Gulaire s situation changes in Real Madrid: from "destroyed prince" to potential midfield core

In the development of Real Madrid's team, Gulaire's experience can be regarded as a dramatic history of player growth. Gulaire is a star player in Turkish football and has extremely high value. In 2023, he transferred from Fenerbahce to La Liga giant Real Madrid with a transfer fee of 24 million euros.

While Ancelotti coached Real Madrid, the team's midfield competition was extremely fierce. The presence of players such as Mbappe, Vinicius, Rodrigo and Bellingham has resulted in the sharp reduction of Guillaer's playing opportunities and tactical status. In the 2024-2025 season, although Gulaire made 47 appearances at Real Madrid, most of them came on as a substitute, winning only 6 goals and 8 assists. At that time, under the leadership of Ancelotti, Real Madrid's lineup construction and tactical arrangement showed a relatively stable pattern. Ancelotti is accustomed to using a fixed lineup. Without serious injury crisis, he rarely rotates a large-scale lineup, which makes it difficult for young players such as Guillail to get plenty of opportunities to play.

Under this situation, Gulaire had conflicts with Real Madrid's management and even used "forced palace" methods. He claimed that if Ancelotti continued to coach, he would leave Real Madrid, which was undoubtedly a challenge to the club's authority, and eventually "forced the palace" ended in failure. However, as time passed, Guillail gradually realized that it might have misunderstood Ancelotti. In fact, Ancelotti also has some help to him, and gave him more opportunities to play at the end of last season, but this failed to reverse Ancelotti's fate of being dismissed.

With the arrival of new coach Alonso, Real Madrid's operations in the transfer market focus on the back line, such as purchasing players such as Arnold and Heysen, but did not supplement the midfield. This adjustment of the transfer strategy brings new opportunities to Gulaire. In the tactical system constructed by Alonso, especially under the 352 formation, Gulaire shows unique value. Bellingham and Valverde are all-round players, Kamavenga and Chuameni focus on defensive midfielders, and although Ceballos has organizational skills, he has frequent injuries and limited overall strength. After Modric and Kroos left the team, Gulaire was able to be competent for the core midfield position in Alonso's tactical system with his own technical characteristics.

On the eve of Real Madrid's quarter-finals against Dortmund, Guerre said in an interview with football media that he had a great feeling in Real Madrid's midfield and enjoyed the joy of football. Alonso also hopes that he can become the core of the team's midfield, so that he can control more ball rights and connect Real Madrid's offensive system. From being once regarded as a "fringe player" to now expected to become the core of the midfield, Gulaire's situation at Real Madrid has achieved a significant reversal.