# Real Madrid 6-1 Monaco Postgame Reaction: Vinicius Unleashed

An episode of [The Real Deal: A Real Madrid Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1807821669), 21 Jan 2026, 1 h 17 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/103607aa8/podcast/play/114311950/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-0-21%2F416520693-44100-2-375eadbe9e356.mp3

Sid and Xavier review the win over Monaco, Vinicius' dominant performance and more.

## Transcript

[0:01] Well, finally a cathartic victory, a big win for Real
[0:05] Madrid, Vinicius at his absolute best and bop a scoring.
[0:10] And most importantly, no stress Xavier.
[0:12] Man, we needed that, huh? Wow, After the week we just had
[0:18] as Real Madrid fans, culminating with the baptizing that the team
[0:23] got at the Bernabel on Sunday or on Saturday, here we are today
[0:29] and wow, what a performance, what a reaction from the team.
[0:36] I think the word for me today is sensations.
[0:42] And I, I want to be clear, today was a reminder that as much as
[0:48] many folks want to have these tacticians, these these guys
[0:54] that love structure, there's an element of this job that matters
[1:00] more than how well you want to implement a system or how much
[1:05] structure you want to bring to Real Madrid.
[1:07] And that is connecting with these with these players,
[1:11] motivating them, getting them to essentially come out of their
[1:15] shells and do things that you need.
[1:17] That's going to ultimately contribute towards the team's
[1:20] bottom line. And today, and we're going to
[1:22] get into it, was a friendly reminder that those things
[1:25] matter. And this manager did an
[1:29] excellent job today getting this team to react to one of the most
[1:35] vicious boos that we've, you know, heard the Bernard Bell do
[1:39] to any team. And I just want to applaud or
[1:43] below a first and foremost, I want to applaud the team for not
[1:47] folding 'cause, you know, many folks would not be able to
[1:51] handle that type of pressure and react with A6 one victory.
[1:54] So I'll land it there. But All in all, I feel a lot
[1:57] better. Yeah, yeah, great.
[1:59] It was a great stuff, to be fair.
[2:01] Monaco mid table in the Champions League, I'm sorry,
[2:04] near the bottom of the Champions League mid table in League One.
[2:06] But with Pep Ferrardiola losing earlier in the day, we had a
[2:10] chance to just move up the table and we took it.
[2:13] We took it. We needed that win.
[2:14] Not winning today would have been horrible.
[2:16] And we have had games, to be honest, against very beatable
[2:19] opponents this season where we look bad.
[2:21] So obviously that's where Vinnie looking this good is huge too.
[2:26] I mean, just getting right into the game like our below a
[2:28] transition ball, really fast, one touch.
[2:32] The first big change he's made tactically is just building the
[2:35] team around Vinnie's preferences.
[2:37] No question, Vinnie gets to play in the left half space or the
[2:40] left wing wherever he wants. It's kind of his call. 1-2 We're
[2:44] playing lightning fast in transition, so one touch
[2:48] football and we're not really trying to control games.
[2:50] That's the big difference with Chabi Alonso.
[2:53] Alonso was concerned about how we could survive over the course
[2:57] of a full season, so he was trying to make us rest with the
[2:59] ball. Our below has thrown that out.
[3:01] Everyone's running and defending really hard.
[3:04] It's really fast. Any surprises for you on the
[3:07] running and defending end? Well, on the by and I think if
[3:12] there was any individual moment of the game that that speaks to
[3:15] what you're saying, it's when in Bop A was chasing back in the
[3:19] second-half after he gave up the ball.
[3:22] I believe we were already up 5/1 or 6/1 at the time.
[3:26] And then Bob is doing a full Sprint back.
[3:28] And that just goes to to your point, show you there's a
[3:32] collective buy in again, right? Like the team, they gave us a
[3:36] feeling of Madhuri dismal in a sense where like we know it's
[3:39] not perfect yet. We know the sequences can
[3:41] probably improve and at the end to end game is it where it needs
[3:45] to be? But we also know that we haven't
[3:47] seen this team win six one in a very long time or even give us
[3:51] the feeling that they could win 61 right?
[3:53] And today I very much felt like the score could have been much
[3:57] higher than six one right? Like I didn't feel like it
[4:00] should have been three and we just magically got 6.
[4:03] I felt like we we collectively were trying to get the best out
[4:08] of ourselves, which culminated in what we saw.
[4:12] So I'll land it there, man. There was a there was a
[4:13] looseness to us. There was a looseness that
[4:17] hasn't been present this season. And I think that goes back to
[4:20] like, I think it's interesting because that looseness comes
[4:23] from playing on shackled. And in many ways it's a bit of a
[4:26] throwback to Ancelotti ball. And Ancelotti honestly had
[4:30] moments where he got the best out of this team, like the
[4:32] Dortmund fight to in some ways reminiscent of how fast we
[4:36] played in the second-half. Obviously this was the first
[4:38] good like performance top to bottom.
[4:40] With that being said, it is interesting that we conceded 2
[4:43] expected goals in 20 shots in a game that looked good to us.
[4:46] That should also tell you, in my opinion, you saw the signs that
[4:50] sustaining this even for six months is going to be brutal
[4:53] because like, you know, you had Ansu Fatih getting a .3 XG
[4:57] chance in the first half after we go up one nil.
[5:00] Honestly, anyone who's not on Sufati probably does a better
[5:02] job with that. But and Monaco had, I think the
[5:08] interesting thing is this. He sacrificed defensive
[5:10] possession. And so there were moments when
[5:13] we're up one and two nil. I thought those were the only
[5:14] contested moments of the game. And Monaco still had comfort
[5:18] with the ball. I thought they were kind of
[5:20] sloppy, honestly with the ball a little bit.
[5:23] What do you think? Yeah, No, I agree.
[5:25] We also have to keep in mind Monaco isn't necessarily higher.
[5:29] They're not the highest quality. But and and this is I think is
[5:32] what's more important than who we played today.
[5:36] I think it's how we responded as a collective because if we can
[5:40] build from this, keep in mind we started the game with the center
[5:44] back pairing of Dean Hoyson and Ascencio.
[5:47] If Mealy, when Mealy Tau comes back next to Dean improvement,
[5:51] right. We also started a right back and
[5:54] a left back that are both midfielders and they also helped
[5:57] improve our collective play today, though, let's be honest,
[5:59] helping us escape the press. Come on bingo collection that
[6:03] Bette Valverde, I mean literally Jack of all trades.
[6:07] He does everything on the field at all times.
[6:09] You saw it today. I'm not sure if we get the same
[6:12] output when we have a trend and a Carreas there, but I think we
[6:17] look potentially a little bit better defensively because they
[6:19] are both natural defenders. Now, granted, I think Fede's
[6:23] still going to create a a natural conundrum for us on this
[6:26] team because he's too good to bench essentially, but we'll get
[6:30] into that in another day in the midfield.
[6:34] If you think about it, when was the last time we looked even
[6:38] somewhat competent with both Jude and Arda in that midfield
[6:42] in a three and not a four man midfield, right.
[6:45] That was a three man midfield. Both of them were there.
[6:48] And remember all the narratives we were saying was they don't
[6:50] work in the midfield together. Vinnie and Boppa don't work.
[6:54] I saw today a vast improvement over what I saw the last six
[6:59] months specifically from those pairings.
[7:02] Now granted, Jude was a bit quiet, especially in the
[7:05] beginning because a lot of the play went more so through Franco
[7:08] and Arda in a sense, right? Like they were the ones
[7:10] receiving that ball before the final pass, right?
[7:13] It was and you were seeing the play go through the right.
[7:16] However, I I think you saw Jude throughout the game adjust
[7:21] better than I've seen him in the past.
[7:22] I think in the in the past, like if it wasn't going his way in
[7:25] the first half, he might disappear even more so in the
[7:29] second-half. Yeah, yeah, exactly right where
[7:32] I saw him today. Adapt like he allowed in my
[7:35] opinion Franco and Arda to actually dictate more in the
[7:40] sense of play making right, taking the on those
[7:42] responsibilities. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[7:44] And then and then finding his niche while that well, once
[7:47] Franco came off, you saw Jude grow more into into that role in
[7:51] a sense. And so I think Jude did a good
[7:53] job. And today I think him next to
[7:56] Arda canceled some doubts that we've seen in the past.
[7:59] Do these two work in the three men midfield.
[8:01] Don't get me wrong, on the goal we conceded, Arda once again
[8:05] getting dispossessed isn't great.
[8:07] He didn't look great all game, I think when somebody was actually
[8:10] pressing him. So it's still something to look
[8:12] out for. But overall, I mean, these guys
[8:16] needed confidence and this is exactly that type of win.
[8:19] Yeah, for sure. They needed confidence.
[8:21] Tactically. I thought the main difference is
[8:23] that with Arda, like Ardalo had four halves without, with and
[8:27] without Arda, and he had one good half of going to this game
[8:30] where Arda was involved. Three halves without Arda that
[8:32] went bad. And I think first thing he's
[8:35] realized, like I need to play Arda in the whole and because
[8:38] he's not trying to control the game, Arda can play in the
[8:40] whole. Listen, Arda was pressured like
[8:42] once in the first half and he gave it up.
[8:43] But the key is that he was in situations where he wasn't going
[8:46] to get pressed, pressed as much. As far as Jude, I do agree that
[8:51] he was like interesting, like even his decoy run for the first
[8:54] goal completely open space for Killian.
[8:57] I mean, I think, I mean, that's a great place to go.
[8:59] Was he making a? Did he like celebrate with the
[9:02] drunk thing? Yeah, Yeah, he did.
[9:05] Yeah, I, I, I think that's cool because like he responded well
[9:08] to the crowd. He made light of the incident
[9:10] and he's not like taking it too personally because, you know,
[9:13] there's a world you could where he could just be like, I don't
[9:15] like the racism and get mad. But it's, you know, it's, it's
[9:18] deeper. It's even like it is racist.
[9:20] It's but it's like racist in the Spanish English way where
[9:22] culturally they think he's out at the club like some dude from
[9:25] England. And I really, I thought that was
[9:28] funny and I agree about the response.
[9:30] But Jude, honestly, I expect to go find like he's honestly been
[9:33] learning and trying to implement himself.
[9:35] Just because he can't control the game against Barsa doesn't
[9:37] mean I'm going to give up on. But Vinny I thought made huge
[9:41] improvements that were independent of Arbolo's
[9:45] platform. And I say that because honestly,
[9:46] he's been platformed all three of these games.
[9:48] Every single game he's been given the platform to do what he
[9:50] wants. But this was his first good game
[9:53] of the three. But not only was it a good game
[9:55] with vintage Vinny, I thought it was like one of his better
[9:58] passing games cuz Vinny's not a traditional playmaker.
[10:01] So I thought his aggression and intent to release the password
[10:05] there. And most importantly, he didn't
[10:06] seem like he wanted to. He didn't seem like he had that.
[10:10] And Bop is going to score more than we buy today.
[10:11] What do you think? Yeah.
[10:13] And I think it even started with, you know, in the warm ups,
[10:17] there was a clip I saw going around of Vinny just showing
[10:21] more of the captaincy type of approach, right?
[10:25] Just doing things that you expect of Vinny that we haven't,
[10:29] that have been lacking that we have been asking for as our 4th
[10:32] captain. And before I get into his actual
[10:34] play today, it's like it needed to start there.
