# Real Madrid 3-1 Villarreal Postgame Breakdown

An episode of [The Real Deal: A Real Madrid Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1807821669), 4 Oct 2025, 51 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/103607aa8/podcast/play/109218781/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-9-4%2F408670647-44100-2-95f5f7fd1707f.mp3

Loconte and Jarod break down the big win over Villarreal, Vinicius' performance and more.

## Transcript

[1:03] Venevici, I came, I saw, I conquered.
[1:09] Now I should add Vinnie Venevici, 'cause he came, he
[1:13] saw, he conquered. Welcome to the Real Deal Real
[1:16] Madrid podcast with me, Gerard Hector, joined by Lecante.
[1:19] What's up, my guy? Yep.
[1:21] What's up? Hello to everybody.
[1:23] It's it's nice LA content when I can come on after a win and you
[1:28] know, the Sky's not falling and it's not the end of the end of
[1:31] the world. It's just just nice to have
[1:33] those those kinds of days. Before the last show we started,
[1:38] I had the same jersey on. It's Valverde and I took it off
[1:41] and threw it on the ground 'cause I was so upset.
[1:43] Well, I'm keeping it on today because Betty Valverde.
[1:46] Well, well, Mr. Valverde played played pretty well today and
[1:50] we'll get into all that. Real Madrid three one win at
[1:53] home over Villarreal, a much needed confidence booster and
[1:57] win for the team to sort of piggyback and and double up on
[2:01] what happened during the week against Kyrot in Kazakhstan.
[2:05] While the five nil victory was all well and good sky rod, sky
[2:09] rod and not a team that anybody thought is has any real quality.
[2:12] Whereas Bill Real's a team that can really show some damage and
[2:16] we were able to essentially neutralize them outside of wanna
[2:19] say two big chances. Yes, according to open score
[2:22] only two big chances they had. What were your overall thoughts,
[2:26] initial thoughts of the game, the content that we'll get into,
[2:29] the lineups and specifics? I mean, to be honest, like we
[2:34] had the preview yesterday and it's hard to really, I've asked
[2:40] it for a better way to go into into international break knowing
[2:44] just what really was expecting us from this game.
[2:47] So in terms of their feelings and the cessations, this
[2:51] definitely an all not all time high, but this definitely going
[2:55] into international break on a high like backed our feet.
[2:58] We had the Goodwin in Champions League and now we follow with
[3:03] this. That's a pretty decent way to
[3:07] head into the international break and not really have those
[3:11] demons lingering at all times for two weeks until you come
[3:14] back. So yeah.
[3:17] I'm I'm with you 100% because this could have been bad, right?
[3:20] And honestly, it was nil, nil right at halftime and not
[3:24] looking great. Excuse me.
[3:27] And when we got it to 1 nil, I was like, OK, things are
[3:29] starting to happen now, right? Then we got two.
[3:31] Then they pulled it back 21 right.
[3:32] It was like, OK, like, so it was nice to kind of get out in front
[3:36] and and sort of put this game away.
[3:38] We'll talk about the line UPS. Sabios is in midfield today.
[3:41] Freddy Valverde was at right back.
[3:43] Carreras was back in the line up at left back, Benny Mbappe, Ms.
[3:46] Antuano up top. So kind of what we thought the
[3:50] line up was going to be. Yeah, coming into this game.
[3:54] And you know, I want to start with Valverde because there's a
[3:58] lot to be made. And I know you guys talked about
[3:59] it. We talked about it online.
[4:02] It's all a bunch of nonsense, right?
[4:04] Fede is a player who you should never question his desire or
[4:07] commitment to want to play. I mean, again, as I said and I
[4:11] tweeted, here's a player who likely sacrificed a longer
[4:15] career by playing all these minutes and hurt for Real
[4:18] Madrid. So I don't want to hear any
[4:19] nonsense from Ben talking crap about this guy.
[4:22] He he, he, he he wears himself out for this club.
[4:25] Yeah, So he plays it right back. A.
[4:27] Staff that came out that Valverde played more than any
[4:30] player in world of football over the last three years.
[4:33] Almost 7000 minutes between club and country, which is absurd.
[4:38] Absurd. And I don't, I don't know for
[4:40] sure 'cause there was some rumor.
[4:42] Did he get called up by Uruguay or no?
[4:45] Actually haven't seen it. I'm sure even the list is out.
[4:48] I don't think it is. I thought the latest report that
[4:53] came from the national team is that they were debating it
[4:56] still, so they don't have a full list.
[5:01] I hope they still are and leave him at home.
[5:02] That would be great. But a position in right back
[5:04] which he doesn't like to play, but he can play well.
[5:08] And I thought Lecante even more so than just the on the ball
[5:12] stuff. And I wonder how much of it was
[5:14] him. Also, what I'm about to say
[5:16] wanting to be like, let me show you guys like what the real deal
[5:18] is in that just straight up watching him.
[5:21] Lecante, his pace was back like the first eight matches of the
[5:25] season. I was like, he can't even run
[5:27] like he's getting blown by everybody.
[5:29] Like he was making those long busting speed.
[5:32] Let me stop break this up like he was doing in years past.
[5:35] And I was like, wow, your pace is back.
[5:37] Thank God. I mean what a refs can do to a
[5:41] man literally like even 7 days can play a huge part between
[5:46] like how he looks, he looked a week ago and now.
[5:50] I think that there's also been adjustments on the training
[5:52] ground with his energy depletion.
[5:55] They have definitely tried to mitigate probably some of of the
[6:00] more intensive routes with him, so that has played the part.
[6:06] But it's also the fact that he was playing where he feels more
[6:10] comfortable. There is less to think about, he
[6:12] knows it better. It's not about him being a ride
[6:15] back by the way, it's just him being on the right channels.
[6:18] There were a lot of times when he was acting as a plus
[6:21] midfielder during, which is a huge positive and something that
[6:27] he really does bring to the team.
[6:30] I even said on yesterday's show, I don't want to be a broken
[6:33] clock, but you don't necessarily always will need like, oh, a
[6:36] full back has to be a full back. No, you can't have like I think
[6:41] Monsantuano can play that role. I think that there are countless
[6:44] of players on this team that can take on such a role, which if we
[6:48] want to call it a right back, we can call it a right back for the
[6:51] simplicity of it. But Fede wasn't fully a right
[6:55] back right? He looks more like A+ how I like
[7:00] to call him. Is a plus player on.
