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 MMers:
xDoc: Ezek has become one of the most engaging and fastest MM moderators…besides for Juninho, of course.
ChalupaBatm@n: No human is able to stop VC / ScottiePippen’s alt creation strength…besides for Juninho, of course.
Mournval:
Quantum, good news…Coral can’t seem to move on from Juninho even though he offered to have his DT’s sealed and him banned in order that [censored name] remains gone.
Quantum: Why not?!
Mournval: Because he’s Juninho!
Quantum: Makes Sense!
Words from the Author:
Some days I feel like Gojo…most days I feel like Toji. Through heaven and earth, I alone am the
dishonored one.
Dear MM,
Manchester City. Before really diving into my reactions to today’s scintillating game, I just want to quickly make a comment about Manchester City — and no this isn’t one of those “Manchester City was a great team until today” type of comments. It’s just something ironic about what I think we saw today that may have been a bit unexpected for those who haven’t watched City regularly this season. Idk why this popped into my head early on in the 1st half BEFORE Fede even scored but…this Manchester City team reminds me a lot of what we typically see from the 25/26 Real Madrid. I know that’s ironic / maybe you disagree but just hear me out….If I told you there was a La Liga team that seemed to at times lack intensity, have an easily beaten press, a backline that at times lacks positional focus as well as lackadaisical passing (eg Dean…), a CDM who is forced to control play but also try to cover massive gaps when the press ultimately fails, a possession game that quite frankly is too slow and primarily moves the ball laterally rather than vertically, a ST who seems bereft of half decent service, and wing play that seems to be a bit too slow and invite an eventual 2-3 defenders….you’d probably say this is Real Madrid. And the ultimate irony of this is — in many ways today Real Madrid was the exact La Liga Getafe styled team that we seem to suffer against. A detailed defensively cohesive unit that is just itching to jail break a counter. Idk it’s just something to think about. It’s something to just keep in mind as we continue to move forward this season and I’m just curious if this type of cohesion is something that can be reproduced when the stars eventually become healthier.
Career Game. I’m typing this part of the sentence right now just to fill space so it isn’t just bold on bold but this needs to be said. Fede Valverde had the best game of his career today. Hala and co. are probably going to try to seize the day because I, Juninho, coined the MM term that Fede is a roadrunner or hustle merchant. And I’m actually perfectly fine with that because today showcased much of what in my opinion, Fede is absolutely amazing at. He’s a scintillating player when he has space and is allowed to cover large distances without having to play in a congested midfield with possession. Today, Fede was everywhere much like he has been recently as Arbeloa has allowed him freedom next to Trent. More than the goals, Fede was actually amazing in protecting Trent throughout the game. Trent was typical defensive Trent and early in the 1st half was a massive liability on the right. It was clear that City’s main plan early on was to have Doku isolated against Trent to then deliver a cross into the box and at first this was actually quite successful. However, as Fede began to really take over the game, Doku would twist and turn and run into Fede. And then a counter would spring and then before you know it Fede -> goal.
When I say Fede is an amazing utility player, I actually don’t mean that as a disrespectful or demeaning term. He’s the type of player that fits into whatever position that you need. He’s the clean up crew. He’s a fixer. Any manager would love to have a player of his ilk. You can all choose to disagree, I don’t mind, but I just think Fede as a RB or RM would not only benefit Real Madrid (if we decide to deploy more of a 442 formation in the future) but also him. It gives him space. It doesn’t force him to have to make quick passing decisions. It allows him to use his best offensive characteristic which is reading the game off ball and progressive carries at lightning speed. In many ways Fede is like that Kante phrase “71% of the world’s surface is covered by water — the rest is covered by Kante.” In many ways that’s Fede. Lord if he was a Prem player or British he’d probably get more top 5 shouts but alas La Liga doesn’t necessarily take pride in players of Fede’s ilk. The Spanish love a Pedri. I don’t blame them to be honest. It’s a stylistic choice. But yea Fede is a blessing to have, we just need to figure out a way to find balance with him and everyone else. Maybe that’s a 442 or a 41212 or maybe RW Fede makes a comeback. He just seems a bit wasted imo as pivot or a more central figure.
