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
The Kids Don’t Stand A Chance
Cesar Palacios reminds one of Arribas. A genuine talent at the wrong time. Timing is so very important at Real Madrid. Players seldom get chances due to their talent alone. The opportunities arise due to some misfortune which finds the player ready to take advantage of the crisis. The latest player to do this successfully was Raul Asencio. This is a worrying trend. The lack or urgency to give the most talented Castilla players minutes and debuts with the first team is something one had hoped would change with Xabi Alonso at the helm.
Xabi claimed everyone would get a chance. I genuinely believe he meant well. He wanted to have a well-oiled machine with interchangeable players and a buffer to allow for youngsters to get more minutes. The environment and poor results have made that extremely difficult. Xabi Alonso has options much the same way Carlo had options. The players themselves would likely revolt if Xabi benched healthy senior players for Castilla players. We often pretend that this would be easy to do but considering how hard it is to tell a senior player to follow instructions, one can only imagine what would happen if a senior player was benched for a youth player.
Castilla has a lot of talented players at CB, fullback and in midfield. Xabi has these options but it does not seem realistic that he will use them absent an injury crisis. It is only fair that we point out that the same way Carlo was lambasted for refusing to trust the youth players, with a little nuance the same accusation can be levelled at Xabi so far.
Carlo and Zizou – The Only Way??
Zidane and Carlo Ancelotti have a way. It’s not about formations. It’s about balance and efficiency. One of the strange fixations this season has been over the starting or base formation chosen by Xabi Alonso. Xabi’s approach to covering or stabilising the defensive transition is poor. Perhaps it works with certain players but it seems unnecessarily complicated. Tchouameni should just play CDM and cover like a normal CDM. Him dropping into defence the way he does is generally counterproductive. We’ve have Casemiro who would cover for the CBs, he would take up one of the CBs positions and do a job and return to his position. Tchouameni on the other hand is thinking all the time about whether he is a CB or a CDM. This is a problem because he likely feels like he’s doing far more than he’s actually doing to influence the game. Just let him be a CDM and cover for Huijsen when Huijsen drives forward or goes out wide to defend. Normal CDM stuff. The amount of times we’d have zero pressure on the ball because our players are so focused on making up numbers in defence is extraordinary. Numbers don’t defend, players do. Xabi needs to understand this. It is too defensive and passive to just drop extra numbers back and we’ve conceded comfortably with numbers back.
I am not bring up Zizou and Carlo to diminish Xabi. I am considering instead just how important it is to adapt to your players by simplifying the game for them and for yourself. A 4-3-3 fits our players. We can go player for player with every single team that plays a 4-3-3. The players can move around and make it a 4-4-2 off the ball etc. Xabi has to roll back the changes and go step by step. The players will meet him organically. What I mean by this, is that while everyone was right to overreact about all the change that was needed, in reality we only needed minor adjustments. Xabi could win everything is he slows down and uses the principle of Judo instead.
Grasping at straws. Real Madrid looking to add 16 midfielders next season. The manager will have to play 3-6-1 to fit as many midfielders as possible. The club does not have an issue in terms of technical ability. The issue is mental. The players went from clowning around during class, suddenly find themselves taking an advanced class with a very serious teacher.
SMIT-TEN WITH KEES
Real Madrid being linked with Kees Smit feels more like a smoke screen to direct energy elsewhere while we wait for results. It is genuinely difficult to fathom how Kees Smit would be suddenly important.
