La Pausa

Real Madrid travel to play Barcelona in La Liga with both sides coming off victories in the Champions League. Xavi has been dealt some difficult injuries to key players like Pedri, Frenkie de Jong and Robert Lewandowski but Eder Militao and Thibaut Courtois are also out for Carlo Ancelotti's side. On the podcast, Jamie Kemp and Robbie Dunne discuss Real Madrid's game against a resurgent Sevilla un...

On this podcast, Robbie Dunne and Jamie Kemp discuss Atlético Madrid's win over Real Sociedad. Diego Simeone's men won a close game but could Imanol Alguacil have done more earlier to avoid the defeat? Or was this simply a case if fine margins deciding the result. They also discuss Barcelona's injury woes and how Xavi has coped while naming Barcelona's best XI when everyone is fit. They finish the...

Robbie Dunne and Jamie Kemp discuss Real Madrid's statement win over Girona and the missed chances by the home side. They also look over the Basque derby as Real Sociedad hit their stride. And finally, they chat about Las Palmas vs. Celta Vigo, a clash of styles and Rafa Benitez' project running in to problems.  Don't forget to follow the podcast on X

In this episode, Jamie Kemp and Robbie Dunne welcome The Athletic's Seb Stafford-Bloor onto the podcast to discuss Union Berlin's improbable journey into the Champions League. We ask Seb for his opinion on where Union Berlin can hurt Real Madrid and what we can expect from them tactically. He also offers his opinion on Jude Bellingham, a player he watched a lot last season for Borussia Dortmund.&n...

In this episode, Jamie Kemp and Robbie Dunne discuss how Spain took care of business during the international break. They also take a look at all five Spanish teams in the Champions League – Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Real Sociedad and Villarreal. The big questions for each team are: How Xavi handles Lamine Yamal and the possible absence of Ilkay Gundogan. Can Jude Bellingham keep de...

On this week's podcast, Robbie Dunne and Jamie Kemp bring you 10 observations along with 10 stats from the first four games of the 2023-24 La Liga season. Jude Bellingham's Cesc Fabregas-like start to life at Real Madrid, Frenkie de Jong's insane amount of touches, Celta Vigo's weird ability to get touches in the opposition box but not convert them into chances and Las Palmas' as the high turnover...

This week, the lads discuss a couple of managers and teams obsessed with having the ball. Robbie Dunne and Jamie Kemp begin with the chaos at the Ceramica where Barcelona led by two, then saw Villarreal score twice to level the game before half-time. Villarreal went ahead and then Barcelona finally came back to win 4-3. Fair to say it was a wild one. Then we will talk about Las Palmas, who bossed...

On this week’s show, we recruit the help of Opta Analyst’s Ollie Hopkins to help us dissect the topic of playing time, and how the early weeks in LaLiga have panned out. After an interesting chat with Ollie, which revealed some fairly startling data, we switched across to discuss Sunday night’s showpiece in LaLiga (or at least in theory), Real Betis 0-0 Atlético Madrid… true, we didn’t get any goa...

La Liga's back with gameweek 1 in the books, so there's no better time to bring you our first "La Pausa" podcast of the 2023-24 season. As much as there is to talk about domestically, we were joined by special guest Ryan Benson of Opta Analyst to focus on Sevilla as they prepare to face Manchester City in the European Super Cup final. We also touch upon their strange squad-building, or lack thereo...

In the fourth and final instalment of our La Liga 2023-24 Summer Transfer Solutions series: We discuss Thibaut Courtois's injury news along with Real Madrid in general, Real Sociedad and how they adjust after David Silva's injury. We also chat about Sevilla's underwhelming summer and Valencia's downright sad situation at present. And we wrap things up with Villarreal and Quique Setien's new-look s...

We discuss Las Palmas, Mallorca, Osasuna, Rayo Vallecano and Real Betis as we continue our preseason previews. We focus particularly on: Las Palmas’ identity, Kirian Rodriguez and one of the best summer transfer windows in Spain How Mallorca replace Kang-In Lee Osasuna’s young guns and underrated attack The great unknown that is Rayo Vallecano Real Betis’ options in midfield and...

