# Copa Del Rey Final Postgame Review

An episode of [The Real Deal: A Real Madrid Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1807821669), 27 Apr 2025, 52 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/103607aa8/podcast/play/101843126/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-3-27%2F399163009-44100-2-8bde1cb93ec24.mp3

Jarod Hector joins Sid to go over the improved tactics in the defeat to Barcelona, the shift to the 4-1-4-1 shape that salvaged the first half, Jude's dominance, Mbappe's performance off the bench, and more.

## Transcript

[1:03] Hello everyone, welcome to the Copa del Rey final edition of
[1:06] The Real Deal. Felt like we were a few good
[1:08] minutes away from maybe having a fun like enjoyable talk, but it
[1:13] was a frustrating defeat, frustrating end to a frustrating
[1:16] season. Gerard, how are you?
[1:20] You know, Sid, I'm surprisingly OK because as I said to you
[1:23] before we came on air, the way we lost this match and that's a
[1:27] final and final's always thing to lose.
[1:29] And they think even more when you lose to your eternal rival
[1:32] in Barcelona. It it is exactly how we have
[1:35] lost matches all year, our lack of discipline and and not just
[1:40] like player discipline, but just discipline in terms of knowing
[1:43] what to do in positionally when a pass is coming your way.
[1:46] Like I'm not here to kill Braheem, right?
[1:48] Like, this is not like Braheem is the reason, like
[1:50] collectively, this is what happens when you lack discipline
[1:54] and structure, Stuff we've talked about all year.
[1:56] And it cost us in this game, despite a second-half that saw a
[2:00] much more concerted effort, better tactics, you know, And I
[2:04] think maybe those are things that that the team can look to
[2:07] build on with whomever they bring in as a new manager next
[2:09] season. Yeah, for sure it was.
[2:12] I think the story of the game was we played better than
[2:16] expected kind of match them. I think maybe our probably our
[2:19] best performance against them all season, their worst as well.
[2:22] They were kind of tired. We had a real opportunity to win
[2:24] the game and we we didn't cause of some few key moments that
[2:28] we'll get to. So let's start with the starting
[2:32] line up. I guess the expectation was
[2:35] Mbappe would play and we had a lot of different ideas, but
[2:38] Mbappe didn't play. But we did see Jude play higher
[2:40] up to win long balls from the start.
[2:43] Thought it was interesting that Sabayo started like as a left
[2:45] wide midfielder and he tucked in kind of in the cruise role and
[2:51] then we had Fede and Rodrigo kind of on the right together
[2:56] and then two of many as well. Amazing in midfield.
[2:59] Great game. Yeah, and so that's how we kind
[3:02] of started the game in A442 with, what's his name, Rodrigo,
[3:07] just talking in on the right. The main thing I think he wanted
[3:09] there was Fede and Jude. He wanted them both like in
[3:14] winning duels in midfield. I think Fede Jude to a many.
[3:17] He wanted them all central. He didn't want Jude to be wide
[3:20] left. He didn't want he didn't want
[3:24] Jude to be wide left, obviously because he wanted them to
[3:27] attack. But in the process you can't put
[3:30] Sibios wide on the right like as a midfielder, like he just
[3:33] wouldn't have an offensive threat and he kind of can tuck
[3:36] in and like right footed midfielders have to play very
[3:39] near the wide wide anyways when they're on the left.
[3:42] So I thought that lineup was cool and we start, but at the
[3:47] same time the lineup is cool and then we start the game and we're
[3:51] chasing shadows. Right, right.
[3:53] And I think that was the challenge, right, because any
[3:56] lineup where it's still Lucas Vasquez at right back, right it
[4:01] it and Mendy, who by the way, you know, and I said I tweeted
[4:05] this out. This is a larger discussion and
[4:07] we'll discuss it later on on where the podcast but many was
[4:10] made it what, 3 minutes before he went down like I just don't
[4:14] like that is a problem that needs to be addressed #1 the
[4:19] number of injuries, soft tissue and muscle injuries that this
[4:21] these players get. Because Real Madrid isn't the
[4:24] only club that plays a condensed schedule like every club plays
[4:27] that. That's a major club in the top
[4:28] five leagues plays a zillion matches, yet we seem to be
[4:31] overwhelmed with soft tissue and muscle injuries.
[4:34] That is a performance medical training like all of those staff
[4:38] need to be need to be re evaluated.
[4:40] That being said I thought the line up was cool but the problem
[4:43] was the best version for us because Barcelona is so strong
[4:46] on the wings. Would have been to half bet A at
[4:48] right back as opposed to centrally or or even when he
[4:51] emitting towards the right, because when he had to move back
[4:54] towards the middle, like he wasn't able to track passes
[4:57] properly right like distribute from the back was really not his
[5:01] strength. He's more of a breaking line
[5:03] type of midfielder. That's that's more of a strong
[5:04] suit. So I just didn't like that that
[5:06] wasn't our more optimal situation.
[5:08] It's a BIOS wasn't great, right, but notice when we switched the
[5:11] lineup and we put Friday at right back and then all of a
[5:14] sudden we had Arda who, news flash, maybe Arda should have
[5:18] been playing all year, right, like it was way better.
[5:21] Like we had that distribution going like and I thought, you
[5:24] know, kudos to the young kids did like he cripped himself.
[5:26] Well, his first classico like at the point when he came in, what
[5:29] was it? Was it 11 when he came in?
[5:32] Arda, it might have been 11. Or one O?
[5:37] Either 11 or even 1. OI got a chance in a minute.
[5:40] And and so for him to come in in that situation and equip himself
[5:43] well, look, I'm not saying he was man of the match, but he
[5:46] played well in his first Classico.
[5:48] And that's just get an indictment on the fact that
[5:50] maybe it's just someone that should have been playing more.
[5:52] I like true many was great. Obviously not having Kemah Binga
[5:55] hurt us big time, right, because you, you would have put Kemah
[5:57] Binga out on the left as opposed to Mendi to start, right, and
[5:59] would have been well, kudos Also said to our friend Garcia, who
[6:03] when I saw him going coming in, I was like, oh, Lamine's gonna
[6:06] cook him. He cripped himself well against
[6:08] him all in that game. Fran actually, I thought played
[6:10] pretty well. A couple of misplaced passes.
[6:12] But you know, overall, again, for what his level is in that
[6:16] kind of a match, like Fran played well, he, he wasn't our
[6:21] problem, right? Our problem was, again, when we
[6:24] needed to be structurally sound and disciplined, we weren't.
[6:27] And we'll talk about the the the two big mistakes.
[6:30] Yeah. So I think the story is that
[6:33] we're we're still outmatched. I think like just tactically, I
[6:37] think Carlo did enough where it was close.
[6:39] But in the first half, I thought honestly, the first half was
[6:42] more indicative just because this Barcelona team, I mean, and
[6:45] I guess it's like part part of the thing they've signed up for,
[6:48] but they they declined heavily in the second-half.
[6:50] So I think it's a story of two halves.
[6:53] And I thought in the first half Barcelona looked good throughout
[6:57] and through about 35 minutes. We're down, we're struggling.
[7:00] We give up open space to Pedri. We never create any shot like
[7:03] that where the player has acres of space to.
[7:05] Walk Pedri's out here looking like a freaking maestro.
[7:09] Yeah, and he's wide open because we're man marking.
[7:11] I thought there was a lot of man marking without enough of a
[7:14] line. Like usually you form a
[7:15] defensive line, you don't let passes get through your.
[7:17] Line, no lines, I mean, you can see 10 and unders can make
[7:21] passes pass this Madrid midfield, like Madrid midfield.
[7:23] I'm like, what? And that's one of the things
[7:25] that like really bothers me about this team.
