[23:09] training sessions actually winded the squad more than
[23:11] Mourinho's. Mourinho was short and sweet 90
[23:14] minutes. It's his, it's known like that's
[23:16] why they would start season so well, always have more in the
[23:19] tank. It was like very like game like
[23:22] training sessions, just short. And I think the up till then the
[23:25] norm was almost 345 hours like drawn out.
[23:28] And he changed that. And then Carlo comes back and he
[23:31] has them doing jogs after the training sessions.
[23:34] They weren't used to that. And then we know that Antonio
[23:37] Pintas is involved and we know that like, I think somewhere
[23:41] between the mythology and the reality of how things played
[23:43] out, I really do think we became a conditioning centric like
[23:48] training regime on some level. Like, and I mean, I don't know
[23:52] if I'm going straw man here, but I do think it's a lot of
[23:55] unstructured training, to be frank.
[23:56] Like I think it's a lot of like, hey, three team possession, like
[24:00] 3 aside, like three team, like three goals, like go kick it,
[24:04] win the ball like. I think.
[24:06] But I think you're right. But here's the thing right, like
[24:10] in the Champions League specifically, I I I'd have to
[24:12] look at what La Liga says, like I think the bottom 6, they're
[24:17] five realm Richard players in total distance covered in the
[24:20] Champions League. Like that doesn't sound like a
[24:22] team that is physically fit right now.
[24:25] It maybe they are and they just don't feel like running right.
[24:28] And you know, if Papay and and Vinicius are the two of are two
[24:32] of the bod that are that are in that are it that are in there
[24:35] right, Like I just something is just not clicking.
[24:39] There is there's a level of of desire and want to out of
[24:46] possession that are attacking group just doesn't have.
[24:49] I mean Jude does besides Jude and I mean Sid, we saw game one,
[24:54] the Atlanta game in the UEFA Super Cup at halftime where
[24:59] Judas like, yo, you guys got to finish chances because this
[25:02] running is effing ridiculous, right?
[25:05] Like that was Game 1. He was saying that not I mean
[25:10] that should have been red flag number one to everybody.
[25:12] That's for the season. Like you.
[25:14] I could see like OK, over the over the course of the season
[25:17] they start, they get worse in terms of their distance covered.
[25:19] They were bad from jump. Yeah, totally.
[25:25] And I want to bring up the XG real quick.
[25:29] I'm going to go to understat, not my preference, but it's the
[25:32] fastest for the sake of the stream 2425.
[25:35] We are at 61 expected points through 31 games this season and
[25:43] I just got to pull up last season through 31 games.
[25:46] So right now through April 18th last 363.9, I'm telling like we
[25:56] we really so we're going into the season with almost the
[25:59] identical and expected points significant because it's it
[26:03] takes expected goals simulates the game.
[26:05] So if you're up like you win the game 21 on XG, maybe you get 1.9
[26:10] expected points or something like that.
[26:12] Like it, it simulates it based on the chances.
[26:16] So we're we're slightly worse than the same point last season
[26:19] in the league from an underlying perspective.
[26:22] So here's the thing Gerard, that makes it silly.
[26:26] Last season, according to the good friends over at Statsbomb
[26:30] was the largest over performance of expected goals in their
[26:33] database ever. And guess what, before that, the
[26:37] craziest season in the XG database was also ours, 2022.
[26:42] And I always mention this to people, but if you do not
[26:44] understand this exact order that it is the highest in the
[26:47] database from a proprietary company that works with these
[26:49] goddamn teams, that's nicer than the ones out here.
[26:52] And even if you ranked Football Reference under stat, I'm sure
[26:55] we'd be high up in terms of our performance.
[26:59] So we had Jude going crazy, Cortua having the best run of
[27:02] any goalkeeper you've probably ever seen.
[27:05] Like I've seen goalies be great, Manuel Noyer at his best.
[27:09] I don't know. I can't say Cortua's like
[27:10] greater, but in terms of on the biggest stage delivering, I
[27:16] haven't seen anyone have to do it more often.
[27:18] Firstly because our defense sucks and then he steps up like
[27:21] we won twice in a period where our defense sucked.
[27:23] Most teams don't even win 1 when their defense is good.
[27:27] No, no, listen. And to just to put a bow on on,
[27:31] on Sid's point about outperforming.
[27:33] I'm looking at the numbers again last year and it's just
[27:35] staggering, right? Like our XG last year was 68.8.
[27:39] We scored 87 goals well above our XG.
[27:43] Now here's the other part that that matters.
[27:46] Our expected goals allowed was 35.4.
[27:51] We only gave up 26 huge right? So both ways we we outperformed,
[27:58] right or outperformed and underperformed one right on, on,
[28:01] on, on the good end. And that was a that's a that's a
[28:04] huge reason why we won a double last year.
[28:06] Like I mean that right, That that's that is the reason,
[28:08] right? And this year we're at about
[28:11] we're at about our numbers, right?
[28:12] Well, no, no, shocking. We're second in the league.
[28:15] We got knocked out of the Champions League, right?
[28:16] Like it it. And so to this point, that
[28:19] ability to every year outperform your XG by 20 plus goals, that
[28:23] is not a sustainable thing. Like you cannot bank on doing
[28:26] that every year. It's not realistic and This is
[28:29] why we are where we are. Oh, you know, and if we really
[28:32] want to go deeper, I believe our underlying numbers were worse
[28:36] Carlos, first year than Xenon's last is my hypothesis.
[28:38] And if we pull it up, Real Madrid, eighty goals scored from
[28:43] 80 expected goals in 2022. Fine.
[28:46] And then 31 goals conceded, 45 XG consider so Courtois,
[28:52] Courtois man, that's ridiculous. That's like 30% dude, that's
[28:57] ridiculous. That means like you could score
[28:59] 3 every game and you only score 2 because of him.
[29:03] And and then we go so plus fourteen in one column neutral.
[29:09] I'm actually really surprised. I'm sure different models would
[29:11] would have us over performing. I'm shocked we created as much
[29:15] as we scored in the league that year.
[29:16] I would expect to be way above and then the year before we're
[29:20] at 67 goals from 57 XG, fine, we don't create anything.
[29:25] OK OK, never mind, that's up, let it go.
[29:28] We were at 67 goals from 65 XG, never mind and 28 goals conceded
[29:32] from 38. So I guess we got to give it to
[29:35] Carlo. 70 expected points versus OK, we got slightly better.
[29:43] A lot of it is still over performance though.
[29:45] If you really look at like, like most of it is over performance.
[29:49] We get slightly better as a team.
[29:50] We over perform a lot on both ends.
[29:53] But I mean, I don't want to take credit away from Carlo.
[29:55] I just mean, you know, for those of you who followed managing
[29:58] Madrid, Omar Vind and I were talking early in the 2122 season
[30:04] and he was just like, dude, this is awful.