[10:37] It needed to start with him taking accountability.
[10:39] And today I think I finally saw to your point, outside of the
[10:43] noise, outside of the coaching, outside of the tactics, you saw
[10:47] Vinny take more of a leadership type role on the field in many
[10:51] ways, whether it was play making, whether it was having to
[10:54] go to the right side to to go close down the defender, right.
[10:59] I I think his celebration for the goal was interesting, but
[11:02] his goal was a goal last. So let's be honest, a complete
[11:05] goal last. So I missed the celebration.
[11:06] What was going on? So much was going on.
[11:07] What was the celebration like? He didn't really celebrate and
[11:10] then he went over to our veloa and gave him a a huge hug and
[11:13] something with his teammates. But and then I I found it
[11:16] interesting though, and and shout out to the Bernard Bell
[11:18] because they were booing him in the first half, but then they
[11:21] were chanting his name in the second-half and they continue
[11:23] to. So it was good to see us move on
[11:27] from the message was clearly hurt right.
[11:30] As long as the message was heard, I think we can move on.
[11:34] We can turn the page and you saw Vinnie.
[11:37] Just embrace that. And that's what I'll say.
[11:40] Well. With 18 months in the last 18
[11:43] months, my main concern now looking at this game is we've
[11:46] had glimpses under both coaches before this, frankly, even under
[11:50] Carlo where Vinny would start passing, Killian would score,
[11:54] maybe they would pull out a game where they defended even though
[11:57] it was inconsistent and we would win.
[11:59] And normally that normally for 18 months, not for like 5 years,
[12:02] but 18 months, those games would come against teams that are not
[12:05] legit normally. And and my main concern is, I
[12:09] guess I'm just wondering like, dude, why did you wait till now?
[12:11] Like Killian, bro, you've been here 18 months.
[12:13] You've been you've been seeing guys asking you to defend.
[12:15] You waited till now, Vinny, like you've seen Mbappe make the run
[12:19] 100 times before this. Now you decide to start passing.
[12:22] And I'm glad it happened. I just naturally wonder how
[12:26] consistent it's going to be going forward against better
[12:28] teams. Arboloa don't question though,
[12:32] has pulled the right triggers. He's, I'd say, I'll say this, on
[12:36] one hand it was a weak team. On the other hand, like if we
[12:39] get an easy draw like 2016, you could see US winning it all if
[12:43] we get an easy draw. But it's, I do think on some
[12:46] level that the draw is going to matter a lot.
[12:48] Like we can't just walk through Arsenal, Bayern Munich and
[12:51] another team this year. But I think this style of play
[12:54] is suitable for big games. And my big criticism of Chabi
[12:57] and Athletico and some of the other games was don't try to fix
[13:01] the opposition. And I guess when he brought
[13:03] Guler back into the fold, he'd still have Guler play deep.
[13:06] I think that's one big tactical change he's made.
[13:08] That's good. The Vinny thing I will just say
[13:11] I'm going to hold off on because bringing this back to the
[13:13] screen, we conceded 2 expected goals even in this game.
[13:16] Courts was still, we conceded 20 shots dude, despite all that.
[13:19] I'm just saying. That's and you know what that's
[13:22] just something we're going to have to we're just going to have
[13:24] to embrace the best out of like this roster and these guys are
[13:29] ceding some control, right, taking some taking some more
[13:33] risk than we're most of us are comfortable with, but knowing
[13:37] that it's actually sort of a rope a dope and Carlos figured
[13:40] that out perfectly. You kind of rope a dope the team
[13:42] into thinking they're going to beat you because they're
[13:45] creating these shots. And then you use the tools that
[13:48] you have, which are the two fastest forwards in the world,
[13:52] and you beat them in transition. You go, OK, your speed at the
[13:56] back against our speed. Now there's only a handful of
[13:58] teams in my opinion in the world that can counter that just
[14:02] straight up speed, physicality wise, right?
[14:05] I think the best at that probably an Arsenal, but they're
[14:07] also an outlier. Most teams are not an Arsenal.
[14:10] So that that's why I think to your point in the Champions
[14:13] League, that might bode well. And if you look at our current
[14:16] standing. Europe is also trash this year
[14:18] honestly. What?
[14:19] What? That's where I was going to go.
[14:20] And even if you look at our standing, it's Arsenal first,
[14:23] we're second, Bayern Munich third.
[14:25] So if we win again and we maintain the goal difference,
[14:29] Arsenal and Bayern would have to play each other before playing
[14:32] us. So just keep that peace in mind.
[14:35] We're actually in a very good position in the Champions
[14:39] League. Well, but yeah, Bayern still
[14:41] have I guess a game in hand on us, right below us, so.
[14:44] But we're up on goal difference. We are, no.
[14:47] We're tied with them on goal difference and they have a game
[14:49] in hand. Oh, OK, so we're either going to
[14:51] be second or third depending on on how the game goes.
[14:54] Bayern, yeah, those are the two. I think that's the thing.
[14:56] I think outside those teams, everyone's gettable.
[14:59] Like we like we literally fired our coach after a game where we
[15:02] still almost equalized against Barcelona, who are like supposed
[15:04] to be dominant. Barcelona are not doing too well
[15:06] in the league. Kubarsi and Kunde are fraud.
[15:09] So we have a chance in the league.
[15:10] My concern is this. Tactically, Monaco just looked
[15:15] at points like they didn't know the scouting report.
[15:17] If I had to be honest. It's like, dude, you're letting
[15:19] guys dance and turn, Just get up on them.
[15:22] Don't let them turn and see what happens.
[15:23] And I thought like they gave Guler acres of space.
[15:26] I haven't seen Arda get that much space in a while, honestly,
[15:29] since Levante in this game. It's just like teams forgot he
[15:31] existed. They're like, who's Arda Guler?
[15:33] It's like they forgot. And I am curious, like some of
[15:36] these La Liga teams that we play in the league, they're just so
[15:40] much more attuned to like pissing us off and trolling us
[15:43] in the way they play, doing the 1-2 that's right through our
[15:45] back line. Like we, you know, I mean, it's
[15:48] I just think that there's a lot of gimmicks that these TAC teams
[15:51] can use. And I thought Monaco didn't use
[15:54] them today. And I thought Monaco was
[15:55] defending was grace disgraceful. So if I look to fixtures ahead
[15:59] that are litmus tests, I'm just pulling up Villarreal.
[16:02] We're playing next. Great litmus test as to whether
[16:05] this is real. In my opinion, if this is real,
[16:07] that's a must win. If this is actually real, you
[16:09] have to win that game. And it's away, right?
[16:12] That's that's going to be a, a big test.
[16:14] Can you do this away? It's one thing to do it at the
[16:16] burn the bell. Go show us.
[16:17] He could do this in a tough away La Liga fixture, especially
[16:21] because delivery AL's right there with us competing for top
[16:24] four. We're in a top 4 battle right
[16:25] now. But we should be in a, in a
[16:27] title battle, right? We should be 5 points ahead of
[16:30] Barcelona in my opinion. That's my expectation and I
[16:33] can't stress this enough. It, it feels like a lot of these
[16:37] players have a weight lifted off their back.
[16:39] That's how I felt that they were playing today.
[16:41] And granted, Monaco allowed some of it to an extent.
[16:46] I I want to give credit where it's due.
[16:49] If Chavi would have gotten a six one victory, I felt like most of
[16:53] social media would have been giving him flowers and saying
[16:56] look at Chavi ball work. So we should only do probably
[17:00] the same thing for R below when he gets a big victory like this
[17:03] as well. But I will say social media is
[17:06] starting to get a little weird because social media is like
[17:09] where a lot of these people are saying you're anti Madrid if you
[17:14] question Paris. You're anti Madrid if you see
[17:16] things happening even under R below and question if the whole
[17:19] process is going wrong. You're anti Madrid if you don't
[17:21] blindly root for the team. I feel like the burnabout I'm
[17:25] hearing in the comments, they're saying that they were still
[17:27] whistling Winnie. And, you know, that brings me
[17:29] back to what I was thinking. And I mean, I don't know if they
[17:31] were, but it just brings me back to what I was thinking.
[17:33] Like, dude, all they asked you to do is watch the film and do
[17:36] the same thing before. Like, what changed?
[17:38] Like, why do you need such treatment?
[17:40] And I think there's a general feeling of, I think social media
[17:46] is getting a little chronic in terms of fans of individual
[17:49] players and coaches. There's a test.
[17:50] There's a need to like, always overcorrect and say, hey, like,
[17:54] I stand for this guy or I stand for that guy, defend this guy.
[17:57] People like take individual things in isolation and go run
[18:00] with it. And I say that cuz you know, we
[18:03] give our below a credit today. All we're saying is you go game
[18:05] by game, we're watching things unfold.
[18:06] We're curious. Like we gave up to XG.
[18:08] Look at the expected threat. It was even like actually a
[18:11] decent team actually punishes us this game to be honest.
[18:13] Like just the same positions. Confidence is there, but just
[18:17] strictly from an underlying perspective.
[18:19] I'm saying we got to keep getting better.
[18:20] Like, like we didn't control the game for any moments if we
[18:24] wanted to rest Dean Hoisen pulling it back, Dean Hoisen and
[18:28] Jude had moments of slowing it down.
[18:30] I guess we can go there. There's like, there's not.
[18:34] I guess where are we going to grow individually is my thing.
[18:37] We need to improve in a lot of areas and that goes beyond our
[18:40] below and Alonso, you know, we're not trying to just do this
[18:41] to give credit to our below. Like, do we have enough as a
[18:44] team to go all the way? I I think we do like, if you
[18:49] have to ask me, does Real Madrid have the quality to win the
[18:51] Champions League? Yes, I think this current roster
[18:54] even in spite not having the sum of all parts that an ideal coach
[18:59] would want. And you see it today why Real
[19:03] Madrid is able to win in spite of the odds being completely
[19:08] against them. And that is the well.
[19:11] The odds weren't against us. They were.
[19:12] They were a big team. Well, in general, my my point
[19:16] being is that when when you get the collective spirit and buy in
[19:19] of a of a squad that has the highest value of the world,
[19:23] Let's start, let's remember what we're starting with, right?
[19:25] The most valuable squad in the world.
[19:27] So yeah, I'm not going to come up here and be like, hey, the
[19:30] most valuable squad in the world doesn't have the quality of the
[19:32] Champions. Yeah, they do.
[19:33] Now, granted, they have to be clicking, right?
[19:37] They have to be 1 collective, 1 unit.
[19:39] They have to be willing to share the spotlight because you know,
[19:43] there's multiple stars at Real Madrid.
[19:45] This isn't a one man runs everything.
[19:47] And I think another piece of it that's that's just so important
[19:51] is you have to have a a man that's sitting on the bench that
[19:57] understands how to get the best out of those big stars because
[20:01] they have the most demands of the game and.
[20:04] You saw it culminate. Now granted, it's one game, so
[20:07] I'm. Not It's one of the three games
[20:08] he's played well, that's why. But but you asked me the
[20:11] question, right, Do I think we have the quality?
[20:12] Yes. How do we improve?
[20:14] Here's how we improve a we get healthy, we get one of our
[20:18] starting center, our best center back.
[20:20] Let's get him back right like boom improvement.
[20:22] Let's get the guys who should be starting at right back as well
[20:26] and probably our starting left back.
