Matchday 11 Preview

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1:47hello everyone and welcome to this week's preview podcast on a friday brought to you by tsfp the spanish shuttle podcast i'm phil kitramelidis sidlow is with me once again hello sydney hello phil uh friday morning we are ready to look ahead to what's coming up on match day 11 in la liga EA Sports. We are flying through the match days this season. Can't be 11 already. Yes, hurtling into November, Sid, for match day 11. This is what's coming up on match day 11, and I do not want to hear any childish, moronic, silly, stupid jokes about Getafe playing on Halloween. Okay? Nothing about dark arts, demonic, satanic football, anything like that.

2:32Tonight, it's Getafe against Girona. That'll be a treat. Yes, a treat. Not a nightmare or anything like that. Then on Saturday, we've got Villarreal against the mighty Rayo Vallecano. A good-looking game, which I'll be commentating on Saturday afternoon at 4.15. Atletico Madrid against Sevilla. Then you've got the bar starby between Real Sociedad and Athletic Club. And an interesting-looking game at the Bernabeu, for all sorts of reasons. Real Madrid against Valencia. Then on Sunday, Levante-Celto Vigo, Alaves against a high-flying Espanyol, Barcelona decimated by injuries against Elche, and Real Betis against Mallorca is the Sunday night game.

3:13You're going to Oviedo on Monday, Sid, for more masochistic entertainment as Oviedo hosts us sooner. So, where shall we start? Don't think we're going to dwell too much on tonight's game. We never really talk about the Friday game too much on the preview podcast because a lot of people listen on Saturday and Sunday. So we don't want to date it too much. We'll start with Saturday's matches. And it's an interesting looking one between Atletico Madrid and Sevilla. On paper, it's a big game between two big sides. In practice, Sevilla reeling a little bit after two defeats following that amazing 4-1 win against Barcelona.

3:54They lost 3-1 to Mallorca and 2-1 to Real Sociedad, two sides who were in the relegation zone when they were playing Sevilla. So the wheel's coming off a little bit for Sevilla. And Atletico Madrid, fresh from getting their first away win of the season last weekend, a really good win on Monday night at Betis, flying at home, where they're very, very strong and entertaining. So in theory, Sid, this should be a home win. It should be. it should be and as you say Sevilla came off the back of that battering of Barcelona and they were actually one up against Mallorca and Mallorca scored I think I'm right in saying scored three times in in 10 minutes late late in the game with Mateo Joseph scoring twice actually which is which is kind of quite exciting because of his his backstory and the sort of the English connection and and so on so that that was quite fun I think what what Almeida said about that actually is is probably the best way to go into this with Sevilla is that the Barcelona game um I wouldn't go so far as to say it gave a false impression of them.

4:54In fact, no, I would go so far as to say it gave a false impression of them because they didn't just beat Barcelona, they battered them. And I think it was the specifics of the occasion that enabled them to beat Barcelona, reading the game really well. And I do think there is a clarity about them this year that wasn't there the year before. The Barcelona game was a third win, I think, in four. At that point, they beat in Rio. Although I was at that Rio game and they were really fortunate to beat Rio in truth. They won one, they looked at Vallecas. They were very, very lucky to beat them. But I do think there's a there's an identity there's a seriousness about them that wasn't there last year but there's still a limitation you know you look through the Sevilla squad and you still don't see a huge amount of really great players um and in fact their best player last year Dodi Luka-Bacchio has gone which is what we probably expect Loic Bade uh is gone I think he's the last of the signings from the Monchi era and so there are limitations to them and the truth is that yes away at Atletico Madrid I think it will um suit them if you like kind of emotionally in terms of the motivational side of it, but the likelihood is that Atletico will be the stronger side.

