Open Thread: September 20, 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.

Mestalla Conquered!!!

Los Che have always troubled Madrid at the Mestalla and the fixture usually meant dropped points for Los Blancos. Not this time. Enter Vinicius Henry and Big Benz. Both players were on the score sheet again and now have five and six goals respectively. The game was covered extensively in the immediate reaction, 3 answers and 3 questions, player ratings and managing madrid podcast.

Do we need to play with a destroyer under Ancelotti?

Fluid attacking football is back and with that the question of whether a destroyer type player is required in Carlo Anchlotti’s system? Casemiro hasn’t been himself and with Modric aging as well, our midfield is being run over by teams who atleast on paper should not be doing that to the likes of Casemiro or Modric.

Nothing last forever especially in Real Madrid, but the worrying thing is while Modric is 36, Casemiro is supposed to be in his prime years. In Zidane’s system Casemiro was essential but that doesn’t seem the case (no pun intended) in Carlo’s system. On top of that with young Camavinga playing like he has been here for years, I don’t think the destroyer’s spot in the starting lineup should be guaranteed anymore. I’d be interested to see if we can cope without Casemiro in midfield by putting in a ball playing midfielder into the starting lineup. Carlo even acknowledged that the substitutes changed the game. We cannot rely on comebacks if we want to end up with La liga this season. What do you guys think?

Just going to leave this out there!!

Best player in La liga right now.