[20:28] So let's get a back line that's healthy and playing consistent
[20:30] because we know you need rhythm as a back line and we just
[20:33] haven't had that. So that need to get that.
[20:36] I will say for me, if I had to say there are two differences
[20:38] between now and 2016 when Zidane took over and Idea was a
[20:43] controlling coach, was fired and he unleashed the players.
[20:46] You have the same feeling of lightness today that did when
[20:48] they scored those 5-6 in Zedan's first game, No question.
[20:51] But again, this is his third game.
[20:53] And like, you know, it took him four halves to get into court.
[20:56] And but the other thing is, yeah, like, he lost a Copa.
[20:58] It wasn't instant, which is also strange.
[21:00] We didn't have an instant new manager effect.
[21:02] We lost to a second division team.
[21:03] So everything here is a little weird is it's all I'm saying
[21:06] it's. Not a normal place.
[21:08] It's a rough start. It's it's a strange place.
[21:11] And the other thing is I would love to see us beat a team that
[21:15] forces us to turn on the ball and also has guys that can turn.
[21:19] Because then it's like those moments when the game dies in
[21:22] the middle of the pitch, What are we going to do to force the
[21:24] issue? Are we going to press up and
[21:26] suddenly win the ball back? And when we do and we don't like
[21:30] aren't able to keep it for as long, are we still going to be
[21:32] able to be efficient in our fewer possession sequences?
[21:35] Maybe against the Barcelona 2 Pintus.
[21:40] Pintus coming in 2016 had the effect desired.
[21:43] My big worry is that these guys are going to start dropping.
[21:46] Dude like suddenly sprinting like this when you haven't been
[21:49] able to do it week in and week out for 18 months changing who's
[21:53] taking charge of the fitness staff.
[21:56] I get that they did it under Benitez, but I still haven't
[22:00] seen the injuries under Pintas the last couple years.
[22:02] And considering the report from the nutritionist that came from
[22:05] the club, my worry and honest prediction and guess is that
[22:08] these guys start dropping like flies.
[22:10] And I hope I'm wrong, don't get me wrong, but it's just if the
[22:13] trend continues, it's gonna be like like Bilbao, remember when
[22:16] we played? Well, Trent's out and then the
[22:18] season's over for a couple months then and that's my big
[22:21] worry. And that includes even Vinnie
[22:22] and Bape when they run that hard.
[22:24] Well, also keep in mind now that we're out of the Copa, the only
[22:28] good part in silver lining is that we're not gonna be playing
[22:30] every three days very soon for a number of weeks.
[22:34] So I think that's gonna be super helpful that we're only gonna be
[22:36] playing twice a week or a usual time of the season, which our
[22:41] schedule is extremely congested, right?
[22:44] So that's going to be 1 difference.
[22:47] And again, if we can get this next victory against Benfica in
[22:52] the Champions League and we continue to compete with bars of
[22:56] where we're at, don't understate the mental element of this.
[22:59] Yep, we're we're also going to be able to bring in more
[23:03] rotation pieces. Look at Franco Mastanthuano
[23:05] today, right? Rodrigo wasn't even on that
[23:07] field. Imagine we we can now rotate if
[23:09] any, with the Rodrigo A Gonzalo with Mbapa in certain games.
[23:13] I also think this is the time you get through these critical
[23:17] next 7-8 games and there's going to be some time to bring in some
[23:23] rotation pieces. But the biggest part was just
[23:25] getting everybody pulling in One Direction.
[23:27] So you can even talk about doing that because the problem that
[23:29] Shavi was having for the last two months was he was coaching
[23:32] not to get fired. And that meant he was throwing
[23:35] all his chips against the wall. And Arvilo essentially had to
[23:40] start off of that premise right where we were just doing
[23:43] anything to survive. If he can get this, get through
[23:46] this period of just survive, build the confidence, then you
[23:50] start to get into the OK. How do you tinker and rotate and
[23:54] get the best out of all the players when you're gonna need
[23:56] it come March in the in the big Champions League match up that
[23:58] comes up right? I think February, if we can get
[24:01] to February, I think it'll be a good time for us to to kind of
[24:05] wind down a bit and and rotate. I will say I don't think Militao
[24:09] is gonna be having it. Like, I just don't think these
[24:13] recurring injuries and coming back and expecting them to play
[24:15] well, I think thinking Militao has it this season is exactly
[24:19] why we're in this situation because we didn't plan for the
[24:21] fact that he wouldn't like we expected him to play week in,
[24:24] week out. Trent is the unplanned one that
[24:26] I agree. We hope you know, I was saying
[24:29] if he doesn't get healthy soon starts reminding me of a certain
[24:32] Belgian, but I'm just kidding though, He because Trent, Trent
[24:36] can like honestly lose his pace and still be an effective player
[24:38] because he can pass that players who are that's not true of.
[24:42] I'm more concerned of and that's why these fast twitch guys on
[24:45] the team, Vinnie Fede and Bape, I'm concerned about their
[24:49] health. As far as I I do think
[24:52] football's evolved a little. I I just do think it's evolved.
[24:55] I think that's my hypothesis this season.
[24:57] Football's evolved the overall injury prevention mechanisms at
[25:01] the club and fitness. I don't think they're good
[25:04] enough and I think Pintas has. I think we kind of saw the
[25:07] Pintas effect maybe today I think, but it's a mix of Pintas
[25:11] and psychology. I just wonder if the Pintas
[25:14] effect doesn't actually fully go and when the psychological stuff
[25:17] wears off, you have a chip in the road soon.
[25:20] Maybe you have a game where Mbapi is tired and doesn't run.
[25:24] Do you sub him off? What's R below are going to do
[25:25] then? Because honestly, like he didn't
[25:27] even have to think about that today.
[25:28] They're in minute zero to 90. But you're you're drawn one one
[25:32] against Celta Vigo. Vinnie and Vape are like not
[25:34] running anymore. Who are you taking off?
[25:37] How are you handling their egos? For me, we haven't even come
[25:40] close to playing a team that's gotten us there yet.
[25:43] That's my big concern. And hey, if he deals with it,
[25:47] well, I think we can go somewhere.
[25:49] I also think there are worlds where the first big obstacle
[25:51] could end our Season 2. You know, it's like we're in
[25:53] that weird timeline where things could completely fall apart,
[25:55] too. It's like high floor, high,
[25:57] high, low floor, high ceiling team.
[26:00] That's exactly what this is. It's a low floor, high, high
[26:03] ceiling team. You, you hit the nail on the
[26:04] head. You never know how this set of
[26:08] players is going to react to animosity and pressure.
[26:11] We've seen many times over the last 18 months this team not
[26:16] respond to the pressure well at all.
[26:18] I think today they did actually respond to the pressure even
[26:21] though we know this wasn't the most high stakes environment.
[26:23] And that's obviously everyone's concern is like, what does this
[26:26] look like in a high stakes environment when tough decisions
[26:30] need to be made? Will our Biloa have the cojones
[26:33] to do what he needs to do to get the best result for the team?
[26:37] The jury's out. We don't know.
[26:38] But what we do know is, and this is at least the things that are
[26:42] in his control is can you build good relationships with the key
[26:46] players in the locker room? Well, Vinny went over and
[26:48] celebrated with him today. That's a good sign, right?
[26:51] And Bob is sprinting back after giving up the ball after 80
[26:55] minutes to go recover it. That's a good sign for me,
[26:58] right? Like, I like to see the action
[27:00] speak louder than the words to your point Will or below and
[27:04] make that tough decision when he needs to.
[27:05] But we'll find out. But in the meantime, is he
[27:10] taking a grip of the things that are in his control and in and at
[27:13] least making an impact there? And I think so far you can say I
[27:20] don't love his press conferences.
[27:21] I'll be the first one to come out here and and say it.
[27:24] But listen. But listen, there's a method to
[27:27] everybody's madness. OK, There there is.
[27:31] I, I don't have to love it either, but something's working
[27:34] there where he's getting the players to to buy in.
[27:37] He's backing them through and through.
[27:38] He said he's going to back Vinny through and through, even based
[27:41] on current form. Well, guess what?
[27:43] If that's what these players need to go win as a Champions
[27:45] League, then do what you got to do are below.
[27:48] I I do what you got to do for now.
[27:50] That's all I'm saying. It's a I'm I'm just concerned in
[27:53] terms of weighing so much like the renewal, the future of our
[27:57] project entirely based on how these games with the new coach
[28:00] with Pintas randomly go like randomly because they can kind
[28:04] of bounce randomly and basing too much on what you want to do
[28:07] next year, the next two years on what happens is risky.
[28:10] But hey, if we achieve something, no doubt it'll be
[28:12] awesome. It's it.
[28:14] It will take a lot to achieve something though, if we do.
[28:17] I guess the fundamental belief I have is that like 2016 was a
[28:19] good team, like a much stronger team than this.
[28:21] That's my fundamental belief. But we are the best transition
[28:24] team in the world. So let's go over some gossip
[28:27] real quick cuz there's been so much going on in terms of Perez
[28:31] fake Madridistas. You know, if you guys listen to
[28:35] this show, some of you all are fake Madridistas.
[28:37] So thank you all for being fake with us according to a lot of
[28:39] people and hey all you haters you've so-called real
[28:43] moderadistas who are really only online who the burnabout didn't
[28:46] agree with because last Saturday welcome to YouTube but are below
[28:50] a long term deal not given is the rumor to some others
[28:53] according to athletics near are below have been saying he's here
[28:56] for longer but reports also say we're looking elsewhere.
[28:59] What's going on? Did he sign a two year deal?
[29:01] Is it like a clause if he wins a trophy?
[29:03] What have you heard? That's actually a good question.
[29:07] Depending on what source you see.
[29:09] Some folks are saying his contract goes until the end of
[29:12] next year. Some folks are saying he's on a
[29:15] paper play contract. Is that why he has to like stop
[29:21] in front of the cameras and shit and look?
[29:23] At the and and read Florentino Perez's direct statements in
[29:26] press conferences. I mean, at the end of the day.
[29:30] I think it would be wild though. Man, that would.
[29:34] Be listen, they gave Chavi a three-year deal and he was out
[29:37] after six months. So at the end of the day, right,
[29:40] his contract is going to come down to his results.
[29:42] If if he can repeat 2016, the guy's getting a long term
[29:46] contract and I hope everybody is fully aware of that.
[29:49] That's how it works. Game to game is hilarious
[29:51] though. Man's fighting for his paycheck.
[29:56] Hey I mean honestly, no I get it.
[29:57] And I just think again, the contradictory reporting is
[30:00] funny. Like they couldn't even be real
[30:01] about whether a job he got sacked.
[30:02] And I just think ultimately on some level, it undermines the
[30:05] coach when everything is not transparent on some level.
[30:09] Any any thoughts on transfer rumors now?
[30:12] Like, irrespective of how we do, you know, everyone's talking
[30:15] about Will Gulair work in bigger games.
[30:17] And that all comes back to how are we going to turn on the bond
[30:20] bigger games? Who are we going to sign this
[30:22] summer to help us with that, irrespective of who we win?
[30:25] Some names I'm going to throw at you, Keema, Nico Paz.
[30:28] I think Nico Paz is obvious. Rodri Key Smith seems kind of
[30:32] obvious. And then Petinia.
[30:34] Any thoughts on those names? Anything in the Grapevine?