5:53And Atletico have been good for most of the season, even in those away games, with the exception of away at, it was Alaves, wasn't it, where they were really terrible and really, really were bad. But they've mostly not played badly, even in defeat. The worst home game was the Elche game, and I think Elche proposed a very different type of approach to Sevilla. They want a lot more of the ball, they're a lot less direct, they're a lot less physical. And even in that Elche game, they had chances to go 2-0 up as well. Yes, exactly. Even in the Elche game, they really should have been in the position where they put it out of sight.

6:25Am I right in saying that Atletico has still scored first in every game this season? I think that's right, isn't it? All 10 matches. Yeah, all 10 league games. So if we want to make a prediction, prediction is Sevilla score first that weekend and we find him... No way. No, it's not going to happen, is it? Well, it might. It might. It's not completely crazy. Yeah. But yeah, Atletico Madrid, particularly at home, sort of worth watching, you know, entertaining. Very much so. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And this is a different type of side. There was an interview last night on the radio with Gabi Fernandes, who was the linchpin of that first Atletico Madrid title-winning team, and the embodiment of it as well.

7:00And he said, this is a different type of Atletico to the ones we used to be. Yes, it's not very, very strong, very defensive, a little bit dirty at times. These are all things that can define Gabi Fernandes that read the game really well defensively. But going forwards, they're a far better side. I still think there's a slight... How do you put this? There's a slight sense for me of Atletico finding their identity, even now. Because I think, obviously, partly because Bayern are until the game on Monday hadn't scored, hadn't really played a key role. I think some of those pieces still need to be put in place.

7:33Yes, and I think as Alex Bayern gets a run of matches in the team, we're going to see them perhaps discover and develop their identity a little bit more. Pablo Barrios missing for this one. Presumably Gallagher, I would guess, in his place. Major absence. All right, so that's Atletico Madrid against Sevilla. Then immediately after that is the Basque derby. It's a fixture that we like for all sorts of reasons, what it means on and off the pitch as well. In terms of purely numbers, it's ninth against 17th, two teams who have not had good seasons, two teams who could really do with a win for the points, not just for the emotional boost that you get from winning the derby as well.

8:16Yeah, for the points, because of the basic mechanics of their league positions, particularly in the case of Real Sociedad, who are just outside the relegation zone. But I also think that the emotional impact of it would be very significant, particularly for La Real, who've only won twice all season. One of them was last weekend against Sevilla with the two Mikel Oya Zawal goals. And I thought they were OK. I'm not going to claim they were brilliant, but I thought they were okay. They had a little bit less of the ball, but created more clear chances, in my opinion, at least. There's at least a couple of really good chances, plus, of course, the goals.

8:50And I think for them to go to San Mames and get something would emotionally be a big lift. I think there was a real feeling last weekend, wasn't there, that that victory probably saved Sergio Francisco his job. Yes. I don't think he suddenly loses it if they now lose the derby, unless they lose the derby in a particularly bad way. From Athletic's point of view, I still think we're in that weird cycle with Athletic, which is that they need a break because they're getting players injured. They've had a lot of players who've looked fatigued. They've tried to find the formula to rotate through the side.

9:23And, you know, you speak to people there and they say that most teams have a squad to be able to play on two fronts. Athletic did it last year relatively successful. Well, very successfully, actually, because they won a Champions League place at the end of the season. playing in UEFA and in the league, but they knew they were only a few injuries away from really being on edge. And they are on edge now. And with Inaki Williams out for probably a month or so, maybe more, I think they've got very significant problems. And they've also got a decision to make, which is they've had the week off now, which I think is really, really good for them, not playing in the Copa array.

9:57None of the Super League teams, sorry, Super Copa teams do. But I think they do have a decision to make about the prioritisation of this or the game in midweek when, of course, they go to Newcastle from the Champions League. Yes, of course, Champions League returning next week. A few injuries for Athletic Club. You mentioned Iñaki Williams isn't available. Inigo Leque is out. Marwan Sanadi, Benyat Prados is a long-term injury. And, of course, most importantly, yesterday, Nico Williams didn't train with the group. We'll see what happens today in terms of his training. and Merrick Laporte also not training with the group.

