# Inside Xabi Alonso's Tactical Upgrades

An episode of [The Real Deal: A Real Madrid Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1807821669), 27 Oct 2025, 56 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/103607aa8/podcast/play/110293169/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-9-27%2F410075094-44100-2-f8b91516f523e.mp3

Loconte and Jarod Hector discuss the tactical keys to Xabi Alonso overhauling Real Madrid so quickly without a preseason. After an El Clasico that was in complete contrast to the Atletico Madrid and PSG games earlier in the year, Alonso has clearly implemented many new wrinkles that are starting to come off.

## Transcript

[0:00] Hello and welcome to the Real Deal in Real Madrid podcast with
[0:03] me, Gerard Hector, joined by my guy La Conte.
[0:06] La Conte, what's up? Yeah, feels good 24 hours after.
[0:14] It feels even better 24 hours after Real Madrid's 21 El
[0:18] Clasico win over Barcelona on Sunday.
[0:20] Thank you everyone for tuning in.
[0:22] Please, as always, you know the drill.
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[0:44] there. And thank you guys, as always
[0:45] for tuning in. All right, Lecante, you know, we
[0:49] talked so much about from the beginning of when we all started
[0:54] podcasting together about this over the summer, we talked about
[0:58] how the mindset of this team had to change because we didn't like
[1:01] how we were performing in big games when adversity hits.
[1:04] The team just folded like cheap suits, right?
[1:06] Everybody just packed up and gave up or everybody went into,
[1:09] well, I'll just fix this by myself, individual hero mode.
[1:12] And that never helps the collective, right?
[1:14] And against really good teams, you get your ass kicked.
[1:16] And that's what happened to us, right?
[1:18] We got smashed by good teams last year and I said the biggest
[1:22] thing for me was going into this year was javiolans are going to
[1:25] be able to change the mindset of this team.
[1:28] And that's the thing that's interesting because when you
[1:30] have certain habits ingrained to how you do things, you're not
[1:33] just OK, I tell you to do something new today and then
[1:36] tomorrow you fix it and everything's good.
[1:38] These are habits you have to break and it takes time, painful
[1:41] lessons. And eventually you you, you get
[1:44] better, right? And I thought we're progressing
[1:47] well, but then the athletic game happened and I was like, oh
[1:49] shit, this, this is not looking good, right?
[1:52] Like we seem to revert back to some of our habits.
[1:54] We fought back right? Got it to 22.
[1:56] So basically to start the second-half was a brand new
[1:58] game, but nothing we we, we we folded when adversity hit after
[2:02] that. So I was very curious to see
[2:04] what our mindset was going to be in this Barcelona game.
[2:06] Nell Classico and from forget about minute one from in the
[2:10] tunnel before they even got onto the pitch.
[2:13] The Conte. I saw it in their eyes.
[2:15] I saw it in their faces like they they were hungry and they
[2:18] wanted it from from you meant that whistle blew.
[2:22] They were ready and I was so impressed with their mentality.
[2:26] Talk about it. Yeah, I mean, there are lots of
[2:32] things that help here, right? But representing Real Madrid and
[2:35] just not having that mental edge 'cause this club has been built
[2:39] on that Ramontada type of structure of OK, we come back
[2:43] from adversity no matter what. So it felt, that spirit felt,
[2:49] felt kind of lost. I'm not going to blame anybody
[2:51] that actually questioned whether they have it or not.
[2:54] Because in terms of of bowling, I don't think any of us had any
[2:58] doubts that we are the more talented team.
[3:00] But what we questioned, or what was questioned better said is
[3:06] can these players withstand what is going to be in front of them
[3:10] that is going to make them uncomfortable?
[3:12] Regardless of the situation and what we saw last night,
[3:17] yesterday, however, we want to say it is a team that is capable
[3:22] of dealing with everything. It helps that Alonzo used to be
[3:26] a player. He's gone through some really
[3:29] dark moments as a Madrid player. Therefore he also he's Asia.
[3:34] I think that he's more like a Big Brother rather than a father
[3:37] figure to the players. So his approach and talking to
[3:41] them must be on that manner at least even from the press
[3:46] conference as we get that he doesn't really play that I'm
[3:49] your boss type of role. But he's more like a big bro in
[3:52] those players. So he probably opposed Derby
[3:56] Madrilino. He's definitely used some of his
[4:00] time as the club player to tell the players that, hey, look,
[4:06] I've gone through this. This is what we did back in the
[4:08] day and this what's going to need to be done When the talent
[4:11] is there, you're going to be able to get over the hurdle.
[4:15] And I think that over time this has helped.
[4:18] Like not even for one of the game posts that have we felt
[4:22] that we're not in control. We have lost our mind
[4:26] emotionally, we're struggling. It felt that they needed that
[4:30] game. Like going back to that game
[4:32] Carl Halls interview when it went like this.
[4:34] Loss needs to sting and sting for a long time.
[4:37] Well, now we're seeing like the fruits and the benefits of
[4:41] losing a game like that that early.
[4:44] That so far keyword ended up not having the biggest consequences.
[4:49] Considering how tough our schedule being and the fact that
[4:52] we have basically played Rwanda, unless we match match up against
[4:57] them on the Champions League, we have finished that.
[5:00] So yeah. I think too as we you and I have
[5:03] talked about right, the development under Jabulanto's
[5:06] new project is not going to do this straight line up curve.
[5:11] It's going to do this right. But the hope is that the
[5:14] underlying trend line is going up, which we are pretty sure
[5:17] that it is right and true to many had some had a quote that
[5:22] came out today where he basically said we knew that
[5:25] after the Madrid Derby we had to give more effort.
[5:27] We did that at the end. It's just worth 3 points on to
[5:30] the next, right? And I think they all the one
[5:32] thing athletes are especially the top ones in the elite ones
[5:34] in their sport, they are very honest and self critical.
[5:37] When they were in the locker room, in the dressing room after
[5:40] and Chubby talked to them and they talked amongst themselves.
[5:42] They knew they didn't give the requisite had come with the
[5:45] right energy and effort. They no one had to tell them.
[5:47] It was very well aware. So I think what they had in
[5:49] their mind was no matter what, however this game ends the
[5:52] classical win, lose or draw, no one will say at the end we did
[5:56] not give the requisite effort. No one can say that.
[5:58] And that was very obvious, right, because it was there.
[6:02] And I tweeted about this Lecante about the adversity.
[6:04] When adversity hit, what's going to happen?
[6:06] So they start on the front foot. We see what looks like to be an
[6:10] obvious penalty to me when when La Min Yamala takes down Benny
[6:15] in the box, right, It looks like they're gonna step up.
[6:17] They go to VR, they say no, That's a moment where you can
[6:21] start running to the refs putting your hand up and crying
[6:23] and complaining and OK, move on to right, put it away next,
[6:28] right? The next thing we do is what we
[6:30] score offsides. It's like, but wait, it wasn't
[6:33] offsides for me to hit the ball back to Chesney, right?
[6:36] Like we all saw it. They all know it too.
[6:38] Another opportunity for them to be like, oh, what was me?
[6:40] The refs are against us, right? It's two times we get screwed.