[30:36] Yeah. Well, I know the latest on Rodri
[30:38] is that he got a red card today, so.
[30:40] And they took a no. Yeah, Yep.
[30:42] So he's, he's been, I think collecting solid 6 point fives
[30:46] on every rating score out there for quite some time.
[30:50] Actually. I think I saw something today
[30:52] was like for well over 15 or 20 games.
[30:55] So I think for me, I'm out on Rodri.
[30:57] Do you think I hope the club also is as well?
[31:00] I don't think, especially if you look at the makeup of our team,
[31:03] we wanna play transition. I don't think he's going to his
[31:07] health will hold up. I don't think he's what we need
[31:10] in the midfield at this point in time because he he can't stay
[31:14] healthy enough. If we complaining of this much
[31:16] about Kama Vinga not being healthy, Roderick gives me even
[31:20] more concern on the camera front.
[31:23] Camera front, pay attention in that space.
[31:28] It's been something that I think in the beginning of the season,
[31:30] no one considered. However, he's made the
[31:34] conversation. It's almost like Nico last year
[31:37] where the conversation just continued to grow throughout the
[31:39] season. Keep an eye on that piece.
[31:43] I know the club wants to potentially bring in a player to
[31:47] play in the pivot. I don't know if that's camera or
[31:50] not, but that seems to be what they're looking for in
[31:53] particularly. There's a rumor that they want
[31:55] someone who actually plays in front of the pivot who can also
[31:57] play between the lines like a mod, which I read, and that
[32:00] would mean Vitinia. I would love to steal Vitinia,
[32:03] but I don't know if Perez is still.
[32:04] I don't know if Perez has it in him to take it from Nasser too,
[32:07] who's like so vindictive, but. So the what I've heard on
[32:12] Vitinia is first and foremost, I don't know how possible or
[32:17] plausible it is because in France there are no release
[32:21] clauses as we found out with Mbappe the hard way.
[32:24] But what I do know is that Vitinia recently did an
[32:27] interview with a journalist out of France who was the same guy
[32:32] who reported Vitinia's release clause over the summer
[32:35] initially. Remember when we first heard the
[32:37] eighty $90,000,000 release clause.
[32:39] To my knowledge, Vitinia, Jorge Mendez have not denied those
[32:44] rumors at all. And that we have to go and do an
[32:45] interview with that guy is a bit, it's a bit kind of like,
[32:49] okay, like I'll raise my eyebrows there.
[32:51] And the other thing about that journalist name, and I don't
[32:54] wanna mess, I don't wanna butcher his name.
[32:55] That's why I'm not saying I don't, I, I really don't wanna
[32:57] butcher it. But this was also the same
[33:00] journalist who reported the Ryan Turkey news and the yes, the
[33:05] release clause for Turkey specifically.
[33:08] I remember that now. Yeah.
[33:10] Wait, who is this journalist now?
[33:11] I got We got to hear it. Yeah, we got to look him up.
[33:14] But but I do Diaz. In Marsa.
[33:17] No, no, no. It's a, it's, it's a French
[33:19] journalist. I know that.
[33:20] Gotcha, gotcha. I would love Petina.
[33:23] I would. Love.
[33:23] I would love Petina too. That's a perfect signing he's
[33:26] got. And I've been saying this for a
[33:27] while, Keith Smith is a project. As talented as that kid is, he's
[33:32] a project. If you want to bring him in,
[33:35] fine, I guess. However, we already have Nico
[33:38] boss, we have Art de Guler, we have Jude Bellingham.
[33:41] If so many players that play that that same position, I
[33:43] understand he might be the next Kevin de Bruyner.
[33:45] Like everyone is saying, however, Itinia is ready to play
[33:50] now. Plug and play, not a project
[33:54] player that's ready to win right now.
[33:56] He fits the profile. Everybody loves to talk about
[33:58] the profile, but I also think it's very cliche for everybody
[34:01] to talk about the profile now. It's like very easy now it's
[34:04] mainstream to talk that Madrid need profile.
[34:07] But if they were, hey, the fake Madridistas heard about it
[34:09] months ago. Though, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[34:11] If you were early on it, fine, But I'm saying like now it's
[34:13] like it's like the end thing to talk about Madrid needs profile.
[34:16] It's like, yeah, we know Madrid needs profiles, captain,
[34:17] obviously. We also got it wrong last summer
[34:19] when we said Trent Hoyson and Carreras we're gonna do it all
[34:22] but. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we, we got it
[34:24] wrong that that. And by the way, if there's any
[34:28] player I'm like today didn't really like move the needle for
[34:31] me is Dean again. I think a lot of his defending
[34:34] was not great. I mean, Balagan is not the best
[34:39] striker. He's.
[34:40] Just slow man. And yeah, I mean, this is
[34:43] another improvement by the way, But I by the way, just because
[34:45] you mentioned Dean, I just wanted to say that.
[34:47] And I know I didn't. I didn't get to say it earlier,
[34:49] but I wanted to make sure it was said.
[34:50] I was not that impressed with him.
[34:52] He was. Still good in possession is
[34:53] what's interesting. And he's still.
[34:56] So and where it goes for me though, and the name you didn't
[34:58] bring up in terms of transfers is, you know, Nico's teammate
[35:02] over in Como, Jacobo Ramon. I think if the season continues
[35:07] the way we're going, he's got a shot to come back because we
[35:11] need a center back, right? We're probably going to go into
[35:14] the market, in my opinion, and go and get a center back that
[35:17] that's going to cost us a good amount of money.
[35:20] But if you have Jacobo right there, who's already ranked a
[35:24] top five U21 defender in Europe at this point in time?
[35:28] I think we. I think we get him.
[35:30] I think him, Kima, Nico, Paz just seem like no brainers I
[35:33] think. It's a no brainer.
[35:34] Like all together it's gonna cost us less than 30 million for
[35:36] three players. Like why would you not do that?
[35:39] I think the question to your point then becomes what do we do
[35:43] for that, that other type of profile, essentially a better
[35:48] version of Sabios if we can get Sabios out of here and bring in
[35:52] a much better version of Sabios cuz I'm not hear about Enzo and
[35:56] crows. Did you hear about Enzo?
[35:57] Is there a rumor there? You know, the thing with Enzo is
[36:01] there's been smoke for a while with Enzo.
[36:04] It's just like Cruz, if we can mold him into that, he plays the
[36:07] same zone, just saying he could do the same things.
[36:09] I'm a big fan. I've always been a big fan of
[36:12] Enzo. I think he's got the right
[36:14] cojones to put cojones. And I want to say it like we
[36:17] need players. Forget the ability wise your
[36:20] your profile. I want warriors on the field
[36:22] again, right? Like I want guys who are going
[36:24] to go out there and give me that spirit of Juanito.
[36:27] We're going to go out there, bring Madhuri these mole.
[36:30] We're going to be annoying be the Sergio Ramos and Pepes.
[36:33] We have none out there. We have not a single one out
[36:35] there who's just going to. Yeah.
[36:37] We don't. Get in full time.
[36:40] Is hurt. And that's what I'm saying.
[36:42] So that that's really why I like Enzo because he also can.
[36:45] He's so versatile in the midfield, He's one on the
[36:49] biggest stages. He may not.
[36:52] I know Chelsea fans complain a lot about Enzo, but I also think
[36:56] he's going to look a lot better in La Liga than he looks for
[36:58] him. I do want to say that because I
[37:00] just want to address these comments coming in hot saying
[37:02] he's overrated, not a controller box to box.
[37:04] Just want to touch that Chelsea ruined Enzo.
[37:07] I don't know how to say it. Enzo going there and not coming
[37:10] to us. It's like Killian staying at PSG
[37:12] two more years. It just screwed his career for
[37:14] no reason. Like the only thing he could
[37:15] have got maybe is money or something, but Enzo was ruined.
[37:19] Imagine if Cruz was turned into some box to box.
[37:21] Like imagine if they asked Cruz to play the Judd role.
[37:23] That's what they do sometimes to end SO.
[37:25] I've seen him on the left wing, right wing at Chelsea.
[37:28] Like, wait, what's? Going on, and you know what's
[37:30] crazy, the first season when he got there was the only time it
[37:33] was decent and it was already kind of off.
[37:35] Each progressive season they made him run more induced
[37:38] injuries. Listen, Enzo needs to not be
[37:39] sprinting around. He needs to play in a pocket,
[37:42] kind of be spraying passes. But I thought I put it out there
[37:45] that I think Enzo's awesome. Listen, he's just not worth
[37:48] anything near what Chelsea bought him for.
[37:50] Yeah, that was and I think that's why it's, it's like
[37:52] you're talking 100 million, absolutely not like 120 +
[37:56] 1,000,000, no way. That's that's too much money for
[37:59] him. Yeah, get us Enzo, like force
[38:02] your way out for half and you'll win Champions Leagues, man.
[38:04] I'm telling you, just just force your way out somehow, buddy.
[38:06] I mean, I don't know how you do that from your 15 year contracts
[38:10] out there, but. Well, and and you know, we get
[38:13] the smoke about Enzo every couple months.
[38:15] To me it seems more of like one of those inevitable things.
[38:18] Someday. Yeah, I, I think it just, it
[38:21] feels inevitable. There's certain players where
[38:23] like we just continue to get linked with them and usually
[38:26] they end up at Madrid at some point in time.
[38:28] That makes sense. One thought I want to bring up a
[38:34] lot of people coming at us for what we think about Vinnie.
[38:38] I will say Vinnie is in some ways a victim of Perez not being
[38:40] hard. And the reason some people are
[38:42] upset about Perez not being hard in general on Vinnie, Like there
[38:46] was the whole clip of Arbaloa asking Vinny what they should do
[38:49] should they find players for coming late.
[38:51] Some people look at that like, good, he's giving the captain
[38:54] confidence. Other people, including me,
[38:56] frankly, are looking at their like, OK, I don't know if
[38:58] Vinny's the one who should be deciding that.
[39:00] I think you run by what it could be for him.
[39:02] What I think you run it by him. But kind of letting him take
[39:05] creation of the choice felt crazy.
[39:06] And that ties into the idea that Perez, no question, has been
[39:09] softer on not only Vinny but Mbappe and his entire generation
[39:13] of stars that he signed more than he was on Cristiano Ronaldo
[39:17] because Cristiano Ronaldo was signed by Ramon Calderon.
[39:20] And Cristiano Ronaldo being treated that way is the legacy
[39:26] of the 20 tens for us. We we've held him right.
[39:29] We didn't let him take over like Messi.
[39:31] We sold him for 100 million after winning A3 beat.
[39:33] That is pairs of the crowning jewel.
[39:35] And I just worry that he's kind of compromised on some of those
[39:38] principles because he signed these guys because he has an
[39:40] affinity to them. And I just think that business
[39:43] principles being used for Ronaldo is what helped us as a
[39:46] club. We, we didn't treat him as a
[39:48] home, as a Family Guy who gets to control things like Messi.
[39:51] We didn't let it turn into Club de Amigos.
[39:53] And I just worry it's becoming a little Club de Amigos right now.
[39:55] Like the way you described it, it sounds like when Barcelona
[39:58] stars used to decide how they train under Ernesto Valverde.
[40:00] And I'm concerned in that regard.