10:35So we'll see whether or not they can make it for the Barca derby. And you certainly, sorry, you certainly don't take any risks with Nico, particularly now when you've got Inyaki out, because you've got very, very little real creativity there. Bernabeu Saturday night, Real Madrid against Valencia. Real Madrid currently five points clear at the top of the table after that Clasico victory. They could actually go eight points clear of Barcelona if they beat a Valencia side who are really struggling, a Valencia side who are in the relegation zone. There is pressure mounted on Carlos Corbaran. We'll talk about the game, but we can also talk about Xabi Alonso's reaction to Vinicius' reaction last week in the Clasico for being sent off and his reaction to the apology, which very pointedly didn't mention his name.

11:24Is Vinicius going to start this game? I think we said on Monday that we think he probably is. Well, I was just thinking, you know, at the start of this podcast, when you said this, Real Madrid-Valencia game was really interesting for lots of reasons. There was a bit of me, tongue-in-cheek, that was tempted to respond by saying, which I will now do, tempted to respond by saying, well, it's interesting when we get the team sheet and after that everyone can go home. It seems to be the only thing anyone's interested in. Xavi Alonso's press conference, as you say, he did his press conference early this morning because Real Madrid have the presentation of the golden boot to Kylian Mbappe in the afternoon.

11:56So the whole team's going to that. And basically every question was about Vinicius. There was a really nice one at one point where there was about six or seven questions in and someone said, I'm going to ask you about Vinicius again. And Shabby says, well, you can, but if you want the same answer. He said, I would encourage you not to waste your question on Vinicius. And he said, but you're perfectly free to, you know, to ask whatever you want. Right. To pick up on the basics of this, the most important thing I think that everyone wants to know and that implicitly was there in every single question, which is, has Vinicius repologised to you?

12:28Xabi Alonso said that he spoke to everybody. He said he spoke from the heart. He spoke very honestly. And as far as I'm concerned, it's done. It's over. It's all OK. But he avoided three or four times an attempt to get him to say, yes, Vinicius apologized to me. And he said, I'm satisfied with the apology. As far as I'm concerned, it's over. It's done. I think he has to say that. I think he has to do that. But I thought it was noticeable that he wasn't going to allow. he wasn't going to give Vinicius the out that says, oh, despite the statement, he did actually apologise to me. So don't worry about it.

13:01He wasn't going to give him that for whatever reason, really. But anyway, he says it's done. I think it would be such a statement if Vinicius didn't start. I think he does. I think Xavi Alonso will be cautious. It's very difficult balancing at this for Xavi because he will be cautious about not taking Vinicius off early in games and not leaving out the team. Will he? But, well, here's the thing. He will also have to be cautious about not doing it. Yeah. Because if Vinicius suddenly goes now, let's say for argument's sake, Vinicius goes five games, 90 minutes every game, when this has not been the case all season, then people are going to go, you took your pants down.

13:41Or maybe someone told you to take your pants down. And so, yeah, I think Shabby's ideal situation is that Vinicius plays an absolute blinder. has already scored a couple of goals and he can take him off on 75 minutes, give him a round of applause, but also have taken him off, if you see what I mean. I mean, that's perfectly plausible. Yes, it is. Absolutely is. Yeah, of course it is. Against a Valencia team who I think will try and defend and not very much else. Oh, yeah? Is that what we're expecting? I would be very surprised if they did anything different. You never know. They won at the Bernabeu last season.

14:19They did. And that was largely based on playing on the counter-attack. If you look at the statistics from that game, I can't remember the numbers, but I remember the game quite clearly. And I thought Valencia actually managed it very well. You know, I think they did keep Real Madrid at arm's length, but they basically allowed Real Madrid the ball. They ran their counter-attacks really well. I think Carlos Corbettan is very, very good organisationally last year. That seems to have fallen apart. And one of the reasons for that, without wanting to, what's the word, sort of push too hard at this idea, but there's definitely something in it.

