# This Week In Real Madrid: Mailbag, Injuries & Suspensions

An episode of [The Real Deal: A Real Madrid Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1807821669), 20 Sep 2025, 1 h 26 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/103607aa8/podcast/play/108557947/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-8-20%2F407814889-44100-2-8f41905be41d.mp3

Loconte and Jarod Hector discuss the Real Madrid news of the week including Huijsen and Carvajal's suspensions, Trent's injury, tensions between Xabi Alonso and Vinicius Jr, then take mailbag questions.

## Transcript

[1:03] Hello, and welcome to the Friday edition of The Real Deal, a Real
[1:07] Madrid podcast with me, Jerrod Hector, joined by Lecante.
[1:11] What's up, Lecante? Yeah.
[1:12] Yeah, yeah. What's?
[1:14] Up it. I'm good, man.
[1:15] It's it's Friday day before match day.
[1:18] We have a Saturday match against Espanol.
[1:20] We just had a Champions League match this earlier this week,
[1:23] which we won against Marseille. This is our Friday edition
[1:26] folks, where we will be talking about the news of the week.
[1:29] We will also be answering your questions.
[1:31] So it's a mailbag edition, right?
[1:33] So when you see the Real Deal Twitter handle post that we are
[1:37] going live on Friday, ask your questions, Please ask them or
[1:40] you can also put them on YouTube in the comments because we will
[1:43] answer them on the show. And we've got a nice stream of
[1:45] questions that we'll get to today that are all connected
[1:48] with topics I want to discuss. And as always, thank you all for
[1:52] tuning in live. Please make sure you like this
[1:54] video. Please comment as as we're
[1:57] talking here, as we will highlight that sometimes as
[1:58] well. Share it with your friends,
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[2:03] version of this, we are on Apple and Spotify.
[2:06] You can get those later on. If you want to listen to it,
[2:08] listen to the audio version only.
[2:10] All right, Le Conte, there's some interesting things
[2:11] happening this week. And I think off the top, Trent
[2:15] being out with the hammy for six to eight weeks is it it's such a
[2:22] big deal, right? Such such a huge deal because
[2:25] now that back line, which even though we made signings to it
[2:30] was still thin, is now already now looking thinner, right?
[2:35] So we have that problem 6 to 8 weeks, no trend.
[2:37] We have Dean House in with the red card suspension, so he won't
[2:41] be able to play this in Saturday's match.
[2:44] And we have, for which I don't get, and we have Alvaro
[2:49] Carreras, who has played every single minute of every single
[2:53] match so far. Yeah, we.
[2:55] Need to figure out what were what's going on with that back
[2:58] line Legante? Yeah, and post to ACL's Militale
[3:03] being forced into so many minutes at this point.
[3:05] Correct, this is and this is my fear right the.
[3:08] Trend thing was very unfortunate, right?
[3:10] Because it's a full blown tear. That's just and the thing about
[3:14] hamstrings guys is. What happens, you know, like
[3:18] what made it happen? My personal theory after I spoke
[3:22] to also a few physios is the fact that he might have been
[3:25] cold for too long of a time. One international break came on
[3:30] into a very hectic minutes against Laurel which could have
[3:34] impacted it. Then you know that the Sunday's
[3:37] training session for the most part is just recovery, which
[3:40] means Monday training session and he's back on pitch on
[3:44] Tuesday into a very high intensive game design.
[3:48] So that was interesting, right, Lecante?
[3:51] And look, I, I don't profess to know more than Javi Alonso, nor
[3:55] do I profess to know more than the medical and help and
[3:58] professional staff at Madrid. However, to me, if a player got
[4:03] to not like Trent, he didn't get caught up with England, right?
[4:06] So he got four days off with Madrid and then he trained
[4:09] normally, as did all the Brazilians.
[4:12] To me, they were the players I would imagine you'd most likely
[4:16] want to play first, right? It's to start right away because
[4:20] they're the freshest as opposed to pushing them on late.
[4:23] I don't know. I'm not saying that's the reason
[4:25] why. I'm just saying that's what I
[4:27] would have done. But again, I'm no expert in
[4:29] this. Yeah, like I spoke to a few.
[4:32] Like without having those scans, none of us can actually really
[4:36] say what would have happened even if I was a doctor sitting
[4:39] right here right now. I could make a guess, probably
[4:42] way more professional one, but can't actually give you an
[4:45] estimate without saying it. Therefore, like just gathering
[4:49] opinion coming for this show. I was just kind of told that it
[4:53] might have been just cold, like cold muscles heading into it,
[4:56] like long overdue without the game.
[4:59] As we have said, like there are there's a balance between having
[5:02] games and not having games. Sometimes stringing games
[5:05] together can be more helpful for the muscles.
[5:08] So that's why there's a staff there to evaluate it.
[5:11] But again, it's very unfortunate that you get a full blown tear
[5:16] of three minutes into like a game where you you're forced to
[5:19] push the ball out because you're like just simply you can't stand
[5:23] anything more like hamstrings gone and.
[5:26] And the thing about hamstrings guys is, is that any estimate
[5:29] that the club gives out is an estimate and a guess.
[5:33] Hamstrings are tricky as hell. 6 to 8 weeks it it might be 6, it
[5:38] might be 10, it could be 12. Like hamstrings are right,
[5:43] Hamstrings are they're just it's just a weird part of your body
[5:46] that is not an I know it sounds crazy, not an exact sign and
[5:50] every that's very easy to pull and re injure, right.
[5:53] That's the thing too. So we'll have to monitor that.
[5:56] All right. So the domino effects you
[5:57] mentioned one of them Militale who's been playing well this
[6:00] year off 2 Acls is not going to be forced to have to play more
[6:03] right up, more minute because we, we, we haven't.
[6:06] Bare minimum one more game guaranteed.
[6:09] Like a bare minimum to shrink three in a row in seven days.
[6:14] Danny Carbajal, who came back well off of his injury, who was
[6:19] battling with Trent for I mean, I whatever, who was with Trent
[6:24] basically neck and neck for who's going to see the bulk of
[6:26] minutes, right? They're probably going to split
[6:27] them evenly. It looked like well, now Danny
[6:29] has to take the majority of those now because, well, there's
[6:32] nobody else. So what does that mean for now?
[6:34] A 32 year year old Carvajal who coming off of his own ACL who by
[6:39] the way also. ACL and MCL at the same time.
[6:42] Who will not be ready for who will not be available, excuse me
[6:45] for the next Champions League match because he next two
[6:48] because he got a red card in the last.
[6:51] So that's another issue we have. I mentioned Carreras, at least
[6:54] on the Carreras front we have Fran Garcia, but Fran, the only
[6:58] minutes he saw was two matches ago and it was like mop up duty.
[7:02] So I don't know. Fran and Carreras are also
[7:06] completely different profiles and it's just like it's very
[7:11] hard to even draw a line there because if you're putting Fran
[7:13] into the pitch, you're definitely changing the setup.
[7:17] So it's like one of the biggest complaints.
[7:21] Like again, I'm going to refer back to my podcast with
[7:24] Cerebroni that we did here. I was begging for at least one
[7:29] more defensive coverage like let it let that be into an Ibrahima
[7:34] Konate or Lloyd Bade who moved to Bell liver cousin.
[7:38] Basically. I would like to think on that
[7:40] price tag that was paid for free given the quality.
[7:44] So like if they didn't want to pay an heavy amount for Konate,
[7:52] they should have definitely done by there, but they can't could
[7:54] have covered the right back position too.
[7:56] He's more of like on that Jules Kunde type of role, type of
[8:00] player. I want to say so, yeah.
[8:04] But speaking about Transfer 6, can't put us gone now, right?
[8:08] Like we just can't revert. We can't go back in August and
[8:11] be like, hey, Dean is going to be suspended, Trent is going to
[8:15] pull his hamstring, and also Rudiger is going to basically,
[8:19] do you want to say relapse on his injury or rehab?
[8:23] We can't go back and tell the club that all of these are going
[8:26] to happen so. So this means Ascencio has to
[8:30] play Aliba. Has to play.
[8:32] I. Mean right?
[8:34] I mean, we, we have no choice. Now, the other issues is we have
[8:37] some Castilla players, but one of them a, a name we've heard
[8:40] for a long time who we've wondered about.
[8:44] Well, yes, I was gonna talk about Jesus Fortea first.
[8:47] The issue with Fortea is he's gonna be called up with Spain
[8:50] for under 20 World Cups. So he's not gonna be available
[8:52] for basically a month from the rest of September to the end of
[8:56] October. So I don't you know.
[8:58] So any, any ideas of him coming? Guess what, He's not.
[9:02] We, we can't, we can't expect him to come up.
[9:04] There's also the option of Diego Aguado.
[9:08] He's the name that's also highly touted.
[9:10] But again, none of these guys have trained a ton with the
[9:12] first team. And then if you saw the the team
[9:15] squad announcement for tomorrow's game against Espanol,
[9:18] Davin Jimenez is on it. Who is a fullback for Castilla
[9:22] again, a a player I don't know anything about.
[9:24] I have never seen one second of him play.
[9:26] I don't know. My guess is he's just on the
[9:28] list to so we have a full complement of players as you
[9:31] have to legally for for a match. But is he ready to play senior
[9:34] minutes? I highly doubt it.
[9:37] I mean, he must have done some things right to get the call
[9:40] out, considering that there definitely were things.
[9:44] But if we're talking minutes wise, no.
[9:48] Like unless like you get 6-7 nil, you get this like let's
[9:57] have this kid. But even when you have players
[10:01] like you would rather warm up ahead of him.
[10:06] So apologies for that. No worries, but the most likely
[10:13] scenario out of all of these alone was asked about this on
[10:17] the pressure after the game with Marseille was the fact that
[10:23] there's going to be a roll to three-year back, at least a
[10:27] natural shift to that. Like Alonso already mentioned
[10:33] that Carreras can be a centre back, yes, without physique,
[10:36] with the technical qualities and we do see him sometimes occupy
[10:40] the centre back role while while Dean pushes forward, but again,
[10:48] increasing the load on a player that already has played every
[10:52] single minute. We're lucky.
[10:55] I think that Carreras, at least from what I saw, is really a
[10:58] physical specimen in terms of the fact of handling every sort
[11:02] of situation. And the La Fuente, please don't
[11:06] watch him play so he doesn't get.
[11:08] Called up, he already started talking that he's thinking about
[11:10] it. But then I'm like please don't
[11:12] please. That's the fear, right?
[11:14] Because he already has his three set of life left backs there,
[11:19] which are Cucuria the starter. Then you go to Valdez and then
[11:23] you go to Grimaldo, right? I'm like, Grimaldo is playing
[11:26] pretty well. Just keep calling him up.
