Real Madrid center midfielder Dani Ceballos’ loan with Arsenal began with plenty of promise, but the player has found it difficult to obtain minutes in recent months.
When the 2019-2020 season started, Real Madrid fans were worried that Dani Ceballos could choose to stay with Arsenal after speaking glowingly about the club.
Under Unai Emery, Ceballos started the season brightly, but as the wheels rolled off the wagon, so, too, did Ceballos’ performances. And he’s basically surplus to the Gunners’ current set-up under Mikel Arteta, as he’s found it difficult to crack the starting XI at center midfield or in a more attacking role.
As such, it’s actually unsurprising to see Cadena SER report, via @Ultra_Suristic on Twitter, that Ceballos is in talks with Real Madrid to terminate his loan at Arsenal. Ceballos reportedly wants to find a new team for the second half of the 2019-2020 season on a different loan deal, because he aims to play in the 2020 European Championships.
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In order to do that, he needs to show the Spanish national team his quality, and that’s awfully difficult to do when not actually receiving game time.
Ceballos has only played 664 Premier League minutes this season, making seven starts with four appearances off the bench. Worse yet, he hasn’t played in the Premier League since Nov. 2, taking part in all 90 minutes of a 1-1 draw with Wolves.
In that match, Ceballos completed 92.1% of his passes, per WhoScored.com, and his pass completion percentage in league play this season is in the high 80’s. That comes as no surprise to Madrid – or Real Betis – fans, who know Ceballos’ passing quality quite well.
But many of those passes have been empty. Ceballos has just two assists this season with only one key pass per game.
His dribbling numbers look slightly better, but they are hardly high enough for a player with merely average defensive contributions.
Ceballos needs a move to a club that will play him regularly and run the attack through him, making use of his technical quality and creativity. Real Madrid and Arsenal should both want a new loan deal for Ceballos, as it will clear out space for the Gunners and give a valuable Los Blancos loanee some more time to show his qualities.
So keep an eye out for more rumors regarding Ceballos, because this story is just beginning to surface.