The Daily Merengue is 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, Felipejack, Juninho, NeRObutBlanco and yours truly, Kung_Fu_Zizou

Housekeeping

Another Youngster Destined for Carlo’s Bench

If Real Madrid are still interested in signing youngsters for the first team, they might want to look at changing the manager.

Carlo’s Lack of Interest in Arda Guler

Arda Guler has been healthy throughout. The players on the list have had injury scares and fatigue and yet.. It seems that Carlo thinks Arda is a Castilla player who trains with the first team. In the case of Endrick, it is his first season with the club, so a slow burn is perhaps not as surprising. However, the manager is getting to treat these two youngsters like Hazard and Mariano who were known entities who had been given chances and wasted them. This cannot be said of Arda and Endrick.

Now that Rodrygo is injured, Brahim will be his likely replacement and perhaps he will be rotated with Arda Guler and Endrick not only to give the youngster minutes but to provide alternative solutions heading into the January/February schedule.

The Defence

Hato

It is unlikely the club will sign Hato in the future and not possible that the club will sign him in January given the length of his current contract, Flo’s attitude toward Dutch players and Carlo’s attitude toward young players.

Jonathan Tah

Tah has been touted as an ideal signing and one can only guess that the presumption which holds sway is that he will not be good enough to be a starter and can be eased away when better options become available. There is competition for the German’s signature and given that he will soon be a free agent, he will become a long term expense for a short term problem.

Laporte and Lukeba

Lukeba and Laporta will also be very difficult to move as the former has a deal until 2029 and the latter only signed to his new club in August of 2023.

While a lot of this will generate talk in the football world, it seems unrealistic that Real Madrid will find the ideal Nacho replacement in January.

More than likely the club must wait until the summer.

How to Scout a Right-Back

Our very own @TR_Madridista will give us a breakdown of Right-Back options that could potentially alleviate our fullback issues in future.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Real Madrid have been lauded for their recruitment strategy over the last decade. Many calling it an example to follow. However, despite all that MMers have been concerned about renewing and strengthening the defence for a few seasons now.

The club have not shown the same urgency in dealing with the fullback position as they have done with the forward positions. The same goes for centre half.

Now as if by mere coincidence, the squad is stretched due to a most uncanny injury crisis. It would be easy to look at the injury list and think the club is just unlucky but if you scratch the surface, you find poor planning particularly in relation to defence.

Things will get worse in defence. Rudiger is eyeing a move to Saudi. Militao will need a miracle to return to peak levels. And Alaba is unlikely to be a significant player in the future (I hope I am wrong about this.). The club has been lazy to restructure the defence and it will be costly.

The Daily Poll