Where’d You Come From: 11 March 2025

Oscnar’s Intro(s):

Oscnar: Teach ‘em where’s we from

Juninho: We from the place where the church is the flakiest. And MMers been praying for a Mod so long that they’re atheist. Where you can’t put your vest away, and say you’ll wear it tomorrow. ’Cause the day after we’ll be saying ”Damn, I was just posting with him yesterday.” I’m a block away from hell. Not enough shots away from stray shells. An ManagingVini.com away from a pre-mod beam. Still using warnings as a weight scale. You’re laughing, you know the place well. Where there no features and more hot takes dwell. And Coral government? What Coral government?! MMers used to politic they selves! Where we call tebby, Javz, and bozz the A-Team. ’Cause they’d hop out of vans, ban and spray things. And your account life expectancy so low we making out alts at 2 months to eighteen. Where how when you minimize guys who step out of line, your rep solidifies. So tell me when I crash, you think I give a f— who criticize? If what I write is lies, God strike me. And I got a question: Are you forgiving guys who live just like me? We’ll never know. One day I prayed to you and said if these threads ever blow, I’d let ‘em know. The stakes, and exactly what takes place in this blog’s daunting “meadow”. Promise fulfilled, still I feel my job ain’t done. Where am we from? 2014 MM son.

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 “shadows”).

Fede The RB

Warming Up To The Idea. So I think we need to warm-up to the idea of Fede being overly used in 25/26 as a RB. I know the current sample size of RB Fede is still extremely small but so far he has pretty much held up against decent competition. I also think the position somewhat aligns with his main qualities (i.e., carrying the ball into space with pace and relentless ability to get up and down the field), while deflecting some of his weaknesses (e.g., retaining possession under pressure, general build-up play / creativity). Of course, I have had a long lasting history of discussing Fede’s fit into our midfield and whether his primary strengths could be replicated by the remaining trio (well now 4 if we want to include Ceballos) and I still am earnestly quite adamant on that opinion. But RB Fede does breathe some new life into his long-term viability. I’m not sure if there are many other options who can provide this high level of defensive workrate while still being comfortable to invert into the midfield if needed or provide a line breaking pass.

TAA. The other reason why we may need to contemplate RB Fede’s longevity is because of TAA. I know Ivatar loves TAA and I’m slowly warming up to the idea…but TAA truly is defensively worse than Lucas Vazquez (who the world loves to hate). I’ll admit (to Blanks), I generally judge defensive capability on my own eye-test as I think stats somewhat fail in this regard + contextualizing how a defensive unit operates (e.g., grading an Atleti fullback on the same scale as a Barca fullback would be a bit nonsensical). Nevertheless, from what I’ve seen TAA is equally positionally compromised as LV and is actually worse in 1 v 1 situations. Yes, TAA is significantly one of if not the best RB creator in the world but are we sure that this unit (which currently features 2 or at times 4 pseudo-forwards) can properly adapt to his weaknesses? I’m not sure if having TAA + Vini + Mbappe + a tired Rodrygo + at times Jude lagging in defense is viable. Anyway let’s pray that we even get 60% of Dani Carvajal next season.

CL Watch

Today’s Matches. Although Real Madrid isn’t playing today, there still are plenty of exciting matches for us general football fans to watch and discuss. Here are a few of my favorites:

PSG v. Liverpool. This match at Anfield should be exciting and could be legacy defining for a multitude of reasons. 1) A win at Liverpool could cement this PSG team and Dembele as true threats in Europe and begin to define the post-Mbappe era; 2) A PSG win would of course lead to soooooo much media about how Mbappe was the issue at PSG; 3) A PSG win would also pretty much crush Salah’s chances at a Balon D’Or; 4) a Liverpool win will further boost Arne Slot and Salah’s Balon D’Or bid. What do I expect? TBH I originally expected an upset in matchup but foresee likely a PSG win but loss in the tie.

Barcelona v. Benfica. It’s just fun to hate-watch sometimes. Pray for Benfica but it’s probably not happening. Benfica, Ben 10, Ben Stiller. I don’t care. Barca in 4.

Bayern v. Bayer Leverkusen. I absolutely don’t expect Xabi Alonso and co to come back from a shambolic week of football especially with the injuries to their key players (pray for Wirtz). But its always fun to watch Xabi play this scrappy bunch of underdogs against the machine that is Bayern Munich. Good luck Xabi — maybe you secretly have a bit of black magic still.

Loose Translation (from Juni): In Real Madrid it is detected that their is some wear on the team and the Ancelotti cycle has ended. Very recently, there have been contacts between Flo and Xabi. The contacts went very well.

Conq — feel free to tell me if I translated this wrong.

Rumors?

Don’t You Dare. SkySports is reporting that City may have some interest in Camavinga. I’ve been team Cama since before we purchased him so I still have considerable faith in him. IMO (and this is an almighty hot take), I actually think he has the most potential out of ALL of our midfielders. Also he’s only 22. I think sometimes we forget that he came to us so young so we expect a bit more consistency than he has provided. Also I’m the injuries + suspensions have killed a bit of his rhythm. Anyway, I’d like to see Cama under Xabi or a more refined system. If he leaves, I think we’ll regret it. THOUGH if he does…we may want to grab a true creator in the midfield like a Wirtz.

Unwanted Lessons:

TR_Madridsta: Teach…teach ‘em. Teach me.

Juninho: I’m from where the hammers rung, Coral cameras never come. You and your mans hung in every outburst in your post. Where the perma-bans was slung, MMers vanish every summer. And ms. madridsta’s would come, we throw trolling in the can and run. Where the plans was to only get blue recs and skate off to the next article set. To achieve this goal quicker, sold all my weight wet. Faced with immeasurable odds, still I gave straight bets. So I felt I’m owed something and you nothing, check?! I’m from the other side where you other guys couldn’t walk too much. And posters from Football reddit wouldn’t talk with us, said we talked too much. So they ran up to BB and sought them dudes to trust. I don’t know wtf they thought, those fans just foul like us. I’m from where the beef is inevitable, summertime transfers unforgettable. #10s in abundance, buy a half-price Odegaard new. Your word was everything, so everything you said you’d do — You did it. Couldn’t talk about it, if you ain’t live it. I’m from where veterans pull your card, and argue all day about. Who’s should start out these three, Gareth, Isco or Jam-as? Where the Xabi czars evolve, and Case thugs are at odds. At each other’s throats for the love of new foreign stars. Where cats catch cases, hoping a mod judge R-and-R’s. But most times find themselves locked up behind bars. Is that all? I’m from where they ball and breed MM legends + stars. I’m from pre-Coral MM, son, just thought I’d remind y’all.

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“never forget where you came from. but never lose sight of where you’re going”