# Rudiger Injury & Real Madrid Concerns After International Break

An episode of [The Real Deal: A Real Madrid Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1807821669), 13 Sep 2025, 1 h 06 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/103607aa8/podcast/play/108233680/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-8-13%2F407398841-44100-2-c403f348e83d1.mp3

Loconte and Jarod Hector discuss the Real Madrid news of the week, Antonio Rudiger's injury, major concerns after the international break, and what to expect from Xabi Alonso's boys tactically, physically and mentally going forward.

## Transcript

[1:03] Hello and welcome to The Real Deal, a Real Madrid podcast with
[1:06] me, Jerrod Hector, joined by my guy Lecante.
[1:09] What's up, Lecante? Yo, what's up?
[1:11] Been a while. It has been a while
[1:13] international break. Let me let you guys into a
[1:15] little bit of this behind the scenes and thank you all for
[1:18] tuning in live. By the way, Please remember to
[1:20] like this video, share it, subscribe to the channel so that
[1:23] you get all the updates of when we go live.
[1:25] And if you only want the audio version, you won't listen back
[1:27] to it later. We're also available on Apple
[1:29] podcast and Spotify. So, you know, we're coming out
[1:33] of the international break and I'm like Lecante, all right,
[1:35] we're doing to do the Friday shows now.
[1:36] I got some ideas, some interesting questions to ask you
[1:38] right. Everything's, you know, not
[1:41] necessarily like puppy dogs and ice cream, but I'm like, yeah,
[1:43] it's going to be a nice way to east back in.
[1:45] We got associate Dad Saturday or whatever.
[1:47] I go into our little private chat today and Lecante goes,
[1:49] yeah, bro, we're out three months.
[1:50] We got to talk about that first. I go, I'm sorry, what?
[1:53] What did you say happened? Who is out for what?
[1:56] And yes, here we are fucking Rudiger out for three months and
[2:00] Lecante. I look, injuries are not a maybe
[2:08] or a are they? Injuries are a certainty.
[2:11] So the only thing we don't know is who, when and how long, but
[2:15] they're going to happen that that's just how personal sports
[2:18] works. And sure enough, Antonio Rudiger
[2:21] is going to be out for three months.
[2:22] That is a large chunk of the season.
[2:24] He is Le Conte, our third choice Senior Center back.
[2:29] So right now that means people below him have to move up a slot
[2:33] and that creates a lot of problems.
[2:36] So let's first start with who and what are the available
[2:40] options for Chavi Alonzo to take the third spot as our starting
[2:45] as our as our third string center back?
[2:48] If this was the absolute era, then we could have just said
[2:51] Germany's going back to the center back, but that's not the
[2:54] case anymore. So it's a lot harder to digest
[2:58] on what's going to do. The issue with really are going
[3:00] it's not even his performances that they were good.
[3:03] You you have already mentioned that he was rushed back on
[3:06] football club. He came back way.
[3:08] Too early. Surgery, but the bigger problem
[3:12] was that he never looked himself again even last season like this
[3:16] is steaming from last season. Him playing the whole season
[3:19] endured his performance. Performances were not up to the
[3:23] par or up to the standard that we wanted them to be.
[3:26] But he still was the guy to ease newly Tao in who was somebody
[3:31] that Alonso spoke highly today on the press conference on his
[3:35] recovery on the fact that he's coming back from really two
[3:39] major injuries, being 2 AC LS in each of the knees, which is
[3:43] something remarkable that he's even playing this soon at this
[3:47] level. But Rudiger was that cushion to
[3:51] allow Militao to recover at the pace and now that's gone like
[3:56] ultimately. So now we're left with on the
[3:59] squad right now on the first team, not counting the Real
[4:03] Madrid Castilla, I would say you're left with two options
[4:07] really. You move Hoisen to right centre
[4:10] back and you play David Alloba or you trust essential to grow
[4:17] out the pains of mistakes that we have seen him make over and
[4:21] over and over again. Of course, there's Juan Martin,
[4:25] another ACL player who's just turning and coming back with
[4:30] these theme, so there's a lot of uncertainty when it comes to the
[4:35] center by position. Generally lots to unpack there.
[4:38] I wanna the the just for everybody to know that the
[4:41] Rudiger injury, it is tied to what he got injured for last
[4:46] season and it is the quadriceps and thigh area and you know
[4:49] anything about the quadriceps and thighs.
[4:50] That is a tricky area to manage. And when you rush back too soon,
[4:54] this is what you get. Lecante mentioned his he was not
[4:57] up to par last season 'cause he played injured all season.
[5:00] That is true. I would argue two seasons ago we
[5:02] won the double. You could make the argument
[5:04] Rudiger was among the best center backs in the world, if
[5:07] not right, at worst top three. And that is what we expected.
[5:12] But the problem is, and this is the now, the domino effect.
[5:15] When you play someone every match full 90s, plus his
[5:19] national team duties every match full 90s, this is the next
[5:23] logical conclusion. Injuries are going to happen.
[5:25] That player is now hurt. That player rushes themselves to
[5:28] come back. They hurt themselves again,
[5:31] right? And so who knows, 3 three months
[5:35] is probably optimistic and that already puts us in November,
[5:37] December. He's not going to be ready to be
[5:39] playing full 90s in the middle of Champions League and right?
[5:42] So not to mention it's a World Cup year, which he's going to
[5:46] want to play for. So he we mentioned what do we
[5:48] do? I agree with the Conte, Travia
[5:50] Alonzo is not going to drop Chuameni back into into center
[5:54] back because that is our one and only holding midfielder which we
[5:58] will get to later on in the show.
[6:02] So now to your point, it has to be Raul Asencio, someone who
[6:06] shall be clear doesn't trust because of the mistakes he's
[6:08] making. Well gonna have to start earning
[6:10] some trust and and and playing him.
[6:13] You also mentioned Militao, but here is the domino effect of
[6:16] that Militao himself as you mentioned coming off his own 2
[6:20] surgeries. So if you play him now because
[6:22] we have no choice more than you want to, what's going to happen
[6:26] to him? Same thing again.
[6:28] He's going to play too many minutes and then at the middle
[6:30] or end of the season he's going to get hurt and we're going to
[6:33] be even shorter at at center back.
[6:35] And not to mention, I know he's young, but it doesn't matter.
[6:39] Dean Hoisen has played every match for us full 90s.
[6:42] He's played every match for Spain full 90s.
[6:45] That is also a problem. Where is he going to get the
[6:47] rest from? So it's going to have to be
[6:50] trusting some Castilla players and it's going to have to be
[6:53] Aliba and Ascencia are going to have to get minutes.
[6:56] There's no other option. I mean, there's a wild card of
[7:00] caraul which we had some tendencies of going to when.
[7:05] Was also coming up without injuries, which?
[7:07] Which happened to us a lot by the way, Caraul played like
[7:10] against Chelsea in two thousand 2122 as a central back and Lucas
[7:13] was the right back for us to close that game out.
[7:16] So it's not out of ordinary really for us to see these
[7:22] things shift. But normally in most cases this
[7:25] like worst case scenario that could turn into a good scenario.
[7:30] Given Rudiger's performances even with Germany, like he did
[7:36] show on international Break that there's not a system problem,
[7:40] there's not a problem where he's struggling to fit in.
[7:42] This is a clear decline moment for it.
[7:46] He's not helping now. Does the injury tie up to
[7:50] Rudiger's personality a little bit?
[7:53] Rushing himself back, maybe not telling the medical staff that
[7:57] he he's feeling pain because he's eager to play?
[8:00] At least if we know Rudiger for one thing, we know that he's a
[8:03] warrior out there and just does not give up.
[8:05] Even against Barsa when he clearly popped like his muscles
[8:10] popped on that game, he was still pushing to play until like
[8:14] his body just holding. Dude, we can, I just can't
[8:18] anymore. And this could be his part of
[8:22] personality trait and that warrior side of the player that
[8:25] we signed, which could have come to hurt him, bite him, but
[8:32] ultimately it's a scored short on that position.
[8:35] Well, it's it's the blessing and the curse, right Lecante, often
[8:37] your greatest strength is often your greatest weakness.
