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.
Matchday!
It’s matchday and it’s very important match. It’s the 4th game of the UCL league stage. Before the game, Los Blancos sit at 12th position, but just one point behind Sporting, the 8th club at the table. In fact, the table looks very complicated – only two teams have 9 points and teams from 3rd to 9th position all have 7 points each.
Maybe it is another UCL game at Bernabéu the team needs to get back on track.
The desired lack of identity
Carlo has again talked about the lack of identity and that he does not want to have an identity.
️ Carlo Ancelotti: “We’ve never had a clear identity & we never want to have one, we have to try to adapt our game to the characteristics of the players we have and slowly find our best version.” @SkySport pic.twitter.com/OO6Bair77s
— Madrid Xtra (@MadridXtra) November 4, 2024
The players don’t come and go during the course of the same season – you have a squad of about 25 players almost without change from an entire year. So…once you’ve adapted to the characteristics of the players you have, why can’t you build an identity?
Benzema: “Mbappe is not 9. He is a left winger”.
️ Benzema: “For me, Mbappé is not a 9. He’s a left winger. The problem is that at left wing, there is a boy who is like him. At the same level. Vinicius. There is a problem. And Vinicius, I think you can’t put him at 9 or at the right, because each game he makes the difference… pic.twitter.com/nkHykfVmFl
— Madrid Xtra (@MadridXtra) November 5, 2024
Is Mbappe the problem ?
❗️Carlo Ancelotti has realized that there has been a drop-off in performance compared to last season. One of the issues is that Kylian Mbappé does not assume defensive duties, which causes imbalance. In the Clásico he run just 8km.
— @relevo pic.twitter.com/Hwah47DQhg
— Madrid Universal (@MadridUniversal) November 4, 2024
This has reminded me the video released from Lucho’s documentary in which he asked Mbappé to defend well. In answer to that, Carlo said he doesn’t ask Mbappé to defend, but to score goals. Did the coach change his mind?
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