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1:08

Hello everyone and welcome to this week's edition of the Spanish

1:10

Football Podcast. I'm Phil Kitt from El Edis, joined

1:12

as ever by my good friend Dr Sid Lowe.

1:14

Hello Sidney. Hi Phil, how you doing? I'm

1:17

okay, how are you? Not too bad, thank

1:19

you. Did you enjoy the Madrid derby?

1:21

You know what, I did.

1:23

Quite a lot more than I thought I would. It

1:26

felt like a proper derby. It felt like

1:28

a really good occasion. It's the noisiest

1:30

I think I've heard the Metropolitano

1:33

except maybe for the Arsenal

1:35

game in the Europa League going

1:38

back, what's that, about four years now?

1:40

Something like that. Obviously, that

1:42

makes sense because as

1:45

some of our listeners will know, they've expanded the stadium

1:47

to 70,000. It was basically full last night. There

1:49

were a handful of people who had tickets but didn't

1:51

go. But otherwise,

1:54

it was packed and really,

1:56

really good atmosphere. And Atletico played,

1:58

I thought, really well.

1:59

for brilliantly for the first 35

2:02

minutes then very well again from the start

2:04

of the second half on

2:06

for about 20 minutes or so and then I thought

2:08

they contained Real Madrid really quite well. I thought it

2:10

was a really deserved 3-1 win. That

2:15

was a little jive at me dear listener

2:17

because I had a ticket to the Madrid derby

2:20

and I did not go. We

2:23

won't go into the details of it but

2:25

I was not feeling the best. No

2:29

that's entirely justified. It

2:31

genuinely was about I think it's

2:33

gone up to just over So

2:36

there were 69,082 people there. I was not one of them. I gave mine to give to someone else

2:42

so it was put to good use at least. Oh someone

2:44

did go? Yes. Oh good. Oh

2:46

right. I'll be on then. Listen

2:48

we'll get into discussions of that game and

2:50

the other matches in just a second. I

2:52

want to tell you that coming up this week for our patrons

2:55

at patreon.com forward slash tsfp

2:57

you've got a Q&A pod on Tuesday answering your

2:59

questions, a bonus pod discussing the midweek

3:02

round of matches in La Liga plus

3:04

you get Al's paper reviews, access to the

3:06

TSFP Discord and the first episode

3:09

of our latest TSFP Presents series

3:11

More Super Seasons. So come and join us.

3:13

It's around €4 a month and hopefully

3:16

provides you with pretty good value. This

3:18

is what happened on matchday 6. We had a Barca

3:20

derby on Friday night which Athletic Club

3:23

won 2-0 at the Estadio Mendizorraza

3:27

against Alaves. Then on Saturday the extraordinary form

3:31

of Girona continues. They're

3:33

joint top. Level on points with leaders

3:35

Barcelona after a 5-3

3:38

victory against Mallorca. Some really

3:41

excellent goals scored and they're playing very

3:43

well. Really, really well Girona. Osasuna

3:46

and Sevilla played out a 0-0 draw. Barcelona

3:49

came from 2-0 down scoring

3:51

three goals in the last nine minutes

3:54

to beat Celta Vigo at 3-2 at

3:56

Montjuic. And Almeria drew

3:59

2-2. with Valencia. Both goals

4:01

scored for Almería by Onlon

4:04

Sergio Arribas from Real Madrid.

4:06

He's one of the top scorers in the division.

4:09

Then on Sunday Real Sociedad beat

4:11

Jettafe 4-3 in a hashtag unexpected

4:14

Partidado at the Real Arena Tachecubo.

4:17

Once again amongst the goal scorers and

4:19

helping La Real to a victory. Rio

4:22

and Villa Real played a 1-1 draw.

4:24

It was the same score between Betis and Caddis.

4:26

Las Palmas got their first win of the

4:29

season and their first goal from Open Play beating

4:31

Granada 1-0. Then we had that Madrid

4:33

derby with Atletico Madrid beating

4:36

Real Madrid by three goals to one. I don't actually

4:38

think we mentioned that at the top of the program. So there we go.

4:40

That was the result of the Madrid

4:42

derby. Let's get into the discussion of that

4:45

fixture and that result then, Sydney. This was a game

4:47

Atletico couldn't

4:50

really afford to lose. We were discussing

4:52

this in a preview to the game.

4:55

If they had lost, I think it would have been nine points

4:57

between them and Real Madrid with

4:59

a game in hand. No, no, it would have been 11. Not

5:03

an insurmountable lead at this

5:05

stage of the season but certainly very, very

5:08

difficult. The pressure was on them,

5:10

particularly after the week that they

5:12

had and the appealing performance

5:15

they had in the previous league game against Valencia,

5:18

then letting the Chippenkins League victory

5:20

slip to a 95th minute goalkeeper

5:23

goal. So it hadn't been the best builder and then they

5:25

produced a really, really strong performance.

5:27

Certainly they started the game very,

5:29

very

5:29

well.

5:30

Yeah, I thought the start was exceptional.

