Guler warmed up but didn't play in the Sevilla game

After an arthroscopy on the meniscus in his right knee and a couple of muscle injuries, Arda Guler's fitness has been a long time coming, but he has finally recovered. Even so, he is finding it hard to appear in Ancelotti's rotation, who, in the La Liga game against Sevilla, sent him off to warm up and, in the end, opted for Ceballos, who came on in the 90th minute for Brahim Diaz.

The Turk was presented as one of the coaching staff's solutions to give the 'Merengue' attack a bit more impudence, but, just as he was preparing to take the field, Modric opened the scoring with a goal from the edge of the area. This prompted an improvised meeting between the coach and one of his assistants, to whom he made several gestures by lowering the palm of his hand in a sign of "calm". He wanted to postpone the planned substitutions.

Aware of how difficult it had been to take the lead against Sevilla, he ended up ordering the introduction of a player with a profile more dedicated to controlling the ball than dribbling. Curiously, a few minutes later, in the 94th minute, he introduced Alvaro Rodríguez for Rodrygo Goes when the home-grown player had played a game for Castilla just a day earlier. He could have given this low risk opportunity to the former Fenerbahce player.

Guler has only made five appearances this season, one of them as a starter -the Copa del Rey match against Arandina-. In the league, he tasted the final stages of matches with Union Deportiva Las Palmas at the Estadio de Gran Canaria, Girona at the Santiago Bernabeu and Rayo at Vallecas, so he has hardly had time to shine, which has caused some indignation among his compatriots, who are closely following his career in Spain.

 

February 26, 2024