[6:43] No, we're going to go again, right?
[6:45] They kept getting back up. No, we're going to go again.
[6:47] We're going to go again, We're going to go again.
[6:49] And that is the mentality I want from this team.
[6:51] It doesn't matter what the refs do, what other other bullshit's
[6:54] going on. You have to stick to your plan
[6:56] and do what is necessary. And when you do that, good
[6:58] things happen. Yeah, I mean, like, there were a
[7:03] few like recordings from the game that we got from Gold TV,
[7:06] right, on Spain. And there's Venice, right, going
[7:11] and being like, hey, why can't Pedre always complain?
[7:14] But if I complain, I get the yellow card, right?
[7:16] But we're seeing like an internal growth.
[7:19] I know that Venice used his reaction to getting subbed off
[7:22] or wasn't the best, but outside of it, you're seeing an internal
[7:27] growth that's coming with him that wasn't there.
[7:30] A level of where the players provoke.
[7:34] I'm sorry guys, but that's the reality.
[7:36] So we need to, instead of falling prey to them, he's
[7:39] making the opponent start to think of what they're going to
[7:43] do. So basically telling the right,
[7:45] hey, why Pedri without the captain armband?
[7:50] Sorry, can speak to you, but I can't because we know that from
[7:54] the rules, only the captains are allowed to speak to the
[7:57] referees. There's been a rule for two
[7:59] years now. So Vini's just pointing out to
[8:01] hey, this guy's not respecting the rules, but if I do the same,
[8:05] well, he's double standards. So he's putting the ref under
[8:08] pressure too to behave and act accordingly because well, guess
[8:13] what? The referee knows that for the
[8:16] game, Vinicius can bring that up and he can go like I told the
[8:19] ref this and he still didn't act on it even though those are the
[8:23] rules. Therefore, like it's a mental
[8:26] fortitude or we saw him going to a mall, Laminia Mall, like, hey,
[8:30] passing the ball back to the vendors.
[8:32] Really that's all what you're doing.
[8:34] Like, you know, this is a good way to go into the biggest game.
[8:41] Let's be real, biggest game in world of football maybe of all
[8:44] sports maybe, but maybe of all sports.
[8:48] And you're not only taking it calmly when you have the ball
[8:53] and all of that, you're actually using your time to get into
[8:56] their skin. And that when you're performing
[9:00] well and you're doing the shit talk correctly.
[9:03] Because well, to back up the numbers, Vini on the first half
[9:07] when he told that to Yamal had one pass on his own health,
[9:12] while Yamal had 80% of his passes on his own health.
[9:16] So Vini was paying attention to everything that Lamy Yamal was
[9:19] doing. Those things are very important
[9:24] ingredients to make yourself feel superior to your opponent.
[9:29] So now back to what Chomany had. To me, like how I read it also,
[9:33] it feels that they're still not happy with the results that
[9:37] they're getting. Everything has been a victory,
[9:39] by the way, but it feels that they want to crush their
[9:43] opponent. It's not about, OK, we're better
[9:46] than them and we feel really comfortable on the pitch because
[9:49] it doesn't feel that those teams can do much against us.
[9:52] It's also the fact that, hey, we need to transform this comfort
[9:56] that we're filling in into score lines, and those score lines are
[10:00] actually going to allow us to rest a little bit more and give
[10:04] more minutes to the younger players a little.
[10:06] So it's more of like part of the process that the players are
[10:09] acknowledging that, hey, we're going to get there, It's just a
[10:14] matter of time before it starts falling into the right place.
[10:17] And I think that's a brilliant way to sum it up, the Kante,
[10:20] because again, you and I talked about this, you're like, we'll
[10:24] be concerned if the process looks bad.
[10:27] But again, on rewatch of that classical earlier today, which I
[10:30] did, the process is there, man. It is there.
[10:34] You look at the underlying numbers, right?
[10:36] We had an XG of four. And honestly, when I rewatched,
[10:39] the score probably should have been 4/1, right?
[10:41] Like when you rewatch like I was like probably.
[10:44] Higher given the probability of the chance, like the Rodrigo
[10:47] shot, the Venicia shot that just pins through right?
[10:51] It's. Correct.
[10:53] Look, when you're watching it emotionally like yesterday, it's
[10:56] you don't fully pay attention to how dominant Madrid actually was
[11:01] when you go and do the rewatch without emotions, because you
[11:05] know that exactly. I won this game, so I'm calm
[11:08] here. I I just really want to see
[11:11] what's happening. And then you see to just how
[11:15] easy everything fell to the players, like nothing feels
[11:19] forced. Players are very comfortable in
[11:22] their roles. Everybody seems to know what
[11:25] they have to do. Look, are there mistakes in it?
[11:27] Yes, but everybody makes mistakes.
[11:31] It's about how much are we paying for mistakes?
[11:33] We're going to get into those things as we're all in, right
[11:36] the. Mistakes are baked into the
[11:37] game, right? That's sports.
[11:38] Mistakes are baked into that. They happen.
[11:40] That's also what makes the game beautiful.
[11:42] Are the mistakes right and how do you then deal with them?
[11:45] I mean, our whole game plan kinda was more set into having
[11:51] Barsa make mistakes, which they did a lot of them.
[11:54] So it's just as far as execution from the players go and Javi's
[12:02] tactical template for the game, like Javi himself, to quote him,
[12:06] he went like we went for a team that we believed was going to be
[12:11] the best affair. A team that plays like this,
[12:14] which to me sounds like a coach that is willing to change things
[12:19] and adapt, which is something that we have always thought we
[12:22] don't have. A coach that wants to stick to
[12:24] one thing and be like, it's either I'm gonna ride or die by
[12:27] this, right? He probably gets to one point
[12:30] when he has figured out everything.
[12:33] But again, it's really early in the process.
[12:35] Like the first time when we should really speak about how
[12:40] this team looks like a hole is probably on New Year's when we
[12:44] have finished the first part of the season and we have a look
[12:47] into how it has developed and where it's lacking.
[12:51] And to think that this, what they're doing at this point is
[12:53] just incredible. No, it, it, it's phenomenal.
[12:56] And I think that that because of the underlying XG and the amount
[12:59] of shots and the chances that we're creating, I do think that
[13:02] ultimately those goals are gonna start coming.
[13:04] We're gonna start scoring a lot more as time goes on.
[13:07] And again, when you go back to this classical game and again on
[13:11] that rewatch, Lecante yes, at halftime, I think it the
[13:14] possession was basically 50505050 stats at second-half.
[13:18] We knew bars was probably gonna control a little bit more and
[13:20] they did right 'cause it ended up numbers ended up being 7030
[13:23] or something like that. But when you watch that
[13:25] second-half, what clear cut chances did bars had other than
[13:29] the the the Kunde the the Yamata Kunde ball in in in into the box
[13:33] right. None of Madrid kept pushing them
[13:36] out wide great. You can have the ball out here
[13:38] and ticky tack it to your heart's delight, but you come
[13:41] into zone 14 in that middle ain't shit gonna be there
[13:44] because it's clocked. So good luck, right?
[13:45] Like and I just, you were never worried.