5:33

And Simiano after the game was quite

5:36

interesting actually on that

5:38

kind of background to this game. And

5:40

he said, look, despite

5:43

the way it ended, he felt that

5:45

they played really well in Rome. So he didn't

5:47

feel like that was problematic in terms of the way you

5:49

approach this Real Madrid game. He then made

5:51

the point that he thought

5:54

that the Valencia game could happen. He said, look,

5:56

I'm not justifying this. I think his

5:58

words were... Sadly, it's

6:01

a reality this can happen because you

6:03

have of course like let's go who came off the back of not

6:05

playing severe Because that game was cancelled because

6:07

of the rain or postponed rather because of the rain

6:10

and then having the international break And he said so you

6:12

kind of have this Really big

6:14

breaker. We mentioned there was a 19 day.

6:17

You're with 19 war between games and

6:20

And so Simi only I mean you

6:22

do run the risk of it sounded like an excuse And I think he was

6:25

trying not to make it sound like an issue She was

6:27

trying to make it sound like an explanation, but he

6:29

said that can happen So I wasn't as

6:31

worried about it as I might normally

6:33

be about a game like that That

6:35

said as you say they were under an enormous

6:38

amount of pressure because while

6:40

any Lead is

6:42

not definitive in September 11 points

6:45

is really quite significant even if they'd won the game in hand

6:48

you then say okay Well you win the game in hand so it's so

6:50

it's a But eight points

6:52

an eight point lead against Ramage it is not the kind of lead that you

6:54

overcome Not really if

6:57

you started a season and said right here's I've had to come to do them

6:59

around you But we're gonna give around me at eight points lead at the start

7:01

of the season You would never at the start

7:03

of that season say athletic image will finish ahead of around

7:05

never And so

7:07

it was really really important I think it was emotionally pretty

7:10

important as well as you say off the back of those two games

7:12

and the start was The start reminded

7:15

me a little bit of the way that at let's go Used

7:17

to do quite a lot in the Champions League,

7:19

and I know it didn't pay off for them But I remember

7:21

them doing it in the game they actually beat Real Madrid the last

7:24

European game at the old Calderon when they had to come

7:26

back from I think it's free-kneeling the first leg And

7:28

they went into a 2-0 lead after about 20 minutes

7:31

or so and it was just that kind of relentless,

7:33

right? We really go at them, and

7:35

then if we get what we need then maybe

7:37

we try and protect it now I didn't think

7:40

that they tried to protect it

7:42

this time Although

7:44

there was a slight tilt in the in the

7:46

in the in the game after they scored the second goal

7:48

So they're two no lap with a header from Maratara and

7:50

a header from Antoine Griezmann

7:54

and there was a slight tilt back towards Real Madrid and a little

7:56

bit of Madrid having the ball But I think the thing that really did

7:58

it was Tony cross scoring a really tiny cross the

8:01

first touch is brilliant and then he bends it so well

8:03

into the bottom corner. Yes. And at that point

8:05

I think athletes come a did

8:07

think, is this happening

8:09

again? And I think they had to hang on a little bit between

8:11

them and half time. And then Real Madrid had a goal just

8:14

before half time as well. Yes, which I

8:16

must admit live, I didn't understand.

8:19

And then to be honest, when I've watched back the replay,

8:21

I think it's the right decision. I'm

8:23

always very dubious about any decisions

8:25

that are offside because of a position offside for

8:27

a player that's not involved. But I think Roodegory is more

8:29

than positioning offside in that he

8:32

goes for the first cross. In fact, I think the first cross might

8:34

be aimed at him, or although it looks like it's

8:36

a brilliant pass to the far post. And not only that,

8:38

of course, but by going for the first cross and kind of grappling

8:40

with the defender and maybe there's an argument about whether

8:42

there could be a penalty actually, because they're both pulling at each other.

8:45

He then lands on top of the defender and sits

8:47

there on top of him. So the defender there, I think it's Mario

8:49

Odomosso, can't get up and respond. Anyway,

8:52

that's kind of a bit too much time spent on that goal.

8:54

The fact is it wasn't given. Then it's

8:56

half time it's 2-1. And at that point, you think,

8:58

I think, I think Adletico

9:01

Madrid get caught here. Real Madrid come back and Simeone

9:03

talked post game, which I thought

9:05

was interesting because it doesn't sound like Simeone

9:08

for those of people who are very critical of him. And

9:10

he said at halftime, we were saying, if

9:12

we now make the mistake of trying to protect

9:14

this, we will invite Real Madrid into the

9:16

territory in which they will do us damage. We

9:19

have to go and take the game to them, even

9:22

if it's not to score goals, to have the game further

9:24

up the pitch. And I suppose that's

9:26

easier to do when

9:28

you're playing around, just decide that that doesn't have an issues. So

9:31

that risk of the ball through the gap for someone exceedingly

9:34

quick to run onto doesn't really exist.

9:37

So you can take a step further up the pitch. And anyway,

9:39

of course, what happened was they scored within 33 seconds

9:41

of the second half, they get the 3-1. And

9:43

at that point you think, okay, great.

