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 mood has changed and suddenly stories and rumours have halted. The rate at which stories were coming out was silly and suddenly, after a win, it’s gone silent again. If Xabi didn’t know it before which I’m certain he did, you have to win. You simply have to win or the house catches fire.
Celta Vigo at home presents an opportunity to regain momentum as we approach the second. Half of the season. It also matters how we play. We will not become a pressing machine any time soon but we can improve. We can stop ball-watching on and off the ball. We can be more efficient in the final 3rd. These things alone will make us genuinely competitive. They are necessary elements of a competitive side.
The injuries to defenders seem to be a constant flow from last season. Joan Martinez has now earned himself a spot on the bench for the game against Celta Viga. I do not expect to see him play but it is exciting to see him back training with the first team again. Joan is only still 18 years old and has a long way to go but he’s surely got a path into the first team if he remains healthy. The likely departure of Alaba and at least one left-back next summer means there will be more opportunities for Joan to train and possibly play with the first team next season. That said, the lack of fullbacks getting a look in with Xabi’s side is rather strange. We should have seen some La Fabrica fullbacks filling in at RB instead of forcing Fede there at every opportunity. It gives the impression that Fede is preferred at RB and needs more minutes there for later on in the season whereas trusting a youngster there would mean Fede only plays in midfield and in turn Xabi would have to bench another midfielder more frequently.
Whatever has been going on between Xabi and Vini seems to have cooled off for now. We know it will pick up again we don’t start picking up more wins. At the moment Vinicius seems to be enjoying his football and the pressure has decreased even in the games we didn’t win. There’s a lot to come from Vinicius adaptation under Xabi and it will be key to the team’s success. If Xabi has bet on Vini to be one of his key players, their relationship will need to improve drastically. They need to trust each other. Not being able to trust a player is a terrible feeling for a manager and just as well not having the trust of your manager can negatively impact a player.
The Arda Guler show takes a break.. The technical quality of the young Turk is undeniable, he’s able to find his teammates with ease when he’s on his game. He is still developing and the manager is right to note that. We will have to rotate our midfield for tactical and for health reasons. We suffer way too many injuries and a healthy rotation will not only keep the players competitive but help a youngster like Arda to develop. It’s not a disaster to give him a break from the starting XI. I will say though, he cannot obsessively look for Kylian every time he has the ball, it’s really bad for his game and makes the team worse. He needs to understand that Kylian will be a decoy run in many situations to open up space for other players. Kylian will not tell him he doesn’t want the ball but Xabi’s gotta tell the kid he’s got 10 other teammates to pass the ball to.
