OPEN THREAD — Dear Reflection Page 3: 27 Apr. 2026

Welcome to The Daily Merengue — a place where you can feel free to discuss all things football. Do not be alarmed by the overt RMCF bias. It’s in the name!

Shoutout to the Mods who do a fantastic job, Valyrian Steel, Ezek XI, KungFuZizou, NeRObutBlanco, Felipejack, and Juninho.

Word From Author:

Valyrian Steel: Juni — tell them the cold hard truth.

Juninho: aight bet.

A Collection of Letters

“I hope one day these words find you.” — [censored]

Dear MM,

Writer’s Prelude. Today I was going to write a new fresh DT but as I looked for which of my templates to clone, I stumbled on a DT that I wrote in Dec 2025. I’ve slightly edited it below as the sentiments remain the same but some of the MMers are different. Please reread this again if you’re willing to understand. And maybe question why 4 months later, things still feel the same. Tomorrow you’ll find something fresh.

Real Problems. Like everything in life, Real Madrid’s issues this season and past seasons are convoluted. They’re complex. It isn’t simply the coach, the board or the players. Instead, it is a combination of everything in the institution. A few days ago it was the nutrition and medical services. Some days it’s Xabi’s in-game management. Other days, it’s the failure to hire a Sporting Director who can view Real Madrid from solely a sporting perspective and ensure that player’s are purchased based off of fit rather than their IG followers. And entirely wrapped into this convoluted mess is something many fail to admit but “us”. We often say things like it’s Real Madrid — the board doesn’t allow “projects.” Well why is that? It’s because WE don’t allow projects. We whistle before we understand. We set standards that at times are too high to really achieve. we frequently fail to understand that the ecosystem of football has changed. Today’s Real Madrid isn’t the one from the early 2000’s, it isn’t the one from the CL 3-peat, and it is barely the one from 23/24. But anyway before I get lost in this soliloquy, I’m hoping today to just tell you more about how I feel. What I’ve read and just my tidbit of thoughts regarding recent statements.

(Note the above quote from Matt is from 2025. This doesn’t feel remarkably different a year later.)

Mbappe. I’m really going to try my damn hardest to make this section not extremely long but I’m just going to say this right now — EvilVini (Juni 2026 edit — since he has now been banned in 2026 this is directed at SerenityNow / UALJohnny) Mbappe is not THE problem. And let’s tackle this in three manners: 1) changes from 23/24 to now; 2) whether the 23/24 results were sustainable and 3) other forward’s production dips.

Naturally, the first and easiest way that many Madrid fans exclaim that Mbappe is the problem for a team which won La Liga / CL the year prior, is that “we won everything when it was just Vini, Rodry and Jude.” TBH this type of analysis is severely incomplete. This type of commentary doesn’t note that we’ve lost a multitude of integral players from the 23/24. This is not just ONLY Toni Kroos. Although staying on the team, we’ve significantly lost Dani Carvajal who in 23/24 only missed 8 days due to injury — he has since missed 267 days in 24/25 and 127 in 25/26. And before we dilute Dani Carvajal’s impact, note that Dani Carvajal practically led the La Liga winner, the CL winner, and the Euros winner in 23/24. He finished 4th in Balon D’Or voting as a RB. It was that type of season for not ONLY Toni Kroos but also Gluten-Free Carvajal. Damn I really can’t bold this entire paragraph…but let’s also view how after 23/24, we lost Nacho as a backup CB and since then have failed to recover neither Alaba nor Militao for a significant period of time. The 23/24 season also happened to be Rudiger’s healthiest period on the team as he only missed 23 days due to injury. He has since missed 72 days in 24/25 and already 78 days this season. Ironically, even Ferland Mendy was healthier in 23/24 compared to the past two seasons which is so incredibly ironic.

Now quickly turning to just a fun discussion I briefly had yesterday with Blankano — imo the 23/24 season production wasn’t ever sustainable. As, I’ll copy and paste again below — we had a pattern of remontada results (note: I don’t have the time or patience to discuss how we gaslight ourselves into always believing a remontada is a good thing when really its better to just take care of business with a dominant performance…I’ll have to save this thought for a separate day). Below are ONLY the La Liga games where we needed a final 10 min goal to win / draw.