9:46

I'll tell you, by the way, in the preview to this game,

9:48

it was an interview that Memphis de Pi

9:50

did with ESPN. He

9:53

was asked, how do you stop Jude Bellingham catching

9:55

you out in the 95th minute? And he said by having

9:58

a two goal lead. And there it was. That was the plan. It's

10:00

very simple. That's a very, very

10:03

good response from old

10:05

Memphis. Fantastic. Well done. And that's

10:07

exactly what they did. Listen,

10:09

I think we need to talk, obviously, with the credit

10:12

to Atletico Madrid and we've mentioned

10:14

how they approached the game. You've

10:16

done something today, Sid, in your column, which

10:18

you've been doing extensively on the podcast, but you've played

10:20

amateur psychologist and you've delved into the ecology

10:23

of being Albono Morata. So I

10:25

don't think we need to do that. Everybody go and check

10:27

out Sid's column this week for the credit for

10:30

more psychoanalysis on

10:32

Albono Morata. What

10:34

we should do is analyze a little bit Real

10:37

Madrid and how they defended

10:40

the game. Carla

10:42

and Cerrotti called the three goals, photocopies,

10:45

photocopies, carbon copies, I guess, and

10:47

they were three balls in from the left-hand

10:49

side and three headers. They

10:53

defended extremely badly at

10:55

times Real Madrid. They just looked chaotic.

10:58

And there were so many gaps appearing where

11:01

there really shouldn't be gaps

11:03

in a well-drilled defense. It was

11:05

a really poor defensive performance from Ramatri. It

11:08

really was. And in a way, it's

11:10

a good defensive performance, a

11:13

good poor defensive performance for us to talk about because

11:15

I actually think, and regular

11:17

listeners know that I'm very, very uneasy about

11:20

coming up with grand tactical conclusions

11:23

for managers who clearly know a million times better than me.

11:25

I actually think watching this game, some of the tactical things

11:27

were really quite clear and surprisingly

11:30

so. Just very

11:32

briefly before we start that, the other thing, of

11:34

course, is the recurring theme of the early goal.

11:37

Have you got it written down there? I have now.

11:39

I'm going to tell you every single

11:41

game since the first game of the season. So the first game

11:44

of the season, they win 2-0 at Real Madrid. They

11:46

then go to Almerira and they can see the goal to Arribas

11:48

after three minutes. They go to Celta.

11:51

Now, officially, they didn't get to see the first goal,

11:53

but they actually did get to see the first goal after two minutes to strand

11:55

Larsen. They play Cetafe

11:57

and Maiorao scores after 11 minutes. They

12:00

play Rauz of the Adam, Baron in the chair scores after

12:02

five minutes. They play at Let's go Madrid and Maratas

12:04

scores after four minutes. Now, a couple of

12:06

those is his chance. All

12:08

of those is not. All of those is there's something wrong.

12:11

Now, that's the kind of maybe the

12:13

I don't know if it's a bit too cliched to talk about

12:15

not starting with intensity, not being

12:17

focused, not being in the game, but it certainly

12:20

feels like there's a degree of that. What coaches

12:22

tend to prefer to refer to as accusation

12:27

rather than intensity. But yeah, the idea that

12:29

you're kind of you're really with it. And what Ancelotti

12:32

has talked to in the past, talked about in the past

12:34

as being wanting defenders who are pessimistic, who

12:37

see the danger and are worried about it rather than thinking

12:39

about other things. Now, let's do all the structural

12:41

stuff and the tactical stuff. And again, let

12:43

me stress that Ancelotti knows much more than me. But

12:46

when it's really this clear, I think it's really really

12:48

startling. We said and

12:50

actually in fairness, Ancelotti has said right

12:54

from the very start, including in preseason,

12:56

that the one of the risks with the

12:59

with the midfield diamond is it's very narrow

13:02

and you provide channels for the other team to run

13:04

through. You make the wings quite wide, basically,

13:07

you know, you make the wings a lot of space on to run to. And

13:09

in that scenario, your fallbacks need to be really

13:11

good. Now, they need to be really good when you carry the

13:13

game to the other team because they need to be good attackers.

