3 things Barcelona is doing better than Real Madrid
Barcelona give their youth more opportunities than Real Madrid
This is an area that really frustrates Real Madrid fans, especially since there is a layer of understatedness about the Madrid academy. Every stat shows that Madrid are the best of any team in Europe’s top five leagues at producing first-team footballers at the highest level, and there are several players in Castilla who are ready to be first-teamers.
Miguel Gutierrez, Antonio Blanco, and Sergio Arribas were quality in their appearances for Los Blancos last season under Zinedine Zidane. Aside from a few starts at the beginning of the season for the left back Miguel and a couple of bench appearances for rising right winger Peter Federico, every Castilla player has been neglected in 2021/22.
That’s a huge problem. Real Madrid may have the better prospects than Barcelona, but Xavi is the one giving the youth opportunities. Aside from Pedri and Ansu Fati, who are already stars, the club has been making frequent use of Nico Gonzalez, Gavi, Eric Garcia, Ronald Araujo, Ferran Jutgla, and Abde Ezzalzouli.
Young players are already taking notice and choosing Barça over Real, which is not a good sign for Los Blancos. They once benefited from Barcelona’s issues, getting Takefusa Kubo as a free agent in 2019 after he was once a Barça youth player. He chose not to reunite with them because of what he felt was a lack of upward mobility. And now it is Real who have the issues promoting young players.
Madridistas are frustrated with how even slam-dunk players like Fede Valverde and Eduardo Camavinga cannot get enough starts. It is true that Real Madrid have a tougher XI to crack than Barcelona at this stage, as they are the league leaders by a comfortable margin. But Fede and Camavinga have shown they are assets to the team.
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More importantly, Barça were much better than Real in their last head-to-head matchup. These teams are more even than some Madrid fans would like to admit, and that tie could turn to Barça’s favor if Real underestimate the importance of constantly keeping an eye on the next generation’s development.