Odegaard, a new engine

It’s not technically a signing, but it looks like it. The Martin Odegaard The one Carlo Ancelotti met on July 5 at the start of the white preseason hardly resembles the Odegaard he met Carletto in 2015 in blonde bangs. The Norwegian has evolved into a real footballer and those teenage flourishes now generate real play. Not only has he appeared in Valdebebas among the first in the results in the initial physical tests of the squad, his time at the Premier has finished shaping his skills. In a Madrid that looks for a goal even under the stones, the Nordic is the second offensive footballer of the current white squad that generates more chances to score, only surpassed by Kroos. Odegaard is another engine for the Madrid plane.

Counting the main twelve attacking players under contract, including Brahim, despite the fact that his transfer to Milan is practically a fact, the only one who can overshadow that role of generator of chances is Kroos. The Teuton creates one every 31 minutes of play, while the Norwegian does it every 43 minutes (counting his numbers in the League and the Premier last season). Performance that improves on those of other catalysts such as Modric and Isco and leaves footballers who attack from the wings like Asensio, Vinicius and Rodrygo far behind. Also in England he has shown a percentage of success in dribbling (76%) with Arsenal that in Madrid only improves, precisely, also Kroos (84%). Far ahead of specialists such as Hazard (56%) and Vinicius (41%). Also a demonstration of ease. Odegaard completed 13 dribbles in his 866 minutes as a gunner footballer, while at Madrid in 232 ‘he barely attempted a dribble. Clear sign that he was playing stiff.

A growth in which the psychological effect is essential. Odegaard has long claimed blind faith from his coaches. It happened to him at the Dutch Vitesse, where his football clicked after an unproductive assignment at Heerenveeen and then with Imanol Alguacil at the 2018-19 Real Sociedad, something that Mikel Arteta also showed him in the gunners (“With him you just have to open your ears and learn,” said the Norwegian of the Arsenal manager a few months ago) from the beginning. In England it went from less to more, He won over the Arsenal fans with his goal against Tottenham in the derby (2-1) against Tottenham in March and finished the Premier with two assists in the last two days of the gunning team.

With Arsenal insisting on keeping it again for this next season, Madrid told Odegaard that they were waiting for him in Valdebebas. So Odegaard is left wondering what to play. It is up to Ancelotti to reconcile that desire, which generated impatience dthe young Norwegian with Zidane to the point of asking to leave on loan, with minutes of play. The veterans of the squad already appreciated the evolutionary leap in the last preseason.

When Odegaard trained with the first team from 2015 to 2017, the consensus in first team circles is that the boy had an innate talent “but he was very green.” That has changed and Ancelotti himself is checking it. Odegaard has added characteristics of English football, especially speed transitions, to his football palette. Madrid needs it.