The Uruguayan plugs holes everywhere for Carlo Ancelotti, and Los Blancos wouldn't be in the hunt for a treble without him
Federico Valverde really shouldn't have played in Real Madrid's Champions League knockout play-off second-leg against with Manchester City three weeks ago. The Uruguayan was ailing; he had an injury his left thigh, but even after having played more minutes than anyone else for Madrid this season, he put in the kind of shift that most aren't capable of.
Valverde strode up and down the right wing having started in an unfamiliar right-back role that he is very quickly adjusting to, and ate up ground with the vigour of a footballer determined to do everything for his team. He needed injections to make it happen.
We tend to glamorise such displays. There is a real appeal to watching the sacrificial footballer, the player who will put in the legwork where others might simply sit out or stroll their way through 90 minutes. Valverde, though, is more than just that.
There are runners, and then there are would-be superstars who put aside personal interest, preferred positions, and areas of highest impact to give their team a lift. This is the role Valverde fills – and has done for some time. It is unclear what, exactly, his best position is. For some, he is the Steven Gerrard-regen that Madrid have always needed. For others, he's a really, really, good James Milner.
Either way, he fills a perfect role for Madrid. In this team of egos who begrudgingly fill roles, Valverde does as he's told – and more – serving as the connective tissue in a side dominated by individualism.
Getty Images SportVersatility
Valverde's match-by-match summaries make for remarkable reading. Most footballers are able to operate in one position, while a select few can manage in two or three. But according to over the past three years, Valverde has played in six different roles: central midfield, attacking midfield, defensive midfield, right wing, right midfield and right-back. The skills here are all loosely related – especially for a footballer raised as a box-to-box player at Penarol – but applying them, at the highest level, is a different ask altogether.
It's something Carlo Ancelotti has highlighted repeatedly. "Fede is a complete and very important player," the Italian coach told a press conference in January. "He can cover many positions, and he performs perfectly in all of them. It's very difficult to find a right-back like him. For me, it's challenging to decide his best position depending on the game. Sometimes we need him more as a full-back, and in others, as a holding midfielder."
AdvertisementGettyKroos replacement?
Valverde admitted himself that he was emotional when Toni Kroos handed him the No.8 shirt upon his retirement last season. It was a move that felt symbolic. After all, Kroos was the man who made that Madrid team tick, one of the best passers to ever play the game. It was more than that, too – he was a veteran, one of the elder statesmen of the squad. This was a gesture that not only acknowledged footballing talent, but also came with an implicit sense of respect.
There was a small issue, though: Valverde is not Kroos. He can do many things that a 34-year-old Kroos couldn't: run, tackle, play 90 minutes at full pelt. But he can't pass like Kroos or dictate a game in the same way. Despite that, Ancelotti deployed Valverde as his Kroos replacement of sorts at the start of the season, and it was far from a success.
The Italian therefore adjusted, and soon realised that Valverde could be the perfect man for a different role. With Kroos gone, Ancelotti opted for a midfield trio that cast Valverde as the all-action player that does a little bit of everything. His energy would allow one of either Eduardo Camavinga or Aurelien Tchouameni to sit while freeing space for Jude Bellingham to roam and create.
It required a certain amount of adjustment – from everyone, not just Valverde himself – but it helped a different midfield configuration form.
Getty Images SportPlugging holes
Of course, that has all gone out of the window now. Madrid haven't exactly been crippled by injuries this season, but they have suffered from long-term absences in key areas. The right side of their defence, in fact, has been decimated by two serious knee injuries, first for Dani Carvajal, who required surgery on complex ligament damage, and then for Eder Militao, who suffered a torn ACL for the second season running. So when Lucas Vazquez, Carvajal's most obvious replacement, needed rest, Valverde was asked to step up.
The result was impressive. The Uruguayan filled in with ease, proving a more than capable replacement. Vital to his success in the role was his supreme reading of the game, something made clear by the fact that he is in the 96th percentile among all full-backs in interceptions, averaging 1.78 per game. Ancelotti would later remark that Valverde is the third-best right-back in the world, after Carvajal and Vazquez.
Getty ImagesNo ego
Valverde's appeal does not just come with his on-field ability, either, as he has the attitude required to make up for the weaknesses of others. On talent alone, there are very few, if any, sides that can match the pure firepower that Ancelotti has at his disposal. With that, though, comes a certain amount of ego. Vinicius Jr and Kylian Mbappe, in particular, are guilty of allowing their fame to go to their head.
Vinicius isn't a lazy player; he can run, play out of position and at least defensive interest when needs be. But he doesn't track back, he won't fill spaces or anticipate holes. This is not necessarily a question of footballing brain – more so one of the conservation of energy. Vinicius doesn't put in defensive legwork because that might mean a wasted opportunity going the other way.
The same can be said for Mbappe – albeit in a different way. The France captain only loosely subscribes to concepts of 'defending' and 'hard work', and so at times, Madrid find themselves only playing with nine men – especially when they don't have the ball. That does not mean that Valverde has to fill every hole, as there are other outfield players who can also put in the legwork. But it's a case of knock-on effects. Vinicius and Mbappe's lack of work-rate means Bellingham sometimes has to press higher, which in turn can leave space in the middle, and Valverde has to make the effort to fill it.