A Mess Before A Miracle: 23 October 2024

A Brief Moment of Self-Awareness

Oscnar: MM. Coral. Carlo In v Out. You’re living in a ruin, as well. You just don’t know it yet.

Welcome to The Daily Merengue — a blog 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, KungFuZizou, NeRObutBlanco, Felipejack, and Juninho (the “Calm King”).

Author’s Note: Since I have limited time today, we’re going to try something new this DT where I will write this live while watching the game. With first half observations and then 2nd half.

Match Recap – First Half

First 15. The first 15 mins have been some of the better football that I’ve seen from Real Madrid. Although it has involved some direct long-passes or kick-n-run from Militao and co., the team looked prepared to seize the day with a flurry of early attacking opportunities. Now, of course the team has since slowed down and there are some concerning aspects of how easy it looks passing through our midfield. We likely could use Camavinga or Tchouameni or a coordinated press to resolve these issues. However, Rodrygo is putting in a good shift to help LV and Bellingham on the right side seems to help the build-up play. Additionally, Vini seems up to it today with a press.

Unlucky or more of the same? As we approach HT, I’m not entirely sure if this 0-2 result is unlucky or if it is just a product of the same. It absolutely is unlucky that Jude Bellingham / Rodrygo didn’t bury their chances. This game could as easily be 1-2. Nevertheless, some of what I’ve seen has been more or less what we’ve seen all season. Our opponents have cohesive passing structures which make it incredibly easy to pass through our midfield. We eventually sit back further and further as we absorb pressure. Our fullbacks influence (and at times lack of) is still concerning. The passive / slow off-ball movement of our team in possession causing all of our attacks to be extremely predictable. I think we’ve relatively played better than normal this game but a significant amount of our usual issues have reappeared.

Changes? Carlo likely needs to make a HT change. IMO if we lose this Dortmund game and don’t beat Barcelona this weekend, his job / legacy will begin to be questioned. I mean, Zidane is always lurking in the shadows. Now there’s a good question regarding what changes could or should be made. Camavinga for Modric feels relatively harsh being that Modric has been alright throughout the game. However, Camavinga’s electric movement may help us better breakdown Dortmund as well as defensively cover space. On the first goal, we could’ve used a midfielder tracking Malen’s late run. We could also use a midfielder closing down some of the midfield space.

Additionally (and this can’t be fixed), we desperately need to learn how to collectively press. We have individuals pressing which further opens the space of our midfield. It’s so wasteful.

MM Writers Thoughts Below:

Full-Time:

The Miracle. If there’s one thing you can say about this team, especially in the Champions League, is that they refuse to quit. The second half still featured some of our usual concerns but fueled by Vinicius’ pure anger, arrogance, and class, Los Blancos “run Nuri Sahin’s team over with a bus” to score 5 goals. We needed to win this game. We needed this type of performance. We needed to remind teams that coming to the Bernabeu is something you fear. And thank whatever Real Madrid socio God that we did.

Balon D’Or. This was simply a Balon D’Or performance by Vini. I found him a bit quiet during the first half as it looked like most of our attacks were coming from the right side but Vini looked to take things into his own hands as the 2nd half kicked off. A purely scintillating hattrick featuring two replay worthy goals, Vini continued to inspire his teammates and the Bernabeu crowd despite the clouds of gloom that shadowed the team. Hopefully, he can bring this fire and drive to El Clasico this weekend. Dare I say it, he may be the best player in the world right now. At the very least, we likely have the top two players in the world. Staggering to say the least.

Puzzling Subs. I don’t normally talk much about the opposition (as this is a Madrid blog); however, Nuri Sahin made some extremely puzzling subs. Adopting a 3-CB backline around the 55th minute raised an early white flag to Los Blancos which unless you’re a La Liga low block team is a terrible idea. Dortmund immediately began to sit back which allowed our team to accumulate several waves of pressure on their backline. I’ll admit that I’m not sure who Dortmund’s backup RB is, but putting Emre Can versus Vinicius is criminal to say the least. There was no way Emre Can would be able to keep up with Vinicius runs and that was obvious in the final two goals of the game.

Rodrygo. Get well soon. It looks like he may have pulled his hamstring, but I’m desperately praying that he’s ok. IMO his inclusion on the right side is crucial for our attack but also our defense in protecting Lucas Vazquez. Brahim / Arda it may be your time (tho realistically Carlo is going to play 4 midfielders instead and Arda will be shown the shadow realm).

Carlo Ancelotti. I don’t really know where to begin here. Clearly the players love Carlo that was evident in the goal celebrations. Clearly the players seem to at least listen to 2nd half Carlo. Clearly he is a calming presence with a never say never attitude which seems to bleed onto the white kits of our team. It’s a conflicting narrative. We win but it’s almost always messy. We win but lately it rarely seems dominant for 90 (or even 75) mins. We win but there’s always a gut feeling that we need more. That this talented squad deserves more. And still more often than not, we win.

M91 eloquently summarized yesterday or the day before the fundamental differences that at times separates fans when it comes to this era. The ideals of results or process and how long results can satisfy fandom. Idk but I guess we’ll continue this debate until we stop winning.

RM Twitter Quick Thoughts:

..And We Continue

Juninho: So you want me to be half-monk, half-hitman.

Valyrian Steel: Any thug can kill. I need you to take your ego out of the equation.

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“left shooter. right shooter. left shooter. look”