[11:28] Exactly. We could use Canada's getting
[11:31] some rest. He seems like that type of
[11:33] player that you can rely on him for a very long time.
[11:37] But you also again, I don't think you want to do is down
[11:42] with Mendy on 2020 two 1021 season.
[11:47] I don't think 2019-2020, sorry. Where Mendy was pretty much
[11:53] playing majority of the minutes that he was available, which
[11:58] then started leading to a little bit of physical problems.
[12:01] And now Mendy is turning to the player who he is right now,
[12:05] which is a reason due to the heavy load of minutes at
[12:09] constant level. So Alonzo really has to find a
[12:15] way to balance the team, balance the rotations and be able to not
[12:21] overload the player's muscles. Meanwhile, that's real task.
[12:27] Yeah. And this leads us into a
[12:28] question we got from Talking Madrid, his first one, which is
[12:31] Howsen being a main Earth space progressor, what are the long
[12:35] term solutions for when he's injured, suspended and rotation
[12:38] with Alaba expected to leave? I mean, that's basically another
[12:46] signing that you have to make if Alaba is leaving.
[12:50] But if we're talking on this season alone, on itself, Alaba
[12:55] is the most suitable replacement to do that role in terms of
[13:00] being given a bit more freedom to push higher.
[13:04] But again, all of us decline is very evident, like he doesn't
[13:09] have Dean's physical capacities nor the ability to come back.
[13:14] Therefore, and and and Ascencio, that's not his game, right?
[13:17] He's. Not you can't ask Ascensia to do
[13:19] that. Like Ascensia seems pretty
[13:21] comfortable passer, like sometimes rash.
[13:23] But there's a difference between being a comfortable passer.
[13:27] For example, let's take Liverpool's Duas example, Van
[13:30] Dyke and Karnate. Karnate is a comfortable passer,
[13:33] not a progressor. Van Dyke is a progressive.
[13:36] Like this is a huge, big difference.
[13:40] We're look at that both Militao and and Hausen, sorry, need to
[13:45] start pronouncing his name correctly again.
[13:47] We're look at that both of them are progressors in a different
[13:50] way. Hausen is way more of like a
[13:53] pass and move, while Militao is way more of a carrier.
[13:57] So that's a good blend to have there.
[14:00] But then we go back into if we're talking for the centre
[14:04] back role, for a deep progressor, not really from the
[14:08] back role, but a player to progress the ball from deep,
[14:11] taking it out from the first phase, then that's going to be
[14:13] Carreras. So it's as simple as that.
[14:16] You can already see it's going to be Alvaro Carreras with some
[14:22] probably a drop back of somebody like Orda or a pivot of Orda and
[14:28] Trumani taking the load out of Carreras alone.
[14:32] And you basically can force like Rodrigo or Venetius to come on
[14:37] the inside with Frank Garcia high up if you really want to go
[14:41] that way. What about and here's a player
[14:45] who is a progressor in terms of his caring ability and he is
[14:50] coming back into the squad and that being Eduardo Kemabenga.
[14:54] Yeah. I mean, yes, but that's more of
[14:57] like a line breaking dribbling. Like unless Kamalinga just came
[15:01] back like having read books about because level of passing,
[15:08] I wouldn't expect that Kamalinga is going to be like your main
[15:12] out of the press type of player. He's going to be a great line
[15:16] breaker, great dribbler, can put the ball forward in impeccable
[15:21] physical qualities. You I wouldn't want to go into a
[15:24] game relying on OK, Camomina is going to get the ball out.
[15:27] It's not like it is a strength. It's kind of like this to the
[15:35] extreme, but I'm just trying to make a point.
[15:37] It's kind of like Cruz and Madrich, right?
[15:39] Like Madrich was more of like a boxer box 3rd.
[15:43] All three phases involved type of player.
[15:47] Tony on the other side was way more of a first to second phase
[15:51] type of player who would stay back a lot more than Madrich.
[15:55] And Madrich was allowed to push a lot higher in order to really
[15:59] facilitate the play of the team. So it's kind of like I want to
[16:04] cruise, but I also want to moderate in it on Madrid terms.
[16:08] And on this case, Kamaminga would be a moderate.
[16:10] You want him to be able to push and give his skills elsewhere.
[16:17] That's why I was always against Kamaminga being a single pivot.
[16:23] He should be like alongside somebody like Shomini or maybe
[16:26] even a Danny survivors on this case because he'll be able to
[16:30] take the physical load out of survivors a lot.
[16:33] Yep, I. Think that tandem can work but I
[16:36] wouldn't want him like a sole responsible player like that
[16:39] would be my answer to. Him and Cebios is another option
[16:42] obviously, as well as someone. Who's who can help?
[16:44] He's a little bit passer. Some issues with him as a player
[16:48] overall, but if I want to progress the ball, if I want, if
[16:51] I want the ball to to go to the player's feed, then Cebios is
[16:55] probably best in the team to be able to do it, yes.
[16:58] So yeah. And Jabi said this, this presser
[17:01] today before the Espanol match, which is that he sees Kemapenga
[17:05] as a six or an 8, right? But he is a midfielder and
[17:08] that's how he sees him, right? Deploying his skills.
[17:11] By the way, so excited to have him back and another player,
[17:13] which we'll talk about in a little while.
[17:16] Sticking on talking Madrid's questions, sticking with the
[17:19] back line. Carver Hall's contract ends in
[17:21] 2026. Potential right back targets.
[17:26] OK, don't see that happening. Madrid has the role of once
[17:30] you're over 30, you get a yearly extension if they deem you good
[17:33] enough. And with the level of Carole is
[17:35] showing, he's going to get the extension.
[17:38] Danny's very well aware of this role and I just think he's going
[17:44] to accept like there's no point for him to move unless like some
[17:47] ridiculous sorry money comes into place, which we always
[17:51] should remember. I don't see Madrid walking him
[17:54] away. So I don't think there's a
[17:57] potential right back for us to look next year.
[17:59] I think the focus is mostly going to be potentially the
[18:02] midfield and the center. Back Yeah yeah FG in the chat,
[18:08] says Hakimi lol. This is where you think of right
[18:17] backs. I'm actually going to stick on
[18:21] this idea about what we're going to do and it's 2 questions in
[18:25] one. So we mentioned Carreras and
[18:26] he's played all our matches and played every minute and we hope
[18:28] that De la Fuente, his eyes break and he can't see him
[18:32] because we don't want him getting called up.
[18:34] Just don't. He's played all his matches on
[18:37] Javi Alonso. Does Fran Garcia have a future
[18:39] at Real Madrid? Not as a profile of a left wing
[18:43] back left back. I mean he his profile, he did
[18:48] show in Club World Cup that he's useful in a certain manner, some
[18:52] set ups. But Frank comes with his own
[18:56] weaknesses and the reason why he's not looked at right now is
[19:01] the fact that we have spoken on the show like constantly.
[19:04] Alonzo shifted from that Club World Cup set up to a defence
[19:09] first type of set up because he wants to 1st gear this team up
[19:14] to be able to defend against play against the ball, be more
[19:19] open to that. Like those all of the mistakes
[19:21] that we're seeing from the players, the amount of red cards
[19:24] and all of these are kind of like a growing pains result of
[19:27] these players starting to get more into the rhythm and they
[19:31] need to learn that. Until that's completely learned,
[19:34] I don't think that Alonzo is shifting from that, which means
[19:37] that Frank Garcia, for the moment, is not going to be
[19:40] looked into. But I think that all over the
[19:43] season, Fran's profile is definitely going to come into
[19:46] place. He's running like that's
[19:49] something that Alonzo loves. Hughes, Grimaldo, the same way.
[19:53] Fran, Pong, Fran always has a place in the scene.
[19:58] I would be more worried if I'm Mindy, but we have to see what
[20:00] happens with Mindy once he comes back.
[20:02] My guess is with Fran, he will never That's the wrong word.
[20:10] If there's no how's it on the pitch?
[20:12] Fran can't be at at at left back right like whereas if there's no
[20:17] housing, Carreras will be a left back right like this is he needs
[20:20] to be with with a center back who can progress the ball
[20:24] forward, right? Because that's not what he does.
[20:27] Or maybe they're both Carreras and Fran basically, and you can
[20:32] have like Vinim Boppe Central clogging, but that means
[20:36] dropping one of the midfielders. Is Javi willing to do that?
[20:39] I don't think so at the moment. Look, this all for what we're
[20:43] seeing at the moment, This thing is going to evolve.
[20:45] Like Alonzo said that even on his today's pressure that it's
[20:50] way too early. He he pretty much meant, OK,
[20:54] look, we're doing good, but it's very early.
[20:57] He's seen the issues and he's basically telling us that wait
[21:02] for this thing to actually learn how to do everything that I want
[21:06] them to do. Which might take a full a full
[21:08] season or more so everybody but everybody buckle in it's.
[21:12] Gonna take a while, yes? I mentioned the next Champions
[21:15] League fixtures. I have no right back available.
[21:17] Any idea who gonna who's going to play?
[21:18] This is from listener Isaac. Can we play 3 at the back just
[21:22] like the Club World Cup, which is I think what you were saying,
[21:24] Lecante, right? So it's likely going to be.
[21:26] It's going to be a three at backshift.
[21:27] Hausen, Carreras and Carvajal, right?
[21:30] That's likely going to be the three and then.
[21:32] Carvajal is suspended so. Oh, that's right, never mind.
[21:35] Not. Carvajal and.
[21:37] Yes. Yeah.
[21:38] So and basically you probably have like a workhorse type of
[21:43] player on the right back, which could be Franco, could be
[21:46] Brahim, we'll see. Not on the right back, right
[21:49] wing back, just a full back, full width type of player.
[21:55] You might still get a Franco and basically you'll get like one of
[21:59] the pivots shifting more to the right as a supportive lane,
[22:02] giving more more space to operate for the white center
[22:06] backs. Well, the the good news is at
[22:08] least our next champions Champions League fixture is
[22:11] against, right? It it it it's a it's a even
[22:14] though it's 8 billion miles away, it's a match we should
[22:17] win. Now keep in mind, as we all
[22:19] know, every time Madrid plays another team, it is the biggest
[22:23] match of the season for that club.
[22:25] So they are going to come out like this is the greatest thing
[22:28] of our lives. We have a chance to make the
[22:29] impossible happen. So they're going to play balls
[22:31] to the wall as they do. Do you think Lecante and this is
[22:37] a question for me this the club historically we do not do
[22:41] anything during the winter transfer window.
