The next Pique and Ramos: The U23 La Liga defenders to watch out for in 2021/22 – data analysis

La Liga is as exciting as ever. With Atlético Madrid beating Barcelona and Real Madrid to the trophy last season, it showed there’s still a dose of unpredictability and flair over in Spain. But who are some of the most talented young players in the league?

Lionel Messi can’t carry La Liga’s name on his back forever and with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Sergio Ramos departing, it might be up to the new talents to represent. So this data analysis will be the first part of our analysis series looking at the best U23 players Spain’s top-flight has to offer, this week focusing on defenders.

Setting the filters

Before we delve into the data, it’s important to explain our filters as well as saying that this analysis will not go deep into the tactics of each player’s team. However, analysing defenders is a largely ungrateful task as most metrics don’t paint a clear picture of their quality. Statistics such as defensive duels, interceptions and even fouls and yellow cards are all affected by teams’ collective possession values and as such, have to be properly adjusted.

I’ve calculated the PAdj metrics used in this data analysis myself (where needed) and have taken all data provided by Wyscout. All of the players in the analysis are U23 La Liga defenders who have played at least 700 minutes in the 2020/21 season.

Note, however, that both centre-backs and full-backs have been included and knowing that the two have very different roles in modern football, I’ve done my best to include metrics that either favour or cover both equally.

Initial data check

The first graph you can see below is a fairly straightforward one; it measures possession-adjusted (PAdj) defensive duels and PAdj successful defensive actions per 90 minutes. The former gives us an outline of how often a defender engages in a challenge and the latter compiles all defensive actions (such as duels, interceptions, recoveries and shots blocked) and gives us only the positive outcomes.

All the players in the top-right quadrant are the ones to look out for as they are the individuals tallying high values in both metrics, displaying both volume and proficiency. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, Emerson Royal of Barcelona and formerly of Real Betis (12.56 PAdj defensive duels pe 90 and 15.39 PAdj successful defensive actions per 90) tops the charts but with a slight caveat.

His 2020/21 was spent with Real Betis, who have conceded 46.1% possession and his figures in the graph are adjusted to Barcelona’s conceded possession – 34.2%. This doesn’t necessarily mean he would perform at the same level within Barcelona’s tactics and setup but Betis being an above-average possession-dominating team still gives us a fair outline of his defensive performances.