[30:06] Like he ruined the build UPS. That's it.
[30:08] Like the private convos were basically like, dude, our build
[30:11] up is gone. Like we we don't even play as
[30:13] well as last season. Like Vinicius is just carrying
[30:15] us. So somehow we're here.
[30:16] That was the whole convo and the press was dumb like so it like
[30:22] we weren't going to do well pressing.
[30:24] We just happened to run into a weak league.
[30:26] The worst Barcelona in forever where like the first Barcelona
[30:28] team with Messi that's just straight up not a juggernaut.
[30:32] So, you know, you get lucky or well, that wasn't with Messi,
[30:35] never mind Messi. Was gone.
[30:36] He's already gone. He was on no first Barcelona
[30:39] team without Messi. You, you know, that's your year
[30:40] where you get to mess around and try things And like, we got this
[30:44] new dynamic where the Premier League is way harder than our
[30:46] league unless, like unless there's a title rival, our
[30:49] league is just a joke compared to the Premier League week to
[30:52] week. Yeah, I, I thought last year
[30:54] Barcelona was not great, but which is actually funny
[30:58] considering because it's basically the same exact team
[31:00] they had last year and they're way better this year.
[31:02] It's kind of a shot at Javi, but no, that's conversation for a
[31:05] different day. Athletico is a little maybe
[31:09] they're probably, but they're even if you look at them,
[31:11] they're probably even Toronto was better last year.
[31:13] Like the, the, the league I thought was a pretty good league
[31:16] last year. This year Barcelona's really
[31:19] good. Athletico is kind of down.
[31:21] We're not, we're down, right? It's just one of those weird
[31:24] things. Whereas I think in the in the
[31:25] Premier League, Liverpool's good Man City's down year, Arsenal's
[31:29] already out of the Premier League title race, they're not
[31:31] going to win it, right? So I just feel like Villa's
[31:33] having a good year. Nottingham Forest was for a
[31:36] while. I don't know where they are
[31:37] right now. You know, I think all these
[31:39] things, these leagues, things go cyclical, right?
[31:41] Like it's all, it's all up and down.
[31:45] But I think ultimately it goes back to what we've been saying
[31:47] about this squad, which is we struggle because we don't have
[31:53] an identity. We don't know who we are.
[31:56] And again, I said it before, I'll say it again, I don't want
[32:02] us. We don't need to be a PEP team
[32:04] or our Ted A-Team, like where you have a psycho who's
[32:06] literally telling you what to do every second of every single
[32:08] day. We don't need that.
[32:10] But we need some kind of structure that we can rely on.
[32:14] We have nothing to rely on, which means we are not connected
[32:18] as a unit, right? And you just, you can't win when
[32:21] you're not connected to the unit.
[32:22] Yeah, you can get lucky and do the like we did with the
[32:25] individual moments of brilliance.
[32:27] But for a team that fancies itself the best club in the
[32:29] world, which I believe that it is, to be consistent every year
[32:33] in the Champions League and in the league, you got to be better
[32:35] than this. And we're just, we're not right
[32:37] now. I I don't know what it's going
[32:39] to take. It's going to take coaching,
[32:41] obviously a different coach with a different plan and you know,
[32:43] some reinforcements from the board, obviously.
[32:46] You know, I've seen more Champions Leagues as a fan than
[32:50] the leagues. I always would point to how I'd
[32:52] seen a Champions League every other season.
[32:54] I've also seen like 2 whole champions leagues more than
[32:57] league titles. Can you?
[32:58] Who the hell can ever say that in football history like there
[33:02] has there no. No other teams.
[33:04] Yeah, in a 15 year stretch like this where you're you're winning
[33:08] three to four of each at minimum and you win straight up two more
[33:11] Champions Leagues. No other team yet.
[33:13] I mean, we've won as many as any team in their history, I guess
[33:17] over the last 10 years, 12. Years I love telling people
[33:20] because they're always like, oh, it's because you guys won them
[33:22] all in the 1940s. I'm like look take away every
[33:24] title we've won from 2000 prior to eliminate them.
[33:27] We still have the most Champions League of anybody else, so it
[33:29] doesn't matter. Like it's fine.
[33:31] Like we're still we still win more than and from that point on
[33:34] we've been to more semi finals than anybody, like more finals,
[33:37] like all the things like yeah, we're a good squad, but I think
[33:42] sometimes it like we rest not we but the club and the hierarchy
[33:48] rest too much on this. The kings of Europe.
[33:50] This is our competition. Like it doesn't belong to us,
[33:54] right? Like every year we have to fight
[33:56] for it, right? We did not fight well this year,
[33:58] which is why we don't have it and we're not going to get it
[34:00] right. Like we'll see what happens next
[34:02] year. And I think we need to approach
[34:06] squad and roster construction far differently than we have in
[34:09] the past couple years. No, I agree.
[34:11] They're resting on it. And I, I guess it's hard not to
[34:14] because when I started following, you could look at me
[34:17] and say the, the people who said it's all because of the 60s,
[34:20] unfortunately, they had a point. I was, I started falling in
[34:22] 12/13 and I'm like, wait, we really want five of these back
[34:25] then. And in the last 12 years,
[34:28] they've created a new myth and I'm so grateful to have lived
[34:31] it. It's, it's awesome.
[34:33] Like it's really but, but I will say that I guess the last few
[34:37] years you, you just start drinking your own Kool-aid
[34:39] because you're like, this team's not good and we won 22 is like
[34:43] just we shouldn't have won that year, man.
[34:45] No, comebacks were crazy. It was just bizarre, right?
[34:49] Like, and look, every team in every sport that wins a
[34:54] championship, there's an element of luck that plays into it.
[34:57] Like, now you have to be good enough for the luck to matter,
[35:00] right? I was just a joke.
[35:01] Like, listen, the Hornets could be the luckiest team in the
[35:03] world. They're still the Hornets don't
[35:05] matter, right? Like, you have to be good enough
[35:07] to take advantage of the luck, which Real Madrid is.
[35:09] But that year, you can't look at it and say it's because we were
[35:12] so much better. We should have been knocked out.
[35:15] And what, round of 16? Like, I mean, come on, like some
[35:19] things benefited and went well. And when that happens, Sid, and
[35:23] that's the history and the myth gets created.
[35:24] You believe in the hype, right? Think about it.
[35:27] What was the conversation all week?
[35:29] Ramon Tataram in the media like And listen to Arsenal's credit,
[35:33] none of those dudes believe they were like, whatever, bro, we're
[35:36] coming here to play because Arsenal's players knew we are a
[35:39] better team than they are. And we're if we play like a
[35:42] team, we will win. And they did right.
[35:45] They didn't look over awed by the stadium.
