WORDS FROM VALYRIAN STEEL
“It is thus declared, Juninho, First of His Name, Mod of Mods, Conqueror of All Daily Threads, First Prophet of La Iglesia De Rodrygo y Latter Day Santos, Chosen One of the House of the Unamed, Forsaken Prince of Parc des Princes, The Merciful, The Mortal Manifestation of Jesuninho, Crusader for Camavinga, Capo del Capi, Jose Juninho, the Oga of Birmingham Blinders, The Uniter, The Unburnt, The Unsheathed Blade, The Forever Featured, is the King of MM Kings.”
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Welcome to The New Era of 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 House of Mods who do a fantastic job, Valyrian Steel, KungFuZizou, NeRObutBlanco, Felipejack, and ALL HAIL KING OF KINGS, MOD OF MODS, LORD JUNINHO THE CONQUEROR!!!
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A Speed Bump: Two Lost Points
After a week of good results, Los Blancos dropped points to their Madrid rivals Rayo Vallecano. Although there are a multitude of reasons for the dropped points, our recent (2019—) record against Rayo has been interesting to say the least (i.e., LWWLWDD). But on to Sevilla and let’s pray Girona drop points today.
Ancelotti says the turning point of the game was the equalizer. After that Rayo “started fighting more”, and the game had many interruptions.
From a tactical perspective I think Rayo going into a mid-block and cutting off passing lanes (going away from their suicidal press)…
— Kiyan Sobhani (@KiyanSo) February 18, 2024
Ancelotti: “Playing here is always difficult. There were a lot of duels and fights. Rayo were good. We got a point, we’re not satisfied. But maybe in the future this could be a good point.”
— Managing Madrid (@managingmadrid) February 18, 2024
Quick Jose Juninho Segment: I’M TIRED
If criticism were ferocious and without intellectual objectivity, they should show me the way to their airport. It is important to have an opinion and not be afraid to express it, knowing there will be criticism. — Mourinho
I have to make this short because I don’t have much time, but happy to expound on it during the DT or tomorrow’s edition.
#1 — I’m tired. I’m tired of hearing about #CarloOut when he’s obviously staying barring some crazy turn of events. As shown in the clip below, it is quite frankly increasingly difficult to actively criticize Carlo’s work this season and to not trust him. As Ale Moreno says, “if you cannot trust Carlo Ancelotti as a Real Madrid fan now, who can you trust?” I love me some Xabi Alonso, but I doubt Xabi would have us top of the table with the current injuries, inconsistencies and lack of forward depth. Carlo may not be my personal first choice and I still believe he was renewed far too early (though this may have been for the Mbappe saga); but a lot of current criticism at times feels like criticism due to stubbornness, refusal to accept that he’s staying, or just nitpicky behavior.
#2 — I’m supremely tired of hearing about Luka Modric. Yes, he is our club legend. Yes, he’s a fan favorite of many MM posters. Yes, he’s likely our greatest midfielder. But, I’m just tired of 100+ posts about our 6th if not 7th choice midfielder. We don’t nearly talk about Dani Ceballos or Carillo this much. I’m tired of excessive criticism of his play when we all know, and he maybe knows, and Carlo surely knows that Luka Modric isn’t the Luka Modric who galvanized our midfield and captured our hearts. I’m tired of us acting like this isn’t his swan song season. He’s leaving so let’s just enjoy him for what he is / was. He’s only playing to maintain locker room harmony and so Carlo doesn’t have to answer to a relovo tweet every week.
I’m also tired of treating Luka Modric like he’s above criticism or protected MM property. He’s 38. He physically isn’t the same player. He’s past his prime. And that’s fine because as I said He’s 38. Marcelo was criticized before his end. Benzema was criticized throughout his entire career (ask Ninja Kachori). Nacho / Alaba are being criticized as we speak. Case was “washed” before he even went to Man Utd. Let’s not personalize a pretty normal occurrence. There’s a middle ground here.
#3 — Finally, and KFZ is going to message me on the mod chat, but luckily as King of MM I learned early that it’s better to be feared than loved (i.e., 2pac). I’m tired of hearing about Arda Guler lmao. Arda didn’t complete preseason. Arda didn’t return to the team until I want to say late November / December. Arda wasn’t featured until maybe January. In all honesty, Arda has less business being on the pitch than 26-year old Dani Ceballos Fernandez who has won 2 CLs, 1 La Liga, and a CDR + FA Cup. Arda’s time will come but surely his time isn’t right now when every match counts. Also he isn’t a midfielder. I don’t know why he keeps getting classified there. He’s at best a #10 if not a RW so his competition is some mixture of Vini, Rodrygo, Joselu, Brahim and Jude. In no world, should Arda be starting or really featuring unless its a sound win or pure desperation. This isn’t even an Odegaard situation since Arda hasn’t been the best player of a Top 5 league for a substantial period of the season (e.g., Odegaard at Sociedad). His time will come or it won’t.
LOAN WATCH: THE NEW #9 OR 10?
I’m not trying to get too hyped on this because there’s a good chance he flops or just isn’t great or doesn’t arrive but man the future could be bright.
Final Words
Apologies if that was negative, I just didn’t have much to say but also had a lot to say. On a more positive spin, I would love to hear more though about how to better not have Vini have games like today, or whether Rodrygo has too much defensive work compared to the other forwards, or why we can’t seem to show up and clean up lower table teams like a City, and if we’re too dependent on Jude, or if height could be an issue with our forwards going forward, or why Kylian Mbappe is better than Haaland and the best player in the world, or how we should or shouldn’t renew Joselu, or whether Brahim will demand to leave (rumor of BVB $60M transfer) or how Juninho may be is the greatest MMer of all time.
Nevertheless, we must march on.
Cheers,
Lord Juni
To Be Continued…
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私が救えるのは救われる準備ができている人だけです – Gojo