[7:28] Yes, I know Barcelona out of possession and all that, but it
[7:32] seems like every time Madrid had the ball, there were three bars
[7:34] on the players around them taking the ball away.
[7:36] And when Barcelona won the pass was in the first half two
[7:40] touches and they're and they're they're on they're on the break.
[7:42] And it's like what the why can't we have the same level of taking
[7:47] the ball away when we don't have it and that they do right and
[7:50] they can easily bypass what we're doing because to your
[7:53] point, when man marking, there's no structure behind no line.
[7:56] I mean, again, literally a 10 year old can make passes.
[7:58] So his Jeremy Field because there's no, there's no sort of
[8:01] line line to to to stop and thwart passes.
[8:04] Yeah, and ultimately I sympathize.
[8:06] I think when you don't thrill it all season and you don't have
[8:09] concept of like midfield rotations, like, yeah, there was
[8:12] no concept of rotations. Loconte had a good tweet where
[8:15] he's like, you know, you got to have the center back split a
[8:17] little bit, the midfielders drop the full next press up like you,
[8:21] you just rotate in a triangle. And so without the defensive
[8:26] rotations, it's kind of too obvious that like what we're
[8:28] going to give Barcelona. So they know what's coming and
[8:30] they can kind of manipulate us just because these positional
[8:33] teams like Arsenal, Barcelona, they all like they want you to
[8:36] man mark them like they kind of like they don't want you to man
[8:38] mark them like top to bottom. That tires them out, but.
[8:41] They invite it. They invite it like once they
[8:43] pin you back, they want you to mark everyone that they've kind
[8:46] of set up in front, in front of the six, in front of the two
[8:48] screening sixes or eights who then can just like look at the
[8:52] field and play quarterback. So I thought the man marking was
[8:55] bad. And then there was a good
[8:57] switch. Ancelotti did.
[8:58] And I like at first when the switch was made, I was still
[9:01] making fun of us. Like when I was like thinking
[9:03] about in my head, like Courtois made a save around like right
[9:06] when it happened and it wasn't working at first.
[9:08] But the last 10 minutes of the first half, we don't really
[9:11] concede as many chances. We start getting into the game
[9:13] and it's because we switched to a 4141 because the the issue and
[9:18] I noticed was like they just had to have somebody other than the
[9:22] center backs, like kind of plugging, like they needed
[9:25] someone screening the center backs, but they were unwilling
[9:28] to, like, use that man on the line.
[9:30] But they switched to a 4141. So true.
[9:31] And many was there. Fete and Bellingham were kind of
[9:34] flat in front of him instead of Bellingham being all the way up,
[9:37] I think. Yeah.
[9:39] And then Cebios was still on the left, Rodrigo on the right.
[9:42] But that kind of gets us back into the game going to halftime.
[9:46] I thought that was the story of the first half, really.
[9:48] Yeah, that was huge. Your point that when we switched
[9:50] that 4141, because to your point with Bellingham and Fede in
[9:55] front of two and many, Bellingham was the one that even
[9:57] though those two chances, the one chance was offsides and I
[10:02] forget what the other one was, but he was the one who dropped
[10:06] deep. Literally had to work around
[10:09] Pedri. He's like, I don't know, 90
[10:10] yards away, like deep in our own half, right?
[10:13] He spins away from Pedri and then he is able to start us on
[10:17] the break and progress the ball forward and and and get us
[10:19] moving into into some kind of cohesive offense.
[10:21] And that was the only way we were able to actually in the
[10:23] first half counter and have anything going is because
[10:26] Bellingham had to do everything, drop back, win the ball back.
[10:29] I mean, I don't know what his stats were, but I thought he was
[10:32] incredible today just winning duels.
[10:34] And just like, I mean, what he's been all season, right?
[10:35] Like, and again, I would love to see what another coach does with
[10:41] a team that's a little bit more disciplined, what he would
[10:44] unleash him to be because it's almost like he's too good at too
[10:48] many things, right? So it's like, really, what is
[10:50] the optimal place for him to be in conjunction with whomever our
[10:55] other midfielders are on the pitch at the time so that he's
[10:57] not having to do whatever it is that they're not doing because
[11:00] we don't have the proper discipline?
[11:02] Yeah, definitely. And I actually thought today,
[11:05] even though we had to play him deeper, the I just thought
[11:08] leaving him in the middle was great for us.
[11:10] Like just I think I think he can.
[11:12] He's versatile where he can be effective out wide, but I don't
[11:15] think he needs wide angles to succeed like I think he needs
[11:18] to. I don't think he can have too
[11:20] much burden behind him where he has to constantly worry.
[11:22] And I thought today we he overall was like free to go up
[11:26] and attack on top of having to I mean Barcelona big game like
[11:29] this, you're always going to have to defend.
[11:31] We we signed him because he's placed two way in the games like
[11:34] these, but. Him and Fede, I mean Fede of
[11:36] course, was again, fucking incredible.
[11:38] Yep. And so they have like 70%
[11:42] possession through the 1st 25 minutes, maybe the last 10
[11:45] minutes I think we pick up a little more.
[11:47] We forced that double save early from Chezny.
[11:50] Vinny forces it early in the second-half.
[11:53] But we don't feel clinical all the time.
[11:54] A lot of our attacks, it feels like, you know, as this is
[11:58] happening before we even get to the first Subs, you know it.
[12:01] Yeah. Even then it felt like we were
[12:02] maybe not the most efficient. I mean, those Vinnie, the ones
[12:05] he forced the save were good. But many moments throughout the
[12:08] game where we just got to be letting go of the ball.
[12:11] It feels like Vinnie lost a little bit of discipline in that
[12:13] regard as the season went on, even early in the year.
[12:17] Yeah, and he and he got to your point less clinical with his
[12:21] passing. It's like, why are you bad at
[12:23] this all of a sudden now? Like almost like he's inside of
[12:25] his own head. And I don't, you know, the
[12:29] Bollendorf's loss I think affected him negatively more
[12:34] than I think the club maybe he would let on, right, Because
[12:37] everything was set up and the and The Apprentice was he was
[12:40] going to win it, right? They had the Nike, had the
[12:43] campaign rolled out, the party was set.
[12:46] All that now. Take it for his family, right?
[12:48] I'm not gonna get into the whole, you know, idiotic Premier
[12:52] League compensator saying like how classless that was or
[12:54] whatever. It's like, stop it.
[12:56] Like it just dumb. But when you are set for that
[13:00] kind of high to be recognized as the best in the world and then
[13:05] you don't get it, there is a natural deflation that happens.
[13:10] One of the things that like we have to understand about these
[13:13] athletes, they're incredible, technically skilled, all these
[13:16] amazing things as it relates to their sport, but they have
[13:20] emotions like regular people. And that is a professional
[13:24] disappointment on a level that most people who are listening to
[13:28] this podcast or in the world cannot fathom.
[13:31] Like they just, you just can't. You don't know what it's like to
[13:33] be potentially labeled as the best in the world and then to
[13:36] not get it. That is a major disappointment.
[13:39] And I think that affected him a lot this season.
[13:42] In addition to, of course, the rival of Mbappe and trying to
[13:45] figure out what are we doing here?
[13:46] How do we link up, right? Not having the proper structure,
[13:48] all those things, the injuries, right?
[13:50] It's just it's again, we all people always look for, oh, it's
[13:55] one thing. It's never one thing.
[13:57] It's a cumulative effect of multiple things, right.
[14:00] And that led to to what I think was just a subpar season from
[14:03] him when last year he was just outstanding.
[14:07] Yeah, I think what happened was last year or in general, like
[14:10] when the game's on the line, last year especially, he really
[14:13] just started taking upon himself to decide the game.