This week we are discussing Cadiz, Celta Vigo, Getafe, Girona and Granada as we look ahead to the 2023-24 La Liga season preview. We also spend some time waxing lyrical at the start of the pod about Jude Bellingham and how good he has looked for Real Madrid during their US summer tour.

Robbie and Jamie discuss news of David Silva’s ACL injury and then we work our way through 25% of La Liga as we look at their squads and declare an objective for each one (the other teams are coming in future episodes). We talk about Joao Felix and Atlético Madrid’s messy current arrangement, Athletic Club pushing for a Champions League place, Barcelona’s nifty summer business an...

On the pod this week, the lads discuss Girona in depth – their signings, departures and how Michel is planning to play in a season where he wants to make history.  We touch on Oriol Romeu’s importance and his seemingly imminent departure to Barcelona, Arnau Martínez’s role and what they do up front with Taty Castellanos’s exit.

We take a look at Spain’s under-21 team and their march to the final of the Euros against England on Saturday. We chat about the biggest surprises, where the ceiling is for some of Spain’s more under-rated players and whether Santi Denia might be ready to coach at club level. We also have a brief discussion about Atlético’s transfer business.

On this week’s pod, we discuss Spain’s Euro U-21 group stage games and how Santi Denia has set up his team to play. We chat about the merits and drawbacks of squeezing Gabri Veiga into the team. We also talk about other standout players including Rodri and Alex Baena.  It’s transfer market season and we discuss out favourite signings so far.

Robbie and Jamie had a relaxing summer planned but now they’re all in on the Under-21 Euros after Spain impressed against Romania. We discuss Oihen Sancet, Rodri and some of Spain’s other players. We also take the opportunity to discuss some of the summer news as Rafa Benitez returns to La Liga, Monchi leaves Sevilla for another Villa and the Segunda playoffs. 

Robbie and Jamie gives out awards in a wide range of categories including: Best player Best manager Best signing Most disappointing signing Most surprising storyline The Irrational Appreciation Award The ‘Why aren’t we talking about this?’ Award Some categories caused more debate than others but we have a good chat about them all. 

Jamie is in Las Palmas trying to get a trial with Garcia Pimienta’s side. Robbie is in Madrid wondering why Real Madrid want Joselu. This week, we discuss recent news and some of the headlines we think will dominate this summer. We cover: Sevilla – the Kings of the Europa League Athletic Club’s limitations and the casting of their net in search of talent Míchel’s Girona and their...

In this week’s episode, we discuss Quique Setien’s Villarreal and how he has become less patient and more direct than his Real Betis days. We also discuss the young talent at Villarreal and how Setien might build his team should he stay on next season. There’s plenty of Nicolas Jackson chat, Alex Baena praise and discussion about where Villarreal go from here.

On this episode we discuss where Real Madrid go from hear after getting an authentic thrashing off Manchester City. Does Ancelotti stay or does he go? What positions do Real Madrid need to strengthen this summer? Is Vinicius on a express train to Burnout City? Could Fede Valverde be deployed as a right-back? And we also discuss poor Guti and his three-minute sad face scene on El Chiringuito.

This week, we discuss Atlético Madrid Revival post-World Cup. Topics covered include: Is Mario Hermoso the best left centre-back in the world? Antoine Griezmann’s back to his best and there might be more to come How Simeone was finally convinced that defending with the ball was the way forward New signings in the summer and a general squad overview

This week, we discuss Elche, Espanyol, Valencia, Getafe, Cádiz, Real Valladolid and Almería. We look at each of their chances of staying in LaLiga and discuss what went wrong for them this season.

On this epidose, Rob and Jamie discuss the darling of the tactics world, Andoni Iraola. Rayo Vallecano didn’t just beat Barcelona in Vallecas in LaLiga, they were superior all over the field for most of the game. The former Athletic Club player who has turned into a wonderful manager keeps getting big results against big teams. We chat about Rayo’s press and Iraola’s tactics, the...

In this episode, we discuss the Basque Derby. We dig into the role of the Williams brothers during the game and Imanol Alguacil’s system change at half time. Are Athletic Club knocking on the door of the Champions League or have the left it too late?