Fede Valverde: best u19 midfielder in football

El Gunner wrote:probably the most underrated footballer in world football...

not saying he is world class, but he just gets his job done 9 times out of 10 and barely gets talked about

Okay fairs. IMO he is a utility player at best.

That goal vs Citeh was only his 2nd this season, not a lot for the amount of shots he takes.

workhorse, and there's quality and technique in him too... plus him being Uruguayan captain also speaks to his intangibles as a person and player

El Gunner wrote:workhorse, and there's quality and technique in him too... plus him being Uruguayan captain also speaks to his intangibles as a person and player

And in two years time, he will be Madrid captain as well! There are three certainties of our future midfield. That’s Bellingham, Camavinga and Valverde. Tchouameni is dependent on what formation we play with. Those three are untouchable.

Fede is obviously an elite player with elite talent; a stallion rather than a workhorse. The arguable connotations of the latter don't fit here. This season has been his best yet, without a doubt. THE starter with most minutes of the season for the biggest team in the world, a team which give or take was of a treble potential.  

His biggest "weaknesses" are his turning ability/elasticity and dribbling/ball control, not a tree trunk of a player by any means and functional at the level he's playing at, but if he had just a bit more of both we could be talking about something astonishing. He also has better vertical, incisive, long range passing ability than many would believe and than we are able to see with him playing most of the time as a right midfielder.

I started watching footy back in 2010, and from early on centre midfielders were my favorite players to watch and consider. From the early days Bastian Schweinsteiger really caught my eye as a prototype of a complete midfielder, someone who you felt could do everything. It felt like he was Bayern Munich/Germany.

Since then I had wished for Madrid to have a midfielder like him. Alonso wasn't that, nor was Khedira, nor Ozil of course. Then came Modric and he certainly was that, but I felt he even surpassed the Schweinsteiger mold In his own holy way.

Which is why ever since the summer of 2015, the summer we got Valverde, I put my hopes on him that perhaps he could embody what the whole of Alonso, Khedira, Jose Rodriguez, Illarramendi, Kovacic, Llorente, Ceballos, Casemiro, or even Kroos or Modric couldn't quite in my time watching Madrid.

One of my favorite pieces of Football writing is actually from about 11 years ago, about prime Schweinsteiger, titled "Yo Soy El Bayern", or "I am Bayern".

http://www.ecosdelbalon.com/2013/04/analisis-bastian-schweinsteiger-centrocampista-bayern-munich/

From it: "Schweinsteiger is not a defensive midfielder. He is not an interior either, much less a playmaker. After this confusing but necessary detour, we arrive at the question that interests us so much: What is Schweinsteiger? Although absolutisms and labels only lead to error, the plenitude of the player makes us be bold: with Bastian we are facing the longest midfielder in the world, the medium that covers the most meters. Starting from this premise, Bayern's second captain should not be understood from a fixed location but from a global and changing role.

Like Schweinsteiger, who up to around 2009, aged 25, had been used in Bayern as a right midfielder with a long range of action, Valverde has had to follow a very similar course, but for years I've been saying the same thing, lets watch what happens when Valverde is put in a double pivot behind the ball starting zone. What we saw this season is what I've read several analysts agree is probably Kroos' most impressive partner of the season (Camavinga coming in at second imo), a double pivot which played some of the team's best games in the 4222 in late 2023.

Alas, hes not as elastically or technically gifted as Bastian, but he is more physical and intense, and they are of a lineage (as is the whole of the Bellingham, Camavinga, Valverde, Tchouameni midfield quartet) and the boy has done me an honor as this season,

Fede has been Real Madrid. And he has been, my Schweinsteiger.

is he really more physical than Schweinsteiger? or is he just compensating for the lack of height with the typical South American terrier nature

Schweinsteiger was a good player indeed, but i was more of a Michael Ballack guy...

in terms of complete midfielders Patrick Vieira comes first to mind

That is true, Gavi does this for us and we really felt his absence sorely, at least initially