[14:16] Like sometimes with passes, but especially with just scoring
[14:19] last year more than anything. And then at the start of the
[14:21] year, to help him Papi integrate, he started making
[14:24] some great passes, great outside the boot crosses, things like
[14:27] that. Give him credit for that, by the
[14:29] way, to not want to be the glory hog and integrate his new
[14:31] teammate. Yeah, yeah.
[14:33] And and then I think, you know, he gets injured and Bapi starts
[14:37] playing. Well, I don't think there was
[14:38] any jealousy between him and Mbapi at any point, but I think
[14:40] what avenues? Jude's never opened this year.
[14:43] Like, like he's just never opened.
[14:44] And so you start getting demoralized and then Mbapi had
[14:47] his bad stretch earlier the year, but fine, he still gets
[14:49] open. I don't think he's not trying to
[14:51] pass to Mbapi, but I think Rodrigo, who literally doesn't
[14:54] score sometimes for like a third of the season, which he this has
[14:57] just been the story of his career.
[14:58] I think 80 to 90 million is like as good as you're going to get
[15:01] for him. I think you were at finally at
[15:04] the point where he's probably not adding more value than that
[15:06] much money at the club potentially, especially in this
[15:09] role. Like we don't need him like as
[15:11] like a starter who's like punches above his weight in
[15:13] certain big games, great. But like the bench player who
[15:16] like is starting to lose confidence.
[15:18] Oh my God, you just take the money and run.
[15:20] Sid, what did what did he do in this game?
[15:23] He's just not. So The thing is, like I, I
[15:25] sympathize because ultimately Carlo chose the setup that works
[15:29] the best defensively for the team and he couldn't sacrifice
[15:34] Sibayos's offensive output. So he's like, you know what,
[15:36] Rodrigo, you're the versatile 1. And The thing is, Rodrigo's
[15:39] never been so dominant on the left to, like, force the issue.
[15:42] No question. I'm not like if Rodrigo was some
[15:45] elite left winger like Vinicius, he'd be like, Ciballos, you're
[15:48] doing whatever. Like, yeah.
[15:50] Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're not.
[15:50] We're not worrying about you. But I I don't think he saw
[15:54] Rodrigo playing really well on the left mid role.
[15:58] Firstly, like I I said before the game, I think Rodrigo could
[16:00] do much better and I think he can't because we saw last year
[16:03] Man City went. Online.
[16:05] Yeah, left wing Vinnie. Vinnie would drift around and
[16:08] Rodrigo would end up taking making the runs Vinnie would and
[16:12] we saw those. But I so I feel bad for Rodrigo,
[16:15] like starting on the right. But I mean, I knew coming into
[16:17] the game he's just not like a touchline winger.
[16:19] He's just like, I don't know, he's like a very Spanish
[16:22] Brazilian player. I don't know how to say he's
[16:24] been. No, I, I know what you mean.
[16:25] Look, it's what we all said, right?
[16:27] Everybody was like, who's going to suffer the most when BAPE
[16:30] comes? And it's Rodrigo, right, like
[16:33] he's the one because you're not dropping Vinny from the left
[16:36] side, right. That's just not happening.
[16:37] And again, to your point, he is not a, a, a right, a touchline
[16:42] right winger. That's just not his game, right.
[16:44] And so, you know, again, this was a team last year that when
[16:48] Rod it was just Bellingham who's again making runs, runs from
[16:53] from, you know, deep and, and coming in.
[16:55] And it was just him, Bellingham and and and Vinny that worked
[16:58] because he could get over to the left side.
[17:00] And but with killing in there, you can't now and Belling it you
[17:03] can't, right? And this is where, again, some
[17:06] sort of a sacrificial something I need to play what whatever it
[17:11] may be, right? Roles need to be defined and
[17:14] they never were. And this is the this is the
[17:16] choice. And now to your point, I don't
[17:18] even know if we get 80 or 90 million for them now, like after
[17:21] this season, teams might be like, I'm not paying that.
[17:24] No way. You know, like maybe someone
[17:26] might, you know what PSP or like.
[17:29] I'm calling PEP. I'm calling PEP.
[17:30] I know PEP has thought about. Pep loves Rodrigo.
[17:33] Yeah, yeah. I don't know if we got an offer
[17:35] before I'm calling and asking them if that where that offer
[17:37] is, if it's still on the table. I know they already signed some
[17:39] guys, but you know, Rodrigo Holland and Marmouche, they
[17:42] could be looking good over there.
[17:43] I would I would give him a call. But the point with that is,
[17:46] yeah, he's just like he got started out to the right.
[17:48] And I think what happens there is, like, what really hurt us
[17:51] when I'm Bapi. Like there were two ways it
[17:53] could go. There was a world where Rodrigo
[17:56] increases his output. This is what I thought would
[17:58] happen. And looking back, there were a
[17:59] few key factors that were naive. Like we didn't have anyone who
[18:01] could head the ball. We don't have controllers, fine.
[18:04] But the third factor is we don't have enough left footers in
[18:06] attack. Andrick is not like a typical
[18:08] left footer because he's not going to hug in the right way.
[18:11] Yeah, so we don't have like but I'm saying even if we play him,
[18:14] he's not like a De Maria or Bale who can like drive it up the
[18:17] touchline 60 yards like dribblers, like left footed
[18:20] dribblers. He is like a kind of like a
[18:22] nine, like a run running behind, very inverted.
[18:25] Even if he plays on the right and maybe he turns into that,
[18:28] but it's you're 1 of like 18 year old Andry.
[18:30] That's not, we didn't sign him to like be the go to left footer
[18:33] on the team, but like a De Maria Bale, someone who could like
[18:38] play on the right side and you'd have a left foot might have been
[18:41] great 'cause Rodrigo, if you had a left foot, you like Guler and
[18:45] we didn't use Guler is a potential example, but we want
[18:48] him to play deeper on this. So he's not considered a
[18:51] solution there, but. And he, he, he'll get muscled
[18:54] off the ball too easily if you put him out at right wing.
[18:56] Like he's just, he's not physically, you know, able to do
[18:58] that. And he's not fast too I and I
[19:00] don't think he's going to like, I don't think he's some Ozil
[19:03] Dabrina where he's going to threaten like right, 20 assists
[19:06] a season. I mean, he could maybe if we
[19:08] developed him and or maybe he turns into that.
[19:10] I saw that like vision in him. But as we've talked about, I I
[19:13] think he becomes more like moderate.
[19:15] He uses that deeper. But the point is Rodrigo, yeah.
[19:18] Like if the angles favored him, like the left, he might still
[19:22] have a chance. But yeah, without that top end
[19:24] burst, it's just over. But yeah, he didn't do too much.
[19:27] And the the other thing is this, though, I thought Rodrigo would
[19:31] either play better 'cause we have like other guys with
[19:33] gravity, he gets that space. And there were points in the
[19:35] season we thought that might happen.
[19:38] But The thing is, like, not only did he suffer, he suffered while
[19:41] still getting minutes. That's what he just stopped
[19:43] that. Like I thought he would just get
[19:44] benched, dude. Why do we play him the whole
[19:45] season and watch him just break every game?
[19:47] Because that's Carlo, right? Carlo has his unit that he
[19:51] trusts, and that's who he's going with.
[19:53] And I know Florentino also loves Rodrigo, too, right?
[19:56] So who knows how much like, you know, Florentino's like, Nah,
[19:59] you got to keep Rodrigo on the pitch.
[20:00] I'm not saying he told Carlo that, but who knows?
[20:04] Look, the point is, yeah, he he. We should have.