[22:42] That's just not what we do. But given what's happened with
[22:46] the injuries, again, do you think Anjabi's potential
[22:51] influence, do you think that maybe this is a chance they
[22:54] might? No, I'm being honest.
[22:57] When you get 3A sales in literally span of like 3 weeks.
[23:01] And you do nothing. And you don't react.
[23:03] For me, that's kind of like it can get more serious than that.
[23:09] And yet the club did not like probably what Alonzo said,
[23:16] right? I'm going to have to look at the
[23:17] Academy. So basically, it's going to go
[23:21] down there if this trend continues.
[23:24] Yeah, yeah. I mentioned it already that
[23:27] Kamivinga's back, Jude's back, Andrick is back.
[23:30] Exciting times. Chavi Alonzo said that he would
[23:33] like to get Jude and Kemah Vinga minutes against Espanol on
[23:37] Saturday. Hendrick used a little less
[23:39] committal on and that's mainly because the forward line is
[23:42] already very crazy up there, so. Also Hendrick just yesterday
[23:47] came back to full training so he.
[23:49] Hasn't had as much. Training, yeah, like a week on
[23:52] him. Correct.
[23:54] So now that those two are back and I, and you could tell Jabi's
[23:58] giddiness and excitement, he cannot wait to have those two
[24:00] back like he is, He's chomping at the bit.
[24:03] What I mean for for the obvious reason of, oh, thank God, I have
[24:08] more debt, more bodies in the midfield.
[24:09] Finally, right, Just straight off the bat, arguably the best
[24:13] midfielder in the world in Bellingham, right?
[24:14] And a player in coma bingo who went healthy.
[24:17] He wasn't even touched the scratched hitting his full
[24:21] potential yet, but who can do so many different things?
[24:24] How do you see the the midfield shifting now that those two are
[24:29] available? I mean, normally the natural
[24:31] idea for me is Kamaminga comes back well where they can finally
[24:34] rest because that guy is run to the ground.
[24:38] Literally. How I think Alonzo sees
[24:42] Kamaminga is kind of like a mix of Andrich that he had by
[24:46] Leverkusen. A very versatile player who
[24:48] could fill in into multiple type of roles and he's getting
[24:52] multiple of these players like Anders used to fill in as a
[24:55] center back for Liver Cruz and that's show me here.
[24:58] But you have players that would play the number 10 sometimes,
[25:03] sometimes words would fill in as a center forward to get two more
[25:09] physical. I want to say players to the
[25:11] wings in order to start the game based on the opponents.
[25:15] You just Alonzo just likes to tinker along with the profiles.
[25:19] And I think that in Madrid he's getting like different profiles
[25:24] into one player, which is an adjustment for him to begin
[25:27] with. Like these aren't just one trick
[25:30] ponies. These are more like, OK,
[25:33] well-rounded footballers like especially Jude and Kamalinda
[25:37] Deem as arguably the most well-rounded into the team when
[25:42] fit and healthy. Like do they come with some of
[25:45] the deficiencies? Of course, nobody's perfect, but
[25:48] I like to think that they let you be a little bit more loose
[25:53] on the tactical side of things and just let them play and and
[25:57] doing football kind of like an Anceluti style where they can
[26:01] fix a lot of the problems to the point where we have to worry a
[26:05] lot less. Like let's say at least two were
[26:08] fed for their real social game just a week, right?
[26:12] Like you're not closing the game with that many central backs.
[26:15] You're closing the game with way more midfielders because that's
[26:20] how you wanna close it. You win the territory, you can
[26:23] win the ball back a lot quicker. You have a lot more physical
[26:27] presence in and you have a lot more technical quality on top of
[26:31] it to be able to hold the ball off a little bit for some fouls,
[26:35] maybe get some yellow cores to them and just wind the game
[26:39] down. I don't think Javi likes the
[26:41] fact that we still let the game get too hectic, which is
[26:45] something that we previously used to have.
[26:48] It's it's still not gone. So those two, they should be
[26:53] there as options at all times to be in, which is like why he goes
[27:00] up the health so much. I could see what it let's say.
[27:03] So, you know, second halves have been tough for us for a variety
[27:05] of reasons. One, often times we'll be
[27:08] getting these silly penalties that take us a man down.
[27:10] Also just exhaustion, right? Getting tired and that causing
[27:13] the game to get out of control even though we have a lead.
[27:16] So I could see in tomorrow's match we're up to nil or
[27:18] whatever at that 65th minute, 70th minute, he brings in Kama,
[27:22] Vinga and Bellingham to see the game out, right, for lack of a
[27:25] better phrase, right, And rotate off Arda and I don't know
[27:29] somebody else, right, Like like. Hopefully we'll work there.
[27:33] And Bob Parde, just to just just to see the game out, I think, I
[27:38] think that's the way to do it. And then once he's like, OK,
[27:40] they're ready. They will be then.
[27:43] I think Jude is. Jude's an automatic starter once
[27:45] he's got. Once he's right, came in his
[27:48] hand. So that so that means if he's
[27:50] the automatic starter who's dropped Messenzuano or whoever
[27:53] we put in at that right slot. I I think that's going to be the
[27:56] case. I think we're going to see more
[27:58] two number 10's and putting it on quotations for the audio
[28:02] listeners. It's not really number 10s, it's
[28:05] like 6810 hybrid role that they play in depending on the
[28:11] circumstances. And keeping in mind, Chabi
[28:15] switches on the fly, right, Lecante, like we, we may start
[28:18] one way. And then at the 60th minute,
[28:20] he's like, OK, you go here, you go here, like right.
[28:23] So I think that versatility matters.
[28:26] Like you might get a full back higher than the striker with
[28:29] into an Alonzo setup, which we saw with Fran on Club World Cup,
[28:32] right? He was like the guy that
[28:34] sometimes would start the attacks and finish them just
[28:37] because of the instructions. So there's a lot of shifting
[28:41] that happens. And, and I think that is what
[28:44] makes him such a unique coach in that way.
[28:47] You know, so many coaches, they're so rigid.
[28:49] And this is our style. This is what we do.
[28:50] And there's advantage to that because once you know you're one
[28:53] way to play and you get so good at it, it's very hard to beat
[28:57] right, because they are so well reversed in it.
[28:59] Versatility, however, may be harder to learn over time.
[29:03] But when you have different ways you can shape shift, that makes
[29:06] you much harder to game plan against.
[29:07] Because we don't know how they're going to set up.
[29:09] Are the fullbacks going to overlap and go higher than the
[29:10] strikers? Are they going to play 3 at the
[29:12] back and play 5 at the back? We have no idea, right?
[29:14] And I think that keeping you guessing makes it difficult on
[29:17] the opponent, yeah. I mean, I also went from a very
[29:20] low block against Bad Muni last season into holding Bad Muni to
[29:24] four shots the whole game. Yes, he didn't win the second
[29:27] game, unfortunately, but that has to be one of the most
[29:31] dominant big game performances that I have ever seen,
[29:34] literally. And Ban couldn't move.
[29:37] They could not move the ball. Like that's what all there is.
[29:40] Like we're talking game A to game B in the league season.
[29:43] And Alonzo did all of that. So adjustment.
[29:48] He's somebody that likes adjustment.
[29:50] To your point, when you are better drilled or more drilled
[29:54] into a certain thing, you already know it and you can
[29:57] grasp it a bit quicker, I would imagine.
[30:00] But if you're more flexible, there's less film on you or
[30:06] actually there's more film that needs to be studied.
[30:10] Therefore it's taking more time for the adjustments.
[30:13] Like it's a lot harder. Like Angelotti's team was so
[30:17] predictable on the Champions League because he would set up
[30:21] on that messy low block, but he would kind of force you to give
[30:25] up those faces for Vinicius because you kind of felt that,
[30:28] oh, I have this game under control and being there's about
[30:31] the Vinicius and oopsie, we're one nil down now.
[30:34] So it's just like it's kind of following the trend of Ancelotti
[30:40] in that sense. But structure, it's it actually
[30:45] has a mean behind it. It actually has a purpose behind
[30:48] it rather than just we're going to pass the ball to me.
[30:51] Yeah, this ties in actually are the style play and and and and
[30:55] Alonzo's flexibility to a second set of questions we got from
[30:59] listener class stipulation is the current playing style over
[31:03] dependent on on inbape. During the Club World Cup it
[31:06] felt like Real Madrid played more of a collective type of
[31:09] football. Best example is the goal scored
[31:11] by Fran against Dortmund completing the move he started.
[31:14] Before you answer Lecante, what I will say is this.
[31:18] I don't know if we're over reliant on Mbappe as much as he
[31:22] is just by far the most informed player on the squad and it's not
[31:26] close. He is like levitating on cloud
[31:29] 9. Anything he touches is gold
[31:30] right now. So I think that's.
[31:33] Right now, like you can give me a better player that's being
[31:36] this season, Madrid of France, whatever, nitpick, whoever you
[31:41] want, like keeps untouchable #1 right now I don't think the game
[31:45] is reliant about it. But you rely on him because he's
[31:48] giving you goals, chances, trust, creation.
[31:51] He's doing all of that. In terms of now, he's different
[31:55] to the Club World Cup. As I mentioned, the Club World
[31:57] Cup didn't end as beautifully as we wanted to.
[32:01] Way too much on Club World Cup for a little bit of you
[32:03] comfortable going into league season like that.
[32:06] So things have changed. It's become Defence Force.
[32:09] I think that those patterns are going to slowly return again,
[32:13] but it's going to be slowly as the players get more
[32:16] comfortable, as the bodies get added.
[32:18] Hopefully with like Jude Kamalinga, we don't get shot by
[32:23] another big injury. There's been 2 already like
[32:26] coming ended with that and it's more of like mix of everything.
[32:32] Alonzo doesn't believe on the fact that the Club World Cup was
[32:37] a good way to play the games. Those were Alonzo style of goals
[32:43] and ultimately it was a showcase to what Alonzo wants to do,
[32:48] which I would agree if you told me that was more entertaining
[32:51] than this, but I would completely disagree if you think
[32:55] that that was better than this because this is just a much
[32:58] better one. Yeah.
[33:00] And I think the way I would look at it, describe it is this
[33:03] squad, the way we defend now would not lose 4 nil to PSG the
[33:08] way that. We did in out of out of
[33:10] question. This team would go to to talk
[33:12] with that without any problem. Like even if they don't win it
[33:16] put them together on a pitch. Right now you're not seeing
[33:18] that. Yeah, and that's what I mean.
[33:20] I'm not saying we definitely win it, but that four NIL disaster
[33:23] that doesn't happen against the way the team is playing out.