13:16

But they also need to be good defenders. They need to be able to fill

13:18

quite a lot of space. And

13:21

we've seen, I think that the Frank Garcia

13:23

is is is really good with the ball, but

13:25

defensively has has been a little bit exposed

13:28

this season, particularly because he doesn't get very much support. That's

13:30

the old thing, that that space in front of him, it's

13:32

all well and good. Us saying Frank Garcia

13:34

doesn't defend well. Well, yeah, but if he's got two

13:36

men running at him and he had both now

13:39

Molina and Llorente running at him,

13:42

he's one man. And so you saw at

13:44

the weekend at times, Tony Cross

13:46

was having to kind of nudge across the

13:48

left, and that's really not the place where Tony Cruz wants

13:50

to be, to be honest. Then on the other

13:52

side, we've I think we've seen a really good start

13:54

to the season from Danny Carver help, but he's injured and

13:57

it's Lucas Basquez. Now, you could argue

13:59

maybe. you should play someone else, maybe Nachos should play

14:01

there, maybe Mendee should play on the left. But I

14:04

think it's more systemic than that and I think

14:06

it is about that midfield. To add

14:08

to that, this time round of course they didn't have a forward, Bellingham

14:11

theoretically as sort of as the forward because

14:13

Joselu didn't play. It was a slightly

14:16

strange... What did you make of that decision

14:18

to leave Joselu on the bench and start Luka Modrić

14:21

instead? I thought

14:23

it was a strange one and I understood

14:25

why and Ancelotti explained that he

14:27

wanted more of the ball and obviously on the face of it

14:29

a midfield that gets an extra man in it and

14:32

also has Modrić

14:34

and Cruz as two of those men, he's going to keep the ball well

14:37

on the face of it. It didn't really

14:39

work and I think one of the reasons it didn't work was you

14:42

tell me from watching it on the telly, whether

14:44

your view of it was clearer than mine, I wasn't

14:46

sure where Modrić was playing. Yes. Top

14:50

of the diamond apparently. Well at times

14:52

he seemed to be there but he didn't seem to be there a lot of the time,

14:55

he seemed to be focused and I felt

14:57

that we saw a slightly weird position from Tony Cruz

14:59

as I've already mentioned that sort of that deep midfield

15:01

role, he ended up being sort of slightly to the left

15:03

quite a lot of the time, I think trying to bail out Fran Garcia

15:06

a little bit. I actually thought Bellingham

15:08

played pretty well and was trying to drive through

15:10

but he didn't have someone there if

15:13

you like occupying the defenders

15:15

for him. Now one of the things that I was... Go on,

15:17

sorry. I heard the first dissenting

15:20

voices on the radio this morning about

15:22

Jude Bellingham. Oh it's all very well about

15:24

doing it against Hitafe and Celta Vigo

15:27

but where was he last night eh? Couldn't score

15:29

in the first big game of the season, he couldn't perform.

15:31

Well I mean let me answer that directly and then

15:34

try and pose a couple of other questions to you. The

15:36

direct answer to that is well yes,

15:38

of course, because the game against

15:40

South Attica Madrid by definition is harder and

15:43

if you're only going to define him by goals there will

15:45

be games this season where he doesn't score, that's going to

15:47

happen. And I actually thought in a Madrid

15:49

performance that wasn't particularly good,

15:51

I thought he was the one player trying

15:53

to drive at people, he was the one player trying to make things

15:56

happen, in fact he got taken down. He always

15:58

tried to make things happen. taken

16:00

down twice early on which actually one

16:02

of them wasn't given an indirectly leads

16:04

the Athletico goal. I mean it's quite a lot of passes later

16:07

but indirectly leads to the Athletico goal and I thought

16:09

it was a foul on the edge of the area so it's a free kick in a

16:11

good position and who knows what changes

16:13

if that changes but I don't want to Isthanans

16:15

it. It's more about analysing him. The

16:18

first two fouls that were given were on

16:20

him. As I say the first two fouls that weren't

16:23

given were also on him. I'm not sure if there was another one in the middle

16:25

but we're talking about at least four of at least you

16:27

know the most the first five or six fouls were

16:29

him. In the second half I thought

16:31

he was trying to get the thing moving. He was

16:34

one of the few people trying to play incisive

16:36

passes. I actually thought the best performance possibly Brahim

16:38

when he came on in terms of actually trying to make things

16:41

happen and succeeding in doing so. So I

16:43

don't think it's about that. I also think it's about

16:45

what's in front of him and there's a couple

16:47

of things here that I'm interested in

16:50

tactically and again I'm always nervous

16:52

when we do the tactical thing and that is as we

16:54

said earlier in the season when the two forwards of

16:56

Venetius and Rodrigo I think

16:59

it works quite nicely for Bellingham because they split and

17:01

he runs through the middle and of course when they split

17:03

they take defenders with them. If you're

17:05

a central defender and you see Venetius peel from

17:07

the middle to the left or Rodrigo peel

17:10

from the middle to the right it takes a brave

17:12

man to just say I'll let him go or it

17:14

takes a man who really trust his fallbacks

17:16

to say I'll let him go I'll pass him on and

17:19

not to be at least slightly pulled out and therefore

17:21

Bellingham goes through the middle. That's one thing. In

17:23

other games we've seen Bellingham play with with

17:26

Joselou. Now I've actually thought at times that

17:28

there's a problem there because Joselou doesn't

17:30

vacate that space for Bellingham to go through but

17:32

what Joselou does do of course is occupy

17:35

the defenders. Exactly.

17:37

That lovely funny phrase of fix the

17:39

defenders. He holds them in a place and

17:41

Bellingham says thanks very much you keep you keep those

17:44

guys there you know it's almost like a couple of

17:46

cops in a car park you cover me and I'll go running

17:48

across firing my gun. That's

17:51

the most ridiculous analogy I've ever come up with. I've

17:53

come up with some really shit ones over the years. Anyway

17:55

you know what I mean. The idea that you know you've got

17:57

to walk apart of them and then you get on with it. And

18:00

yesterday he didn't have that. And not only did he not

18:02

have that, and we were saying this pre-game in

18:05

our pre-game analysis with Luis Garcia,

18:09

for ESPN, you have this thing

18:11

where Madrid don't have a forward at all, and Atletico

18:13

have three central defenders. And

18:16

pre-game we're saying, so what do those defenders

18:18

do? Do they step out to

18:20

Bellingham when he's not at the top of the pitch, because they think, well,

18:22

we better go with him? Or do they say, actually, you know what,

18:24

we'll wait here, we're fine. The risk,

18:27

of course, with waiting here is if he gets up and running, he's on

18:29

the run, on the move when he comes past you. But

18:31

it was essentially three of them for one man.