[20:07] Dropped him in favor of four midfielders and right now we had
[20:11] issues there because our midfield depth not as great as
[20:14] we thought or although we probably cause Kemah Vinget was
[20:17] stop start this season. Although this was an indictment
[20:22] that artist should have been playing more right as that deep
[20:24] line midfielder, right. We probably would have been
[20:26] better in terms of build up and he would have been better by
[20:28] this point of the season, right. I think you have to remember
[20:31] it's not just oh, what happened today.
[20:33] If we were doing this from the beginning, would Arda be much
[20:38] further along development wise now?
[20:41] Then yes, he probably would be right.
[20:44] Yeah. And the big complicating factor
[20:45] there is that I think you want you playing in midfield.
[20:47] You want someone other than Fede, like another defensive
[20:50] player, and that guy is Truameni, who was playing center
[20:53] back because we weren't playing Ascentio.
[20:54] So you don't have this whole domino effect.
[20:56] Yes, if Ascentio was playing from minute one of the season,
[20:59] we would we would have been a different team in some ways if
[21:01] Truamen, like if this midfield got continuity, if Ancelotti
[21:04] realized Guler could play deeper earlier, all that.
[21:07] But yeah, so that brings us to what happens there with Guler
[21:09] coming on 55th minute. Guler and Modrich, come on for
[21:13] Vasquez. What was your score then?
[21:16] Ceballos, we're still down. We're still down.
[21:18] Letting on. Yeah, yeah.
[21:18] So I just checked. So they're down and I like that.
[21:23] And I'm wondering what's going on.
[21:24] Madrich comes into midfield and Vasquez is off fed.
[21:28] It goes to right back, so Madrich takes his place.
[21:30] Guler just goes to the right wing.
[21:33] So we don't have survivors down there.
[21:35] And we have a completely different system now.
[21:37] It's kind of narrow, more like Vinnie on the left, Jude and
[21:40] Mape attacking through the middle, Jude sometimes dropping
[21:43] when needed with Madrich to many and immediately like we slowly
[21:49] start looking better and Barcelona also tired and Boppy
[21:51] scores the free kick. I thought that was a great
[21:53] stretch. I thought, you know, you wanted
[21:55] to talk about him, but true and many both in the last 1015
[21:57] minutes. Once we got a grip on the first
[21:59] half and on, he's pretty good. Like defensively, just cleaning
[22:02] up. And on top of that, you have
[22:04] moderate Guler and we're cooking.
[22:05] He was excellent true many was at breaking up passes, winning
[22:08] duels, being what we believe he is, which is if he had
[22:13] continuity, top 6 right, like a Stallworth DM holding
[22:18] midfielder. He can be that, but not when
[22:20] he's shuttling back and forth between center back.
[22:22] He's not getting the reps he needs and too many.
[22:24] He's young. Was he 24?
[22:25] These guys are young and so that's why I like the future
[22:28] being bright. I thought he was excellent again
[22:31] and helping us, as I said, break up passes and even start the
[22:35] progression for us to push the ball forward.
[22:37] The other thing Sid, was our effort and compete level just
[22:42] increased like one of the things that if you watched Madrid of
[22:47] your Madrid Madridista, you noticed all season, this team
[22:51] had a shameful lack of compete level all season.
[22:54] And in that second-half, the compete level turned up.
[22:58] And that is a skill to be able to compete for ninety 120.
[23:02] Whatever your your allotment of minutes are is a skill.
[23:06] And for whatever reason, this team does not have that skill
[23:08] collectively. But in that second-half, and I
[23:11] would argue through the rest of the the match, our compete level
[23:14] was much higher. There were a couple moments that
[23:16] were just mind numbing. You know, sometimes the beneath
[23:20] just gets super too casual when he's dropping back and grabbing
[23:22] the ball and I'm like, what are you?
[23:23] What are you doing? Like just kicking it around like
[23:26] and giving it up and then when he gives it up, standing there
[23:29] and letting I'm like, bro, like this is not you're not in the
[23:31] park with your friends, man. This is serious business.
[23:34] But again, I, I thought our compete level and Vinny as well
[23:37] as I killed him just now his compete level when he gave the
[23:40] ball up for the most part besides that one example, he was
[23:43] aggressive and going to try to win the ball back and fighting.
[23:46] And look, man, that's what you got to do.
[23:47] Like this is like this is simple again, 10 and under football
[23:52] stuff, right? Like when you lose the ball, you
[23:54] got to go try to win it back, right?
[23:56] Like that's the thing. And you got to give effort and
[23:59] this team actually gave effort from the second-half on.
[24:02] I think what mainly changed his arm maybe the I, I.
[24:05] At that point, I wasn't looking as much at the shape because I
[24:07] couldn't help but notice that Barcelona were kind of nervous,
[24:11] like mispacing passes. I was noticing like, hey, we're
[24:14] pressing well, but first half they would pick off some of
[24:17] these a little differently. They and then at that point we,
[24:20] I think we noticed just a body language and that galvanized the
[24:23] whole team. I I do think though, like from
[24:27] an honest process analysis standpoint, you have to consider
[24:30] that Barcelona were cooked, dude.
[24:32] Like they're really short. And I feel like, I honestly just
[24:36] feel like we got kind of lucky. We're facing A-Team that's on
[24:39] the downward curve. And then but we still need
[24:42] something to happen. And, you know, we're we're
[24:43] getting close, maybe not creating like cutthroat chances,
[24:46] like a lot of unlucky moments, like, you know, penalties that
[24:49] are one from offsides, things like that.
[24:51] But then and Bape scores an incredible goal like.
[24:55] Free kick was great. And honestly, I thought the way
[24:58] our offense looked once he came on, OK, that's where I thought
[25:01] our ability to press them was partly because they got tired.
[25:03] But I thought, like, look at the difference between the team with
[25:05] him and Rodrigo, like on the pill.
[25:08] Yeah. And that that's where like all
[25:10] year, I'm like, dude, just upgrade last year's set up with
[25:13] Mbapio Rodrigo and replicated as much as possible.
[25:16] And I get the injuries and all that.
[25:17] But he never really ever had the desire to do that this season.
[25:20] And that was the dagger for Carlo.
[25:21] Just never. Like, it shouldn't take you to a
[25:24] game where you're playing such a juggernaut that you really
[25:27] think. And they're like, damn, I need a
[25:28] midfield. Like, why do you take all
[25:29] season? Wait for a final to realize you
[25:31] need a midfield. The midfield's getting picked
[25:33] off all season, yet you still choose to trot out three
[25:36] attackers every, every match. It's like my guy.
[25:38] And really essentially 4 attackers, right?
[25:40] Because Bellingham ends up right, 'cause Bellingham ends up
[25:43] was right. So it's just like, what, What
[25:44] are we doing? No, I agree with you
[25:46] wholeheartedly. And yeah, 'cause and Boppe
[25:48] presents a different kind of threat.
[25:49] And you saw it said every time he would start one of his runs
[25:51] or whatever, Kubarski and those guys would freak out and be
[25:54] like, yo, we've got a drop. We've got like Rodrigo's coming
[25:56] in. You're not really all that
[25:57] concerned, right? It's like, yeah, OK, whatever,
[26:00] like. He's just not fast enough.
[26:02] Yeah. Like, and and even if he was
[26:04] fast enough, he could probably time the runs, but like, it's
[26:06] just night and day. And so that leaves that.
[26:11] So we make it 1 one and then we we and Bape gets another good
[26:15] sequence in transition, takes a good touch, releases Vinny, we
[26:19] get a corner from that corner, another sequence.
[26:22] We get one more corner. Guler crosses the two of many.
[26:24] We score. Beautiful.
[26:26] And that's why we had it. Can I say something about, you
[26:29] know, and Carlos going to be gone?
