4. Inigo Martinez- Real Sociedad
For Manchester United faithfuls, this guy is recognizable as a centre half who gifted their side a comical own goal last season during United’s Group Stage encounter against the Basque club. But in football, a mere poor performance is never enough to testify how talented a player actually is. Standing an inch below 6 ft, this Spaniard has emerged as one of the most coveted young centre back in the Spanish Primera Division. Martinez is a composed left-footer who possesses a top-class reading of the game and an unerring aerial ability despite his diminutive 5ft 11 inch frame and last season, he won over half his aerial duels.
His aerial abilities aren’t the only strengths one can take into account but but in fact, he’s equally adept in defending on the ground. He averages a 0.9 blocks a game and makes an average of 6.1 clearances, as per Whoscored. There’s a substantial amount of composure in his play, evident from the fact that he doesn’t dive into challenges too much and carries the ball out of the defense, resembling how Mats Hummels does it. Another point which is worth jotting down is that he has already scored twice from the halfway line, indicative of the amount of confidence he has in himself and in what he does.
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