Real Madrid: 3 biggest breakout stars of the 2020/21 season
Real Madrid ended an eventful season, to say the least. They reached the Champions League semifinals and were in touching distance of the league crown on the very last matchday of the league. They didn’t spend a single penny throughout the Transfer windows and rather fell back upon the club’s youth system to ensure a supply of players for the first team.
The unusual season had its unusual heroes. Here are the three biggest breakout stars for Real Madrid in the 2020/21 season.
3. Nacho Fernandez
The Real Madrid defense was one of the worst-hit by the injuries this season. Certain names like Dani Carvajal, Sergio Ramos, and Marcelo stayed out for a considerable period. Coupled with the injuries were the COVID woes.
World Cup-winning Frenchman, Raphael Varane was also sidelined towards the latter half of the season due to COVID. As such, the Club was in dire need of a Center-back. It was then when Nacho stepped up to the task and rescued the club.
Ever since, Ramos’s knee injury, Nacho did put his best foot forward in organizing the Madrid defense. A stomach bug disturbed Ramos before he picked up his knee injury and made him miss a league game against Celta Vigo. It led to Nacho being called up and that match remains the one where Nacho announced his candidature to be a regular starter in the season.
He ended the match with as many as 7 clearances including few absolutely vital ones from inside the box, that may have had resulted in a goal otherwise. He also maintained a brilliant 92.5% passing accuracy in a total of 40 passes and 7 long balls in the match, per WhoScored.com.
Nacho had a brilliant season where he made a total of 33 appearances for the club in all competitions. He also scored one vital goal against Athletic Club at San Mames that effectively took the title race to the very last matchday. He maintained a near-about 90% passing accuracy and showed a great deal of attacking edge with an average of 0.5 shots per game. He was particularly effective at drawing fouls onto him, 1.1 fouls per game average to be specific.
His defensive record speaks for itself, he averaged more than one tackle, interception, and dribble per game. Shining especially at crucial clearances where he averages 2.3 per game. His link-up with Eder Militao towards the latter half of the season is what rescued Real Madrid’s defense. We will talk about the young Brazilian later.