[26:31] So maybe whoever comes in, it's going to make a clear hierarchy
[26:34] and pecking order. Cool air should be always taking
[26:37] our corners, particularly when they're on that side where his
[26:40] left but swinging out like I just like come on man like he's
[26:43] so good at that like he's really good better than Madrich at this
[26:47] point of his career right, not peak Madrich, but Madrich right
[26:50] now. So Guler's got to do that more
[26:53] great header by Chu Mani. His second goal of well not
[26:56] doesn't count La Liga, but his second goal of the season I
[26:58] believe again great game from Chu Mani and again Arta arta's
[27:02] just good at that man like we got to get him on the ball more
[27:05] for those free kicks and obviously Killian taking that
[27:07] one at the top of the box out that was the right call.
[27:09] I love Fede also shooting from there 'cause he's just, he can
[27:12] just RIP the ball like he's so strong and and powerful, but
[27:15] those three really should be our like you know, freak except
[27:19] peace takers for the most depending on where upon where we
[27:21] are corners and stuff. They're they're just amazing.
[27:24] No, I, I, I thought we looked so much better offensively from
[27:28] that point on and then we went up to one.
[27:30] You're right. I, I, I thought we had it.
[27:33] But then again, this is when Sid the discipline, the discipline
[27:38] just it started right. Like I don't know what Courtois
[27:42] was thinking like because Rudiger was step for step with
[27:45] Speron. So I I you don't need to come
[27:47] out like. What and go before that We have
[27:51] a transition. We could score.
[27:52] We kind of botch it with Vinny getting tired.
[27:55] Vinny starts getting tired and makes a couple mistakes.
[27:57] I think that's where we start. Like we have all the momentum,
[27:59] we're up and then we still have some more and he's he's just
[28:02] cooked at this point from everything we've done.
[28:04] To, to, to put a final point on what you just said to our lack
[28:08] of clinical finishing in the final third.
[28:11] This whole season has done us in like the like we just how many
[28:15] times have we had three on twos, 2 on ones and forget about we
[28:18] don't even get shots off and I'm like, why do we not even get a
[28:22] shot on this? Like it, it, it is we have to a
[28:25] team with those two up front and either Bellingham feeding them
[28:29] or who we have to be far more clinical in the final third than
[28:33] we than we than we have been. We're we're a very high floor
[28:37] counter attacking team. We're one of the best.
[28:39] We're the you could argue we're the best on paper.
[28:41] Therefore we're like one of the highest floor transition teams.
[28:44] Like every team that tries to press like Barcelona, you will
[28:47] have issues. You you might only win because
[28:49] you caught Mbappe offside by 3mm six times in a row.
[28:53] But the point with that is like it's high floor.
[28:56] It's not like the ceiling is horrible like it.
[28:58] It's just pathetic. Like as soon as like it, it's
[29:01] guaranteed to get something off every game.
[29:04] It almost never gets everything it should get off in any one
[29:07] game ever. Like it never actually hits its
[29:10] ceiling in an individual game this season And at least compare
[29:13] like I, you know, my first seasons of football.
[29:15] We're watching Marinos real collapse Dortmund.
[29:18] Clinical, yeah, clinical, just even this Barcelona team is far
[29:23] more clinical than we are. Honestly, almost every other
[29:26] iteration of Carlos Madrid has been more clinical than this,
[29:29] even the last. Season.
[29:31] Yeah, even two years ago, the one that wasn't like playing
[29:33] well was more clinical, to be honest.
[29:34] And then 20, I really think back to like 20/14/15 when we lost
[29:40] to, we lost the Classico when Barcelona won the treble, but we
[29:44] had a like a six touch, seven touch, like 15 second sequence
[29:48] that was beautiful. It was just awesome.
[29:51] And, and I watch it back today and I'm just like, damn.
[29:53] Like it's so calm and controlled, but like, but so
[29:56] devastating. And we don't have that.
[29:58] Every time we get it, it's panic, panic, panic.
[30:00] That's an excellent way to it. It is frenetic and panicky and I
[30:04] don't know if it's because that's who the upfront players
[30:07] are and they don't possess that one two touch skill, but I don't
[30:11] believe that because I I mean Vinnie and Boppe and Dick, those
[30:14] guys are way too good. Jude, like they're too good.
[30:16] Like I So what, what it says to me is it's not drilled enough in
[30:19] it, right? That that's what it says to me.
[30:22] That I think so I think it's coaching.
[30:23] They don't understand each other's movements because but I
[30:25] think that comes back to coaching because they've gotten
[30:28] to understand each other's movements for the whole season.
[30:30] It's gotten better like, and yet it's not enough.
[30:33] The ceiling's still low. And I think that's where the
[30:34] problem lies. Like it's way better than
[30:36] December, but it's still like, but it's not great.
[30:39] But poor for what that level of of of talent should be, yes.
[30:43] Exactly. And I think that a lot of that
[30:47] again, we don't have aerial threats, so we got to fix that
[30:49] at some point. But the other thing is, and the
[30:52] the same reason we look so good with Guler and Madrich is we
[30:53] finally stopped trying to just take everyone off the dribble.
[30:57] Like, you know, it's just we're not trying to make everything a
[31:00] a hero ball. We stopped playing hero ball.
[31:02] And I really liked when Guler and Madrich got close to each
[31:05] other because then, like, there was that one moment when, like,
[31:07] Madrich could have passed to Guler and then he just turned
[31:09] and whipped it across the box. Yeah.
[31:12] Yeah. And in that moment, I feel like
[31:13] no matter what decision they made, those two had it.
[31:15] Like they had it. They had a nice synergy, Sid,
[31:18] and it is also it's their player profile and how they see the
[31:22] game in their imagination, right.
[31:24] And that is something we talked about has been soy lacking.
[31:26] We've been all season. We don't have crews, we don't
[31:28] have crews, we don't have crews. Yeah, we know we weren't going
[31:30] to replace it, but you need imaginative thinking players who
[31:33] can be symbiotic like that and that's how those guys play
[31:36] right? Like both of them obviously peak
[31:38] Madrid, one of the greatest ever, right.
[31:40] I don't know what Guler ceiling is going to be, but I think we
[31:43] got some good glimpses said the last two matches that he's
[31:45] played like this deep line playmakers thing could be real
[31:49] thing for him. And what a what a freaking
[31:52] revelation that would be to going to have that kind of
[31:55] mentality. And as his skill developed and
[31:57] as he matures in the game, what a what a what, what, what a
[32:00] godsend for us that this this kid could be.
[32:02] You know. So again, I think it's about
[32:03] development and what we can do with those kinds of players.
[32:06] And imagine art of feeding the ball up front to Killian and
[32:09] Vinnie and these guys like because he's he, he has depth,
[32:13] touch and passing ability. He does, he just need reps.
[32:16] I, I, I see it when I watch him do certain things, I'm like, no,
[32:20] I see it. You, you have it, it's, it's in
[32:21] there. You just need, you need reps and
[32:23] you need confidence. But when you don't play, how you
[32:25] going to get reps and confidence?
[32:27] Agreed and I think another one who played well and you know you
[32:32] someone was asking in the chat what thoughts on Fran Garcia.
[32:35] Well, obviously he should have been probably starting if Mehndi
[32:37] got hurt in 10 minutes. I thought he was decent.
[32:40] Like there were moments when he could be better.
[32:41] His decision making has always been something that needs work,
[32:45] plays a little rigid. Yeah, yeah, I think all things
[32:48] considered, like he's he's been our best laugh back this season.
[32:52] And like when I at least in the minutes I've watched like all
[32:56] things like Mendy's, I've saw him like at least from what my
[32:58] memory of Mendy this season is when he got subbed off like
[33:00] after a goal, whichever team that was at this point after.