[7:03] The right side. So if if you're needing to
[7:06] invert, he's going to invert. If you need a player on the
[7:08] width, he's going to give you the width.
[7:10] And I think that giving him that slightly bit more freedom also
[7:14] meant that he feels more comfortable as a player overall.
[7:18] Do I think that there was also an emotional reaction to
[7:21] everything that media tried to do?
[7:23] Definitely. But I also believe that the role
[7:26] was a little bit more simplified for him and he was able to
[7:29] execute it better. I think it was a mix of both.
[7:32] When it comes over there, I'm. With you 100% and it's had me
[7:35] thinking during the match Le Conte when we so we know four
[7:42] years ago before so the first champions of you won under Carlo
[7:45] in this second stamp when Betty was bombing up and down the
[7:48] right side, right right wing. I'm like this was kind of like
[7:52] that today. And so I said, OK, we don't have
[7:56] Trent and Carville Hall for a while.
[7:57] And I'm not saying again to your point, he's not a full back.
[7:59] He's not replacing those guys in terms of what they can do.
[8:02] But is as Chubby is he see in the coaching of seeing something
[8:07] like, OK, if we just put this guy on the right side of the
[8:10] pitch and give him simple, simple instructions, he will be
[8:14] elite for us. Is that yes what we need?
[8:19] I think Javi knew that, but we we have spoken a lot about
[8:22] Kamabinga, right? And how much we miss him in
[8:25] general. We're going to get into
[8:26] Kamabinga later than this episode, but Kamabinga was
[8:31] always going to be the more natural player on that role to
[8:35] give Fede. Like I still see Fede as a
[8:37] starter as but I will always want him more to the right side.
[8:42] Let it be a right #8 because he's just way more comfortable.
[8:47] Like today, you saw those carries back, those really
[8:51] needed carries against the press, which were completely
[8:54] missing the whole season long. And that was like one of my
[8:58] concerns with them on the prior episodes too.
[9:01] Like, OK, I know that you're not a high volume passer.
[9:05] You're not a player to pass and move type of player.
[9:08] You're not a Danny Sabias on our incense, right?
[9:12] He's more of like a carrier, a line breaker, somebody that will
[9:15] invite the players in and then go like, oopsie, bye and.
[9:20] That's what he did. That's what he did today, which
[9:23] helped us a lot. Of course, it helps when you
[9:26] have such a workaholic like Franco Masantuano right near
[9:30] you. Like that's what I like to call
[9:32] that kid. He's a workaholic.
[9:34] Like let's say that the least for him with Fede.
[9:40] I know that he's been topic of the week, right, because the
[9:43] media needed to pull something. I don't think he should have
[9:46] ever been that he he was just going through a bad batch.
[9:51] Like, let's just hope that actually he's not called up with
[9:55] the international team. Because he's.
[9:57] Literally friendless and if you're telling me that B Elsa
[10:00] needs to build these 11 on these friendlies for the World Cup
[10:03] with Valverde on it then I'm just going to be like well bro
[10:07] you have had this team for like 3 years now.
[10:09] What do you mean you need Valverde?
[10:10] Right. How do you not know who?
[10:11] Yeah, you know what Valverde. Who Valverde is.
[10:13] Yeah. So I don't see any real reason
[10:18] why he calls a Valverde in outside of, well, I just want to
[10:24] physically abuse him and that's about right.
[10:26] Yeah, I know. I'm with you.
[10:28] All right, so early, early in the in the the match, Lecante,
[10:32] Guler and and Bape combined again for a nice chance for
[10:36] Bape. Those two, those Two's chemistry
[10:38] is just outstanding. Like they Arda understands how
[10:44] Killian moves and wants to move. He has the ability to wait the
[10:47] bath. And I will say this about Arda.
[10:49] He's a little off today, not exactly on his game in terms of
[10:52] everything, but you know, not not horrible, and I do.
[10:55] Wonder really. Well, and this is where I'm
[10:57] going with the international break coming up, which he's
[11:00] gonna play probably all the 90s for Turkey.
[11:02] He's gonna play the 90 minutes again.
[11:04] And with that gauntlet of games we have coming out of the
[11:07] international break, where do you see the rest coming for him,
[11:10] if at all? I mean Tukul did us a huge
[11:14] favour by going like well Jude is not fully fit so we have Jude
[11:18] for another two weeks now. So yeah, Jude like that's your
[11:22] one guy that you immediately go to Survivors not called up
[11:26] either. So I don't think Survivors had
[11:28] the best showing. But he still has shown that he
[11:31] can be useful tool piece, whatever we want to call it now.
[11:35] Fingers crossed, because all it took for Kamabinga was to play
[11:38] like 2 cameos and he's called up with the national team for some
[11:43] reason. So I mean, Troy, Manny's getting
[11:47] arrest finally. You can tell that he needs it.
[11:50] Like you can tell that he's moving very sluggishly, slowly,
[11:55] not himself, which makes sense. We even predicted that to happen
[11:59] at some point here. We sure did.
[12:02] So Arda is like, I still think he moves really well.
[12:08] Like his IQ is always on the showing, but the way how he's
[12:14] going to execute is going to be the dependent on on the energy
[12:17] levels. Arda's had to make up a lot for
[12:21] us throughout these opening 9 or 10 games.
[12:25] I'm not sure. I haven't been on track of the
[12:28] games at this point, but he just had to do a lot and there hasn't
[12:34] really been a single game where we we could have just gone like,
[12:39] well, Lord, you know what? You can just sit on this one
[12:41] because we have it figured out. I don't think we have had one
[12:44] game like that because that or that Mbappe a connection.
[12:47] Let it be one way or another. We cannot rely offensively
[12:51] heavily on it and he just hasn't had that.
[12:56] Now it makes more sense why Alonzo took him off against that
[13:00] Lady. Makes way more sense.
[13:03] But that fatigue is showing and unfortunately that's not going
[13:08] to go away with the international team unless they
[13:12] they're able to pull like great results, which is highly
[13:15] unlikely. Correct.
