César Palacios – La Fábrica’s next big thing! by @FabricaMadrid

Full name: César Palacios Pérez

Country: Spain

Place of birth: Soria (Spain)

Date of birth: 14/07/2004 (17 years old)

Height: –

Youth teams: Numancia (2010-2020)

Current team: Real Madrid (since 2020)

Category: Juvenil A (U19)

Current national team: Spain U-19

Position: central midfielder, attacking midfielder

Preferred foot: right

Market Value: –

Contract until: –

Player’s Agent: ICM Stellar Football

Similar type of player: Jude Bellingham

Strengths:

– technique

– passing

– vision

– first touch

– ball control

– movement

– ambidexterity

– teamwork

– creativity

– dynamism

– pace

– dribbling

– agility

– defensive contribution

Playing style:

– box-to-box midfielder with good playmaking skills

– can play both as a CM, attacking midfielder and also as an inverted winger, but his best position is as a central midfielder

– he likes to have freedom on the pitch and drift where he feels his teammates need him

– player with great technical ability, first touch and ball control

– he often tries to be vertical in his play: he’s not a player who makes unnecessary touches and as soon as he has the opportunity to play forward, he does so immediately

– very good in combination play/he likes to link-up with his teammates

– he likes to make quick first touch combinations with his teammates

– he finds the space very well between the lines with clever movements

– he likes to roam around in the space between the opposition’s midfield and defence

– very good & intelligent between the lines: once he receives the ball there, he has a great ability to quickly get in the direction of the goal by accelerating in order to take a shot or to find his teammates with a through-ball

– great understanding of space, positional awareness, and high football IQ: he is very intelligent both on and off the ball & he knows how to make himself available for his teammates

– his penetrating runs from deep are very good & smart: he makes the runs at the right timing & often scans what is going around him to always find the best place to receive the ball

– he has the technique & the vision to make great killer passes for his teammates/last pass specialist – very active & tenacious in the defensive phase: his ability to press the opponents is really good

– good ambidexterity: can control, carry, pass and shoot with both feet

– good finishing skills for a midfielder

Weaknesses/To improve:

– at times, he needs to manage the tempo better and be a more regulator/controller: Wanting to play too fast in certain situations leads him to be imprecise in some of his passes

– although he has a good finish overall, he still needs to be more accurate in certain situations, he misses clear chances at times, but the good thing is that he continues to generate chances and find himself in goal-scoring situations

– he needs to better manage the timing of his defensive interventions and his energy in some cases: at times he is a bit too aggressive and makes mistakes that are not really necessary

César Palacios joined La Fábrica in 2020 from Numancia. He was considered the best talent there and being a Cadete A (U16) player, he had made his debut with Numancia’s U19 team – Juvenil A. Real Madrid, who had been following him for some time, finally decided to sign the young midfielder in 2020.

César is versatile and is suited to playing in different midfield positions, but the one that suits him best is central midfielder, ‘an interior’, generally as a left interior, but he can also play as an attacking midfielder behind the striker, and even as an inverted winger on the left wing. In Álvaro Arbeloa Juvenil A’s team, Palacios often plays as the left central midfielder in a 4-3-3 formation, a position that highlights his qualities and in which he can shine and be influential in different zones of the pitch.

The first thing to mention about César is his movements and his spatial awareness. He has a feeling for space – he understands how to find space and exploit it. He is very good at finding space and making intelligent runs. Finding a little pocket of space to receive the ball and then use it intelligently. There’s dynamism to his movements: his kind of slightly languid running style belies a good turn of pace and the ball kinds of sticks to his feet, but he’s able to find space and once he’s in space and once that space starts to constrict around him, he’s able to take the ball under pressure on the half turn, move it around and then find a straightforward option.

Palacios is a very dangerous and influential player in the final third: He has a great facility to find space between the lines. His positioning, awareness of space and scanning allow him to often make the right runs: at the right time. He has a great ability to make penetrating runs coming from deep. He detects spaces between defenders extremely well to make runs behind the opposition’s back line.

