We take a look at Arda Guler's opta performance ahead of his debut season at Real Madrid.
Real Madrid beat Barcelona to the services of the 18-year-old prospect after sealing the acquisition of Arda Güler from Fenerbahçe. He will be the first Turkish player to don the all-white strip since Nuri Sahin in May 2012 if he makes his league debut with the Spanish team.
Then why is Güler such a highly sought-after prospect, and why did Real Madrid make such an effort to sign him?
Despite limited playing time this season, the young teenager has demonstrated his undeniable talent. Güler frequently drifts inside on his left foot while playing mostly as a wide right player in a 4-1-3-2 system, creating difficulties for opponents from central areas. In fact, Güler placed third in terms of ball carries per 90 minutes (20) among all midfielders and strikers who played at least 800 minutes of league football in Turkey last season, highlighting his ability to successfully move the ball forward. In the same group, he also placed among the top 10 in terms of ball carry distance per 90 minutes (206m).
The teen generated one goal-scoring opportunity per 23 minutes for the course of the campaign, or 40 total. This makes Guler's season average in the Super Lig the best on record since the 14/15 season.
Looking at Arda Guler's Sorare Scores for Fenerbahce in all games he has started in the past year give us a good idea of the output we can expect from him.
Guler managed 6 decisive actions across 14 league starts for his club last season, amassing an average score of 67.7 out of 100 across these fixtures. Image below is from Sorare Data.
In terms of his play time this season, we'd expect him to feature similarly to how Rodrygo has done in the past season where all players were fit for Madrid.
In 23/24, we'd anticipate a starting front three for Madrid which features Rodrygo in a more central role, unless a world class striker is acquired. We could see Valverde used in the RW slot if this is the case. With Joselu in the ranks Rodrygo could find himself playing wide right with Guler working as an understudy. But we'll be expecting to see plenty of minutes for Guler in his debut season, especially in the cup where we'd expect him to be given an opportunity to really show himself to the fans.
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