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, Kung_Fu_Zizou, Juninho, NeRObutBlanco and yours truly, Felipejack.
International break begins
Good news: It’s yet to be official, but reports suggest Valverde is not going to play with Uruguay NT this break. He is not injured; they want him to rest. All the players staying this break: Lunin, Fran García, Alvaro Carreras, Raúl Asencio, Tchouameni, Fede Valverde, Dani Ceballos, Bellingham, Endrick and the injured players (Carvajal, Trent, Rudiger, and Mendy)
Another good news: Apparently, Mbappe did not train with France, but it’s nothing serious. Deschamps said: “He’s here, he had a small issue but nothing serious, otherwise he wouldn’t be here today.” Another reports stated that there will be an update on his situation today’s evening.
The picture below looks familiar, right?
LL game to be played outside of Europe
UEFA have approved these La Liga and Serie A matches to be played OUTSIDE Europe! Villarreal vs Barcelona will be played in Miami, USA and Como vs AC Milan in Perth, Australia. It’s bizarre.
Beating Barca offside trap
Some teams are using an interesting strategy/tactic to beat Flick’s offside trap. They keep the CF in an offside position, but the idea is to pass diagonally to the wing behind their defense. Look video bellow:
But an interesting question from this: if we are using this strategy, who should be our RW?
Rodrygo’s comments
In South Korea for the upcoming Brazil friendly, Rodrygo has been interviewed by Diario AS. He was asked about the difficult moment he had last season:
I had a very difficult time on a personal level. I went a long time without speaking to anyone. Nobody knew what I was going through. And I don’t want to talk about what happened. It was a very difficult time. I wasn’t well either physically or mentally. That was costing me a lot. Ancelotti helped me a lot, he saw every day that I wasn’t well, that I wasn’t fit to play, that I couldn’t help the team. But there was no time to recover because we played every three days and then you can’t stop to solve the problem. He saw that I’m a normal person and I had real problems. He understood my moment and my complicated situation. He told me: ‘Just stay here calmly, you’re not fit to play now.’ I thanked him and asked to play, but he knew he had to recover the person before the player. It was a very difficult time in my life, but now I’ve overcome everything, I’m fine. Whenever I can, I thank Carletto, his son Davide, and the coaching staff. Everyone helped me, and of course my family. Now I only feel joy, I’m happy, very motivated to do a great season.
When Xabi arrived, he called me in to talk and said, “I know you like playing on the left, but I’m going to need you in other positions too.” I told him, “Okay, mister, I’m here to help the team.” Everyone knows I prefer to play on the left and that I’m much better on that wing, but I’m always available to the team to play on the right or as a number nine, and I told him so. The truth is, he’s only putting me on the left, and I like the level of minutes I’m getting. I’m doing well, although, logically, I want to play more. I’m in a process of evolution, and I’m getting better all the time, and I feel happy. I’m performing better all the time.