[8:39] That warrior mentality which makes him so good, which we said
[8:42] two years ago, at worst, top three center back in the world.
[8:45] That same thing in that willing to die out.
[8:48] Their attitude is also what causes him too, right.
[8:51] Maybe I'm coming back sooner than I should.
[8:53] This is This is the king and the Yanks.
[8:55] It's also sad that all of this health went away from last
[8:59] season, which was a disoriented squad, a disoriented strategy,
[9:04] no real solution. And it was.
[9:08] It literally threw away the help of one of the key pieces of the
[9:13] team that won the Champions League because Brittiger was so
[9:16] good. He was key now so.
[9:19] You know, it's easy now to look back on last season and be like,
[9:23] you know, doable. Two seasons ago, if you told
[9:26] somebody that Rudiger is out, that would freak out because he
[9:31] was that damn good. Rudiger allowed an unbalanced
[9:36] team to look balance due to how many hello weeks he did as a
[9:40] defender in an unstable environment, I want to say at
[9:43] the very leaves defensively. So yeah, it's just of course
[9:49] that is having to go through this last season being like that
[9:53] catalyst of it makes it even worse.
[9:55] No trophies in the end, really no real results to show for just
[10:00] a team that was lost and the guy lost his health due to that.
[10:06] So I don't know how Javi is going to navigate through this
[10:11] because it's a very length injury.
[10:13] It's not an injury where you can just go like might come back to
[10:19] as in the case of somebody that we're going to talk later for
[10:21] June, right? That's shoulder surgery.
[10:24] It's very different. He's using a lot less of that
[10:27] muscle on a football field like you're like you're muscles.
[10:32] So it's not the same type of injury where you can have at
[10:35] least hopes that he comes back the same.
[10:37] As we've said, he's expected to be out for three months.
[10:41] Naturally you can account for because he's him back in rehab.
[10:47] We don't know how that's going to go because Madrid have not
[10:50] announced a date. The date is just based on the
[10:53] newspapers and what is really being said by the club, not
[10:59] officially, but to those journalists.
[11:01] So the club expects him to be out for three months, but the
[11:04] official statement says that, well, we're going to monitor how
[11:08] he he he's going to develop on the recovery.
[11:12] And the, you know, the three months to your point, let's even
[11:16] if that's optimistic, setbacks happen in recovery.
[11:19] That happened to a player we're going to talk about shortly on
[11:22] this squad, right, just recently.
[11:24] So look, we know that Madrid typically does not like to make
[11:28] January transfer moves. That's just not the club's
[11:31] stated position usually. Do you think because of Chubby's
[11:35] influence that he's going to say, look, man, I, I yeah, we
[11:38] got Castilla, guys, we got A and not necessarily I cannot hear
[11:41] anybody big, but we got to do something.
[11:44] I need another able body who can be up here at the senior level.
[11:50] I would like if I said that I could see the club being like,
[11:54] yes, here she was signing. I think that that that's it.
[11:58] The they had an opportunity with Conata probably, but as we had
[12:03] spoken, if Rodrigo doesn't get sold then no more moves were
[12:06] going to happen. Just knowing how the club
[12:09] operates, that didn't happen. Rodrigo has not been moved in
[12:12] January either, I wouldn't expect so it would be a real
[12:15] shock if he gets moved. Therefore then you're going to
[12:20] what centre back are we going to sign?
[12:21] Is that centre back going to really be an upgrade over what
[12:24] we currently have at the club? Top clubs aren't going to want
[12:29] to negotiate with you for their players.
[12:31] Like we could say somebody like Ibrahim Akonati for example, who
[12:34] is already very clearly heading to Madrid next summer on a free
[12:39] transfer. You could go to Liverpool and be
[12:41] like, hey, look, six months before here's 2025 million.
[12:45] I want to sign it now because he will be a starter slash a key
[12:50] piece for the team. But is that realistically going
[12:54] to happen now? I think that that that set of
[12:56] this and they're pretty much just gonna tell them we're
[12:59] paying you the wages. You have this contract, it's now
[13:02] up to you to solve it. A name that someone dropped in
[13:06] the chat Grace Kelmich Mark Gahey option for for January.
[13:10] I know his name was mentioned was mentioned around from
[13:12] Crystal Palace over the. Summer too expensive first not
[13:20] on the club's radar 2nd and 3rd Gehi would probably have to move
[13:26] to Liverpool so they could facilitate Conata to Madrid like
[13:30] that's kind of because the deal collapsed with gay.
[13:33] I think that Liverpool's plan was, OK, we're going to sign Gay
[13:36] bench Conata, just tell him that, you know, here's your
[13:39] replacement said that if you want to go for free or Conata
[13:42] would have been available in January.
[13:44] Again, I still don't know. But I don't see the club paying
[13:48] money in January unless the team looks far and above the best in
[13:53] the world, which is not out of realm of possibilities given the
[13:57] group and the players. But they would have just to draw
[14:01] the lines, right? Lakers, for example, they're
[14:05] saying they're going to be aggressive, but they're also
[14:07] going to monitor where they are on the standings in basketball.
[14:11] I'm not just going to throw all the chips at Andrew Wiggins as
[14:14] example. Who's the player that's linked
[14:17] to them? Like Wiggins is basically Konati
[14:19] from Madrid. If we really want to put the
[14:21] role, he's a needed player. Everybody can tell that he's a
[14:25] needed player to complete the piece of the puzzle, but it's
[14:29] about the timing. It's about are we willing to
[14:32] sacrifice these assets that we have right now or are we going
[14:37] to navigate with the things better later on?
[14:41] For example, if Lakers are not successful on this period from
[14:45] NBA start to the trading deadline and they're not going
[14:48] to move for any player really, and they're going to preserve
[14:51] their assets and go again next year.
[14:53] Madrid on this case, we'd have to look above and beyond the
[14:57] best club. It's not just about competing
[14:59] here because Madrid, unlike Lakers, are kind of seen as
[15:03] cream of the crop at the moment. Like they're not the we're
[15:07] competing for the fourth seed. Well, we're competing to win the
[15:10] Champions League. Right 4th.
[15:12] Club so for Madrid they would genuinely have to see a golden
[15:17] opportunity to move for the for the transfer.
[15:20] So I I'm not really positive on. That yeah, I think the, the,
[15:24] the, if you want to call it the silver lining is we get to see
[15:29] and Chabi has not been shy about this saying that he would work
[15:32] more with Castillo. You we know his best friend's
[15:34] coaching the squad now we're gonna see Juan Martinez, we're
[15:37] gonna see Aguado. We're we're gonna see these guys
[15:40] come up. That, that that is the only
[15:42] option we have, right. We're not gonna go out and get
[15:45] anybody who exists within our system that we can bring up and
[15:48] call up to the big show. And that's, I, I, I think that's
[15:52] gonna be the route they're gonna go.
[15:53] And maybe we'll look. Remember, guys, last year it
[15:55] worked, right? Angelotti had no choice.
[15:56] He was forced to, in a sense, he'll look great for about, I
[15:59] don't know, 6-7 months, right? So maybe you catch lightning in
[16:02] a bottle again. And we have.
[16:03] Someone look great because also like we were so vulnerable and
[16:08] the fact that anything good that happened there was just going to
[16:12] look like I'm presently good. So so look, I don't want to say
[16:17] that to people that lose all the hope because we're the gun is
[16:20] gone. You know, since he's young, he's
[16:23] on the first year with the first team and there are growing
[16:28] pains, which were the mistakes. We don't know how much he's
[16:31] learned because he hasn't seen a minute since That's not a good
[16:34] sign overall because he hasn't seen a minute.
[16:38] But also we have to remember that our games are have been
[16:41] pretty tight on margins and football being a low scoring
[16:45] sport, the coaches will not always take the bold decision to
[16:50] just bring guys in that could be picking bombs.
[16:53] But Essential might play on the Champions League the next this
[16:58] next midweek and he might look great and that's your spot.
[17:03] Or maybe one more team. Yes, in the ACL, we don't know.
[17:06] But Angelotti trusted him on the first pre season game.
