Real Madrid: An elite player who is no longer a dream signing

It has been a great first half of the season so far! We have seen some stunning displays and teamwork from Real Madrid. From August to December, the team’s confidence has grown rapidly. Fan-favorite Carlo Ancelotti has worked his magic and has taken Los Blancos to the top of La Liga with an eight-point lead over 2nd placed Sevilla, while also topping their Champions League group.

The last summer transfer window was filled with uncertainties. The central defense stood out as the biggest concern. How would the coach replace two of the most legendary defenders the club has seen in recent times? The Italian has slowly yet masterfully solved this problem. At the beginning of the season, it didn’t seem to be working.

Despite the full-back situation being far from ideal, Real Madrid could have done better in defense during that phase. For example, they conceded three goals against Levante and two against Celta Vigo. However, after some time, we saw a gradual improvement in defense, especially central defense. David Alaba and Eder Militao have been big contributors in this run of good form.

Alaba has quickly adapted to life at Real Madrid after spending a number of successful years at Bayern Munich. The Austrian has assumed the leadership role at the back, which was needed after Ramos left. Eder Militao has been even more impressive. Militao’s breakthrough came at the latter part of last season. And his fine form has continued this season, capping off a memorable 2021 for him. The Brazilian has been one of the standout stars of the team this season.

Alaba and Militao’s stellar partnership has put an end to many transfer rumors. One of those men that the Los Blancos were linked to was Matthijs de Ligt. The Dutchman was an integral part of the Ajax team that lit up the UCL in 2018/19. His performances and sheer leadership at such a young age led to a lot of transfer rumors. Evidently, Real Madrid were linked too, as De Ligt seemed to be the perfect replacement of an ageing Sergio Ramos. Real Madrid signed Militao instead, and De Ligt left for Juventus for an estimated 70 million euros.

Militao and Alaba have nullified Real Madrid’s need to sign De Ligt

In the summer of 2021, with Real Madrid lacking defensive options, the rumors resurfaced. But from what we have seen from the starting CBs so far, Real Madrid does not need Mattijs De Ligt. Let us examine this from a statistical point of view. Let’s compare the stats of Alaba, Militao, and De Ligt in their respective leagues, and see for ourselves what De Ligt has to offer that other center-backs don’t.

A core aspect for any top team is building out from the back. This aspect is even more important for Real Madrid, as their game is well suited to having good ball-playing defenders like Ramos and Varane were. David Alaba has been quite impressive in this regard. In areas such as passes per game (61.4), passing accuracy (92.5%), through balls, assists, and key passes per game(0.6), the Austrian has been better than De Ligt. Alaba has even outperformed Van Dijk, Ruben Dias, and Chiellini in key passes, but that’s mainly because he goes on forward runs more than the other centre-backs.

A remarkable stat for De Ligt is the number of long passes he makes per game. However, Militao is on par with him when it comes to this statistic. Moreover, Real Madrid’s reported free-agent target Antonio Rudiger is well above the line with 4.7 long balls per game compared to De Ligt’s 3.6 and Militao’s 3.7. Rudiger also leads the line in terms of average passes per game (70), higher than Alaba, Militao, and De Ligt.

On a more defensive side of the game, i.e, in clearing out the danger, Eder Militao has been exceptional. The Brazilian has outranked De Ligt in key stats like tackles (1.7), interceptions (1.8), clearances (3.6), and blocks (0.6) per game. Even Alaba is on par with De Ligt in these areas.
One of the aspects in which Real Madrid have struggled this season is aerial dominance. This is a domain where De Ligt does well, with 2.9 aerial duels won per game, compared to Alaba’s 0.6, and Militao’s 2.3. But the tradeoff is not that huge, and Rudiger, who has the highest percentage of aerial duels won among the above three, can compensate for it. (per Whoscored)

De Ligt does not bring anything that our defenders cannot already do, as the core statistics show. Splashing 60-70 million euros for a player to improve slightly on certain areas doesn’t seem to be sensible, especially since the club is already planning recruitments on other positions.

Matthijs de Ligt’s world-class talent at such a young age makes him an exciting prospect for Real Madrid. Yet, Florentino Perez may choose not to sign him for purely financial and sporting reasons, and that’s fair.