This article is part of Football FanCast’s The Chalkboard series, which provides a tactical insight into teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…
Even though Real Madrid made a number of purchases last summer, they still haven’t addressed one key gap in their squad: Casemiro’s understudy.
But looking at their bench, there just might be a solution sitting right there in front of their noses.
On the chalkboard
Currently, there are five central midfielders in Real Madrid’s squad. Casemiro, though, is the only natural defensive midfielder in their ranks.
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Of course, Los Blancos have multiple other players that can slot into the attacking-midfielder role – the likes of Isco, Luka Modric, James Rodriguez and Toni Kroos – but no one else who can effectively serve as the Brazilian’s substitute and still play in his natural position.
This poses a huge problem for Zinedine Zidane’s squad.
But even though they might be inclined to dip their toes into the transfer market in order to solve this conundrum in January, there is actually a solution already present at the Santiago Bernabeu.
And his name? Federico Valverde.
Trust in the youth
Valverde is the product of Real Madrid’s academy.
Born and raised in Castilla, the 21-year-old midfielder hasn’t really seen much game time since his promotion to the senior squad just in the summer of 2018.
So far, he has played a total of 29 games for Los Blancos and has no goals or assists to his name. And this is still one game less than he played for Real Madrid Castilla back in the day.
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But his fortunes just might be changing as he has already registered four appearances in the ongoing 2019/20 campaign. And looking at his skill set, maybe Zidane could transform the young midfielder into an effective pivot that could relieve Casemiro when needed.
So far, he has registered 172 minutes in La Liga and has maintained 86.4% passing accuracy with one key pass per game on average. He’s also tallied 2.1 tackles per ninety minutes, which suggests that the potential for him to play deeper is there.
He is strong and confident on the ball, contributes to the defensive phases of the game and is still young enough to be trained in a new role.
Not to mention that he is quite versatile too. In the 101 games Transfermarkt has on the books, he has played in a total of six different positions, including centre-back – which again hints at a natural defensive awareness.
With a bit of sculpting and good management, Zidane might get the answer to his squad conundrum in the young Castilla product.
At the very least, it has to be worth a shot.
