Unpopular Takes: 28 March 2024

(This DT is Brought to You By the GOAT. And We Still Don’t Trust You)

“I’m just on some [blank] ish, yea back on that Jose Mourinho stuff…I really don’t care about none of that MM superstardom sh—…and that’s on God” — Juninho

“Juni still does this for his culture…so you know what an MMer looks like in a bulletproof Rover” — KungFuZiziou

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”)

Some (Unpopular) Takes: Renewals

“You either retire a hero or renew long enough to become MM’s villain” — Modric / Juninho

Today has been filled with news on RM renewals of our 30+ players. Below are my thoughts:

Kroos

The Kroos renewal makes sense, but hot take it also doesn’t make sense to me. From a club perspective, this makes sense. Kroos is a leader in the midfield and is playing some of his best football. This may be his Karim B’Dor season. But from a player perspective, this renewal worries me. Toni Kroos will likely feature in the rest of our La Liga campaign, inshallah in our CL campaign, and THEN compete in the Euros in a revitalized German Adidas NT. When Kroos first retired from the German NT, he said the following “Mainly because I want to focus fully on my goals with Real Madrid for the next few years. In addition, from now on I will deliberately allow myself breaks that have not existed as a national player for eleven years.” So Toni my question now is…where’s the break? How will your legs feel come August or March next year? Will we see a sudden drop off like after Karim sacrificed his life for peak football?

I guess the good news is that Kroos has plenty of rotation options. I just don’t want him to go out like Modric. I would’ve preferred that he retired.

Nacho

I honestly don’t have much to say about this renewal. I think it’s ok. I don’t love it. I don’t hate it. IMO Tchou is a better CB option. But given our finances and likely summer purchases (Mbappe + Davies), I can understand why the club would rather keep Nacho for an additional year rather than purchase let’s say Yoro. Now, I’m perplexed on where this may leave Marin but our entire CB situation for 2024/25 is a mystery to me and highly dependent on what version of Militao and Alaba return. Unlike TR + 60% of MM, I don’t believe a new young CB wants to at best be our 3rd rotation piece. And knowing Carlo, Rudi starting isn’t even guaranteed next season if Alaba is healthy with Militao. Nevertheless, as I’ve said since he was signed, Rudiger needs to start. He’s our best CB.

Nacho is likely the best positioned to be the 4th CB and actually be ok with it.

Lucas Vazquez

Ok so this one I think will annoy MMers, but I earnestly think the club has made the right decision with the Lucas Vazquez renewal. If we first just look at stats, LV ranks in the 90+ Percentile for offensive production. Yes, he suffers in defensive fortitude but he actually surpasses most popular RB choices in this category (yes — that’s TAA, Hakimi, and Frimpong).

Now I received a little bit of pushback for saying this in the last DT comments (which I’ve been trying to avoid cause not everything needs to be replied to + DT threads actually live forever. We bout bands, front page threads, features, and APs. Ya’ll can keep your mega recs). The RB market isn’t great. There aren’t a lot of great options in my opinion that deserve a prioritization of finances. A lot of MM clamored for Ivan Fresneda last year, who currently isn’t playing any minutes for Sporting. As shown above, Hakimi and co. aren’t actually that much better than LV. So then where do you go? Take a risk on a low profile RB and hope they develop? Sure — we have been currently doing that with Vinicius Tobias. Maybe Pedro Porro (contracts expires 2028) or Arnau Martinez (2025) could be options, but I can’t tell you that there’s a cost-benefit compared to keeping the cheaper LV for one more year and convincing Arnau to not renew.

Anyway long live the Goats. This is football heritage.

Your Thoughts?

Not like I care lmao…I’m kidding…maybe…

Pushin’ A Bit of Positivity

“I ain’t doing much man…just pushin’ more Peter, more sweeter, more completer than any Peter pusher around. See what I’m sayin’ twin?”

Speedy Recovery twin.

Final Thoughts — Campaign for Leroy Sané

“We still outside. Turning Brahim > Rodrygo-ers into track stars”

Toni Kroos supports Leroy Sané’s quality. And so do I.

Leroy is 21 G/A in 2.8K mins ~ 1 G/A per 134 mins. Brahim is 13 G/A in 1.5K mins ~ 1 G/A per 136 mins.

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