[40:04] I agree, but I also want to be cautious and like Jorge Valdano,
[40:07] I think had a had a good quote that came out today that we just
[40:09] have to be we have to be cautious of the bad actors who
[40:14] are taking advantage of the opportunity to continuously put
[40:20] out narratives that are anti Madrid.
[40:24] A lot of folks are seizing the moment to criticize how the club
[40:30] is run, the fact that we are creating the holding company.
[40:35] And there's been a lot of negativity, I think recently
[40:38] being pushed that isn't organic. And I think it's pretty clear as
[40:43] day that a lot of this isn't as organic as some folks make it
[40:47] out to be. Now, granted, folks who were
[40:49] previously angry, it now fits their their narrative and their
[40:52] bias. So they feel justified.
[40:54] So like, yes, look, we've been right the whole time.
[40:57] There are also socis that have, they definitely have grievances
[41:01] that can be justified. I'm talking about what you're
[41:04] hearing outside of the burnabout, a lot of social media
[41:07] narratives being pushed that are swaying fans in certain
[41:10] directions, and we're also just getting pure fake news that's
[41:13] coming out. Where where do you mean?
[41:14] Because like the burnabout is angry, right?
[41:16] So the people in the burnabout are not they're they're not
[41:19] fake. Or do you think there is like an
[41:21] artificial thing there? Because I think that sounds
[41:23] organic from what I've gathered. Or what do you think that's not?
[41:25] No, I agree. I think the burnabout is
[41:27] organic. I'm saying outside the
[41:28] burnabout, I want to be clear. Outside the burnabout stuff like
[41:31] floating online, stuff coming out through Marca and us, and as
[41:36] you know, we've discussed certain journalists and whatnot
[41:38] that are putting that are putting a lot of articles out
[41:42] that seem to portray bad player behaviors and alluding to
[41:48] galacticos of early 2000s. Jude's a drunk Vinny.
[41:52] You can't control and bop. It does his own thing, yeah.
[41:55] Bop a super tough thing with the guard of honor, which was just a
[41:58] debunk later. I think that was a good.
[41:59] Example, right, right. So we have to be careful, right,
[42:01] to make sure that we're also filtering out the bad actors,
[42:06] doubling down on inorganic negativity, right?
[42:09] That. And that is where I think
[42:11] Valdano's quote today was, was pretty interesting on that
[42:15] speaking about how you know, or I know our below addressed it
[42:19] head on as a coach. And at first I was a bit
[42:20] critical. But but then again, you kind of
[42:23] take a step back and you realize, yeah, there's there's a
[42:26] lot of negative stuff coming out.
[42:27] Remember, Tabas doesn't like us. The Spanish association doesn't
[42:30] like us. There's a lot of negativity
[42:33] coming out and questioning what's going on, right?
[42:35] Well, didn't Baldano say, I thought his quote today was that
[42:38] you should not be telling them who's a moderista?
[42:41] Not which I agree. I think that's the slipperiest
[42:43] slope in history. I think that you're near the end
[42:44] if you're saying that, frankly, like Florentino saying that
[42:47] while like the Bernabeu people paying to go to the game are mad
[42:51] and Florentino on some level is calling those people I don't
[42:55] like, like the optics is there, right?
[42:56] Like on some level you're calling your own fans who care
[42:59] about the club fake fans. And I think, I'm sure there's a
[43:03] blend, but I guess they're coming from such different
[43:05] places. So it's interesting, like
[43:06] Bernabe, Algon fans and people who care for a long time are mad
[43:09] at him. But on the flip side, I guess
[43:11] you have the fake stuff, but don't you think it's a slippery
[43:14] slope? Waldando said.
[43:15] It's a slippery slope as far as I can tell.
[43:17] Yeah, I think to be fair, it is a slippery slope.
[43:20] And fully agree, telling Rihanna good fans who's a real fan and
[43:24] who's not. Sorry, Florentino.
[43:28] Sorry, Arviloa, you're not the judge of that.
[43:31] And the Bernabeu was a reminder of of that, right?
[43:35] Like fans are gonna decide. What I'm saying though, is there
[43:40] are folks who based on us coming off a trophy list season, are
[43:45] helping put out certain narratives within the media that
[43:48] do say that are just doubling down on the negativity.
[43:51] So when you start to stir that spot and and that that's kind of
[43:55] what I'm saying. And they're they're taking
[43:56] advantage of the opportunity. Now, with that being said,
[44:00] though, two things can be true. Is that happening?
[44:02] Yes. While you can also vehemently
[44:04] disagree with certain things that the board has decided to do
[44:07] over the past several years and still be a Real Madrid fan,
[44:10] those things can be true. We don't have to take extreme
[44:12] positions on all this stuff. And that's the that's where I
[44:15] think the bad actors take more advantage of it.
[44:17] It's just trying to create the vibe.
[44:19] They're not here because they're Real Madrid fans, right?
[44:22] They're here to stir the drum. Oh, you guys are mad at the one
[44:26] thing Florentino did great. Let's put out three articles and
[44:30] and OS over the course of the next week, tripling down on it,
[44:33] right? All of a sudden we have sources
[44:34] that don't have sources, and that's been a big thing.
[44:37] A lot of sources are getting exposed this season.
[44:39] Yes, they are by putting out fake lineups or getting told
[44:42] that this player is gonna start and purposely the opposite thing
[44:45] happens. And I think some of this is is
[44:48] by design because there are a lot of a lot of bad actors that
[44:52] are that are colluding. Like, let's be honest, it's like
[44:55] Real Madrid is hated by a lot of people in Spain and you're
[44:58] seeing a lot of collusion against us within the media.
[45:01] The, I think it's interesting because the burnabout, some of
[45:05] it did fall prey to that in the sense that Judo's booed and on
[45:07] some level you'd assume drunk Jude had gotten out to the
[45:10] burnabout. And, and I, I've said very
[45:14] clearly on the real deal multiple times, we judge Jude by
[45:16] his actions on the pitch. And so I've never been mad at
[45:19] Jude. I'm happy at the whistles, but
[45:21] it's like, because I'm not mad at Jude, I don't even register
[45:23] it, you know, if that makes sense.
[45:24] I'm just like, OK, it is what it is for me.
[45:27] Like I feel like the incident that the Bernabeu latched onto a
[45:30] lot is Vinicius. My understanding is a lot of
[45:32] them were mad at him for affecting the relationship with
[45:35] Alonso directly. I will say this, I think there
[45:37] are fake and real reports what happened happened and I hope
[45:40] things go well the rest of the season.
[45:42] But at the end of the day, there was a lot of friction.
[45:44] Vinny's camp chose to behave in a certain way.
[45:46] And there are some things that are true.
[45:48] And it's if you know some people when you organize an
[45:51] organization, when you analyze an organization, like at the end
[45:54] of the day, there is the Pareto principle, if you've ever heard
[45:56] of it, like 80% of your problems, your bottleneck can be
[45:59] solved by looking at 20% of the issues and fixing them.
[46:02] So on some level, I think Vinny was circling around that Pareto
[46:07] at various times. He didn't.
[46:08] He wasn't always there, and I think he got closer to that.
[46:11] But with that being said, I agree that there's this idea
[46:14] that everyone's at fault, something on anyone.
[46:17] Dean Hoisen, Carreras, even like the the young guys after the
[46:21] Athletico game. Yeah, there's been something on
[46:22] anyone, everyone all season. So it is nuanced.
[46:26] I will say this, what I can't take a lot of the like people on
[46:31] Real Madrid seriously when it comes to the agendas against
[46:33] Paris is this. You know, if you talk to anyone
[46:35] in Spain, you also know about the other 18 if you've heard
[46:38] that term. The other eighteen also get
[46:42] screwed over in favor of Real Madrid and Barcelona.
[46:44] It's almost sometimes like the league props up two teams at the
[46:48] expense of the rest. And you know, I'm not a biased
[46:51] Real Madrid fan, just to be honest.
[46:52] Like you might think I'm biased against players and stuff, but
[46:54] fundamentally, like I don't care so much about the team that I
[46:57] can't criticize it. No, I don't.
[46:58] I'm not a blind follower. So to be real, I do think that
[47:01] there have been incidents that have favored us in Barcelona
[47:03] over the rest. So I feel like a lot of the
[47:06] analysis even of Negrera, VAR and I know court dates are
[47:09] coming up for about getting to, but I feel like a lot of the
[47:12] analysis, dude, when I see it from people who are like, hey,
[47:15] like you're anti Madrid if you criticize Perez.
[47:18] All Spanish media is against US. Negrera is the sole reason we
[47:22] haven't won two league titles in 15 years.
[47:25] I'm like, sure, but these people never come at anything
[47:27] rigorously. Like they're not talking like
[47:29] when they talk about tactics, it's like rudimentary when they
[47:32] talk about statistics, like they're not being honest.
[47:34] It's all confirmation bias. You know, it's just like, I want
[47:37] to believe this. I'm not going about it that way.
[47:39] I I know a lot about corruption in football that I will never
[47:42] talk about on this show. And honestly, once you really
[47:45] see the bigger picture, in my opinion, fixating so much on
[47:48] that and not being curious about everything else comes across as
[47:52] myopic. And just a thought I'd put out
[47:54] there because some of the overlap is between chronically
[47:56] online people who are very about the Negrera, like Super Ultra
[48:00] Madrid almost, And they back Perez and Perez wants them to be
[48:04] like he kind of wants that to go through.
[48:05] He wants them to say things. But these are some of the most
[48:07] biased people in history, dude. Like you're not even like being
[48:10] remotely fair in some of your assessments.
[48:12] And just some food for thought with the court dates coming up.
[48:15] I don't know what you think. Yeah, I I agree.
[48:17] And well, that's also why the one journalist, I think who's
[48:20] done a fantastic job being on negative from day one, he's been
[48:24] on this for several years, is Ramon Alvarez.
[48:27] He's got his YouTube channel. I got to give the guy credit.
[48:31] He's he, he hasn't tried to divert attention.
[48:36] He's always been very straightforward, keeping up to
[48:39] date just what is happening, reporting on concurrent events.
[48:43] I think he's the one journalist that I listen to on it, just
[48:49] given the guy was on it from day one, right?
[48:52] It wasn't like he all of a sudden changed agendas because
[48:54] Real Madrid was fluctuating. It was like he was asking the
[48:58] right questions, bringing on lawyers from Spain onto his
[49:01] channel. So if there's anybody who, in my
[49:05] opinion, everyone's biased, we all know this to an extent.
[49:08] Who, who, who does a good job of at least giving me a, a good job
[49:14] of hey, what's going on, what's concurrent and, and what it
[49:18] means. Also an implicates for Spanish
[49:20] law. So with that being said, outside
[49:23] of Ramona Alvarez online, it's all agendas when it comes to the
[49:28] neglada case. I'll be very frank and I see it
[49:31] on both sides. You know, I'm bilingual, luckily
[49:33] enough. So we get as Real Madrid fans
[49:38] thrown around as a matter of convenience when it comes to the
[49:41] greater news, when it's convenient, we get the greater
[49:43] news. When it's not, things tend to go
[49:45] quiet. Then you get the accounts who
[49:48] who bring up the court dates and say the greater news was coming
[49:52] on these dates no matter what. And I'm like, I mean, I guess,
[49:55] but you're also stretching the truth.
