OPEN THREAD — Difficult Decisions: 18 Sep 2025

Welcome to The Every day Merengue — a spot the place you may be happy to debate all issues soccer. Don’t be alarmed by the overt RMCF bias. It’s within the title!

Shoutout to the Mods who do a incredible job, Valyrian Metal, Ezek XI, KungFuZizou, NeRObutBlanco, Felipejack, and Juninho.

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Xabi Alonso Olano. Earlier than we dive into this, I believe it’s vital to notice who our supervisor is and the way he’s making choices. We’ll simply rapidly tackle this as I’m uninterested in revisiting the previous. Final 12 months, throughout our calamitous season, Actual Madrid followers persistently complained about our supervisor’s lack of Plan B, lack of tactical flexibility, and his incapacity to typically make troublesome choices (e.g., benching star gamers with poor type, trusting Los Cataneros, Lucas Vazquez, and so forth.). Many then welcomed Xabi Alonso as somebody who could possibly be completely different. He was exclaimed as a no nonsense supervisor who would make powerful choices based mostly off advantage, belief youthful gamers, and never be bullied by the board OR the star-studded squad.

We Acquired What We Requested For. That is much less directed in the direction of MM as a lot because it’s directed in the direction of RM Twitter and followers in all places: Loosen up — you bought what you requested for. We now have a supervisor who IS prepared to bench Vini / Rodrygo once they’re in poor type. We now have a supervisor who IS prepared to bide by Franco / Arda errors as he trusts the youth to become class gamers. We now have a manger who does take pleasure in tactical flexibility and employs in-game modifications. We now have a supervisor who really makes subs lol. Now we have but to lose this season so we might must grant him a bit extra grace as he continues to form this staff.

No Backspaces: LET’S GO!

Choice #1 — Midfield Trio. That is considerably a continuation of yesterday’s subject about Arda Guler however Xabi wants to return to the belief // make an enormous determination relating to our midfield trio. With the return of Jude & Camavinga, we are going to formally have 6 obtainable midfielders (Jude, Arda, Cama, Tchou, Fede, Ceballos) and possibly 8 for those who contemplate the potential for Brahim / Mats to play as 10s. Now that we’ve this depth, it could be time for Xabi to make two essential choices — 1) ought to we nonetheless play with a midfield trio and a couple of) in that case who ought to that be?

Jose Juninho Opinion. I imagine its time to redefine this staff with a 4-person midfield of Jude, Cama / Arda, Fede, and Tchouameni. My major situation with our midfield trio is the conflicting / repetitive profiles of our midfielders. If we area a trio of the merely most renown midfielders — Jude, Tchou, Fede, our midfield will likely be extremely positioned for urgent, basic athleticism, and defending in transition. Nevertheless, it is going to probably lack the flexibility to breakdown low blocks. This midfield lacks creativity. It lacks really press resistant gamers by way of passing capability. And it lacks somebody to really takeover the midfield and dictate our build-up tempo. If we play a trio involving Arda, we’ll probably discover ourselves in comparable conditions to yesterday the place if Arda performs within the trio, we are going to probably have Tchou + Fede / Jude operating like headless chickens to cowl gaps of area. Arda is getting higher as a CM and I’m happy with among the rising pains however there’s a pure situation along with his lack of physique and defensive consciousness. He isn’t Toni Kroos who regardless of being sluggish was intentional in his defensive positioning. Arda isn’t there but and I’m unsure if he will likely be THIS 12 months. Now may we throw Camavinga into this combine and make a midfield trio work…possibly? IMO Jude / Tchou / Camavinga may really thrive to some extent however we once more would lose Arda’s true creativity with Mbappe in addition to stunt our set items. I may break this down extra however I believe all of us get the image.

My hottest take is our greatest midfield trio would really characteristic Dani Ceballos however I don’t have the time to argue with all of you Ceballos haters on how he’s really our greatest participant in dictating build-play whereas offering defensive protection. Ceballos, Jude, Tchouameni would really be fairly formidable however we are able to simply transfer on from that.

Conclusion. Xabi give the individuals a 4-man midfield. This formation could be sturdier with out sacrificing our creativity and certain extra press resistant with out sacrificing our steadiness. I’ll be trustworthy Xabi, I’m unsure if I even care which 4 you decide. All of them just about match seamlessly. Now, this is able to be completely damaging to sustaining our ahead’s spirits (poor GG + Endrick) however it could be a threat that we have to take and it’s not like we’re getting scintillating performances from anybody not named Mbappe. We’ll face extra medical groups than Marseille sooner slightly than later.

Choice #2 — The Battle of the LW. Xabi Alonso and the soccer gods have graced this new period of MM with a brand new interface and a brand new James v. Isco conflict for the plenty!!!! And this time it’s the combat for one spot by compatriots, former buddies, former CL winners collectively, the Brazilian Duo, the way forward for Brazil, the heirs to Neymar (nicely technically that’s Rodrygo as informed by Neymar himself)! Sooo let’s dive into this mess.