[35:47] There was no ghost coming out. Like, you know, I think I told
[35:50] you this before. Curt Schilling, famous pitcher
[35:55] when he's playing with the Boston Red Sox and they're
[35:57] making their comeback against the New York Yankees, the ALCS.
[36:01] He was asked by a reporter, you know, this pitching Game 7 on
[36:04] the road in Yankee Stadium. Are you worried about the
[36:06] mystique and aura of Yankee Stadium?
[36:08] He's like, I was thinking aura, those are dancers at a club.
[36:11] Like I'm not worried about that. Like I'm going to go out there
[36:13] and make my pitches and like, yeah, like, because guys, that
[36:17] stuff doesn't matter. You get on the pitch and you
[36:20] play. And the people who play the
[36:22] best, guess what happens? They tend to win more often than
[36:25] not, right? No, these ghosts come out again,
[36:28] where was? And it's just not me being anti
[36:31] Madrid. It's just me being realistic,
[36:32] right? Like it's all fun to have aura,
[36:35] like all these fun conversations and like emotion, but Sid and I
[36:39] like facts and data. Where was all the burnabout aura
[36:42] and magic tonight? I didn't see it.
[36:45] So does it? How does it work?
[36:46] It comes out only sometimes, like, right, Like what?
[36:50] What? How does somewhat of a button
[36:51] that controls it. OK, we need the magic now.
[36:53] Like there's no such thing as that.
[36:55] Like, you play well, you win, you put like shit, we lose.
[36:59] And this team has been playing like shit all year.
[37:01] We lost two games, two matches last year, we've already lost
[37:03] what, 12 this year, 13. I mean, come on.
[37:08] Yeah, I mean it it's it's a lot like 23 when we lost four nil.
[37:11] I was like, OK, but like I I remember going to that time
[37:15] saying like this isn't like last year city are good this year and
[37:17] we sucked. Like, I was very loud and clear
[37:19] about that. And like, it wasn't surprising.
[37:23] And I mean, if we want let's if we want to dissect that Bernabeu
[37:26] magic, I think that's why I was bringing up the Premier League,
[37:28] like the title, when it's like it all comes down to the
[37:32] physical differential. I mean, I might sound like a
[37:34] stupid nerd or even a psycho. You're.
[37:39] Right, like like Man City are wrapped up in the tightest title
[37:42] race, the second or joint tightest title race in Premier
[37:45] League history. The other one being 1819, the
[37:47] only two title races where any Premier League teams competed to
[37:50] above 90 points. Both went down to the final damn
[37:53] match day. Like those were brutal.
[37:55] That was their version of the Mourinho, Guardiola on title
[37:58] races. So they while they were in the
[38:00] middle of that, they came and played a phenomenal 85 minutes
[38:05] against US, 88 minutes that should have had them through.
[38:08] We we needed two goal line clearances and then we went in
[38:11] the air and to beat them, which was incredible.
[38:14] But like at that point, we have a young legs out there that
[38:18] haven't barely played all season against the City team that's
[38:21] been playing all year. Like and if you can't win those
[38:24] fifty 50s with these 99th percentile Cama Vingas and
[38:27] Chuomeni or well, not Chuomeni at that point, but Cama Vinga,
[38:30] you can't win your fifty 50s. At least then when you spend all
[38:33] season coasting, so to speak, offensively, then fine.
[38:37] But like, and then 23, the World Cup happened.
[38:39] They had no shot last year. Again, like you, you know, we're
[38:42] 9-10 days off going into the Man City tie and even then we don't
[38:46] take full advantage. We don't feel like we're
[38:48] physically better off. It feels like we kind of overrun
[38:50] ourselves. We get tired in the first leg,
[38:52] but I still think cumulatively I think that second leg for
[38:55] example, I don't think we do that if we don't have 9 days off
[38:58] randomly in. The middle, oh, no chance
[39:01] because once we Rodrigo score that early goal, Carlo went OK,
[39:04] park in the bus, everybody. And we we defended for 100 and
[39:07] billion minutes. Like, yeah, we have 10 days off.
[39:10] There's no way. I just look, this team again, is
[39:15] just not physically where it needs to be.
[39:18] And that's because we have a limited squad that Carlo only
[39:21] plays like 11 guys basically that he trusts.
[39:24] And for whatever reason, the the rest of the the depth is not
[39:27] there. And I, I think sometimes too
[39:29] said in terms of building the team beyond the Galacticos, who
[39:34] Florentino loves, he also loves like the next big thing that's
[39:38] like 15 or 16 years old, right? Like which is not a bad thing
[39:42] per SE, but when you are building a squad, you have to
[39:46] think because again, and isn't even a knock on Endrick either.
[39:49] Between Endrick and Killian was that 175,000,000 something like
[39:54] that. Killian, OK, he plays 33 goals.
[39:57] Endrick barely plays like. So again, I ask like, was that
[40:01] the right way to spend the money, right?
[40:04] Like Arta, like what are we doing there?
[40:07] Right? Like again, I just think that
[40:10] you have to have an eye, especially with the way the
[40:11] calendar is now. The fixture calendar is now.
[40:14] You need to literally field an A and AB squad like and and two
[40:19] squads that you think are legitimately good enough that
[40:21] you can go all right, we got the bottom of the league.
[40:24] There is no reason that our top guys have to play this game none
[40:28] whatsoever. Yet we can't even beat like an
[40:31] ace, right? Like, do you know what I mean?
[40:32] Like our best guys got to play against literally relegation
[40:35] teams. That is a problem for a squad of
[40:37] this caliber. And again, we, we, we have to be
[40:41] better there. And I don't know, look, look at
[40:43] Arsenal. Haverts is out.
[40:45] Who else like Gabrielle's gone. Who else are they missing?
[40:47] Sock was missing for a large part of the year.
[40:50] But with all that being said, why is it they're still able to
[40:53] be somewhat successful because they have a structure they fall
[40:56] back on, right? This is how we we do this thing,
[40:59] right? So, yeah, we're not going to
[41:01] score a ton because we have some limitations here.
[41:03] But one thing we're definitely going to do is we are going to
[41:06] shut off every possible scoring angle you have.
[41:09] And when you press high, because you got to come back at, we're
[41:12] going to beat you on the counter, right?
[41:14] Like, I mean, you may not like it and be boring, which again, I
[41:18] don't either. I also find it quite boring.
[41:21] But it works with what they have in front of them, right?
[41:26] We are not doing, I think, what is optimal with what we have
[41:30] because not everyone's optimized at at their full potential for a
[41:33] variety of reasons which we've discussed.
[41:36] Yeah, for sure. And I think a big thing is no
[41:44] matter who the coach is going forward, well, I guess, yeah,
[41:47] like, we're going to need someone who can head the ball.
