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:
Coral: So let’s continue…it seems like you were muttering something to someone?
Juninho: ….yea uh a former I guess let’s say — friend.
Coral: (laughs) doesn’t sound like a friend…sounds like an enemy.
Juninho: Lately, there doesn’t feel like much of a difference.
Coral: You do that often…talk to ghosts? Lash out at supposed friends?
Juninho: …sometimes. Like there was this one guy, (name omitted), his news was wrong. I couldn’t help myself. I just couldn’t for some reason allow disreputable rumors to persist.
Coral: So you did what you always do? You sent shots through a DT. You paraded another verbose undressing.
Juninho: The only reason I did that is because he’s my nephew, he’s supposed to be my heir and I loved him. If it were anybody else, they would’ve gotten that intervention through the back of their f—ing head.
Coral: …
Juninho: Ask anyone else. Ask anyone else what comes near me. There’s an old Italian saying: you f— up once, you lose two teeth. What I did was more than a courtesy. It’s love.
Coral: …that’s love?!
Juninho: …that’s all the love I know.
Disillusioned Nostalgia
“Remember When…is the lowest form of conversation” — Tony Soprano
RW. I’m going to ignore the topic of Lamine Yamal or what he said about Real Madrid because quite frankly I actually don’t care about anything any Barcelona player or god forbid Laporta says about us. Their opinions are insignificant.
So today, I’m going to turn the subject from that RW to our RWs. I’m just going to lightly touch this as it seemed to be a subplot of yesterday’s Endrick discussion. First and foremost, Endrick is not a RW. I mean this in the most respectful way but I think we often equate decent dribbling and speed to winger positions. I think we often glamorize any undersized ST or CAM who has a semi decent touch and lightning speed and think that they can be adapted to a role in the channels or eventually learn the position. I’m here to tell you this is not the case. Endrick is not a RW. Yes, he has a nice dribble. Yes, he’s fast. Yes, he can be extremely direct. However, Endrick actually cannot currently pass. Endrick to my knowledge plays atrocious crosses. And Endrick’s off ball movement (besides his unique directness) could be cataclysmic in Xabi’s system. Think of Zizou’s Vini playing in today’s system. We would actively hate him lol. Endrick imo is even more raw when it comes to playing in that said position. Again, let him develop where he thrives best as a ST / CF. He has a simply Fede Valverde style powerful shot, great lower body strength and the ability to time runs against CBs. Let him develop his technique there for either us or someone else. Let’s not Rodrygo him or insert another player forced to play in a position that they are not entirely comfortable playing.
Other RW Options: Now speaking further on the position, I completely understand our dissatisfaction with our current alternatives. Franco is still a child and albeit just as raw as Endrick (tbh imo he’s actually more complete than Endrick for that role). Brahim Diaz is a super sub at best — although kudos to him for a decent performance against Juventus. And Rodrygo is currently the RW prodigal son during the era where the son has left home and it’s unclear of whether he’ll be welcomed back. Should we just be rid of the the 433 and stop glamorizing or wanting to resurrect the era of 3-letter acronym forwards (BBC v MSN)…yes? Will we? Probably not.
IMO — Xabi is likely pushing forward with the 433 for two reasons. 1) We may lack width without it and 2) its unclear if a duo of Vini x Mbappe is enough offensively. A 4312 system or pick your favorite 2 forward system would ultimately ask a lot out of our fullback options to provide production in the channels. Personally, I think Fede has the motor to do it but I’m not sure if he has the offensive quality to be successful in the role. Trent is far too slow to actually do it and his defensive contribution is already questionable. Carvajal is simply old and it would be disastrous on his long-term health. Going to the other side, Carreras could adequately put an Arbeloa-style shift in but he is no Grimaldo or Frimpong. Ferland Mendy is questionable on if he even will play this calendar year. Fran Garcia is good in batches but can’t really be trusted defensively. Also note: we do not have enough healthy CBs to do a 3CB system which would effectively help someone like Fran succeed as a wingback. So with this in mind, we somewhat may just be forced to play with a front three.
If you watch most of our games, you’ll see that particularly against low block teams, Xabi at the moment seems to emphasize width from our forwards. Vini often hugs the touchline and is unmoved for large portions of the game. I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt and assuming that’s a manager call and not him personally staying still and ball watching. Rodrygo who is often a more fluid player often does the same as well. Franco does move occasionally to get the ball but it doesn’t seem to be systematic as much as due to sheer boredom. Quick ball progression and hopefully find a winger isolated against a fullback (this is the Spain NT way and seems to be adopted by Xabi for the time being). With this in mind, and if this is the future, we then likely need to simply persist with Franco or beg Rodrygo to play RW again lol. IMO a touchline winger approach isn’t suitable for Brahim. Well tbh I dont think its suitable for any of the three players but at least Franco / Rodrygo are talented enough to be successful. If I could have TR talk with Xabi, I’d actually recommend us to decrease the freedom of our midfield and allow more freedom with our attacking trio. But alas — no one seems to be checking the Valdedebas fax machine. So we shall continue.
Now quickly discussing point #2 — well maybe not so quickly because I don’t really have much else to say this DT and I need to finish soon since I’m running out of time. It’s still unclear whether Vini x Mbappe is enough of an attacking duo. The duo’s chemistry has improved, but still til this day we progressively see them stepping on each other’s toes. Look at the movement below and you’ll see Vini legitimately run into Mbappe’s shooting path.
There’s also sometimes where I think Vini gets stuck as a CF and doesn’t really have much or know what to do which of course isn’t ideal. His ideal positioning is on the touchline so maybe it makes sense to keep him there. (My hot take is that he’s actually a great LF but he needs freedom and I’m not entirely sure him + Mbappe with total freedom is a good idea. Feel like we’ll just run into no one being in the box at any moment lmaoo).
I fully expect a 433 against Barcelona. In fact, it may be the preferred lineup to take advantage of their high line + press. We’ll likely see the return of Franco but who knows Xabi always finds a way to surprise us.
Real Quick. None of the players below should start in El Clasico. Please Xabi, I hope you’ve learned your lesson from Atletico Madrid. Please Real Madrid, I hope we’ve learned our lesson from all of last season and two seasons before.
…Remember When
Juninho: Leave me alone.
Freddy: You’re already alone. I’m here because of you.
Juninho: ….
Freddy: I know your thoughts. Ask me the question.
Juninho: When my times comes, tell me: will I stand up?
Coral: Did you say something — ?
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“lord protect me from my friends. I can handle my enemies.“
