Real Madrid will be relying even more on Fede Valverde next season with Toni Kroos’ retirement taking effect, yet the numbers show that Carlo Ancelotti may have to use him less next season.
The 25-year-old is frequently described as the lungs of this Real Madrid team, and he was by a distance Ancelotti’s most used player this season, playing over 200 minutes more than Antonio Rudiger. As MD point out, if Valverde features against Canada in the Copa America third-place play-off, it will be his 61st game of the season.
Este es el equipo que soñamos tener 💙 pic.twitter.com/EgQjDgk1Qq
— Fede Valverde (@fedeevalverde) July 7, 2024
Yet it is not just the total of games that Valverde has played. He missed just one match for Los Blancos all season, and for the vast majority of matches stayed on until the end. For his club he racked up 4,280 minutes acrosss his 54 appearances. During Uruguay’s Copa America run, to the semi-finals, he has missed just nine minutes of action under Marcelo Bielsa too.
Often Valverde is the legs for Real Madrid in midfield, and he frequently features amongst the players that cover more ground than anyone else for his side. Part of that is down to his incredible physical capacity, but Ancelotti will not want to risk losing him to injury next season.
