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, Felipejack, Juninho, NeRObutBlanco and yours truly, Kung_Fu_Zizou
Happy New Year Madridistas! 2026 is another year pregnant with hope and inevitable change. Let us be more charitable towards one another.
Vinicius Junior must Lead or Perish
Vinicius Junior is a player who arrived in Madrid with confidence issues as a teenager. He managed to work through those insecurities and mature into game-changer of the highest order. His decline over the last season and a half
seems to mirror the issues he faced as a teenager. A player who does not know what’s really expected of him or perhaps doesn’t believe he can deliver what he feels is being asked. I do not believe he is downing tools to help him negotiate a better contract or that he expects everyone including Xabi to bend the knee to him. He loves the club. It is all he has known in his entire adult life. I do not really question his love for the club. Least of all compared to those who joined the club after him. He knows the highs and lows at the club. He is not some fair-weather friend. All that said..
Vinicius Junior has the weight to help steer the ship in the right direction. Vinicius has historically played well with Benzema, Bellingham and even Kylian in the first half of the 2024/25 season. Vinicius even played well with Gonzalo Garcia at the Club World Cup despite not making the headlines outside being the object of derision.. There is a lot of expectation on the shoulders of the 25 year old Brazilian forward. It’s not about goals. It’s about making the team better. Let others count goals while you count silverware. That has to be the mentality as the goals will come anyway.
Get Your Huijsen Order
Dean Huijsen is a modern day CB. He is tall, intelligent and technically, just absolutely fantastic. However, he needs to defend like a CB. That is a mentality problem, not a technical problem. He often does not defend like he is the last line. Xabi needs to replace that flickering light bulb in Huijsen’s head. He’s a wonderful talent. No overrated in the least. He is awesome. But he is young and in the cauldron of the Bernabeu which is not always conducive to projects which require patience.
CM Redundancy
If Xabi is to play a 4-3-3. The midfield will have to come down to ruthless selection based on balance and attributes. Against certain opposition having Fede, Edu and Tchou might be fine. Generally it will be a poor combination due to redundancy. I do not know the exact trio that would work in general. Jude Bellingham has to start. We need some kind of specialist ball-winner which would be Edu or Tchou. The 3rd midfielder simply cannot be Fede as we already have box to box ability. So it comes down to Arda Guler or Dani Ceballos. The addition of Nico Paz and possibly Chema Andres in the coming summer would do us a world of good with additional options. The manager has to go with the options he has so far.
Jude Is The Modric Now!
Jude Bellingham is the most talented midfielder in the world. Yes, I am dismissing other technically gifted players like Cherki and Pedri or Florian Wirtz. It is not without reason. Jude can do everything and more. He’s a phenomenal talent. We will see another Pedri, Cherki and Wirtz at least three times before we see another Jude Bellingham. Jude has to be our Modric now. Jude must be the player to give the ball to, not so he can score or make a risky pass. He’s already good at all that. Now he must put his studs on the ball and put his hand in the opponent’s face and just buy time. He needs to own that dimension. To play at his speed and that is what will lift the players around him.
Jude needs to learn to be patient. That’s all he’s missing. Not every single potential forward pass or run should be explored. Xabi needs to etch that on his dressing room locker, on his forehead, on his hand, on his car or whatever until it stick in his mind!
How bad was 2025?
Real Madrid being linked with Keer Starmer is a sign of sheer frustration at this point. It makes very little football sense and generally is in line with the behaviour of the club. It must have been a really bad 2025 for the club to just be looking at anyone for the sake of it. Angelo Stiller? No? Not that profile? That doesn’t work for us. We need Jude, Arda, Starmer and Nico Paz vying for the same spot.
MORE FOOD FOR THOUGHT TO FOLLOW TOMORROW!!
