Open Thread: November 13th, 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.

A January offer for Mbappe is still not ruled out.

There’s not a long time left between now and January 1, the day on which Mbappe will be able to negotiate with other clubs freely without seeking permission from PSG, his current club. That is, of course, if he doesn’t sign a contract extension. A report from Marca however states that Real Madrid are reportedly thinking of making an offer to maintain a good relationship with PSG. They don’t know what the French club will do regarding this offer, but they want to prove to them that all of the transfer talks at the end of this summer weren’t just to show Mbappe that the club tried their best but wasn’t able to sign him. They actually want to make an offer that gets PSG some sort of money back in January, rather than losing him for free in the summer.

If this report is true it seems a bit ridiculous that Real Madrid are going out of their way to appease PSG especially when a more than fair offer was not even acknowledged by the Parisian club. PSG also talked publicly about Los Blancos not doing the “right thing” after the transfer saga was over. Florentino Perez is not someone that likes to worsen relations with anyone, but it’s fair to say, he’s done his part. That being said, It will also be interesting to see what kind of offer is presented if any.

If Vinicius can do this one thing, that might take his game to incredible heights.

Last season, Vini was working a lot on both ends of the pitch, and causing a lot of chaos in the final third. But, as has been the case for three of his four seasons at Real Madrid, the final product was missing on so many occasions. Real could’ve scored a lot more in the last three seasons had Vinicius been more clinical. This season, Vinicius is working smartly. He doesn’t track back as often as he used to. He’s preserving his energy for when he actually has the ball with him. The Brazilian has improved in every single aspect of his game, including the most important one for an attacker; being clinical in front of goal.

However there’s still one other thing he can add to his repertoire. Playing as a right winger. Whenever we’ve seen the Brazilian play there, it hasn’t turned out to be great. One reason is that it gives Ancelotti options in offense. He can look to play Eden Hazard on the left if the need calls for it but, more importantly, we have to look towards the future. There is a huge chance Kylian Mbappe arrives next summer. Now Mbappe is predominantly a left-winger. He can play on all three positions in the attack, but he’s really explosive on the left and actually shares traits with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and even Vinicius Jr, so playing your best player at his best position would, in theory, yield the best results, which is why it’s better to have the Frenchman on the left.

What do you guys think? Also regarding Vinicius’ breakout this season there’s a question that I’ve been pondering over and I’d like to know what the community think. Feel free to vote below and explain your reasoning in the comments.

ICYMI: David Alaba’s Pros Significantly Outweigh The Cons.

In this article Mehedi Hassan Pranggon does a deeper analysis on David Alaba’s first few months at Real Madrid. Give it a read.