[13:17] And the the. Yeah, the only option is is
[13:20] coming out that Hatafe game, but that's Hatafe away.
[13:23] Yeah, that's a tough way. So you're probably still going
[13:25] to need his passes at some point.
[13:27] Even if you don't start him, you're still going to need to
[13:29] play him. Yeah, maybe best case scenarios
[13:32] you've went to, to be honest. You know, you you may was
[13:35] interesting this week because I I watched that match between
[13:37] them and and Villarreal and I was like, can you be a they?
[13:41] They do some interesting and Yildiz, you know, I love that
[13:43] kid. He's so.
[13:44] Yeah, Ken and yield is really good and.
[13:47] Yeah. So you know that they're not
[13:49] going to be some pushover, right?
[13:50] They're they're going to be. I'm not going to be.
[13:53] A tough team, but anyways, get back to our match.
[13:56] All right, So early chances there from Imbabe and Gulair and
[14:01] then Vinnie, who I thought from opening whistle was just on it
[14:06] today. Yes, he and you tweeted this
[14:08] out. His timing on his passes, his
[14:12] understanding of where to be out of possession, when to trigger
[14:15] the press. He worked so hard on both sides
[14:19] of the pitch. Today it was out.
[14:21] Out just to panic point they tweeted his numbers right?
[14:24] Let me just read them out loud. Lisa Winger.
[14:29] By the way, Vinicius finished the game with 108 touches, 73
[14:37] passes, contested in 20 duels and won eleven of them.
[14:43] Had two tackles, was completed 6 dribbles, had six key passes and
[14:48] created one big chance which was the one on the First off. 108
[14:53] touches and 73 passes from a left winger.
[14:56] Unfucking believable. He was.
[14:59] He was. I don't think that winger with
[15:01] such numbers, genuine wingers are usually more often than not
[15:07] going to be quite low usage, right?
[15:09] They're going to be between the 52 to 48 range of touches,
[15:14] between 26 to 40 range with passes normally depends on the
[15:21] team of course. But the fact that Venetius, I
[15:25] mean, we had that cheering Gito trying to stir up an anti
[15:30] Venetius propaganda yesterday with Alonzo and Venetius
[15:36] picture. But when the video was came out,
[15:39] which I think Madrid did it on purpose, it was a very long
[15:42] conversation around 20 minutes between them and Venetius is
[15:45] smiling throughout the majority of it.
[15:48] Therefore, this is definitely a training ground thing.
[15:51] This is Venetius getting hang of his role, the needs of the team,
[15:56] the way how he can be himself brilliant while also his
[15:59] teammates are always on it, correct?
[16:02] So this like this more of like a key thing, right?
[16:06] I don't want to use the word heliocentric because it doesn't
[16:09] fully apply to football. But I know what you mean though.
[16:12] No, no, it makes sense because, and here's another stat for you,
[16:15] Laconte Vinnie is the first player with five plus shots, 5
[16:19] plus chances created and five plus successful take ONS in a
[16:21] game this season in the top five leagues.
[16:24] And so I think what you're alluding to is the team saw he
[16:28] is on one today, he's feeling good.
[16:31] I'm going to keep feeding him, which you have said a million
[16:34] times in the past, Lecante, sometimes that just works and we
[16:37] we shouldn't do it every time while we have no idea.
[16:39] Just give Benny the ball. No, But when he is clearly
[16:42] whooping his man 1V1 and they have give it to him because he's
[16:45] feeling it right. And that is excellent offense
[16:47] and chance creation for us. Exactly right.
[16:51] He's such a weapon, which today served as a reminder like
[16:56] Vinicius is now involved in nine goals and says this season,
[17:00] which for below par, what we would describe is season.
[17:06] That's insane. Like again involved goal and
[17:11] assists. I don't think I'm up at the best
[17:13] showing tonight. I think this was his worst game
[17:15] of the season. I think he's getting tired too,
[17:18] but and I did you see him pull up lame at the end?
[17:20] I hope he's like, oh, I can't go to France, I'm hurt, can't go
[17:23] the. Tactic that could be the tactic
[17:25] He did the same thing last year to to take his time off.
[17:28] I I do believe it's that, but I'm always fearful of ankles.
[17:33] I'm not online and when I see a player holding his ankle, I'm
[17:36] like, well, I forget that there's an international break.
[17:39] I'm always worried of them due to well, the severity of
[17:43] problems that ankle can really bring like an ankle injury.
[17:48] Even the smallest one can cause like the bigger issues down the
[17:51] line, but still, and both have probably depleted.
[17:56] It goes to throw where the team is, but importantly right.
[18:02] This was a game that we controlled with survivors being
[18:04] bad. Not always the case.
[18:07] This season I thought Danny Sabias was below par.
[18:10] I thought that he was very off, like some of his passes were
[18:14] just didn't even make sense to me.
[18:15] He had a few good ones, you know, first of all when he was
[18:19] playing vertically. But this was a bad Sabias
[18:24] showing. This was more like the Sabias
[18:26] that I know rather than some of the Sabias performances that we
[18:31] have had. And.
[18:33] Just on Twitter, I was begging Alonzo to take him off because I
[18:37] was like, OK, we are all ripping him apart.
[18:39] For love of God, take him out. The good thing of having a good
[18:43] coach, right? And a reactive coach was exactly
[18:46] that. Yeah, yeah.
[18:47] Like, I tweeted it because I could tell that OK, he's being
[18:50] ripped apart here, literally thrown into threads, would have
[18:55] continued playing him because, well, his passing metrics looked
[18:59] pretty damn good. I would.
[19:01] Yeah, usually a 90 something percent passer every match he's
[19:04] playing badly. Exactly, but along so here went
[19:07] like Nope, I'm not I'm having none of this Jude Kamalinga go
[19:10] out there because they need this sorted.
[19:13] It's about salinity, right, you don't you can't trust them like
[19:17] because they lure you in, they bait you in.
[19:19] Sometimes they make you feel more comfortable than what you
[19:22] actually are and they just go like this a snap, right?
[19:25] And you saw that happen even today.
[19:28] Yeah. For sure comfortable.
[19:29] You have the ball, it's been moved.
