Open Thread: February 2, 2026

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 do a Christmas movie Marathon with: Valyrian Steel, Felipejack, Kung_Fu_Zizou (AKA KFZ), Juninho, Ezek and, of course… yours truly.

So Uh.. The Boys Aren’t Looking too Sharp

Ah, here we are again. Oh mi Madrid. We sacked Xabi, and many thought that the players would respond… kindly to the new coach and instantly up their game. We get our uh.. shorts handed to us by Albacete. We trash a mediocre Monaco. People saying we played our best and even pundits start talking about a comeback. Well, you know the rest. It’s short memory anyway.

Look, this ain’t it, and it shows. Oftentimes, the players look disjointed, and that killer instinct that characterized much of the past two decades is not there. I see a … re-calibration on the horizon and I can only hope it’s for the better.

What’s your take on the current condition of the team?

One Card Short VS Valencia

Now, Valencia often put up a good fight against us. They are a tough team to face in general. Vini or no Vini on the left wing, Jude or lack thereof, Real Madrid do — on paper — boast the firepower to beat Valencia. And I shall blatantly admit the satisfaction I feel when we do beat them. Yet, let’s not kid ourselves. We’re going into this one far from our peak state, both in terms of available players and in terms of confidence and chemistry.

SOME Promise

Well, it’s not all doom & gloom. At the very least, some of our players show a lot of promise. Arda has shown glimpses of being a top talent and I really do believe in the kid. He’s one we’ll likely see a lot more of.

Banter