“Huijsen has the age and the skills to improve his weaknesses,” says Real Madrid legend

Real Madrid defender Dean Huijsen has been under scrutiny for quite some time, as his performances have been somewhat discouraging since Los Blancos lost against Atlético de Madrid at the Metropolitano. AS talked to several former Real Madrid defenders who shared their thoughts on Huijsen.

“He is a footballer with fantastic qualities to play as a central defender. I am fascinated by his tremendous ability in ball distribution and he is intuitive, something that is very important at Madrid. It is clear that he has weaknesses, although he has the age and the skills to improve them and become a great defender. He has had some weaker matches, such as against Liverpool, Sevilla, and a few others against big teams, in which he struggled physically and at certain times was weaker with the ball, but his foundation is magnificent and I am convinced that he will become a very important player for Madrid in the coming years,” said Real Madrid legend Manolo Sanchís.

Rafa Alkorta also explained Huijsen’s main weakness.

“The area in which he must evolve the most is aggressiveness in duels. A central defender needs to be forceful and combative in one-on-one confrontations. He knows he is under intense scrutiny and the mistakes he makes affect him mentally, but his enormous technical quality and potential for improvement must be valued. When the team improves, he will improve as well,” he added.

It will be interesting to see Xabi Alonso’s rotation for the center-back spot, as both Rudiger and Asencio have been playing better than Huijsen recently.