DANCING CORNER FLAG (PART II) | FEB 25, 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.

SHOWTIME

I hope Vini scores today and dances by the corner flag again, this time to loud cheers and celebrations.

MBAPPE’S ABSENCE

This injury has been a long time coming. I’m amazaed at how Mbappe has managed to delay his sanitas visit for this long. He should take the month off and heal 100%. No need to rush and shorten your career. In his absence, i’m going to hold out a glimmer of hope that others will step up, otherwise we’re cooked.

PLAYER EVOLUTION

I’m very interested in player evolution because despite the successes we’ve had in the past with these set of players. IMO, NONE OF THEM, excluding Mbappe, have evolved into much better players individually than when they first began to peak here. Of course, this is down to coaching. Which is a severe problem here. This is worrisome. Players don’t evolve these days, they just peak and that’s it. The ones that have done any kind of evolution are the ones that change position and still excel there, but that’s about it. Something is missing with these generation of footballers we’re seeing, after peak, there’s zero evolution but 50% maintenance + 40% possibility of declining overtime whilst still in their 20’s and 10% chance of fading away before 30. correct me if i’m wrong.

LET ME BREAK DOWN MY TERMS:

MAINTENANCE – Means players level stays the same over time. Just keeping good form ONLY. Problems with maintenance football: 1.) When more is demanded from the player, More cannot be gotten because player has reached end of developing-talent life-cycle and can only maintain forward. 2.) The drop in form is usually very noticeable. 3.) Very easy for opposing teams to figure out how to shut down player. 4.) Time passing, is enough to make player vulnerable, as football continues to change itself over time.

DECLINING – Self explanatory.

FADING AWAY – Maintenance football from a player at a serious top club isn’t going to keep that player there for long. They run the risk of being transferred to a lesser club which reduces people’s awareness of them, hence the term “fading away”.

PRIME EXAMPLES:

MARCO ASENSIO – Largely stayed the same throughout his time here. Went to PSG, couldn’t hang, got booted to Aston Villa and later bounced to Fernabahce. Zero evolution as a player, even when the time came and it looked like he would make the leap into a more advanced version of himself under JLO, he buckled under pressure.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

ISCO – At one point, it looked like he had become one of the next best things in our club after Carlo magnificently transitioned him from a #10 to a B2B CM. We saw a huge evolution in him but he never became anything more.

GARETH BALE – World class in his day but injuries killed any hope of evolving and even maintaining anything.