Lautaro Martinez

Batman

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Nonexistential midfield my ass, first half Brozović single handedly destroyed Madrid midfield.
I said midfield, not Brozovic. And I didn’t mention Madrid’s midfield. Brozovic was immense but midfield wont function with one player only. Barella and Hakan decided to be shit when Brozovic was on fire hence the waste of time and energy controlling the ball without being able to break down their defense.
 
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brehme1989

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I remember Lewa was horrendous at times his first season at Dortmund (21-22 years old) and then his first season at Bayern (26 years)
That's a mental issue though. Lewandowski was a great scorer in Poland.
I remember my team in Greece almost signed him in 2008 but didn't want to pay 500k :lol: Eventually the ownership partly changed and a new management came. His new team then wanted over 5m after a season. (We ended up paying more for Djibril Cissé who turned out very good for us). The same management didn't want to pay an extra 2-3m for Radamel Falcao in 2008 and ended up with a Brazilian scrub for 3m who was later sold back to Brazil after just 4 months.

I always liked and rated Cavani so not sure about that. He always messed up a lot of chances actually and still does.

Thing is, a player who has unique scoring abilities needs to have the right mentality when he enters the pitch. We've seen how Icardi has turned out mediocre after his confidence was shattered that February. Piatek was one of the most promising scorers but when Milan started showing some trouble, he became below average. Gilardino after 1 good season with Milan had issues and by his 3rd year he was a meme, then moved to Fiorentina and became a solid scorer once again. Immobile shits his pants outside his comfort zone. Higuain stopped being a real threat after Juventus shipped him out on loan against his will.

The mental aspect is huge for strikers (and goalkeepers) that people never really bother to look into.
Lautaro is a player who can have a couple of very high scoring seasons but I wouldn't expect him to be a perennial scorer. He's just not that kind of player.
 

wera

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I feel for Lautaro. Inzaghi is not giving him a proper 90 minutes against Real because he got a stupid, underdeserved yellow card.

Everybody talking about how shit Lautaro and Barella were are just reactionary because of the loss. All of them played good football.
 
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CafeCordoba

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Yeah Lautaro was not bad. Got few chances and was not a no-show in any capacity. Of course we need him to bury at least one of those few chances but like brehme said, he's just not that type of striker (clinical finisher).
 
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Gaindé

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Imo, he can still develop. I think he has top-tier off the ball movement, I remember his second goal at the derby last year, his ability to find space and make good runs into said space is very important for us.
Against Real, his first header was actually the result of him tracking back, giving a good ball to Perisic and making himself available in the box. He can do that several times a game while also providing an insane amount of pressing.

I'd praise him for that rather than destroying him without any reason.
 

brehme1989

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I'd praise him for that rather than destroying him without any reason.
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FairyTailed

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One thing Lautaro also has, is a very good first touch. He accelerates our play just by the way he touches the ball. And I also mean one touch shots (mostly those). He fairly often tries to one time a ball when he receives it, like volleys and he's pretty good at them. It lowers the chance for the opponents to react to it.

Lukaku (as an example) probably never first time shot a ball into goal and always took an extra touch to control it.

Lautaro doesn't hesitate. If most strikers need "x"-actions to do something, he'll do it in x-1, if that makes sense. I like that about him and as the team play gets better, this will almost inevitably result in more goals when the players read each other more and more.

Lautaro doesn't have the best finishing nor is he extremely fast or a good dribbler. He's pretty much a jack-of-all trades type of striker but a master of few. If he were to improve even just his finishing, he would shoot up the ranks a lot, as it suits his quick, off the ball play-style well. As Brehme pointed out, it's hard. There's a limit to what you can teach to a player on how to become a better finisher. Like, if Lautaro's problem was that most of his shots go too centrally, a positional coach could point that out and tell him where to shoot in different situations. But in the end understanding the collectivity of how to strike a ball, when to strike it and where to place it is something that's mostly dependant on what's in you and very often a mental thing.

If he cannot improve it, Lautaro will likely always be best paired with a more clinical striker, advanced forward or poacher (which is neither Dzeko nor Correa, but yeah).

I'm not sure how good his long distance shots really are, but I'm of the opinion that Lautaro could actually really excell in a very offensive AM role. Shadow Striker type. In our 2 striker systems you can already see some of it, but we won't effectively see it unless he's the pivot behind 2 other strikers OR we use a striker that really stays forward all the time.
 

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he's just not that type of striker (clinical finisher).
I'm leaning towards this too but I also think Inter fans are a little spoilt, we're used to strikers feeding off scraps and some how thriving. Like I said earlier Cavani at his age was simply terrible (worse than Toro as a CF) but improved with better service (Hamsik and Lavezzi). At 24 years old it's still early too make that call.

I'm not sure how good his long distance shots really are, but I'm of the opinion that Lautaro could actually really excell in a very offensive AM role. Shadow Striker type. In our 2 striker systems you can already see some of it, but we won't effectively see it unless he's the pivot behind 2 other strikers OR we use a striker that really stays forward all the time.
Don't complicate things mate. What skills does Toro have that would allow him to excel in the AM role? He doesn't have vision, passing range, dribbling.

As a CF tho...

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he's already good at evading defenders, finding gaps in the area, has a class first touch (as you mentioned), all he needs to do is work on his finishing/composure/decision-making. With better/clear cut service we have at minimum an Immobile-level striker.
 

CafeCordoba

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Yes, goal scoring can surely be trained. Like said earlier, that clinical nature of goal scoring is like impossible to train at this age anymore. But goal scoring in general can be trained for sure, Zlatan being a great example of that. Mentioned Cavani being another one. We all remember how random Zlatan was with his scoring at Juve when he arrived, even when he arrived at Inter he wasn't a good scorer IMO.

Surely Lautaro at this age can still learn to score better but he surely needs to put effort to it.
 

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Allenatore
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Surely Lautaro at this age can still learn to score better but he surely needs to put effort to it.
Again, I think we're being a tad unfair to Toro. He lacks good and consistent service, often feeding on scraps or Lukaku leftovers. He's not like R9/E9 who can create his own scoring opportunities or one chance and score striker like CV32/M22 who thrive on scrappy passes/crosses.

Contrast with a striker like Lewadowski, surrounded by world class assisters but routinely manages such misses:




In fairness most of these are after scoring a brace/hattrick, but imagine the vitriol if this was Toro :lol: Lets give him time, this is first season as the main striker and under a new coach.
 

Gaindé

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Great game overall, goal, lots of energy, hit the crossbar as well. 3 goals in 3 games, let's hope he can keep it up but at the moment he does not play like somebody who needs to be carried, silencing all those who said that Lukaku carried him.
 

Kova10

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I think there is no better striker in the world at the moment regarding instincts. His dummy and those first time shots are just outrageous and he does those things all the time. I love this kind of play because it catches the opponent by surprise. Keep it on Lauti, this season you are the leader upfront.
 

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I think there is no better striker in the world at the moment regarding instincts.

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Lewandowski, Müller, Ronaldo, Cavani to name a few ;)

Anyway, as I'd said before, Toro will come thru with good service. I'm guessing he's the designated PK taker so thats 20+ goals easy
 

wera

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So far for me he's been stepping up this season. Icardi might've scored from less chances, but we also scored less goals altogether, so to me he just does more for the team.

Obviously he would be Messi-level if he had Icardi's shooting precision, but it's not like he is bad or clumsy, far from it. Having Lautaro is a fucking blessing, he runs so much, he knows how to pass the ball and he has balls of steel.
 
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