Truths About You: 2 May 2024

I make Daily Threads that electrify ‘em. You make posts that pacify ‘em. I can double down on that line, but spare you this time, that’s random acts of kindness, now you a master manipulator and habitual liar too...But don’t tell no lie about me and I won’t tell some truths ‘bout you.“ — 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 King Juninho (the “GOAT”).

em tuoba seil emoS | | Some truths about you

“MM Hashtags & Hot Takes. Factos & False Mates”

“I even hate when MM says the phrase “hot take,” but that’s just me I guess. Some hot takes just cringeworthy, it aint even gotta be deep, I guess. Still love when Madrid see success, everything with me is blessed.”

Dani Ceballos. Recent rumors state that Dani Ceballos already has a pre-agreement with Atletico Madrid. To me that’s a shame. Not because I’m a fan of Dani Ceballos (I never thought he should’ve renewed..for his own career’s sake), but because I know what a move to Atleti will entail. Dani (similar to Llorente) will be labeled a snake. He will be criticized for not staying. His Madrid achievements will be downplayed. He’ll be booed. And yet no one will remember why. No one will remember that Dani Ceballos has only played 571 minutes despite being healthy since November. No one will remember that he played 1939 minutes the year before, so this recent trend is a 70% decrease. No one will remember the game winning goal against Villareal in the 22/23 CDR Round of 16 — a team we consistently suffered against and likely should’ve ended our CDR winning campaign. No one will recall patiently sitting on the bench for an opportunity nor attending training nor the brutal mental warfare of recovering again and again from injury. No one will recall the difficulty to obtain form without consistent minutes. No one will recall that Carlo personally changed Ceballos and the club’s decisions regarding a potential departure on several occasions just for Dani to be unused today. He’ll just be a traitor, a hashtag, a hot take, or another example of “impatience”.

“FIRST + Contextless Gifs”

“What I learned is MM don’t like Mbappe gifs and I’m fine with it, I push the line with it. Pick a hater off one at a time with it, even if we be on a 12-hour time difference.”

Yes, Everything Relates. You’re just not looking close enough.

“it all relates :/“ — real7.2k6 (honorable mention also to Notsogoodlawyer)

Mbappe + Vinicius. It’s possible to praise Vinicius without disparaging Mbappe. It’s also possible to enjoy Mbappe without disparaging Vinicius. They both will likely play for our squad next year so we as fans better bring some cohesiveness before we allow people like Laporta to tell us that two current greats can’t coincide. If there’s one thing that Carlo (but honestly Juni Calafat needs more credit too) has done fantastically is create the most cohesive Madrid locker room in maybe decades or ever.

Now in the ethos of a “friendly fade,” let’s dispel a few takes.

According to fbref, Mbappe as a Winger is considered better than Vini at: Non-Penalty Goals, Non-Penalty XG, Shot Total, xAG (expected assists), Shot Creating Actions, Passes Attempted, Pass Completion %, Progressive Passes, Touches (Att Pen), and Progressive Passes Rec.

Vini as a Winger is considered better than Mbappe at: Assists (note: not xAG. Let’s thank Rodrygo + Bellingham), Progressive Carries, Successful Take-Ons.

Ultimately, the football world should be terrified by our forward line next year.

FYI — Vini does win in this below but I haven’t really dived into who’s played more minutes / more coaches / different systems etc.

“Self Made: Mod Features + Bad Predictions”

”Surprised they wanted those feature requests. When they know that we still got some stuff to address”

Lunin. Today’s feature goes to Andriy Lunin (and the 3rd person to post about him) who was the backup keeper, swiftly became the third keeper, then was the starting keeper, then was just about to get replaced in the CL for newly healthy Courtois, and then was again starting keeper. Rumor has it that he’s going to renew with Real Madrid until 2028.

Lunin, renewing with Real Madrid is a wonderful thing for everyone at MM (besides maybe Figo) and everyone at Real Madrid. I just can’t knock this feeling that it’d be better for you to get sold (with a buyback clause) or loaned. Of course, we often forget that footballers are simply people. Regardless of play time and accolads, Lunin may just prefer to have his family reside in Madrid. He may prefer not to move. He may even be adamant that he can beat Tibo for the starting job next season. There’s a good chance that’s a possibility. I mean there’s a good chance that we would have won La Liga (and maybe CL) with Lunin. My only hesitation for keeping him is that is this enough or will this lead to friction? IMO Courtois didn’t become the Greatest Keeper in the world during his first season because of Navas. He was consistently booed by fans and as a goalkeeper he mentally had to consider the true fact of competition. I think he ran into a lot of issues that I’ve seen recently with Kepa. It’s hard to function when you know that after one small mistake you’ll be replaced / the gaffer will be pressured to replace you. I’m just worried that this “friendly” competition isn’t good for Tbo and likely won’t be great for Lunin either. I mean when is Lunin going to play...the CDR? Like he just won two huge trophies as a starting keeper and now h’s relegated to only featuring in January...?? idk. I hope I’m wrong.

Final Thoughts

.erom on inuJ ot stnialpmoc ruoy raeh ot tnaw t’nod eW

“Stop...Juni what are you doing?” — Juninho

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“Lead them to Paradise”

.ydoboN .em rof gniyarp ydoboN .em rof gniyarp ydobon t’niA