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.
On to Espanyol
Game Time. And we’re back to La Liga folks. After a mid-week break with the return of the Champions League, Real Madrid is back in the Santiago Bernabeu to pursue another La Liga title. In our way is Espanyol, a normally relegation team, which has found surprising form early this season. This potentially formidable side is currently 3rd in La Liga with impressive wins over Atleti and Mallorca as well as a staunch draw with Real Sociedad. We should be favored to win this game but you never know. This isn’t football..it’s La Liga.
Xabi Press Conference
As always, Xabi held a press conference prior to tomorrow’s game. Below are some interesting quotes from the presser as we try to figure out the gameplan of our new manager. The most interesting tidbits to gleam from the presser are 1) how he manages personalities / players; 2) that he seems to have categorized players in particular profiles. I doubt we’ll see as much personnel shapeshifting to accommodate a square in a round hole; and 3)
Today’s Expectations
To be honest, I don’t really expect much and I’m not really a prediction man for games. But in order to just fill up a little bit more space. I pretty much expect the same lineup as Sociedad. I can’t imagine Rodrygo starting again. Zero shot Jude / Cama start either. And I somewhat expect Mats to be back to the bench for a fresher Brahim. The only change I expect is Alaba in place of Dean. I think the hot topic idea is to have Asencio, but for some reason my gut says someone like Alaba may be placed because a) he operates as a LCB and b) he can play the DLP role that we rely on Dean to do. Asencio + Militao feels like a headache waiting to happen. Other than that, I expect the usual that we see from this Real squad. Some good football in the first half with a taper off in the 2nd. Early subs will likely be crucial and change the intensity of the game. I kinda expect an angry Vini goal + celebration, quick camera cuts to Rodrygo on the bench, Brahim kind of just survivng, maybe a Kylian goal, and Thibaut making one ridiculous save that we cannot even fathom to imagine at the moment. So yea — a typical Real Madrid game.
..We’ll Be Back
“…the R”
– Rodrygo Goes #11
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“squabble up.“