[13:48] You were never worried. That's the thing, right?
[13:51] Like we saw a momentum swing pose the penalty mess.
[13:55] That was really clear. But outside of that, really
[14:02] realistically speaking, both. I had one more shot on the
[14:05] second-half with 9 more minutes of extra time, 4 more minutes of
[14:09] actual football being played, but technically it was 9 minutes
[14:13] of extra time. I've always hammered the point
[14:16] for as long as you can keep A-Team wide, feel freighter.
[14:19] And that's what we what we did, OK, we have to do this, this,
[14:25] this and this and this. What they did keep them wide.
[14:29] It doesn't matter for as long as the ball is not entering
[14:31] dangerous areas, you're more than comfortable to just sit
[14:36] there. And when momentum like that's
[14:39] the fear because football is such a game of momentum, right?
[14:42] And we're the kings of it, but we have also had tendencies to
[14:46] suffer from it when the momentum went against us like Shesney
[14:50] saves that penalty of and Bobby, the game is completely swinged
[14:55] for 10 minutes there or so you feel that there is a bit more
[14:58] danger coming. But when you watch it live,
[15:01] right when you watched it live, it felt a lot more than it
[15:04] actually was. Like correct.
[15:06] All what Borsa was doing was get getting the ball to aluminium.
[15:09] All turnover, we get the ball. We weren't doing a good job with
[15:12] the ball during those minutes, correct.
[15:14] But Borsa kept repeating the same thing over and over and
[15:18] over again and just hoping for a moment of.
[15:21] Individual brilliance, yeah. I would say that like, yeah, it
[15:28] was a team very well prepared. Yeah, but that for solve, right?
[15:31] Like we always go back to that because that's when we want it.
[15:35] Like you start with Dean, Dean House and making two mistakes,
[15:39] two big ones. Jumped up too early and then the
[15:41] bad the bad game. The bad pass, Yeah.
[15:45] So he played those first minute like somebody that hasn't played
[15:51] football in a month, which was true.
[15:53] He hadn't played football in a month and the kid is 20.
[15:57] Like something to also remember. He's just a 20 years old kid.
[16:02] That's an adversity in itself when you're making two big
[16:05] mistakes within the 1st few few seconds of the game and it's a
[16:11] game that you're expected to win and your mentality is being
[16:14] questioned. And those LA minimal quotes were
[16:17] circulating completely over the Internet.
[16:21] Team didn't budget at all. They just went like fine, you
[16:24] know? Also he himself not like he
[16:27] shield away from dueling or tempting passes.
[16:31] He just stuck to what he knew. Like the plan from the beginning
[16:34] was pretty clear, bait them out, have that house and carreras
[16:39] left side and try to shift the ball to the right.
[16:42] We were more often than not just using Shamani for those like
[16:46] small little switches to add that extra pass so they can get
[16:50] baited and those right hand side, you know, like we're known
[16:55] as a left sided team. Yeah, but we were doing fun
[16:58] stuff on the right side, like Conde.
[17:00] And it's just on the right, right.
[17:02] And they're getting trapped there.
[17:04] And then yeah, well, Verde, this one, I say like when when
[17:07] somebody is going to bring up the Borsa injuries, Valverde is
[17:11] a great ride back, but he's not a natural ride back.
[17:14] We missed both the ride backs, correct.
[17:17] And Valverde was just missed timing a little bit when he has
[17:21] to switch Savini because the chances for transition there
[17:24] would have been even bigger had Trent or Carve.
[17:27] All of the game, I mean this game was tailor made for peak
[17:31] Trent. If Trent was here doing his
[17:33] thing, you know how many lost those nice through over the top,
[17:37] but the back spin passes, getting the Vinnie and Vinnie's
[17:39] in all alone on the goal. I mean yeah, I'm salivating.
[17:44] I can't wait for one trends back and fully optimized with this
[17:47] team. Exactly.
[17:49] Coming. I made a fun tweet when he went
[17:51] like right winger unlocked. And I'm like, yeah, you were
[17:55] kind of used to that, but you weren't really a right winger.
[17:58] I know what you're trying to do, but those are the Kamavinga,
[18:05] Jude, even Joamaini, Militao, Valverde.
[18:08] Like, look at how many players I'm I'm mentioning that just
[18:12] kept on trapping them. And he's just like, use the
[18:15] body. You know, it's kind of like a
[18:17] screen in basketball. He feels that Alonzo for real
[18:20] went with a more like a basketball routine type of thing
[18:23] where he shrinks down the pitch and he goes like, hey, guys, you
[18:28] need this. So for us to be able to switch
[18:30] and cross it over, we're going to need some screens.
[18:33] We're going to need some players to be able to beat their
[18:36] screens. So it was more it was it's it's
[18:40] simpler than that. But in terms to me, it felt like
[18:43] that I really want the ball to circulate behind their pivots.
[18:48] And that's when Mbappe was doing a great job because Kubarsi and.
[18:55] Garcia. To be honest, their back line
[18:59] completely were just disorganized.
[19:01] I don't want to put it in one player, but that Kamabinga
[19:05] Bellingham or the all on the left just had ball.
[19:08] They're like what do I do here? And ball.
[19:10] They kept backpedaling, especially at the beginning.
[19:13] So that offside, you can tell that wasn't working as well
[19:16] because he kept backpedaling because he was way too afraid of
[19:19] that spacing behind. You saw that right.
[19:22] You mentioned that the space was always occupied on the right
[19:26] side, right by somebody, right. Calming is up there.
[19:28] OK, Jude's back. Jude's up.
[19:30] Can I think like if there's just constant activity on that side
[19:32] of the pitch causing valley to be focused on them and not
[19:36] watching his lines correctly, right?
[19:38] Which then means, oh, you just play Killian and Boppy on sides,
[19:40] right, Because you're too afraid or you look, it's everybody who
[19:45] watches basketball knows the great legendary coach turn
[19:48] commentator Huby Brown. And he says you set screens in
[19:51] basketball for one reason, to make the defender think right,
[19:55] Because once you are thinking, what are you not doing?
[19:58] Reacting to what you're supposed to be doing?
[20:00] So Valdez was constantly in that wait, so someone's over.
[20:03] I have to as opposed to being like, I have to maintain this
[20:06] highline and this offside trap to he he wasn't worried about
[20:09] that because I'm worried about this dude over here.
[20:11] Too much was going on in his brain and I thought tactically
[20:14] from Javi Alonzo. That was just brilliant, a
[20:16] brilliant move to kind of in another way, right?
[20:19] Pick on him on that side, right? Like you see in the NBA when you
[20:22] know weak defender, call him up into a screen every time until
[20:25] you force the other team to do something different.
[20:29] Yeah, exactly. Look, when I say like
[20:32] superiority, that's one of the things.
[20:34] We were on the team that had to think and react.
[20:36] We were the team that was pressing the action and forcing
[20:40] them to react because they're A1 dimensional team.
[20:45] That's becomes much harder. Like I don't remember.
[20:48] I know classical was like a four XG really, you know, for a team
[20:52] and we can keep like the first half ended with two XG like it's
[20:57] not that. Oh, the penalty inflated the
[21:00] numbers. No, no, no.