[49:58] Like, you know what you're doing by saying that like being
[50:01] you're, you're also not being completely true and diverting
[50:05] attention. And I don't like the ones who
[50:06] who divert the attention because we're not allowed to be as self
[50:11] critical or, or we can't analyze some of the the faults or
[50:17] mishaps at this club. So you have to it's, it's the
[50:21] classic right? Like, oh, you can't look at
[50:24] what's wrong here. So look that way.
[50:25] Look, look at what's going on there.
[50:26] That's even worse. I don't love it either.
[50:29] What I hope for, at least in the case is we get a conclusion this
[50:34] year finally, so we can stop talking about it.
[50:36] It's been several years, good, bad, guilty, not make a decision
[50:41] and go and but we'll get into it here real quick.
[50:44] But you're not wrong and having that feeling especially we're
[50:49] fortunate. We're Americans.
[50:52] We have multiple sports and teams we watch, we watch
[50:55] different leagues, we watch different levels of corruption
[50:58] on different leagues. And, and I've seen it in various
[51:00] ways, whether it's rest betting on games, whether it's deflated
[51:05] balls affecting championships. We've seen all types of things
[51:09] happen in sports, which is why when we what, when we see it
[51:12] happen in football, we can relate.
[51:15] We can understand certain patterns and behaviors that
[51:17] happen and say, OK, this isn't making sense.
[51:21] Like you can, you can, you can, you can kind of draw or infer
[51:24] what you want, but you know, I watched another team do very
[51:29] similar things. All right, So you can't lie to
[51:31] me. This isn't my only team.
[51:32] And I also think to your point, because you mentioned the
[51:35] chronic online fans, there's also a sector of Real Madrid
[51:39] fans who all they do is watch Real Madrid only.
[51:43] And this is all the what can you blame them?
[51:46] Not not really. I understand why you love Real
[51:50] Madrid. It's the greatest club, greatest
[51:51] sporting institution in the world.
[51:53] I, I love Real Madrid too #1 for me.
[51:56] But if you have no other reference points, you see how
[51:59] you can get drawn into a bubble really quick, because this is
[52:01] all you see in here. Is that a higher percentage of
[52:04] our fans than ever right now? Because I mean, honestly, no,
[52:07] no, it's not. I take that back it.
[52:08] Was no. No, definitely not.
[52:10] Omar Vin used to fight the same fights with me back in the 20
[52:13] tens. Now I'm fighting it with Lakante
[52:14] and the boys here. We're all fighting.
[52:16] We're. All fighting, we're all fighting
[52:17] the good fight. You know, it's funny, you know
[52:19] it's funny. I speak my mind a lot, but Om
[52:22] used to always we used to go back and forth and almost bigger
[52:24] than me. And part of the reason was like,
[52:26] I would say things to him in DMS. He's like, you're right.
[52:28] But if I said that, I would get slandered by all the managing
[52:30] Madrid people and all the Real Madrid people and only had a
[52:33] level of that awareness to like, he kind of knew what the fan
[52:36] base was saying. But it's just interesting
[52:38] because that's partly what allowed him to speak to them
[52:40] because he just didn't poke them in some ways.
[52:43] I mean, he still did, don't get me wrong, but he knew how to do
[52:45] it more humorously. He knew how to maybe keep some
[52:49] of his takes away from the public of that bubble.
[52:52] But I'm all used to get into fights with that bubble too.
[52:54] And it's just funny, there's, there are two different types of
[52:57] Real Madrid fans or there are many different types.
[52:58] There's like the fan that just watches this team.
[53:01] Then there are fans that like like sports and kind of this is
[53:05] like the cherry on top of their cake and they and it really
[53:08] completes it. And hey, I mean, personally, I
[53:11] would fall asleep watching the same team, man.
[53:13] Oh God. Like, because I'm, I'm
[53:15] interested in learning. And I think fundamentally like
[53:18] you're trapped in a bubble. If you watch one team, you don't
[53:20] understand it. And that's actually Mike De La
[53:22] Rosa of Thinking Basketball, the video coordinator.
[53:25] He's told me this, the boy, he told me and I, you know, I think
[53:28] about all the time doing the show.
[53:29] He just said once you box yourself into one team, it's
[53:31] hard to take you seriously. And the only reason I boxed into
[53:33] one team is because this team makes no sense man.
[53:37] That's what I'm saying, like Arvoloa and and this team, the
[53:41] effect, it makes no sense. But guess what?
[53:43] That's why I love Real Madrid, like it reminded me today and
[53:46] that's what I'm saying. The team gave me and back to the
[53:49] first word of the day sensation. This team gives me a sensation
[53:52] when the sensations are good at Real Madrid, there is no other
[53:56] team that I root for that can give me this feeling that it's
[53:59] like, I don't know, I can't explain what's going on, but I
[54:03] know it's a good thing, you know?
[54:05] And, and like that sometimes to me, I like the unknown and
[54:09] that's what I love about Real Madrid.
[54:10] I love being able to not explain why we get over that hump,
[54:15] because you can't repeat this formula, can't AI this, you
[54:19] can't ask Chad. No, you can't.
[54:21] You can't replete this formula. Definitely not.
[54:24] It's it's a singular formula for sure.
[54:26] All I'll ask for the season going forward is listen, if the
[54:30] season's over, don't drag it, OK?
[54:32] We need, we need to figure out our health football gods like
[54:34] don't don't drag us to April, have us losing the semis, lose
[54:37] the players to injuries and screw our next season.
[54:39] Because honestly, at this point, I'm thinking long term, either
[54:41] end the season early or take us all the way.
[54:43] But like, you know, I know that's not realistic.
[54:46] We're probably going to fight in the league a while.
[54:48] We're probably going to get an easy round or two and then only
[54:51] find out if we can make it in the Champions League when we
[54:53] face a real team later, especially if we win next week,
[54:55] which seems likely. So I know it's going to drag
[54:58] out. But that's what I hate because
[54:59] like, man, I just I would just like to get the season
[55:03] concluded. I don't want a heartbreak.
[55:04] I don't want like a Chelsea, you know, like 2021 where like
[55:07] Vinny's playing wingback and Ramos is cooked coming back or a
[55:10] Man City in the bubble and during the during the pandemic
[55:13] where, you know, you think you have all this hope we won the
[55:16] league, we're finally here. And then it's like you guys
[55:18] can't do anything actually, you know?
[55:21] There's well and looking around Europe, looking at the landscape
[55:24] again, I'm not seeing too many teams who are that much better
[55:30] than Real Madrid by tenfold. I I'm sorry, there's there's not
[55:33] that many. You can probably name them on
[55:35] three fingers at. Most G Byron Arsenal are very
[55:39] clearly better. Man City are trash honestly like
[55:41] healthy we could have beat them like they just weren't good but
[55:44] even problem. But what was our problem?
[55:46] We had the wrong like we just we're not there mentally.
[55:50] Well, Mbappe was out that game, to be fair, I will say this, the
[55:53] one game Mbappe has been out under Arbiloa, we had no
[55:55] offense. I still need to see it happen
[55:57] without him to fully believe it. Like it's it's just, you know,
[56:00] just going off the sample of the season, because I will say, like
[56:04] when Mbappe's there, even if Vinny's not clicking, we still
[56:06] have an offense. And if Mboppe is not there, the
[56:09] shoulder on video is higher. But, but the point is, yeah, we
[56:12] didn't have it meant. But but to add to the point, we
[56:15] didn't have it mentally. And they still look gettable.
[56:17] That's kind of my point. Like they suck.
[56:19] Right right right even like in our in our quick 30 day banter
[56:23] era, cuz that's how long it lasts at Real Madrid, some clubs
[56:25] that last 15 years Real Madrid 30 days is a banter era.
[56:28] I hope I. Hope, I hope it's 30 days and
[56:30] not like 18 months going on two years.
[56:33] Ago and and you know what? I didn't even bring up the
[56:36] player I was the most impressed with today cuz he had his best
[56:38] performance as a Real Madrid player so far.
[56:40] And that is the kid who started at right wing, Franco
[56:43] Mastantuano, man, what can I say?
[56:48] I mean, I have his jersey so I'm biased.
[56:49] Let's just be honest. I have to admit my bias when I
[56:52] have it, but this kid talk about impact in many ways and granted
[56:58] his finishing still needs to improve.
[57:00] He should have had. He should have had a hat trick
[57:02] today. Frank who's put Balgia ruined
[57:03] Jabi season. Well, once he stopped being a
[57:09] starter or a season kind of tank, then we.
[57:11] Can, I mean, to be honest, we just need someone who's willing
[57:14] to like stretch the pitch on that side of the ball.
[57:16] Like literally just run to one side when we get the ball and
[57:19] don't stop, don't jog, do not like walk, just Sprint and then
[57:23] run back when we need to defend. And he did that.
[57:26] And for sure, it's been extremely valuable.
[57:28] I mean, at the start of the season, I had multiple tweets
[57:31] saying Franco and Gonzalo will be key for us to win the league.
[57:34] And then we kind of went on a run where even without him, we
[57:37] were still winning. Like when Franco I think first
[57:39] got hurt, we were still winning without him in October.
[57:42] So yeah, it's funny though, things have come full circle
[57:45] with Franco. I am worried though this just
[57:48] getting into actually like getting into Franco though
[57:51] beyond today man he has no burst dog.
[57:53] Like what? He can't beat his man.
[57:56] Well, and. I'm not saying he won't be good.
[57:58] I'm not. I'm not trying to criticize him.
[58:00] Listen, this is a great game. I'm just saying what is he going
[58:02] to be? You know, is he?
[58:03] I don't see him being a right winger long, long term.
[58:05] He's not, in my opinion. I've said this since before he
[58:09] got to Madrid. His first step, right is, is
[58:12] what I've always questioned. I still believe that to this
[58:14] day. He doesn't.
[58:15] He's that's not his natural position, but when you play him
[58:17] on the interior, he has this natural knack for finding spaces
[58:22] and while he may not be fast enough on the wing, he can still
[58:26] get past his man in the middle. Where I think the issue playing
[58:32] with Arda and Bellingham is you have too many players who want
[58:36] to play that central role. It's just too congested.
[58:38] Plus and Bopic dropping in all the time into that hole too.
[58:41] It just it just clocks things up.
[58:43] Could Franco play like a high 8 like Cam role in like a midfield
[58:47] three you think? Well, now you're talking to De
[58:49] Maria role. Now you're talking to De Maria
[58:51] role back in Madrid, right? No I would de Maria I would say
[58:54] cuz de Maria floated wide more like I mean it depends on when
[58:58] De Maria probably played that role.
[58:59] It depends. De Maria played.
[59:00] Every the year we won the UCL. Well, no, I would.
[59:03] De Maria I thought was more of a like a left midfielder who would
[59:07] take on full back duties and cross more and sometimes cut in.
[59:11] But I saw him playing a lot like Marcelo did in the later years
[59:13] during that time. So and Franco would be playing
[59:17] on the right. I think.
[59:17] I don't think Franco can play on his like strong side foot on the
[59:20] left. But well, I mean, I was thinking
[59:22] like, you know, like a David Silva almost if he could do some
[59:26] of that. Obviously he doesn't control the
[59:28] game. But I'm just wondering because
[59:29] like, if you can't beat your man, obviously you're a great
[59:32] ball striker. Can you maybe help us keep the
[59:35] ball in midfield a little bit like messy maybe.
[59:38] I mean, come on, what are we thinking of?