Defense. Today it’s also worth applauding everyone’s defensive effort. At times, we defended with a back 5 which in many ways is anti-Madrid and more Simeone’s Atletico but it was weirdly a breath of fresh air to see. Idk I find myself glass half full on this subject in the sense that it was great to watch how Real at times controlled City through just great defensive focus. If City delayed on any pass, there was someone there to immediately cut the passing lane. Thiago / Tchou were particularly super invested in their roles and even Arda held on for dear life against Haaland at times on set pieces. Now, the frustrating aspect of this is the usual complaint we have about Real Madrid — if you can do this now why can’t you do this all the time? And that is just something that we’ll have to likely live with under this leadership. Depending on the health of Mbappe / Jude / others, it’ll be intriguing to see if we can maintain this type of focus with other players. Can Camavinga (who admitted himself) often loses positional focus complete a feat of this nature? Are we as sturdy without someone like Ferland Mendy who can shut an entire defensive channel down singlehandedly? Can our player’s bodies even hold up with all of this? Note, at one point Fede looked gassed. Tchouameni was hobbling at times. Mendy was subbed at HT. It’s unclear but it looks like with this Madrid that the only path forward needs to be similar to our 19/20 season. Pragmatic defensive approach and pray genius from our forwards leads to a goal. Thoughts + prayers to the medical staff and our players ability to keep going.
A Few Final Thoughts. And now just to cap this off because I have life things to do. I like Thiago but he’s still a child so we’ll need to figure that out. IMO, I’m actually pretty comfortable with playing Thiago over Camavinga / Arda going forward. I’m actually not as Thiago crazy as most of you but I think he kind of brings (dare I say it) Ceballos like qualities without Ceballos like flaws + injuries, which is necessary for this midfield and its progression. He was vital in deleting the City press.
Trent is still a massive defensive liability. In the first half, the majority of City’s chances which ended up just being passes across our net came from the right side. Doku pretty easily got passed Trent and on a corner Semenyo lost Trent and slipped when he would’ve had a pretty easy shot. Trent will be a life saver in La Liga and may be a life ender in the Champions League //big games like Barca. I believe we play Bayern next round if we win? (correct me if I’m wrong M91). I’m not entirely excited to see Luis Diaz versus Trent on the channels.
Another quick thought, Vini needs to stop taking penalties. I’m not really going to chat Vini because I think he had a meh game, this game is really about Fede, and Vini was defensively smart and avoided a yellow. I will complain though quickly about the penalty sequence. First, imo he took one touch slightly too many before getting the pen as he actually eliminated his shooting angle but he was amazing at baiting Donnaruma for the penalty. So I’ll forgive that. As far as him being our pen taker after Mbappe, mans gotta give it up lol. I’d rather just see Fede smash the ball at Donna’s face and dare him to save it. Otherwise, tidy performance — we’re gonna need you this Saturday and next week. Avoid a yellow again please lol.
Final thought(s) — pray that Carreras is healthy by the time we’re at City because I have zero faith in Fran. Pray that Mendy’s injury isn’t too bad though it doesn’t sound great thus far. Pray that Endrick comes back with crazy confidence next season because I could live without seeing Brahim Diaz start a game (good defensive worker tho! Super sub!). And Pray for the world because everyone whether it’s in the news or not is probably going through things.
I hope you all win the battles you don’t talk about.
Cheers,
J
A Lil’ Anecdote Pt. III
snippet for tomorrow:
[Only thing better than MM right now is livin’ right now but I can’t spare no feelings. Been quiet on threads, but my aura loud, but I never got through to you with silent wisdom. Wealth of knowledge right here, young man, won’t be holdin’ your hand, you’ll die broke tryna play victim. The little ideas I told made people go rogue until Kiyan gave me a big one.]
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