Open Thread : 4 February 2022

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, Kung_Fu_Zizou, Ezek Ix or NeRObutBlanco.

Old habits die hard as Los Blancos are knocked out of the Copa.

If there’s one person that should shoulder most of the blame for yesterday’s pitiful performance, it should be Carlo Ancelotti. As he’s shown in the past once he gets a particular starting 11 into his head, there’s no changing his mind. It was especially infuriating to see only 2 substitutions made when a certain Eden Hazard literally scored the winner in the previous round and Ceballos, Bale and Jovic not even getting a look either when it was clear the game was going south. This quote doesn’t make much sense either. You don’t play for extra time at Real Madrid.

If Carlo is not careful and doesn’t rotate more Los Blancos could end up trophy less like in 14-15 when they had a much better squad. The game was covered in detail in the immediate reaction, 3 answers and 3 questions and player ratings articles as well as the Managing Madrid podcast.

Lone bright spot.

Courtois and the defence!! Militao in particular was magnificent in dealing with the pace of Inaki Williams. A number of crucial interceptions from him and Nacho.

There’s something about Real Madrid and the Copa Del Rey.

And no not in a good way.

Media having a field day.

More Bale shenanigans.