18:34

Wait,

18:38

are you gaming on a Chromebook? Yeah,

18:41

it's got a high-res 120 hertz display, plus

18:44

this killer RGB keyboard, and I can

18:46

access thousands of games anytime, anywhere.

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the Omni. their big

20:22

shift in my opinion of how

20:25

potentially the league title could go. I don't know it's

20:27

only match days. Me too. But

20:29

comparing Real Madrid and Barcelona and

20:32

it's annoying for us to do this because

20:34

it's a shame that neither of these teams as

20:36

you know exist in a vacuum on their own. They

20:38

always have to exist with each other.

20:41

It's the nature, the symbiotic

20:43

nature of these two clubs unfortunately

20:45

in this unhealthily obsessive

20:49

relationship they have in Spanish football.

20:51

But the way you see the Real Madrid starting 11

20:54

and the players were missing through long

20:56

term injury, take out Courtois and

20:58

Militel from the team for the whole season

21:00

and that's an enormous enormous flow. Vinicius

21:03

missing the last few games. Modric

21:07

having a bit par and not necessarily doing particularly

21:10

happy. Danny Cottahou big enough

21:12

at injury and that's not how long

21:14

he's going to be out for. Fran Garcia not overly convincing.

21:17

All of that compared to Barcelona

21:19

and I'm not saying that Barcelona had the most incredible

21:21

start to the season. What they have done though is

21:24

at the end of the transfer window they made

21:26

two world class findings and we were sceptical

21:28

about Gia Félix. We were publicly sceptical

21:31

about where he was sitting. But he

21:33

has come in and okay it's three

21:35

games but he has massively elevated

21:37

the attacking potential of the site

21:39

as does Gia Cancella. We'll get onto Barcelona in

21:42

just a moment and discuss that.

21:44

I just feel that if you, things have shifted

21:46

big time and it's only six

21:49

match days and I don't want to get carried away. Okay

21:51

so you're saying definitely so

21:53

I feel a bit better about this that I'm not getting

21:55

wildly carried away that the narrative

21:58

feels like it's shifted a bit. No I don't. Absolutely,

22:00

because let's go back to something we said Actually

22:04

at the live pod in the summer We

22:06

I think we said that no one has

22:08

a starting 11 as good as Real Madrid At

22:11

that point to be honest We thought there was a chance M. Bapay was coming

22:14

and we were sort of counting him in it, right? But even without

22:16

M. Bapay given how well the Bellingham

22:18

experiment was working You think that starting 11 is

22:21

really really strong But scratch the

22:23

surface a little bit and there's

22:25

and there's some holes in it Now I think they've got lots of Goodman

22:27

fielders and I actually think they can they could assimilate

22:30

a couple of injuries in midfield And they would be alright But

22:33

I think four big positions are important

22:35

in most teams I think in a team as narrow as Real

22:37

Madrid, they're even more important and I think any car the house

22:39

is vital So without him you've already got a problem.