[17:10] Somethings in my eyes because Angelotti is not at first his
[17:13] youngster type of coach. He would rather as we spoke like
[17:17] 12 minutes under back than play any other youngster.
[17:21] So with that guy getting that opportunity, there were
[17:24] definitely some things that he has seen to believe in him being
[17:30] able to grow. Like the kid was 17.
[17:32] I think he's 18 years. Yeah.
[17:34] So we have to see how he develops.
[17:37] Like I don't have hopes for all of our.
[17:40] We spoke before the international break.
[17:43] He. Did not look good for Austria.
[17:45] He's actually good, but he didn't look.
[17:51] But maybe, maybe that's the start of him knocking off some
[17:54] rust and maybe some more minutes in games we have in hand will
[17:59] help him get a little bit better and a little, and then maybe by
[18:02] November we can start to count on him.
[18:04] Maybe, I don't know. Given the schedule, it's very
[18:08] hard to count on a guy that might be on and off because of
[18:12] the age and the injuries and I think that it was unfortunate
[18:15] events that I was praying kinda Inzaghi would take him to all he
[18:19] loved do to do to that three at back and he would have been like
[18:22] a perfect left center back for him and Hoisen on my books
[18:25] leading to the season all about was his replacement on paper in
[18:31] terms of ball playing and just dominant.
[18:36] But now we're running into troubles because mitigating
[18:40] Millitaus minutes is a mouse, but also we can keep playing
[18:44] Dean Hoyson every single minute of every single game.
[18:47] This is the break. Yep.
[18:49] This is the domino effect that I talked about.
[18:51] This is it. It's not just Rudiger that's the
[18:53] problem. It is now Millitaus gonna have
[18:54] to play more than he wants to. It's now Hausen is gonna have to
[18:56] play more than he wants to. And by the way, shout out to
[18:58] that YouTube who's told us Dean told you how to pronounce it.
[19:01] It's Hausen. Dean Hausen, so we don't want
[19:05] him playing that much. And we already said Alibo, we
[19:07] don't know, right. So it it creates this situation
[19:10] where by now we are forced to do things we may not want to do.
[19:13] Look, Ascencio's young, he's made mistakes.
[19:16] We know that. But it's going to have to be a
[19:18] man. We got to figure out a way to
[19:19] mitigate that because you have to play right Like we we need
[19:22] you and we need you to be better than you have been towards the
[19:25] end of last season and during the Club World Cup.
[19:27] We'll see. We'll we'll see what happens.
[19:29] I want to stay on these players, Lecante, who play a ton of
[19:33] minutes for us and play a ton of minutes for their national
[19:36] teams, Arte Guler, Aurelian, True Many, Feta, Val Verde, we
[19:40] mentioned Deanhausen. All of these players have played
[19:43] every single minute for Madrid and they played just about every
[19:46] full 90 for their their clubs or for their national teams.
[19:49] The only one who didn't play a full 90 in the second match was
[19:51] True Many 'cause he got a red card.
[19:52] And I wonder, did he get that red card to get himself some
[19:55] forced rest? Because Jesus, when, when are
[19:59] any of these guys, when are any of these guys going to get rest?
[20:03] Who can where? Where do you see?
[20:05] That's the question I have for you.
[20:06] Where do you see any of the players I mentioned getting any
[20:09] rest? This is going to sound crazy,
[20:11] but it's a chance. Like literally, it's going to
[20:14] sound crazy, but it's a chance. Like we start with Marseille,
[20:18] All respects to them. But you can play the main guys
[20:21] there. You can play Mbappe, you can
[20:23] play or die. You can we'll, we'll get into
[20:28] those. But sure, many would have been a
[20:30] golden opportunity to rest housing.
[20:32] Carrera's probably getting some rest too, even though Carrera's
[20:36] didn't go with the national team, thankfully.
[20:38] Listen, here's somebody that you have to be careful with too.
[20:43] And we got lucky with Trent. Carval just got a trip with this
[20:48] vein. I don't know why he got called
[20:50] up. Like it was kind of like a
[20:52] petty, I don't want to leave him on your training ground.
[20:55] Why do that? But.
[20:59] Well, we know why? Because he's because he's anti
[21:00] Real Madrid. We know, we know.
[21:04] But for the most part, right, like the defense is just very
[21:09] thin. It looked from the beginning.
[21:11] It's thinner about the midfield. I know that we have spoken about
[21:15] the midfield a lot. The defense was always thinner,
[21:19] always look we got did we get lucky with Carole looking the
[21:22] way? Oh, he does, yes, but that's
[21:24] lucky. I wouldn't say that that's
[21:27] something that's very normal at at the very least that's how I
[21:31] say it because Carl came back and he just looks ready a
[21:35] sorter. That's another normal given his
[21:37] age, injury, mileage, so. That that'll that'll be helpful
[21:42] for us in terms of a Trent and Carville Hall rotation.
[21:45] So that's nice. We have no date on on Mendy yet,
[21:48] so we don't know. But we have Fran Fran's healthy
[21:50] so we can get Fran in there. I think you're right.
[21:51] Marseille is a team that we should be able to beat without
[21:54] our main guys and get 3 points. Now the question is, let's go to
[21:59] Chew and many. He would have someone been
[22:01] someone who got in rest because Eduardo Camavingo was set to be
[22:04] back this Saturday against we have associated.
[22:07] However, he suffered a set back in in his recovery and he is now
[22:11] not ready for Saturday versus associated dad.
[22:13] And again he will. Confirm today that he's on the
[22:16] same page as June. Oh wait, mean mean recovery
[22:20] timeline? Yes.
[22:21] Oh wow, he's on. The same page as June, even.
[22:24] Further back because he's supposed to be back tomorrow,
[22:27] which is the 12th. June's not back till October.
[22:29] That's another month away. I mean, we don't know because
[22:33] Jude is training with the team already, so Jude's timeline
[22:37] might be a little bit like. Well, OK, I know he wants to,
[22:41] but I think the team is not going to rush him, right?
[22:42] They're probably like this. We can't afford any.
[22:46] There's an interpretation to alone those words, right?
[22:49] Him saying come on in and Jude are basically on the same track
[22:53] doesn't necessarily mean that Jude comes back and coming is
[22:57] they're playing with him. What that means is that when
[22:59] they're fit, they're fit together.
[23:02] Therefore, do they rush Jude given the rust, given the lack
[23:06] of everything really that's come with him?
[23:09] Well, maybe not. And Jude takes a game or two
[23:13] more of a rest than Kaminga, but the pace is rather similar.
[23:17] What I think that's my theory, is that Aloha is treating all of
[23:22] these sorry guys, but absolutely has kind of ruined the physical,
[23:28] physical levels. Like that's the truth here.
[23:32] Like we're here in Vinicius, he just had the best training
[23:35] session in years. What's coming?
[23:39] Therefore, you kind of know that the training level before just
[23:43] wasn't up to the standard. So what I think Alonzo is doing
[23:46] here is basically trying to rehab every single little player
[23:50] on the team that has issues. Like Andrew got injured while a
[23:54] leader last season was alone. He hasn't been training with the
[23:58] group since. So this is a rehab for me.
[24:02] This is more like, okay, I need to squeeze up results while
[24:07] making sure that once these guys are back, they're back for real
[24:10] and they're not back to go away again.
[24:14] It's kind of saying that's what Rudiger was.
[24:16] Rudiger might have been an even bigger lesson.
[24:18] I think that they knew that some of the things were happening
[24:21] with him, but not to this extent, clearly.
[24:25] But Kamalinga feels like a rehab stage where, OK, we need to get
[24:31] everything right. What's bugging you?
[24:33] Let's work together. Let's see.
[24:35] OK, Pain here. We're going to fix that pain
[24:38] there. We're going to fix that.
[24:39] You're not going on the pitch without being fully healthy by
[24:44] that point, though, you can now remove the OK minutes mileage
[24:49] excuse. Not it's not an excuse, but I
[24:51] don't know. What word do you really use?
[24:53] No, you don't have a mileage anymore on your legs.
[24:56] We recovered you fully, so now we expect you to get up to the
[25:00] gear. Then coming and training with
[25:02] the group is a good sign because that means Alonso wants them
[25:05] integrated with the tactical schemes and what he wants them
[25:08] to do doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to play, it
[25:11] just means that Alonso is gearing them up tactically for
[25:15] what the team is going to do. One of the.
