Trabzonspor 4–0 Galatasaray, and none of it was an accident
Salah scored three. Trabzonspor won 4–0, and the Egyptian was voted Europe's best player of the week for it (22) (14). Galatasaray sit second on 13 points from six games, and the table is flattering them. Two league defeats in three, five goals conceded in the last two Süper Lig matches, and a back line that keeps changing personnel. Second place is the arithmetic. The football is not.
The defence is the story, and Buruk knows it
Singo has played two of Galatasaray's seven competitive games this season, and the club has now pushed his return date back again, with a new target set (6) (7) (17). Van Dijk is the name the board is briefing (9). That is what a 4–0 does: it turns a squad problem into a transfer headline within a week. But this is not just Singo. The league's better attacks are getting clean looks, and no centre-back pairing has lasted long enough to build anything. Buruk's answer, per the reports, is a reshuffled attack after the international break, with Yunus Akgün moved to the right (5) (19). Changing the front three when you keep losing the middle of the pitch is treating the symptom.
A week where the noise came from everywhere but the pitch
Buruk was referred to the PFDK for unsportsmanlike behaviour, together with Beşiktaş's Serdal Adalı, Trabzonspor's Ertuğrul Doğan and Dirk Kuyt (2) (24). Ugochukwu went with him (24). The TFF arbitration board also threw out Galatasaray's objection to the 2026-27 Turkish Cup statute (10). Add the January chatter, Gündoğan's expiring contract, a striker being lined up from Stuttgart, a push for Camavinga (16) (11) (18), and it is a club doing a lot of talking off the pitch while the one thing that matters, the defence, stays unresolved.
What to watch
Osimhen is expected to start up front after his injury, which fixes the attack and changes nothing at the back (4) (1). Kasımpaşa come to Istanbul on Friday, October 9, 19:00 CEST. Kasımpaşa are not Trabzonspor, so Galatasaray should win, and a win will quiet the noise for a week. Watch the centre-back pairing and whether Singo is anywhere near the squad sheet. That tells you whether the last fortnight was a bad patch or the shape of the season.
