Open Thread: September 21, 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.

Real Madrid’s goal scoring woes continue

Last season Real Madrid scored just 70 goals and things started off much the same for los blancos with a stalemate at Anoeta. Zidane started with a formation that’s a personal favorite of mine, the 4-2-3-1 with Martin Odegaard operating centrally and Vinicius and Rodrygo on the wings. However despite some nice buildup play, the team still looked out of ideas especially in the final third. Benzema will need to find last years form soon or this is going to be a long season.

Odegaard looked comfortable on his first Madrid start

All eyes were on the Norwegian as he made his first start for Real Madrid and Madridistas should be relatively happy with what they witnessed. He didn’t produce anything spectacular but linked up well with Modric and Kroos in midfield and was able to thread neat little passes all over the pitch. Can’t wait to see more.

Ominous signs for Luka Jovic

The fact that two Castilla players, Marvin Park and Arribas were subbed in ahead of the Serbian doesn’t bode well for the striker. Coming off a difficult start to his Real Madrid career, this is a crucial year for Jovic. With Mayoral added to the mix, dark clouds appear to be looming ahead for the striker. His time will come and he needs to seize the opportunity with whatever few minutes he gets. Zidane for his part has insisted that there’s no issue and has chalked down his exclusion to tactics.

Additional Observations

• Defense and Courtois have picked up from where they left off last campaign. This will be crucial if we are to retain the title. Varane was man of the match.
• How about those Jerseys!!!!
• Good to have David Silva back in la liga.