21     Midfielder     Santos Laguna     Mexico

2014 has been...

…hampered by injury.

2014 should have been a pretty big year for Alonso Escoboza. He should have established himself as a regular in the Santos Laguna team on the left hand side of their attack. He should have enjoyed the summer at the World Cup with the Mexico national team. He should have all but confirmed himself as the incumbent of the left midfield role in Miguel Herrera’s Mexico side as he looks to build his team up again for the 2018 World Cup and all the Gold Cup and/or Copa America fun that will go on in between.

Sadly, that hasn’t happened. He has played the full 90 minutes on five occasions in the last six months of league action and has really struggled to shake off his injury. A few weeks ago when he was talking about focusing on his own game before allowing his thoughts to get caught up in a return to the national team, Escoboza admitted that he had tried to rush back from injury and ended up hurting himself again.

He is obviously eager to play more and more, and make up for lost time in doing so; but there has to be someone around him at the club willing to stop him from doing that. Youthful exuberance can be dangerous, especially in a player who has missed out on a World Cup campaign.

What's next?

Escoboza is probably his own worst enemy right now. With the disappointment of not playing at the World Cup and his lack of consistent starts for his league side, Alonso is trying just a little too hard to make things happen.

A quick player with a decent left foot, strong enough to run with the ball and shrug off tackles and eager to be involved in goals, Escoboza has everything he needs to be a modern wide forward. He can cut in from out wide to attack the full-back in both directions and has a desire to get into the box when the attacking play develops on the other flank.

He scored a very good goal during the under-20 World Cup after losing his shoe under the challenge of his defender. Escoboza dashed through, shrugged off his marker and slotted the ball home from a tight angle. If he can do that more, he’ll be very quickly back in the Mexico national team.

The trick will be realising that he needs to stop focusing on his chances with the national team to improve his chances with the national team. That makes sense, right?

"At the forefront last year, but there are more exciting young players in Mexico right now." - Jeff Livingstone

D     Injury has got in the way during 2014. Forget about it and move on; you can’t get the World Cup back.

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