Carlo Ancelotti may be on his way out of Real Madrid - and likely on to Brazil - but that doesn't mean the coaching legend has stopped developing his players or coming with new innovations. Ancelotti and Madrid still have a lot to play for this season with both the LaLiga title on the line and the Copa del Rey Final this weekend against Barcelona.
Besides the two trophies on the line, Ancelotti may have one last parting gift for Real Madrid. On Wednesday night, Carletto finally gave two of his most promising jewels a chance to start on the road against local rivals Getafe, as Endrick played over Kylian Mbappe in the front two while Arda Guler got a start in the midfield.
And it was Guler who secured Man of the Match honors with an early goal outside the box that proved to be the difference in a 1-0 win that keeps Real's hopes of the LaLiga title alive. However, it was Guler's all-around play that made far more headlines among Madridistas than even the goal to beat Getafe star keeper David Soria.
Arda Guler was brilliant in a deeper role
See, Ancelotti did something different in this game. Guler didn't play as a 10 strictly or as a right winger, which have been his most common positions in Real Madrid. Alluding back to something Carlo said before the season started but never seemed to truly follow through on, the Italian manager started Guler as a deeper-lying playmaker and a more traditional midfielder than a 10.
The result was one of Guler's best and most comprehensive performances of his career. He looked so comfortable on the ball and picked out some truly gorgeous passes that would have made Toni Kroos swoon. Guler had, at times, the confidence of Luka Modric under pressure with the presicence of a certain regista of Ancelotti's past.
Andrea Pirlo's breakout at AC Milan as one of the best players in world football is largely credit to Ancelotti believing in him as a star and a deep-lying playmaker. The Italian footballing icon had gotten his start at Brescia as a local prospect in a 10 role, and it was actually another Carlo - Carlo Mazzone - who first saw Pirlo's potential as a regista and used him in that role at Brescia. However, Mazzone didn't do that consistently, whereas Ancelotti regularly made Pirlo a pivot in midfield and helped usher in a new era of football with Pirlo as his commanding general in the middle of the park.
Don't call him Andrea Pirlo yet
It is obviously way too soon to make any sort of Pirlo comparison to Guler or insinuate that this is who he is going to be and how he is going to play for the rest of his career, but it is highly encouraging that Guler was so successful in this role against a notoriously dense and difficult Getafe defense. Most young midfielders would buck under the pressure of facing one of LaLiga's most voracious teams, but Guler was picking them apart and would have had better numbers if his teammates, besides Vinicius Junior, performed better.
Guler finished the night with three key passes, two dribbles completed, three combined tackles and interceptions, and a team-high 77 pass attempts (87 percent completion) in what was the best all-around performance of any Real Madrid player. And that was his first game playing this role - under difficult circumstances, mind you.
The next Pirlo? We'll see. But Ancelotti has done this before with an attacking playmaker, and Guler looks like he could be natural as a deep-lying playmaker, too. That would solve a huge problem for Real Madrid in the future in the post-Kroos era if Guler can keep getting starts in this role.
Even though it's time for Real Madrid and Ancelotti to part ways, it's moves like this that remind you how great Ancelotti's vision of the game is and how he is the best there ever was at profiling individual players and thinking outside the box. You just wonder if Real Madrid could have benefited from these Carlo traits for even longer if Florentino Perez spent more time investing in the defense and the base of the squad instead of chasing his Galactic-minded attacking desires.