Welcome to The Daily Merengue — a place where you can feel free to discuss 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, Valyrian
Steel, Ezek XI, KungFuZizou, NeRObutBlanco, Felipejack, and Juninho.
Word From Author:
“Today we accept 3 points and a simple DT. Tomorrow we begin a revolution.”
Real Madrid v. Getafe Observations
General. Well well well. We’re back..i guess? Overall, this game was a drag. It was a great win for Los Blancos and necessary to ensure that we stayed atop of La Liga, but it wasn’t by any means — inspiring. Maybe it was due to the International Break ruining our momentum, maybe it was the horrendous field, and maybe it was Getafe simply playing their part in a predictable start & stop game, but Real Madrid didn’t really get into any semblance of a flow state. Things began to look better after the inclusion of Arda as well as a (imo) somewhat surprising red card….but the first 75 mins was easily skippable. Happy for the 3 points but we’ll need to improve going forward.
Observation #1 — Midfield Trio. Today was an exciting day to see if the NT break helped pinpoint how Xabi intends to deploy Jude Bellingham going forward and to my surprise we saw a midfield trio of Jude, Cama and Tchouameni. IMO the midfield performed alright in the first half. I think we ran into the same issue we always expect to run into with this trio (and maybe every non-Arda trio), Defensively, the midfield was solid. Getafe didn’t really create any superb chances unless it was from a set piece. However, offensively, it just seemed like the midfield was lacking. The trio couldn’t really control the pace of play or tempo (partially due to Getafe’s consistent foul / dive disruptions). The trio didn’t seem to properly link the defense to the forwards, showcasing predominantly vertical movement without reassuring the backline of their positioning or controlling the game. The trio also just didn’t seem to connect with each other. Primarily Jude / Cama, seemed to often receive the ball, progress forward with the ball at their feet, and then either a) fall over and win a foul or lose possession, or b) launch a speculative pass. This ultimately leads to the obvious conclusion — this team needs Arda (or to a lesser extent Ceballos) in the midfield. And in the future we may need to look at Nico Paz.
Jose Juninho Observation #2 — It may be time to look away from one of Jude / Cama / Tchouameni / Fede. And realistically, the choices are Cama or Fede since (Tchou seems like one of Xabi’s favorites and a glue to the fluidity of our system). The midfield seems to function better with the inclusion of Arda Guler and often Dani Ceballos as both players understand the nuances involved in tempo and build-up play. Unlike the players above (maybe Cama to a lesser extent), these two midfielders or 10s (yes Dani Ceballos was a 10 when he was bought for Real) are pass-first players. What I mean by that in a non-super technical fashion is these players are always thinking of creating the next pass. They position themselves for the next pass. They’ve calculated in their head the next pass. They direct our midfield to move to prepare for the next pass. They will by all means beat you with their passing than their dribbling. This is their bread and butter. And that’s what we’re missing in this midfield. Far too often today, I grew frustrated with an additional dribble by Cama / Jude or waiting far too long to release a rarely simple pass that could just continue the pace of play. It hurts me to say this because I’m a pretty big proponent of all of these midfielders but I won’t lie that I’m running out of a bit of patience. We’ll see…it’s still early this season. But the team looks dramatically different when Arda / Ceballos are playing.
Observation #3 — The RW. I’m not going to really deep this because Franco is young and an extremely raw player and it already amazes me that he’s played all the minutes that he already has. I’m also not going to deep this because Rodrygo wasn’t particularly good and tbh no one was particularly good until the red card an the game opened up. I also may not fully fully deep this because realistically Franco / Rodrygo probably scores if Fede + Bellingham had played a proper pass in the 1st half when both were pretty much WIDDDE open on a counter. But to maybe tiny bit deep it. I’m impressed with Franco due to his age…but I’m not impressed with Franco as a Real Madrid player. For example, I feel like every compliment people give Franco is “he’s so good for his age.” This is absolutely a great compliment but I just want to juxtapose this to what people said about other young greats like let’s say a Doue or Yamal or Pedri or even Jude (who isn’t that old). They were simply “good” without a disclaimer. Anyway, imo the RW issue is more about how bad Brahim has been rather than how phenomenal Franco has been. Today, he just seemed a bit off in his decisions / also his shoe choice. He’ll have better days for sure, but again it may be worth reconsidering if he needs to start. Could we give Arda a RW role with just freedom? Could we play a diamond? Is this the renaissance of RW Rodrygo (lmaoo)? As we get closr and closer to a tough part of our season, it’s just something to keep in mind.
I do love a good mazy run.
..We’ll Be Back
Juve next…
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“the revolution will be televised.“
