Real Madrid: 3 ways Eder Militao improved his game to be a top-class CB

1. Crisp Long Passes and Long Shots:

I think everyone has noticed this lately. Eder Militao has tried shooting from distance a few times in the past few matches. It all started with an attempt against Sevilla, the most competitive team this season.

In the 32nd minute, the Brazilian attempted a long shot, which came as a surprise to Bono. The goalkeeper did try to push the ball away. But since he wasn’t much prepared for such a surprise, the weak push struck the post and deflected back to Karim Benzema for an easy tap-in goal.

Since then, we have seen some similar attempts in many games. Especially the ones in which Real Madrid had trouble breaking the opponent team’s backline. For instance, the Cadiz game. The tightly packed Yellow Submarines gave no spaces to Los Blancos to exploit. They knew how dangerous Real Madrid is on the counter-attacks and when they find spaces.

Another similar fixture was against Getafe. After scoring early on in the game, they tried to stay as compact as they could and thus, got away with a narrow victory. It was yet another game when we saw Eder Militao try his luck from distance.

But is it just his long shots? No, long passing too. Have you guys noticed? In the recent game against Athletic Bilbao, Eder Militao launched a pass to Rodrygo Goes on the right-wing. It was a little far to the Brazilian, who could not manage to keep the ball in. But that pass was like a flashback. It reminded me of the pass by Toni Kroos to Vinicius Junior last season in the UEFA Champions League game against Liverpool and by David Alaba to Karim Benzema against Levante to set up a goal for Gareth Bale.

It wasn’t the first time I was impressed by Eder Militao’s ability of long passes. We have seen it plenty of times lately, and most of these to Vinicius Junior to switch the play. To justify this, the statistics are enough. Averaging the 26 games he has played for Real Madrid so far, Eder Militao completes 3.3 Long Balls a game.

How did Eder Militao manage to improve his vision and accuracy with those shots and passes? Well, the credit goes to the management. But are they the only reason? To be very honest, no. I believe that David Alaba also had a major role in this.

A player always learns a lot from his partners, and that is the case here too. Alaba is a very crucial player, and the way he has impressed everyone in such a short period, I think that he has been very influential. Eder Militao and David Alaba depend on each other a lot, and they respect each other’s qualities a lot.

Since the Austrian brings in years of experience, Eder Militao sees him as a role model and thus can be seen as a reason for the Brazilian to be very passionate about learning the skill that makes Alaba a special player.