Games in which we scored in the last 10 min goals to gain points:
• Aug 23 – Celta v Madrid. Jude 81’. Win
• Sep 2 – Getafe. Jude 90+5. Win
• Oct 28 – Barcelona. Jude 90+2. Win
• Dec 21 – Alaves. LV 90+2. Win
• Jan 21 – Almeria. Carva 90+9. Win.
• Jan 21 – Las Palmas. Tchou 84’. Win
• Feb 25 – Sevilla. Modric 81’. Win
• April 21 – Barca. Jude 90+1. Win

This my friends is 24 points or in other terms 16 points recovered in the final 10 mins of La Liga matches. Note again — we won La Liga by only 10 points in the 23/24 season and also note that two of these wins are against Barcelona. That is a net swing of 6-12 points for Barca. And I know many of you are about to clamor “But Juni — that’s football. Games are decided in brief moments,” or “Our La Liga title was deserved.” Again, I’ll repeat, I’m not claiming that we didn’t deserve our La Liga title and I’m not discounting the legacy of remontadas. I’m saying that these type of results are unlikely to be sustainable. It’s unlikely that when 20% of your games have been decided with sheer last minute brilliance that said players will maintain those results the following year. They’re human. Realistically, you’ll lose those points and then lose La Liga. And that’s exactly what seemed to happen in 24/25 and what we see today.

Okay now to part 3) dip in production from other forward players. We often hear the complaint “Rodrygo / Vini / Jude were better without Mbappe,” and for this we’re just going to focus on Vini because a) he’s allegedly our 2nd best player and b) he was the FIFA Best Player of the Year before Mbappe arrived. It’s also just not worth diving into Rodrygo stats who played RB with LV last year and then stopped playing and Jude who quite frankly was hurt all last season with his shoulder and imo shouldn’t be expected to score 19 La Liga goals anyway…because he’s a midfielder. So the thing about our Mbappe-dependencia is that you would expect the inclusion of Mbappe to completely suck the air out of Vini. And the funny thing is that many clamor that since Mbappe’s inclusion we don’t see the 23/24 Vini…some even say that we don’t see the 21/22 Vini. I’m here to tell you that we need to start reviewing the 23/24 Vini as an anomaly rather than the norm. What we see now is Vini. What we saw then was a player who reached his peak and may not reach that peak again.

(Shoutout to Madridsto) According to Understats, a website which collects advanced data from players, you’ll actually see measures that indicate that Vini has simply dropped back to his norm according to his p90 stats. Let’s take a look:

(Juni edit – for those at home, below are the updated stats as of April 27 2026)

As you can see above the majority of his stats are simply the same as they were in prior years with the 23/24 season being the only standout. Yes, last season Vini looked and played like ass. Funny enough, his xG+xA is the exact same as the 23/24 season hovering around 20. His xG90 has significantly dropped the past two seasons since 23/24 but it is still in-line with 21/22 Vini and higher than his 22/23 season. His xA also follows the same trajectory. Guys, is it simply possible that Vini had an amazing 23/24 season which he cannot replicate? Is it simply possible that we as fans have overrated this player? And again I’m not saying that Vini isn’t special…he’s an absolutely special talent. But is there a world where what we’ve seen is his baseline? The Vini who is a volume dribbler + shooter because he simply isn’t efficient. The Vini who missed a stupifying amount of chances against City similar to Vini in 20/21. Is it possible that Mbappe-depencia isn’t actually an unusual reliance on Mbappe but simply players like Vini / Rodry aren’t actually good enough to carry an offensive team? Is it possible that we have deeper issues with our midfield contributions and defensive intensity?

I don’t really need these stats but lets just quickly look at Mbappe #s.

How is this THE problem?

Vini / Xabi / Tantrums. Now and I’m just going to directly use names here because it is what it is. Lazlo / Danger Noodle you’re being too harsh on Vini as the core problem with our team even though I do agree that El Clasico was pivotal towards where we find ourselves now. As I discussed earlier, our issues are far more nuanced than this one instance or one player. The “Great Tantrum” as MM has coined imo is just an example of the how the current board has destabilized RM as an institution with poor sporting discipline, squad planning, and ethics. But I’ll save that for maybe tomorrow’s letter.

