​MADRID, SPAIN – FEBRUARY 19: Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham of Real Madrid during the UEFA Champions League 2024/25 League Knockout Play-off second leg match between Real Madrid C.F. and Manchester City at Estadio Santiago Bernabeu on February 19, 2025 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images) | Getty Images 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.Writer’s Prelude. The Jose Juninho Era will continue. Jose Juninho Edition“If I’m hated at MM [Barcelona], it’s their problem but not mine. Fear is not a word in my DT [football dictionary.“ — Jose MourinhoView LinkA Yesterday Recap. Alright…so things got a bit lost in the mix yesterday when discussing Vinicius & Mbappe so I’m just going to first bring some clarity to the chance creation and overall game of the two. First, as I’ve said Vinicius had a better game than Mbappe. They were both pretty terrible overall but Vini at least had 1-2 moments akin to his ability where Kylian was at best a bystander at worst a detriment. This imo is an absolute fact. In regards to the Kylian’s two big misses (that weren’t the penalty), Kylian absolutely needs to bury both chances. We would expect for him to bury those chances. My callout of Vini isn’t about blame it’s to exhibit a growing lack of confidence. The decision to pass is simply not one that a confident forward makes especially not one who is Balon D’Or caliber. Sure, we can disagree on whether that was a good footballing decision — personally I don’t think it was even though the result ended up being concrete. As I believe Turan said in yesterday’s thread, Vini should’ve buried the shot but after the pass Kylian should’ve buried the shot. I don’t think this sequence is the detriment of our season nor the game (there were other equally high xG opportunities like Kylian’s penalty miss and Vini’s miss at the 37 min) but it’s likely a theme we will have to course correct and fast.¿Qué hacemos?¿Es de alguien la culpa?Son de esos días que hagas lo que hagas no sale nada bien. pic.twitter.com/KVoT5rh4OD— NoKai (@nokai) September 4, 2026Untouchables. Anyway and more importantly, this team isn’t going to win major trophies with this many “untouchables”. I just don’t see how we can for a multitude of reasons. One a list of nearly 1/3 of our XI as untouchable has to have real effects on our team ethos and chemistry where young budding forwards have a near-zero chance to continue their form or develop it. Second, and most importantly, the untouchable issue forces us to make quite frankly odd substitutions. This has actually been an issue since the Carlo era and at times curtails our ability to actually comeback when trail