[19:32] Like they're not moving a lot. Their block is not being
[19:35] shifted. It's a 5050 game where you go
[19:37] like, OK, we have the quality at one point we're going to
[19:41] generate the shot and probably put it in and then they just go
[19:44] like that, right? It's just, it's one of the most
[19:49] beautiful teams to watch, to be honest, because of how
[19:52] symmetrical all of their lines are.
[19:55] It's like every player knows everything, but at the same time
[20:00] being their opponent. You know that I mentioned these
[20:03] coaches that I had playing against Marcelino, yes, and.
[20:09] I felt that Arden Savios was a bit redundant in terms of
[20:13] playing a Marcellinia team because normally you want to not
[20:18] bullet, you want bullet. You want a camera finger type.
[20:21] You want a camera. Finger type Overwhelmed right
[20:24] and you saw how easy Rafa Marin and Gabriel Vega sometimes had
[20:28] it against Zimbabwe due to how isolated Zimbabwe was and Gulabs
[20:32] not inability. It's just there were no spaces
[20:35] to run behind Thomas Party and the Commissanya.
[20:39] So Alonzo had to do a lot of shifting.
[20:43] Like we started the second-half immediately with three back.
[20:47] Dean went a central center back. Militao moved to the right.
[20:50] The word was pushed high because he noticed one mistake.
[20:53] It it was their left back that then when you targeted that you
[20:58] shifted their block to that side which meant well Venezus has
[21:01] more space. More space.
[21:03] And Venezus has more space means Venezus is going to tell you the
[21:08] threat and that's what Venezus does.
[21:10] So just small tactical changes, which I really I can't, I can
[21:16] appreciate by a coach who doesn't take time to actually
[21:19] start to implement it. Franco Ma Santuano for me, he
[21:25] was trying to go way to inside at all times.
[21:29] I do understand that the plan is try to combine with all that,
[21:32] try to play that want to move across for Verde makes the run
[21:37] in behind them, Papa makes the run.
[21:39] Sometimes those channels just aren't open and he was trying to
[21:43] force them. You saw on the 2nd 12th, he was
[21:46] just way more natural. His dribbling felt more natural.
[21:49] The way of the flow of his game felt more natural.
[21:54] Frankly, he was at fault for the gold that we can see that.
[21:57] I know that a lot of people are going to be like oh, Zone 14,
[22:00] which means Germany should have had that covered.
[22:04] I'm sorry but if Germany stays there, the winger is going to
[22:09] get all the time in the world to do whatever the hell he wants.
[22:13] So Germany had to be shifted across because when Santuano was
[22:18] simply too late to chase and there was double teamed.
[22:22] It happens. Don't get me wrong, I think that
[22:24] he was depleted of energy by that point again, but the goal
[22:29] comes that way. And also let's add the fact that
[22:32] the finishing was simply ridiculous on top.
[22:37] Listen, when when I watched that UVA Villarreal game, I was like,
[22:40] listen, Pepe and Mashikaze are problems.
[22:44] Like, and I I was like, oh, he's not starting them today.
[22:47] I was like, well, shit, that means they're coming off the
[22:49] bench at halftime. Fuck, like, you know what I
[22:51] mean? Like, and if we're tired because
[22:53] we know pace over the top is a problem for Dean, right?
[22:56] Especially right, like militals better, but like that's that's
[23:00] where we get that's where we get and that was.
[23:01] Actually, the first I was also given an easier role because
[23:03] he's the one that stays back when we press.
[23:06] So correct, we also have to mention that.
[23:09] Yeah, yeah, for sure. But yeah, I thought, you know,
[23:13] that it was an insane finish and just just the the the underlying
[23:16] stats of the match for US, 3.56 expect the goals for for US 1.05
[23:21] for Villarreal, we had 69% of the ball, they had 31.
[23:26] We created 7 big chances. They created 226 total shots.
[23:29] They they had nine. We had four corner kicks, they
[23:32] had none. I know 26 shots.
[23:34] That's crazy. Obviously some 108 passes, 23
[23:37] tackles, 13 free kicks. Like we in many ways, especially
[23:40] 2 because we've we've gotten them down, down a man.
[23:43] And when to me, when the two yellows happened on their full
[23:47] backs, that's that point where you mentioned heliocentric
[23:50] earlier, right about where you have to be smart enough to know,
[23:53] OK, I know what our system is, but their full backs are on
[23:56] yellows, right? IE like in the NBA they're on,
[23:58] they're on their 5th foul, foul them out of the game, right?
[24:01] Like go at them because they're going to do something stupid
[24:05] and. We should take them off.
[24:07] Correct, Correct. That's exactly what you want to
[24:09] do and we we did that to an extent, but I mean not as much
[24:13] as I would have liked, but we did eventually get that that
[24:16] that penalty for Vinnie and I thought it was interesting that
[24:19] and Bobby gave him the ball to he's like you won the penalties,
[24:21] like it's cool, like you shoot it.
[24:24] Goalie actually got down. He did he and I said this, he
[24:27] needed a tool, a game where he was the man like he just for his
[24:31] confidence for his growth in the system.
[24:33] He needed all of that and this. And again, it wasn't just the
[24:36] offense he worked his ass off out of.
[24:39] Possession, like he's pressing how many turnovers?
[24:42] I even tweeted it. I don't know the number, but I
[24:45] would genuinely like if somebody has the numbers of how many
[24:48] turnovers Vinnie's press actually led to because it felt
[24:53] a lot. Yeah. 1 issue with Vinnie that
[24:56] we have always spoken and why I said that Rodrigo could be an
[24:59] option for the big games was his jumps to the full back.
[25:03] Vinnie just doesn't jump in time today.
[25:06] He was like age perfect there. And I was looking at the numbers
[25:11] at whole time like for the for their goalkeeper, their
[25:13] goalkeeper had 9 out of 17 pass completed.
[25:17] And I'm like, OK, this is what you want to say.
[25:19] I mean, I do know that by like 28th minute, we still have like
[25:23] over 80% of the ball, which is due to our pressing us not
[25:28] allowing them to play. So all of these are very
[25:32] positive things, like the direction is positive.
[25:35] And by the way, for the folks, yes, we just won and dominated
[25:39] the big game. Thank you very much.