[25:18] Fully Healthy is going through the same process.
[25:21] Yeah. One of the big things to watch
[25:23] is as we mentioned this period right now that we're in after
[25:27] coming out of the international break, we have seven matches in
[25:31] 21 days, right? That is basically a match every
[25:35] three days we're playing, right that that's just it is a lot of
[25:38] football. And so the rest is going to be
[25:40] key so that guys don't break. Now one of our big problems is,
[25:44] is that one of our biggest matches at Letty's on the 27th
[25:48] and what you don't want, I see people that Grace coming to the
[25:51] chat asking we need you for let it go.
[25:53] I'm sure we need to come, I think for let it go.
[25:54] I agree, but you cannot bring those guys back for their first
[25:58] match against opposition being that game.
[26:01] That can't be game one. You need a ramp up before an
[26:04] intense game like that and I don't know there's going to be
[26:06] enough time for them to get the ramp up in a match before that.
[26:10] Normally you would have hoped that would have been Marseille
[26:14] right that game back. Or Sociedad this weekend for
[26:17] Cama Vinga, right? Which it was.
[26:18] Supposed to be that was actually looked to be Cama Vinga.
[26:21] They just went like, OK, he's injured, he doesn't go with
[26:24] French national team to spend 10 days there and play 10 minutes.
[26:28] So we're keeping him. He's unfit.
[26:32] But again, doesn't look like he has fully recovered that no
[26:37] person could come on in the play against Marseille.
[26:39] Maybe we don't know because he's those timelines are a little bit
[26:44] more skewed. It's much harder to read now
[26:47] with Alonzo than it was with Ancelotti.
[26:49] Once these guys were back with the group, you just knew that
[26:51] they were going to be on the squad next game.
[26:53] For the past two days we have gotten pictures of Juled with
[26:56] the team, Kamalinga with the team, and normally, as we're
[27:01] used to, you assume that there at least Kamalinga was going to
[27:04] be with the team on Sociedad. 10 minutes, maybe 5.
[27:11] Just get there, get you running a little bit, get your field for
[27:14] the ball, get the ball and just see how it is again.
[27:18] But no, he's up and we added Riddler to lingerie list on top
[27:24] of everything else in the squad. Even further so.
[27:29] We, we, we mentioned those players Lecante Arta Chuomeni
[27:34] house in Valverde. Now you and I talked about on
[27:38] previous show that there there is no like for like
[27:41] substitution, right? We don't that just doesn't
[27:42] exist. So with that being said, how the
[27:47] way I see it is that if Chavez going to rotate, that just means
[27:51] that it's going to look the squad is going to look a little
[27:53] different, right? That's all just because the
[27:55] profiles aren't we don't have any like for like substitutions.
[27:58] So assuming a world where Camo Vinga is healthy, Jews healthy,
[28:01] whatever, right? Like if you being healthy, is
[28:04] that where you get Arda to get a rest?
[28:07] If Camo Vinga is healthy, is that where you get Chewameni to
[28:09] get a rest? Like is that those?
[28:11] And we have a player who has been training with the first
[28:15] team since I want to say the beginning of the season.
[28:17] He hasn't played the game yet from Castilla, and that's Thiago
[28:20] Patarge. I don't know if he's not ready
[28:23] or what, but again, we're not going to go find some magical
[28:26] midfielder and create them from dust.
[28:28] We just, we have who we have. So is that someone who can play?
[28:32] And we got to figure out, OK, we're going to look a little
[28:34] different than how we look with these guys in.
[28:36] It's hard to say, right? It's just hard to say.
[28:39] He's turning to survives. That's a reality.
[28:42] Every closing game. He's turning to survives.
[28:46] Think like for like, if you're not playing Volverde and Trawani
[28:51] in one game, let's say Marseille, right?
[28:53] Let's just say in a perfect world, Kamaminga is fit for
[28:58] Marseille. He can start all of that.
[29:01] Kamaminga on this startup is really a Volverde replacement.
[29:05] He's not natural. As you said, there's no like for
[29:08] like there isn't going to be a second Volverde, but he's the
[29:11] player to give Volverde the rest, but who can also play
[29:14] alongside Volverde. So Kamalinga should be that guy.
[29:19] Naturally, Chomini has taken more of a role of like a leader,
[29:23] a mover, a player that kind of dictates without really having
[29:27] the ball because he's moving on the way how the team wants to
[29:32] move. He moves high up.
[29:33] You see a very high line, he's dropping down.
[29:36] You see the lines are getting closer to one another because
[29:39] that's how Alonzo has instructed the team.
[29:41] So with that, naturally the most feel bad for saying this, but
[29:46] tactically astute midfielder that there is a Sebas.
[29:50] So normally you would pair Sebayos and Kamalinga, Tommy,
[29:54] and you would make up with it with a more athletic team, which
[29:58] would kind of mean like Franco and Jude.
[30:01] And then you would get an MOP and Vini probably to have the
[30:04] highest level possible of athletism to make up for some of
[30:08] the shortcomings that are going to come with that sort of line
[30:12] up. Yeah, but you need to cover all
[30:14] the base, right? Normally you don't rotate the
[30:17] whole 11, right? Immediately you want player for
[30:20] player. But again, we're facing the
[30:22] issue. We've already played 180 minutes
[30:25] with Uruguay and he's the guy that has suffered the most
[30:29] because not only that did he look sluggish on the opening
[30:33] games coming from that injury back to playing every minute or
[30:38] close to every minute. He then travels the most to
[30:42] South America to play 180 minutes as the worst part of
[30:51] this all with Uruguay is that he's coaches.
[30:54] Marcelo Biels known for abusing players physically?
[31:00] No, like if there is something that he's known for is the fact
[31:04] that he abuses players physically.
[31:08] He's very run, run, run, run type of coach.
[31:12] And we mentioned with Rudiger how his blessing and his curse
[31:16] is his warrior mentality. It's similar for Fete, right?
[31:19] Fete is he is every coach's dream.
[31:22] Because he will never tell you no.
[31:24] Yes, coach, whatever you want, I'm doing it as opposed to, you
[31:27] know, I'm not. I'm exhausted.
[31:28] Yeah. I I need a rest.
[31:29] He will never can. Rest this game.
[31:32] Maybe it would be good for my health, the lovers of that.
[31:34] Yeah, he will never say that. Yes, so again, like it's 80th
[31:40] minute of our last La Liga game and yes, Mayorca, I was really
[31:43] watching it and it's well, very depressing and winning the ball
[31:47] leading a such hands. Yes, his performances overall
[31:52] have left a lot to be desired, but it's also worth
[31:56] acknowledging just how important he is to this team and his
[32:01] profile is in general and how rare it is to give.
[32:05] So if you lose Valverde for an extended period of time, and for
[32:10] me, an extended period of time with Valverde is like 2 weeks
[32:14] and that's too much. So how are you going to mitigate
[32:20] that in a better short squad? Because the only real profile on
[32:25] the team that can replace him with Kamalinka and Kamalinka's
[32:27] not fit. So you can get that order become
[32:31] very important for us and and obviously for Turkey all the
[32:36] minutes available. Sure did.
[32:38] Bapet, all the minutes available.
[32:43] We are. I mean, with Bapet, I was having
[32:47] a discussion with another coach the other day and he was like,
[32:51] yeah, Bapet is not getting any rest.
[32:52] I went like, there are games every 30 days.
[32:54] He has to. And I actually had forgotten
[32:58] that Gonzalo Garcia had also gone with the national team.
[33:01] But. Under under 20s.
[33:03] And I'm like, holy. So this one was pretty much had
[33:07] only Rodrigo and Vinicius on the attack and players chilling.
[33:13] All the rest were on international duties, of course.
[33:17] Is it beautiful that we got Vinicius on like a two weeks
[33:20] break? Yes, Like sign me up for that
[33:23] even more. That's not going to be a common
[33:25] occurrence anyway. He's just like once because he
[33:28] was suspended. Like, let's make things right
[33:30] now. Yeah, I know that we want to
[33:32] make it into Angelotti did us a favor.
