Delayed Euphoria?: 1 May 2024

“Don’t tell a Lie ‘bout Me. And I won’t tell the Truth ‘bout You.“ — Juninho

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, KungFuZizou, NeRObutBlanco, Felipejack, and Juninho (the “GOAT”)

Delayed Euphoria: Quick Thoughts

“The crown is heavy” — King Juninho Lamar

Got What I Want But Feel Like I Didn’t. Carlo and Davide read the Daily Threads of the Greatest of All Time Moderator — Juninho (coined “Lord Juninho” by RonaldoHBMITM) or Jesuninho by my disciples). Tchouameni started (and had an amazing day). Rodrygo started on the left side. Modric was no where to be found so Kroos could start. Subs were early. I can’t complain and yet I feel like I must. Despite the changes, we still started the game typically slow. Rodrygo was overall — meh (besides a few moments). I’ll take a small win on the others but feel like we still left a lot on the table. Ultimately, I guess we should be somewhat happy. 90 mins in the Bernabeu is a long time.

Lucas Vazquez. The less I say the better. I appreciate LV for his leadership, his commitment to the team, his ice cold penalties, and his utility late in matches or extra time. Today, he was a…yeah. The decisions were yeah…The crosses were ooof…and the defending / penalty was almost devastating. We need Gluten Free Carva back next week.

Set Pieces. I’ve said this all year but we are allergic to set pieces and specifically corners. I understand that the majority of our team is pretty small and our goalkeepers are questionable in the air (Kepa is worse than Lunin at this), but you would hope we could show a bit more improvement.

Hotter Take: Jude. Next year Jude needs to play deeper as an official 10 or an 8. Particularly early today, I found his positioning far to high up on the field which dispelled (IMO) some of his best attributes like his late runs and his quick touches in the middle of the pitch. We also early on suffered with a massive gap between our backline and midfield. This allowed Laimer (who had a great game) to control proceedings and negated any effective build up against Bayern’s early press. Jude or even Rodrygo (see: Brazil performances) as a true playmaker 10 could be valuable in future games.

Recap via Players / Coaches

“We saw everybody that showed their hand. This the family. Juni still the King. MM.” — Kiyan

Just a few quotes from La Familia:

Some Other Bits

Agent Rodrygo. DGSE Tchouameni. Internet Tidbits.

Final Thoughts

“I said I do this for my culture.”

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“We don’t want to hear you say Juni…no more.”