Real Madrid: 3 young players who will have a great 2021/22 season

Éder Militão

After a disappointing one and a half years at Real Madrid, it looked like Éder Militão was another one of those underwhelming signings. Bought for nearly 50 million in 2019, people were already expecting him to depart the club come 2021.

But the fortunes turned rather quickly for the Brazilian. With Ramos out with a lengthy injury, Éder Militão was expected to get some minutes. However, the period also resonated with the resurgence of Nacho. The Spaniard had a complete U-turn and established a solid partnership with Varane until Varane tested COVID positive just hours before the first leg against Liverpool. This resulted in Militao getting a start out of need.

What followed was a string of solid performances continuously until the end of the campaign. Last season, Militão amassed nearly 1700 minutes across 21 games, scoring 2 goals and providing one assist.

The brilliant run of form opened the doors for a national team callup for Militão and he hasn’t disappointed. He started 3 games in Copa America and scored his first goal for the country against Ecuador.

During this time, Militão proved to Madridistas that he can be a worthy starter. Now that Ramos has gone, and uncertainties surrounding Varane’s future, Militão’s abilities give reasons not to panic.

With Ramos’ departure, Militão surely comes in the top 2 center-backs in the team, regardless of Varane’s future. This gives all the more reasons why he should start in the team.

Militão has great recovery speed, which allows him to close down the opposition counter-attacks efficiently. Furthermore, he is very good in the air, which helps him in winning aerial duels and can offer a threat from set-pieces. This helps in the fact that the absence of Ramos on set-pieces will not be as gravely missed.

Militão is also proficient in intercepting the balls and has good positional intelligence. Moreover, he is very clean with making tackles and doesn’t commit too many fouls.

These qualities give us more than enough hope of seeing Militão start games from next season. He is definitely capable of being the present and future of Madrid’s defense.