Real Madrid: Three takeaways from David Alaba’s Euro 2020 performance
By Avi Nagar
Versatility
David Alaba is an extremely versatile player, and he showed it all in the tournament. Alaba played in the center of a three-man defense for the games against North Macedonia and the Netherlands. He was then shifted to the left-back position for games against Ukraine and Italy.
He provides a perfect blend of center-back and wing-back attributes. As a CB, Alaba sat deep in his own half and helped Austria play from the back by spreading passes all across the pitch. He was formidable with ball progression and overcoming high press.
He made occasional runs further up the pitch to assist his teammates in unlocking opposition defense. Alaba assisted the game-winner against North Macedonia with a brilliant cross into the box.
As a left-back, the former Bayern man played further up the pitch to contribute to the attack, as he constantly combined with the left-winger, creating both overlap and underlap attacking patterns. Against Ukraine, playing in LB position, Alaba ended up with 4 key passes and assisted the lone goal as Austria came out victorious with a scoreline of 1-0. He garnered a superb 7.91 rating from WhoScored for this game.
Alaba ended up with 80% passing accuracy, 25 ball recoveries, 11 clearances, and 10 key passes in the tournament, as per UEFA.com.