Open Thread: November 19, 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.\

Quiet Times

Not a whole heck of a lot going on in Real Madrid land — until Sunday, that is.

Today (Friday) there are a few club football matches of note:

• Levante vs. Athletic Bilbao at 3pm EST / 20:00 CET
• FC Augsburg vs. Bayern Munich at 2:30 EST / 19:30 CET
• Monaco vs. Lille 3:00 EST / 20:00 CET

Fortifying the Belgian Wall

Thibaut Courtois — together with Andriy Lunin — trained with ferocity under the undercast sky at Real Madrid City:

Real Madrid’s goalkeepers are the image of focus and professionalism.

MARCA contemplates where he sits among all active goalkeepers :

Thursday Training at the Valdebebas

Antonio Blanco, a player many of us hope to see getting minutes, waits with good balance for his opportunity to take the ball off of Lucas Vazquez.

Many key players were looking good and ready for Granada:

Update on Fede Valverde, who we hope to have be back for Sunday, along with news of Militao and Vini Jr.:

Some early World Cup 2022 odds are out

Let’s ask the same question on our poll:

Really, Dani Alves for right back?

This is probably not far from the truth in the Barcelona dressing room.