22:42

I personally really like Frank. I fear Frank I

22:44

fear for me was the best left back in Spain by a very

22:46

long way last year playing for her I awake and I but this is

22:48

a different prospect for what it's worth. I

22:50

don't like Mendy as the solution there I

22:53

don't think I think that is possibly even

22:55

the best solution and that shows a good

22:57

plan. There's nothing really wrong with him I think it's worth pointing

22:59

out last night by the way The both Alabra

23:01

and Rudiger would dreadful as well like really dreadful

23:04

And and so you start seeing a couple

23:07

of holes Then as you say

23:09

now, I'm absolutely

23:11

not gonna blame Kepper for last night Absolutely

23:14

not none of those goals are his fault But he doesn't

23:16

transmit the degree of security and that sense

23:18

that it'll be alright But you know,

23:21

I heard him asked I had a nice phrase on the radio

23:23

and Not bad alone

23:25

parabola. He doesn't stop the unstoppable

23:27

shots, which court what the court makes these

23:31

How has he done that that said remember

23:33

the very start of course was crew remember I remember hearing

23:35

that exact line about court war. I

23:37

remember actually hearing the word Permi

23:40

abelian court war is permeable. He's

23:42

not he's not that he's necessary to start his real Madrid

23:45

career Yes, no, he's a manager Chris And

23:48

remember he had that Champions League game when he went

23:50

off and there was yeah There was there was

23:52

a there was an accusation that it was to

23:54

do with not being able to take the pressure And he

23:56

came out very strongly and actually I thought very eloquently

23:59

against at the time, but anyway he clearly became

24:02

that goalkeeper. I don't think Kepa,

24:04

I think it's the Griezmann header, I think Courtois

24:06

saves that. That's what I'm saying. It's an amazing

24:08

header, there's nothing wrong with what Kepa does,

24:11

but I think Courtois saves it. And actually to be

24:13

fair to Kepa, he makes a brilliant save, he's hit Osole I think

24:15

at 2-0, which would have been

24:18

3-0. So there's another little weakness there,

24:20

and Milly-Tales has since a little weakness, and you scratch

24:22

the surface a bit and you think, yeah there's

24:24

some holes in this team. I mean last

24:26

night, Carlo Ancelotti takes

24:29

off, Fran Garcia and Lucas

24:32

Basquez, and he replaces them with

24:35

Nacho and Mende. Now

24:38

obviously look, bottom line is that's two

24:41

fallbacks replaced by two fallbacks and those are good changes, but

24:43

that's the point when you're chasing

24:45

the game. At 3-1 down with half an

24:47

hour left, and also broad try and in here as well,

24:49

that was the three changes that he made. Exactly, and he goes

24:51

with defensive changes, and I think at that point that

24:53

was a, a recognition of the limitations of what he had

24:55

on the bench, but it was also I think

24:58

a recognition that actually this could get worse before

25:00

it gets better. So the first thing we have to

25:02

do is kind of stem the bleeding here, you

25:05

know, is to kind of stop this getting worse. And

25:07

I think that's not a great position to be

25:09

in. And I'm the same as you, I'm

25:11

reluctant to go down this road too

25:13

much because I think it would feel like we're

25:16

allowing ourselves to be blown away by

25:18

one result in which obviously you

25:20

know, if a couple of decisions

25:22

go another way or if they take a couple of chances,

25:25

perhaps it changes and perhaps we're talking about something different.

25:27

But I think we go back to that list, Arribas,

25:29

Mayoral, Barinicea, Morata, Strandlarson,

25:33

and we think actually this was coming, maybe

25:35

not quite like this, but some

25:38

vulnerability was there and I think the

25:40

strength in depth probably wasn't there. That

25:42

said, Venizius will be back in

25:44

midweek and I reckon he'll tear it

25:46

up. You reckon? Okay. Let's

25:48

see, hopefully, because he was supposed to be out for 42 days

25:51

and theory's going to be back after 28 so

25:53

he would have really...

25:55

That's the risk of course. He really slashed

25:57

the mechatome

25:58

he was supposed to be out.

28:00

a specific thing. Like a

28:02

kind of a- But you're right, I think you're right. They got the goal.

28:05

They got the goal and Barcelona and Real Madrid

28:07

were there in this kind of situation. They're trailing and they're at

28:09

home as well especially. If they get a goal

28:12

and even if there's only nine minutes left, they will always

28:14

believe they can get something out and just get always, always

28:17

just the nature of it. And look at the

28:19

goal as well. It's a gorgeous part. Oh

28:21

yeah. It's a really, really brilliant

28:23

part. And the finish is pretty tasty too, but it goes in

28:25

off the bar and you sort of think, imagine if that hits the bar

28:27

and come out. Yeah. Is that finishing too

28:29

now? Yeah, possibly. Possibly. I

28:32

mean, yeah, it lands again and

28:34

we're back in that territory. But the response was really

28:36

good and the construction

28:39

of the three goals was fantastic.

28:42

The passing on all, the pullback

28:44

from Gail Cancello for Lewandowski's

28:47

second was excellent. And the delivery from Gavi,

28:49

who by the way, played really, really well as a pivot,

28:53

which is an unusual role for him because Gavi

28:55

is someone who you feel like you shouldn't

28:57

tame. You should let him

28:59

go and chase people down and be in people's faces

29:02

and lead the press. And yet if you're saying to

29:04

him, play at pivot, you're basically saying to him, don't

29:06

do that thing that you do because

29:08

this whole thing will collapse at that point. But

29:12

yes, in the end, it didn't collapse and barcelled

29:14

with that three-two victory. A word on the two Girals,

29:17

Jean Felix was a lovely assist,

29:19

Gio Cancello with an assist for the second

29:22

goal and the winner as well. They've

29:25

had quite an impact since coming. They've only

29:27

been there three games and Barcelona scored 13

29:29

goals in those three games. Remember

29:32

this was the Barca team that won 11

29:35

games one nil last season. This

29:37

was not a Barca team that was free-flowing

29:40

and full of goals. And okay, we

29:42

don't need to attribute the

29:45

glut of goals just to the arrival

29:47

of these two players. Obviously not, but it has coincided

29:49

with them looking particularly dangerous in

29:51

the final third. Yeah, and

29:56

just so as not to labour the point because I've said it before, but

29:58

I would just briefly mention, the significance

30:00

of a right back playing not necessarily

30:03

as well as Jael Concello, which is obviously very

30:05

important, but playing that style of game I think

30:07

is really important for the structure of his team and how

30:09

well it all fits together. Jael Phelex is really interesting

30:11

because Chavi has

30:14

at times, well I think has talked at

30:16

least like a manager who wants his

30:18

wide players very wide to make the pitch really,

30:21

really wide. And

30:23

now obviously those players then come inside but the starting

30:25

point is a wide position which opens the pitch

30:27

out and then they come into that space and hopefully

30:29

they've drawn defenders to them and other people can go inside

30:32

channels and so on. What he's doing

30:34

with Jael Phelex I think suggests something different.

