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:
Notsogoodlawyer: Juni — I thought you were done with all of this? With all this melancholy…
Juninho: …
Notsogoodlawyer: Well then what did you come back to?
Juninho: Twenty-five stans post a day, huh. MMers ain’t ’bout what they
say, huh. Alts come by with what they think, huh. Hol ‘on new feature on the way, huh. I got my foot on blue recs, huh. Won’t put my foot on the brake, huh. Walk with my hood on my face, huh
A Collection of Letters (Prelude)
“I hope one day these words find you.” — [censored]
Writer’s Prelude. This week will simply feature letters as we discuss Real Madrid. Maybe they’ll matter and maybe they won’t. It is what it is. It’s just how I felt those days.
Dear MM,
The next two letters will be short.
Copa Del Rey. It sadly feels just like yesterday that we lost the CDR final to Barcelona after a brilliant two goal start from Kylian Mbappe. But alas, life continuously moves along and we approach a start to a new CDR campaign as well as a start to a new calendar year. The Copa is simply a competition that doesn’t mean much when things are going well but finds some way to mean everything when things aren’t. It’s an impassioned last plea for survival for many great Real Madrid / Barca managers alike and although no one really thinks about the competition at the start of the season by the end it’s generally at least a last saving grace to qualify a manager’s tenure and the success of a season. In some ways, it can be the impetus to future success (i.e., Mourinho CDR win in 10/11), so let’s hope this is the case here. Some one with more time than me, research to see if a Real Madrid manager who has only won the CDR been sacked. I can’t think of any recent cases (being that we rarely win it lmao).
(note: I’m not the biggest fan of MadridXtra or MadridZone…but I gotta admit the MadridZone graphic designer has been killing it all year).
Rotations. So with the above in mind, I’m not entirely sure that we’ll see wholesale rotations in today’s game. I do understand that we have a significant (is there a world bigger than significant — maybe catastrophic) list of injuries at the moment and we have several first team players injured. However, our subs today aren’t even the Real Madrid B team…in many cases these are legitimately Castilla players. I guess I hope to see a small shuffle here and there with some of our players like Gonzalo Garcia. IMO there isn’t much reason for him to not start today next to Vini (who could use this game to get back on a scoring trajectory) and Rodrygo (if he has a clean bill of health). Yes, it’d be nice for Bobby to play but tbh Bobby is going to Lyon in January so him getting playing time really just isn’t a concern of mine nor should it be of Xabi who realistically loses his job if we lose tomorrow. I’d be interested to see Thiago Pitarch but honestly am fine with him not starting. Tomorrow could easily be a day for Guler to get back into better graces with Ceballos and Tchou / Fede. I’d actually start Carreras at CB tomorrow (since I believe he’s still suspended for the weekend’s game). Play Asencio at RB again and maybe give Dean a trot if he’s up for it. This would then mean Fran should likely start at LB which will give me a restless sleep but it just might be what we need to do. I did like Valdes performance last week so maybe play him again but a bit of me is worried that if he suddenly gets injured we are literally playing the Castilla B option at LB against Sevilla.
But again…being that this team hasn’t really cohesively performed at a high level AND we’ve had such gigantic shuffles of lineups due to injury, suspension and sometimes choice. It may just be a game to start all the normal starters (besides Kylian) and get some momentum and chemistry going.
Press. Now I’m not really a fan of Xabi’s press conferences because he’s obviously PR trained (unlike Ruben Amorim — omg watch his pressers they’re a spectacle / baffling / truly shocking) so he doesn’t say anything. It’s always intensity this, press that, all in this together. He’s pretty much every Y14 anime main character where they talk about believing is achieving and its one for all.
But I found the below quotes interesting.
Rodrygo. The first being Rodrygo and his “new” positioning which seems to be more relevant in the Alaves game than against City. I somewhat said this during the game but it was just interesting to see us deployed as a psuedo 4132 where Tchouameni remained as a six, there were practically 3 midfielders in Arda / Jude / Rodrygo and then Vini + Mbappe as clear forwards. In many ways, this set up was similar to Fede / Jude’s roles during the CWC where they occasionally provided width but then had the freeom to assert themselves defensively in the midfield and make late runs into the box from more central positions. Of course, Rodrygo provides much more talent in wide areas than the former two true-ish midfielders but its just interesting to see how much freedom he had in his role in Alaves. Maybe this is the compromise? Maybe this is what allows him to still feel included and shine despite playing on his less preferred wing. I mean in past past past quotes Rodry has often said that he prefers to be a 10 as he thinks he’s better suited towards associative play than the individuality necessary as a touchline winger (i.e., Vini / Doku / Nico Williams). But hey I’m just happy for the brief patch of good form.
Adaptation. The second and only other quote that I think is even worth bringing up just has to be about his own personal journey and adaptation to the club. We’ve read recently about Xabi quite frankly compromising with the players in order to see if this can now achieve better results. It’s still very much TBD but I think the one thing we can all agree on is that the players do look more “locked-in” than in prior matches. Maybe it’s the fear of Solari / Arbeloa? Maybe it was the Bernabeu whistles? Maybe the board has put the fear in the players as we all know if Xabi is fired and play still is bad, fans are coming at Florentino Perez and every named top player who Arancha listed as a co-conspirator (lmao — great word)? And maybe it’s simply that Xabi is starting to reach a bit more of them?
Who knows…I just pray for Real Madrid and hope we can continue to grow towards wins. I mean, we all saw PSG early last year. We all read the rumors about Luis Enrique getting sacked. Why can’t that be us?
Cheers,
J
…Us
Notsogoodlawyer: Then why did you come back?
Juninho: ‘Cause I’m at the heart of this pit. I’m at the heart like a 6. I’m in the Hall with Ezek. Lurkers probably call it a bliss. Yeah, I put the Prada with Madrid, huh. Don’t give a [] if it fit, huh. I don’t care who you got pull with. Don’t push your luck in this ish, huh. I don’t care who you got cool with. Amigos might combust if they trip, huh. Coral might bust if ya’ll trip, huh. Notepads writing them ‘scrips, yah. Might wanna duck in this ish, yah. I don’t see nothin’ but Mou gifs, yah. It’s not one pup in this b—, yah. It’s not one f— I can give, yah. Don’t care what planet this is, uh. I already abducted this ish, yah. Might wanna jump from this ship, yah. Might not wanna bark with the big dawg. I got my piece and it fit, props. I keep a DT piece like a jigsaw. I blade run around like Real’s 5. I collect red cards, when I lip, jaw. Val just reminded don’t trip, yuh. But I left my mind in the .zip, yuh. I lost my mind in this mess yah.
Vini stans post everyday day, huh. MMers ain’t ’bout what they say, huh. Alts come by with what they think, huh. Hala complaints ’bout a new feature on the way, huh. I got my foot on blue recs, huh. Won’t put my foot on the brake, huh. Walk with my hood on my face, huh
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“dont trip.” — i’ve been fallin.