[33:35] But no, Vinnie was suspended. It was.
[33:38] It was an indirect favor. We'll take it right because it
[33:40] was. Like Vinnie.
[33:43] Militao, Rodrigo, All the Brazilians, you left them at
[33:46] home, which is great for them. Yeah, but you can see from the
[33:49] squad, right? They're qualified.
[33:52] He had already made that promise of using the Brazilians from the
[33:55] Brazilian league, so he wanted to test these guys out.
[33:59] This was just one time thing that's not really going to be
[34:04] repeated. So you're saying they will be
[34:06] called next break? They all.
[34:07] Of them, I mean, I was already called it out.
[34:09] He went like, well, makes sense because he said Millitao came
[34:12] back from a big injury. So Alonzo is Angelotti is
[34:17] definitely testing out the options and Rodrigo is just
[34:21] coming back to form. Therefore, what he alluded to
[34:24] was there were more Brazilian attackers in form than him that
[34:28] deserved to be ahead. And with Venicius, Venicius was
[34:31] suspended like it was not any favour rather than it was just a
[34:35] cautionary decision for Angelotti knowing how to take
[34:39] the team forward, thinking about the World Cup next year.
[34:42] So let's talk about let's talk about Vinicius Lecante.
[34:44] You mentioned that during this time off he got rest Jabi get
[34:49] the players up about four or five days off.
[34:51] He saw a picture of Jude was on some yachting, I don't know,
[34:53] some fancy plays and guys had a break, right?
[34:58] Vinny was off too, but he also got a lot of one-on-one
[35:01] attention with Jabi during this break.
[35:04] What do you know about that and what do you think that means for
[35:07] Vinicius going forward? I mean from the reports, what's
[35:11] really out there right now as it currently stands is that this
[35:14] was the best that Venetius has been in a long while.
[35:18] So in a long while that pretty much means since 2 thousand 2122
[35:22] given the minute mileage and the lack of rest and him dealing
[35:26] with those niggling hamstring injuries that came due to the
[35:30] minutes load and the carry load that he had to do throughout
[35:33] that process. So normally this is where also
[35:37] something very important there was the fact that he feels sworn
[35:40] mentally at pace. It's not just physically it's
[35:43] better. He feels more at peace mentally,
[35:45] which is huge, right. We got the good Vinicius on the
[35:49] first three games, not on the first one, but on the second one
[35:52] came off the bench goal assessed.
[35:54] Third one, again, he just does Vinicius things right on both in
[35:59] two goals. He won the ball back and he was
[36:02] pressing, he was doing all of that, but there still was
[36:05] something missing, right? We could tell it.
[36:07] It felt kind of like the joy of the game just wasn't there for
[36:11] him at all times. That's not the player.
[36:13] Let me know. I want that wild up player.
[36:17] Not in a bad way. I want the guy that goes to the
[36:20] fans and just tell them start cheering, scores a goal.
[36:25] He showed up and points on the badge dances when he scores.
[36:30] I want that Joey from Benicius again and the reports are that
[36:36] he's back on that. It's more of like maybe
[36:40] probably. I imagine that had sit downs
[36:43] with a coach and they have just talked about the role, the
[36:46] understanding, knowing what needs to be done, what does it
[36:50] need to be done. Keep in mind this is now taking
[36:52] Benicius completely. Off.
[36:55] He's like one of the highest suffering players and I had him
[36:59] to be like the most improved in terms of like the player that's
[37:03] going to find the most and benefit the most from Alonzo.
[37:06] But he was going to be the player to have the hardest role
[37:09] because not everything is running through him anymore.
[37:12] It's more of like a team coordinated thing.
[37:14] So he has to adjust to that. He has to adjust to the team, he
[37:17] has to adjust to the pace. And all of these things need to
[37:20] come with a sense of good physical levels because well,
[37:24] when the body's gone, mind is kind of gone too.
[37:26] You know that saying fatigue leads to bad decisions?
[37:32] Fatigue being gone important 14 days of pre season for for him.
[37:38] Last season he came back very late for like 2 games and found
[37:42] very rusty. And then of course, the, the,
[37:44] the disappointment of the Balandur, right?
[37:46] Like that, that put a, a mental strain for sure, right.
[37:49] So it's, it's, it's everything all at once, right?
[37:52] And then I think, yeah, of course, but yeah, which which
[37:56] never goes away, right? That's every week at every
[37:58] stadium, right away. Stadium, right?
[38:00] He's coming onto the pitch and they're booing him.
[38:03] You haven't been on the top flight since 2012.
[38:07] Venice was a kid there. You were on the brink of
[38:11] bankruptcy, literally. Like what are we doing here?
[38:14] Like. For real.
[38:16] Like, you know, it's the sort of level that we should probably
[38:20] talk also about. The Embopis interview after the
[38:23] French national team game is very important.
[38:26] Football is a very cruel sport and Venisus is kind of like the
[38:29] front runner of how cruel the sport can be.
[38:32] Yeah, for sure. Dealing with racism?
[38:35] Yeah. Dealing with all of that hate.
[38:37] What he deals with on a weekly basis around La Liga
[38:41] specifically is just how he manages it.
[38:44] Like he is mentally stronger than I mean, that is they'd be
[38:48] able to tune that out and be like, all right, I'm going to
[38:50] score. Shut you guys up.
[38:51] Like it's it's incredible. Because you see, I mean, you
[38:54] have to look hard. You can hear them.
[38:56] And when the cameras occasionally pans, you can see
[38:58] the ultra section. You can see the vitriol with
[39:01] which these people are are going at Minnie.
[39:03] And it's it, it, it is a lot, man.
[39:05] It is a lot. You mentioned that in terms of
[39:08] rotation that Marseille is a likely game because we should
[39:12] beat Marseille, right? I will say Sociedad is not
[39:16] really on form, but it OK. All right.
[39:21] Tell, tell us more. Tell us more.
[39:23] So basically like Sociedad, definitely like new coach
[39:27] adjusting, have lost Zubi Mandi, that kind of that rebuild stage
[39:32] of yes, we can do without Europe this season.
[39:36] So getting three points week in and out, it's not really a goal
[39:39] for them. Lost Merino year before then
[39:42] Zubi Mandi. They're probably going to lose
[39:44] Google if things continue this way.
[39:47] Bryce Mendez is is on the list to be lost as things go right?
[39:51] Given their La Liga structural wages, they're probably going to
[39:55] rebuild rebuild more right now and they're going to even have
[39:59] to nail the coach, which we don't know if they have or not.
[40:02] From the performances. No, but we don't know how
[40:05] they're internally fit. But that being said, there are
[40:09] stadiums in La Liga especially where.
[40:13] You just don't want to play right?
[40:15] It's just El Sador, it's a Noetta.
[40:20] It's there are way too many that are very tricky, which I would
[40:25] have to name one by one, right? And I would rather play in
[40:30] Barcelona way. Some of the stadiums like that's
[40:35] more real stance because teams like Celta when we beat them
[40:40] away or San Mamas when we beat like the club.
[40:45] Those are the stadiums that I really don't want to go.
[40:48] I know the Sevilla are not good, but still the idea of playing at
[40:52] Sanchez Pajuan has a mental toll on me and I believe the players
[40:57] because historically it's a hard club.
[41:00] Valencia can be fit for the whole season and just turn up
[41:03] for that game at Messiah and just beat, which happened to us.
[41:08] We don't really know. Like if it's a plot like Girona,
[41:11] they have an impeccable season just two years ago, now on brink
[41:16] of relegation, looking the most likely to be a relegated thing.
[41:19] Like that's not the stadium where you go away and you're
[41:21] like, oh, we're back here. But if you put that in Malta, it
[41:24] doesn't matter what's going on. You don't want it.
[41:27] You want to avoid that, so you take it with 100% of focus.
[41:31] So if I have to pick a game in which I'm rotating and I'm
[41:36] giving players rest is definitely not say I think that
[41:39] the new Champions League format, I don't really like it gives you
[41:42] time to recover, gives you just enough time, even if something
[41:46] goes wrong, gives you just enough to recover to make it to
[41:50] that top 8 so you don't have to play those playing games.
