Marcelo Saracchi Benchmarking

With reports that this loan deal, with no option to buy, is done, it is time to throw Marcelo Saracchi through the benchmarking exercise ringer. What kind of profile are Celtic signing?

The first detail to note is my decision to examine his 2020-2021 season at Galatasaray and 2022-2023 at Levante in the Spanish second division. Why those two seasons? Saracchi has not really played all that much first team football in his career, including within recent seasons. He had 483 minutes in 2025 at Boca Junior, 1,290 in 2024, and 1,190 in 2023.

While he has some injury history, the one stretch of extended absence was due to a cruciate tear in 2021-2022. The rest were listed on Transfermkt as 1 to 3 weeks from soft tissue injuries.

The disparity between his two seasons within these graphics highlight the importance of team-level competitive dynamics.

Galatasaray were relatively dominant that season in Turkiye and it was obviously the “COVID season.” They barely lost out to Besiktas for the title playing a style not that similar to Celtic. Regardless, the system was successful in creating high quality chances, on average, 2nd in the league in xG per shot and xG per game.

Levante finished 3rd that season playing a style that was probably even more distant from Celtic’s, with xG per shot about 20% lower than the season at Galatasaray.

Standouts from these first two sections were the relatively average to below average for non-penalty xG per shot and xA per shot assist from open play - two metrics I look towards with regards to the intersection between athleticism and decision making.

He seemed vigilant enough physically in duels, though keep in mind that volumes for aerial duels are simply different level in Scotland. For example, he averaged about 1.8 and 1.5 those two seasons, where as Greg Taylor was involved in about 4.5 on average in league games within the SPFL.

In addition, he was an relatively “dribbly” player both seasons, both in volume and efficiency, while his speed-related metrics showed enough to carry the ball when afforded space, but likely not “fast” for his position. Upon viewing some video of him playing over the past couple of seasons, I would not characterize him as anything more than functional for speed at a European level.

On balance, his passing-related metrics suggest a reasonable level of technical proficiency, but possibly not at a standout level…i.e. not a strength nor a weakness.

Analytical Conclusions

Base case is that he may be a functional system player at Celtic domestically, but perhaps unsurprisingly a material drop off from Kieran Tierney at a European level.

He’s basically been a journeyman left back who will turn 28 this season, who played on relatively large-resourced teams within their leagues, and struggled to lock down starters’ minutes.

He does not suit the profile of “pace and power” for sure.

Not all that exciting but probably ok to do a job if it is simply to provide a rotation option to spell KT strategically. Given the rest of the squad and what appears to be the other remaining signings/targets, I do not see him as a likely positive difference makers should KT be lost to injury for any extended period(s).

Most negative aspect is I think his signing is another symptom of a long-history of deficient talent development, identification, and squad management.

Most positive is he seems reasonably likely to be a functional contributor, even if underwhelming, which has not been the median case since the summer of 2023 transfer window.