Eder Alvarez Balanta: Scout Report

A rarity amongst defenders in the top flight of Argentina, Eder Alvarez Balanta is quite a good passer of the ball and actually prefers to play the ball to a team-mate rather than clearing with power, as is so common. When passing to a player near-by, he chooses to play it across the surface. But when his target is further away, he usually makes sure to pick out a player with enough space to control a higher pass.

It’s worth noting that his raised head when on the ball, and his good timing when off it have to do with his background as a central midfielder. That it was probably there that he developed those skills is something that a former Racing and River Plate great Roberto Permufo (also a DM turned centre-back) recently pointed out in a column.

When it comes to aerial challenges, his height is certainly not a problem. Not only is Balanta good with headers, he’s also got very strong legs and can jump as high as he needs to in order to win a ball. While scoring goals is not his priority, the fact that he’s already scored two from set piece situations shows how good he can be at winning crosses on both ends of the pitch.

In general, he’s positioning is quite good and he’s always making himself available for team-mates to pass the ball back to him. When it comes to marking players, he’s often successful and knows how to show rivals away from goal-scoring situations and into tight corners.

Despite having all the appearance of a mature defender, there is no substitute for experience and that is something that, off course, he lacks having only played in seven matches at professional level. This means that, occasionally, he’ll be eager and can be drawn out of the box into tackles that he can’t win, allowing the opposition to exploit the space behind him. Also, he’s not had the chance to face world-class strikers in terms of their speed or cunning eye for goal, let alone players of the size of Zlatan Ibrahimovi? or Robert Lewandowski.

Because of his speed in getting to the ball, Balanta prefers standing challenges and rarely makes sliding tackles. Also, it remains to be seen how good he is when forced to play the ball with his right foot.

Transfer Situation

Balanta started the season with a youth contract, which meant that he could only play a part in a maximum of 9 games before being considered a foreign player. That would’ve made him ineligible to play as River’s first team have already registered the limit of three foreign players. There was early talk that he would be offered a contract nonetheless and when this finally happened, he was cleared to play for the rest of the tournament as the player brought in from the youth ranks.

Things get more confusing, though. As of today, River Plate have not made an official announcement that the player has signed the contract (that would make him a first team player) which would start later this year, after the end of the Torneo Final. The question remains as to what would happen if another team approached Balanta. There have already been reports that Milan are interested in signing him.

While its expected that Balanta will stay on at River for at least one more year, keeping top talents is very difficult for Argentinean teams. Often in debt and nowhere close to matching the wages of European powerhouse clubs, teams like River can only keep their best players for so long before they move abroad.