[33:27] Yeah, for sure. Another question from a
[33:30] stipulation, Brahim getting more game time than Gonzalo, very
[33:33] hard to understand. We have a bunch of people in the
[33:35] chat talking about, hey man, Gonzalo should be getting way
[33:38] more game time, What is going on?
[33:42] It's not fair, but I love Brahim or completely different players
[33:46] and. His his national replacement is
[33:48] Mbappe, who we just said is the best player in the world and
[33:50] he's not getting taken off. What I was going to right now,
[33:52] right? Like it's not that Alonzo is
[33:56] thinking, OK, do I play, do I play Brahim or Gonzalo?
[34:00] No, he's more like do I play Gazala or Mbappe at this point
[34:04] where the team is. And it's just like the answer is
[34:06] written on a wall. Do I think that Gonzalo needs to
[34:09] play a little bit more? Yes.
[34:11] If we don't want to run into the and Bob a problem with his
[34:15] injuries or at least fatigue, you don't want him to lose the
[34:20] sharpness that he has. But I see a loser's point of
[34:25] view here. And that's the fact that we're
[34:26] not closing games. We're missing chances, which has
[34:30] been a theme. We're not able to kill them.
[34:33] The second holes are just killing us and there simply
[34:37] isn't enough output on the team right now to justify dropping
[34:42] about it like this though. Also for everybody that wines
[34:45] wine, Bob is getting rotated while being.
[34:48] Is the fact that the output matters in a very marginal sport
[34:55] like football. If I have a guy taking 5 to 8
[34:59] shots a game and getting a goal in every single game.
[35:03] Like he's missed scoring in one game this whole season and he
[35:07] even scored on that game which was disallowed but just to prove
[35:11] a point. Like it's not reliant on him
[35:14] bopping by design, but the quality naturally forces you to
[35:18] relax. It's by necessity, it's by
[35:21] necessity we have to look that game against Marseille this week
[35:24] in Champions League, yes, the red card happened and we played
[35:27] down to 10 men again, but and you guys discussed on the post
[35:29] game show yeah, especially that first 45 minutes.
[35:32] We dominated that first half had an XG almost 4, but we only
[35:37] scored twice. I mean we put away another one
[35:41] of those chances. We're a completely different
[35:42] situation, right? Like.
[35:45] Naturally, in a game with an XG and the amount of big chances
[35:49] that we had that I and I mean we spoke about it, but Marseille,
[35:52] if we're going to, it wasn't just Marseille, right?
[35:55] It was also Sociedad until the red card, like it was more of
[36:00] the same. Marseille just looked a better
[36:03] version of the Sociedad thing. You can see that that's being
[36:07] built. So if a team is capable of
[36:11] creating that much that quick, like I don't think I've ever
[36:16] seen a team without a penalty generate eight shots and over
[36:20] one XG in 15 minutes, 15 minutes of play.
[36:25] Real Madrid had over eight shots and over one XG.
[36:30] Expected goals. Look, expected goals aren't
[36:34] naturally to be taken as OK, they're the four XG.
[36:37] They should have had four goals. No, Normally in a case with four
[36:41] XG, you're getting seven or eight goals in that game and
[36:46] this game ends with two. But of course, like, that's why
[36:51] we say it's a sample size. It's a very small sample size to
[36:55] look at the underlying metrics as it understands, because this
[36:59] four XG could well be what really saves you in the
[37:05] Champions League, being the high, the team with the highest
[37:08] generated XG. But we have to remember that 4
[37:10] of it came in longer. But and and OK, let's say our
[37:16] next game is going to be carrots.
[37:17] So that should naturally be another high EG type of game.
[37:21] But let's say it's one society, we might as well play the OK,
[37:25] it's Liverpool. I'm pretty sure winning the game
[37:28] after. But Yep and wish ever it is that
[37:31] game. You might have an EG of 0.6 and
[37:35] get three goals because you just were more clinical into the
[37:39] approach. I mean, just to prove a point
[37:44] just in all of this. All right, Real Madrid and
[37:46] Manchester City two seasons ago, everybody and their mother
[37:51] swears that Manchester City's mother does.
[37:54] Manchester City were the better team.
[37:56] Everybody says Roger himself came after the game and he said
[38:00] that the team that wanted to play football didn't.
[38:03] Let me tell you one thing. Real Madrid had more big chances
[38:05] than Manchester City. That.
[38:06] Yeah. Correct.
[38:08] So it's important to to just see the lengths of where they're
[38:15] coming from. And Bape is solely sometimes
[38:20] responsible for us generating those shots because he's so
[38:24] good. Like forget his dribbling, the
[38:26] fact that he had 9 dribbles against how I was.
[38:28] So say that like that's a whole different story.
[38:30] But forget anything that he does.
[38:33] Just his separation manners helps us seem way too much to
[38:38] put the load off his presence alone.
[38:41] It just makes the team really not feel that comfortable
[38:44] pressing you very high because you're like, OK, there is this
[38:47] guy and I don't want to deal with him.
[38:49] Well, so see that suffer from that.
[38:51] I know that it was a pass back, but look at how high that a lion
[38:55] was. So they had to suffer the
[38:57] consequences of that. And when you have such player
[39:00] on, I'm sorry, but you can drop it.
[39:02] You can't justify any way to, right now, start a meaningful
[39:07] game where you need to win without a mappy.
[39:09] It's something about peril. Lion by design.
[39:12] It's about peril and by his quality, his sheer quality.
[39:17] Just necessity. He is who he is best player in
[39:18] the world right now. And you know, so funny you
[39:20] mentioned that Manchester City match 2 two years ago.
[39:23] Everyone seems to because everyone remembers is the second
[39:26] leg at the at the odd Nobody was about the first thing to burn
[39:29] about open play. It was 3/3 and I can argue their
[39:33] their their first goal they scored was just a ridiculous
[39:36] nonsense. Absent minded.
[39:38] What did you got? What are you guys doing here
[39:39] right? And just fell asleep.
[39:40] So anyway, I this idea of, you know, Manchester City was way
[39:46] better once he wanted to play football.
[39:48] I don't know. I don't know what you're
[39:49] talking. About It's just the narrative
[39:50] that they tried to push, right? Well, in fact, when you look at
[39:53] the numbers across both legs, Madrid have had better chances
[39:57] than Manchester City. Yeah, I'm sorry football doesn't
[40:01] reward you from possession. That who somebody like
[40:05] possession has never won a football game, right?
[40:07] Like that's that's the thing, right?
[40:08] Like you have to score more than the team, right?
[40:11] Yes. Are you more comfortable if you
[40:15] have 7080% of the ball? Yes, because you feel safer.
[40:19] But then again, there's another team with again, that quality
[40:23] that just needs to play and they're scoring against you and
[40:28] then that 80% of the ball just didn't have ignition effects.
[40:33] Right, yeah, you, you have 80% of the possession for a match
[40:36] and you lose 1 nil. Great.
[40:37] Congratulations. You tried the ball for 8:00 but
[40:39] you didn't score. Right, but you didn't score.
[40:42] So what difference does it make? Sticking on this theme, we have
[40:46] a set of questions here from Mizornu and it's more about
[40:49] again, the teams play during the Club World Cup and what we're
[40:52] doing now. And you, you answered a lot of
[40:54] it about how our in possession play was just different than
[40:57] versus now because of the focus on defense.
[41:00] Second question is PSG and Barsa and now Byron adopt an anchors
[41:04] and floaters approach in possession against man to man
[41:06] pressing schemes. They do this with a fixed back
[41:09] three and two fixed withholders. The other five players in rotate
[41:12] positions pulling our markers and creating space for
[41:15] progression through tight central Y combinations.
[41:17] We are yet to see Chabi setup against an aggressive man to man
[41:20] press, but what do you think about this system being
[41:22] implemented at Madrid? I mean we kind of did see it
[41:26] against man to man press order was pulling as a it was on the
[41:30] back against Majorca. We saw that happening.
[41:33] Order going into it does the center back into that cruise
[41:36] thing. Not every team needs to be set
[41:39] up the same. There is always with, within the
[41:42] Madrid team of alumzo at least there's always somebody.
[41:46] Wide rotations are always happening like this.
[41:49] Not something that used to be in the case with Ansulotti a year
[41:53] ago where you'd have a lot of narrow players or a lot of white
[41:57] players. I think that the setup is
[42:00] correct. The execution definitely needs
[42:03] to get better with the ball. But in terms of where players
[42:08] are positioning, I don't see a problem.
[42:10] You're seeing a lot of dropping a lot of three at back being
[42:14] formed. That's Madrid are building out.
[42:16] But again, he I think he made the point there when you read
[42:19] the question that we haven't really faced A relentless man to
[42:22] man press type of team. But that's kind of bread and
[42:26] butter for as long as we'll be able to get the ball high up
[42:29] again. That's I'm saying if you saw
[42:33] that as a weakness, you're my Orcas coach, let's say, or a
[42:36] stimulus coach or or the others coach.
[42:40] If you see that as okay, there's a real potential for me to get
[42:45] something if I utilize this. You would have done it.
[42:49] But Madrid or just by nature of the players quality are going to
[42:55] mitigate that a lot because players like Mbappe, Vini float
[42:59] a lot or Rodrigo, They do float a lot anyways.
[43:04] You don't see them static so they're floating.
[43:07] Just makes the man to man very hard because they can always set
[43:11] a trap for you. Like even the goal against
[43:13] Marseille comes as a trap is the way.
[43:16] How me and Sid argued that we don't believe it should have
[43:20] been called the penalty. It was a little bit harsh.
[43:23] But. I'm only speaking about the
[43:25] sense of the action. Forget the end thing, the way
[43:30] how the flicks happen, that's a trap.
[43:33] That's a floating player. Like in basketball when screens
[43:37] are set right, It's kind of like a type of screen in football
[43:41] where the player receives and he just gives that layoff to the
[43:44] runner and there you go, you're throat.
[43:46] Madrid does a lot of it. That's why you see so many big
[43:50] chances. You'll see.
[43:51] Like that's why they've created more than any other team in the
[43:54] Champions League slash. Leagues.
[43:57] But I don't think we're going to see the relentless and man to
[44:03] man type of races until we go into these super ultra big
[44:08] games, like be one of them. Right Barsa the classico?
[44:12] Yep. Warsaw so it's more of like who
[44:15] can hold up with the quality of these players and.
[44:17] Liverpool and the Champions League, of course, them too.
[44:19] But yeah, those those bigger match ups you mentioned, it's
[44:22] like in basketball setting the screen.
[44:24] And I think it's important to bring this up.
[44:26] And also kudos to you Laconte, for an excellent point you made
[44:28] in that the setup is right, the execution is still wanting,
[44:31] right? And I think again, it's just we
[44:33] need time, right? You're not gonna be perfect at
[44:35] this 5-6 matches in, right? We let's, let's see, let's ask
[44:39] this question again and see where we are. 25 matches in.