[41:53] I guess they're calling them. Yeah, yeah, the playoffs.
[41:57] But we still made the quarterfinals right?
[42:00] Beat Syrian away. It's not that Champions League
[42:03] games now, especially in groups. Do we call this a group stage?
[42:07] What? No league.
[42:08] It's the league. It's the league.
[42:09] Phase the league. Yeah, the league phase, right,
[42:13] It's just off all over the place.
[42:16] Too many games being added, too much travelling.
[42:20] By the way, we travel 1000 miles I believe before we play
[42:24] athlete. Too much travelling being added,
[42:27] too many teams that no disrespect, but shouldn't we be
[42:31] there? They're just there as
[42:33] participants that I feel bad for, and it's great that I get a
[42:40] chance to make more money, but it's coming at the.
[42:42] Expense of the players. Having more travel, all of this
[42:48] for me, I most certainly agree with the fact that Champions
[42:52] League right now, at least before the international break,
[42:55] where we stand right now and then it with that Lady is where
[42:58] the rest of the players. And that's and that first mesh
[43:01] of the league phase is against Marseille at home, right?
[43:04] That's to burn about. So you know, to look at this
[43:07] point like a whole match against a a French side, Leon, of
[43:11] course, they're in a top flight, right?
[43:15] That should be a squad that again, you don't, you take no
[43:17] opponent lightly because you see what happened.
[43:19] You take them lightly, you will lose because as as we know,
[43:22] Madrid is the is the biggest, the biggest match on every clubs
[43:27] list every year. I don't care what they say, Real
[43:30] Madrid on their calendar, that is the biggest match of the
[43:32] season for them and so we get typically everyone's best shot.
[43:36] Right. And so they they they play
[43:38] tonight what I saw before we went live there winning three
[43:42] nil. I would assume that there were
[43:44] quite a few substitutions. So they have a day rest
[43:49] immediately and they they were playing at home.
[43:53] We play away. It's just we have Rodrigo now,
[43:59] right? For all the flags that I've
[44:01] given Rodrigo, I think he will be a useful part going forward.
[44:07] I just didn't agree with the notion that he was going to be a
[44:10] starter. But because he's here, he now
[44:13] has to throw his talent. He now has to throw that.
[44:15] He's made more like gap on the waiting room.
[44:20] Lift a little bit, get stronger. Just give up on that gimmick
[44:24] that you're quick, get stronger, bulk up, use your technical
[44:30] skills than not going away. If you have a little tiny bit
[44:33] more muscles, you can be shrugged off that easily.
[44:37] Work on that. This is your perfect opportunity
[44:39] really, because you're not essentially a starter.
[44:42] You're more of like, OK, Benicius needs to rest, I go in.
[44:45] Bobbin needs to rest, I go in. Because he feels that profile
[44:48] role that would naturally make sense to have unfilled.
[44:52] So Rodrigo is at the process where he has to transcend as a
[44:57] player if he wants to remain at the club longer term, if that's
[45:00] his goal. So he's somebody that you call
[45:04] upon immediately against Marseille, he's probably your
[45:06] first name on the team sheet. And then you jiggle between
[45:09] profiles who fits normally. You probably start that game
[45:13] with three attacks. You give Gonzalo his run, you
[45:16] give Venezius. I mean, we spoke about his rest
[45:20] probably don't don't play Venetius the the full 90
[45:23] minutes. But you give Venetius the start
[45:26] and you give Rodrigo a little bit more freedom to roam around.
[45:29] Rodrigo could be like more of your order replacement for that
[45:33] game if we really want to go in that direction.
[45:35] Yeah, you mentioned obviously Andrick is on on track to be
[45:39] back sometime this month, I believe, Yeah.
[45:42] It's within the means. No base was right.
[45:45] You know we talked about Jude, we talked about Kama Vinga,
[45:49] those guys are are working, working their way back.
[45:52] You know, we got some questions from some listeners around the
[45:57] international break and I thought given that we talked
[45:59] about Binny and how he developed, thought this question
[46:01] was good. We answered most of it.
[46:03] But if we can put a finer point on it, what's the ideal strategy
[46:06] for managing players left behind during a national break?
[46:08] Give them rest, work on weaknesses, work on physique,
[46:11] arrange families behind close doors to keep them ready,
[46:12] etcetera, etcetera. And as with most things like
[46:15] Kante, it's not one thing, it's all of the things, right?
[46:18] It's a little, it's a, it's a little bit of everything, right?
[46:21] Yes. You give them rest as Jaby did.
[46:23] Four days off. Alright guys, I'll see you on
[46:24] Monday. Take off, right?
[46:25] So they can recharge, get away from football.
[46:28] And you mentioned Mbappe and we'll talk about his comments
[46:31] because he talks about that, right?
[46:32] Like his passion for the game is what saves him because the
[46:35] actual culture of football himself, he's like, I'm pretty
[46:37] fatalistic about it, right? And so I think you do a little
[46:41] bit of everything. Maybe you do some behind closed
[46:45] doors friendlies because we did that right?
[46:47] And then Vinny scored twice in that behind closed doors match
[46:49] or whatever. So part of him feeling well.
[46:52] So you you do that for because you can't, you can't just sit
[46:54] down and eat chips all day and do nothing, right?
[46:56] You can't, you can't do that. So you have to be healthy and do
[46:59] and and and active and and working out.
[47:02] But it's a little bit of everything to get the best out
[47:04] of them when the when everything and keep them sharp and.
[47:06] There's also rust being built up, something to remember,
[47:10] right? It's two weeks basically of non
[47:13] football activities. Therefore, they organize these
[47:15] little inside friendlies if we want to call them, just to get
[47:19] them off the gear and have them ready to go, not let Ross settle
[47:24] in. Because as we have learned, Ross
[47:27] can sometimes take very long time to go off and that's not
[47:31] what you want. And you also don't want them to
[47:33] get complacent because they're getting more time with the
[47:35] coach. Some of the stars are away and
[47:39] the players can get a little bit more complacent.
[47:41] Feel that, OK, you know, like this might be my time.
[47:45] But actually, you know, it's a balance between keep them
[47:50] realistically checking. What I like about Alonzo so far,
[47:52] at least from what he tells in our on the press conferences, is
[47:56] the fact that he has told every player the role that they are
[47:59] for this. Therefore, he's not set in stone
[48:02] with everything, obviously, but there are clear indications to
[48:08] the players that Alonzo is more trustworthy and the players that
[48:13] he deems as more replaceable, which puts a mental load in
[48:19] them, but also creates a healthy competition within the squad
[48:22] that I have to do better, for example.
[48:24] Which is what he said. You know, Fran had a pretty
[48:28] decent Club World Cup, I would say.
[48:30] Scored a goal. He was following the
[48:32] instructions, hasn't seen the field since.
[48:34] That doesn't mean it's going to continue.
[48:36] That just means that he's going to be awaiting for his chance.
[48:40] And this time around, with a coach like this, he expects you
[48:43] to deliver on his instructions. He's not expecting you to be
[48:46] some sort of world beater. He's not telling you that I want
[48:49] you to be 10 players on the field.
[48:51] And he's just telling you this what you have to do and this
[48:55] what you have to follow. And if they do that, for the
[48:58] most part, then they're good. They're going to see the
[49:00] minutes. Mistakes are going to be
[49:02] mitigated. They're still humans.
[49:04] Even with somebody like Hoisen, you can tell that as perfect as
[49:10] he looks, there are some mistakes and so on his game, but
[49:15] those can go away. But are your good traits and
[49:20] abilities mitigating those problems that you bring?
[49:24] And for example, Trent, we can say he's a little bit less
[49:27] athletic as a right back, right? But when you see him playing the
[49:32] same pass three times against the defense that has seen it and
[49:35] he's successful all three times, that automatically tells you
[49:39] that yes, his trunks do indeed over shadow his limitations as a
[49:44] player. Same can be said about anybody
[49:47] like Vinicius. Yes, he'll take some large
[49:50] decisions where maybe he's going to take a shot that he should
[49:52] have, which is the goal that he scored last game.