[59:39] Messy like the left footed guy? Old messy, old man, messy role,
[59:42] right? A little more of an old man
[59:43] messy role than a young man. Absolutely.
[59:47] I think the Sky's the limit with this kid, to be frank with you.
[59:50] He can do, you can mold him into so many different roles, but to
[59:54] your point, you have to start eliminating what he can't do.
[59:57] And I think to start with the pure natural winger, I don't
[1:00:01] think that's his long term role. However, if he can.
[1:00:05] At least get minutes this season and that's the role that he can
[1:00:09] get the minutes in. They keep doing it because he
[1:00:11] even provides that natural width that we just don't see on this
[1:00:15] team without Franco being on the field right, in spite of him not
[1:00:19] having that first burst. If you look at the heat maps and
[1:00:23] I know you're gonna. That's what I told me.
[1:00:25] No, he does. He does.
[1:00:27] He clearly disrupts, attracts the ball towards him and forces
[1:00:32] the defense to shift, which also creates more space on the other
[1:00:35] side for Vinny and Boppe to use their speed on.
[1:00:38] And we saw it today, they weren't able to just throw 3-4
[1:00:42] guys on the right hand side every time and essentially
[1:00:45] clawed Vinny and Boppe. They had to shift right.
[1:00:48] The defense had to shift more and even if it just meant
[1:00:52] committing less guys over there, that little difference, as you
[1:00:55] know, at the top level, yeah, that is how we create a goal.
[1:00:58] No, you have to run the lanes, fill the lanes.
[1:01:00] That's why today was great cuz Jude fill in the lane for the
[1:01:02] first goal. Vinny using the lanes when
[1:01:05] presented to him and not like holding onto the ball.
[1:01:08] I am gonna nitpick and watch Vinny with that man cuz if we're
[1:01:11] gonna win playing this way, he has to keep it up.
[1:01:13] Like there's no like if he starts deciding I want to score
[1:01:16] again, we're not winning this way.
[1:01:17] He has to keep releasing people. Franco is amazing at releasing
[1:01:21] him, but today we saw Vinny do it back, which I thought was
[1:01:23] awesome like I was. Like that link up for the goal
[1:01:26] for the Franco goal was and that to me was the moment I was like,
[1:01:30] all right, Vinny, Vinny might he might be buying in.
[1:01:33] Like I think he's bought in. I'll be honest.
[1:01:35] When I saw him make that pass to Franco, that to me signaled, OK,
[1:01:39] Vinny might be bought in. That's a signal to me.
[1:01:42] I think he's bought in, I think he's watched the film.
[1:01:44] I'm just wondering how much it continues and because the main
[1:01:47] thing is growth. Vinny kind of stopped drone as a
[1:01:50] player after 2024. He kind of stagnated a little.
[1:01:52] I think as you get older as A1V1 player, you need to add more to
[1:01:56] your game. If he's going to add those one
[1:01:57] time passes, if he's going to add that vision where he can
[1:02:00] send Franco in behind, that changes a lot because frankly,
[1:02:04] that's what like that guy Yamal is getting praised for over at
[1:02:06] Barcelona. Draw a double pass pass.
[1:02:08] It's always quick release and you know, I was just watching
[1:02:11] the Yamal comps before the game and thinking, damn, I wish we
[1:02:13] released the ball in double s like this and then we got it.
[1:02:15] It was like, oh, Franco releasing the ball just like
[1:02:18] Yamal does it. Cross Amazing.
[1:02:19] Yeah, yeah. It was fun.
[1:02:21] Can we also really quickly talk about Eduardo Kama Vinga?
[1:02:25] One thing about Kama Vinga playing that left back position,
[1:02:29] it seems to be the only left back that Vinnie respects and
[1:02:33] shares the ball with because when he's playing with Garettas
[1:02:36] and Frank G, Vinny doesn't even look left like he.
[1:02:38] We all know this. It's it's useless runs but
[1:02:40] become a Vinga. The ball gets released all of a
[1:02:43] sudden. It's like you trust them.
[1:02:45] So that that's great, but I do think like camo Bingo when he
[1:02:48] came on against the Copa was horrible at left back if you.
[1:02:51] If you yeah, yeah, no, no, I agree, but I'm saying like the
[1:02:53] the point of more so not necessarily Camo Bingo's
[1:02:55] performance individual like great pass for the going all
[1:02:58] that. I'm talking about the trust
[1:02:59] factor that well, that's what I think he has for him, right?
[1:03:02] Seems to have way more trust in playing with Camo bingo over
[1:03:06] there than he has and got it has.
[1:03:07] And that's something we have to look out for at least if if we
[1:03:10] want to win stuff this season, right, is what I'm saying.
[1:03:13] It's like, who does Vinnie trust?
[1:03:14] Maybe play the guy that Vinnie trust over, maybe the individual
[1:03:17] player who's better because that might get us better results.
[1:03:20] I'm worried with mainly with Camo Vinga at left back in terms
[1:03:23] of a Bernardo Silva incident from a few years ago.
[1:03:27] Still haunts me because you know, we bring for land in,
[1:03:29] that's how we win. Camo Vinga was still crucial for
[1:03:33] us coming off the bench as a left back against Chavis
[1:03:36] Barcelona in the first Classico of 2324.
[1:03:39] Then Mendy comes in and then Mendy gets hurt after playing
[1:03:42] six of the last good months of his life and and and it's been
[1:03:48] weird. I will say, I just think, you
[1:03:50] know, in our midfield sometimes looks better with Camovinga and
[1:03:53] then other games it doesn't. It's like he can't take control.
[1:03:56] Like last game he was horrible in midfield.
[1:03:58] I'm just so tired in terms of tracking, like which position he
[1:04:01] can play against, what type of opposition, how many minutes
[1:04:03] he's gotten there this season, how ready he is.
[1:04:05] And in terms of big games, I just worry about him
[1:04:08] defensively, a left back. But hey, if that's what works,
[1:04:10] it works. It's just I think if Vinny's
[1:04:12] bought in, I'll put it this way, then it's going to work with
[1:04:14] Carreras. Dude, just make the pass to the
[1:04:15] run. It's like at the end of the day,
[1:04:17] the guys are open. Like he wasn't making the pass
[1:04:19] to Franco and Mbappe before to the way he was today.
[1:04:22] So if if that's anything to go by, I'm hoping it has nothing to
[1:04:25] do with Camovinga because frankly, if we have to play
[1:04:27] Camovinga, I don't think he has it defensively because Camovinga
[1:04:31] adds too much to our midfield in those games defensively.
[1:04:33] And that's the thing, like 2 XG giving up today.
[1:04:36] I think against those better teams, we're going to have to be
[1:04:38] able to slow the game down a lot more at the halfway line.
[1:04:41] Can't have cameling at left back and Fetty at right back in those
[1:04:44] games. You need, you need Trent, you
[1:04:47] need Carreras. And then you need these guys
[1:04:49] doubling the wingers with them. Damn near.
[1:04:51] Yeah. Like like against Classico,
[1:04:53] right? We had those Carreras, Rodrigo
[1:04:55] doubling up on Yamal, shut him down.
[1:04:57] Am I as confident camelinger against Yamal?
[1:04:59] No. No, yeah, I agree with you on
[1:05:01] that statement. And to your point, right, how do
[1:05:03] we improve having got us out there having trend out there.
[1:05:07] But I also think it's important to make sure that if they're not
[1:05:12] trusted by and Bob Evini and Jude in, in big games that
[1:05:17] matter, I want the guy that those guys trust around them to
[1:05:19] get the best out of those three guys, cuz then we can beat
[1:05:22] anyone. And we all know that, right?
[1:05:24] We all know that. It's just Carreras has been one
[1:05:26] of our best players on the ball outside the Vinnie trust.
[1:05:28] So it's it's interesting cuz even if Vinnie doesn't trust him
[1:05:31] if he's the only one who lets you breathe for 5 minutes.
[1:05:33] The trade-offs are also something to consider just cuz
[1:05:36] you know how calm he's been. Even Classico like every game
[1:05:39] outside that athletico game and that's brief stretch of wobbles
[1:05:42] in October. I thought he's looked really
[1:05:44] strong and also strong into your model.
[1:05:47] Good point. Well, any final rumors here that
[1:05:49] we have to touch on? I think, you know, I think the
[1:05:51] the rumor mill might settle down for a few days.
[1:05:53] I mean, if we next game we lose, it's back.
[1:05:55] But even if we don't win next game because of Barcelona
[1:05:58] dropping points, it's going to be back.
[1:05:59] But you know, take a little breather for a few days.
[1:06:02] Or is there anything else? Yeah, no, honestly, I think we
[1:06:05] can finally take a bit of a breather after the last week and
[1:06:09] a half of motion we were here after losing the second division
[1:06:12] team. Here we are.
[1:06:14] I liked how the bird and a bell seemed to have again realized we
[1:06:20] had to send the message. This game we need to focus on
[1:06:24] trying to back the team mostly. Yes, there was still booze that
[1:06:26] were had as as mentioned by the chat, however.
[1:06:30] Was it on on Vinnie? Like I mean, was it just the
[1:06:32] chat? Did you notice anything too?
[1:06:33] Or Vinnie got booed a bit. That's what I heard, at least
[1:06:36] throughout the game with certain plays.
[1:06:39] But again, when he had that assist, they were super happy
[1:06:42] about Vinny when he scored. You heard the Bernabel,
[1:06:45] Channing, Vinny, Vinny. All in all, we're not here post
[1:06:48] game with the main conversation or topic being around the booze,
[1:06:53] right? The main conversation is there's
[1:06:55] good sensations that have been created by the new atmosphere
[1:06:59] that this that's called interim manager for now, has been able
[1:07:03] to, at least from a high level. I look at it as the pressure
[1:07:08] valve has been slightly released because there was too much
[1:07:11] pressure like we were under the pressure cooker.
[1:07:14] You needed to release some of that pressure.
[1:07:16] This type of result helps go in that direction.
[1:07:20] Now, are we out in the clear yet?
[1:07:22] We have, of course, absolutely not.
[1:07:24] It's not, it's so funny that we could either win the Champions
[1:07:27] League or actually like take three more steps backward.
[1:07:30] It's possible everything could go wrong tactically.
[1:07:32] We take three steps backward and we're back to the booze.
[1:07:34] Or we could win. And that's the Realmeter
[1:07:36] superposition we live in. It's very strange.
[1:07:39] It's a quantum superposition. But you know, we we live in many
[1:07:42] worlds. We live in both worlds at the
[1:07:43] same time. And it'll collapse into the
[1:07:45] reality that we deserve in February this year.
[1:07:49] Hey. But we're also, we have a good
[1:07:51] fans cuz we like, we like living life on the edge at some point,
[1:07:53] right? I mean, if if if you wanted a
[1:07:55] more stable environment or football club, this isn't the
[1:07:58] one for you. Yeah, for sure.
[1:08:00] I, I find a lot of, I find a lot of intrigue in having
[1:08:04] projections of whether A-Team can actually win.
[1:08:06] And it's, I think the draw is everything.
[1:08:08] I will say this, I don't think we can beat multiple of those
[1:08:10] teams that are like that we consider better than us.
[1:08:13] I don't think we can beat 2 of them.
[1:08:15] I think we're like 2016 in that sense.