[41:50] We're we're we're we definitely are.
[41:53] I I guess like, if there's an area, I sympathize.
[41:56] Like, you know, if Zidane was here he would also have problems
[42:00] with this, like I think. Most coaches would like too many
[42:02] 6 foot tall, right? He is, but he's a holding
[42:05] midfielder. I mean, I mean like you can't be
[42:08] relying on your true amenities and rudigers to step up into the
[42:11] box while you're. Playing right, right, because
[42:13] they they got to they got to they got to rely deep.
[42:15] So Jude six, he can head, but Jude also look and this is not a
[42:18] knock on Jude. Jude is phenomenal, arguably our
[42:21] best player. Would you say, Sid, that Jude is
[42:25] an elite athlete in the athletic measurements of zero to 60 speed
[42:31] and straight line vertical jump height?
[42:35] I think when you consider that he so that's the thing about
[42:39] Jude know when he's starting from a standing position in the
[42:42] box, but as a box crashing midfielder, one of the best
[42:45] ever, one of the best ever. So, so those exact cuz when
[42:48] you're a box crashing midfielder, it's it's I guess
[42:51] what I mean to say is maybe not zero to 60 plus vert, but when
[42:55] he has a little bit of a runway, his burn and speed are crazy.
[42:58] So that's why he's a box crashing midfielder.
[43:00] He's not Cristiano Ronaldo, but that's why he was so devastating
[43:04] with Hosalu and others because they were pinning guys and then
[43:07] he would arrive. He's arriving as the only guy
[43:10] who can do anything like it doesn't work.
[43:14] It's never going to work. So yeah, we that's where we need
[43:18] someone. I sympathize that.
[43:19] I think most coaches would have had some problems where teams
[43:23] would have been like, these guys just need to play ball, defeat
[43:25] this season with this type of personnel.
[43:27] I don't think like, Andrick's not tall enough ever where he's
[43:30] going to be some crazy aerial threat.
[43:32] And I he by the way, that touch he had to control the path from
[43:35] Vinnie was sweet. Like he just turned and shot and
[43:39] like it was a quick moment. Like, you know, he'll get better
[43:41] with that as he ages. But and I think he'll be a very
[43:43] good player for us. He's 18 years old, like, and
[43:46] it's going to be very hard for him to get the development
[43:49] minutes that he needs because, oh, shockable shocks.
[43:51] He plays behind and Bape and Benny.
[43:52] He's not going to get a whole lot of runs.
[43:54] So that's why I wonder was it the best signing?
[43:58] Because when is the time period where he's going to get the
[44:01] development he needs to get where he has to go.
[44:03] Well, that's where Florentino still I, I I think it was a good
[44:07] signing, but it very much comes from my insecurity about Qatar
[44:11] and Saudi and the purchasing power.
[44:13] It's like, and it's the same reason Carlos here, because
[44:16] Florentino's like, all right, we don't have money.
[44:18] We got to bunker down a few years.
[44:21] We got to keep signing guys, make sure we're in good.
[44:23] And now with the concert thing, like, dude, who knows?
[44:25] Like you might just be like, we're, you know, we don't, you
[44:28] know, like the squad is complete.
[44:34] I mean, maybe are are we? Here's a question.
[44:38] Are we rating the management of this club higher than it ought
[44:43] to be rated in so far as how is it that you decide you're going
[44:48] to do a multi billion dollar renovation of your stadium and
[44:51] you're going to host concerts and all these major things and
[44:53] you don't think about soundproof No one because look, I know how
[44:58] these things work. Is it Florentino isn't sitting
[45:01] on his throne by himself? And he says, I want to do this
[45:04] and everybody does it. There are meetings and planning,
[45:06] like a billion people talk about this stuff.
[45:09] No, no one thought about sound proofing.
[45:11] Or was it like, oh, can we get away with this and not spend the
[45:14] money on it? Like and if they did, wow, is
[45:17] that the height of mismanagement like?
[45:22] It's tricky. When I saw the reports, I'm
[45:25] inclined to feel somewhat sympathetic.
[45:27] It sounds like some new engineering thing.
[45:29] But yeah, I mean, if you're, if we're being real, like, yeah, no
[45:33] corporation that's spending so much on something like if you're
[45:36] by building a data center and you can't like run 30% of the
[45:40] computers because you screwed up how you built it, like you, you
[45:42] messed up as a tech company. Yeah, like you're like, you're
[45:45] over. Like what are we doing?
[45:47] Yeah, someone gets fired. Someones, many someones get
[45:52] fired. Like what are we doing?
[45:54] Totally. It's it's confusing.
[45:57] I, I definitely think that's a big problem.
[46:00] And you know, you know, sometimes you get lucky,
[46:03] sometimes you don't. We, we've gotten so lucky over
[46:05] the last few years. You get, you get blind spots,
[46:07] things happen and you know, imagine if we didn't win, this
[46:10] happened. That would have been.
[46:11] So bad. God listen.
[46:13] The only reason why it's not feeling like DEFCON one over
[46:16] there is because, well, we won the double last year, so it's
[46:18] fun like but again, should had we not and Carlo not won at the
[46:23] year he came back and it'd been what since the the the last, the
[46:25] the the third championship won in the three feet the last time,
[46:28] it'd be the sky is falling over here, right.
[46:31] But I do think that level of urgency is required as the club
[46:35] starts to self reflect and look at how do we make ourselves
[46:38] better, right? Like, how do we, you know, look,
[46:43] I said it before Raulacencio was a revelation that we wouldn't
[46:45] have found unless, but we were forced to, right?
[46:48] It would behoove us to think that there might be other
[46:50] players down at that level who also could be revelations,
[46:52] right? If you have a coach who is
[46:54] uninterested in playing young players for whatever reason, and
[46:58] you also have a board who doesn't want to sign people,
[47:00] well, those are two things that they're not congruent.
[47:02] You can't do both. You just can't.
[47:04] So then get someone in here who's willing to play the young
[47:07] people and develop them or sign people, right?
[47:10] I mean, ideally you do a mix of both.
[47:11] That's what that's what good organizations do, right?
[47:13] And so I, I, I, I feel like it, the sky isn't falling, but we
[47:19] need to approach and look at things with that level and
[47:23] strengthening out the rest of this roster, this idea.
[47:26] Oh, we're OK militile. I'll be back next year.
[47:27] Milta's coming off his second ACL.
[47:29] Like, what are you talking about?
[47:31] No rigor's going to be, what, 32 to start next 33?
[47:36] No, like we got to start figuring out how to phase him
[47:39] out of the starting lineup and figure out who Ascencius
[47:42] partners going to be going forward.
[47:45] Like these are the things we need to be thinking about.
[47:46] Not well, We'll just wait until Rudiger dies or not dies.
