After a turbulent summer, Spanish teams started La Liga a few weeks back. Barcelona lost Lionel Messi and Real Madrid lost Sergio Ramos, both stalwarts of the league. On the other hand, Atletico Madrid kept the squad together for the most part. They did lose, however, an important player in Saul Niguez and added Antoine Griezmann from Barcelona in the last few days of the window.
In the whole league, there is now a search for the next leader of the pack. Here are three perspective youngsters to watch in the La Liga season.
La Liga Stars
Vinicius Jr, Real Madrid
Real Madrid, after losing Cristiano Ronaldo in 2018, decided to turn to their youngsters. While both Eduardo Camavinga and Miguel Gutierez deserve a spot here, no one deserves it more than Vinicius Jr. The youngster from Brazil entered his fourth season with Los Blancos with a chip on his shoulder. The media was pushing a narrative that Vini will not be the star all Madrid fans expected. His lack of finishing and consistency were heavily criticized.
However, four goals in four games at the start of the season speak for themselves. He already surpassed his tally in both of the previous seasons, where he scored three. In addition to that, it is clear that manager Carlo Ancelotti is putting a ton of trust in him. He is picked week-in, week-out and is slowly becoming a fan favorite.
His blistering pace was something that got everyone's mouth watering before, but now he is combining that with an ability to finish chances. With the support of Karim Benzema, who can distribute the ball like the best of 'em, Vinicius will constantly be a menace on the wings. That was most visible during a meeting with Celta Vigo, where right-back Hugo Mallo got continuously beaten for pace and grew frustrated as the game went on. If Vinicius can do it for the whole season, Madrid supporters will be singing his name at the end of the season.
Yusuf Demir, Barcelona
Barcelona is going through a major crisis right now, that is true. Manager Ronald Koeman is facing enormous criticism from the board and the supporters for poor play and results. That is simply not going to change, even though it is clear that the club is rebuilding. A major part of that rebuild could be Yusuf Demir, new signing from Rapid Wien.
Demir is not a player whose stats will amaze you. In his last season in Austria, he scored six goals in 25 games, which is not too great for an attacking player. However, one thing has to be considered – he was 17 years old.
In June of this year, Demir had his 18th birthday and at that point, he already featured in professional football 38 times and scored nine times. That is truly amazing for a player of his age and it is clear to everyone that Demir has scorching potential. In terms of his style of play, he is a pacey winger who has no issues with playing any attacking position. He loves to run at defenders with his pace and dribbling ability, and he has a deadly left foot. It is going to be interesting to see how many times will he amaze Barcelona and neutral fans this season.
Joao Felix, Atletico Madrid
You heard it here first – Atletico's big summer signing of 2019, Joao Felix, will have a breakthrough year and dominate opponents this year! Felix has been somewhat underwhelming in his last two seasons for the Los Colchoneros. Only 19 goals in 77 games does not sound good, but some things need to be understood. He will not always impact the game by scoring and he needs to be utilized better.
It is somewhat tough for a skillful forward to be a stalwart in the Atletico Madrid squad. Diego Costa was so successful because, other than his goal-scoring skill, he was ready to run all night for coach Diego Simeone and do whatever needs to be done to win. Felix is much more sophisticated, a dribbler who can break defensive lines without any problems. His technique is uncanny and when a bit of pace is added, he can be lethal.
However, the utilization of the forward has not been ideal. Simeone uses Felix mostly from the bench, which sounds good in theory. If he can use his dribbling to get in good positions against tired legs, he can make all the difference. However, the problem is that Simone expects more defensive work from Felix which does not suit his short stature. Right now, he is somewhat stuck in a position where defensive effort is asked from him, but against a league full of players much stronger than him, it is difficult to see how he can contribute on that end.
Should Simeone simply let Felix be Felix, the La Liga league would need to underline his name many times before meeting Atletico.
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