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 you’d totally rewatch Mission Impossible with: Valyrian Steel, Felipejack, Kung_Fu_Zizou (AKA KFZ), Juninho and, of course... yours truly.

Making us Proud

Interesting Stopgap Solution

So.... It appears that Joselu is a short-time solution for Benzema’s backup position. I can see this happening. The market isn’t exacty big and free-flowing for Strikers right now, let alone big name strikers, who a priori klnow that they will be benched for Benzema, while also costing little (it seems like Bellingham will be RMA’s costly signing of 2023).

Joselu is coming of of a fairly solid year with Espanyol. Let me be clear; the man’s already 33, which means he’s no spring chicken. Therefore, talks regarding talent, potential and future in the first team have little meaning here. I can still see how why there is interest in him, though. 16 goals for relegation-bound Espanyol is not half bad. Yes, there’s penalties in there (5 out of 5 attempts), but still. Remember, Espanyol were far from their best selves this season. Joselu also made some class finishes in there. In fact, I recommend you guys go watcha short highlight reel.

At 1.92m, Joselu is an aerial threat. This one’s easy to see. If you look at his goals, a few more things become clear. Joselu’s positioning and eye for goal are there and are finely tuned. He also has his moments in which he drops deeper to retain possesion and facilitate ball progression. His control is no Benzema control, but it’s there. I won’t get into too much depth here, but I can see why this transfer may make sense. We may get a couple of solid backup seasons out of him before we move on into the uncertain future with Endrick spearheading CF and may do so without having to re-shuffle the pieces and tactics altogether whenever Benzema is injured or resting.

Loved this Quote

Nicely put by Jose