[44:41] Now if it's 25 mark match point, we're making the same mistake we
[44:45] were at match #5 and six. Well, we have some questions to
[44:48] ask now, right? It's like, why are you not
[44:49] getting? This actually be concerned, yes.
[44:53] You mentioned about setting screens right, the great QB
[44:55] Brown, legendary basketball coach turned broadcaster, said
[44:59] you set screens for one reason to force the defense to think
[45:03] right because that because once you now enter a second play into
[45:06] space, the defenders not going what is my responsibility right
[45:09] and that's what you want them to go.
[45:10] What am I supposed to do? Because once they're thinking
[45:13] they're not reacting shit, Are we am I supposed to follow him?
[45:15] I supposed too late, right and Papa just ran crap.
[45:18] We got a this is what you want. You want and unsettled.
[45:22] Exactly right. It's more they're used
[45:24] differently. Again, two different sports, but
[45:26] both of them have it in a different way.
[45:29] Like it could be your number 9 shielding, or it could be your
[45:33] drop 9, which would be an Mbappe just carrying out the defense
[45:37] just slightly higher to create that gap for the runner.
[45:41] Let it be. It can be from either side, it
[45:44] can be a prolonged action, but it's still going to yield the
[45:49] same result because of that action taking place.
[45:54] No, this is so. Yeah.
[45:55] This is beautiful stuff, but this is this is sort of what
[45:58] this is what Jabi wants to create, right?
[46:00] Ultimately, last question from our listener Miss Ornew.
[46:06] And again folks please ask questions on YouTube, put in the
[46:09] comments on Twitter. When we put out the notice on
[46:13] Friday that we're going live for our Friday show, give an
[46:16] opportunity to ask her questions there as well.
[46:17] We will answer them. As you can see, it's still early
[46:20] days and so we most likely haven't seen Javi's full plans
[46:23] for the team yet. But if his long term plan is to
[46:25] maintain a 433, which personnel do you think best fits the right
[46:29] wing and right central midfield spot and Rick Franco at right
[46:32] wing and Kama Fete at right CM? OK I see there's something that
[46:38] on Twitter playing 433 I'm struggling to see it like where
[46:43] I'm generally not seeing the 433 like the right side it's always
[46:48] inverted with a width holder it's.
[46:51] More like a. Most of the time the width
[46:53] holder is the full back so that's why Franco is capable of
[46:58] getting into so many shooting positions because he's not
[47:01] Brazilian. Ever seen in Fuller flash wide
[47:03] and also like 433 with that orders roll like this?
[47:09] As I say, like calling the shape of the scene is very hard
[47:12] because one second is this and the other second is that.
[47:16] It's just the Alonso styles. So I wouldn't really call it.
[47:20] If I had to name it, I would say it's kind of like a 422222222
[47:25] because when we see those dudes right, it's the way how the ball
[47:30] shifts from the left to the right.
[47:33] There's a lot of between the line section that takes place,
[47:36] which is like one of the longest things to release the wings.
[47:40] So because of that, it's more of like that's why I said Orton and
[47:45] Jude are going to be together and then Papa is going to be
[47:48] become that floral with Vini taking like full responsibility
[47:51] on the wing, which I believe is going to take the load of Catas
[47:55] after the release in terms of like how much she has to
[47:59] contribute in both ends, if not with minutes.
[48:02] So wouldn't call it a 433. But to the other point though,
[48:07] which was coma Vinga or Valerda on the right.
[48:10] Yes, like please, I want coma Vinga on the right side of that.
[48:16] You feel? I frankly believe it's going to
[48:19] be on the left just to balance out what we're trying to do with
[48:24] so many of the right. But I believe that angles of
[48:27] both would be better off switched.
[48:30] But again, let's me just the rising, we see Valverde and
[48:34] Shamani constantly change like Germany's to the right one time
[48:39] to the left the other. We saw the shift against
[48:41] Sociedad when he saw that, OK, Valverde on the right, sorry,
[48:45] not Valverde. So bias on the right is just not
[48:47] going to work. So Chamani just immediately went
[48:49] there and our issues just ingredly felt gone.
[48:52] So along with his former adaptable coach that he's being
[48:57] credit for, he's being credited for right now.
[49:01] So naturally he's not going to stick to one thing.
[49:05] Like when I suggested Kamalina and Sebayas, there's not really
[49:09] a real pivot there, right? But it just works because
[49:12] Sebayas is going to anchor the team and Kamalina is going to be
[49:15] like the presser. They had the steps up kind of
[49:19] like over the role. We throw many wars against Ralph
[49:21] Sociedad, so we're seeing players taking different
[49:24] responsibilities. It's just matchup, defender
[49:28] dependent, profile dependent, what players are paired with,
[49:31] what roles they're going to have.
[49:33] So yeah. And and Kevin Vinga, I mean, he
[49:35] hasn't played since April. I want to say March.
[49:39] I mean, again, assuming all health, this dude should be like
[49:42] a rocket shot out of who knows what.
[49:45] With the energy and what he can do right, he can be a legitimate
[49:48] game changer for this squad again, assuming he he's managed
[49:52] to stay healthy the rest of the season, which fingers crossed.
[49:55] To give him time to think of. Rust.
[49:58] Yes, he will have immense rust. So let's say he comes on
[50:02] tomorrow, right? He's definitely not going to
[50:05] look like the play of what we saw on his first season, for
[50:08] example, where he was changing games by two.
[50:11] Yeah, he's going. To give, let's just tap her down
[50:15] our. My guess is he's gonna give the
[50:19] he's gonna give the ball away or something like something looks
[50:22] like that's gonna happen just because of I.
[50:24] Mean it might happen, considering how big of a risk
[50:27] taker he is. Yeah, yeah.
[50:28] Yeah. But we don't know what he's
[50:30] learned. Like there's another question
[50:33] was out of all of this right? In all of these months off, what
[50:37] has he learned about his body? What has he learned tactically?
[50:41] How much film has he watched in himself to see the things that
[50:44] he does correctly wrong? Like Alonso seems to be one of
[50:47] these coaches that talks to every single player of his and
[50:50] was like this, this, this, this, this, this.
[50:53] So how what coming are we going to get?
[50:58] Like, that's a huge question. It's not a small one.
[51:02] It's a huge. One and one that will not be
[51:05] answered by tomorrow, right? We will.
[51:06] We won't know for months what that's going to be.
[51:10] I would like to believe that we start to get there post the
[51:13] international break that'd. Be nice.
[51:15] I pray that he doesn't get called up but the national team
[51:18] to place 5 minutes and get injured on the training.
[51:21] But again, like those international breaks or choose
[51:25] the killer, like last season, I was begging for them.
[51:28] This season I'm like, I'm dreading them.
[51:30] Oh. My God, and especially him,
[51:32] because he's going to the shop world, which is like, oh Lord,
[51:35] that dude and whatever France is doing.
[51:37] I'm just like, please don't. Like, please just don't.
[51:41] Maybe, maybe Madrid, maybe Madrid pulls, pulls a fast one
[51:44] again. Cabo Mingo's hurt again.
[51:47] No, he has to stay. I mean, I'm pretty sure two of
[51:51] his last three injuries were on French national team.
[51:55] I'm pretty sure of that. One was on training, one was
[51:58] during the game and then he got injured with us again.
[52:02] I don't know that injury record that's really shot up over the
[52:06] last year and a half or two. It has hopefully the the Madrid
[52:11] is and come, I think have invested time and resources and
[52:15] figuring out what's going on and how do I, how do I get myself
[52:17] better. We opened the show talking about
[52:19] this to Kante, but I think we can just kind of put a put a bow
[52:21] on it. And not to belabor the point
[52:24] about La Liga making no sense, but I don't understand how they
[52:29] came out and said Gilmanzano made a made the wrong choice in
[52:33] giving housing a red card. VAR was wrong for not
[52:36] intervening. Yeah, but it doesn't matter.
[52:37] You still keep the red and you still spend it for a game.
[52:41] Did you admit? It get suspended by the way,
[52:43] which means it's you didn't do just a mistake.
[52:46] It's a big mistake like this is 1 and he doesn't even have a
[52:50] timeline of return. You you admitted wrongdoing,
[52:53] that you were wrong on both fronts, yet the player still has
[52:57] to suffer the consequence for a wrong.
[52:58] I don't. I just I don't get it.
[53:00] Exactly, like post game I said like how are there 5 referees on
[53:04] a pitch and there's a VLR room and nobody's actually even
[53:07] checking for that. Like but still housing made that
[53:15] Instagram post where I went like the committee admits mistakes,
[53:19] referee admits mistakes, everything seems to be OK, we
[53:25] have made a mistake here but I'm still suspended.
[53:29] It's just like what are we doing here?
[53:32] Like wasn't it enough of a punishment to get the team to
[53:36] play? 10 men. 10 men for basically an.
[53:41] Hour. An hour, even more than that if
[53:44] you count the minutes. But it was an hour of if we're
[53:47] going by the natural thing, and now you're punishing them still
[53:53] for something that's a clean mistake.
[53:58] It's a weird decision, right? Like ultimately it's a weird
[54:02] call. It might be a call, not a
[54:04] precedent, like future issues with other some red cards,
[54:08] because it might, as we know, like it's not only Madrid
[54:11] getting hurt. Trust me that every single team
[54:14] right now seems except one seems to be feeling down by the
[54:19] referees. One of them is not, but not
[54:22] going to mention who. You guys can figure out who that
[54:25] is on your own. Yeah, you can figure that out.
[54:28] But for the most part, every team feels that they're done
[54:31] dirty. Like let it be a game at half
[54:33] against Valencia, let it be a game right by a Cano against
[54:36] VRL. There's going to be a blunder by
[54:39] the referee. Like this is a much bigger
[54:41] problem that Madrid itself. Like look, do I think the
[54:45] refereeing on Mercedes Madrid was perfect?
[54:48] No, but hell, a lot better. As I said, the penalty was
[54:52] harsh, but other than that, I don't really recall any
[54:57] incident. Like protocols are being
[54:59] respected. Player hit on the head drops
[55:02] immediately. Like there is no let me see
[55:04] where the action is going. It's kind of totally thinking
[55:06] there's what or not and then I'll call it no, no, no, no
[55:09] players on the ground, whistle, game thoughts.
[55:13] Marseille's ball, nobody actually complaints about it
[55:17] because it was a right call. It's a protocol.
