Goodbye Summer ‘25: 3 Aug 2025

Another Juninho Edition of the Daily Merengue

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.

We Still In Ibiza: Only 24hrs Left

Same Squad Not Same Problems. Alright so I started to say this yesterday and then just decided to make this it’s own DT as we approach the end of Summer ‘25. A lot of Madrid fans want more shiny toys (since Dean Huijsen / Carreras / TAA / Franco) isn’t nearly enough, and I understand the longing for new players — or new hope. However, I’m here to tell you that we’ve actually likely done more than enough to have a solid squad that should easily challenge for La Liga (bookies have us as favorites to win) and the CL. Assuming Xabi Alonso isn’t a fraud, we should actually be more than fine. Let’s break down the squad positionally and take a quick peak:

Forwards. Evaluating this position at the moment, we will assume that Rodrygo is staying and that we are playing a 2-Striker system as reported and somewhat successfully seen during the CWC. Assuming again that Rodrygo stays, we have more than enough depth at this position. We will have practically 4-5 players (Mbappe, Vini, Rodry, Endrick, GG, and Franco / Brahim if you want to consider them forwards) for two positions. If anything, an argument can be made that we have too much depth in this position.

Yes, there are still questions on HOW these players fit together. Yes, there is this weird Madrid obsession for a “Joselu Striker” which imo is odd because a) 75% of MM clowned Joselu until the Bayern goals, b) we’ve had Karim Benzema who is very non-Joselu since 2009, c) our last #9 scored 40+ goals and it was a bad performance by his standards lmao…Yes, there is a world where Vini x Mbappe continues to not work. BUT assuming that this current ensemble of players stay at Madrid we have more than enough depth to cover the potential Vini x Mbappe fallout or potential injury.

A lot of my comfort here lies with the assumption that Rodrygo stays. If Rodrygo leaves, then I actually think we will run into issues. If Vini x Mbappe do not work as a pair (and imo all signs point to them not working), we are thrust to rely on a barely proven Gonzalo Garcia, a supremely raw Endrick, Franco who just as raw, or birthday boy but really just a super-sub Brahim Diaz. I expect all 4 of these players to have important moments in the season, but I’m still hesitant to believe that any of the 4 can carry the goal-scoring / goal creating weight that has been exhibited by the infamous VMR. So to everyone saying “sell Rodrygo before his value goes down,” I hope your plan is to then buy another forward rather than the suspected CB / midfielder. It’s a long season.

Midfielders. In the midfield we currently have Jude, Fede, Camavinga, Tchouameni, Ceballos and I guess now Arda covering what is likely 3-4 spots. Numbers wise — this is likely more than enough coverage. If we consider that Jude / Fede in the CWC often also played a bit higher up the pitch and the ability for Brahim / Franco to play that role particularly on the right side of the pitch, we actually have a substantial amount of coverage for the majority of the season.

Now I know injuries, injuries, injuries could be a credible concern. Jude is currently out for 3 months. Ceballos often faces at least one injury stint and Cama had a horrible injury filled season last year. This is all in the realm of possibility, but tbh Jude is generally fit, Cama’s injury stint last year was more outlier than norm, and if Xabi actually rotates more than Carlo I expect a little less wear and tear on the legs.

Now do we potentially have an issue with player profiles? My answer: Maybe. IMO we actually do have an issue with player profiles in terms of Tchouameni who is a highly intelligent CDM that enables the team to play in a 3 CB or 2 CB system on the fly. If Tchouameni gets hurt, we’ll likely have to be more rigid in our in-game tactics, but imo its something we can somewhat cover. Again, I know there are also questions about the “creative midfielder,” who can be our “Barella” or insert whatever overhyped midfield name like Enzo. Sure, we may not outright have that DLP profile on our team but we do have some quite frankly underrated players who could potentially fill-in that role. Some people hate him but Ceballos actually fits this role like a glove. He has the same creativity that you would want from a DLP with the patience and elegance to be a metronome. Camavinga could actually be quite suitable to this role as well. Assuming that Tchouameni is a nailed starter and they’re no longer only competing with each other, Cama has enough talent and ability to play this role while understanding that he has legitimate defensive coverage behind him. IMO Camavinga’s biggest issue with our team is that he’s entrusted to be more defensively structured than he actually is. A role which allows him to collect the ball from a deeper space but run into forward channels could be incredibly productive for his development. Finally, Arda is the current KFZ propaganda piece that looks prepped for the role. He’s incredibly good on the ball and we just need him to rapidly become defensively sturdy.