[25:41] And this is a big game. If you don't count VRL as a big
[25:43] game, then I don't know how your perception is football because
[25:49] they're so tricky. They are so tricky to play
[25:52] against. They're going to put you in the
[25:54] worst possible spots that mid blog with those transitions.
[25:58] As you said, Miguel Tatze and Pepe are just deadly.
[26:02] And the fact that we were able to really take Pepe off the game
[26:06] because he came on immediately, like at the second goal, no
[26:09] impact whatsoever. Like Carreras was jumping.
[26:12] They were fully aware of the fact that OK, if we let this guy
[26:16] turn and carry. We got problems.
[26:19] So they were jumping like this is a fatigue team as well.
[26:24] Look, we, I know that we can't go the whole season saying this
[26:29] a fatigue team, this a. Fatigue.
[26:30] But it's true. It's just true.
[26:32] You have to play into fitness. You don't have a preseason.
[26:36] You're going to be fatigued like Barcelona with a preseason,
[26:39] couldn't even play the second-half against PSG because
[26:44] of how many games there have been.
[26:46] And we can't use it without even a preseason like this cannot be
[26:51] the fully fleshed product because the physical level
[26:54] levels of the players are so different each game in because
[27:00] one game you get with a Volvo that let's say like today
[27:03] reason, right? But it's Shamini today who's
[27:06] depleted of energy and void of it.
[27:09] And his role is also to crash the box because you needed to
[27:13] get the ball wide, which meant even more energy is being
[27:16] depleted out of his box. And he had two excellent chances
[27:20] at headers for goals, one off a brilliant Vinny pass.
[27:24] I was like, oh, what a great ball out-of-the-box and you
[27:26] should have scored on that one. Again, speaking more to how
[27:30] decisive and excellent Vinny was today.
[27:32] What it was a beautiful that was in the first half.
[27:34] That was beautiful. Look, we're we're thankful that
[27:37] chew many will get not get called up for this international
[27:39] break. So he'll get.
[27:39] A nice guy that he's suspended not because.
[27:44] Listen, thank God we will take it however we can get it.
[27:48] And then of course, we scored the third goal again from
[27:51] transition, turning the ball over.
[27:53] We had a lot of high, high up the pitch turnovers today
[27:56] because of our press. And that was very encouraging.
[27:59] Even in the second-half, which I thought was big because second
[28:03] half's have been a problem for us, right, where we kind of lose
[28:05] energy and get tired. But because we subbed on
[28:08] Kamavanga and Bellingham for Guler and Sabios and my God, how
[28:12] great was it to see Kamavanga sprinting up and doing his Cobra
[28:15] tackles And just I'm like this guys listen when he when we get
[28:21] that guy ready and him and him and Jude are game changers for
[28:26] this squad in the midfield. I mean, they won US the game.
[28:28] Look, Vinnie, it was all about Vinnie in terms of like.
[28:32] The goals and the. Crucial moments getting us over
[28:35] the line. But if you're going to point to
[28:38] who won US the game, it's definitely those two Subs with
[28:44] Jude and Kamalinga. Like first of all, the way how
[28:47] the penalty is won, right? It's Carreras, Vini, Vinito,
[28:52] Kamalinga, Kamalinga pass to Jude, inch perfect.
[28:56] This is what I like because I like when players read the body
[29:02] orientation of their teammates. It's not just I'm passing the
[29:05] ball, right? It's actually look, his body's
[29:08] this way, so I need to pass it that way so the action can take
[29:12] place quicker. And that's exactly what happens.
[29:15] Kamavin got each perfect line breaking pass and Jude
[29:18] Bellingham just sees the space, sees that we need is already up
[29:21] the gears and he goes like, Yep, he's got it and he just passed
[29:25] the ball. Look, I'm not going to say that
[29:26] Jude have the easiest pass. You can easily misplace it or
[29:32] put a little bit more weight on it because you're maybe you just
[29:36] believe that we. Need.
[29:37] And he. And he's Rusty, Jules.
[29:38] Rusty too. So just that action, that action
[29:43] was beautiful from the beginning, right?
[29:45] He just felt natural, just felt this is what I want to see.
[29:51] We bait you out and we kill you. Exactly.
[29:54] And that's what happened. And listen, and Jude was unlucky
[29:58] not to score twice, twice, right?
[30:01] I mean the one save on the toe shot and then on the cross in,
[30:05] you know, he gets to get the seal on.
[30:07] Another great save by the goalkeeper I like.
[30:08] Man, this guy is a bad goalkeeper on this game.
[30:11] Can I know like Marcellini? I know bro.
[30:13] But you you just had the record spending on a goalkeeper and
[30:18] he's really bad, so you could have used him.
[30:23] Yeah, but it again, it was nice to see both of those guys back
[30:28] and playing. And I think again, like
[30:30] everything's gonna be with France.
[30:31] So whatever happens there happens there.
[30:33] But now with Jude and I know Chabi's going to give them time
[30:36] off during the national break for.
[30:37] Sure. Oh definitely.
[30:38] They're going to get a few days to chill in Ibiza.
[30:41] Whatever they want to do and then but I think what's going to
[30:44] be crucial for Jude is this time back on the pitch with Jabi a
[30:47] little bit more one-on-one time so he can figure out here is
[30:50] what I exactly want from you because you are so good at these
[30:53] things, right. Like I think that'll be helpful
[30:55] for him when we come out of the. Break.
[30:56] I think Jabi has an idea though, like I'm sure he does.
[30:59] He keeps mentioning he's always like, well Ortha can always play
[31:03] deeper. Ortha can always play.
[31:05] He wants Jude up higher up. Yes, for sure.
[31:07] And you saw today, why? Like, why wouldn't you when you
[31:11] have such a guy who can crash the box out of nowhere?
[31:13] Because do you want to be real? Rafa Marin and Gabriel Vega were
[31:16] having a pretty easy time until Jude came on, right?
[31:20] And then it's like they have to think about multiple things at
[31:23] once. So yeah, look, I'm not against
[31:27] order as a #10 or in between the lines type of player, but I
[31:31] don't like Ardan subbias together and I would like for
[31:35] Dean and Carreras to have a retention partner deeper on the
[31:41] line. So Trumani doesn't really have
[31:44] to do it because I don't think he's very good at doing it.
[31:46] Like Arda just has a proper passing.
[31:50] He picks the right pass most of the time.