Are We Dropping Vini? Whether or not you’re Vini’s largest fan or his biggest hater, I believe we are able to all agree that Vini hasn’t appeared like “Vini” in virtually a 12 months. Most state that his performances have gone down because the Rodri Balon D’Or theft which occurred on October 28, 2024 or 324 days in the past. Vini simply hasn’t risen again to his 23/24 late season heights. He’s nonetheless discovering targets / assists however the course of to get there simply appears muddy. His touches don’t appear the identical. He appears slower (ex: breakaway from Ceballos cross in opposition to Actual Sociedad). His determination making feels at occasions sporadic. He’s being praised for his defensive work greater than something he does going ahead. This isn’t the Vini we fell in love with.

Now why is that this? I’m unsure. It could possibly be a hierarchy situation with Mbappe. It may simply be manufactured from his contract scenario with Actual, the place each events appear to nonetheless be at an deadlock. He may now have an unsettling relationship with Xabi (Gustavo Ramirez of ESPN, who is mostly good for Brazilian information, states his relationship with Xabi isn’t ultimate but it surely doesn’t appear to be unhealthy. It simply isn’t Carlo). He may simply be taking time to regulate to those new ways and teammates. Hell, it could possibly be one thing private at residence that none of us even know. All we are able to say is he doesn’t seem to be Vini.

And I posed this query a bit in yesterday’s feedback, however are we shedding Vini? Is Xabi mentally shedding Vini with this LW competitors? A contest that he hasn’t confronted in what….4 years? I’m not within the enterprise of bashing participant’s attitudes and even actually discussing them (as tbh you lot typically focus on the attitudes of gamers who look a sure approach rather a lot completely different than you do when discussing these passionate Gavis / Sergio Ramos’ / Carvajals *wink *wink*). I really like Vini’s fiery nature and love his ardour for the sport. However I’ll admit, the video of him strolling off the sphere as the primary participant after the win, simply felt unsettling. Not in the best way like “oh he’s unprofessional — we must be mad!”. No as a substitute it simply felt like, “hmm I’m unsure he’s taking this nicely.” It was extra of a priority of his psychological than something. A priority of whether or not this competitors will spur him to really return into higher type or simply result in typically the negatives of ardour — the place you spiral or lash out. His IG story put up yesterday additionally introduced hypothesis of his unhappiness and is rapidly juxtaposed by Rodrygo’s put up which appeared to simply merely rejoice a win. Idk it simply felt bizarre.

Now, I don’t assume Vini is a sufferer of Xabi’s remedy. I imply let’s be severe, he hasn’t carried out to the undisputed starter required degree shortly and he nonetheless has performed greater than his positional rival — Rodrygo. He’s simply in a funk and idk possibly it’s unfair to name it a year-long funk. Perhaps a method or one other we already misplaced him. However who know’s Vini may simply as simply be again in week. I simply don’t know.

Will We Ever Have Rodrygo? I’ve debated for some time that imo the staff collectively features higher with Rodrygo on the pitch. Notably final 12 months, I said that Rodrygo is probably not higher than Vini however the staff collectively performs higher with Rodrygo’s extra cohesive type of play. And yesterday, I don’t assume it’s an enormous coincidence that as Kiyan stated “the primary half included one of the best urgent I’ve ever seen from this staff.” However as the problem with Rodrygo’s cohesive nature — we nonetheless weren’t decisive. Rodrygo nonetheless wasn’t absolutely decisive. Rodrygo wanted to do 10x higher on his shot which ended up being a cross to Rulli. He additionally wanted to retain possession higher in a number of early situations. IMO he must drift a bit extra from the wing and never rely as a lot on particular person talent (one thing we hardly ever used to say about Rodrygo). He must play with extra freedom slightly than a desperation to show himself. Fairly frankly, Rodrygo hasn’t solidified his place in any approach for me to say “He completely deserves to start out over Vini in opposition to Espanyol.” And on this be aware…will he? If Vini continues to play extra it implies that Vini is successful the battle in coaching, and if Vini’s successful in coaching, he’s going to win with makes an attempt to show himself on the pitch. LW Rodrygo appeared sensible in December / January of final 12 months however is that merely a KFZ purple patch? Is he really a participant who can preserve his expertise ceiling persistently? Can Xabi depend on him? I don’t know.

Conclusion: Xabi must ultimately determine how lengthy to keep up this competitors with out giving one of many gamers an extended leash to make errors and play into type. IMO Xabi probably has one other month or possibly two to experiment earlier than this frequent degree of competitors really turns into a central situation for this staff. As experiences slowly roll in, I’m not completely positive both of them is taking this nicely. Rodrygo appeared to be upset on the bench after Oviedo and predictably was caught wanting saddened in opposition to I imagine Mallorca. Vini additionally appears a bit unsettled in the intervening time by way of his latest actions. However, a minimum of based mostly off the present minutes — it’s Vini’s job to lose.