[21:01] The first half ended with two XG to 0.61 and 0.43 comes from
[21:06] their goal, which meant that they were hail marrying some
[21:10] shots and hoping that somehow it goes in or it's a desperation
[21:15] and we need to get rid of the ball because this pressure is
[21:17] way too much right now. Like one of the things that I
[21:20] mentioned yesterday that became even cleaner on a film today was
[21:26] the fact that we had like Jude Kamalinga Chaomini sometimes
[21:30] just walk right on on that mid block and Pedri de Young,
[21:36] whoever was receiving was fighting for their life because
[21:39] they were way too afraid to push the ball.
[21:41] So the ball was going back to their defenders.
[21:43] Then the defender has to restart the attack time and time again.
[21:47] Look if football had the time clock like NBA had violation.
[21:50] The. Whole game like this, how good
[21:54] that scheme was. So the possession number is
[21:58] inflated because of that. We didn't go there for the ball,
[22:01] we went there to. Deny them entry.
[22:05] Yeah. Yeah.
[22:05] We denied you entry. Oh, you're not getting in here.
[22:07] So go ahead, kick it back to Chesney.
[22:09] I don't care. Knock yourselves out back there.
[22:10] But you're not coming. In this, whenever they were
[22:12] going to goalkeeper, we just went with like 8 players up and
[22:15] we went like OK, good luck now getting the ball forward.
[22:18] So they were panicking. Their switches were like really
[22:23] bad, really uncomfortable. Hats off to Alvaro Carreras.
[22:27] I'll say listen. Listen.
[22:29] So good at being proactively accurate at getting ahead.
[22:34] Hats off to him. Not many people give him credit
[22:37] because, well, his sofa score rating wasn't the best, which
[22:40] doesn't really matter. And he and he had a couple of
[22:42] mist time passes that, had they been more accurate, could have
[22:44] sprung for a goal. So I get it.
[22:46] I get it. I.
[22:46] Get it? Yeah, but but idea, right?
[22:48] Yeah, it's more of the idea. It's when I against the ball,
[22:53] that's when he's so good. He was, listen, you know, I love
[22:57] Carreras and let's also be honest about him guys, he's 22
[23:01] years old, so that means he can also get better.
[23:04] He's not near his prime repeat yet either in terms of
[23:07] understanding the nuances of that position and being elite at
[23:10] it. On rewatch, La Conte.
[23:12] Another thing that was obvious to me was who I call are
[23:16] Monstars, Bellingham, Kama, Venga, Chuomeni, right?
[23:20] Valverde, but he played right back, not midfield.
[23:22] They have such a physical advantage, right, because
[23:27] they're just immensely gifted physical athletes.
[23:30] But what gets lost is their technical quality.
[23:35] There were so many sequences where Bellingham or Camel Venga
[23:39] in particular had these deft fleet foot of touches to spin
[23:43] out of two or three bars on the players around them.
[23:45] Yeah, no problem. And I'm always like, but I
[23:48] thought they were just big dudes who just fucking run by
[23:50] everybody. I'm like, it look like they're
[23:51] pretty technical to me. But, and that's the thing, it's
[23:54] both. It's because they have the elite
[23:56] physical and the elite technical that makes them so good.
[23:59] And to me it they're punished because of that.
[24:04] But Conte in this match, every time Pedri fell down, it's like,
[24:08] oh, wait, I think it's a foul. I'm like, no, it's not their
[24:12] fault that they outweigh him by 95 lbs.
[24:14] I don't know what you want to say.
[24:15] Like that's just genetic. Sorry, like, you know,
[24:19] meanwhile, you know, pedry kicks them or whatever.
[24:22] Oh, you're too big. Get up.
[24:23] It's like guys, come on, if it's a foul, it's a foul, right?
[24:26] And I thought they were they they were penalized a lot in
[24:29] this match because of their their physical, their physical
[24:32] brilliance and not enough credit.
[24:34] It's given to their elite skill because those guys are, I mean,
[24:37] I can make a compilation highlight tape of just some of
[24:39] the elite stuff they did with feet to ball, with ball to beat.
[24:43] Yeah, like on the 1st 10 minutes are Garcia shows Bellingham
[24:48] twice literally on the ground. Keep in mind like those things
[24:52] can be detrimental. First of all, hands are being
[24:55] used. You're not allowed to use them.
[24:57] 2nd is the fact that of course Jude is going to go down because
[25:00] that's a good free kick for us to get.
[25:03] And third one is the fact that you're letting them to get on
[25:06] transition. Well, we have one less player
[25:08] because he's on the ground late. I'm not saying that Jude dived,
[25:12] but every single player is going to try to go down to get the
[25:16] call because as we have learned, without going down, you're not
[25:20] getting the call ever. So they need to go down.
[25:24] But for some reason, as you said, is that perception of OK,
[25:29] they're big, so they should not actually go down at all because
[25:34] it's need to be able to sustain any sort of damage contact
[25:38] whatsoever, which is. Not fair, it's unfair.
[25:42] It's it's an unfair treatment. And, you know, it's really funny
[25:45] that all of that comes after Yamal Laminimal goes like, oh,
[25:49] yeah, that's cheat. Is this like, OK, fair enough.
[25:53] You can say that like I saw a lot of petty bars offense after
[26:00] Jude's Instagram post, right? It was like very chill.
[26:04] And reality is talk is ship. You know, talk the talk and walk
[26:08] the walk. I I respect people that talk
[26:11] beforehand. If they go out there and are
[26:15] walking the walk. I don't mind shit talk.
[26:17] I actually enjoy that. I'd like to have some, you know,
[26:20] like pricks on the team. It's fun, it's entertainment.
[26:23] More fun, but I want to see the walk being walked.
[26:29] I don't want to see that mentality of what they showed
[26:34] because they gave up relatively quickly.
[26:36] Like if we remove that articular mistake and.
[26:41] I don't want to talk about that again, Lecante, because I
[26:43] rewatched that and I watched it like 10 times in a row and I
[26:46] slowed it down. Here's what I saw.
[26:51] He receives the ball. Before he receives the ball, he
[26:52] turns over his shoulder to see what space he had and where
[26:55] Pedri was. So he's making the calculus in
[26:58] his brain. So he turns back.
[26:59] He takes the ball from his chest as he should because it's coming
[27:01] up high, gets it down to his feet.
[27:03] At that moment, Le Conte, you can tell when you watch him,
[27:06] he's thinking, what do I do? Do I give it back to to Militao
[27:10] or do I just turn? And he was caught in that think
[27:14] and listen, these are the best players in the world.
[27:16] If you stop to think, it's over. There's no thinking.
[27:20] You have to just go. And he, he stopped to think and
[27:23] you saw it. I was like, that's why you got
[27:24] killed right here. You stopped to think and and
[27:26] that's what that's what killed him on that, on that giveaway.
[27:29] Like, and that's what Jude was like to start the game.
[27:33] He went to Courtois 3 times because it was the safest.
[27:37] Borsa was trying to contest us in midfield.
[27:40] So Jude went like OK, how can I reset this?