30:37

You nominally play on the left but you're sort of

30:39

playing as a number 10, not quite but

30:41

sort of. So you're off Lewandowski

30:44

to the left but you're quite close to him

30:46

and I think there's an, and it's easy to say

30:48

this after the assist he gives Lewandowski at the weekend but it's not

30:51

just that, it's also the non-assist because obviously it

30:53

was officially given to Christensen in the previous

30:55

game when he lets it run for his legs for Lewandowski to score.

30:57

There's an awareness there and I think Lewandowski will

30:59

really appreciate that and I think it's not a coincidence

31:02

that Lewandowski is one of the

31:04

people most benefiting from this. I think

31:06

that that can only work if Paldee continues

31:08

to have the athleticism and also the intelligence

31:11

by the way to make the right runs at the right time

31:13

to go on the outside and allow Jael Phelex to play

31:15

inside and therefore you're saying we're

31:17

still opening the pitch because we've got our

31:20

fallback doing that. Now that requires

31:22

a degree of protection and I think the fact that

31:24

Chavi plays sort of with two pivots

31:27

in parallel, obviously Odio Romel

31:30

and Frankly de Jong can help with that. Now

31:32

with Frankly likely to be out for what is it, six or seven weeks

31:34

I think they reckon, then it'll be interesting to

31:36

see how they remedy that problem.

31:39

With the return of Pedri maybe it doesn't matter enormously,

31:42

maybe but I

31:44

think you're right those two's impacts

31:46

has been huge and quite honestly yeah

31:48

and you know let's own it,

31:51

quite honestly I'm surprised by how

31:53

good Jael Phelex has been. Yeah

31:57

we did not see this coming necessarily but

31:59

it's coming in its own way. and it's a reality in Barcelona.

32:01

Now, top of the table. At

32:03

the top of the table, they're one point clearer for Real Madrid.

32:06

They are level on points with

32:08

Girona, who we're going to talk about in just a second,

32:10

before we move on. A word on

32:12

Celta, by the way, who must have been absolutely

32:15

gutted. And the second time this season

32:17

that they've narrowly lost against

32:20

one of the big boys because they've been beaten

32:22

1-0 by Real Madrid, with Jude Bellingham

32:24

scoring late on, 2-0 up with

32:26

nine minutes to go and they lose 3-2. Fantastic

32:30

first goal in his career in

32:33

La Liga by the division's only

32:35

Greek player, Das Los Luvica.

32:37

Fantastic, well taken. Brilliant. But

32:40

yeah, great numbers in

32:42

the Netherlands, really good numbers. So maybe

32:45

he's going to be a genuine goal scorer. I want to watch

32:47

Das Los Luvica. But yeah, Rafa

32:49

Benitez must be absolutely gutted. Yeah.

32:53

I mean, I was there in San

32:55

Sebastian as well, when they played really well against Real

32:57

Socodad in the second half. There

32:59

are things there. There is something starting

33:01

to happen. I think there's a recognition there. I

33:03

mean, again, look, the opportunism of pointing at

33:07

Aspos on the bench, I think is very

33:09

attractive. But

33:13

they will be very,

33:15

very, very disappointed with how

33:17

it went. I mean, look, it can happen against Barcelona

33:19

and Real Madrid because they have a quality of play. You know, sometimes

33:21

we talk, and in particular with Real Madrid, and

33:24

I think it's understandable and, you know, I fall

33:26

into this as much as anyone else. I'm not claiming that I've

33:28

seen this and no one else does. We do

33:31

sometimes talk about kind of a mystique around

33:33

Madrid and maybe a little bit with Barcelona

33:35

as well. But I think mostly with Madrid. And

33:38

in fact, actually, after this game, Chavi said, we don't

33:40

have this in our history. Real Madrid have this. And so it's

33:42

interesting we have it. I think Chavi overplays the fact

33:44

they don't have this in history. I've heard him say this before, and

33:46

I don't actually entirely agree with him. But

33:49

anyway, and one of the reasons

33:51

why this happens is because they have bloody good players.

33:54

And, you know, you give a bloody good players a little bit longer

33:57

and a little bit longer and a little bit longer and,

33:59

you know, you've got seven. minutes they haven't scored? No, okay,

34:01

but 70 minutes is only 70 of the 90 or 70 of the 100 as

34:04

it might be now. There's still quite a lot of

34:06

minutes to score in. It's true. And

34:09

so that's part of it. But I think from a self-pointed

34:11

view that I don't want

34:13

to play the cliche card, but let me play

34:16

it. They will take some positives from this.

34:18

And I think they will look at this and think, we

34:21

showed that we know what we're doing. And the

34:23

goal, by the way, that Aspuss

34:25

provides the assist on is brilliant.

34:28

And it's brilliant for them to get the ball in the bottom

34:31

right corner, in their own corner, play

34:33

their way out with a three men play, play,

34:35

play kind of two or three little interchanges to

34:37

get out of the press there. They then

34:39

get it to Aspuss who delivers just

34:42

a beautifully weighted pass.