[55:19] Being respected can even if we're saying that the refereeing
[55:25] on Marseille against Madrid, by all the norms, could it be bad
[55:29] because of that penalty? If that level wasn't La Liga, we
[55:33] would be more than happy as a league.
[55:35] Oh, yeah, you're right, You're right.
[55:37] Good point. Yeah.
[55:39] I mean, these things are going to happen.
[55:41] These people are still humans. Right.
[55:43] Like no doubt. I never take away from the human
[55:45] side of things when it comes to the referees.
[55:48] But this in La Liga is incompetence.
[55:50] This is below just this is just straight up incompetence.
[55:54] There is like I made a mistake, I made an error and there is all
[56:01] of us make errors and they happen every 5 or so minutes.
[56:05] That is, A-Team with three folds has 2 yellow cards and the team
[56:10] with 18 doesn't have a single one.
[56:12] And the level of the folds are similar, it's just.
[56:18] Yeah, no, it's it's madding. It's madding.
[56:21] And look, I am not, I was not a fan of it and still aren't.
[56:24] And I think it's dead anyway. But you understand now why
[56:27] Florentino wanted the Super League and to get away.
[56:29] It's like this is just nonsense. The guy I he just we make the
[56:34] most money for this league and we got to put up with this
[56:36] garbage week in and week out. Like, I get it, I get it.
[56:39] I. Mean Madrid are taking Spanish
[56:43] refereeing what like R fee, A fee to the FIFA court basically
[56:49] like they have gone to those lines like that's official by
[56:52] the way, but they are actually going to be doing it.
[56:56] Is this the right move? I don't really know.
[56:59] I don't know what effect this is going to bring it then easily
[57:01] bring it. Let's put it this way, it isn't
[57:03] going to make the referees be any better at their job, I'll
[57:06] say that. Or like press conference and
[57:08] cry. Well, well, this is my point.
[57:10] They're going to hold press conferences and cry and because
[57:13] they are human, listen, they're going to hold even more of a
[57:17] grudge and a bias now, like. Exactly.
[57:21] I don't know, like look, they need to investigate into this.
[57:27] Like I'm not saying investigate in terms of like, oh, they're
[57:30] purposely doing this on the right.
[57:31] As I said, this more of like game to game basis.
[57:33] It's not only I'm speaking specifically on the league
[57:36] itself. Refereeing is really, really
[57:40] bad. Like every single league come
[57:44] comes with it's own referee problems.
[57:46] Actually every single sport comes with it's own referee
[57:49] problems. You will never see something
[57:51] like La Liga every single game. There's literally a Twitter page
[57:56] called VLR Archivo which which speaks about every single VLR
[58:03] calling La Liga and you will just see how many tweets you get
[58:06] on a match day from them because they call out the mistakes.
[58:10] So just keep an eye on that account and you will see just
[58:15] how many mistakes that are made per game.
[58:18] It's not only a major game, it's per game, it's every game that
[58:21] they follow and they will show you the mistakes that the
[58:26] referees make. Yeah, look for for a
[58:29] professional league, for one of the big 5 leagues and for a a,
[58:35] a, you know, you can argue with the league as the best league or
[58:38] the second best league, whatever, it doesn't matter.
[58:40] Point is, it is a top competition for it to have this
[58:44] quality of refereeing and again, not about Madrid throughout the
[58:48] league every match. This is awful and piss poor and
[58:52] you've got league president and Javier Tabos who doesn't seem to
[58:55] be at all concerned about any of this stuff and is instead more
[58:58] concerned with press conferences and being on TV and calling out
[59:00] this one and that one. It's like, look man, too many
[59:04] egos involved obviously, but you guys got to got to figure out
[59:09] your shit. You just get his puppet in.
[59:12] Yeah, it's more of like it's generally ATV drama that if you
[59:18] yeah, literally like Spanish Reverie Committee and La Liga
[59:24] beefing for some reason one day like buddy, the next day, then
[59:28] they're calling each other out. Then somehow VLR get sent to
[59:35] Media Pro. Well, I'm sorry to say this, but
[59:40] how do you see that? Do you take that decision when
[59:46] the Co founder, by the way, I had somebody tell me, oh that
[59:50] guy owns only 5% of the company. What do you mean he only holds
[59:54] 5% of the company? He's the Co founder of the
[59:57] company that has sold in majority of the shares and still
[1:00:02] hold shares within the company who by the way has put 30
[1:00:07] million of his. Own money to support Juan La
[1:00:11] Porter's campaign to become Barcelona's president.
[1:00:14] I mean there is no more clear case of of bias and.
[1:00:20] Worse, a certain way for Barcelona, a certain way for us.
[1:00:23] Well, I'm kind of alluding to that.
[1:00:25] But all that I'm saying is that even from an ethical standpoint,
[1:00:30] when you're thinking about it, aren't you really looking as
[1:00:33] deep as something that's literally public and let
[1:00:38] everybody know? And I had another reply to me
[1:00:40] saying that O Madrid had a deal with Mediapro in the past.
[1:00:43] Yeah, they did because they're a company.
[1:00:46] But that company's Co founder didn't put in 30 million of his
[1:00:52] own money to support the Madrid president.
[1:00:55] There is a big difference between OK, I've hired this
[1:00:59] company or I've partnered with this company to do X things.
[1:01:05] Yes, you can be tied up that way.
[1:01:07] Like that's how sports work. You can find that everywhere.
[1:01:10] But it becomes a little bit different when the Co founder
[1:01:14] and the guy was 5% of the shareholders.
[1:01:17] It's supporting Juan Laporta, right?
[1:01:19] To multiple people is personally, I think the highest
[1:01:24] contributor to Laporta's campaign.
[1:01:26] Yeah, I mean, the the conflict of interest is just so clear and
[1:01:30] obvious and it look, this isn't a show about that.
[1:01:33] But the point is for this quality of competition, this is
[1:01:39] horrible. And listen, ultimately it's
[1:01:42] going to happen is La Liga's going to it's TV counters are
[1:01:45] going to get worse. They're going to have less
[1:01:47] people watching, right? And you know, they're going to
[1:01:49] have problems, right? And these clubs are going to
[1:01:50] continue to be. These kids going to suffer.
[1:01:52] Unfortunately, there's no trade of Barcelona.
[1:01:55] That's it. Even if it dies.
[1:01:57] Right, they'll have the you have the two biggest clubs in the
[1:01:58] world. Right.
[1:02:00] You know, like basically you're banking on these two to hold
[1:02:07] your league alive If you continue with us, like a lot of
[1:02:10] people diminish the fact that, for example, like news now came
[1:02:14] out me and you talked about this.
[1:02:15] So I think it's only fair that we retract on the statement of
[1:02:18] the last week's show, which was about Haddaf and league forcing
[1:02:21] them to sell players. I didn't know that they were
[1:02:25] doing funny enough, circumvention of the cap.
[1:02:29] So they'll be caught doing it. So yeah, like there are a lot of
[1:02:35] things that have happened within a TAFE that are very shady.
[1:02:39] Like La Liga told them from the source, apparently that this
[1:02:43] Borhama RL, not La Liga, didn't specify the Borhama RL contract,
[1:02:47] by the way. But your earnings and your wage
[1:02:50] bill aren't lining up. So they knew this from the
[1:02:53] beginning. They just spun A narrative and
[1:02:56] they try to get away with it as a certain club for Catalonia
[1:02:59] those So they totally didn't work and they basically were
[1:03:04] forced into something. But they still did a shady deal
[1:03:08] even when doing that. So it's like I'm not going to
[1:03:11] feel bad for them because you were told from the beginning
[1:03:14] there are rules. So my apologies to La Liga for
[1:03:17] that. Like you felt bad.
[1:03:18] It's. Up, it's up.
[1:03:21] They got caught, not. Every club is going to have
[1:03:24] accountant problems that come in one week before that transfer
[1:03:28] window ends and a player can get registered.
[1:03:31] Not like the papers were sent when the transfer window began.
[1:03:36] Not like most of the wages are basically public.
[1:03:40] That. That that.
[1:03:42] Made me think of something like that when you when you said the
[1:03:45] Katafe. Much like a certain club from
[1:03:47] Catalonia who does the same thing but like nothing happens
[1:03:50] to them. Right.
[1:03:50] That reminds me of is a old joke here in American sports that
[1:03:54] every time Kentucky cheats, Western Kentucky gets put on
[1:03:58] probation, right? Like, it's, it's, it's this idea
[1:04:01] that like, well, we know that they cheat, but we can't really
[1:04:05] stop them. So you we're gonna get you guys
[1:04:08] for for making a mistake, right? Like it's like, wow, come on.
[1:04:12] It's that's just it's listen, it's, it's what it is really
[1:04:15] quick before you wrap the special one.
[1:04:18] Jose Mourinho is now going to coach Benfica.
[1:04:21] So we are going to oppose him in Champions League this year.
[1:04:25] Javi Alonso, his former manager, they're going head to head.
[1:04:28] What should we expect? Oh, I actually thought that
[1:04:35] there was bad blood between Maureen and Madrid right at one
[1:04:38] point, given how it all like that.
[1:04:40] Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
[1:04:41] But that doesn't seem to be like Morini has been like nothing
[1:04:44] short of very kind Madrid, which not every club gives that.
[1:04:49] The guy literally said I made a mistake joining them about you,
[1:04:52] so that's one for you. But it should be fun, right?
[1:04:57] I really want to see that because I know that Alonzo spend
[1:05:02] the time with Pellegrini, but the longest time we spend with
[1:05:05] the Kosher Madrid has been with. So that's a good thing.
[1:05:10] Like are we going to get the Mourinho's pragmatism and along
[1:05:13] those pragmatism, which are two different ways of pragmatic
[1:05:16] football into. The Pragmatic Bowl.
[1:05:19] Pragmatic Bowl at full flow. Is this going to be 2026 when
[1:05:24] that game gets blamed? So yeah.
[1:05:28] That'll be fun. I'm, I'm looking forward to that
[1:05:29] and I believe that's in January, that picture if I'm not
[1:05:32] mistaken. Yeah.
[1:05:34] Yeah, yeah. Alright, that'll be fun.
[1:05:36] Last thing before we wrap again, we we have Espanol tomorrow.
[1:05:38] So Chavi Alonzo had his customary day before press
[1:05:41] conference. He had some interesting comments
[1:05:44] Akante about Juan Vinicius Junior, in which he said I see
[1:05:50] him. Well, seeing him from the
[1:05:52] outside is very different. Yesterday I realized it wasn't
[1:05:55] the right time to talk to him, but today he had a better smile
[1:05:58] and was more positive. I talked to him and ended up
[1:06:00] doing some individualized things with him during training.
