Open Thread: April 20, 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, Ezek lx, NeRObutBlanco or Kung_Fu_Zizou.

It’s match day!

Real plays Osasuna today, continuing the fight for the La Liga title. Casemiro felt a muscle disconfort during Monday’s training session is out of the game and questionable for City next week. Ancelotti confirmed it in the press-conference: “he has a week to recover”.

Mendy, Marcelo, Mariano, Jovic, Vallejo and Hazard were also not available for the game. Finally, Ancelotti confirmed Modric won’t play today. The Croatian is tired and wasn’t included in the squad list, as Carlo wants him 100% ready for City next week.

Carlo’s press-conference.

In yesterday’s press conference, Ancelotti was asked about giving Benzema some rest, in which the coach answered “when a player is fine, he needs to play. He will play tomorrow.” Carlo was also asked about calculations for winning the title:

The calculation we make is very simple simple: get three points against Osasuna and get three points against Espanyol. If we need to get three points against Atlético, it’s okay too. I don’t need to be a mathematician, I like history more and we will try to win the game vs Osasuna.

Polls

We are have a big advantage and La Liga is almost ours. In addition, despite some unconvincing performances, Los Blancos managed to reach UCL semifinals, an achievement that many considered unlikely.

I have done this poll already more than once, it’s time to do it again. So, vote below how do you rate Carlo’s work so far.

Per rumours, Real is considering again the signing of Rudiger as a free agent, after his good performances at Bernabéu. What do you think?