Rotations: 6 February 2025 – Managing Madrid

A Continued Conversation

Ezek XI: What was your goal from all of this?

Juninho: …

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”).

Author’s Note: Today’s DT will primarily be a few observations from the CDR game against Leganes.

Quick Recap

Similar to many Real Madrid games, this game against Leganes was simple, easy, heavily rotated, and controlled until it absolutely wasn’t lmao. A bit shaky at first, Los Blancos quickly took a 2-0 lead due to quick build up by Rodrygo, Fede, Modric, Brahim, and a tiny bit of Endrick being in the right spot at the right time. Shortly after, Things Fall Apart (great read by Chinua Achebe. Anyway, Golazo Gonzalo Garcia came in and was pure madridismo with a late winner. Blessings. On to Atleti.

Observation #1: Castilla Rotations

Jacobo Ramon. I’m mixed on tackling what I saw from this rotation and his performance. On the one hand, Jacobo Ramon wasn’t good. He gave up a penalty (not fully his fault and a bit unfortunate) and early in the game was certainly lost on the pitch. He seemed absolutely nervous and felt like a deer in headlights. With that being said, I do feel like it may be a bit unfair to condemn his Real Madrid career due to this singular performance. Prior to today’s match, Jacobo had played only 12 minutes with the senior team. It also doesn’t exactly help that he’s paired with the lifeless corpse of Ferland Mendy (who we honestly need to talk more about because the effort isn’t there from Mendy and I rarely talk about player effort. He jogs in transition all the time), the new brash dashing Raul Asencio, and midfielder Fede Valverde. This isn’t exactly the best way to slowly build the confidence of a young player. I’m not going to dive into 20/20 hindsight etc etc but realistically we need to utilize these academy players earlier. Ramon really should’ve gotten more than 12 minutes by now.

But it is what it is. He certainly isn’t starting again under Carlo’s regime.

Gonzalo Garcia. All I really want to say is — thank you. I absolutely didn’t want us to play extra time. 90 minutes of Real Madrid is all I need on a daily basis. For all of our health! Anyway, great quick cameo and probably should be used a bit more or trusted in the following year. Gonzalo’s Castilla numbers are laughably amazing. Quoting MM Writer Hridyam Arora recent article “19 goals in just 21 appearances for the Spaniard this season — he is just six away from equalling the highest single-season tally for a Castilla player in history (Mariano, 25, in 2015-16). All of this is with a much worse squad, and 16 matches still left to play, which goes to show just how good he has been this season.” This kid deserves a shot at the first team either here or somewhere else.

Observation #2: Young Rotations

Endrick. Happy for the goal from Bobby! But now time for the lukewarm take: Endrick needs to go on loan — like seriously. This may cause us to lose him which is what it is but I think for his own good, he needs to go on loan especially if Carlo continues in 2026. Endrick is a brilliant talent but he’s so disastrously raw. His decision making is often poor. His first touch at times is dreadful. He doesn’t always know when to make a run into the box or wait. And I don’t fully blame him for being this raw of a talent…I mean he’s a kid. However, he isn’t going to suddenly learn these habits from sitting on the bench. He’s not going to magically learn this from standing in practices either. He needs consistent contextual situations where his decisions actually matter. Bobby go on a loan and come back or demand to be used next year. IMO this isn’t helpful. You need to be in a position where you can make mistakes.

Arda Guler. On a similar note…Arda Guler should probably go on loan too but I’m not entirely sure if I’m ready to have this conversation right now. A lot of this in my opinion depends on the 25/26 manager and if they’re committed to actually teaching + developing our youth players. I’ve said since he was signed that Arda would just be Odegaard 2.0 but I hope I’m wrong (in the sense that he leaves…Odegaard is a great player).

Observation #2: No Rotations

Federico Valverde. MM needs to collectively pray for Fede Valverde and his health. God bless Fede another 90 mins on his legs. Other than that…great performance for the most part in my opinion. Don’t sleep on his pass to Rodrygo before the first goal.

Vini vs. Modric. Not a big deal just Modric complaining about Vini not tracking back. This happens weekly, so I wouldn’t make a huge deal out of this situation. Hopefully, Carlo does step in a bit only because we really won’t survive in big games if Vini + Mbappe aren’t defending. A team can afford maybe one player but not two. Great game by Modric.

Rodrygo. The R continues his scintillating “purple patch” with a professional performance. It’s almost time…for the conversation…72 hours. Listen to the end of the podcast…

Midsummer Missteps

Ezek XI: …No Answer?

Juninho: People often need dramatic examples to shake them out of apathy and I couldn’t do that as “Juninho — the role model moderator.” You can call me a role model, but I’m still a man. I’m still flesh and blood. I can be ignored. I can be destroyed. But as a symbol…as a fallen MMer who looks / walks / talks just like you…who yells just like you…as that symbol as that mirror I can be everlasting. Maybe they’d hate me and maybe they’d understand what we’ve become.

Ezek XI: Did it work?

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“no”