Real Madrid: Eder Militao has earned more starts

Real Madrid center back Eder Militao was the best player on the pitch in Saturday’s gutsy 2-1 win over Deportivo Alaves, and the young summer signing has surely earned more starts after another excellent performance.

In Rodrygo, Eden Hazard, Ferland Mendy, and Eder Militao, Florentino Perez made four genius signings for Real Madrid this past summer, and striker Luka Jovic will prove to be a fifth. Since Militao is a center back and is on the bench behind two global stars in Sergio Ramos and Raphael Varane, it’s easy to overlook his impact. But Militao has proven time after time that he’s deserving of more action.

Militao received his third start in La Liga on Matchday 15, and, for the third straight time, he was brilliant. Even though he is only 21 years old and came from FC Porto in Liga NOS, he looks like a 28-year-old who knows the ins and outs of Spain’s top flight.

The Brazilian center back never puts a foot wrong and does an incredible job of covering for his right back. Dani Carvajal, who scored the winning goal, needed to push high up the pitch in order to break down Alaves’ league-best home defense at the Mendizorroza, which meant Militao was called into action plenty of times. He kept Lucas Perez shackled all afternoon long, and Perez is a tricky customer who has been in free-scoring form this season.

Militao, however, made Perez look like a non-factor. He once again bullied whichever forward came across his path, making two interceptions in the win, per WhoScored.com. The 21-year-old also looked composed on the ball, and he even made a goal-saving tackle at one point that proved to be crucial in the 2-1 win.

After this performance, there is no doubt that Militao has earned more starts. It’s difficult to bench either Sergio Ramos or Raphael Varane, since they are natural-born leaders and elite defenders. But Varane and Ramos, as brilliant as they’ve been for much of the season, are also prone to mistakes. On Tuesday, Varane blew the game against PSG. On Saturday, Ramos could have easily blown the three points against Alaves.

Ramos and Varane could use some rest, and between the two star men, Varane should probably be the most “worried” about Militao. But is it really a bad thing for Varane if Militao gets more starts? I’d say not, as Militao’s presence can only help all the star center backs at Real Madrid perform at their best.

And yes, Militao is one of the “star center backs” at Real Madrid. The statistics show it. He’s completing 90.5% of his passes, averaging 3.3 aerial duels per game, and putting up a combined 3.6 tackles and interceptions per game. The man has been unbeatable this season, and his performance against Alaves is a sign that he’s earned more minutes from Zinedine Zidane, who, as always, has an eye on the club’s future beyond 2019-2020 in this “Revolution”.