The Open Thread/Daily Merengue is a place where you can discuss anything and everything related to football. Feel free to discuss the topics presented here, or start your very own discussions! The Open thread will be posted every day by one of the mods you’d love to go camping with: Valyrian Steel, Felipejack, Kung_Fu_Zizou (AKA KFZ), Juninho and, of course… yours truly.
A Day-Off to Reset
So, Los Blancos suffered a crushing defeat at home to bitter rivals Barcelona. Yet, it didn’t feel too odd. In fact, this is a result a large portion of the fanbase saw coming. Real Madrid have by no means been convincing so far this season. Let me say a couple more things on this.
Real Madrid won the double last season. Did they look fantastic? Well, depends on who you ask, but, in my humble opinion, that’s a no. What they were, however, was “warriors”. They wanted it and you could see it. They fought hard even when their play didn’t exactly yell “domination”. These guys only lost to Atletico! And then, Mbappe was announced… As even a non-fan could probably guess, the hype was real. Barca seemed weak. Not horrible (please don’t let me be misunderstood), but by no means anywhere close to what we – and the world – are used to. Real Madrid were riding high on a wave of positive emotions and had just signed the man who’s possibly the best player in the world. But it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Toni Kroos, the master of tempo, was gone; walked into the sunset of an illustrious career.
Now, there were some people who were worried about Mbappe’s fit in the squad. Of course, the absence of Kroos made way for even more worry regarding our midfield’s function. Not that quality was lacking. Anything but that. But the closest thing to his profile – by that I mean the distribution engine of the midfield, as Kroos himself has no doppelganger play-wise – wouldn’t be there. A tactical shake-up was coming.
It seems fairly obvious that Carlo, given the players at his disposal, favors a more run & gun style of play with fluidity up front. Now don’t get me wrong – I can see why. Yet, allow me to say that I haven’t seen much solidity in our attacking style and, while I’ve seen moments of enjoyable fluidity, those haven’t been consistent enough to inspire conviction. Our press, first and foremost, is looking like metaphorical swiss cheese. Then, the combinations and attacking sequences just… they’re just not clicking. We’re not that far into the season but it’s not the start either. Los Blancos trail Barcelona by six points! SIX! Yes, it can be turned around, but we’re not looking like a side that’s picking up pace.
Carlo has given the boys a couple days off to clear their heads and rest from a hectic schedule which has Halloweened us with injuries to key players. Let’s see how they come back from these. I remember back in the 2014-15 season when Barcelona were having a slow start, they held a meeting and what came out of that meeting, was a monster of a team. I think that this time, there are some structural issues that need to be resolved first. Let us trust in the abilities and or the CVs of the staff and the players to turn this situation around. At the very least, the second half against Dortmund should provide a spark of hope.
Well, this one is on the longer side of things I’ve written over here. But there’s a bit much to digest from these two months of action. Let me know your opinions regarding what’s wrong (well, many of you have already done that) and what needs to change, as well as whether we could potentially get our game on (Yu-Gi-Oh! GX reference here) and make a good run.
A Spark of Hope?
This man deserves to win. Let’s see what happens.
