Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Italian football podcast. The big question is, is Lautaro Martinez a world class attacker or regardless of his performance and his goal and assist against Barcelona and he was brilliant, especially in the second half last night. Is he too patchy? Is he too inconsistent to be a world class attacker? Because
Speaker: Before last night, he'd gone eight games without scoring a goal. That was after scoring three in the first four games at the start of the season. Now, this is a trend we have seen throughout his inter -career, that he is an incredibly patchy goal scorer. I mean, he scored 25 goals last season, which
Speaker: is a fantastic record the season before that he scored 19 and the season before that he scored 21 in all competitions so you know we're talking about we're talking about excellent numbers maybe not well -class numbers but you know top top numbers seconds here let's say um but despite those incredibly you know excellent tallies
Speaker: Last season, he went seven games with no goals or assists between February and March 2022. Early on in last season, he went nine games with no goals and just the one assist from October 2021 to November 2021.
Speaker: The season before that, he went five consecutive games in October 2020 without scoring, eight games in November and December 2020 without scoring, six in January 2021, and then five again in April and May 2021. So it's so weird with him. Why is he such a patchy striker? Does this stop him from being a world class attacker?
Speaker: Well, the thing is, I don't think it stops him from being named a world -class attacker, because I think he is a big world -class attacker, at least. At the very least, he's world -class adjacent, because he's a leader at this incident. And yesterday, against Barcelona, he had a really poor first half, but then he comes in the second half and he scores one and has a wonderful assist.
Speaker: uh plays us landing through for what should have been a second assist or at the very least a secondary assist as an ice hockey assist but i mean the thing is he is a big game player um i'm just looking at i've brought up some numbers against uva in the calendar year in 2020 2022 three games one goal one assist uva is the team he actually has the the worst track record against he's played 12 games scored thrice make two assists
Speaker: Milan 10 matches in total 5 goals 1 assist Napoli 10 matches 4 goals Barcelona 6 matches 2 goals 2 assists Dortmund 2 matches 2 goals Liverpool 2 matches 1 goal Real Madrid 4 games 1 goal 1 assist He delivers
Speaker: on the big on the big occasions. The issue is that, like you said, is the fact that he can go eight games without scoring, which is a little bit too much. I think I think he is a world world class player. I just think that he he isn't what separates him from the absolute top level, such as the, you know, to be mentioned in the same breath as the Hallands and the Lewandowski's and the Benzemas and the Mbappes. I mean, not, you know,
Speaker: in terms of goal scoring and efficiency in front of goal, it's exactly that. But he goes eight games, and that's five, six, maybe too many to be mentioned in the same breath as those players who might at most go maybe two, three games, and then they score immediately. And that's the only thing. If he can adapt that. Why? What do you think the reason for this? I think the reason for that. No, I think it depends.
Speaker: I think previous seasons, it was more down to him not being calm, cool enough when he gets into those chances. I think he tries to hit the ball too hard and it's like his body all tenses up. And so he fluffs it instead of having this kind of, when you see someone like Lewandowski score, it just looks so natural, doesn't it? Bends them, it just looks, it flows, it looks so relaxed. Lautaro tenses up in the finishing,
Speaker: in the finishing instance. I think that's something he's addressed, but this time around, I think it's also been down to fitness issues. He had a minor problem and he soldiered through it for intake because he didn't have any strikers.
Speaker: there was a crisis and attack with Correa and Jeko both gone. So I think it's more down to that. I don't think it's a mental issue anymore. I think this particular goal drought is more down to physical issues and also the team being a little bit out of form in this period. But before then, I think it was more an issue of him tensing when getting into those good positions to finish in that instance.
Speaker: We'll have to wait and see, but yes, if you were to eliminate these eight patch, seven, eight game patches of not scoring, if you were to bring that down to maybe two, three, then we're talking an absolute top, top class, world class striker. I do think he already is world class. Listen to the full show and all other episodes by going to patreon .com slash TIFP and become a member for only $2 .99 per month.