[49:55] He should not have done that. He had Franco free, but his
[50:00] ability to generate that mitigates the fact that he took
[50:03] that shot that went in this time but probably doesn't go in a
[50:07] second time. So it's just the qualities,
[50:12] maximization of them, like order.
[50:14] We talk a lot about his lack of physicality and him sometimes
[50:17] just not being able to keep up. But what he's bringing is
[50:21] clearly something that Alonzo really likes, which is passing
[50:25] that needle thread between the lines, finding the players.
[50:29] It's all about like or that went from OK, you're going to start
[50:33] from March onwards because team has ran into the ground to don't
[50:36] fight starter with another coach.
[50:41] So you didn't have these players.
[50:44] Now these players have come back for like what, 3 days?
[50:47] I think at most they have gone on three days of training.
[50:51] Like there are players like Valerda for example who have two
[50:55] but in case of Orda and Orda. Mbappe, it's too many.
[51:01] Actually, Mbappe and too many came back a day later.
[51:03] A day, a day later. Scheduled.
[51:05] That's right. Yeah.
[51:06] Yeah. So some players got a little bit
[51:10] more of the training, some less and you're shred of going to
[51:14] another. That's why I say it's very
[51:16] tricky for you to rotate and go away from what worked on the
[51:21] previous three games. Because with rotations, as we
[51:24] know, you're going away from some some of the principles.
[51:27] You saw that in the second game against some game, right?
[51:29] You saw that what you saw in the first game against the Sun and
[51:32] it just wasn't that there were things because it was a new set
[51:37] of players. It was a rotated team to an
[51:39] extent. It was a rotated team.
[51:41] Yep. So how is Alonzo going to manage
[51:46] all of this? Like that's really the question
[51:49] because those players, a player like Vinnie Rodrigo, those
[51:52] players are going to be fresh right?
[51:54] A bare minimum. These ads are going to be on par
[51:57] with majority of Rails, Sociedad or.
[51:59] Carreras. Carreras will be fresh.
[52:01] Militar will be fresh. Trent will be fresh.
[52:04] Yeah, but is the rest going to be able to keep up with that?
[52:09] Is the rest going to be able to deal with the fact that Sociedad
[52:15] had like, what, 8 players staying from the starters while
[52:21] Madrid had eight starters gone? Yes, there's a big difference,
[52:26] or golfing quality if we want to say.
[52:28] But those things do matter is the small origins of the game.
[52:31] And they were likely Sociedad, as we know, preparing all two
[52:35] weeks for this match. That's what their focus was.
[52:37] They were tactically locked in on this match coming up.
[52:40] And there is enough film, like we say that Alonzo has a small
[52:44] sample, which I agree with. There's still enough film on on
[52:48] the way how Alonzo explained. So nothing really guarantees you
[52:52] the fact that they're not fully in prepared and they're not.
[52:56] They're going to maybe unleash airs a ball because airs a ball
[53:00] is probably going to be the first number nine that we face
[53:04] who's small. Therefore, you're not facing
[53:06] A-Team that's going to consistently attack your blocks
[53:09] with crosses rather than going to jump in, try to play through
[53:17] you, destroy you on on the ground, if that makes sense.
[53:20] So are we going to cope with the ground play as well as we did
[53:24] with the aerial game? Yes, Mauricio scored against us.
[53:28] But outside of that, we have been like, I have already shared
[53:31] the numbers. We are the best defense in La
[53:34] Liga so far, the best attack, the team with the most passes,
[53:37] like all of that. Yes, it's three games.
[53:39] It's very short sample, but it's just what we have to work with
[53:42] right now. And that's the that's the key
[53:44] right there, right? Is that that side of the of the
[53:46] of the pitch that Javi worked so hard to Clearly that that was
[53:49] the focus was defense out of possession, out of possession,
[53:51] out of possession. Does that still hold and
[53:54] maintain with the two week break?
[53:56] Right. If it does, then we know, OK,
[53:59] we're on the right track and we're fine.
[54:00] The offense is still going to be clunky all that OK, fine.
[54:03] But if we are still down any possession winning the ball, OK,
[54:07] OK, the principles are starting to stick in and becoming more
[54:10] second nature. OK, we're we're in good shape.
[54:13] We should be fine, right? That that's.
[54:15] What we're going back to pre Majorca like that's one of the
[54:18] things yes, I'll drop a guy that we will we work with share of
[54:22] the data in Madrid are the highest pressing team in La Liga
[54:25] currently. So is that press going to
[54:27] maintain when the drop off happens?
[54:30] How hard is it going to happen? Because those numbers are simply
[54:35] unsustainable. Like it's like 1.83.
[54:38] It's just it's not going to it's not going to stick like that.
[54:42] Like we're pressing more than flicks Barsa and they heavily
[54:45] rely on that. So it's it's not going to
[54:49] happen. But that's just mitigating the
[54:51] other problems until everything starts to stick together.
[54:54] That could be like the plan for now until Jude and those guys
[54:58] are back. So the team is shuffled better.
[55:02] But as you said, the injuries can happen at any point, tiny
[55:04] players. So are you really going to hope
[55:07] to have a fully fit, healthy squad at any point during the
[55:10] season? That's too big of a gamble for
[55:12] me, which I don't think I'll lose a second.
[55:14] No, no. And as we know, hope is not a
[55:16] strategy, right? We, you have to have an actual
[55:18] strategic plan in place and not wish and hope that, OK,
[55:20] everybody's healthy because that's just not reality.
[55:22] We had another question from a, from a YouTube.
[55:25] With the dominance of the Premier League in mind, I
[55:27] personally cannot see Perez leaving without having created a
[55:30] new European league which provides income unrivaled by any
[55:33] domestic league. Do you agree?
[55:39] I mean, he's still in pursuit of Super League, right?
[55:44] Is that realistic at this point? Not anymore.
[55:47] Generously kind of became that the rules shifted to that.
[55:53] There is. As currently stands, it's just
[55:56] not sustainable anymore. It made sense at that time, but
[56:00] the system changed ever since he brought it up.
[56:04] Can you get rid of the dominance of the Premier League now in
[56:08] terms of the market? Because I don't see them
[56:11] dominating purely on football, but in terms of transfers, in
[56:14] terms of bringing in the name. And revenue, Yeah, Premier.
[56:18] League is still going to be like one.
[56:20] First of all, they don't have cap rules like Raliga.
[56:24] Second of all, I mean they do have, but they all have.
[56:29] It's kind of like they shouldn't even exist at this point.
[56:31] They do have rules, it's just that those rules just are even
[56:35] not being respected or well, it's just too big of a gap.
[56:40] Like Sunderland are coming from Second League and then signing
[56:43] granny Joka from out of Liverpool.
[56:46] Just like. That and he's just like, what
[56:49] the hell is going on? Well, the, the, one of the, the
[56:53] problems and the reasons for this, of course, is the problems
[56:55] going on in La Liga, right? Like it's just the league that
[56:58] seemingly, I mean, this is a podcast for a different day.
[57:02] Tavis does not seem to be interested in making his league
[57:06] financially sound and having true competition top to bottom
[57:10] like right like that does not seem to be his focus.
[57:14] And he doesn't seem to be wanting to grow the league and
[57:16] getting younger fans involved. No, because none of the moves he
[57:19] makes seems to be geared towards that.
[57:21] Nothing. Yeah, but just going back to the
[57:25] rules, right, and why La Liga established those rules, clubs
[57:29] were going bankrupt. They weren't because those rules
[57:31] did not exist, so that's why they got implement implemented
[57:35] on the 1st place. I inherently agree with the
[57:39] league having those caps, but I think that every league should
[57:43] follow the same path just to keep a level more of like, well,
[57:49] domestical production would be the right word like La Liga does
[57:53] where you're seeing like Spanish players like your Zuvimandi
[57:57] Surrogi. You see all of these players
[57:59] that we're talking about Premier League signing that are actually
[58:03] good. There are coming from La Liga
[58:06] and La Liga prides itself on talent creation, talent
[58:13] development, on the fact that they can work around all of the
[58:17] problems. Like could they be a little bit
[58:20] less strict? For example, telling Itafi that
[58:23] you have to sell your best centre back otherwise you won't
[58:25] be able to even register your whole squad is just.
