The Daily Merengue is a place where you can feel free to d all things football. Do not be alarmed by the overt RMCF bias. It’s in the name! Shoutout to the mods who do a fantastic job, Ezek, Valyrian Steel,
Kung_Fu_Zizou, Juninho, NeRObutBlanco and yours truly, Felipejack.
Mbappe
is staying with France. A report stated he is almost recovered, but hasn’t trained with the squad yet and worked inside the gym with France’s fitness coach. As such, he is a doubt for the upcoming game vs Azerbaijan on Friday.
Mastantuono
will not return to Valdebebas. The medical services of the Argentine national team have found no issues preventing him from playing against Venezuela and Puerto Rico.
Friendly
will be played between Real Madrid first team and Castilla today.
Joan Martinez
began training with the first squad yesterday. Alonso wants the player closer to him.
Super Cup Semi-Final
is scheduled to 8th January and Real Madrid will face Atletico.
Diario AS’ analyst Álvaro Benito
thinks Arda and Jude can’t play together and explained his opinion:
It’s not an easy issue for Xabi Alonso. It has to do with what you need and what the players can give you. From what we’ve seen in recent months with Xabi, we already know that he likes to be dominant, to press, to play in the opponent’s half.”
To be dominant, you need players who give you width, depth and balance in width. If you play in a 4-4-2, with Bellingham and Arda Guler on the wings, who gives you width? It’s a good starting XI for defending at the back and attacking vertically with Vinicius and Mbappe up front… But that’s not Xabi’s style. It’s about seeing how it works for the team. If Xabi Alonso’s style needs width and depth, you need some chaos on the flanks, something that Mastantuono gives you more than Guler. To be able to play with both Bellingham and Arda Guler, you would have to play with a 4-4-2, which does not suit Xabi Alonso’s style. It is not so easy to put players in an XI based on performance.
I agree that Arda is not the best player to be in the wing. He needs to be in midfield, especially how good he is doing there. And so far apparently Alonso wants to keep the 4-3-3/4-2-3-1. In addition, it looks like Alonso likes Jude to play higher, so he is closer to the box and that makes easy for him to make his runs.
What Alvaro is missing? Basically that Arda has played a deeper role, in a double pivot. This is what happened during CWC and earlier games of this season. This is what Alonso said in the press-conference before Villareal’s game.
I think they complement each other. We have to see how we put the other pieces. We need balance and we need to connect in those areas in the best possible way. For me, how we reach Jude is always very important, right? How we reach the number 10 position. Arda Güler has been able to play No. 10 and a little deeper, not so much in the league now, but he did in the world cup. So he can do it. They have to find their places; they have to flow and feel comfortable. They can do it. I’ve seen them do it together, and I’m sure they’ll do it again.
Yeah, this means another player like Fede (or Tchouameni, but unlikely) will sit on bench. By my point is – to say that you need a 4-4-2 for Jude and Arda to play together is a mistake.
What I think is important: Maybe this is just not the right time to try and put Arda and Jude in the starting line-up together. We have seen Arda making a mistake down in a deeper position, so one can argue it’s a bit risky to do it again ahead of El Clasico. But I’d definitely keep the formation and with Vini-Mbappe-Mast up front. I’d only change the midfield.
On the other hand, Fede might have to play right-back again – as Trent and Carvajal very likely won’t be 100%. If this is true and Jude is a starter, the decision is between the double pivot of Tchou-Arda or Tchou-Ceballos.
Let’s see what Xabi does vs Getafe – I think Jude is starting this one. Xabi likely want to see more from Jude before the El Clasico. We also have two important and difficult games on UCL: Juventus (3 days before El Clasico) and Liverpool on November 4th.