[47:50] What's wrong word. We'll wait until Rudiger's knees
[47:52] fall off, and then we'll figure why does it have to be this
[47:55] extreme? We wait until disaster happens.
[47:57] Now we figure out what the problem is.
[48:00] This club's too good to do that. It is it will be interesting.
[48:04] I think they're they're the problem is always with center
[48:07] back is like if they see a wonder kid, they like they're
[48:10] going to go for him. If they don't see one, they're
[48:12] going to try and figure out whatever way they can spin the
[48:16] current tenant racks work. I think they're kind of over
[48:18] Aliba like they're they're done with him is my understanding.
[48:21] And I mean, hey, it's been a good run.
[48:23] He's just on a big contract. We're cool off that.
[48:25] And like, you know, it's it's over.
[48:28] But yeah, I mean, again, a coach like Zidane would also love him,
[48:31] but it all depends on context. I don't think he would take a
[48:35] pay cut or anything, especially if he has another viewer on this
[48:37] deal we have. But the idea is that Joanne
[48:42] Martinez and Jacob Ramon when they're held.
[48:46] I, I hope so that that that's what I'm open for.
[48:49] And I, I saw a report that Joan Martinez should be, I think
[48:53] he's, he's already on the field. I know if he's doing any like
[48:55] ball work yet, but he should be ready to to be part of the the
[49:01] summer training and and pre season, which is good.
[49:04] Look, and again, I, I'm even willing Sid to have a situation
[49:08] where we go through some early growing pains as a squad to get
[49:14] Jacobo and Juwan the necessary reps that they need, because
[49:19] that's the only way you learn. Again, I I don't want a
[49:21] situation where we'll just roll Rudiger back out there.
[49:24] Then it's like, Oh, no, Rudiger's down.
[49:25] Let's move to a many drop him back in the center back.
[49:27] It's like, no, like why are we doing this?
[49:31] You know, let Chuomeni state where he is as a as Adm.
[49:33] By the way, he got really good as Adm and you know, he's he's
[49:37] been doing his thing. I think we've got some issues as
[49:39] Sid's phone I think ticked him off the oh, he's back.
[49:45] But yeah, you were you. Did you finish talking about the
[49:47] center backs there? I was basically saying that I'm
[49:50] willing to, and that's I'm with you.
[49:51] I'm high on John Martinez and Jacob Ramon.
[49:55] I'm willing to next year said go through growing pains with
[49:58] having them get minutes and in games early and getting getting
[50:02] their reps built up. Like I'm fine with that.
[50:04] That's how you learn. I don't want to wait until the
[50:06] point where Rudiger suffers a terrible injury and now you're
[50:09] telling me, well, we'll just drop true many back there or
[50:11] we'll just no, no, no, no, no, I don't want that.
[50:14] Let these young kids play honestly, like Club World Cup,
[50:17] like especially in the early group stages.
[50:19] If we're playing like some real bottom feeding teams, like let
[50:22] them play, man. Like I just like it.
[50:26] It to me. It baffles my mind because then
[50:29] wouldn't it be nice if we had two pairs of of center back
[50:33] pairings that we that we can go to war with?
[50:35] That would be wonderful, right? We got it's fine.
[50:38] You're not going to displace Rudiger right now.
[50:39] We got Rudiger Ascencio and and maybe it's Jacobo and Joan.
[50:43] Maybe that's the that's the second deal.
[50:44] Who knows whatever it is, but it would be nice to have two
[50:47] pairings together. Ideally I would like a great way
[50:50] to have to mentor them to me would be splitting them with the
[50:53] other right? Like have one of them play with
[50:54] Rudiger, have the other one play this NCO people who have
[50:57] experienced next to them instead of two babies back there
[51:00] together. I don't know, just a thought.
[51:03] I think the main thing you'd do next season, I doubt you can
[51:05] face Rudiger anywhere. But you, what you do is you take
[51:09] your time bringing Militao back into the fold.
[51:11] That's where you keep the young guys and that's where you really
[51:14] do that. I think you got to starting next
[51:16] season, you have to treat the Copa del Rey as like, like you
[51:21] got to play guys like you, you just got to play the young guys
[51:23] and that you got to stop caring about that competition period.
[51:26] And then the Spanish Super Cup's a tricky 1 because like it, it's
[51:30] a lot of prize money. It's a lot of pride.
[51:32] You kind of have to play your best 11.
[51:34] Unfortunately, you're going to Saudi.
[51:38] I mean, it doesn't get easier. We're going to need more
[51:40] elevens. I think the main thing I hope we
[51:44] get clarity on. I think it's good that we can
[51:47] like kind of run it back with the young setter backs and maybe
[51:50] feel decent about it, like maybe even lose Oliver.
[51:54] But Ascentio Rudiger a returning, I guess Miller Tao is
[51:57] coming off his second ACL, though.
[51:58] You kind of got to do him. He's he's watching.
[52:00] I, I, I think you're right about that.
[52:02] Don't baby him. Don't rush him back.
[52:06] Let your backup center back pairing be the young kids like
[52:10] give them a shot, man like and again in the Club World Cup, in
[52:13] those rounds, in those early group stage games against teams
[52:17] that are lesser that we don't think will really give us
[52:19] problems. That's your prime opportunity,
[52:21] man. Like I.
[52:26] I wonder if they sacked Carlo before or after the Club World
[52:30] Cup. Well, I don't know if you you
[52:32] saw that stuff on on social right after the match and you
[52:34] know, all these aggregator councils are going nuts.
[52:37] There was a Brazilian federation player at the mat official at
[52:41] the match today. You know, they want to speed up
[52:43] the Carlo talks, whatever. I mean, honestly, Sid and
[52:46] Lecante said this last week and this is not about we love Carlo
[52:51] winningest coaching manager in club history.
[52:54] I dump him now. Like what?
[52:56] What are we waiting on? Like literally what are we
[52:58] waiting on? Like let's get the next whoever.
[53:01] If you think you know who the next person is, right?
[53:03] Like, or if it if you know it's going to be Javi Alonso when he
[53:08] has to finish out of season with Leverkusen, then fine, then let
[53:10] Carlos stay until the end and then switch him at the end of of
[53:13] Leverkusen season. But if you don't think it's
[53:15] going to be Javi Alonso when you have to figure out who it's
[53:17] going to be, then get Raul in here, let him do whatever.
[53:21] Hey, you know what Raul would do Raul with the Castilla kids.
[53:25] That's a question I have for you at this stage where we are right
[53:28] now. So we're out of the Champions
[53:29] League. I don't I'm I think you're with
[53:32] me that we're not going to win the league and I think couple of
[53:34] the rate finals going to be bad. Would you start right now?
[53:38] Yo, Arda, let's get you let's get you some run right now, my
[53:40] guy. Let's would you start like just
[53:42] giving giving the giving players some some burn right now and.
