European players to watch: Part 2
Arda Guler - Real Madrid
If the Club World Cup is anything to go buy, we’re going to be seeing a lot more of Arda Guler in the next 12 months.
Last campaign, Guler didn’t get much of a look in under Ancelotti. Only amassing 1,775 minutes (around 20 90’s) in 24/25 in addition to his injury-ridden season of 2023/24, the forward’s lack of game time had people questioning whether or not joining Real Madrid was really the right move for his development.
When Guler was on the pitch for Los Blancos, it was abundantly clear that his world-class potential hadn’t waned one bit. Mainly featuring on the right hand-side of a fluid 4-4-2 or 4-2-3-1, Fenerbahce's former no.10 proved to be a difference-maker on numerous occasions. Towards the business end of the season, Guler’s consistently dangerous cameos off the bench left Ancelotti no choice but to start him as Real Madrid aimed to hunt down rivals Barcelona in a bid to win their 37th La Liga title. Although they were unsuccessful, Guler started the last 7 games of the run-in and proved to everyone that he was far too good of a player to be sitting on Madrid’s bench.
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With all the squad-building related questions that have arisen after the appointment of Xabi Alonso, one aspect that I was particularly interested in was who’s going to fill the huge hole that Kroos left in the midfield. Since the departure of the German midfielder, the Los Blancos squad has been crying out for a progressive passer in the midfield who can slow the game down and control the tempo. And judging by the way Alonso had also built his Leverkusen side, with Xhaka and Palacios doing similar things to Kroos on the ball, it was painfully obvious that he was going to require this sort of profile too.
Instead of splashing upwards of £50 million on a player that would’ve been good enough to be Real Madrid’s midfield metronome, it looks as if Alonso went for an in-house solution. During the Club World Cup, Guler started all 6 of the games bar the first, but it wasn’t in his familiar right-wing position. Alonso was employing Arda Guler as a central midfielder tasked with impacting the game from deep. And that’s exactly what the Turkish midfielder did. During those 6 games, Guler was one of Real Madrid’s best players as they reached the semi-finals of the competition. Alonso realised that all of Guler’s best strengths, such as his ability in tight spaces; range of passing and footballing IQ can be utilised in a midfield role that will also make Real Madrid a more complete output.
Next to Tchouameni, Camavinga, Valverde and Bellingham - Guler has all the legs and physical prowess next to him which will allow him to get the ball in the middle of the park and just dictate. It’s not a like-for-like Kroos replacement but he is one of only players in Europe who has passing ability that might be able to measure up to the German legend’s. Playing predominantly as a right-sided attacker in the last 12 months - Guler still ranks in the top 1% of midfielders across Europe for pass completion % and passes completed per 90 whilst also ranking in the top 4% for key passes and top 6% for progressive passes per 90. Obviously, this data might be slightly skewed as Guler was coming off the bench for a lot of this period but the sample size should be big enough for the 20 year old to be considered an elite passer and creator.
As stated, Arda Guler is too good to not play and Alonso has brilliantly killed two birds with one stone for how he’s going to fit in the squad. It provides a solution to the ‘Kros problem’ and also frees up an attacking space in the starting eleven.
Could this be the start of a brilliant career in midfield or in 6 months time will it be considered an Alonso failed experiment? Guler’s ability fills me with confidence that we’re witnessing the beginning of something very promising here - this might be the year where the Turkish magician evolves from a wonderkid into a world-class footballer.
Mika Biereth - Monaco
Monaco striker Mika Biereth catapulted himself onto the world stage in the second half of the 2024/25 season. After he moved from Sturm Graz to the south of France, the former Arsenal youth player made headlines for scoring three hat-tricks in Ligue 1 in the space of one month. The 22 year old barely touched down in France and had established himself as one of the most exciting young strikers in Europe after less than 10 games.
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It was something that nobody really saw coming as there was a point in time where the Danish striker had scored 12 goals in 8 matches. Although this freakish rate of scoring eventually calmed down, Biereth still managed 16 g/a in his first 19 games. For your first taste of the European top 5 leagues, that’s nothing to be sniffed at. What’s so interesting about Biereth in particular is he’s been scoring at such a high rate whilst not really taking that many shots. He ranks in the 50th percentile for shots taken per game for all forwards across Europe yet is in the top 8% for expected goals per game. This means that Biereth is getting really good chances every game which is further exemplified by the fact he has a nPxG per shot that ranks in the top 2% of all forwards.
These stats mean one of three things: Either Biereth has the movement of a prime Edinson Cavani which allows him to constantly be in the right position to get on the end of tap-ins; his teammates are all world-class creators who feed him good chances or that he’s getting lucky with rebounds and deflections etc.
Why Biereth is such an intrigiuing player to keep an eye on next season is because it will be fascinating to see whether he is able to keep his goalscoring numbers up or if they will fall back to something reflecting his shot totals. If Monaco’s newest sensation is able to score at a similar rate whilst taking the same number of shots across the whole season, then we might be looking at one of the best strikers in world football, but I find that hard to picture.
Biereth’s all around game reflects a player who is still unpolished in the grand scheme of things and that’s no problem considering he’s still pretty inexperienced at the highest level - his link-up play and security on the ball still need work. That second-half of the season statistically appears as an insane purple-patch rather than the announcement of a generational striker but that’s not to say he can’t get there in the near future.
If he begins to put up more shots, then I am frightened at the amount of goals Biereth could potentially score in the future and the fee that Monaco would consequently demand as a result.
Whichever way the pendulum swings, Mika Biereth has shown enough for him to be one of the most interesting young strikers across the continent to be keeping tabs on going into the new season.
Richard Rios - Benfica
Those who are tuned in to South American football will be all too familiar with Benfica’s new €27 million man. Rios is a 25 year old midfielder who’s been applying his trade in the top flight of the Brazilian domestic league for the majority of his career. Famously someone who allegedly only started playing football at the age of 19, the Colombian began to capture serious attention after his performances at the Copa America in 2024.
Rios is the definition of all-action. Not being in an academy throughout his youth days meant that he never boxed in and coached to play a specific way. It’s evident with the way he plays: Dynamic, unpredictable and ambitious in possession - he’s a unicorn profile that has no real limits to his game. You never know what you’re going to get when he picks up the ball and that’s what makes his move to Benfica so exciting.
It’s a mystery to me that a player as talented as Rios is only just moving to Europe, but at least he’s here now. He will look to partner with Benfica’s newly acquired Enzo Barrenechea and form one of the most intriguing double pivots across Europe. Benfica are looking to make a statement this window that they’ll be back at the top of the league after finishing runners-up to a relatively average Sporting outfit last campaign. The signing of Rios is a good way to show that you mean business - easily a player good enough to play in the top 5 leagues, it will be a question of just how long will the Portuguese giants be able to keep him.
One of those players that makes your dad lean off his couch and go ‘’this Rios lad ain’t half bad him,” the former Palmeiras man will be lighting up the middle of park come the start of the Champions League campaign.
The newest combatant to the era of robot players, he’s a player that football fans will grow to like quite a lot.
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