Once he gets the ball in the final third (between opponents’ midfielders and centre-backs), he easily creates danger and doesn’t need much time or space to make a difference. He can create danger under pressure, but when he has space he is very dangerous. He is a good passer and one of the areas in which he shines is the final pass. His vision allows him to easily find his teammates will great killer passes – he has provided 19 assists last season (18 with the Juvenil B and 1 with the Juvenil A) and this season he has made 3 assists in 10 games with the Juvenil A, but this number could (should) have been much higher given the quality of chances he created. He has provided 7 xA this season with Real Madrid U19.

Palacios is a very intelligent player who excels at understanding the game and what is going on around him. He scans well what is going on around him and takes the information very quickly before receiving the ball, which allows him to know what he is going to do and to be one step ahead of his opponents. He works very intelligently with the full-back, players outside him and inside him, always looking to give move, give move. He learns quickly and adapts quickly to his surroundings.

He’s not an extremely fast player, but he makes up for it with his change of pace, his ability to get away from his marker and especially his ability to know when to make the runs. This allows him to make the right runs into the box and find himself easily in goal situations. In the box, he is fairly efficient and ’good. He is very quick to get his shots off once he gets the ball in. He has a very good eye for goal and a good finish in front of the goal. He finds himself easily / often in goal situations and his positioning is very smart.

Technically, he is a rather fine player with good ball control and a good first touch. He is not a player who tries complicated dribbles, he only dribbles when necessary. He is a player who plays simple and likes to play one-touch: his one-touch deflections are quite good. His first touch often allows him to gain a significant advantage and to be directly in the right direction of the play. One thing you often see in his game is receiving the ball between the lines, quickly turning around and combining with his teammates (making quick one-twos combinations) and trying to unbalance the opposition block.

He is also able to drop deep to facilitate the team build-up phase (when the team faced an opponent that presses high). When he is in a deeper position, he has the ability to carry the ball on long distances and has the facility to move quickly with the ball to bring danger to the opposition goal. One thing you often see him do is getting the ball in his own half, move forward with it, find the full-back or winger and then run straight into the box to surprise his opponents and be the one to receive the pass or cross. And even when he does not receive the ball, his runs create and open up space for his teammates. He draws the attention of defenders.

Defensively, Palacios is a player who works hard and does not shy away from defensive efforts. He fights duels and follows the player he is supposed to mark. On several occasions, you can see him very low down on the pitch to help his team recover the ball. His ability to press is another crucial element of his game. He is very important for Arbeloa when pressing: He has this kind of energetic enthusiasm for getting up towards the opposition, making them uncomfortable and making life difficult for them. When he pushes forward to press, he is able to win the ball back and immediately set his team into attack both by passing or running. He is very active in counter-pressing whenever he or his team loses the ball and once he wins the ball, he is good at immediately transitioning into an attack – he’s able to exploit space with that kind of broken play situation that arises from a counter press and then play an intelligent pass.

Overall, Palacios is a fairly complete midfielder who is capable of doing everything and shining in many aspects of the game: he combines well with his teammates, knows how to create for others, knows how to create his own opportunities, skillful and good in front of goal, works a lot defensively… He’s a key player for Arbeloa’s team.

As good as he is, he obviously has things he needs to improve in his game, to become an even better player. At times, he needs to manage the tempo better and be more of a regulator. Wanting to play too fast in certain situations leads him to be imprecise in some of his passes. Although he has a good finish overall, he still needs to be more accurate in certain situations, he misses clear chances at times, but the good thing is that he continues to generate chances and find himself in goal scoring situations. And finally, we will have to see how his probable physical evolution will affect him: see if he will not lose agility, pace, balance… Since these are some of the qualities that make him a very complete player. We will need to pay attention to this as it is often an important step in determining what kind of player he will end up being.

César Palacios since joining La Fábrica:

☑️64 games
⏱️4411 minutes
⚽️30 goals
🅰️29 assists
📊directly involved in a goal every 75 minutes

Potential rating: 8,5/10