[31:53] Still don't like that Arda tries to dribble.
[31:56] I think he needs to phase that out of his game a bit,
[31:59] especially on these positions. But overall, or the deeper Judas
[32:05] number, Look, we call Judas #10 right?
[32:08] Like this guy was doing tackles on the right back roll like this
[32:12] is. It's not your ordinary type of
[32:16] player. He's going to be everywhere on a
[32:17] pitch regardless. It's mostly of what you need.
[32:22] I know that a lot of people have problems with Jude against that
[32:24] Lady, right? But still, he accumulated 50% of
[32:29] our tackles that game. We as a team had 12.
[32:32] He had 6 by himself. So let's just, you know, like we
[32:38] kind of need to chill on the way the perception of Jude has been
[32:42] because maybe he was rushed back a little bit, maybe.
[32:45] Clearly, clearly. Too much fatigue, so they're
[32:48] going to need him. They maybe did the math wrong
[32:52] when it comes to that. I'm not sure.
[32:54] Like Alonzo knows better on that department, but overall like.
[32:59] I mean, look at it right? He started the athletic game,
[33:01] but didn't start Kyrat like an easier game, right?
[33:05] And nor did he start today. So that tells you all you need
[33:07] to know, right? And also, England didn't call
[33:09] him up. You think that there weren't
[33:10] conversations happening behind like the fact that Tukal needs
[33:14] to get on a press conference and go like, look, I do understand
[33:17] that with such status, talking about Jude's, there comes also
[33:22] responsibility. But we also have to understand
[33:24] that the guy is just off rhythm. And trust me, he needed to know
[33:30] that the guy is off rhythm. So he's definitely talked to
[33:33] Madrids camp. He's definitely talked to Judes
[33:35] camp. He watched the athletic game and
[33:37] was like, oh. So, yeah, look, there are
[33:41] coaches who are not going to do that.
[33:43] For example, like the song, he just goes like, OK, I want
[33:45] Kamiving on the team. It doesn't matter at all costs.
[33:48] Even though Kamiving has played like 60 minutes since he came
[33:52] back from the injury, which he's been out since like, what, May
[33:55] of last year, even earlier maybe.
[33:58] So the song doesn't care about it.
[34:01] He called them Bapa, and maybe and Bapa is bluffing with that
[34:04] injury. We still don't know.
[34:08] Having a game of this magnitude with international break luring
[34:12] is so annoying. Yeah, it's really annoying.
[34:16] You can imagine the pressure, right?
[34:17] Yeah, these guys are on a nice rhythm.
[34:20] Right now, you think that the game today looks like this?
[34:23] No, Like we're not having this conversation.
[34:26] Yeah, I think that that game was important for us as a team.
[34:31] I think the response has been excellent, especially coming
[34:34] back on the league because you could have really started that
[34:38] dominance effect where nothing goes right and you just can't
[34:41] pull yourself back. Players look way more confident
[34:44] again or playing their game. They're trusting the coach,
[34:48] they're trusting the system, they know that they can do
[34:51] better. This was like the question going
[34:54] into the game and I think we got the answer of that.
[34:57] No, 100% this team is nowhere near sealing and a finished
[35:03] product and we're going to see a lot of these ebbs and flows
[35:06] throughout the season. I want to talk about a few
[35:09] players like Conte who we started to hear, excuse me,
[35:13] super excited about them. And then, you know, they've had
[35:16] some dips in forms because look, no, very rare that a player is a
[35:19] 10 out of 10 all season long. It's just how, especially young.
[35:22] Players right? Right.
[35:24] Like this is just how it is Herreras and Housen, right?
[35:28] I don't want to say the the shine off the stars worn off,
[35:32] but I think we're starting to see maybe some of their
[35:35] deficiencies. I think we're also starting to
[35:37] see some fatigue when they are young.
[35:39] Those are players, with the exception of Carreras, who just
[35:41] got rest and Dina got suspended so he got rest, but who
[35:44] literally played every single 90 minutes for this club.
[35:48] You know, what are you seeing from them?
[35:49] Are you seeing a little bit of both fatigue and also young
[35:53] players because Dean's 20 and Carreras is what, 22?
[35:57] Yeah, 2223. Young players who are not in
[36:01] their prime yet still learning and making errors in, in, in, in
[36:06] their play, in their development.
[36:09] OK. So the way how we started, we
[36:12] were far more reliant on them to begin with.
[36:14] So as you know, like more responsibility on them, they
[36:18] have more opportunities to shine now that the team is in more
[36:22] even ground. They're more even to the OPS, I
[36:25] want to say, or their partners like Nuli Tau, for example, came
[36:29] clutch multiple times because that's the quality of his every
[36:35] player has deficiencies. I think that we put too big of a
[36:40] really blame on Dean Housen on this case for his jumps.
[36:47] But let's also think of his role.
[36:49] His role is to step into midfield and that's very hard to
[36:53] retreat at constant basis if the press is broken.
[36:57] Like he's not on the most comfortable spot for a 20 years
[37:02] old, but still with his passes. Like how many times did you see
[37:05] the switches to Franco, which helped us a lot to recycle the
[37:09] ball, move it like something? They're the same.
[37:13] It's just that now the team is getting there, so they look a
[37:18] bit more normalized to us. I don't think that there's been
[37:20] a shift on their level. Yes, maybe with the athletic
[37:24] game we can point out some of their deficiencies, but in
[37:28] general, I still think they were really good.
[37:31] Like as you mentioned, Nicolas Pepe, literally man of the match
[37:34] on the Champions League came on. Carreras just went like, Nope.
[37:38] And that's it. You know, it wasn't a game where
[37:42] you felt that Carreras, OK, he's starting to lose it now.
[37:46] Maybe some of the passes I thought were a bit
[37:52] uncharacteristic for him. Uncharacteristic.
[37:55] Yep, I got you. Apparently that word is very
[37:58] hard for me, but outside of that, which I think is very
[38:02] normal coming after that game, Plus he didn't play on Tuesday,
[38:07] right? So I would imagine that game has
[38:10] stayed on his brain for quite a bit and he wanted that shrine
[38:14] back. I thought he combined well with
[38:17] Vinnie. We finally saw that Carreras
[38:19] overlap and Vinnie getting the ball and using it be more used.