[1:06:02] Tomorrow we'll see. And he was asked again about
[1:06:05] Benny. As I said before, yesterday
[1:06:07] wasn't the time to talk. You have to have the intuition,
[1:06:10] and today we talked a little. We finished training with a good
[1:06:12] feeling. We played five league games, so
[1:06:14] there's still a long way to go. This is a marathon until May.
[1:06:16] We have to take our assessments little by little.
[1:06:18] We have to give everyone time, both the team and the individual
[1:06:21] players, and this final quote from Job is about team
[1:06:25] chemistry, which I think is connected to all this.
[1:06:27] For me, there are many important players within the squad in
[1:06:30] terms of level, experience, track record and what they're
[1:06:32] going to give us. Vinicius is one of them, Killing
[1:06:34] is another. There are others like Dean who
[1:06:36] were just starting out. Those labels we want to put on
[1:06:38] the team, I'm not going to get into right now.
[1:06:41] I value everyone a lot. I know what their role is.
[1:06:43] I need to build the team so everyone feels important.
[1:06:46] We're charting the course. There's still a long way to go.
[1:06:48] Everyone is in the same boat and I need us all to row in the same
[1:06:52] direction. I think to me, Lecante, so much
[1:06:55] is being made about Vinny. He's getting dropped, he's
[1:06:57] getting whatever. And I think honestly, and I know
[1:07:00] why, like in football, I think too much is made on that stuff,
[1:07:03] right? Oh my God, but he got benched.
[1:07:04] It's like he's not being benched for like 6 months, like he just
[1:07:08] didn't start this match, he's going to start the next one.
[1:07:10] Like it's fine. But I think ultimately the quote
[1:07:14] about we are all on the boat and everyone was rowing the same
[1:07:17] direction is key. Javi Alonso was trying to break
[1:07:22] down hierarchies that existed before he got here because that
[1:07:27] had nothing to do with him. He wasn't here for that and that
[1:07:29] wasn't around the style of ball he wanted to play.
[1:07:32] Now as he builds out his style and his system, a hierarchy is
[1:07:37] going to develop. Shit, we already see it.
[1:07:39] We know who can't be dropped, Dean Hausen, Chuameni and Bape,
[1:07:44] right? Clearly those three as are non
[1:07:47] starter. They are not going anywhere.
[1:07:49] But because they have earned that through the way in which
[1:07:52] they play. But Cortua doesn't count because
[1:07:54] he's always because he's Tebow Cortua.
[1:07:55] But you, you get my point. But he wants to say, hey, you
[1:07:59] can get to that level where you become, where you become
[1:08:02] undrappable, but it is about your play and what you've done,
[1:08:05] not about what the name on the back of your shirt says or how
[1:08:08] much money you make or this, that and the 3rd.
[1:08:11] And this idea of everyone rolling in the same direction, I
[1:08:13] think is so key for teams like, guys, the season's long and
[1:08:18] you're trying to win the biggest and most important trophies.
[1:08:22] Everyone has to feel like they're a part of it, and we all
[1:08:25] have to roll in the same direction.
[1:08:26] Now, do some people have more of an important role than others?
[1:08:28] Of course they do. You don't have to be a genius to
[1:08:31] figure that out. And the players know that.
[1:08:33] But they want to feel like, hey, how come if that dude shows up
[1:08:38] at 10:35, it's OK, but if I show up at 10:35, it's not OK, right?
[1:08:42] Like he's trying to eliminate that and say, look, man, we are
[1:08:46] all the same when it comes to those things.
[1:08:48] But your performance on the pitch will dictate how much you
[1:08:51] play and how much you don't play.
[1:08:53] Exactly right. It's a shift you already said
[1:08:58] it's a huge shift from the old hierarchy where you have an
[1:09:03] issues you start. Also worth remembering that
[1:09:06] Anchability was the only real coach that Vinicius got as he
[1:09:13] grew as a footballer. Like Zidane was there, but
[1:09:15] Zenicius was Vinicius Zenicius. OK.
[1:09:19] That's a new one. That's a good name.
[1:09:21] Vinicius was just a kid basically learning how to play
[1:09:25] in Europe at that time. Now, like he got his
[1:09:29] breakthrough with ancillary you got you got to see his level.
[1:09:34] Of course he feels robbed of a Balandor and best player in the
[1:09:39] world for that year. And he can tell you that I'm
[1:09:41] coming from that year. So that's all right into Venice,
[1:09:46] who's not feeling fully happy with this.
[1:09:50] But the coach is also on the right to feel to do what is the
[1:09:55] best for the team at that given moment.
[1:09:58] So we have to understand that both sides can be correct.
[1:10:02] Vinicius who was an androbable player and whole fit Vinicius
[1:10:06] would play and Angelotti would go like hey guys, Pasabo da Vini
[1:10:10] because he got it sorted to OK. That doesn't happen anymore.
[1:10:16] It's a bit different now. I have to just now it's not the
[1:10:20] same anymore. But I became the top player
[1:10:23] having that. So Vinnie might have a hard time
[1:10:27] swallowing the reality that has hit.
[1:10:31] Also worth remembering that Vinnie's playing for his
[1:10:33] contract. Vinnie deems that he should earn
[1:10:37] as much as the high right? So because he deems himself or
[1:10:43] he sees himself that good, that's an attitude that I like.
[1:10:47] Which, by the way, at his peak, he is that good, just to be
[1:10:51] clear. Right, but he needs to recover
[1:10:54] that. We saw glimpses of it most
[1:10:57] certainly personally didn't see body language issues on last
[1:11:01] game. You could see that and Bobby was
[1:11:03] trying to find him. Vini wasn't actually 4 similar
[1:11:06] shots like Rodrigo was against a Viego for example.
[1:11:11] Vini was still trying to play his game.
[1:11:13] Not everything was coming because again might not have
[1:11:16] been on the right headspace, he was just showing it less.
[1:11:20] But we're talking about the having Gaggy Vini, which we
[1:11:24] haven't got right. That player that just plays with
[1:11:27] a smile and rages at the referee when they're trying to break his
[1:11:30] ankles. I don't mean break his ankles as
[1:11:33] in Ripple bass him, but I. Literally yes.
[1:11:36] Break his ankles. Yes.
[1:11:38] So Alonzo, I think, might not have had the best approach when
[1:11:44] it comes to Vini because he should have still understood the
[1:11:49] importance that Vini has. But then again, you've seen like
[1:11:54] a player like him, Bobby, on his Instagram supporting him,
[1:11:58] showing comments, right? The player of that, I mean, at
[1:12:01] least from what I know, isn't notoriously known for posting on
[1:12:04] social media. He's not the player that fills
[1:12:06] the story daily or talks to the media every single day.
[1:12:09] He's not like that type of guy. So I mean, that's a flag that
[1:12:13] something might be going on there in Venie's head, but
[1:12:18] Alonzo should have probably just delivered it.
[1:12:22] As in this is where I'm seeing some of the problems and this is
[1:12:26] where I kind of want things to be fixed because I believe it.
[1:12:30] I mean, I wasn't there to listen to the conversation, right?
[1:12:33] I don't know here in the coast to say that Vinnie, I couldn't
[1:12:35] talk to Vinnie yesterday because he just seemed down.
[1:12:38] Because to me, it kind of feels like the opposite of Ancelotti
[1:12:41] is when you're down is when Ancelotti comes there and hooks
[1:12:44] you and. He and he puts the hand around.
[1:12:45] Yeah, yeah. So Alonzo seems to be more of
[1:12:50] like, well, everybody gets treated the same.
[1:12:53] It doesn't matter if you're having a good day or a bad day.
[1:12:55] We don't know that. Again, just assumption based on
[1:12:59] one word, which to be frank, I didn't hear him say because look
[1:13:04] written and sent. Oh yeah, completely different
[1:13:07] things. And that's the other thing,
[1:13:08] right? These are getting translated
[1:13:09] from Spanish to English, so something's probably get lost in
[1:13:12] the translation, who knows? The translation comes bad, comes
[1:13:16] across very badly in my opinion from him as a coach.
[1:13:23] But again, I don't think he delivered it that way.
[1:13:26] So I have my skepticism when it comes back.
[1:13:29] I just think that what Alonzo was trying to say is that
[1:13:31] yesterday wasn't his bad way. Today he felt much better and he
[1:13:35] feels super motivated to go forward.
[1:13:37] And the reality and the reality is, as much as we laud
[1:13:41] Chavialonzo for his pragmatism and his XS and OS and his
[1:13:44] tactical brilliance and all that is there, being a player and
[1:13:51] being a person with brilliant XS and OS is different from being a
[1:13:55] coach and a manager. And this is where Enceladi
[1:13:58] excelled, is that in his relationship to his players.
[1:14:02] And there is a way in which, yes, you don't treat every,
[1:14:06] every player gets treated equally, but not every play gets
[1:14:09] treated the same, right? There's a difference.
[1:14:11] I, I, I choose my words very carefully there.
[1:14:13] Everyone gets treated equally, but not the same, right?
[1:14:17] I will use an American sport example of the Dallas Cowboys at
[1:14:20] their heyday. Jimmy Johnson said this.
[1:14:23] Of course I don't treat Michael Irvin, their star wide receiver,
[1:14:26] the same way I treat the fourth string backup tackle, right?
[1:14:30] Like, yes, because one has an outsized level of importance to
[1:14:34] what we do versus the other. I don't treat the other one like
[1:14:37] shit. I treat the boat like human
[1:14:39] beings and equally, but not the same.
[1:14:42] And I think those little nuances are you don't wake up knowing
[1:14:46] how to do that. Some people do.
[1:14:47] But I think for most coaches, that's something you develop and
[1:14:50] build over time, right from your experiences and you learn.
[1:14:53] And as much as this is a learning experience for the
[1:14:56] players to chip to how they're playing, it's a learning
[1:14:58] experience for Chubby Alonzo too.
[1:14:59] And how do I deal with all of these different types of players
[1:15:02] and what they need? Exactly, he's played with these
[1:15:05] kind of level of players of course, but he has never coached
[1:15:10] this level of footballers like that's also worth mentioning
[1:15:14] what he did with Labra cousin became unknown.
[1:15:16] That's an over achievement correct?
[1:15:18] Like that's worth also not, but also in Labra cousin, we have
[1:15:23] lesser players. I mean, in terms of names.
[1:15:28] So you're more likely to be the boss and they're going to listen
[1:15:33] to you from A to the end of the alphabet.
[1:15:38] But in Madrid, it's going to work a little bit differently
[1:15:41] just to the point that you made. I'm sorry, but Gonzalo Garcia
[1:15:45] and Boba cannot be treated the same way in terms of on pitch
[1:15:49] and instructions, not of a pitch.