14:51One of the reasons that is actually some of the players are not that enamored with the way they're doing things this year.

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16:29Storm. Zero sugar, 200 milligrams of caffeine and immunity support. Storm. Energy for life. Just going back to what you were saying, I had a feeling this might be the case and I've double checked and it is. Valencia, to coin the beautiful Spanish phrase, are Vinicius' favourite victims. Are they? Scored more goals against them than any other team. Nine goals in 13 matches in all comps. So there you go. Vinicius gets two, taken off, big round of applause, makes a big show of shaking Xavi Alonso's hand, sits down and everyone says it's okay. Oof, I, yeah. I think he might not shake the hand. I think the shake hand bit might not happen.

17:08Wow. All right. Well, let's see. Let's see what happens on Saturday night at the Bernabeu. Then on Sunday, Barcelona against Elche, of course, a Pedri-less Barcelona, Pedri out for about three weeks with a muscle injury. Again, I think we spoke about this on the bonus podcast for patrons over at patreon.com forward slash TSFP yesterday. If you're not a patron, you really should be. There is so much extra content. If you're very interested in Spanish football and you want in-depth constant analysis, come and join us from just€4.75 a month, just over a quid a week to get bonus podcasts, access to the WhatsApp community, the Discord loads of stuff going on, the newsletter as well, come and join us, patreon.com forward slash TSFP how are Barcelona going to cope with the absence of Pedri and not just who's going to play in the team instead of him because it's going to be Marc Cazador and Frankie de Jong I think, but how do they cope without having someone as important as Pedri in the team the flippant and probably true answer is badly because I don't think there's anyone who does what he does.

18:18I think the nearest thing to what he does, I suppose, is Frankie de Jong. So you've got someone who at least can play the ball, can keep the ball, can try and run the pace of the game, can try and control it. I think what we might see if Casado starts, and I think you're right, I think he probably will, is Frankie being a little bit more liberated or maybe the opposite, a little bit more, given more responsibility for carrying that weight in the game. Actually, I'd say in the last couple of matches for Barcelona, which haven't been brilliant performances against Real Madrid and Giordano. Frankie de Jong has been, you know, one of their best players.

18:48Yes, I agree with you. Yeah, I agree with you. And I think he may well be encouraged to carry the ball a little bit more, to do those runs that he does, that kind of, you know, that sort of clears the space in front of him a little bit, carries it seven, eight, nine metres, things open up a little bit, different passing angles open up and so on. I think, obviously, Firmin's going to be very important in terms of creativity and in terms of, well, not so much creativity, actually, because Firmin's not a creative player, as such. Except that I suppose when you score goals, you've created something.

19:16But, you know, that ability to arrive in the area, to occupy the spaces that are owned before him and to be decisive, I think is really, really important. I wonder if what we might... Do you think there'll be a temptation, here's one for you, from Flick to certainly once he gets all of his forwards back, once Rafinha and Lewandowski... Which is not the case at the moment. Not the case yet, but shouldn't be that far off now. Yeah. I wonder if there's a temptation for him to play an extra forward. So, one of his forwards plays behind the forwards and to allow him essentially to hide the fact that he hasn't got enough midfielders.

19:49So instead of it being Fermin at number 10, maybe Fermin does play sometimes in the middle and that number 10 role is occupied by, presumably it would be Rafinha. Interesting. It doesn't look like Rafinha is going to be available for Sunday's game, but Lamin-Yamal will be. Lamin, who was told, I think, to keep a little bit of a low profile this week. there was a what do you call it? Acto publicitario Like a sponsors event Sponsors event that he was supposed to do I think on Tuesday in Barcelona and that was cancelled I must admit I think I think that's pointless Let me explain what I mean by that You have just had a Clasico in which things haven't gone particularly brilliantly in particular all the focus around Laminya Mahl and the focus about is he a little bit is he a little bit puffed up at the moment does he does he like himself a little bit too much does he need to be calmed down a little bit okay fine right but you've just lost a classico if you cancel a sponsors event that's already been organized now far bit from me to kind of play the world's smallest violin on behalf of the journalists that were probably going the sponsors that set it up and all the rest of it right but you know there there is an element of that you're pissing off a lot of people what are you actually gaining by him not going there you're gaining him not saying anything.

