To Whom It May Concern:
Juninho: Congrats — this DT is short.
Welcome to The Daily Merengue — a blog 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 (“GOAT”).
Time for the Copa Del Rey
Get ready as we approach our first match in this season’s Copa Del Rey. This will be a fun time for us to get a better glimpse at some of our youth players while resting many of our vets who could use a few less minutes on their legs. I’m definitely excited for a few appearances from Castilla as well as an elusive sighting of Endrick!
Gonzalo García, Chema, Loren Aguado, Diego Aguado, Victor Muñoz & David Jimenez will all be called up for the Copa del Rey on Monday.
Courtois, Rüdiger, Lucas Vázquez, Bellingham, Vini Jr and Mbappé will not be called up. @marca pic.twitter.com/5g8OFdWG2z
— Madrid Xtra (@MadridXtra) January 4, 2025
Undisputed Starter?
Rumor has it that there may be some trouble brewing from the Camavinga camp as he was benched in our latest match. This is Camavinga’s 4th season with Madrid and oddly he seems to not have yet fully grasped a starting role. IMO our team plays better with Camavinga in the lineup. We have played better with him almost the entirety of his Real Madrid career.
I had a much longer dissertation about how Camavinga should start and in the midfield and with Carlo as our manager (i.e., a lack of build-up tactics & mainly vibes), Cama shouldn’t actually sub out Ceballos or Jude as both of those players have an elite skillset that isn’t duplicated by another midfielder but I just don’t have the patience or time for this debate right now. It also doesn’t really matter because it won’t happen with this regime. So I’m just going to skip it.
All I’ll say for the moment is that our midfield generally struggles with pass progression + covering defensive space. Camavinga is one of our best midfielders at both…
Start him Carlo. At the very least start him over Mendy…
NEW: Eduardo Camavinga has occasionally been frustrated with his role in the squad.
He is not a guaranteed starter but he gets more minutes than other non-starters. @relevo pic.twitter.com/Hgo2raQRRX
— Madrid Zone (@theMadridZone) January 4, 2025
It’s the little things. Plays with urgency and verticality. Each pass is met with a quick movement off the ball to create space for his teammates. Dynamic. Competent. He should be in the same category as other locked starters in the team. https://t.co/83GIsqVyLg
— Kiyan Sobhani (@KiyanSo) January 4, 2025