Daily Thread: 29 August 2026

The Daily Merengue is a place where you can feel free to d 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, Ezek, Valyrian Steel, Kung_Fu_Zizou, Juninho, NeRObutBlanco and yours truly, Felipejack.

In about 10 days, Real Madrid debut in UCL this season at home against Inter Milan. As covered by Navarrete, here is the full calendar:

Matchday 1: Real Madrid-Inter Milan (Tuesday, September 8; 9:00 pm CEST)
Matchday 2: Roma-Real Madrid (Wednesday, October 14; 9:00 pm CEST)
Matchday 3: Real Madrid-Leipzig (Wednesday, October 21; 9:00 pm CEST)
Matchday 4: AEK Athens-Real Madrid (Wednesday, November 4; 6:45 pm CEST)
Matchday 5: Real Madrid-PSV (Tuesday, November 24; 9:00 pm CEST)
Matchday 6: Arsenal-Real Madrid (Wednesday, December 9; 9:00 pm CEST)
Matchday 7: Real Madrid-LASK (Tuesday, January 19; 9:00 pm CEST)
Matchday 8: Shakhtar Donetsk-Real Madrid (Wednesday, January 27; 9:00 pm CEST)

Per Romano, Real Madrid have agreed deal to sign 19-year-old Sergio Martínez from Racing Santander, here we go! Contract until June 2030 and deal worth €3m. There is confusion in reports starting he is CB, but he is a midfielder.

There was an interesting question on today press-conference. Mou was asked if he thinks offense needs to be trained/coached as much as defensive side or if offense is more about player individual creativity (something Ancelotti has mentioned more than once over the years). Mou replied:

When you have players with incredible quality, they sometimes make the coach looks like a phenomenon. And many times the coach is not a phenomenon, it’s the players. We work both on offensive organization and defensive organization. Today, for instance, we dedicated 45 mins or work to offensive organization. Obviously that we worked on tactical formations, movements, ok, but when there is a moment of difficulty, often the players are the ones who win the games. So you have to give them space to their creativity, space so he can decide things, without losing a concept of organization, which I think we are growing a lot in that aspect.

Another thing Mourinho emphasized is to properly wait for Tchouameni’s return so he does not relapse from his injury.

Mourinho also praised Ancelotti, in the question if it’s more difficult to coach tactical aspects or to manage the locker room:

Ancelotti is great in everything. I don’t feel anything as hard. Even the problems are natural. Until now, we don’t have any, but it will arrive. When it arrives, if it’s something tactical or from the management, you have to see and manage it with naturalness.

In the last question, Mou talked about possible line-up leaks:

I prefer if will go to the game tomorrow with the opponent not knowing our line-up. But if today leaks our line-up, it’s not that dramatic. What worries me is when you make many structural changes, for instance playing with 3 CBs, or we play with Espi and Kylian together. If we do something a bit outside that opponent’s coach can think about. But if it’s Cucurella or Carreras that starts is not dramatic to me.