[27:43] And he would reset it to the goalkeeper and for order there,
[27:48] when you know that the ball resets once it hit the
[27:53] goalkeeper because they're contesting you on one we won
[27:57] normally, you should be taking that decision, even if it's a
[28:01] bad pass. Barcelona players felt way too
[28:04] far to be able to get to it before Tebow would.
[28:07] Even if that's a clearance that's better than a goal
[28:09] conceded because you give away a goal.
[28:11] And not for the first time in the same manner too.
[28:14] So order should be held accountable.
[28:18] But as said on yesterday's show, his confidence after it just
[28:22] kinda makes up for it cuz he doesn't go down and like, Oh my
[28:26] God, what did I do? Like I just destroyed this great
[28:29] performance that we have been having.
[28:31] He doesn't feel that. He just goes like, OK, if I can
[28:35] make up for it, I can. But what I'm gonna do is stick
[28:37] to my role, stick to my plan, always help my teammates, always
[28:42] do the right thing, and it doesn't matter.
[28:44] It was a mistake that we're going to fix regardless.
[28:47] That's a belief approach. This is the change.
[28:50] Of mistakes happen, right? Mistakes happen.
[28:53] We're going to keep playing right?
[28:54] And that's what I loved. I was like, because that was
[28:56] adversity, right? Shit, we were dominating.
[28:58] We really should be up maybe two or three nil at this point.
[29:01] Now it's 11. It could be easy to say, oh,
[29:04] hang our heads and get in trouble.
[29:05] Nope. Next play.
[29:06] I love that. And I think again, as we look
[29:09] ahead, La Conte, this match, to me, I know you think so too.
[29:14] I think it's going to set them up as a nice buoy towards the
[29:18] remainder of the season. We have Valencia on Saturday or
[29:21] Sunday and then Liverpool next week and then the international
[29:25] break. Yes.
[29:27] I feel like if we can go into the break winning these next two
[29:32] matches and on this lengthy match winning streak, that's
[29:34] going to give the team so much confidence and more hunger to
[29:39] keep doing what they're doing, to get even better at what we're
[29:42] doing. To really start, as you say,
[29:44] when the calendar turns after the holidays to be like, OK,
[29:48] business end of the season. Now it's time to step on next,
[29:50] and we're going for it now. Yes, like we mentioned it
[29:54] against the tough on the post game show ball circulation like
[29:58] was one of the weak points of the Alonzo era.
[30:00] And we mentioned that finally they're starting to work on it
[30:04] because there was so much that needed work.
[30:07] It's not like, OK, we have to fix our press and we're great.
[30:11] No, we didn't know how to build out from the back.
[30:13] We we didn't know when to trigger press, when to rotate,
[30:16] when the players have to drop, when, when they have to push
[30:19] forward, what move of a teammate triggers another move like a
[30:24] little bit of automation to them there.
[30:26] And now we're starting to kind of see a little bit more
[30:30] progress done with the ball. Like Vinnie's growth would be
[30:33] like one of the fundamental things of this.
[30:35] Like Vinnie, who at one point was an ISO type of player who's
[30:40] more like, give me the ball at my feet, I'm going to beat these
[30:42] defenders. Even yesterday, where kind of
[30:46] felt that the plan is designed around Vinnie's going to cook
[30:49] one day if we get him what we want.
[30:51] Like we just know that we have a history of that.
[30:54] It's not a new thing. It's not this Kunde, It's the
[30:56] Kunde of Sevilla too. He just can't cope with them.
[30:59] So we know that and but still, even when he was taking on the
[31:05] player, he wasn't rushing it. He wasn't being like, OK, I can
[31:10] go on this solo run and just try to end it somehow.
[31:14] No, he wasn't always looking. He always knew what to do like
[31:18] this. What made his performance great
[31:20] overall is the fact that we're seeing that explosiveness of him
[31:26] and his ISO dribbling, whatever we want to call it, but we're
[31:32] seeing him play with his teammates, not alone, not you
[31:37] have to win the game or Vinnie. You only hope to get the ball
[31:41] out. It's more like Vinnie, you're an
[31:44] engine to making us even greater than we are like this.
[31:48] That's how a great team is built like with players being
[31:52] engineers of it turning into a great thing.
[31:57] He was so phenomenal in that game.
[32:00] On the game winner, he essentially creates that goal
[32:03] himself, right? Because he takes it, gets by,
[32:06] runs past Yamal, who stops, who stop chasing.
[32:08] So Kunde, Dyang and Kunde have them in the corner, right?
[32:12] Dyang's right in front of them, Kunde's back behind.
[32:14] He does his depths dribbling and just to create space and an
[32:19] angle, right? So now he's got the space in the
[32:21] angle he can see Arda to your point, he doesn't try to split
[32:24] the two of them to get into the box himself to go take the shot
[32:27] and score. He sees Arta Oh, Arta's here
[32:29] gets the ball to Arta's by himself wide open right, even
[32:33] though the and and I'm sorry, not on the goal.
[32:36] He he gets the ball across right to Militao, who heads it Judas
[32:40] Johnny on the spot, But that's all of Vinnie creation, right.
[32:43] His ability to okay, I see where my guys are in the box.
[32:47] I don't have to be the one to actually get by everybody and
[32:50] then take the shot myself. Sometimes I will when it's
[32:52] obvious and this is a clear scoring opportunity.
[32:54] Other times I won't in in that goal that got disallowed that I
[32:57] was referencing. That's the one where he caught
[32:59] in the in the corner by the two of them, gets it to Arda.
[33:02] Arda lost it right over the top to, to to to Jude.
[33:05] And unfortunately, just because the the ball bounced back off
[33:09] Bobby was offside. But that was a brilliant other
[33:12] example of him being under control and knowing when to go
[33:17] myself and when to get my teammates evolved right.
[33:19] And that's the hallmark of a player who understands his role
[33:23] in a system. Because remember, under
[33:24] Enchiladi, it was no, no, no, you just do it on your own,
[33:27] right? We we trust you.
[33:29] So he has to. I said about habits when you
[33:31] started the show, right? It's hard to break that when
[33:33] you've been doing it for two years right now.
[33:35] He knows, OK, this is when I go on my own.
[33:37] This is when I get it to somebody else.
[33:40] And even when I go on my own, I have to think about somebody
[33:43] else because that somebody else is more than likely to be the
[33:47] finisher or at least is going to open some gaps.
[33:50] Like for example, like on the surface, his performance doesn't
[33:55] look that particularly great right on the surface.
[33:58] No. Real on the ball impact, right?
[34:02] But it was that off the ball against the ball, keeping the
[34:06] defenders intact, thinking at all the times we don't know when
[34:10] he's going to Sprint. Like there was a point where
[34:12] Chezzy was shitting his bricks when he was when Babe was going
[34:16] after the ball, even though the ball was really like there was
[34:20] no chance for Babe to really get at that.
[34:23] Normally the a player would have just gone like, fuck, let the
[34:26] goalkeeper take. No, no, no, Babe still goes
[34:29] like, OK, I'm going to make you uncomfortable there.
[34:31] He knows, but he still makes Chezzy uncomfortable.
[34:35] And guess what? That ball goes to throw in for
[34:37] us because of that small sequence.
