Marc Casadó already codes with the best sub-23 pivots in the world

If there is a player who has truly stepped up in this 2024-25 season, it is the 21-year-old central midfielder, Marc Casadó. Despite having sporadic appearances in the first team under the guidance of Xavi Hernández, it is in this season when he has finally gained prominence in the top category of the Blaugrana club. Hansi Flick has not hesitated to bet on him and give him continuity as one of the members of the double pivot he usually employs in his system.

The confidence that the German coach has placed in Marc Casadó has been well repaid by the La Masia graduate. Although he currently seems to have lost ground to Frenkie de Jong, he has shown that when given the opportunity to play, he can offer performances worthy of the best 'box to box' players in the world.

The '17' is a judicious player with the ball at his feet, who shows great physical deployment and provides the necessary defense to maintain balance in the midfield area, where Pedri González stands out as the midfielder with the greatest offensive vocation.

Marc Casadó is already rubbing shoulders with the best sub-23 pivots in the world

The level that Marc Casadó is showing this season has already placed him on the radar of the best midfielders in the world, at least in the sub-23 category. This is not mere talk but is backed by a study from the CIES Football Observatory, which has positioned the Sant Pere de Vilamajor native as one of the top defensive sub-23 pivots currently.

The metric that CIES uses to rank Marc Casadó as one of the best sub-23 midfielders in the world is the ground defense index, a statistic calculated by adding all defensive disputes won by a player where the action takes place below elbow height, including interceptions of passes and anticipations of loose balls.

In this regard, Marc Casadó is in second place in a list of 100 sub-23 players from 46 leagues worldwide regarding midfielders with the best effective defensive actions index on the ground, with a total of 84.9% of effective actions in this area. The Catalan midfielder is only surpassed by Rocco Reitz from Borussia Mönchengladbach, whose positive defensive actions index on the ground is 86.9%.

Top U2⃣3⃣ midfielders for ground defence* 🌏
🥇 #RoccoReitz 🇩🇪 86.9 out of 💯
🥈 #MarcCasado 🇪🇸 84.9
🥉 #IbrahimaSoryBangoura 🇬🇳 83.5
*as per @CIES_Football Index powered by @Wyscout
Top 💯 👉 https://t.co/VIiBabWCOs pic.twitter.com/3mSTjW3Q43

— CIES Football Obs (@CIES_Football) February 19, 2025

Anecdotally, in this list, although in a quite distant position, specifically in the 34th place, the prodigious Barcelona midfielder Pedri González appears with an index of 71.1% of effective defensive actions from the ground. Both Marc Casadó and the player from Tegueste are the only Barcelona players present in this list, which also includes other interesting names like Ryan Gravenberch from Liverpool in fifth place with 82.7%, João Neves from Paris Saint-Germain in sixth place with 82.2%, and Eduardo Camavinga from Real Madrid in ninth place with 80.6%.