Real Deal Pods: rivals in decline

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VIDEO:

About the latest episode of the Real Deal (the analysis segment of the Management Madrid podcast) Siddharth Ramsundar and Mazin Mukhtar We tactically discussed the state of Real Madrid and came to an indisputable conclusion: no matter how poorly the team performs, the lack of serious opposition at the national and European level gives this team a much larger margin of error than we have become accustomed to. in the last 15 years. years.

During the Ronaldo era, 90-95 point title races were routine and the standards were very high. Furthermore, in Europe there used to be several giants outside of Real Madrid. Last season, Real Madrid, with 95 points, was the first La Liga team to cross the 90-point threshold since Ronaldo left the league. Barcelona have been much weaker in the years since Ronaldo left, and have also struggled for long periods of consistency since Messi left. Bayern Munich have been more inconsistent in all competitions since their treble in 2020.

This season, Real Madrid has played the worst football in recent times and has not been punished for it in La Liga. In the Champions League, no serious giant could materialize the knockouts that would occur. serious favorites in a tie against Vinicius, Bellingham, Mbappé and others.

This is the consequence of having the best players in the world, but also a consequence of rival teams perhaps becoming too obsessed with tactics or not having the strength to accumulate players of the same quality as Real Madrid. Still, in the 2010s there were Bale, Benzema and Ronaldo at Madrid and Messi, Neymar and Suárez at Barcelona. Right now, the gap between Real Madrid’s best attacking line and the rest seems significantly large. Barcelona’s attackers are great on paper, but partly because they are based on a system that misses a ridiculous number of opportunities.

Mazin’s previous appearance:

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Hosts this week:

Siddharth Ramsundar (@TacticalFouling)

Mazin Mukhtar (@MazinMuk)