Federico Valverde really shouldn't have played in Real Madrid's Champions League knockout play-off second-leg against with Manchester City three weeks ago. The Uruguayan was ailing; he had an injury his left thigh, but even after having played more minutes than anyone else for Madrid this season, he put in the kind of shift that most aren't capable of.
Valverde strode up and down the right wing having started in an unfamiliar right-back role that he is very quickly adjusting to, and ate up ground with the vigour of a footballer determined to do everything for his team. He needed injections to make it happen.
We tend to glamorise such displays. There is a real appeal to watching the sacrificial footballer, the player who will put in the legwork where others might simply sit out or stroll their way through 90 minutes. Valverde, though, is more than just that.
There are runners, and then there are would-be superstars who put aside personal interest, preferred positions, and areas of highest impact to give their team a lift. This is the role Valverde fills - and has done for some time. It is unclear what, exactly, his best position is. For some, he is the Steven Gerrard-regen that Madrid have always needed. For others, he's a really, really, really good James Milner.
Either way, he fills a perfect role for Madrid. In this team of egos who begrudgingly fill roles, Valverde does as he's told - and more - serving as the connective tissue in a side dominated by individualism.