[38:25] He also just gives Vinnie that possession right.
[38:28] He doesn't pass the Vini behind his back where Vini has took
[38:31] turn with a defender on his back.
[38:33] He just gives it a Vini straight up and Vini I think Vini
[38:36] appreciates that's a lot didn't get that way too often with
[38:39] Fran, neither Mandy. So overall, down to the ground
[38:46] is the way how I would explain them.
[38:48] But still incredible players. Like not going to put any blame
[38:53] on them. As I said, the goal that was
[38:55] conceded, if you really want to put that on Dean, then I don't
[38:57] know what to say. If you want to put that on
[38:59] Truamini, I don't know what to say.
[39:01] It wasn't them. I think it was just Franco's
[39:03] lack of energy. Maybe Alonzo could have done the
[39:05] sub a little bit earlier because you saw that the sub came right
[39:09] after that literally because he went like, Nope, this guy can't
[39:12] run anymore. They're normal, by the way, but
[39:17] can't really blame much when you're in a role where we have
[39:20] to take more risks. A a problem that plagued this
[39:25] team under Carlo still plagues this team now, which is we look
[39:30] very vulnerable on the counter attack, right?
[39:34] The transitions are very, very difficult.
[39:36] There's a lot of space to, to, to close down and cover.
[39:41] And I'm wondering, is this something tactically that we're
[39:45] still tweaking to get better? Or is this just the nature of,
[39:47] well, if we're going to press and play aggressive and, and,
[39:50] and go up front, and if our pressing sequence is off by just
[39:53] a little bit, this is going to happen because there's no,
[39:56] there's no other option. Unfortunately, you nailed it
[39:59] because there's no other option, right?
[40:01] It's more of like you're banking on your pressing being like
[40:05] really good and mitigating those chances.
[40:08] I still think that people needs to be a bit more proactive with.
[40:13] How he decides to leave his line when we're facing transitions.
[40:16] I don't like to see our centre backs having to constantly check
[40:19] their back while they're retreating.
[40:21] I don't like that. So your goalkeeper being a
[40:24] little bit more proactive, I think it's a must.
[40:28] But overall it's going to get better.
[40:31] The pricing is going to improve. I think that this team, this
[40:35] seems struggles against transitions, but so does any
[40:38] other big team really that wants to impose itself on a pest.
[40:41] Like go and watch a monster city game for example, or go and
[40:46] watch I mean Liverpool. I don't want to tell people to
[40:49] watch them. Please don't.
[40:50] They lost today, lost to Chelsea.
[40:52] Today I mean 3 losses in a row but still.
[40:55] Just do yourself a favour and don't watch Liverpool.
[40:58] But. If you want to watch any big
[41:02] team that wants to be dominant, wants to be assertive on the
[41:06] pitch, they're going to have this.
[41:08] They are simply going to be faced with these.
[41:11] Like first half we had one chance, right?
[41:13] The one that he was saved. That's all what we suffered.
[41:16] All of the other three shots just came long range.
[41:20] Well, I just hope it goes in. I think that's a good news.
[41:24] Just some updates coming here from the Madrid, Madrid
[41:29] aggregator accounts. Seems that Mbappe does have a
[41:32] little bit of an ankle issue, but he is still going to play
[41:34] with France, sadly. And I know and Mesa and Tuano
[41:40] has an overload I think in his thigh and he's still going to
[41:43] play with his national team. So listen, these are two players
[41:48] who are he? I mean, if you, I don't need to
[41:52] tell you about Mbappe, that's just common sense.
[41:54] Anybody who knows knows anything can just see that.
[41:57] But as is Franco, because as Lecante said to start the show,
[42:00] he's a workaholic and he offers something on that right flank
[42:04] that we don't really have a profile that matches right or
[42:07] someone with the energy level that matches that on this squad
[42:10] right now. And so I hope that their
[42:13] national teams do what's right. I have little faith in Didier DE
[42:17] champs because he's Didier DE champs.
[42:21] Maybe the Argentina coach might be a little better.
[42:24] Maybe. I don't know if.
[42:25] Galoni please bro. Galoni, hopefully he'll, you
[42:28] know, just hey, man, you're you're 17 or you're 18.
[42:31] You'll have plenty of time to play.
[42:33] Don't worry. Like, let's just let's just rest
[42:35] you here. I don't know if miss is
[42:36] available. I'm not sure if he's being
[42:39] called up, but now he wears #10 for Argentina, so he's just.
[42:46] I also think he wants to go, to be honest.
[42:48] Listen, I, I get that all these players want to go, but I, I
[42:51] know I and I'm not begrudging them.
[42:53] Listen, you will, a player will never, unless they are literally
[42:57] dying, will tell you no, I don't want to, right?
[42:59] Because that's how they are. They're wired.
[43:01] There are times when they have to say no.
[43:03] Those are friendlies. Like look, Ardam, BAPI,
[43:07] whatever. We might not agree.
[43:08] I don't agree with the Kamalinga 1.
[43:10] I think I'm online with the phone when it comes to Bapi one,
[43:13] it's still a World Cup qualifier.
[43:16] I question his coaching ability to not win games without Mbappe.
[43:22] But Mbappe is still the captain, best player, yada yada yada yada
[43:28] yada right For the say, security, safety reason.
[43:32] It's not a meaningless game after all.
[43:35] On the other hand, like Venicius Rodrigo and Milita for
[43:41] friendlies really. Come on guy, can't you help us
[43:44] out again? You know, like, can you, can we
[43:48] hire and thank him again, please?
[43:52] He's just somebody brought this up on my mentions on Twitter and
[43:57] they went like chemistry. I went like, they're still in N1
[44:01] where our schedule is much easier than right now.
[44:04] Yeah, I would much have rather had Benicio stay at home for
[44:08] this one when on the N1, like on N1, if he leaves Benicio's home,
[44:13] thank you very much. Yeah, but that's not going to
[44:17] matter as much. So this was the one to at least
[44:21] leave Militao double ACL under you.
[44:23] By the way, Mr. and Vinice, who's home.
[44:27] Like Rodrigo, I think minutes can actually be important.
[44:30] Like he might score a goal. Those are friendlies, come back
[44:33] with high confidence, high role, might give Alonzo different
[44:38] ideas how to use him given how Angelotti's using him.