[53:46] You probably got it with Arda. We'll see what they do.
[53:49] They're probably going to convince themselves they can win
[53:50] the May 11th Classico and still win the league or some some
[53:53] crap. But yeah, you do play Arda.
[53:57] I mean, you, you probably play Enrique as well.
[54:00] I mean, The thing is, like, those are all things a club
[54:03] that's really dialed in does. We're really not dialed in right
[54:08] now. I'm sure we're going to see
[54:09] Vinnie and Papa Jude. They're all going to be out on
[54:12] the floor against Bilbao on Sunday.
[54:16] Bilbao to they're going to convince themselves against that
[54:18] team. Why would they play harder?
[54:19] They're going to talk to themselves.
[54:21] I feel like that's the team they talk themselves into playing the
[54:23] starting eleven against. I mean, we'll, we'll see.
[54:27] Maybe I'm wrong, Maybe they have this thing figured out.
[54:29] Maybe they've been reflecting and watching this season and
[54:33] there's definitely a part of the club that's very honest from a
[54:36] performance analysis standpoint that like, I feel like there's
[54:40] no way they don't have people realizing like that we're
[54:42] nowhere near the Ronaldo era performances.
[54:45] Nowhere near. Yeah.
[54:47] Like even when we won that's like the 95 point season.
[54:50] It was good. I guess it was decent from an
[54:52] underlying perspective, expected points, let's see how many
[54:56] expected points we got. Actually I got to confirm.
[54:59] I mean I know like we said it was the largest over performance
[55:02] in the database. But. 77 expected points so less
[55:09] maybe even then the 2122 season. So yeah, nowhere near the
[55:14] Ronaldo era where we were hitting 8090 like last season
[55:18] would have been a bad season and expected points totals for
[55:21] Ronaldo era team. So yeah, I think someone in
[55:26] there has to know like they're not all oblivious because
[55:29] whatever you used to sign the players, the same metrics are
[55:33] honest about the teams. I would like to think, you know,
[55:35] like you can't be completely out and out.
[55:37] Like how do you know who the next good big thing is all the
[55:40] time then if you don't realize like what really matters?
[55:43] Correct. I mean, you don't even need
[55:45] serious data to just just watch with your eyeballs what's going
[55:48] on. That should be enough to tell
[55:49] you this is not good, right? Like, that should be all you
[55:52] need to see every literally every time you show up to a
[55:55] match, you're like, oh, this again.
[55:58] And so, yeah, look, and I know what's going to happen this
[56:00] summer. We're going to sign Trent.
[56:02] Everything's fine. It's like, OK.
[56:04] And again, Trent will mask a lot of problems, right?
[56:06] Because he'll solve a lot of our build up issues and whatever,
[56:09] except he won't solve our defensive issues because he's
[56:11] not great at defense, right? Like so it's it's just this.
[56:15] And again, I'm not saying we shouldn't get Trent.
[56:18] What I'm saying is we have to have an eye on getting this
[56:22] team. You know, Carlos said the word
[56:23] balance probably 10 billion times this season.
[56:27] This squad is just so imbalanced in every way said in terms of
[56:30] matching player profiles, in terms of too many attacking
[56:33] talent, not enough defensive talent, in terms of too much
[56:37] one-on-one capability and not enough ball and game control and
[56:40] possession controllability, right.
[56:41] Like we need to have a mixture of that kind of people.
[56:45] And I think a great way to, you know, something to tease for our
[56:48] our our future content that we're creating here said is a
[56:52] question that I asked you offer that I'm going to ask now was it
[56:58] has any thought or should any thought be given to because we
[57:02] have so much front attacking talent dropping Jude Bellingham
[57:06] into a deeper play making build up role than where he is right
[57:09] now. By the way, that is where he
[57:10] started his career right at Dortmund.
[57:13] And what was he at before Birmingham, right?
[57:14] Like that's where he played before.
[57:16] Right now. I get it.
[57:18] He probably loves scoring all the goals and being a legal
[57:20] player of the year. And it's probably going to be
[57:22] harder to convince him to go back there.
[57:23] But I think Jude is not only young enough, I think he has the
[57:27] right kind of character and and and willingness to do what's
[57:32] right for the team. That if Florentino and over the
[57:34] manager is talks to him and says, dude, I know you're going
[57:37] to give up some goals, but it's going to be the best thing for
[57:40] us to win as many trophies as possible, which it might be.
[57:44] I think that's something I want to see him do as he gets older,
[57:46] but I think while he's young, I still want to see him bomb
[57:49] forward just 'cause I do think his, I don't think his, like,
[57:53] control of the game is as high as, like, who would want it to
[57:57] be. Yeah, I mean, and it's not even
[57:59] close to the ballpark of Cruz, even if it feels amazing, like
[58:03] he's very technically gifted. I think he's too good at
[58:07] dribbling. I think he's too quick and too
[58:11] tall and too jumpy to just stick there for that reason.
[58:15] Because you end up using that, those same attributes get used
[58:19] on defense and that is good for the team on defense.
[58:23] But I actually think he's too good a problem solver is what
[58:27] we've seen. So I think what happens is you
[58:30] still get a plus defender and A+ problem solver higher up.
[58:34] I think he lose some of that problem solving ability when you
[58:36] move him deeper while getting maybe A for a slightly more plus
[58:41] defender. But honestly, that doesn't
[58:42] increase your ceiling as a team. Even if it increases your floor,
[58:45] it could increase your ceiling if he was as good a problem
[58:48] solver from deep. That's where I'm saying maybe a
[58:51] different coach could do it, and I think a different coach would
[58:54] definitely try it differently than any way Carlo has.
[58:58] Whereas with Carlo, I think it was just like he started deeper
[59:01] trying to do the same things. Jude.
[59:04] Well, it's interesting and the reason why I also ask is because
[59:07] two goal after coaching England for the first two matches, I
[59:10] don't know if he saw the quotes. He said he's like the one thing
[59:12] I got to tell Judas is that he wants to win so badly.
[59:16] He's all over the place. I need him to be a little more
[59:18] disciplined. And it wasn't a bad thing as
[59:20] like I think he's like a but it's more like can I harness
[59:24] those things in a specific way that's going to help the squad?
[59:26] And I wonder, will a little less freedom, will that actually
[59:31] unlock him to be better is what I'm wondering.
[59:34] Oh yeah, I think, I mean a coach, I think again, a
[59:37] different coach tests that really well.
[59:39] Zidane really want to see Zidane on coach this team because he
[59:44] was so good. With Zidane, make him him would
[59:47] you be like, you're going to be me?
[59:48] Well, you remember what he did with Isco and Isco was the last
[59:51] player who was like a lot when when we first saw him, some
[59:56] people said they saw Zidane in him, Pogba people saw Zidane in
[59:59] and then Jude now. But Isco was one of them.
