Open Thread: April 22, 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.

Good feelings regarding Alaba.

Alaba has been examined today and worked with physiotherapists. Apparentely, his issue has been just a scare. So, the feelings for him to play vs City are good.

Will Ceballos stay?

According to Marca, Ceballos has been impressing Ancelotti and his teammates. He is humble and hard-working. He is the first to arrive to training sessions and one of the last to leave. The player has offers from Milan and Betis. He likes to play in Spain, but Milan is the only team who will play in UCL.

Has Ancelotti learned and more willing to rotate?

One topic heavily discussed here is Ancelotti’s lack of rotation. Per Marca, however, the coach have learned with his mistakes made in 2015 and has promised the team that whoever needs rest will rest. So, he’ll rotate in these remaining games. The source also stated the 1-0 loss vs Athletic Bilbao in CDR is considered the worst game of the season within the squad. Even though Carlo dismissed in public the team weren’t tired, in private he recognized that changes were need and they came gradually.

Honestly, I’m still not convinced, as he made several comments throught the season he doesn’t like to rotate. Further, the team have an incredible avantage of at least 12 points in La Liga (depending on Barca’s result on Sunday) and they will play the last couple of games. It is easy to say he’ll rotate now, but things could have been vastly different if the avantage wasn’t that large.

AS: Mbappe is not coming alone

Marca: Ancelotti asked for Rüdiger’s signing

According to Marca, Rudiger has lowered his salary demands and is avaiable target. Romano has said that Real Madrid were never out of the race. Marca also says Carletto wants to strengthen certain positions.