[1:15:52] Both are humans. You treat both, but when it
[1:15:57] comes to on the pitch, you emphasize more on this type of
[1:16:01] players. Now, do I think that we should
[1:16:03] all start on hating bandwagon and Java alone?
[1:16:07] So like we're saying it all over Twitter.
[1:16:10] It's just weird. Like it's not that the guy went
[1:16:13] like Vinnie, you're going to the B team and you're not going to
[1:16:16] see your place. He just went like Vinnie.
[1:16:19] You're not the most suitable guy for this game plan for this
[1:16:22] game. So I want Rodrigo to start
[1:16:25] right. Right.
[1:16:26] Yeah. That's a better assessment to
[1:16:28] me. Look, Vinnie responded
[1:16:29] positively against Oviedo. He did.
[1:16:32] Won the ball back, we won. He began 4th of the goal and of
[1:16:37] course he feels the want and need to be a starter 'cause he's
[1:16:45] a starter. But this can also be good.
[1:16:49] On the flip side, two months from now, Vinnie maybe has woken
[1:16:52] up, seen and gone. Like holy shit, I can even be
[1:16:55] better. I can even be better, just a
[1:17:00] little bit more. Let me earn this.
[1:17:02] Just another hurdle, right? Look, Vinnie has dealt with a
[1:17:06] lot of things. It's not the same as dealing
[1:17:08] with any other player. Like one of the most unfortunate
[1:17:12] to say, but I want to say globally hated players and I'll
[1:17:16] play this. It's blatant racism and that's
[1:17:20] the truth. And I think.
[1:17:22] And sit there and be like, I don't pay attention to this as
[1:17:24] much as he wants Beanie. We have heard it.
[1:17:27] We have seen things go to court and we've seen Vinnie cry in a
[1:17:32] press conference with what he's going to throw.
[1:17:35] We've seen him being judged because he's dancing like all
[1:17:38] the players on that. But let me just take you an
[1:17:40] example. I even saw this on Twitter.
[1:17:42] Luis Suarez spits on a coach. Literally spit in the face.
[1:17:46] Lionel Messi threatens A referee?
[1:17:49] Nothing. Simone goes against a fan on a
[1:17:52] challenge. Against Liverpool.
[1:17:54] Shrugged off Venice's complaints to the raft.
[1:17:56] Bro that's a tabloid story for a month.
[1:18:00] Like how are these? Look, there's there's always
[1:18:04] been racism in Spain. If somebody wants to deny it,
[1:18:08] well, you're just dumb because I've been watching Spanish
[1:18:11] football for way too long to have seen way too many cases of
[1:18:15] Spanish racism. That does exist, is inherently
[1:18:21] there, but the magnitude with Vinicius has definitely been
[1:18:26] different than with everybody else.
[1:18:28] And I think Lacante, because of that, that means Alonzo needs to
[1:18:33] treat him differently because of that.
[1:18:35] That needs to be taken into account when he's dealing with
[1:18:37] him. Look, he came on against Oviedo
[1:18:39] and he's being booed. Like we even played Oviedo in in
[1:18:42] the 8th division in what, 40 years?
[1:18:44] Like what? And Moreno was her coach last
[1:18:47] time they were in La Liga, you know, like, literally.
[1:18:51] And he's been booed. Like, what's the reason?
[1:18:57] Like, genuinely, if you were to ask one of the guys on the
[1:19:01] stand, why did you Boo him, that is going to say they hate him.
[1:19:05] Like he's done nothing to them personally.
[1:19:08] He's done nothing to anybody, really.
[1:19:10] But as I said, with Vini it extends because if the referees
[1:19:14] clear unfair treatment is the league itself clearly not
[1:19:18] backing it's player? It's still a player up who was
[1:19:21] by the way on a Balandor race and the league did nothing.
[1:19:26] So league doesn't to be honest, to a certain extent.
[1:19:32] Even so, the teammates have let him down sometimes I would say.
[1:19:37] I would go as far as saying that Angelotti, everybody was blaming
[1:19:43] him, never going like, oh, he needs to pull Vinnie away.
[1:19:46] But look, maybe Angelotti knew what the kid was going through
[1:19:49] and he just went like, OK, let him be.
[1:19:53] And maybe that's something that Alonzo just still hasn't
[1:19:57] grasped. Maybe.
[1:19:58] He will, yeah. And, and Angelotti's, that's his
[1:20:02] makeup, that's his temperament. He he understands that.
[1:20:05] That's, you know, and again, that's his years of experience.
[1:20:08] And you hear how Vinnie? And Rodrigo, those guys talk
[1:20:11] about Ancelotti in particular, and like, it's like they talk
[1:20:14] about like their dad, like they love him, like he's their
[1:20:16] father, right? Father figure, at very least
[1:20:18] from a human perspective, if not footballing wise.
[1:20:22] I mean, look, Ancelotti came with all of his flaws as a
[1:20:26] tactician. But I always said this, you
[1:20:29] can't be this successful without having your ingredients, right?
[1:20:33] And Ancelotti has his ingredients right.
[1:20:36] He's just different, right? That wasn't suitable for this
[1:20:40] club anymore to proceed forward and that's why the change was
[1:20:44] needed. It's not only because Access
[1:20:45] announced that we changed a coach, it's the whole systematic
[1:20:49] change that needed to happen into reshaping the club.
[1:20:52] Therefore, he was part of that change.
[1:20:55] But. One thing that Alonzo could
[1:20:58] learn or maybe give Antelope even a call, considered that
[1:21:01] Antelope used to be his coach. To ask him how did you handle
[1:21:07] these situations? I don't think there is always
[1:21:10] something wrong. He's very young coach.
[1:21:15] We seem to forget how young Alonzo is as a coach, like he's
[1:21:19] being a professional coach. This is entering his third full
[1:21:24] season. And I mean, he's only 43.
[1:21:27] I mean, he's super young. He's so young.
[1:21:29] Like usually in these years, coaches are still with the youth
[1:21:34] things or. Yeah.
[1:21:36] Maybe somewhere just trying to get some experience or maybe
[1:21:41] they were able to make a big bit.
[1:21:42] Of AI mean look at look at Raoul.
[1:21:46] Like Alonso has made huge dramatic changes very quick.
[1:21:52] I've always said didn't like how is Lanal used to play like the
[1:21:56] youth theme because my Ben needs to watch them for him because he
[1:21:59] always intrigued me on what type of coach he was going to be.
[1:22:03] His little cuisine turned out to be completely different.
[1:22:05] I I have that Zidane effect where the youth theme is just
[1:22:10] not already basically like even Zidane to a certain extent.
[1:22:17] We could say that had some flaws in player management, for
[1:22:20] example, like the bail situation wasn't handled the best
[1:22:24] possibly, or the Morata situation which led to him
[1:22:28] leaving like there are, or this Sabaya situation which led to
[1:22:32] him leaving the club completely. There are a lot of these are
[1:22:36] humans, right? But I don't like to say any
[1:22:40] important made mistakes. Ultimately, I would like to
[1:22:42] believe that both of them, Vinnie's going to realize that,
[1:22:45] hey, I made some errors, like my error came here, here, here,
[1:22:48] here, here. But I also do have the quality
[1:22:51] to do this, this, this. And I also recognizes that
[1:22:55] Vinnie's trying to improve upon these errors and Vinnie is
[1:23:00] giving him that advantageous spot.
[1:23:02] Because ultimately I have some bad news for Alonzo on this
[1:23:06] case, because if Mbappe, God forbid, goes down, you're going
[1:23:12] to have to rely heavily on Vinnies like you're relying on
[1:23:15] Club World Cup. So are you willing to down a
[1:23:21] hill that I'm going to treat everybody equally?
[1:23:24] Because I don't think you can not in a club of this status.
[1:23:27] I don't think you can treat everybody equally in terms of
[1:23:30] like on pitch, again, like what they're going to do, not as
[1:23:34] humans. I'm.
[1:23:35] Not seeing it, We listen. We will see how the situation
[1:23:38] plays out with time. Look before we go, we've almost
[1:23:40] gone 90 minutes folks. So thank you for tuning in.
[1:23:42] Oh, then Espanol tomorrow. Quick thoughts.
[1:23:47] Scary team, they got the right corners against Mayanka which
[1:23:53] huge, huge for us. Still scared of Harry Puedo,
[1:23:58] don't ask me why I hope we don't find out tomorrow but really
[1:24:03] scared of that. Good defense overall good team.
[1:24:06] That point Allen, shows their ability to replace players that
[1:24:09] they get rid of is truly remarkable and feels good to
[1:24:14] see. Like, not legendary team, but we
[1:24:18] can call them that if we will. But the final should be an
[1:24:21] established good La Liga team and feels good to see them on
[1:24:25] this level in the battling relegation again.
[1:24:30] It's a tough match or it would be the toughest we have had.
[1:24:33] I know that we are Sociedad, but that game is differently.
[1:24:37] I'm going to be honest. Yeah, yeah.
[1:24:39] So it is the toughest game of the season and I really want to
[1:24:45] see how this team is going to have a late, especially with no
[1:24:48] Dean. Probably some fatigue coming
[1:24:51] from the Champions League, but game.
[1:24:53] So yeah, literally on Tuesday, again before athlete.
[1:24:58] So many things have to go right tomorrow.
[1:25:01] That's that's what I'm looking forward to as well.
[1:25:02] What do they look like without Dean?
[1:25:07] This is coming off the Champions League match on on Tuesday,
[1:25:10] right? So four days, right?
[1:25:12] Short, short, short. Turn around and you know
[1:25:17] Benicius will play. What does that look like, you
[1:25:20] know? And again, what are the
[1:25:21] rotations and what their moves is Javi Alonzo going to make,
[1:25:24] keeping in mind that we have Levante again on, on, on or?
[1:25:28] On Tuesday, Tuesday. On Saturday, right before Carrot
[1:25:33] on the following Tuesday, so it's.
[1:25:36] Closing it off with, you know. Right, so this is it's it's a
[1:25:39] lot a lot of games in a short amount of time.
[1:25:41] We need guys to step up and really all roll in the same
[1:25:44] direction. Levante, it's been a pleasure as
[1:25:45] always. Thank you everybody for tuning
[1:25:48] in again, like comment, subscribe, share.
[1:25:51] Please drop questions and comments when we post this out
[1:25:55] for the next Friday show when we do more mailbag questions.
[1:25:58] And until next time. Oh yeah, we're also on app on
[1:26:00] Spotify, as I said, so if you want the audio only version,
[1:26:02] check us out there and follow us on all social media platforms.
[1:26:06] Until next time, everybody, take care.
[1:26:08] Bye.

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