Open Thread: September 25, 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.

We take on the Yellow Submarine tonight.

Our favorite sons play again and nothing seems more exciting these days. Will Asensio and Camavinga get another start after their impressive showings or will Modric, Casemiro and Eden Hazard come back into the starting lineup. With many players impressing this season the coach has a selection headache on his hands. One eye (or eyebrow) will also be on the midweek Champions league fixture. Here is our squad for tonight’s game.

A look at Villareal so far this season.

Like Los Blancos, the Yellow Submarine, too, are unbeaten in the new season so far. However, unlike Real Madrid, they have just won one of their five games, drawing the remaining four, although the victory came in their most recent fixture as Unai Emery’s men beat Elche 4-1 earlier this week.

Villarreal, too, have a few injury issues to contend with as well, with Unai Emery likely to be without Samuel Chukwueze, Dani Raba, Yeremi Pino and Gerard Moreno. The visitors will mirror Real Madrid’s formation and set up in a 4-3-3 setup in front of goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli on Saturday night.

Juan Foyth could replace Mario Gaspar at right-back but Alfonso Pedraza is expected to hold on to his place on the left side of the defence. Pau Torres, who had been linked with a move to Real Madrid in the summer, is a nailed-on starter in defence while ex-Los Blancos star Raul Albiol should start ahead of Aissa Mandi.

Etienne Capoue will be tasked with providing protection to the backline while Manu Trigueros and Dani Parejo will take over the creative responsibilities from the middle of the park.

Summer signing Arnaut Danjuma will pose a threat from the left-wing, while Moi Gomez ought to feature on the right with Chukwueze absent with an injury. In the absence of Gerard Moreno, Paco Alcacer ought to start as the centre-forward.

Probable Lineup (4-3-3): Rulli; Foyth, Albiol, Torres, Pedraza; Parejo, Capoue, Trigueros; Gomez, Alcacer, Danjuma.

Trivia - How did the ‘Yellow Submarine’ get their nickname?

The famous Beatles track was released from Liverpool in 1966 and made its way to an industrial town just north of Valencia. But why did it catch on as Villareal is not on the coast nor are they known for anything remotedly connected to submarines? Villarreal is actually famous for manufacturing ceramics – Spain’s Stoke City (though the football is nothing like it), if you like. It’s why they play at the Estadio de la Cerámica more commonly known as El Madrigal.

Well according to the club’s website, it so happened that Villareal for fighting for promotion to the tercera division in the 1967/68 season which they achieved. A group of young fans that sesaon started to play this Beatles song on a battery powered record player during matches looking at the team’s yellow shirts. And they sang it with their own lyrics: “Amarillo el Submarino es / amarillo es / amarillo es” (“The Submarine is yellow / it is yellow / it is yellow”). It is notable that initially the club wore yellow shirts and blue shorts and only in the 2000s changed it to all yellow in honor of the nickname.

Even after the hatrick would you sell Asensio for 40 million today?

As reported by Lucas, Asensio’s agent revealed that Arsenal had tried to sign the attacker for 40 million this past summer. Whether this is true or not, let’s hypothetically consider what to do if we got that offer today. Vote in the poll below.