Open Thread: November 12th, 2021

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, Ezek Ix or NeRObutBlanco.

Modric dreams of playing in the new Bernabeu.

While the club might prepare farewells for legends like Marcelo, Isco and Bale, Modric might renew his contract for another year as he wants to play in the new Bernabéu. What do ya’ll think? Vote in the poll below.

Takeaways from last night’s international games

• Captain Luka Modric got a goal and assist in Croatia’s 7-1 hammering of Malta.
• News Flash! Jovic scored. Yes it was only against Qatar but still.....Jovic scored.
• Brazil won 1-0 against Colombia with Casemiro playing the entire game and Vinicius the entire second half. Militao was an unused substitute. Casemiro received a yellow card and will therefore be suspended for the game vs Argentina.
• Carvajal played the entire 90 min in Spain’s 1-0 win over Greece.
• Camavinga played 90 minutes in France -U-21’s 7-0 win over Armenia-U21.

At Real Madrid even if you’re good you might never get a chance

No I’m not talking about Odegaard or Antonio Blanco, but Andriy Lunin. His situation is really difficult because the person ahead of him is impossible to unseat. He has not played for Real Madrid in a proper match since the loss to Alcoyano, though he played no negative role in the humiliating defeat. In his last appearance with Los Blancos, Lunin was actually the best player on the pitch in a preseason loss to Rangers.

Thibaut Courtois has been Real Madrid’s starter for the last 42 matches. He is arguably the best goalkeeper on the planet. How can Real bench Courtois? He bails out the team every week, whether they are facing Shakhtar Donetsk or FC Barcelona. Lunin has the makings of a world-class goalkeeper. There are not many young keepers with his quality and potential. As we saw against Rangers, his reflexes are top-notch. He could make it at Real Madrid, if not for the fact that Courtois is here and here to stay, having recently signed an extension.

His chance to be that guy may never come at Real Madrid. Hell, his chance to start more than a handful of matches for a club may never come either. Courtois is too important. And by the same token, Lunin is too talented to let this be the situation in his career for long.

The figures of Brahim Diaz’s option to buy.

AC Milan are enjoying the excellent performances from Brahim Diaz and have seen their faith in the Spaniard justified thus far. According to the latest from Marca (via PianetaMilan), Milan included a €20m option to buy as part of the renewed 2 year loan deal, but in doing so they had to include a buy-back in favour of Real Madrid which as per the source has been set at €28m.

Florentino Perez’s side have been impressed by Brahim Diaz’s performances and could exercise their right to bring him back while Milan would of course pocket the €8m difference as a development fee of sorts.

Kubo Update.