[33:05] Fran obviously is a better overlapping and offensive full
[33:09] back than Mendy, right? That's there's there's no
[33:10] question about that. But what always kept Mendy on
[33:13] the field was his lockdown one-on-one ability and his
[33:17] defense was just so much better than France that we're like, all
[33:20] right, it made-up for and we had those moments in the Champions
[33:23] League run last year where he turned into Xenadine Mendy when
[33:26] he would like dribble around like, wait, where does this guy
[33:29] been his whole freaking career? But this season, Sid that
[33:33] lockdown defense in a is not there.
[33:36] And so since that is not there, Fran's ability to what he can
[33:40] provide offensively makes up for whatever shortcoming.
[33:43] I don't even think there's any shortcoming defensively.
[33:45] I think this season he's been better defensively than Mendy
[33:48] has and so that's why he had to play.
[33:51] Yeah, and I think Mendy was also propped up by Cruz.
[33:54] It's crazy. But like, there was that metric
[33:57] about like fields gained per ball per possession or
[34:00] something. And Mehndi wasn't the top ten
[34:02] cuz of Cruz last year, just cuz like he would just sit next to
[34:04] Cruz and never Cruz was his outlet.
[34:05] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's where I went.
[34:09] Survivors started with Mehndi today.
[34:10] I'm like, OK, survivors can play the Cruz role, but can he play
[34:12] the Cruz role with Mehndi on the pitch?
[34:15] No answer Like no and yes. And with Cruz there, what did
[34:19] that allow Mendy to do? Just focus on locking down the
[34:22] best wingers on on the other team, Right?
[34:24] Which he did during that Champions League run.
[34:26] He was awesome doing that. Right?
[34:27] Like, yeah. He got, he got revenge on
[34:28] Bernardo. Bernardo got our boy camo bingo.
[34:30] So he's like, I'm going to come, I'm going to get my back for
[34:32] camo bingo. Helping out his his French, his
[34:36] French countrymen, Lamine Yamal said.
[34:39] I want to say last year, who's the toughest fullback?
[34:41] You got to go again. She's like, oh, Mendy like like,
[34:44] you know, like so Mendy now Mendy's not that player anymore,
[34:47] right? So that's another play that we
[34:48] have to figure out. Hey, man, upgrade whatever,
[34:51] whatever we got to do. But he can no longer be a part
[34:53] of this squad. Like there there's some obvious
[34:56] because again, it's not just about who is on the starting 11,
[35:00] who is on the bench. We can't have Mendy Vasquez.
[35:05] No, like this doesn't help us. Like we need to be better in
[35:08] those areas. Yeah, yeah, definitely.
[35:10] And so as the game goes, the major moments, Vinicius gets
[35:14] tired, I think it was right to sub him.
[35:16] Lucanzi was very big on saying he thinks Enderich should have
[35:18] come on Rahim. Yeah, he he starts like taking
[35:21] too many touches, like before and after the goal that we can
[35:25] see. And he's just taking a lot of
[35:26] touches, like dribbling a lot, not really creating any
[35:30] separation. And it's just unfortunate.
[35:33] Made it look like Andrick would have been a way better option.
[35:34] Like at least if Andrick takes a touch, he's either shooting or
[35:37] giving the ball up like he's probably not doing.
[35:39] It he literally is doing one of those two things trying to silly
[35:42] back heel path to get stolen to go the other way or he's turning
[35:45] it on his left foot and shooting like.
[35:48] Right. And so, you know, he's he's a
[35:49] little more direct, Brahim. Sometimes you feel like he
[35:52] loitered on the ball and then Rudiger before the goal got hurt
[35:58] and, and so he's kind of like already not at his best on that
[36:02] goal. You think that played a role in
[36:04] Courtois like racing out? Like Conte was adamant saying he
[36:07] thinks Courtois thought we was hurt.
[36:08] But Rudiger lost a lot of ground on that.
[36:11] He he might have for sure and I want to shout out Rudiger, by
[36:14] the way, freaking warriors guy's been playing injured and hurt
[36:16] probably all season, as has Fede right like it.
[36:19] Let's just be honest. That's what's what's been
[36:20] happening. But no, I I think Courtois
[36:24] probably saw that, but I I have to re watch it again.
[36:27] To me it looked like he was step for step with Ferron.
[36:29] Didn't look like Ferron was well out in front of him to me.
[36:32] I'll have to watch it again. Either way.
[36:34] It made it too easy for Ferron because I mean, he was gonna
[36:39] touch then it it Ferron's gonna beat Cortana a foot race.
[36:43] That's not even a right. That's not even a question.
[36:44] And then when it comes to the ball at his feet, like what are
[36:47] you talking about? Like Cortona's not gonna take
[36:49] poke the ball away from him like it's he's not good enough at
[36:51] that. And now that Rudiger's gotta cut
[36:54] back inside the he's just get not fast enough at that point,
[36:58] right. Like that's why am I said I it
[36:59] would have been better had Courtois stayed in goal because
[37:05] Courtois Rudiger, I think even at worst case may have fouled
[37:09] him, but fouled him outside the box.
[37:10] He wasn't even in the box yet. So OK, they got a free kick from
[37:13] the side dangerous area, but not an not a guaranteed goal right.
[37:17] Like I just but again, when those things are happening in
[37:19] the moment, like you're you're just your brain is just going
[37:23] off instinct, right. But again, because you don't
[37:26] trust the discipline and then whatever, this is what happens,
[37:28] right? Like you, you, you've got to
[37:30] make a reaction. Yeah.
[37:32] And then from there, it's Tutu at that point, I feel like, OK,
[37:36] we probably need to go to penalties.
[37:38] Like I don't know if we can. We got another one of us, like
[37:40] Vinny's off and Boppe is still on the pitch.
[37:42] I think that was the thing. He he was still I think like
[37:45] pretty devastating. Like he looked like he could get
[37:47] us something. It felt like we had a chance
[37:49] with him, which was nice without Vinny and that's why we got him.
[37:53] I think like that's where I just the way the season has gone, you
[37:57] know, even even you draw, you were talking about how you feel
[37:59] like maybe Mvapi is not a team player, maybe you didn't add as
[38:01] much value to the team. But today kind of just showed
[38:03] why all that to me is just bullshit.
[38:04] If you actually lock in as a goddamn organization tactically,
[38:07] like if you if you actually run like non high school drills,
[38:11] like as a team, you run professional drills instead of
[38:13] high school drills. Dude, it would be like to be
[38:16] honest, it took like if they're like 6 factors in football and
[38:20] like 5 of them go wrong, then you might start seeing and bapa
[38:23] is like few flaws might turn into a sixth problem.
[38:26] I think when like three or four of those five things are going
[38:29] right, like tactically like depth on the team, then I think
[38:33] it seizes to be as a larger problem.
[38:35] And I think it's both the lack of conviction from Carlo to say
[38:37] hey, like go play on the right playoff ball and like, you know,
[38:40] try force feeding him. I think Carlo just experiments
[38:42] too much instead of like trying to give him an idea of like
[38:45] trying to decide, OK, this is what's good for the team.
[38:47] He's just like, he just constantly thinks they're going
[38:49] to figure out what's good for the team.
[38:51] And I think this is a rare case when you don't have a guy who
[38:53] can head the ball. You kind of have to detail all
[38:55] that a little more. But but today is a great
[38:58] example. Like Killian, like, you know, if
[39:00] Cruz is probably, dude, Cruz was going to retire Killian or not.
[39:03] So like we were screwed today if we just got Rodrigo and Brahim
[39:05] and entry got there right. Oh.