[34:41] We get the ball back and we can restart our attack.
[34:44] And that's all due to panic that he's causing with this presence.
[34:48] So the the gravity that we like to talk about like the presence
[34:53] being able to generate the spaces for the others like and
[34:56] Buffet played a huge role to us. Yes, offside a couple of times.
[35:01] We still don't know. How about one of the goals?
[35:04] That that for mean one that should have been a goal man
[35:06] 'cause he kicked the for me to kick the ball back.
[35:09] What's offside shot? Man and the shot.
[35:11] Was it? Was good.
[35:13] You know, it's just like, look, even if we're going by the
[35:16] standard rules here, right? Normally when you get the goal
[35:20] like that, with like what, an inch of hair outside literally
[35:26] right, You allow that goal, It's kind of like, right.
[35:31] Because the because the offside isn't why he scored.
[35:33] He didn't score because he was offside.
[35:34] That wasn't the reason he scored.
[35:36] Because that shot was incredible.
[35:40] It's more of like, there's that Wenger rule that goes around
[35:44] where it's like, OK, that's a bit scary then Bob is your
[35:48] player. I mean, as a Madrid fan you
[35:49] would absolutely love it. But the Wenger rule is basically
[35:55] the player feet have to be lined with a body, not like the whole
[36:00] body. So imagine somebody like him,
[36:02] Bob, It was a row like that, you know, like you're, you're never
[36:07] seeing highlights again. Madrid are never facing
[36:10] Highline. No, no, I don't think so.
[36:12] I mean you, you. You'd be dumb to do it honestly.
[36:16] It's just, I don't know, man, like finally feels good to see
[36:21] like three or four men, like whatever we want to call the
[36:27] Vinnie and Bappe or then Jude thing.
[36:29] Just click on that one. It it, it's beautiful and we
[36:32] still and there's still so much room for growth.
[36:35] There was a play in the first half where Bellingham receives
[36:39] the ball from Valverde on the right touchline.
[36:42] He cuts in right and the bars players are on his back now
[36:45] because he's fast and strong and technical and he's shielding
[36:48] them and I'm just like, Oh my God, pick your pick.
[36:51] Just pick your eyes up. And Papa ain't starting to make
[36:53] us run like you could have threaded it perfect like you did
[36:56] before. And he just and he just missed
[36:57] them. He just he was half a second
[36:59] late and I was like, that was another one, right?
[37:01] Again, I just think more and more time they do that together,
[37:04] they're going to figure it out. I want to go back to Jabi's
[37:06] tactical work. The area that obviously he
[37:09] clearly focused on because we had no pre season was what this
[37:12] team does out of possession, right?
[37:15] We know him. Last year it was so easy to cut
[37:18] this team apart because there was no rhyme or reason to what
[37:20] we were doing out of possession. Fede and Jude were were running
[37:24] around like chickens with their heads cut off, trying to put out
[37:25] fires all over the pitch like it was just wild.
[37:28] But now you can see it every time the ball goes somewhere.
[37:33] Madrid's aligned where the defenders are aligned, where the
[37:36] past angles are cut off. And the only place you can go is
[37:39] backwards or sideways, right? You cannot get forward.
[37:42] And you see it, it's shut down. And if someone does attempt to
[37:45] pass right, two or three dudes converge like a Rondo triangle,
[37:49] right, to take it away. And that is it's, it's not
[37:54] revolutionary. It's what good teams do.
[37:56] But Oh my God, how nice is it to see a team that knows what they
[37:59] want to do out of possession. We haven't really seen that
[38:03] since Zidane's team that is so capable to deal with adversity
[38:08] of other teams abilities on the ball like Ancelotti had great
[38:13] success, but that success came with great offense, great
[38:16] ability to swing momentum and great ability to take advantage
[38:19] of the momentum. It didn't come with like a plan
[38:23] where we can suffocate them. There were cases like I'm not
[38:26] I'm not going to take everything away from Ancelotti to the point
[38:30] where there were cases for example like the semi finals
[38:33] against by Armini. It was like OK this team is set
[38:37] up for success here, it doesn't matter what.
[38:39] But even that plan there kind of fully was reliant on Venetius on
[38:44] both ends at the number 9 at Alliance Arena and as a left
[38:48] winger at Madrid. While with Alonzo so far, like
[38:53] this team, just to give people context, is second best in terms
[38:58] of underlying numbers in European top five leagues who
[39:05] who play in Bundesliga. Like I'm not going to take
[39:08] anything away from how great Bermuda have been as a team this
[39:11] season, but we do know if there is one thing that exists in
[39:14] Bundesliga is spaces and lots of chance creation.
[39:18] So to match up to that, it's really hard, especially when you
[39:23] add the fact that we had there be Madrid animal there, which
[39:26] hurt your numbers a lot, or we had the L'Oreal match away,
[39:30] which was basically with 10 men since the 30th minute.
[39:34] So all of these do play a part. The fact that you're second best
[39:39] in European top five leagues in chance creation, first in La
[39:43] Liga, now with five points difference, goes to show that
[39:46] the coach is doing the right things. 13 out of 14 wins.
[39:50] You're 90% basically like I'm just rounding it up.
[39:56] Yeah, yeah. You have lost one game the whole
[40:01] year. You haven't drawn a single one.
[40:04] And you're seeing that this team keeps getting better.
[40:06] You're not seeing that this team is going to let the gas the foot
[40:12] of the gas. No, actually it's.
[40:15] Or, more likely, that this team starts blowing teams away and
[40:19] doesn't let a goalkeeper because just this week, right Soria 8
[40:24] saves, the Gregorio 9 saves, Vortchex Chesney 9 saves
[40:30] including a penalty. This is not normal.
[40:35] This is not something that happens every single game and it
[40:41] happened three times in a row for you.
[40:43] So when the all of these things are going to align, it's kind of
[40:46] like the same in boppa thing from last season, right?
[40:48] He was missing chances left, right and center at the
[40:51] beginning of the year until like November.
[40:53] I want to say when he kind of started to become a little bit
[40:56] more clinical. And by the end of it, he wins
[40:58] the golden show. Why?
[40:59] Because his underlying metrics were already showing that he's
[41:03] the most prophetic player in world of football.
[41:05] But it's just that his actual numbers were not backing that
[41:09] up. So when he started to score,
[41:11] score those lower probability chances as he did then it
[41:16] started to even out the low averages.
[41:20] I want to put it there. And for sure that's bound to
[41:22] happen for Madrid. Like the fortune is bound to go
[41:25] that way. And we're talking here about the
[41:27] team that has won 13 out of 14 games.
[41:29] That needs fortune to go that way.
[41:33] No, yeah, everything you said is right.
[41:35] There is there is nothing to do to debate there on this squad
[41:38] and again, the the room, this team has to go from where it is
[41:42] now to what its ultimate ceiling is.
[41:45] There is so much more room, guys.
[41:48] This is why we're so optimistic about what Jaby Alonzo is doing
[41:51] 'cause I think he even has some more ideas about what he wants
[41:54] to implement. But he's got to just, OK, am I
[41:57] comfortable that this is working?
