Open Thread: November 30, 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, YoSnail or Oscnar.

Real Madrid released the squad-list for tomorrow’s game.

Two days before the game against Shakhtar and we already have the squad list. Hazard and Ramos are definitely the big absences for this game. Benzema however has returned to the team sheet. Here’s the squad list:

How serious is Hazard’s injury?

The Belgian suffered his eighth injury after he arrived at Real Madrid, being able to play only 31% of possible minutes. According to AS, he will undergo an MRI today to know how bad the injury is.

This season, Real Madrid has already suffered 22 injuries.

Real Madrid’s defensive and offensive woes.

Marca reported that Real Madrid have already conceded 16 goals this term - 1.2 per match - which is Zidane’s worst defensive record since he arrived. They have also registered their poorest scoring stats since 2009, having scored just 16 goals in 10 matches. As it always is at Real Madrid the coach will have to shoulder most of the blame but given the injuries and players missing time due to Covid 19, it is hard to put all of that blame on Zidane’s shoulders. A bad result against Shakhtar could really turn the heat up however.

It is time to talk about Real Madrid with Marcelo.

This is a controversial subject that needs to discussed. First and foremost Marcelo is a Real Madrid Legend and has already cemented his place in our history books. This club however is one that always looks to the future and many a legend has had an acrimonious departure when they don’t feel the need to move on. The signs are ominous for Marcelo if he plans to play out his contract which expires in 2022. So why are we discussing all this? Well here are some stats. In the last 2 seasons, without Marcelo Madrid have played 30 matches and have recorded W21 D9. They have never lost. With Marcelo however it’s W16 D3 L10. Basically Zidane has lost 10 games since his return and all of them have been with Marcelo on the pitch. Not all those losses are Marcelo’s fault obviously but something’s gotta give.