It isn’t the end of the world with this group. Honestly, most of the non-PSG world would want these talents in their midfield.

Defenders. Ok — this section is covered numbers wise but may actually be our one weak point in quality. I’m going to ignore the fullback situation because a) we have 3 LBs and some combo of them will turn out good enough, and b) we have 2 RBs and I actually have faith in Carvajal in case TAA is garbage + Fortea has been playing well so far for Castilla. The CBs could pose an issue in terms of quality. Dean is great. Rudi is idk it may just been CWC yips. Asencio looks to have regressed now that he’s officially a first team player. Militao is coming off 2 ACL tears. Alaba can’t stay fit and is heading into the last year of his contract. This on paper is an ok group but may not be a group you can depend on. Now, is this group good enough to last a season? Probably.

With the current group of players, we can hope that Militao will be brought to speed a fair share slower than he was last year and I suspect that should do him some good. Dean x Rudi should be our first starters and then Raul Asencio should be CB #3 until Militao is for sure 100% fit. I expect Rudi to get over his hump and return to better form. IMO he desperately just needed a break + mental reset from football. Last season he was not only playing injured for a major portion of the season, but he also just mentally seemed exhausted and exasperated. At least I haven’t forgotten his behavior in El Clasico. Asencio is a mix bag in my POV and may be is suffering from confidence because we practically signed his replacement and he’s facing a major legal case. I won’t speak much more on this but he should still be a suitable substitute in a pinch.

And then of course we still have Aurelien Desailly Tchouameni in case things go sideways.

Conclusion. So what I’m trying to say is — sure the squad in your opinion may have some flaws but it really isn’t THAT bad. This squad is definitely still good enough to beat most teams and make a squeaky fight to even the CL semifinals. Regardless of the personnel, I expect us to play better football than last year. I can’t guarantee that it will turn into wins, but imo at a particular point last year even the team looked checked out and as if the words of a lame duck manager started to fall on deaf ears.

I know some of you are going to be like “this team isn’t good enough to beat Barca!!!” I’m not going to really argue that because it’s a waste of time. So instead I’ll say, this team doesn’t need to beat Barca. This team needs to beat everyone else who has vastly inferior squads. Last year we ultimately lost La Liga by 4pts…our flawed team last year was actually winning La Liga by 10pts in January until [insert propaganda].

Those points and more could’ve been gained if we hadn’t dropped points to Espanyol / Valencia / Osasuna / Real Betis / Athletic Bilbao / Las Palmas / Mallorca / Rayo Vallecano. Maybe you can talk me into “hey it’s ok we often drop points to Betis or Bilbao”…sure. But we definitely had no business dropping points to the other teams regardless of what you think about the Espanyol referee.

As we finish Summer ‘25, personally, I know this current team can win La Liga. IMO that’s the expectation. The CL is such a mixmatch wonky tournament that I have no real expectations at the moment until I see more games. Reminder: PSG barely qualified for the knockout stages.

Cheers,

Juninho

Summer ‘25

Yo

It’s summer ‘25 already, look how quick a year passed. PSG won a chip, the whole Paris smell like tear gas. Val connects still tappin’ in, I told ‘em “I’m retired, still”. He said you gon’ regret it like Florentino regret givin Hazard mills. Spent last summer Mbappe gifs , but, trophies went down — and still we gotta give him his. And last year was ya’ll turn. But, this summer, we back as stick-up kids. Mili had a daughter, Carva back home from that prison bid. MM needs a Juninho DT album — sheeei— tell Kiyan I need a bigger crib. But, once I left the MM streets, I watched the sun set in Greece. Come back to visit [censored] gravesite, tell bruh “Rest in peace”. I got seniority with the moderator plug, he said there’s still one spot left for me. I’m my own boss, so I could drop a tape, when one just released. The independent hustle, yeah, I came up eatin’ off the backend. With better jewels and longer runs than moderators who went 1K platinum. Its Summertime June, I had to make it annual. In a pot scrapin’ agenda granules, this how I made it tangible. I’m 2014 June, I’m literally from pre-Coral MM trap heaven. Y’all MMers chit-chat reckless, and basically, that’s tellin’. Can’t compare me to no new MMers, only compared to past legends. He still asking for a feature, when I drop, but basically, that’s beggin. I’m in every state, guess you could say that I’m a travel hustler. Seen ‘em try to do what June did, and don’t last a summer. They may get near 1K posts for a joint, we break the whip down and wrap ‘em under. That high count go where I go, just like Cristiano’s goal tally number.

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“Long. Live. The King. Juninho”