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Extended Clip - Who Is Mateo Retegui: Italy's New Argentina Striker Compared to Vieri & Higuain?
1k Plays3 years ago
Carlo welcomes onto the show Buenos Aires-based Argentine football journalist and expert Daniel Edwards, who gives us a full profile on new Italy and Tigre striker Mateo Retegui.
This is an extended clip from this weeks free interview episode of The Italian Football Podcast which is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google podcasts.
To listen to this & all other full episodes of The Italian Football Podcast, go to Patreon.com/TIFP to become a Patron for only $2.99 USD per month (excluding VAT).
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Transcript
Introduction to Italian Football Podcast
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome to the Italian football podcast.
00:00:21
Speaker
in and around the goal. Sorry, dangerous
Tigre's 4-3-1-2 Setup Analysis
00:00:24
Speaker
from short range. So that's what we'll bring to you, just a guy to lead the line with power, with pace. And generally with Tigre, at least over the last season, he's been playing
00:00:42
Speaker
almost always as part of a front two. What Tigre generally do, they play this kind of classic 4-3-1-2 setup, very traditional in Argentine football with a playmaker just behind and kind of a smaller second striker to take a bit of the pressure off.
Rategri's Role: Second Striker or Lone Striker?
00:01:04
Speaker
And he's frightened that system, possibly he would struggle to lead the line alone if you put him in a 4-5-1 or a 4-3-3, because I don't know if he has the all-round game to act as that solitary striker, but if you have someone up with him, he's very good at playing off that second striker, and just getting into positions where he can score goals is what he's done best.
00:01:31
Speaker
Okay, that's interesting. So you see him as more of a player that needs to be playing in a two-man attack rather than as a man in the middle of a three. Okay, that's interesting. What would you say are Rategri's strengths and best qualities?
Rategri's Classic Center Forward Skills
00:01:48
Speaker
Yeah, as I say, he's a classic center forward. He's brilliant in the box. He's got a great eye for goal. Unusually, for an action sign forward, he's so strong in the air. He's a big lad, I think, six. Two.
00:02:01
Speaker
A meter 85 scores a lot of goals with his head, and he's got an absolute grenade for a right foot. Most of his goals come in around the penalty area, but he has not to fuel him from long range. So as I say, penalties as well, he's very, very reliable from the box. Just general goal scoring
00:02:29
Speaker
getting the ball in the area and making it count. He's got speed, he's got strength, lots of power to get past the last man. All the attributes of a real classic centre forward.
Limitations in Rategri's Modern Play
00:02:45
Speaker
What would you say are his weaknesses and areas that he would need to improve on in his game? I think that would be contained in the same answer. He's not
00:02:58
Speaker
that much of a modern forward in the sense that you're not going to see him dropping back and playing his teammates in so much. It's very single-minded. I wouldn't want to say one-dimensional because I think that would be doing him a disservice, but definitely he's a guy that away from the area and away from the final third, he's not going to contribute a whole lot. His best position is just posted there.
00:03:28
Speaker
and waiting for the ball to come for him. Possibly, you know, he's still young and has time to evolve and kind of bring in a more cerebral, more all-round approach to his game. But for now, it's definitely funny he has that tendency towards being one-dimensional, which possibly held him back at the start of his career and might hold him back as he progresses kind of through the levels.
Rategri Compared to Vieri and Higuain
00:03:57
Speaker
Okay, and here is the big question then, based on everything you've said, if you had to compare him to a current or former attacker, who would you compare him to? It's a tough one. I know just before we were recording, Vieri was mentioned and that's obviously a big stretch, but there are possibly similarities in the game in terms of
00:04:25
Speaker
of his approaching his kind of directness. Another guy who occurred to me, someone like Gonzalo Iwain, someone who's just got the knack of getting in those positions and being on the end of chances.