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: Mr. Juninho — have a seat. My understanding from your family physician, is you quit MM? Were unable to breathe? Possibly a panic attack?
Juninho: They said it was a panic attack — because all the neurological work and blood came back negative. So they sent me back here.
Coral: You don’t agree that you had a panic attack?
Juninho: …(laughs)
Coral: How are you feeling now? Any thoughts at all on why you left?
Juninho: Idk…stress, maybe?
Coral: Stress? About What?
Juninho: Well I once heard some guy use this expression ‘ The sun setting over the empire…’ That morning of the day I’d been thinking — It used to feel good being on the ground floor. I realized that too late. It’s too late for that, I know. But lately I’m getting the feeling I might be in at the end of MM. That the best is over.“
A Collection of Thoughts
“Teddy Roosevelt once gave an entire speech with a bullet lodged in his chest. Some things are just a matter of duty.” —Junior Soprano
Fede At RB. Quick disclaimer: I’m not feeling the DT today. I’m not feeling much at all atm. I find myself with spells of being burnt out and today is just another one of them. But sometimes as a matter of duty, you find ways to do things that you otherwise don’t really want to. I guess for the collective. Nah — I don’t really think that’s it. Maybe it’s for your name. Maybe it’s just so out of all the blemishes in your character, you simply carry on so that quitting isn’t one. Who knows…?
But with that jumble of thoughts, I’ll just so quickly rehash a point I forgot to make yesterday. I know I’ve said this before but Fede is a really good RB. I’m not going to rant about how imo he’s the weakest link going forward in the midfield because I’ve done this before and you know the points. You either agree with them or you vehemently disagree — and that’s ok. So I’m just going to highlight why I think Fede as a RB could be beneficial for us as a club. First, Carvajal is getting older and older by every day and I’m not entirely convinced that we can depend on him the following season (especially if he gets called up for the World Cup). I already started to feel as if Carvajal couldn’t play an entire 90 min game this season so I can only imagine what type of performances he’ll have next year. This isn’t me dissing Carvajal, this is just life and time. This is similar to how I felt about LV. It wasn’t his fault he couldn’t cover the RB space, his legs just couldn’t do it anymore. And that’s fine. Secondly, Trent is a) always an injury prone player; b) suspect defensively; and c) has never been a player to cover space. Trent will never be marauding up and down the right flank because he physically cannot and does not do that. He still has a young RM career that I’m interested to see (note: I’ve never been his biggest fan but here we are so he gets my full support) so maybe he recreates his current player profile. Nevertheless, Fede somewhat glides perfectly into this role. Fede has the engine / awareness / ability to provide necessary width on a flank that desperately needs assistance (insert yesterday’s DT about the RW) while enough technical ability to still contribute offensively. If you review the Getafe game, you’ll see plenty of instances where Fede wins possession and plays a cross field pass or begins a counter with his ball progression. IMO you actually see him more successfully do this as a RB because he has the time AND space to be less press resistant than his midfield counterparts.
Now it’s an entirely different question on whether Fede would buy-in to be a full time RB. If he doesn’t, so be it. I wouldn’t want to be a RB either. There are real-life consequences for the role in terms of individual merit and quite frankly pay ceilings which are absolutely valid when thinking of job growth (yes — this is a job). But if he was to buy-in, the captain could help us achieve new heights.
Nico Paz.
“We’re soldiers. Soldiers don’t go to hell. It’s war. Soldiers kill other soldiers. We’re in a situation where everyone involved knows the stakes and if you are going to accept those stakes, you’ve got to do certain things. It’s business.”
If I had to put my money on it: we’re going to sell Nico Paz. This isn’t because he’s not a rare talent. This isn’t because we don’t love La Fabrica. It’s because of business. It’s because he’s a pure profit player in the accounting spreadsheet. It’s because this situation reeks of the Martin Odegaard situation. Talented player goes on loan and becomes essential in mid-table + lower table success. Comes back to Madrid to become a bit-part player. Demands to leave because quite frankly life is short and football careers are shorter. Sold to the highest bidder. Real Madrid fans ask for the exact type of player years later with or without acknowledging that homegrown player was there all along. This is the Real Madrid way (e.g., Hakimi, Morata (somewhat), Kubo (omg we need a true RW type beat), Eto’o (THROW IT WAYYY BACK), etc.).
Now some of you are about to frantically ask — well if we were to buy Nico where should he play. There’s no space for him. And I’m going to reply that yes, to some extent, I agree. There isn’t MUCH room for Nico Paz in the current format of Real Madrid. We currently seem to play a 3 midfield system while having 6 midfielders on our squad list (i.e., Fede, Jude, Arda, Tchou, Cama, Ceballos). If we extend to the 10 position, we have about 3-4 players who can operate in that role (i.e., Jude, Arda, Brahim, Mats, and Rodrygo). So yes, in the current team there isn’t MUCH space for Nico Paz. But I’ll be honest with you all, if I had my way — I’m in the business of making some god damn space. Realistically by the upcoming season, Ceballos and one of Fede / Cama should likely (and will likely) leave Real Madrid unless they’ve cemented a role. We’re seeing large mins from Mats atm but I wouldn’t be surprised if him + a non-RW Rodrygo also left / was loaned. Brahim is likely staying due to his renewed contract sooo that’s it. This could leave space for a Chema / Paz to join our midfield ranks and if rotation continues the Xabi way there should be a decent amount of mins available. I also personally think Nico has the quality to actually win his spot. Yes, he’d be competing against Arda / Jude (which looks extremely difficult) but I personally think we at times overlook player profiles + archetypes at Real. Nico so far at Como has positioned himself as a player who not only can be a creator for others (keywords: for others) aka a quality Arda has but also perform the dirty work and create for himself (keywords: himself) aka a quality we love about Jude. It would be an uphill battle but the potential is there. There’s a reason why the Emperor himself Totti is amazed by this kid and it may be time to see if he can handle the spotlight at Madrid. Ultimately, it’s business tho. If he comes great, if he goes, just make sure to put more than a few zeros on the check.
Endrick.
“A wrong decision is better than indecision.” —Tony Soprano
I’m not going to spend much time on this. I said it last year. Endrick needs to go on loan. He’s an extremely raw talent that isn’t doing himself any favors sitting on the bench. This isn’t some “those who stay…” silly propaganda. This is a serious statement about a genuine kid who only 2 years ago had the entire football world committed to his potential legacy. Go on loan. Win / lose games. Learn about yourself as a professional, and simply as a man in this frantic world. Make yourself into something more than La Liga producer driven cameos on the bench. I don’t blame Endrick for trying. I don’t blame Endrick for coming to Madrid at 18. I don’t blame Endrick even if he decides to not go on loan. But he’s got to especially if Gonzalo Garcia isn’t moving. This isn’t a Rodrygo / Vini situation (where both actually played real minutes quite early on). This is worse. A lot worse.
…Our Thing
Coral: I think many mods and users feel that way.
Juninho: …I mean take my OG Oscnar / Javz / tebby. They never reached MM comments heights like me. They never had a DT. But in ways, they had it better. They had their people — they had their standards. No narratives from a year ago. No real personal vendettas. No repetitions of the same tropes. They had their standards. They had pride. Today, what do we got?
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“hope comes in many forms.“