Open Thread: October 24, 2020.

Hola Madridistas!

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: Valyrian Steel, Felipejack or Oscnar.

Sergio Ramos is ready for El Clasico.

Ramos was included in the squad list for today’s game against Barcelona (at 16:00 CEST). Moreover, Zidane was asked about him yesterday’s press conference. “He’s our captain, our leader. He’s over his injury, but obviously we won’t take any risks. He’ll be with us, you need players who are 100% fit and Sergio is,” Zidane told a news conference. The squad list for today’s El Clasico is:

Zidane’s El Clasico record and a look at Barcelona under Koeman.

Zidane has 4 wins, 3 draws and 2 losses in his clashes against the Blaugrana. Madridistas will be hoping he can make it 5 wins. Zidane’s Madrid have also scored 14 and conceded 11 as highlighted by C-trick. Jose C. Perez has done a wonderful analysis on Barcelona under Koeman. It’s interesting to see how the Dutchman has engineered a move away from the 4-3-3 to a 4-2-3-1. Ansu Fati has been thriving in this scheme thus far and it will be interesting to see how Zidane counters this especially without a proper right back.

Hazard trained on the pitch!

Finally good news about Hazard: he trained yesterday on the pitch, but individually. There’s hope that he could be back to face Valencia at the Mestalla.

Real Madrid’s Human Race jersey was released.

Adidas has released Real Madrid’s 20-21 Humanrace jersey as part of an initiative to promote diversity and tolerance. The new jersey was hand-designed by musician Pharrel Williams. Also, it is inspired by Yohji Yamamoto dragon design, which symbolizes greatness, that was used in the 2014-2015’s third Kit. The fabric is made with recycled materials, part of Adidas’s commitment to help end plastic waste. It will be used during El Clasico’s warm-up, but unlike other teams the kit won’t be used in an official game.

Vinicius and Militão back in Brazil’s national team squad.

Brazil’s squad list for November’s international break has been released yesterday. As expected, Casemiro was part of it. In addition, Vinicius Junior and Eder Militão were also called up. However, Rodrygo Goes was not included this time. Rodrygo and Reinier were selected for Brazil’s Olympics team.