5. Nacho Fernandez
Believe it or not but Nacho Fernandez deserves a lot of respect, especially for his loyalty. He might not be Zinedine Zidane or Carlo Ancelotti’s preference for a starter, but whenever the coaches have trusted the Spaniard, he has come up with top displays to not let them down.
I don’t like ranking him this low, but it is how it is. Everything counts- how consistent you are, how injury-prone you are, your versatility, and how you combine with your teammates. Nacho Fernandez is positive in all these aspects.
It was pretty scary for Real Madrid when they had neither of Sergio Ramos and Raphael Varane available for the majority of the second half last season, but the 31-year-old stepped up and combined pretty well with Eder Militao to help Los Blancos fight for the league title. Real Madrid was pretty impressed by Nacho’s performances and he got a well-deserved contract extension.
When I compare him with Dani Carvajal, Nacho might be better defensively but Carvajal is much better on offense and when you play for a top club like Real Madrid, you need to be an all-rounder while being better than the others in your natural position. So why should anyone rank Nacho over Carvajal? It is because you have to keep many factors into consideration.
Carvajal’s performances might have been better, but Nacho is not much injury prone and on top of that, is versatile too. Highly versatile to be honest. Nacho has delivered consistently while playing in all the defensive positions. He has played in the left back position replacing Ferland Mendy, in the center back position replacing Eder Militao, Raphael Varane, Sergio Ramos, or David Alaba, and in the right back position replacing Dani Carvajal.
So I believe that he deserves to be ranked above Dani Carvajal in the fifth position.