The Real Deal: A Real Madrid Podcast

Jarod Hector and Siddharth talk about what to expect at the Club World Cup, Xabi's amazing quotes, Carreras' performance for Benfica, Franco's performance for River Plate, and more.

Jarod and Loconte talk latest Real Madrid news and whether Los Blancos players are overrated or underrated by football media.

Loconte discusses Xabi Alonso's first day as coach, the left back situation with Carreras stalling, reports on Arda Guler in midfield, whether Alonso will treat the Club World Cup as a preseason, Franco Mastantuono, and the reports surrounding Rodrygo.

Sid reacts to Portugal's stunning victory in the Nations League Final and discusses Lamine's surprisingly weak statistical case for Ballon d'Or.

Loconte and Sid review the offense-heavy Nations League semifinal, and go over the performances of individuals relevant to Real Madrid: Mbappe, Huijsen, Dembele, Deschamps, Nico Williams, and more.

Jarod joins Sid to discuss PSG's dominant Champions League win, their organizational strategy and whether they are a threat to Real Madrid's Champions League dominance going forward, whether PSG got better without Mbappe, Mbappe-Ewing theory discussions, and Luka Doncic-Kylian Mbappe parallels.

Loconte is here to discuss his ideal summer of transfers for Real Madrid: Stiller, Nico Williams, Nico Paz, Muriqi, Budimir, Rodrygo, Ceballos, Fran Garcia and more.

Jarod Hector and Sid discuss how our new defensive signings can take on a large role in buildup play and mitigate the need for another midfield signing. The net total 'problem solving' capabilities of Trent, Huijsen and Carreras easily make up for the loss of playmaking and IQ we had with Modric, Kroos and Alaba going forward, it just won't look the exact same.

Loconte reacts to Xabi Alonso's appointment as new Real Madrid manager. Real Deal Live will soon be a recurring fixed segment on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Jarod Hector joins Sid to discuss developmental and performance goals for Alonso to set for our squad next season in attack. How did they fare this last season, and what needs to change?

Jarod Hector joins Sid to discuss how Xabi Alonso will impact the individual impact of all our players on defense on a player-by-player basis: Bellingham, Mbappe, Rudiger, Valverde, Vinicius, and co. We grade their seasons within the context of how little defensive structure or organization they had, and then discuss what needs to change from them next season.

Loconte and Sid discuss Trent Alexander Arnold's fit at Real Madrid. In particular: how much Madrid will benefit from him, and how much he will benefit from the talent around him like Fede Valverde. How he revolutionized Klopp's Liverpool by helping them break down deep blocks, his crazy assist stats that everyone is familiar with by now, his De Bruyne/Fabregas type range from right back, how he c...

Loconte joins Sid to go over Xabi Alonso's arrival as coach and what to expect at Real Madrid. Will he marry positional spacing with relationist spontaneity to create a new revolutionary style of football? Or is that all tactical hype from twitter tacticos? Tune in.

Jarod joins Sid to go over the 4th clasico defeat of the season and to look ahead. We discuss Vinicius & Mbappe's chemistry, the weak block defending, the need to rotate going forward with the Club World Cup on the horizon, and more.

Loconte joins Sid to preview El Clasico tactics. How can Ancelotti setup to avoid a fourth straight defeat and keep the league alive? Who should Real Madrid sign this summer and what's with the reporting coming out of the club?

Jarod and Sid sit down to discuss Real Madrid's summer business. Who would be signed in an ideal summer? Why are so many potential signings considered so pricey? Has the stadium revenue situation hurt the team more than they are letting on? Tune in.

Jarod Hector joins Sid to discuss who they would keep, sell and loan out of the current Real Madrid squad.

Jarod Hector joins Sid to go over the improved tactics in the defeat to Barcelona, the shift to the 4-1-4-1 shape that salvaged the first half, Jude's dominance, Mbappe's performance off the bench, and more.

Loconte and Sid preview the Barcelona game: What's going on with the referee incident at the moment? Will it galvanize the team or will they struggle? Then they get into the ideal setup for tomorrow's game, as well as Barcelona's absences of Lewandowski and Balde and how that factor in. We discuss various tactical wrinkles like Tchouameni's presence as a screener, the need to attack Gerard Martin...

Jarod Hector joins Siddharth Ramsundar in the aftermath of Real Madrid's loss to Arsenal to talk about Real Madrid's direction and tactical flaws this season, stats behind the team's successes, Ancelotti's struggles to give the team structure that helps them, Jude Bellingham's position, the team's inability to replace Toni Kroos, what needs to change at the club going forward, and a whole lot more...

StatsBomb founder Ali Elfakharany returns with Siddharth Ramsundar to preview the 2nd legs of the Champions League Quarterfinals. Do Real Madrid have a chance at upsetting Arsenal, and what would that game look like? We also look at the PSG - Aston Villa tie and the odds of Bayern Munich going away and winning in Milan. We also preview the hypothetical semifinal matchup Arsenal v PSG and wonder wh...

On the first postgame episode of the new Real Deal, Siddharth Ramsundar is joined by Loconte and Jarod Hector to review a disappointing but not wholly surprising performance by Real Madrid at the Emirates. We go over the tactical mismatch between Ancelotti & Arteta in this game, the various things that went wrong on the pitch, the strategic flaws as a club that led Real Madrid here and the sea...

Welcome to the new and improved Real Deal Podcast. On today's episode Siddharth Ramsundar is joined by Statsbomb founder (now HUDL Statsbomb) Ali Elfakharany to preview the Arsenal - Real Madrid tie & catchup about the state of European football. Catching up after a long time, we end up casually discussing all the Champions League contenders like PSG, Bayern Munich, Inter Milan and Barcelona,...