[1:08:16] If we had to play Luis Enrique's Barcelona and Guardiolas, Bayern
[1:08:20] and Simeone's Atletico all that year, I don't think we make it,
[1:08:24] man. I like it's just harder.
[1:08:25] Like it's just probabilistically changes.
[1:08:28] But we played Wolfsburg, we played Emmanuel Pellegrini's Man
[1:08:30] City, so that's what we need if we were going to go far this
[1:08:33] year. And it can happen.
[1:08:34] That's the thing. If we get an easy draw, it's
[1:08:36] going to be really. Funny, What if we get Alonzo's
[1:08:39] Liverpool? Oh my God, dude.
[1:08:44] Talk about a brain twist there. Oh my God, Hey, at that point,
[1:08:48] like if we you beat him or you're out, Perez, beat him or
[1:08:50] you're out. There we go.
[1:08:53] That'll be a full circle moment, huh?
[1:08:54] You're playing for presidency at that point.
[1:08:56] It's not even forget the coach. Arbolo can stay with the next
[1:08:59] president. Bro you're like you're fired if
[1:09:01] you don't want that one. That's the thing I don't think
[1:09:03] people realize like, you know, firstly, our Below's first three
[1:09:06] halves were shocking. So people, I think there's a
[1:09:08] narrative going around people only read Twitter and don't
[1:09:10] listen to the show and who are probably tuning in hitters now.
[1:09:12] I just want to say reality is like our Below's first three
[1:09:15] halves were bad. At the end of the day, that was
[1:09:17] confirming what we believed about the situation.
[1:09:20] That doesn't mean we want our Below to fail, but when you put
[1:09:23] it all together after those three halves, those were three
[1:09:26] of the worst halves of a new manager effect you could have
[1:09:28] ever dreamed of. It's just objectively true.
[1:09:29] Like 0 percentile type shit. And that's just reality.
[1:09:34] You know how quickly we're willing to accept things can
[1:09:36] change when they do. With that being said, yes, we
[1:09:39] will see tactically if we survive.
[1:09:41] Villarreal. Villarreal is the litmus test.
[1:09:43] If anything is real about this team, we will get glimpses on
[1:09:45] Sunday. Let's just be our Saturday
[1:09:46] whenever we play them. Vinnie quotes just really
[1:09:49] reading them. Reometered fans are the best in
[1:09:51] the world. In the last few games I didn't
[1:09:53] feel comfortable because every time I went out I did something
[1:09:55] wrong and the fans booed me for it.
[1:09:56] There is 0 worry about my renewal.
[1:09:58] I have a good relationship with the president.
[1:09:59] At the right time we will sort it out, comma the press, write
[1:10:02] whatever they want and the fans read it and think they have to
[1:10:04] criticize me and Boo me. Well overall I would say that's
[1:10:08] a better press showing for you than ever.
[1:10:10] Listen, we're mad for reasons. If you show up, we're not.
[1:10:13] It is what it is. Just if you renew on a good deal
[1:10:15] bro, and like help us stay fiscally responsible.
[1:10:18] That's where it's happened. The contract is there, just sign
[1:10:21] it. Ease the pressure even more.
[1:10:23] They don't. Ask for more.
[1:10:25] And but this is also another world to your points, like how
[1:10:27] do things improve? There's actually like a lot of
[1:10:29] things that actually can go right over the next six months
[1:10:31] to your point to win that Champions League, let's say
[1:10:34] Vinny renews, we're in second place in the Champions League.
[1:10:37] We're we overtake Barcelona and La Liga and we at least make it
[1:10:42] to like a UCL semi final. I don't think everybody's
[1:10:47] sitting here saying Real Madrid's over the project's
[1:10:49] failed Life sucks. Sell all the players, all these
[1:10:53] narratives. There's ways to continue to ease
[1:10:55] the pressure. This was one of the first ways
[1:10:58] and tests I think are below what needed to pass.
[1:11:00] Like looking at the coach is like, can you get a definitive
[1:11:03] result early on and get the buying of the players?
[1:11:08] Yes or no right, Yes, he did it. He got a result.
[1:11:12] Now granted, it's not a Champions League knockout, so us
[1:11:16] Real Madrid fans shouldn't be over hyping anything at the
[1:11:19] group stages of the Champions League.
[1:11:20] Let's just be honest. Yes, yeah, that's where just
[1:11:23] sorry, I have to finish reading this quote real quick and we
[1:11:25] should. React, go ahead.
[1:11:26] Yeah, go ahead. But he said I'm getting blamed
[1:11:28] for having Chubby fired. It's not true.
[1:11:30] I can't do anything like that. I'm just on the pitch playing
[1:11:32] and do my best, doing my best. I will say this, like our fan
[1:11:36] told us, the Grapevine from the socios came that ultimately
[1:11:39] Perez felt Chubby didn't control the dressing room.
[1:11:41] And yes, he was coaching to not get fired.
[1:11:43] That's why he got fired. He didn't want players to have
[1:11:45] that much control. And I will admit this like, yes,
[1:11:48] perhaps Chubby did make some mistakes in terms of not
[1:11:50] prioritizing Vinny enough early. All I'll say is this.
[1:11:53] Some of the standards have fallen so far.
[1:11:55] And in my opinion, for those same reasons, I don't think we
[1:11:58] have enough in the tank and I believe we'll see that this
[1:12:00] season. I could be wrong.
[1:12:01] Football's a small margin sport. Things can happen.
[1:12:04] Could be totally wrong, but I do think for that reason things
[1:12:07] won't work. But yeah, if any did say fully
[1:12:10] being booed here really hurt me, understand them, they have the
[1:12:12] right to Boo. But I felt badly hurt.
[1:12:14] I don't want to be booed in my own home where I feel most
[1:12:16] comfortable, Franco Mas Santuano said.
[1:12:19] I'm not the new Messi, but I'm not the worst signing in
[1:12:21] rheometer to history either. I love it.
[1:12:23] That's a great quote. And Franco also came and
[1:12:26] defended you. Franco sounds like the little,
[1:12:28] like, like the little kid who's like not even been on the block.
[1:12:30] Much is coming and smiling and, you know, getting his first
[1:12:33] dress in the media, it's kind of funny.
[1:12:36] He's a very mature player though for his age, I'll say that.
[1:12:40] Love his mentality, so yeah. Yeah.
[1:12:42] But hey, well, like you said, Xavier, if you had to call it
[1:12:45] now, I know you'll be back for will you be back for Benfica?
[1:12:48] Is that on a Tuesday? Yeah, I should be.
[1:12:50] I should be back for Benfica. OK, cool, cool.
[1:12:52] It should be back for It's a Wednesday.
[1:12:54] Cool, cool. Yeah.
[1:12:55] So we'll talk on Benfica about my hot take is that it could be
[1:13:00] piping hot man by the time we're talking again, not to I don't I
[1:13:03] don't root for it. I'm just saying Villa Rio or
[1:13:06] third dude, like they're third. I want to see how we survive it.
[1:13:09] And I guess the flip side of that, though, is like even with
[1:13:12] everything going to shit, Javi did was like a Carreras
[1:13:14] equalizer away from three three against Barson.
[1:13:16] So I know the teams are weird like low floor, high ceiling,
[1:13:19] but also like high floor, low ceiling.
[1:13:21] It's simultaneously like we're not going to dominate the rest
[1:13:23] of the season 6 nil every game against big teams.
[1:13:25] So in that regard, we're low ceiling.
[1:13:27] But my hot take, man, is that, you know, it might be, it might
[1:13:31] be cooking. We might have a lot to talk
[1:13:32] about next week. I my hot take is, yeah, we might
[1:13:35] have a lot of positive things to be talking about next week.
[1:13:37] And that's, that's kind of crazy to think about.
[1:13:40] But man, I just got this. It's giving a lot of sensations
[1:13:45] of early on in 2016, man, like I got to say it.
[1:13:48] And just like and I heard some of my fellow mother's thesis say
[1:13:52] this back in September, they were getting beneath his vibes
[1:13:56] even early on when we were winning.
[1:13:58] And the same guys are sitting here saying it is literally 2016
[1:14:03] and I was fighting them for months about it.
[1:14:07] I was bought into Xavi till the last day.
[1:14:09] These are the same guys who are now like our below is literally
[1:14:13] giving us Saddam's sensations early on.
[1:14:15] And I'm like, hold your horses. But I also told them that they
[1:14:18] were wrong on Shavi. So they might be they might be
[1:14:22] opening up a new page for me. I think the hot thing, my thing
[1:14:24] is this, what if he is the same but the squad is just worse?
[1:14:28] That's my take. And I'm saying if we win, it
[1:14:30] doesn't mean the squad is in a good place or that flow's done a
[1:14:33] good job with the squad. It just means that Europe sucks
[1:14:36] and that our floor is high because of the stars.
[1:14:38] And he's doing a good job, I do think.
[1:14:41] I think it's interesting. You know, it's not everything is
[1:14:43] like about being right, you know, It's just like there's
[1:14:47] this idea that you like. There's this idea that I'm
[1:14:49] saying everything to be right. I'm explaining thought processes
[1:14:52] to like, make football more interesting fundamentally.
[1:14:54] And it could happen. But you know, it's just, you
[1:14:58] know, it's not always about being right, too.
[1:14:59] It's just something I want to put out there.
[1:15:00] It's just about learning. I don't know why people aren't
[1:15:02] curious man. No, I agree.
[1:15:04] And but but what I'll also say about that is that's a great
[1:15:07] problem in conversation for us to be having rather than we lost
[1:15:11] La Liga, we got knocked out in the round of 16 in the Champions
[1:15:15] League and we need to rebuild this entire thing from scratch.
[1:15:19] So good problems to have to your point, like let's find the
[1:15:22] problems because we won everything rather than, hey, we
[1:15:24] lost everything and the problems are obvious.
[1:15:26] Like what else can we do about it?
[1:15:28] The truth is somewhere probably in the middle of there.
[1:15:30] And I guess there's only one way to find out right in about the
[1:15:34] next six months of sample size. Yup Yup well Real Madridistas,
[1:15:38] fake Madridistas, keyboard warriors, socios, assistant
[1:15:42] coaches from clubs, I don't know who's listening.
[1:15:44] Thank you all for tuning in and we will be back for the next
[1:15:49] game very soon. By the way, last thing I want to
[1:15:51] announce is if you want to support us, being very clear,
[1:15:54] it's only $3 a month. If you want a one way support
[1:15:56] us, you can get emojis, you can get loyalty badges and you can
[1:16:01] send a monthly super chat. If you wanna help us run the
[1:16:03] show, we are looking into other ways to make it sustainable.
[1:16:05] It is not a guarantee that it runs forever.
[1:16:07] So hey, if you wanna help support us, go ahead.
[1:16:10] We are gonna be seeing how things go as we talk to
[1:16:13] investors over the coming months.
[1:16:15] Thank you all for supporting. Please, like, subscribe, leave a
[1:16:17] comment, give us feedback. I mean, haters, come, come, come
[1:16:21] attack us. You know, we're here.
[1:16:23] But we will be cutting back hard on how much we engage on
[1:16:26] Twitter. With the way the algorithm is
[1:16:27] just ruined right now, it's not doing much.
[1:16:29] So we're going to prioritize YouTube more going forward.
[1:16:31] So love you all your YouTube folks.
[1:16:33] Thanks for the comments and stay tuned.

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