I’ll admit that I like Xabi and firmly believe that even if he isn’t successful here that he’ll likely find success elsewhere, but I’m not going to act like Xabi hasn’t also created significant issues for himself. In no world, did we need Fran Garcia playing LW against I believe Elche and honestly in no world do we need Fran Garcia playing period. (Juni 2026 Edit: Ironic considering Carreras current form) Players like Valdes should’ve been called up earlier and Fran should’ve immediately been on our sales list. Xabi’s in-game substitutions are often far too late or simply don’t make sense to anyone who rationally understands and watches Real Madrid. He often throws all caution to the wind when we’re down a goal completely neglecting that we need a progressive passers or he is overly cautious to protect our flimsy leads. These are issues that Xabi needs to improve on and quite frankly needs to do this rapidly.

However, and this is often where one’s beliefs on locker room unrest begin as well as the board’s involvement in sanctioning player power can become a barrier, it’s hard for me to also not believe that Xabi is somewhat hamstrung in many of his decisions. Most reports have identified that Xabi has/had issues with the following three starters — Vini, Fede, and Jude. (We can mention Rodrygo as well but he doesn’t really play enough to be significant.) And if you believe most reputable reports (The Athletic / Arancha), the board has frequently listened to player’s appeals regarding positioning + minutes and may even side with the players. If you don’t listen to reports, then view how quickly the board was to leave Xabi on a decision making island after the El Clasico match and look up Ancelotti’s quote regarding what happened when he subbed Bale against Valencia in 2014.

Ok — lets just say the infamous trio are on the pitch and we are down a goal in an important game. Who are you subbing in 60th min? Surely it isn’t Kylian “I Score For Fun” Mbappe and it likely isn’t Tchouameni (aka the only midfielder who consistently defends). It’s Franco / Rodry / Arda and maybe someone like Raul Asencio for an attack minded player. Is there a world where Xabi pulls Vini at the 60 min and it doesn’t lead to a blowout? And yes, I understand “Xabi has subbed Vini before…clearly he can do it.” However, note there’s plenty of things in life that you CAN do and they all come with consequences. I CAN rob a bank…and if I’m caught I’ll go to jail. I CAN tell a fellow colleague that they’re doing a terrible job and if they’re close to HR or my boss, it may get me fired…you see where I’m going there?

(Juni 2026 edit – and with recent news about Florentino Perez dictating to Arbeloa when Camavinga needs to play…clearly past practices haven’t changed)

(read the above tweet fully. This was posted Sept 21 and is likely more relevant after El Clasico than it was then).

Xabi at the moment is coaching for his job. Xabi at the moment is coaching for a job where he needs buy-in from the players on the pitch to maintain said job. Xabi at least at the moment has lower leverage with his employers than the players. Xabi is the weakest link and in moments where you’re the weakest link — you can scream meritocracy or say we need to press but it doesn’t really matter. You’re a dead man walking.

And note…I don’t have time to draw comparisons between today and last season and where there are similarities. Spoiler: it’s not the coach…its very much everyone else.

Us. Now this letter has been so excessively long that I haven’t even had time to mention the board or how we as Real Madrid refuse to modernize towards potentially more sustainable results…so alas that will have to be in a longer letter. I just want to take a quick moment though to talk about us — ManagingMadrid. I’ll be brief because again this isn’t the “my life in exchange for yours” DT. All I’m going to say is I initially was convinced by Val to comeback because Carlo was gone. The Carlo In / Out toxicity permeated MM for years and by the end of last season I was simply tired of screaming into an abyss. I didn’t really like that I took pleasure in being a boogeyman. In many ways, MM is a creative outlet and escape for me and when the mirror looks back at you with the same viciousness that you look at it — idk it doesn’t make you feel great about yourself. Now, I’m not going to be dramatic — we aren’t Twitter. But I don’t think we’re not far off. Posts are more tweets than actual commentary. We exchange posts in order to speak rather than to listen. And I’ll be the first to say that — I’m part of that ecosystem and I am also part of that problem. As I’ve said almost all week “I’m a part of this pit / I’m at the heart like a 6.” And I know many of you skip my intros / outros but in all honesty they’re the most important parts of my DTs. They explain who I am / what I’m going through / how I’m stumbling /struggling with just life. And last year’s weren’t great. They were darker than I intended. A wolf trapped in a cage. Violently howling…

But anyway, let me cut this short because this is somehow being more “I” than “Us”. I guess to really finish, I’m glad for this community and regardless of what happens today let’s just take a moment try to actually listen to each other and not let this new era of MM follow the last. Try is the key word. Most of us will fail. Fuck, I know I probably will. But hopefully we keep trying. That’s all anyone can ask for.

“I hope some day…these words find you.”

Cheers,

J