He was in the running to be a starter in Xabi Alonso’s first eleven. With the midfield lacking in play, Arda Güler, after a great end to the season, looked set to be one of the new coach’s choices to pull the strings in midfield. With no pure playmaker arriving to get the team playing, the Turk seemed to be a solution to alleviate the problems in midfield. And he was the solution in the second half, after the Tolosa-born coach opted to start with the same lineup that had performed so poorly last season.
Güler’s moment
It was late, but Ancelotti seemed to have found a solution in midfield at the end of his tenure: putting Güler in the playmaking role. The trick worked and he became an alternative to be reckoned with. His mobility in the middle of the park, his vision and his passing accuracy earned him the trust of the Italian at the end of the season, and should also have been enough for Xabi Alonso to give him a chance in midfield.
However, the new coach opted for the same system and the same players who performed so poorly last season. Tchouameni is what he is, and he does his job well, but his job is not to make the team play. The physical presence and power of Valverde are necessary to bring energy, but neither of them are playmakers, and that is where they fall short. Their performance would be better if they were not asked to do something they are not capable of and had someone alongside them who could do it.
It is surprising that a former player of the quality of Xabi Alonso, precisely in midfield, did not look for alternatives to last season. The result was more of the same: a team without ideas, a broken team, wandering around the midfield and looking to the wingers for individual quality to scrape something out, and they scraped nothing.
Modric vindicates himself
There were doubts as to whether Real Madrid did the right thing in not renewing his contract for the year he was asking for and which many consider he deserves. The truth is that before Al-Hilal, Modric only played ten minutes, more than enough time to prove, once again, that few players in the squad have as much quality and understand football as he does. Xabi Alonso said he wanted to squeeze a little more out of him in his last game for Real Madrid, because he didn’t squeeze much out of him. The game needed control and clarity in midfield, Güler gave it, but it seemed that the team needed something more.
Ceballos didn’t get any minutes
The other player who can bring quality to Real Madrid’s midfield is Dani Ceballos. The player became a key figure last season, and his injury left the team bereft when they needed him most. It is true that in the final stretch of the season he was unable to regain the form he had shown before his injury, but it is surprising that he did not get any playing time in the opening match of the Club World Cup.
Real Madrid’s midfield needs to change; it needs players who can bring more quality and give meaning to the game. The same flaws were evident as last season, which led to the team’s collapse. Xabi Alonso has only been in charge for a few days, but it is striking that he has not tried to shake things up in his first appearance at the helm, especially as he is one of the best midfielders in the history of soccer.