[1:00:02] And you know, you remember 20/16/17 Isco was that was one
[1:00:06] of the most legendary runs by any player in the pocket pocket
[1:00:08] role ever. Yeah, so I think we see flashes
[1:00:13] of Jude being able to do exactly what Isco did in that role.
[1:00:16] I think with Zadan you get like, like maybe you test that diamond
[1:00:21] where he's actually playing through the middle.
[1:00:23] Well, I don't love the like it worked and we won, but I don't
[1:00:27] love the Jude in the LCN in the left game, in the left game
[1:00:31] games role in the 442I. Agree.
[1:00:33] It's just disgusting. He's just claudging.
[1:00:35] Too much overload over there. I'm like, Oh my God, there's 95
[1:00:37] people on this side of the pitch.
[1:00:38] Why like? And he's, he's just like he,
[1:00:42] he's just kind of has to chase guys around a lot in that role.
[1:00:44] Like that's what he's doing a lot.
[1:00:45] And then when, when we by the time we get the ball, I feel
[1:00:48] like he's exhausted. And you know, maybe sometimes he
[1:00:51] plays that one touch pass from our half, like he created for
[1:00:54] him Mappy's chance in the first leg.
[1:00:56] That's like the best, best case scenario.
[1:00:58] And you're not getting that all the time.
[1:00:59] Like it's no team's gonna give that up all the time.
[1:01:03] Like, so it's pretty hard with him.
[1:01:06] But I think ultimately this team gets better as long as they get.
[1:01:10] So I think one, maybe even 2 guys who can head the ball
[1:01:13] because I forgot like Trent's coming in too.
[1:01:15] So you have, yeah, you need one. I I think you need, you're going
[1:01:19] to want more guys who can head the ball on the field more
[1:01:21] often. So you're going to need someone
[1:01:24] else who can head the ball. And then I think I I was wrong
[1:01:29] about Modrich. I thought Modrich would kind of
[1:01:31] fill in for some of the cruise role because Cruz only played
[1:01:34] like 24 nineties in the league I think last year, if I'm not
[1:01:36] wrong, like not most 90s in the league.
[1:01:39] But looking back, yeah, like, you know, Modrich is great, but
[1:01:43] Cruz was there's. Just such different there's such
[1:01:45] different profiles, like cruise controls the game much different
[1:01:49] in how Modrich can control it, right.
[1:01:51] Like, and I think again, we rely too much on a 40 year old
[1:01:54] midfielder like that, that should he should not be figuring
[1:01:57] this prominently into a team's plans.
[1:01:59] Like you know, and so that's that's another area, right.
[1:02:02] Can the Modrich roster spot, which I'm sure if he wants to
[1:02:05] stay there, a lot of stake as a club legend, Would it?
[1:02:08] Would we, the club be better behooves filling that roster
[1:02:11] spot with a younger player who has a chance to be, and I mean
[1:02:14] not Modrich, but someone who can be impactful and help us in
[1:02:18] matches next as early as next season?
[1:02:22] Yeah, I mean, like, I mean, one spot is Guler like we've talked
[1:02:25] about, I feel like Guler should be playing and learning to play
[1:02:28] like Madrich. He like Madrich is small.
[1:02:30] Like you could say all the things you say about him about
[1:02:33] like Guler and and his physicality and his nimbleness,
[1:02:35] that's Madrich if you look at him physically.
[1:02:37] And I mean, I know Madrich is like a exceptional dueler for
[1:02:41] his height, like incredible one-on-one.
[1:02:44] Yeah, yeah. And just nimble and intelligent,
[1:02:47] knows how to tackle elite one-on-one defender, Not maybe
[1:02:50] not crazy if you like if he goes up to press, but like smart,
[1:02:53] still very smart. But maybe you can beat him.
[1:02:55] But when he's like on the back foot, he's really good on on
[1:02:58] defense. And yeah, we need someone.
[1:03:02] I mean, Florian Wurtz is going to Man City I believe.
[1:03:06] Oh, take over the debruyne overall.
[1:03:09] Yes, that's what they've offered him and I think they're offering
[1:03:12] 150 million. So it could be the end of.
[1:03:14] That there goes that. Yeah, yeah.
[1:03:17] And no point in paying that much for him, even if we get him.
[1:03:20] I know we tried tapping him up because we know he's good, shows
[1:03:23] up on the metric side test. But yeah, I mean, we need
[1:03:26] someone, but Guler could do it. And I also think it'll be
[1:03:30] interesting to see who we pick up.
[1:03:31] If it's Alonzo, would Alonso be the guy?
[1:03:33] I mean, Alonso's a good coach. We'll see where he takes us.
[1:03:36] I'm sure he'll have different ideas, more organized in some
[1:03:39] ways. But if Zidane's the coach, I
[1:03:43] know we're in good hands in terms of like what he brings to
[1:03:45] the table. He's just like he's, he's closer
[1:03:47] to the Guardiola, Arteta school of thought.
[1:03:51] He enjoys controlling games. He would love to play defence
[1:03:53] with this team, with Camel, Minga, Fede.
[1:03:56] He wouldn't let Mbabe and Vinnie defend like this and get away
[1:03:59] with it. My God.
[1:04:03] No, he he, he was like the listen.
[1:04:06] He wasn't great tactically over both spells, but people need to
[1:04:08] know he was always actually good defensively his whole time off
[1:04:13] the ball, like on the ball build up again, he got better over
[1:04:16] time, but off the ball defensively he he always had
[1:04:19] like a standard. And because it comes from his
[1:04:21] playing days, he experienced this Florentino thing where he
[1:04:24] sold Makalele and he's like, dude, you sold the guy who play
[1:04:27] his defense. I'm not playing defense bro.
[1:04:29] Correct. Matt Lilly was so was so good.
[1:04:32] Oh my God. Yeah, yeah, you know the line
[1:04:34] like don't you can't take a layer, like no point putting
[1:04:37] another layer of paint on the Bentley when you take the engine
[1:04:39] away or something. And.
[1:04:42] Yeah, and that's what I feel like this team like is kind of
[1:04:45] falling back into let's get another shiny thing, which is
[1:04:47] what Trent is. And I'm not saying Trent's not
[1:04:49] going to help us, but we have spinal issues on this club like
[1:04:53] that need to be fixed, right? Yeah.
[1:04:55] And I don't think that's where I was going to say.
[1:04:57] I don't think Trent is the one who fixes control like he he can
[1:05:01] improve build up, but in this type of team he improves the
[1:05:05] ceiling but not the floor. And what I mean is we need.
[1:05:08] Floor razors. We need floor razors.
[1:05:10] Yeah, 'cause he he, he makes it like he can do more of those.
