Denis Suárez

Key strength: Vision and passing

Creative playmaker

From the marble halls of La Masia to the grit of a relegation scrap, Denis Suárez has found his purpose at Deportivo Alavés. At 32, the Spanish attacking midfielder anchors the Basque side from 12th place—a precarious position where just six points separate salvation from disaster. Suárez's numbers this season won't grab headlines—1 goal and 2 assists across 26 appearances and 1,330 minutes—but Luis García's side doesn't measure his value in statistics alone. That cultured left foot, still carving defenses with 55-rated passing precision, makes him the creative fulcrum of Alavés's attack. His €1.2 million market value is a shadow of his €15 million peak at Barcelona and Sevilla, yet his influence in this survival battle runs far deeper than the balance sheet suggests. Six yellow cards reveal the competitive fire that still burns beneath the technical elegance. As Alavés navigate their LWWDL turbulence, Suárez has embraced a new role: mentor to younger talents like 53-rated Unai Gómez, steadying influence in the dressing room, and the vision that knits together fragmented attacks. The Champions League nights at Camp Nou may have faded into memory, but in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Denis Suárez is proving that technical stubbornness and footballing intelligence can still be the difference between survival and obscurity.