Real Madrid continues to ponder how to strengthen its midfield, combing the market in search of a player with the characteristics the team needs, capable of bringing the ball out from the back and adding value to the team in defense. It is not proving difficult, but at the same time, a player from the first team is emerging as a central midfielder and could be the definitive solution for Xabi Alonso and Florentino Pérez: Arda Güler.
A difficult gap to fill
Real Madrid has been struggling with the loss of Toni Kroos since last summer. Since the German player decided to hang up his boots, the hole in the center of the white team’s midfield has been enormous. None of the solutions proposed by Ancelotti worked, which led to an unbalanced team, lacking in offensive creativity and defensive rigor, always relying on individual players to solve a problem that, as the months went by, became more and more complicated.
Real Madrid now has urgent needs for next season, especially with the departure of Luka Modric, but the market does not offer any alternatives that Florentino Pérez is willing to break the bank for: the market does not offer quality at a cheap price, and the most appealing options, although not convincing, are Enzo Fernández and Alexis Mac Allister, from Chelsea and Liverpool respectively, but they would break the bank for Real Madrid.
Güler emerges as the solution
He was Carlo Ancelotti‘s last bet in the final stretch of the season, and he is already Xabi Alonso‘s bet in the Club World Cup. There is still a long summer ahead to make a final decision, but given his performance with the Whites, he is already being seriously considered as the “signing” that the team so badly needs. In the first game of the World Cup, he changed the face of the team when he came on in the second half. Against Pachuca, despite the team being a man down after Asencio’s sending off, Güler was able to shine in the build-up play, and everything points to him being the team’s playmaker in the game against Salzburg, in which Real Madrid hopes to seal their place in the last 16 of the Club World Cup.
A lot of work with Güler
But the conversion will not be easy. These first tests are going well, but Güler is a player with a more offensive profile. When starting the play, he is well positioned, but his tendency is to go forward, leaving important gaps. Added to this is the fact that he is a player who is unaccustomed to major defensive displays, something that is essential in the position of a central midfielder. These are aspects that need to be corrected. They may seem minor, but they are automatic responses that need to be regulated, and that is not easy.
But it is possible. One of the Turkish player’s strengths, as many players who have shared a dressing room with him, such as Toni Kroos, have commented, is his ability to listen, understand, and execute. For many, this young man’s desire to learn and evolve is the key to what makes him different and capable of becoming a great player. He has now been entrusted with a mission that could be a turning point in his career: managing Real Madrid. Florentino already sees him as the signing the team needs, the player who is not on the market but is already at home. Xabi Alonso has a lot of work ahead of him, but this is an opportunity to polish one of the gems of the future, and the present, of world football.