[1:05:13] Jude. One touch to Mbape passes out of
[1:05:16] nowhere, but he's not going to like, organize the team and
[1:05:19] build up. He's not going to make the team
[1:05:21] circulate side to side unless they're planning to play him the
[1:05:24] Tony in midfield. I mean, that's like, but I don't
[1:05:28] think. And even then his strength when
[1:05:30] you're so good at passing, like he's better than Cruz at
[1:05:33] passing, passing long distances, no doubt.
[1:05:35] So if you're going to use that skill, you don't need to be the
[1:05:37] one doing all the circulation in the middle.
[1:05:39] We can we can use that like so we want Guler or yeah, again, we
[1:05:43] need a cruise replacement. The problem is Cruise, Rodri,
[1:05:47] Iago, Chavi, Busquets. There was only like a handful.
[1:05:51] Of ones. Yeah, who have put together
[1:05:54] seasons like Cruz has and now careers like Cruz has.
[1:05:57] Pretty much nobody, maybe Chavi, but like length, nobody
[1:05:59] Busquets. But yeah, we need someone of
[1:06:02] that caliber. It's not easy, it's difficult
[1:06:05] and I'm going to have to do more research before I suggest any
[1:06:08] names for signing if it's not someone on our team as.
[1:06:12] Well, or is that the rumors of Rodrick coming here?
[1:06:17] That would be funny. I, I feel like I'm scared of
[1:06:20] Rodri. I feel like he has a lot of
[1:06:21] miles like he they, they pump the blood into their bodies out
[1:06:25] there in in Manchester and. And what is he, 28?
[1:06:29] How old? Is he?
[1:06:30] He is, but he he is like only he.
[1:06:32] I guess he's only like 28 for his play style.
[1:06:34] That's not the oldest. No, but he has a lot of miles on
[1:06:37] those knees. You know, I, I don't personally
[1:06:39] want Rodri, but I would like someone who, with that kind of
[1:06:41] profile, who can do those things.
[1:06:42] That would be nice. Who's younger, which good luck,
[1:06:44] right? Everybody wants that.
[1:06:46] Yeah, yeah, and and that's where a true man I would love to see a
[1:06:48] coach who makes true many like kind of that guy over controller
[1:06:52] it's. Beyond he's had a good every
[1:06:54] when he got booed at the Burnabout and he's been playing
[1:06:57] mostly DM, holding midfielder spot and double pivot.
[1:07:01] He's been really good. So I'm like, can we just keep
[1:07:03] him there? Please don't put him back at
[1:07:05] center back. Please just leave him there.
[1:07:07] He's he's like everybody else. He needs rhythm where he is.
[1:07:10] I really trust him in that position.
[1:07:12] I think ultimately what they want ideally is probably to
[1:07:15] have. I think they'd like it to be.
[1:07:18] The goal was probably him and Kemah Vinga being a double pivot
[1:07:20] of the future, right is my guess.
[1:07:22] Is what they thought when they signed them.
[1:07:23] I don't know. I think they just signed them to
[1:07:27] be multi purpose and knew they were like they're too talented
[1:07:30] to fail and that's what they have.
[1:07:33] But they didn't have clearer ideas necessarily.
[1:07:35] I know that's where again, it comes down to the coach, because
[1:07:38] Zidane does have clear ideas about how to use them.
[1:07:40] I can tell you now, because he wants to be France coach.
[1:07:42] He wants to be, I want to be coach.
[1:07:43] Like he knows he would use them and Pape, he knows how he'd use
[1:07:47] them. I'm sure he's learned from his
[1:07:49] last time coaching Vinicius. Like I I think he he just knows.
[1:07:53] And if not him, I think Alonzo will have good ideas.
[1:07:56] I hope he has good ideas. And yeah, I hope he replaced the
[1:08:00] coach soon. Great place to end.
[1:08:03] But great. But thank you Carlo for the
[1:08:05] memories. I think I think we got the
[1:08:07] greatest 2 like movies seasons in the history of football.
[1:08:12] Arguably like those seasons were somehow as crazy and
[1:08:15] entertaining as any of the Ronaldo years.
[1:08:17] So you got to give him credit like he did it.
[1:08:19] He did it without as stacked a squad, but you know, by smaller
[1:08:23] margins. We got to remember, that's all.
[1:08:26] Yeah, that's all it is. Well, Jerrod, it's been fun
[1:08:29] recording with you. Any final thoughts here as we
[1:08:32] close out? No, I just look, Madridista's,
[1:08:36] you know, we're we're sad right now and we're probably not gonna
[1:08:38] win any major trophies this year.
[1:08:39] And that's look, sometimes that happens, right?
[1:08:41] You can't win the big things every year.
[1:08:44] But I have No Fear. I do believe this club has a lot
[1:08:48] of the pieces it needs to be successful for a long time
[1:08:50] coming. They just the the club just
[1:08:52] needs to be honest with itself about what needs to happen.
[1:08:55] And you know, again, we need to your to our point we've been
[1:08:57] making, whatever manager we bring in next has to have clear
[1:09:00] ideas about what he wants to do with this talent because the
[1:09:03] squad is very talented and too talented to be performing at the
[1:09:06] level it's performing at right now. 100% and as someone
[1:09:10] mentioned in the comments, Nico Paz, I'm excited for him to come
[1:09:13] back. I think we will bring him back
[1:09:15] and that's going to be fun. But he won't fill the void in
[1:09:18] our team. But he is tall, he can he can
[1:09:20] help us get some goals, doesn't fill the gaps in our team
[1:09:23] though. But I'm excited to come back.
[1:09:25] I I love what he's doing at Como.
[1:09:27] He's playing. But again, remember, folks, he's
[1:09:28] a central Cam, right? And we have Jude, right?
[1:09:31] So like so it it and Ibrahim right, like that comes off that.
[1:09:35] So you know, playing time's going to be a little tough for
[1:09:37] him, right? And I don't know that you want
[1:09:39] to move him away from Cam right now.
[1:09:41] Like that's where he's probably going to be best.
[1:09:43] So he probably stays at Como another year and then we see how
[1:09:46] the team can use it. But I, I as long as we have
[1:09:49] right of first refusal or whatever to keep him in Madrid.
[1:09:53] Yup, now we'll definitely be back soon.
[1:09:55] There's a lot more to talk about about who we're going to sign,
[1:09:58] what our squad needs to look like next season and things like
[1:10:00] of that nature. We'll be back soon on the real
[1:10:02] deal. Thank you everyone for tuning
[1:10:04] in. Make sure you subscribe, give it
[1:10:06] a like check us out. We're going to be on Spotify,
[1:10:09] Apple, Twitter, wherever you sign.
[1:10:11] Please give us all the love and we'll talk soon.

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