[41:58] OK, I'm comfortable here. Now let me start tinkering on
[42:00] this side a little bit, right? Not too much.
[42:02] I don't think he's one of these like overly like, he's not like
[42:04] Pep, right? I need to control every single
[42:06] aspect of every single game. It's not that, right?
[42:08] But what else can I unlock that these guys do that are so, so
[42:12] special? I want to look ahead a little
[42:16] bit. I mentioned Valencia, I
[42:20] mentioned Liverpool, Liverpool not playing well right now lost
[42:24] again. I want to say over the weekend
[42:27] in the Premier League duck 5th or 6th right now in the in the
[42:29] Prem. You know, Florian words still
[42:32] needs time to click. The E SEC thing hasn't worked
[42:34] out how they how they thought. You know, it's like, but it's
[42:36] all the stuff that we know right.
[42:37] It's like you just think, plug a player and all of a sudden
[42:39] you're going to be awesome. And I'm like, it's not how it
[42:41] works like you have to integrate.
[42:43] It takes time. To me, regardless of how
[42:48] Liverpool's playing, this is another big match up for Real
[42:51] Madrid. This should be a game.
[42:53] The way we are playing right now and what we are doing that
[42:57] tactically we should dominate once again and should win
[43:00] relatively comfortably at Anfield.
[43:02] But you know, it's football and shit happens.
[43:05] Yes, Liverpool are a hot mess tactically to be.
[43:11] Honest to be. Like reality is that you need to
[43:15] know what you're doing with the ball to know what you're doing
[43:18] off the ball. I feel that Arne Slot is doing
[43:21] way too much off the ball and he's kind of forgetting that,
[43:26] hey, we actually need to be good on the ball too.
[43:29] But to that, he doesn't really have an on the ball deep
[43:33] profile. Well, he did have one last year
[43:36] and that's why he lost four games.
[43:38] And as a player that they just wanted to say that is not good
[43:42] enough. And I'm talking about Trent.
[43:44] For people that don't know that Trent was their sole reason why
[43:48] they could get the ball up the field and get more Salah and all
[43:51] of these players in such ridiculous positions that switch
[43:56] bond like to Trent was their only way.
[43:58] But because Trent is so good, no team could contest that.
[44:03] So normally teams would settle for OK, what is Trent going to
[44:07] do? So Trent has a lot of it on his
[44:10] package. This so tie up to Alonzo thing,
[44:12] which you mentioned earlier that it feels that it's not finished.
[44:15] It's not finished because Trent is not even integrated yet and
[44:18] he's one of the cheat codes to deal with this thing.
[44:21] Like we didn't see an emphasis of getting Trent into the team
[44:25] at the start of the season. It was more like, OK can, is
[44:29] Trent actually good defensively or is Trent that player that
[44:33] gets cooked by like your Jeremy Doku's which I think that
[44:37] majority of the good full backs would struggle against a
[44:40] dribbler but still they use that against Trent.
[44:44] Trent hasn't shown any defensive lapses with Madrid whatsoever,
[44:48] at least so far in his games. It was the other way around.
[44:52] But the other way around is the fact that Trent is not getting
[44:54] the ball outside of the Majorca game on favourable positions for
[44:58] him to unlock the full potential of this team.
[45:02] And Trump would also allow Valverde to be a more of a
[45:07] midfielder. Like I mentioned Valverde as one
[45:10] of our weak points yesterday, which is crazy to say because he
[45:14] had a great game. But on the general consensus of
[45:19] the game, if you're going off OK, what would you pinpoint as a
[45:24] weakness for the team? You're going to say Valverde?
[45:27] Oh, that's right. That's what, not because he
[45:30] couldn't cope defensively, because he definitely could.
[45:33] Like Ratford at one point just didn't even dare to try and go
[45:37] at him. But with the ball, he's not a
[45:43] right back. Like he gave an interview saying
[45:46] that hey, I'm a midfielder and he plays the right back role as
[45:50] a midfielder. You can tell that sometimes he's
[45:53] more of like thinking of the progression rather than the
[45:56] circulation. Sometimes he's more thinking of
[45:59] OK, how do I generate the advantages here rather than OK,
[46:03] my teammate is an advantageous position here so I better get
[46:06] the ball to him. It's more of like a midfielder
[46:09] thinking on the way how he's actually going about it rather
[46:13] than a right back type of thinking.
[46:15] And that plays the role because he's so damn physically gifted
[46:19] and can do the role. Doesn't necessarily mean that
[46:22] he's the perfect fit, right? And having the word in midfield
[46:26] also allows you to keep Kama Vinga more healthy or you won't
[46:30] show him any more healthy. So many people sometimes fill in
[46:32] into the center back role. If we need one of the center
[46:35] backs like this is going to expand the team much, much more
[46:40] than people seem to think. Both of the right backs as it
[46:43] currently stands are now back. The whole lady yesterday, I
[46:47] think we should touch on that because we didn't didn't look
[46:50] mash fed at all. I'm going to be honest.
[46:52] He's not ready. It was comfortable enough for
[46:55] him to hold his own. Like it wasn't the aggressive
[46:58] I'm going to force a turnover, get out of the attacker here to
[47:01] get the ball back. It felt more like, OK, I need to
[47:04] hold this line just very good so they can switch it over.
[47:07] I appreciate his experience and ability to deal with that but
[47:11] didn't look mash fed. So what journey is that?
[47:14] The right back position? Yeah.
[47:17] So you're mentioning right back. Let's play a little thought
[47:19] exercise. What does this line up look like
[47:23] in possession and out of possession?
[47:25] So Trent, Militao, Hoisin, Carreras, Chiwameni, Guler,
[47:31] Kama, Vinga, Bellingham, Mbappe and Venezias.
[47:37] It's very tough because Alonso kind of said it's mashup
[47:41] dependent, right? Like there will be times when
[47:44] you might see like 2 Camavina Valverde together sitting on a
[47:49] bench because he decided to go for Franco Masantuano because he
[47:52] wants that width. It's just it's a luxury that
[47:58] Alonso has created by the way, just for people, because we
[48:01] would not really be having this conversation if Antilote was our
[48:04] coach. It's just due to the nature of
[48:06] how Antilote coaches the team. It's rather OK, this is the 11
[48:10] setting stone, this how we want to play with Alonso.
[48:13] It's more like, OK, every player has his own strength and I'm
[48:16] going to try and cater towards as much of them as I can because
[48:20] obviously we're so sealing a limit with it.
[48:24] Normally in La Liga, we know that we're going to face a lot
[48:28] of deep logs, especially after all of this.
[48:31] So normally you will want as many quick passwords as
[48:34] possible. So ODA, Bellingham, Trent, Bape,
[48:41] Venisus, maybe he gets dropped sometimes For Kama Vinga, if
[48:46] there is really no between the lines adversity whatsoever and
[48:49] you go with like Kama Vinga, Valverde and you try to play it
[48:52] as quick as possible. But again, matchup depended just
[48:55] depends on the team, depends on the health of the center backs.
[49:01] There's no really best 11. Like that's the crazy part.