34:44

It looks relatively simple. I think if you watch it again,

34:46

the weight on it is just wonderful.

34:49

And so I think, I think Raf will be pissed

34:51

off, no doubt about it.

34:53

And

34:54

you know,

34:56

he's a man who expresses his pissed offness,

34:59

if that's a real word, quite, quite openly.

35:01

But I think, I think fundamentally he

35:03

should be pretty pleased with the way things are going. There

35:05

are 18th in the table, which is four points. Yeah, which

35:07

isn't good. Which isn't great. Not good. But

35:10

I do think I do think there is enough there

35:13

to think that, you know, this will be all right.

35:15

A word on Girona before we go, Sibs. They recorded their

35:17

fifth victory of the season, five wins

35:20

and a draw from their first six

35:22

games. They're the only team unbeaten in La Lica

35:25

along with Barcelona. They

35:27

beat Mallorca, 5-3, absolutely

35:29

dismantled them in the first half. They

35:32

were 1-0 daily. And then they just absolutely

35:35

battered the Mallorca goal. It was wave

35:37

after wave after wave of attack. There

35:40

were four 1-up at halftime. They scored a

35:42

fifth at the start of the second half as well. And

35:44

they completely overwhelmed

35:47

Mallorca, who in theory are a defensively stringed

35:50

unit. They're playing really effective

35:52

football. They've made some really intelligent

35:54

signings as well. They've shored

35:56

up a little bit defensively. Last season they

35:59

conceded a lot of games. of gold this season they're

36:01

conceding fewer and listen in

36:03

midweek they trail to Vierraile and

36:06

then they host rail Madrid next weekend

36:08

at Mondilivi a fixture last

36:11

season they won 4-2 with Tati

36:13

Castellanos scoring four goals so

36:15

it's really exciting times for Girodos. Really

36:19

exciting because this doesn't feel,

36:21

look we know it is

36:23

a one-off in the sense that we know then they're

36:25

not going to finish second well maybe they are imagine

36:27

that okay but we think they're not going to finish second

36:30

but we look at this team and this

36:32

isn't a team like often happens when

36:34

a smaller team is quite near the top of the table early in

36:36

the season you think wow you know they've

36:39

fluked a few results or they're very defensively

36:41

strong and it won't continue like this or they're very

36:43

effective in front of goal this is a team that you look at and you go no

36:46

they're a bloody good football team everything

36:48

they do they do well except maybe that little

36:50

bit of attention late in the games because it's not the first

36:52

time it's happened to them you know they're five one up and they concede

36:54

two it's 89 for 94 for

36:56

things about Don Pratt's both of them but then that you know

36:58

that's that's understandable if

37:01

they come through the VL game the Real Madrid game

37:03

with two wins then

37:05

I think we start looking at them and saying okay this team

37:07

finishes in the top six yeah I think they will

37:09

start looking in fact I

37:12

in fact I'm starting to think that already I don't

37:14

want to jump the gun but they

37:17

they look like a team where all of the

37:19

pieces fit where

37:21

there's a very clear identity where

37:24

the identity is positive as well and

37:27

and I just think there's

37:29

a stability at club level as well

37:31

again you don't want to overplay that because you know your

37:34

players have still got to be good and your coaches still being not

37:36

to be good and they've been down with this same

37:38

ownership they were relegated and came back again

37:41

but there is a stability there and I think there is

37:43

a clarity there which kind of finished 10th last

37:45

season but they had a chance to finish in a European

37:47

spot until the penultimate match day

37:49

so yeah there's a chance

37:52

that they could go one better and claim

37:54

European football for the first time steady 76

37:57

match days but they're playing very very well yes Before

38:00

we go, a quick word of

38:02

what's going on in the Segunda at the time of recording. Zaragoza

38:05

are top on 16 points and they hadn't even

38:07

played this weekend. They trailed to Raphine

38:09

Ferrol tonight. Leganes are second,

38:12

they won 3-1 at Mirandes. Espanyol,

38:14

who are third, trailed to Tenerife tonight. Levante

38:16

beat Aldense and Oviedo and

38:19

new coach Luis Carreon were beaten

38:21

1-0 at home by Real Valladolid, thanks to

38:23

a stunning 92-minute winner, 92-minute

38:26

winner from Marcos Andre. This

38:28

week, we've got midweek La Liga. So on Tuesday

38:30

it's Sevilla, Almeria and Mallorca-Barcelona.

38:33

Then on Wednesday it's Athletic Club against Getafe,

38:35

Villarreal-Girona, Real Madrid-Las Palmas,

38:38

Caniff-Rio and Valencia-Real Sociedad.

38:41

And then on Thursday it's Granada against Betis,

38:43

Fielda Alaves and Osasuna at

38:45

Lati. Lots for us to talk about over

38:47

at Patreon for the rest of the week. So make

38:49

sure you're going to join us, patreon.com forward

38:52

slash TSFP. And if you don't, it's fine.

38:54

We'll be back here every Monday as

38:56

we always are. Adios. Cheerio.

39:27

you