The Open Thread/Daily Merengue is a place where you can discuss anything and everything related to football. Feel free to discuss the topics presented here, or start your very own discussions! The Open thread will be posted every day by one of the mods you’d love to treat to cocktails: Valyrian Steel, NeRObutBlanco, Kung_Fu_Zizou (AKA KFZ), Juninho and, of course… yours truly.
The CB signing
This people must be joking with us.
MM Tactical Analysis
Real Madrid won’t truly improve defensively until they stick to a defensive philosophy. Sometimes high line, sometimes mid-block, sometimes random aggressive press, sometimes half-press spear-headed by isolated players — it’s not going to cut it.
The press has not improved. I would say it hasn’t improved in years, but really it’s been like this for the better part of the past 25 years. There is an easy solution: Stop pressing. Why improve something that won’t improve? (more on the press later in the column).
No Man’s Land: The place where you’re neither in a compact block nor pressing coherently.
This is what made me tactically disappointed with Carlo Ancelotti when he returned in 21/22. How can a coach considered to be one of the best in the world can really adopts conflicting tactical ideas at the same time?
In addition, Matt Wiltse also wrote our press. Just a small spoiler for you:
the team’s intensity is 10% below the league average and 10% lower than last year. For a team supposedly aiming to implement a high press, the numbers suggest they are doing the opposite