[49:04] As much as you can say it's an exercise for the brain, it's
[49:07] really, it really is because the more you think about it, it's
[49:11] like what is really, do I want to do I really want to be like
[49:15] this unbeatable team on the centre like we were against
[49:19] Barcelona? Do we want to be more wide
[49:22] oriented team like we were against?
[49:24] For example, do we want to have like double 10s with Arda and
[49:29] June for free up and barbell like we did against Hitafe, have
[49:34] them inter switching? It's just there are so many
[49:37] options to this team where you kind of don't know where your
[49:40] heads are. Well, that's a beautiful thing
[49:42] because when you play Madrid and you are scouting them, that
[49:47] means you have too many things to prepare for and you can't
[49:49] prepare for everything, right, because you don't know what
[49:51] they're gonna do right? You're like they might play with
[49:54] Bellingham and art as as double 10s or they might go they're
[49:57] monstars midfield and now like right, or they might be with
[50:00] mass Antuano, right. And in a in the way this fixture
[50:03] calendars works, you don't have that much time to be preparing
[50:07] for 17 different styles of play, right.
[50:09] So it's you have to lean into whatever you do well and hope
[50:12] that's good enough, right? And in La Liga, as we know,
[50:15] because our talent's better and now our our foundation of how we
[50:18] play is better, it's going to be good enough for us to beat those
[50:21] teams. And I think as we get better,
[50:24] this is going to be our X Factor in the Champions League.
[50:27] Le Conte against the big teams. I don't know if it's going to
[50:30] come to fruition in time this season.
[50:32] Time will tell. But I think ultimately that will
[50:35] be our our our advantage. We'll be in the Champions League
[50:38] and these coaches don't have time to prepare for 17 different
[50:40] styles of play. Yes, trajectory is there for
[50:44] this team to be able to compete, slash, beat, but do they get
[50:47] there in time? It's another story.
[50:49] But as you said, like the more film is stacking on us, the
[50:52] harder is becoming to actually deal with us because there will
[50:56] always be a curveball thrown at you because you don't know what
[51:00] he's really doing. We keep, we keep really talking
[51:03] about how it's so hard to guess the 11 right For, for example,
[51:07] on This Week, I was able to guess it because it just made
[51:11] the most sense on Alonzo's Leverkusen approach for the big
[51:14] games and what Borsa weaknesses were going to be.
[51:18] Did I expect that Alonzo was going to play that way?
[51:20] No, I did not think that they were going to put like a right
[51:24] winger at some point just to try and use that technical quality
[51:28] to make them uncomfortable. But what we have to do, I'm
[51:31] referencing the Barcelona game because we have to repeat this
[51:35] now. And what I mean by repeating
[51:37] this is the fact that our opponent has to adjust and not
[51:42] us constantly. Our opponents have to adjust.
[51:46] So let's say that they learn the 11 an hour, an hour and a half
[51:51] before the game, which usually happens, right?
[51:54] Our opponents now are sitting there and going through their
[51:59] 7-8 different game plans to deal with.
[52:02] Well, they don't know what our game plan is.
[52:04] They might know the 11:00, but they don't know exactly what
[52:08] they're going to do. Like come on at right winger,
[52:10] you're barely going to see it ever again.
[52:13] You saw it for that one specific occasion, but you have to keep
[52:16] that in mind that okay, now this coach can always go to that,
[52:21] okay, he wants 1 midfielders. Well the worded seems pretty
[52:25] comfortable inverting. So he might not play any of his
[52:29] right backs and he might just go with the word there.
[52:31] So there is more parties there. Oh my God, now he has Trent and
[52:35] Valverde and Kam of India are kind of like the pivot.
[52:37] So I can't even go behind trend even if I want to.
[52:40] And there is that monster named Mili Tao that seems to be
[52:43] winning every duel. So it's very hard to go behind
[52:45] that too. And Dean with Carreras on the
[52:48] other side with the ball are just absolutely ridiculous to
[52:51] the point where as a coach I wouldn't even try to go against
[52:56] that. I'm going to be honest.
[52:57] Like Barcelona didn't try to go against it.
[52:59] Neither did a play team really. But it it kind of became a game
[53:04] like that where the players lost, like their way the
[53:10] rotations were moving a little bit slowly, so the game kind of
[53:13] fell apart. So for as long as the teammates
[53:15] are moving correctly, don't worry about them, they're going
[53:18] to get the ball there. Like even if you go and watch
[53:20] the mistakes that they made, like when Dean makes the mistake
[53:24] early, he's trying to find the player between the lines.
[53:26] Not like he doesn't have any cue of what he has to do.
[53:30] It's more of like what he's trying to do there.
[53:32] Yep. For all you know, that might
[53:34] have literally been a trap because he barely attempted that
[53:37] pass again while still being comfortable.
[53:39] He might have just been like, OK, if we are, I'm going to
[53:43] attempt this. I'm going to show them a little
[53:45] bit. I'm not saying that the trap was
[53:48] him to lose the ball, I'm saying that the trap worked for him to
[53:51] try and play that pass and never really try to repeat that again.
[53:55] It's more of like, oh, false hope of security because that's
[53:58] where Barcelona wants the ball to be played the most on that
[54:00] zone for 14 to enter as quickly as possible.
[54:04] So for all we know, it's just that the game plan needs to stay
[54:07] for as long as we make our opponents think and guess and
[54:12] feel like sweaty without even starting running.
[54:15] Where? OK, how the hell am I going to
[54:18] bypass this? Like, what the hell is waiting
[54:21] for me out there on a pitch? Like those keynotes are what I
[54:25] want Madrid to be because that's how you assert dominance.
[54:29] You want to be the team that's setting the tone and that's what
[54:32] we were. We are.
[54:35] Barcelona's reacting to us all game and that's what we want
[54:38] going forward. In every match, we dictate terms
[54:40] and you react based on what we are doing.
[54:42] And if you were a team like Barcelona, which only has one
[54:45] style of play, well, what can I say?
[54:47] You're probably going to lose and lose big as we get better at
[54:49] clinical finishing in front of the goal.
[54:51] Guys, this is the kind of top notch analysis you get on the
[54:56] Real Deal podcast. You don't get this anywhere
[54:58] else. The Internet.
[54:59] And guess what, it's for free. I mean, what?
[55:03] Where else are you finding this stuff for free?
[55:05] Nowhere. Thank you all for tuning in, We
[55:08] really appreciate it. Again, like the video love your
[55:11] comments. You guys have been awesome in
[55:13] the chat talking to each other. We love it.
[55:15] We're going to be doing way more of these, a lot more stuff
[55:17] coming from the real deal pods. Again, if you want to re listen
[55:20] to this later audio only we're on Apple Spotify, wherever you
[55:23] get podcasts, subscribe there, do your reviews, all that good
[55:26] stuff and we will see you for sure on Friday for our mailbag
[55:31] episode. You guys can submit your
[55:33] questions on Twitter and we'll answer them for a lot of good
[55:36] questions in the chat, which we'll try to get to.
[55:38] There's so much going on with this club, so much to be excited
[55:40] about. Lecante.
[55:42] As always, it has been a pleasure.
[55:44] Thank you guys for tuning in and until next time later.
[55:48] Likewise. Bye, guys.

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