I'm willing to take that bet. It's not about strength, it's about balance. Some guys play better through contact not because they are stronger but because they have much better balance control to make up for it.
100% some dudes that are big are easily put off, Khederia was one, while some guys that are smaller and wirey are able to shield the ball and take the punishment. Di Maria and Ribery come to mind off the top of my head. Guler I feel is just a tad slow, in the fast twitch sense
Yeah, agreed. He was exaggerating body weight so I addressed that and I said that he can gain strength and muscle etc.
Welp, this is what I feared. Even though the whole team bar Mbappe was bad, it is still no excuse for Arda failing to impress yet again. I feel like the upcoming season will be his career defining moment. Sink or swim. Curious to see how it will go.
Next season is not career defining for him, come on. He's young, loved by everyone, puts in the work, and extremely talented. He simply needs time and maybe a bit more guidance in terms of best position. He'll be fine, and otherwise I expect him to go on to have a good career anyway.
By career defining I don't mean his career might go to shit lol. I mean that next season will determine whether he can make it at Real Madrid or will have to go to a different club because he is not good enough (yet) for this level. This will be his third season and at 21 I don't think it is too much to expect Arda to make more of an impact next season. I don't think anyone expects him to carry or lead the team.
By the time Guler will be as old as Valverde is now, Valverde will be 31 years old. By that time, Modric will be 44. Just for perspective how young Guler is. We have older players in the youth team.
If I'm any young player at Real Madrid, I'd be looking at Fede's career trajectory and thinking "I want that too!". Fede was highly rated, but had to have a lot of patience. He never said a word, kept working, and ultimately became our most consistent (and loved) player.
The club might be the same, but the coaching staff will be different probably. He'll need to prove himself again to gain first team entrance. He does have better odds since Alonso does actually rotate.
I'll give this kid something, he consistently performs at a very high level for his country, and we don't have too many players like that right now, in our squad. It's not even like Turkey is a top international side (ranked 27th in the FIFA World Rankings, for what it's worth...).
I like the player a lot. But he didn’t do anything very special there. Good pressing for the goal, one good release for another goal scoring chance. But otherwise fairly routine for a #10.
Will be interesting to see where Xabi wants to use/develop him next season. We now have Jude, Arda, Mastuntano, Brahim. The latter three are all natural attacking mids with secondary roles as wingers but Arda looks like the only one that can transition into a deeper central role, wonder if Xabi sees it like that.
Yeah indeed, as it often is, and from reading comments/quotes from Xabi, I would think he will not force any of these players into particular roles just because he has a predetermined idea of how to use them (if it starts to look like it’s not working). Ultimately I think it’s the trickiest way to manage, that relaxed approach to tactical fluidity that Zidane and Carlo deployed because it requires a really nauaned manager to consistently strike the right balance between what he thinks works vs what roles his players are most comfortable in.
Ozil was very consistent offensively at RM. Assist machine. Him and Mou butted heads over defensive workrate during 2012-13.