On the latest episode of the Real Deal (the analysis portion of the Managing Madrid podcast), we’re joined by Jarod Hector, a Madridista and podcaster for True Hoop, to go over player development at Real Madrid.

For many years, the trend at Real Madrid has involved stockpiling generational talents and figuring out what to do with them later. The result is generational players getting greatly altered development and career trajectories that don’t fulfill their potential. Examples from previous years include guys like Isco, Ceballos, Kovacic, or even Odegaard: whether they were world class or not, they were not signed with specific developmental pathways in mind. They were allowed to sink or swim.

The result is generational players who stagnate. One example is Aurelien Tchouameni. He has his flaws: he loses confidence quickly, and the team hasn’t been great with him at DM at full strength. However, he was a 99th percentile defender before he came. While he needs consistency to build confidence, he has the tools to be a plus offensive player. 2022-23 was supposed to be a down year, not beginning of a new trend with Tchouameni. He’s played well for France before too. But at Real Madrid, he gets very little direction in or out of possession, and he hasn’t been able to thrive in this environment.

Another example of a player who has no clear developmental pathway is Arda Guler. Fine, he got 444 minutes in all competitions last season, and that has been bumped up healthily to 835 minutes this season just halfway in. But he needs a specific role: either as a generational creator or generational deep lying playmaker. Sometimes he comes on in a deeper playmaking role, sometimes he comes on in a more off ball Brahim Diaz/Rodrygo Goes role and the ball doesn’t flow through him. He needs ball dominant reps as the central playmaker.

Everytime Eduardo Camavinga has a bad game in possession, it’s easy to remember how little consistency he’s had in his role too. He’s had great games in possession, and a semblance of consistency in role would’ve aided him a lot, although that’s been worsened by his own injuries. That leads us to a deeper question: can this pausa we want in possession even be coached?

Whether the team can be better coached on the ball or not, a group of elite defensive talents should not be getting run over in midfield as often as they have been. Camavinga and Tchouameni should be in much better positions to win duels defensively, instead of plugging gaps due to a total lack of defensive cohesion.

With Raul Asencio: if the club knows they need another center back, and unless the club sees something we don’t that scares them off him, there should be no time wasted giving him reps at center back as well.

Previous episode with Jarod:

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Hosts this week:

Siddharth Ramsundar (@TacticalFouling)

Jarod Hector (@jshector)

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