Jude Bellingham was undoubtedly Real Madrid’s star acquisition in the 2023 summer transfer window, and the Englishman went on to live up to fans’ expectations of him with his incredible debut season at the Merengue club, helping his side to winning La Liga and UEFA Champions League title.

But he is not the only addition to Carlo Ancelotti’s squad that has raised a lot of hope among Real Madrid fans. Besides Bellingham, another very promising player who had attracted the interest of several major European clubs, Arda Guler, joined Los Blancos.

Unfortunately, the Turk had to endure a difficult start to his career at Real Madrid, as he suffered several injuries that prevented him from showing his talents on the pitch. He only gained a reliable level of fitness in the second half of the season, and Real Madrid’s victory in La Liga with a few matches remaining benefited him as he had the opportunity to play without too much pressure at the end of the season.

Guler took full advantage of these opportunities by displaying incredible finishing ability, scoring six goals in the 10 league matches he played throughout the season, including only 4 as a starter. In total, he played 390 minutes in La Liga but was unable to make his UCL debut.

Due to these late season performances, Guler was expected to play a much bigger role in Ancelotti’s team this season. However, most fans were rather dissatisfied with the minutes Guler got.and according to some reports, even the club’s highest authorities wanted the Italian coach to play Guler more often.

But despite this fan concern, the raw numbers show that Guler has actually become a more important player for Ancelotti than last season. This season, the Turk already has 12 appearances to his name, 8 in La Liga, 3 in UCL and 1 in the UEFA Super Cup.

However, he only totaled 307 minutes in those 12 appearances. Apart from the 3 starts he obtained against Real Valladolid, Real Sociedad and Espanyol, Guler only has meager minutes at the end of the match.

Additionally, he remained as an unused substitute in important matches against Barcelona and Atletico Madrid in La Liga, and against AC Milan in the UCL. None of these matches ended in a victory for Real Madrid.

On the other hand, he has been a regular starter for his Turkish national team and, when he played for Vincenzo Montella’s side, he was just as impressive as he was for Real Madrid in the end from last season.

Only in his last match against Wales, Guler once again had an excellent match, getting a Couch Score rating of 8.0. He couldn’t get a direct contribution to the goal in a match that ended 0-0, but in his 86 minutes on the pitch he had 2 shots on target, another shot off target and another blocked shot.

He also completed all three of his dribble attempts and won 5 of his 9 duel attempts. His passing accuracy stood at 89% as he completed 47 of his 53 passes. Guler also provided 3 key passes, attempted 7 crosses, including 1 accurate, and had 3 accurate long balls in 4 attempts.

It was clear that the Real Madrid starlet still had some improvement to make in his game, as he lost the ball 15 times. But it was yet another reminder that despite his relative lack of experience, Guler can still be a very valuable player for Real Madrid in the future.

Hopefully, Ancelotti will have taken note of this performance and give the Turkish gem minutes in more important matches, which will help Guler grow and become a more complete player in the future.