[39:07] Yeah, done getting, getting, getting, getting beat by 5, two
[39:11] in in, in extra time, right, because we just we got those
[39:13] two. Enrique would give the ball a
[39:15] million times and we we, we'd be in trouble.
[39:17] No, my, my point about killing and actually being it isn't.
[39:20] I don't think he's a team guy. It's more about what is your
[39:24] skill set best used in service of the collective and a team and
[39:29] what does everybody else around you have to be doing?
[39:31] And I don't that was never clear.
[39:34] And so that's what caused this issues.
[39:36] The the stats are there man between especially Vinnie and,
[39:40] and, and not going on Vinnie and and Bobby, their running stats
[39:43] this season atrocious A whole lot of walking around and I'm
[39:47] sorry like when you're playing against the top teams like
[39:50] Barcelona, they know it and they're ready.
[39:52] They're like, oh, these guys are going to walk no problem.
[39:54] Watch 2 passes and we're right past them and they're not
[39:57] rushing the track back, which means they have no pressure.
[40:00] They can make easy passes, which now means.
[40:03] Now we're already stressed people back, I have to come up
[40:05] from pressure, which now means, oh, we have a numerical
[40:07] disadvantage of the back. Oh, we're getting cooked.
[40:10] It's that's why I said I'm not upset because kind of indicative
[40:14] of our season, right, The the lack of discipline.
[40:16] And I guess it's now a good time to get to the Brahim situation
[40:20] with Modric. Which Brahim situation like?
[40:25] The the the the madrich pass that Brahim sort of kept running
[40:27] away from instead of going to attack the ball.
[40:29] Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the extra time mistakes that
[40:31] ended the game. Yeah, yeah.
[40:33] I'm sorry. I was like, which one?
[40:36] Like both? Because there were two.
[40:37] There was that and then I guess I, I, I don't want to pile on
[40:40] him, but like I guess there are two because the other one was
[40:42] the offside. He was slightly offside and then
[40:44] Bobby Pals on the penalty and boom.
[40:46] It is in that offside moment. He's look, how were you offside
[40:51] in that moment? You're looking right at the lot.
[40:53] You know where everybody is. There's no reason to be offside
[40:56] there literally none. OK, He was we got to.
[40:59] And again, to me, Sid, when you are constantly offside, that's
[41:04] discipline. Sid, that's just lack of
[41:06] discipline. Like again, 12 and unders, this
[41:09] is right. You mentioned the stop doing the
[41:11] high school things. Well, high school drill you
[41:12] should probably work on is how do we not be offsides, right?
[41:16] Like I mean that's probably 1 you should work.
[41:17] On We didn't work on that in high school.
[41:19] That's why they don't either. We don't.
[41:22] I mean, we did once or twice getting your run, I remember.
[41:26] But like you see, that was when like the coach wanted to change
[41:29] it up after a bad loss. But most of the season it was
[41:31] just Rondo. See, that's exactly what
[41:32] happened here. It's like coach is like, all
[41:33] right, we're doing what like they do at Bayern and like we're
[41:36] doing what they do at the other clubs for two days and you get
[41:38] like a kind of a semblance of it today.
[41:40] But that's literally what happened when I was in high
[41:42] school and I'm just watching it sometimes.
[41:44] That's what it feels like. It's like, OK, you guys try a
[41:45] little harder. You change it up.
[41:47] Maybe the head coach let's the assistants run practice for a
[41:49] couple of days. Like that's literally what
[41:51] happened there. And that's what I think happens
[41:53] here. It feels like it's sometimes
[41:54] like then they get serious and they're like, oh, finally we get
[41:57] to run practice and after a win, Carlo's like, all right, all
[41:59] right, just Rondo's three team possession back to normal.
[42:02] Like the boys need a day off. Like what?
[42:05] And, and look, and, and I get the idea of not taxing them
[42:08] because of the schedule and all of that, but look, none of this
[42:13] was was emblematic of a team of this caliber and quality, right?
[42:19] And yes, to be fair, injuries really hurt us and a lot of
[42:22] things hurt us. But because I always say it's
[42:24] not just one thing, it's injuries, it's lack of signings,
[42:27] it's lack of player development, it's poor, right?
[42:29] It's 75 things at once. And for a club of Real Madrid
[42:33] stature, we need to be better in all of those areas.
[42:37] Just to, again, not going to pile on Brahim here, but an
[42:39] extra time, like Montrez does a wonderful job to sort of get
[42:42] away. And if Brahim does actually
[42:44] attack that ball, he can either spin, get by the defender on him
[42:49] or flick touch. And now we're on the counter and
[42:52] maybe we score the, the, the, the, the winning goal and go up
[42:55] 32 instead. Kunde clearly reads that because
[42:59] Kunde as a defender, he's reading body language, right?
[43:01] He's like, Brian's on attacking the ball.
[43:03] Fuck it, I'm going to beat him in a foot race.
[43:04] He goes and all he has to do is say I'm going to hit this thing
[43:07] as hard as I can in the lower corner and see what happens and
[43:11] win in match. Yeah, and and lastly, I mean,
[43:17] the last thing I'd say is like, you know, yeah, it's unfortunate
[43:21] the way that went down. Also, Rudiger finally got subbed
[43:23] off in extra time. I wanted to add that.
[43:25] That's the last thing. Yeah, it took a while.
[43:27] And from there, yeah, Kunde, great goal by him.
[43:31] You have to give it to him as well.
[43:32] Great step up. Brahimi made, I will say, like
[43:35] Brahim's mistake, not attacking the ball in that moment felt
[43:37] like the ball would curl and come a little faster to him.
[43:40] Maybe it slowed down. And for Kunde, it just felt
[43:42] like, felt like Kunde looked at and slowed it down in his eyes.
[43:45] So it, and that's the thing, right?
[43:47] It is, it is that mental ability to see what is happening.
[43:50] And Kunde is reading, he's reading the ball and Brahim,
[43:53] this ball is not traveling that fast and he is not, he's running
[43:57] away from it. So his momentum is going this
[44:00] way. I'm going this way.
[44:02] And I'm sorry for this. You guys not watching.
[44:03] I'm pointing. So Rahim's running towards
[44:05] towards the goal, right, towards the goal that we want to score,
[44:08] and Kuni's running towards the goal he wants to score on.
[44:10] So your momentum's already off. So even if Raheem was able to
[44:12] stop himself, Kuni wouldn't pass them because he couldn't stop
[44:15] fasting them. So he read that perfectly and
[44:17] said, oh, I'll beat that dude in the foot race regardless because
[44:20] he's going the wrong way. He did shot at score, right?
[44:23] But that little thing right there, that's just positional.
[44:25] It's just reading the game and being aware and disciplined,
[44:28] right? That's all that is.
[44:31] Yeah, and I mean, the way Barcelona play when, when
[44:33] they're, when they're pressing, you know, they expect those
[44:35] things like, you know, we don't do that.
[44:36] But like we, we just man mark and hope it works.
[44:39] But they, they, they set up like they set traps.
[44:42] We, we just man mark. And then if we get beat, damn
[44:44] it, like we'll try next year with like more physicality.
[44:48] Well, let's spend 200 million and then one of our young guys
[44:51] will become the best in the world and then we'll come back
[44:53] at it. We'll have twice as much talent
[44:55] as the next team and somehow find a way to pummel them.
[44:58] Listen, that, that's the hope I have said.
[44:59] I think you know that. The last thing I'll say is is,
[45:02] you know, look, I, I, we, we've been, we've been piling on
[45:04] Carlo, you know, for all the obvious flaws.
[45:07] But look, this is one of the great managers in the history of
[45:10] world football. His trophy cabinet speaks for
[45:12] itself and it's not he's not just a vibes guy.