[58:30] A. Bit too much but then a team
[58:33] like Barcelona who abused the captain for so long goes again
[58:40] and for them to register players now they have had court battles,
[58:45] like legal battles despite those being legal only rules.
[58:48] So they were always going to win the court battles.
[58:52] That's the thing, right? That's what it's not abided by
[58:55] law for them to register players, but the league itself
[58:59] has its own separate entities of roles which they have not
[59:03] respected and they've put themselves in that position.
[59:08] So now are we saying that we get a club like Barcelona for
[59:13] example, or Sevilla or like two major examples that are you
[59:18] really going to want to take them out of this position that
[59:22] they put themselves in? Right, right.
[59:24] Right, other clubs have managed their finances momenting to be
[59:28] competitive. And I think that's that's, yeah,
[59:30] that that, that that's a fair statement, right?
[59:31] Is that these the top public, Barcelona, first of all, should
[59:35] be punished for all of their miscalculations and wrongdoings.
[59:38] And right, all of that, there should be clear punishment
[59:40] there. Doesn't matter if they're the
[59:41] top, second top club, like the most popular club or whatever.
[59:44] I don't care. Punish them like they, they
[59:46] flown to the rules, punish them. What I want to prevent from
[59:49] happening is what you said, which is La Liga just becoming
[59:51] basically the minor league system of the Premier League.
[59:54] All right, you develop your, your wares over here and then
[59:57] don't worry, we'll splash you all the money and they're going
[59:59] to come here and, and, and play it play here in the most of your
[1:00:01] career. Because that then is going to
[1:00:03] mean the, the La Liga, the quality is just going to be
[1:00:06] poor, right? It's going to poor play for most
[1:00:09] of the league which is sad. Yes, but again, La Liga just has
[1:00:16] that force, which is we have the two biggest clubs in the world,
[1:00:19] like that's Madrid and Barcelona.
[1:00:21] So usually when those players are coming up, like you saw this
[1:00:24] agreement, right, Arsenal and Sociedad reached an agreement
[1:00:28] during the Club World Cup beginning of it.
[1:00:31] Zubinini was waiting for Madrid to get kicked out basically and
[1:00:35] then see if Madrid are going to be interested in him before
[1:00:38] making a move because he knew that we could be on a market for
[1:00:41] a midfielder. I would assume just an
[1:00:44] assumption. Madrid told him no, we're not
[1:00:47] willing to pay the fee and we the new a surplus, not a
[1:00:52] necessity. So pretty much he just settled
[1:00:56] for the Arsenal move. So basically whatever La Liga is
[1:00:59] going to do, unfortunately the smaller clubs are going to be
[1:01:03] bullied by Madrid and Barcelona taking the players.
[1:01:06] It's a historical thing. It's unfortunate, but that's the
[1:01:09] reality of it. But Madrid and Barcelona are the
[1:01:12] first eye of where these players want to go.
[1:01:16] And then when they can, then they go to Premier League.
[1:01:18] When, when those two doors are closed, in terms of Barcelona,
[1:01:22] the door is closed because they simply do not have the money,
[1:01:24] don't generate the enough revenue at the moment to to be
[1:01:27] able to do that. And for Madrid it it's a
[1:01:30] different story where they just don't be new as needed, even
[1:01:34] though Madrid wanted to be more Spanish centric, which is why I
[1:01:37] was pushing for somebody like Nico Williams before he signed
[1:01:41] his contractor sanction and pretty much doubled his
[1:01:45] relevance clause. But that's about it.
[1:01:48] You know, like Nico wasn't looked only from Borsa or
[1:01:54] someone wanted him. A lot of clubs wanted him.
[1:01:57] His goals are clear. It's either going to be pretty
[1:01:59] much the Spanish club, which is was Barcelona only interested in
[1:02:03] him at that time, or I'm saying Athletic Club, you also have
[1:02:06] that. So La Liga, for as long as
[1:02:11] Barcelona and Madrid are going to do well, they're going to be
[1:02:15] fine. We have a problem if those two
[1:02:18] start to see a relative drop, not something for them to think
[1:02:25] about. Yeah, particularly if you know,
[1:02:26] look, Madrid has the history, Barcelona has its own whatever
[1:02:30] level of, of, of shine that people that players want to go
[1:02:33] for. But ultimately, right, players
[1:02:36] do care about money. And there will become a point
[1:02:38] where a player is like, you know what, like Liverpool is not some
[1:02:41] also ran club, right? They're very good.
[1:02:43] That that is a that is a good club.
[1:02:44] I would go play for them, right? Like, and so, yeah, man, you and
[1:02:47] those places are whatever. But like, you know, but that's a
[1:02:50] good club. So I think that's just something
[1:02:52] to be to be mindful of as we go forward.
[1:02:56] Yeah, it depends on the management, right?
[1:02:57] When there's a club like Madrid generating 1.5 billion, we we
[1:03:02] have a tables interview like 2 years ago when he said that with
[1:03:05] a solid cap at the moment Madrid can sign 3IN bapes and they
[1:03:08] would be fine. So that tells you that Madrid
[1:03:13] have so much wiggle room with their structure to the point
[1:03:19] where they can navigate through it without a problem that
[1:03:24] one-on-one they don't have any problem.
[1:03:26] Everything counts as surplus. They have so many assets and
[1:03:31] those assets are keep on growing with the stadium with the
[1:03:33] growth, with the more money coming in with the TV deals with
[1:03:37] all of that so. They manage, they manage their
[1:03:41] finance as well. Like certainly better than the
[1:03:43] the Catalan neighbors to the north right who clearly do not
[1:03:46] manage their finances. Well, like it's something
[1:03:48] incomparable. Or even the Madrid neighbors.
[1:03:50] The other side of it, right? Speaking of I, I don't know.
[1:03:56] I mean, I'm sure you've you've seen it.
[1:03:58] When is it? When is the camp now going to be
[1:04:00] ready? Are they going to play at all in
[1:04:01] that stadium ever? Like is that a thing?
[1:04:03] I mean, look, everything that comes out of La Porta's mouth is
[1:04:09] just like when you ask a chick how many guys have you dated?
[1:04:15] If he says 2, no, it's 6. If he says in two months, he's
[1:04:19] probably in six months. I mean now apparently they
[1:04:23] applied to change the stadium, so now they're playing on their
[1:04:26] Johan Cruyff Stadium. Yes, yes.
[1:04:29] I mean, we did that with Alfredo De Stefano.
[1:04:31] We asked them to play first three games away because we
[1:04:35] wanted to make sure that our stadium is ready.
[1:04:37] Right. But but when we we said it was
[1:04:40] ready, it was ready. We're done.
[1:04:42] You played at the better, Better, correct?
[1:04:44] These guys are playing at Johan Cruyff Stadium.
[1:04:48] What can I say? I, I, I don't know what's
[1:04:50] happening up there, folks. Leconte and I will be back
[1:04:53] tomorrow because we have Real Sociedad away in San Sebastian.
[1:04:58] What a lovely place that is. By the way, you know, Leconte
[1:05:03] mentioned like, oh, the, the, the trepidation of going to an
[1:05:05] away stadium as a player. Yes, however, San Sebastian,
[1:05:08] beautiful, lovely, lovely place to, to go from a scenic point of
[1:05:13] view. They won't have any time for
[1:05:14] that. They landed just a little while
[1:05:16] ago. They're in bed and getting ready
[1:05:17] for for the match tomorrow. We'll be back post game.
[1:05:19] We'll be live within, you know, 5-10 minutes or so right after
[1:05:23] the end of that match and we will be ready to go Until next
[1:05:26] time everybody, again, thank you.
[1:05:28] Please subscribe to the channel, like share it, comment as you
[1:05:32] see we answer we, we, we bring it up on the show.
[1:05:35] We answer your questions on this show.
[1:05:36] So please go ahead and do that. And if you want to only listen
[1:05:39] to the audio again whenever you want, you can do that on Apple
[1:05:42] or Spotify. Until next time, everybody, take
[1:05:45] care. Have a great.
[1:05:46] Day.

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