21:08Yes. Like, so? I mean, I think what you do when you do this, and by the way, I'm not just talking about Barcelona. I'll give you an example of this. This has happened at Real Loviella this week. A couple of events have been cancelled because of the, you know. When you sort of bunker down, when you hide in your castle, when you go silent, what you really do is draw attention to abnormality, isn't it? I think it makes, I don't think you gain anything by it. I think it's such a short-sighted and such a kind of, how would I put this, point the finger at the wrong people sort of reaction. Surely, right, let's say, I mean, I don't know what the act was.

21:47Let's assume that Luminium R was sponsoring some boots or something, right? And that boot sponsor event was going to involve a series of interviews. Okay, well, you do the event, maybe you reduce the number of interviews or maybe you have someone with Luminium R saying, look, just don't sound stupid. It's been a difficult week. But the best thing you can do when you've lost a Classico and had an event like this, I think, is face up to it and own it. Yeah, but it wasn't just about losing the Classico, was it? No, exactly. But I think if you run away with it, you make it worse. I don't know. I just think this idea that, oh, well, just shut up, I think is really, really short-sighted, particularly in a club that has such enormous repercussions of Barcelona.

22:26There is a repercussion to not talking as well as a repercussion to talking is, I suppose, is the fundamental point I'm making. Okay, okay. I mean, there are suggestions that, you know, Barca as a club have basically told Lamin, stay at home and shush, don't say anything. Yeah, that's not necessarily a bad thing as a long-term plan. But what I mean is the immediacy of cancelling things you were going to do draws attention to it. Yeah, because we're talking about it. Here we are. Yeah, here we are. But then we would have talked about what he said anyway. Yes, that is true. But if he'd said something sensible, then, you know, if he'd said, I know, it's no big deal.

23:01it kind of, you know, we get wound up in the classicos, a couple of comments too far, you know, then surely that's a better way of dealing with it, isn't it? Maybe it's not. Maybe I'm being naive here because let's face it, I do work in an industry where we can, and I participate in it, I suppose, as well. I'm as guilty as anyone. We've just psychoanalyzed everything that Shabu Alonso said in the press conference as well. But I don't know, yeah, maybe I'm a hypocrite or more to a point, maybe I'm not seeing that my industry is full of shit as well. Potentially as well, potentially. Yeah. Sorry about that.

23:31Two important side notes here. One, it was a sponsors act for a mobile phone company. So there we go. There you go. And two, erroneously suggested that Pedri was out for three weeks when it's more like six or seven to the mid-December. So he's going to miss quite a few important games, Pedri. Okay, there we go. That's what's coming up this week in La Liga EA Sports. We've had a little preview of some of the matches. looking forward to seeing what Elche can do against Barcelona as well. Edis Herrabia going back to his former club with his current club after a little bit of a drop-off in form from Elche following a brilliant start.

24:11But I think it can cause Barcelona some problems, Sid. And you will think that as well. I think it's interesting as well because I think they will approach Barcelona in a different way to most teams. They won't do what Sevilla did, but nor will they do the parking bus thing. But I think they'll want the ball. here's a little game for us this weekend who will have more possession will it be Elche or Barcelona? I think it will be Barcelona Sid let's see, I'm not 100 % sure oh fun game play along at home guys if you want to get involved in the madness who will have more possession in Barcelona against Elche enjoy the football this weekend guys we'll be back on Monday to reflect on what happens on match day 11 in La Liga EA Sports so make sure you join us then adios amigos cheerio Thank you.

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