[45:16] Carlo does do tactics and does try different things this
[45:20] season. The magic and experimentation
[45:22] did not work well. But you know, I got to give him
[45:26] his props. The the winningest manager in
[45:28] club history, right? He's one of the most trophies.
[45:30] So we we, we, we got to give him give him props for that.
[45:33] And he's done well by us. So nobody should be, you know,
[45:36] denigrating him on his way out like this is this man deserves
[45:40] respect and what a job. But I do believe his time is
[45:43] running an end. And I'm very curious to see if
[45:46] we do, in fact, get Javi and Alonzo and what we did and what
[45:49] he decides to do. I think he's pragmatic, Sid.
[45:53] I don't think he's going to be like, I've got to play three at
[45:55] the back, whatever. I think he's going to realize,
[45:57] OK, here's the squad that I have and I'm going to work to put
[46:01] them in the best possible position.
[46:02] That is what I think he's going to do and get players to
[46:06] sacrifice their talents for the betterment of the team, right
[46:10] When whatever those talents are, I think he will do that.
[46:12] Now the question is, will he have input with the board and be
[46:16] like, we need this kind of profile to complement this.
[46:19] We need X to do Y. Will he have that kind of
[46:22] gravitas and ability to talk to Jose and Helen Reyes and whoever
[46:26] and whoever else in in in the in the front office?
[46:29] Yeah, definitely. It'll be interesting to see
[46:31] where he lands on a spectrum between a Carlo Isidana, Jurgen
[46:34] Klopp, a a Guardiola, an Arteta. He's has a little bit of
[46:39] everyone in him. He's different because he's
[46:41] played in so many teams. He could launch it long like
[46:44] Sask. I mean kind of like Sask
[46:47] Fabregas, who played on his fast and slow teams and could get
[46:51] long range. So yeah, I'm excited to see, I'm
[46:54] curious to see if if and when they replace Ancelotti.
[46:56] I do think his time has come to an end as well.
[46:59] Was hoping he would go on on a high today but me too.
[47:02] Did it happen? I, I'm with you.
[47:04] I wanted that for him. I, I, I wanted the and it looked
[47:07] like the club and the and the players wanted it for him too
[47:10] and that for themselves they were trying.
[47:12] And that's where for me, I, I guess on the closing note, I do
[47:15] feel like the ending was almost a frustrating, fitting end to
[47:17] the season where like, it was, it was a bullshit little dive
[47:20] when like, you know, Mbappe had his hand out the last play of
[47:22] the game. Mbappe is trying to drive it up.
[47:24] We're we're almost out of chances, but he takes some
[47:28] couple really good steps, like he, he's really letting The Jets
[47:31] off and they can't keep up his arm outstretched.
[47:34] Kind of like, honestly accidental.
[47:36] Like he wasn't trying. To hit that's not, that's
[47:38] bullshit. He wasn't trying to shoulder
[47:39] anyone to protect it. It was like and he 1 bars on the
[47:43] player's face gets like touched guy goes down.
[47:45] Referee should not have given that in my opinion.
[47:47] He should have let him play and in that moment I think he would
[47:51] have given us another chance if what didn't happen next and soon
[47:55] which is Rudiger, Vinicius and one other player, I forget which
[47:58] player but one player ran up right next to Vinicius and they
[48:01] were essentially yelling at the ref saying like huh was.
[48:05] It. Vasquez, it looked like Vasquez,
[48:08] like the profile looked like a like kind of like Vasquez.
[48:11] But yeah, like the body tape type.
[48:13] I don't remember seeing his face, but they were, they just
[48:16] got really angry and they tried screaming at the ref and at that
[48:18] point I'm like just dude, you know, we lost like that.
[48:21] That little thing is it's bullshit.
[48:23] Yes, they shouldn't have called it, but you know, just I thought
[48:27] at that moment any chance of them giving us the ball for one
[48:29] more kick was gone as well. Barcelona launched it long it's
[48:32] game and Carlo went in that moment he was upset too or no,
[48:37] he wasn't upset at the foul. That was the penalty.
[48:39] Remember the penalty in the 90th minute that that was a good
[48:42] call. Yeah, oh, the the, the, the
[48:44] Ruffinia dive. That was a clear dive.
[48:46] Yeah, that was a good call. That was a good call.
[48:48] But yeah, I mean, I just thought the frustration was evident
[48:50] there, like in the 90th minute when they almost got into
[48:52] penalty. You saw the emotions and then
[48:54] you saw it again there with Vinnie.
[48:56] And it means, I mean, I get it like ultimately Carlo means a
[48:58] lot to Vinny. He they like, you know, these
[49:01] four years they've had like it's legendary.
[49:03] You don't you? You don't even know if Vinny
[49:05] ever has four years like that in his career again.
[49:07] You. Never.
[49:08] They've been successful. He won two leagues IN22
[49:11] Champions Leagues and a Copa del Rey.
[49:14] A Copa del Rey, a couple Super Cups as well.
[49:17] And again, all because the Super Cups mean more.
[49:19] Now you go against your rival. So yeah, 100% it's been a great
[49:23] era. It's been a movie.
[49:24] I wouldn't trade it for anything.
[49:26] I would like a great, I would like to see a truly great
[49:29] dominant team that dominates teams top to bottom once again.
[49:32] But like we did in the 20 tens. But thank you, Carlo, if this is
[49:37] your last game and thank you everyone for listening.
[49:41] Thank you guys. We appreciate it.
[49:43] Again. Thank you, Carlo.
[49:44] I'm with you, Sid. And one thing, one last thing,
[49:47] I'm curious what we'll do the rest of the season now, now that
[49:49] we have no more things to play for.
[49:51] Like what? What's the what's the mode of
[49:53] the team going to be like? And I know we don't like to say
[49:56] this, but Barcelona is 1/3 of the way to a treble.
[50:02] And go, Arsenal, go. Enter Listen.
[50:06] I'm hoping the 120 minutes it got them wax so Inter will take
[50:10] take advantage in that first in that first leg this week.
[50:12] God, I'm hoping that. That's a great no ending.
[50:15] No, like we wore them out. Guys.
[50:16] Inter now is going to do it and then maybe, you know, maybe the
[50:20] league comes alive again. Maybe they like lose a game.
[50:22] I don't know if that can happen, but they're really short on
[50:25] players right now. Lewandowski's going to be rushed
[50:27] back inevitably for whatever he like.
[50:28] The fact he didn't play today because he really couldn't play,
[50:30] That's what he told me. At this point, everyone's
[50:33] playing hurt if they can. But yeah, so let's let's hope
[50:37] Barcelona won the treble. It's not over.
[50:39] It's not a March to the treble. Like we saw that today.
[50:41] I think like the second-half is exactly why it's not a March to
[50:44] the treble. They're dead.
[50:44] Like they have like maybe 40 to 60 really good minutes per game
[50:48] now. They don't have like a good 7589
[50:51] anymore. Yeah, we'll, we'll, we'll see
[50:54] how it plays out, but more real deal podcast episodes coming as
[50:58] the season ends and we're looking more future looking
[51:00] ahead when we make our inevitable manager switch, what
[51:03] kind of signings and profiles we should get if we do move on from
[51:05] Rodrigo? What do we do with that 90
[51:07] million? What kind of players do we bring
[51:08] in? Who do we promote from below in
[51:10] the academies and on the bench? Be exciting.
[51:13] Yep, this is just the beginning. This is just the pilot phase,
[51:15] guys are we'll have a website like there's so many things we
[51:18] want to build this offseason, so we're going to start building it
[51:21] all out. So stay tuned, check out the
[51:23] channel, subscribe, tell your friends if you like it, tell
[51:26] them to tune in. Thank you.

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