[44:41] All of that. I'm all in for a few players but
[44:47] I question that my paper. We know, Yeah.
[44:51] No, we, we, we all of that. Listen, I, I, we we've talked
[44:55] that nausea, how you feel about international break.
[44:57] We don't love it is what it is. All we can do.
[45:00] And as you all know, hope is not a strategy.
[45:02] As I say all the time, it's not. But at this point, there's
[45:05] nothing we can do, right? They're going.
[45:08] So all you fingers, all we can literally do is hope they don't
[45:11] get injured because we have no patrol.
[45:14] Are they going to play other? It is what it is, right?
[45:16] So my hope is that they that they don't like, they come back
[45:19] healthy. And I hope that Uruguay keeps
[45:22] Valverde off the list and he gets to stay back as well.
[45:25] That's that they haven't released the list yet.
[45:27] Like the group, like I think it's on Monday where they where
[45:32] the group or the council and they still don't know whether
[45:36] they're going to call the word or not because there were like 3
[45:40] question marks. But I read three players for
[45:43] where there was one of them. He's just like, come on BL
[45:46] Summit, just let the guy be. Again, positives of this that we
[45:53] can take is the fact that we're going into International Bank
[45:56] without the stress and that, oh, we need to see these players
[46:00] back. They did give us a reaction, a
[46:02] pretty darn good one. We got some quality minutes out
[46:06] of Kamalinga and Jude, which we badly needed.
[46:09] I mean, Kamalinga scored on the last game, came on this game,
[46:13] did that ridiculous tackle like Cobra, just Kamalinga type of
[46:18] thing where he's the only one that can do it.
[46:20] He's so good. Overall a Vini match which we
[46:23] desperately needed but they on a poor game with a goal in assist
[46:29] we say poor game. Bystanders.
[46:31] By the way, for many of other players this would have been a
[46:34] game which they dream of playing but for above the standards,
[46:37] this is just a poor game for him.
[46:40] Trumani badly needed rest but still managed to finish the game
[46:45] with no injury. He's not going because he's
[46:48] suspended. Positive team unfortunately has
[46:52] to go De la Fuente. Thank you for not calling up
[46:54] Carreras and falling for the hype.
[46:56] Yes, all fake. Hi bro, he's all fake.
[46:59] Hi, please keep moving that first look.
[47:05] I feel bad for Carreras, he probably wants to be there.
[47:07] I know he does. But I'm like, Buddy, you, you,
[47:11] you will be there, Buddy. You'll eventually be there.
[47:15] I just hope this season is not the season that you're there,
[47:17] that's all. Listen, I know it's a World Cup
[47:19] year. I know, I know, I know, I know.
[47:21] But the reality is. Still for the World Cup, because
[47:24] of the season that he's having, yeah, yeah, I think he escaped
[47:28] this one. I don't think he's escaping
[47:30] November, so I'll say that. So buckle up there.
[47:35] Maybe. I mean, there's been a positive
[47:37] trend with the injuries of both Trent and Cara Hall.
[47:40] We're getting like some good news.
[47:42] We're getting them back on the gym already.
[47:44] Now, two weeks of football, we might get both of them
[47:47] apparently for all classical. Well, I'm not advocating to play
[47:52] them, but it would be good to have them.
[47:55] This is what they will play. So we, we, we come out of the
[47:57] international break, Hitafe away and then it's Champions League,
[48:00] right? So it's, it's that again, we
[48:01] have 3-3 days in between matches, right?
[48:04] So we have Uvay, of course, clearly not an easy game.
[48:07] That game's at home. And then we have Barcelona at
[48:09] home that following Sunday. And so look, this is those three
[48:13] games coming out of the break how we end October, That will
[48:18] either be a springboard for us heading into the rest of the the
[48:22] calendar year or it's going to propose more questions that need
[48:27] to be answered. That isn't a single easy game
[48:30] until the next international break.
[48:32] Literally not even one. This time we have this carat
[48:36] game if we really want to go there, where it was mostly about
[48:39] the travelling rather than on pitch things.
[48:42] Yeah, the next one that isn't a single one if you.
[48:46] Look at, if you look at the end of October, right?
[48:47] So we finish, we we finish with Barcelona, the classical, right?
[48:50] We have Valencia at home, Liverpool away, Rio away, LJ
[48:54] away, Olympiakos in the Champions League away and drone
[48:57] away. We're away from home pretty much
[48:59] the entire month of November, right?
[49:01] Like it's going to be a tough month.
[49:04] That's rough. That's why I said like, I wish
[49:06] Carlo just picked the other one to call our players up instead
[49:10] of this one. Like especially with the lack of
[49:14] center backs. Like I think Alonzo made it
[49:16] clear where it sounds with Ascentio, the fact that he
[49:19] didn't even give him the dead end minutes of the game.
[49:22] I mean, he had the five Subs already done, but I would have
[49:26] thought that Ascentio would have come on at some point on this
[49:31] game. But no, like he didn't even get
[49:33] the look. I don't think he even got a warm
[49:35] up. No, he did not.
[49:36] Cake eater saying that Grimaldo might be injured, by the way.
[49:39] Just saying. Well look, I don't want Carreras
[49:42] called up as no injury replacement either, so I don't
[49:48] know. Thank you for the news.
[49:49] Yeah, thank you. I I listen.
[49:51] Let's hope Rabaldo I. Really need it then.
[49:53] Because I don't. I I don't.
[49:55] I'm up for that. All right, folks, we will see
[50:00] you all again this week and we're at the international
[50:03] break, but we will still have our Friday show.
[50:06] I'll do do more bigger picture mailbag.
[50:09] So you guys send your questions in again, those of you watching,
[50:12] please, of course, thank you so much for tuning in.
[50:15] Like this video? Subscribe, turn your
[50:18] notifications on so you know when we go live and share it
[50:21] with a friend or someone who just likes smart talk about
[50:23] football, in particular Real Madrid.
[50:25] And as always, if you are busy and you want the audio only
[50:29] version of this, we are also on Apple and Spotify wherever you
[50:32] get podcasts. So please check us out there.
[50:34] Follow us on all socials and until next time, take care.
[50:39] Bye us.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.