3 Real Madrid players who must step up with Luka Modric out

2. EDUARO CAMAVINGA

Real’s statement acquisition of last summer, Eduardo Camavinga, has only featured in cameo appearances off the bench in the season so far, barring a couple of starts. However, the young Frenchman has been so impressive in his job as a substitute that it made me argue that he could be Real’s game-changing super-sub as the season progresses towards busier stretches.

That could however change temporarily at least until 2022 starts. Camavinga has mostly replaced Luka Modric in the second half and a few times he has also piloted Casemiro’s role in the formation. And, he has a great chance at bagging himself a start against Cadiz with Luka Modric ruled out.

Camavinga has the qualities he needs to cover for Modric. He is capable of anchoring the play in the middle of the pitch. He makes good crisp passes and undoubtedly his passing accuracy that is nearing the 90s has been a great boon to Real Madrid so far in the season. In the games where he started his long ball accuracy is pretty good, though he has the potential to improve it even further. Take a look at the stats for games like the ones against Osasuna or Mallorca in the league. In that unfortunate loss against Sheriff in the Champions League, Camavinga had quite a great game individually with eight long balls, five tackles, four fouls drawn, and one key pass, per WhoScored.

According to Fbref, he is also creating chances for the side with a 0.22 goal and assist per 90 in the league. The figure goes up to 0.67 per 90 in the Champions League while the expected figures are just 0.2. That speaks well about how Camavinga has done his best to make an impact on the very few minutes that he is getting and the very little urgency he has been surrounded with. This time, however, the urgency would be more and we may finally see the youngster among goal-contributions again.