Real Madrid: 3 reasons why David Alaba has been LaLiga’s best signing of the season

2. In quick time, David Alaba has become one of the MVPs for Real Madrid

As I often say, a player’s value to their club is a more determining factor of their season than a brilliant individual record. And, David Alaba has been that valuable player to Real Madrid so far. He is filling up a huge void for Los Blancos, the void of missing for Captain Sergio Ramos. He is the club’s new number four and has justified the number so far with his all heart and soul. According to SofaScore, he is Real Madrid’s third-best player in the league after the attacking duo of Karim Benzema and Vinicius Junior. (at least 8 appearances)

Whenever the starting lineups are announced, fans only look for David Alaba’s name because the central defense has been that fragile this season with Alaba being the only ray of hope for Madridistas. I am not saying that Eder Militao hasn’t been good, he has been more than instrumental but Alaba is just a whole different personality. He screams at the defense and organizes it, jumps up with passion when a goal is scored at the other end and radiates passion throughout matches.

At this moment, it simply feels like there can never be a Real Madrid lineup without Alaba in it. I remember his injury scare from the recent international break that brought him under doubts for the game against Shakhtar and I remember how nervous the fans were until his availability was assured. That is Alaba, fans’ only option right now. There simply isn’t any alternative.

The final reason why his value to the club has been so high is his leadership, as my colleague Ali Al Hasan pointed out. After the departure of Sergio Ramos, the job of being the leader at the back fell to Nacho and we all know how that has panned out so far. I love Nacho, he has been a loyal servant for the club but he’s just going through a rough patch as a player and I hope that he bounces off like he did last season.

But, in the meantime, David Alaba has done more than his fair share at being the leader at the back. He isn’t a player who has seniority in the club but he is a figure well respected in the dressing room, something evident from the on-field behavior. The young lads know very well what ranks Alaba belongs to and his leadership has been the biggest asset to this club in filling in the void that Ramos’s unfortunate departure left us with. He has been at the back what Benzema has been upfront for Los Blancos.