Lautaro Martinez

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So many decent performances today. albeit against a poor side. MOTM to Lautaro for me no problem if Barella gets either. Good to see. Hope now he goes on a run.
 

uny_arturo

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Definitely MOTM with his first half performance alone. Don't care if it's Salerntiana. Strikers aren't midfielders. All they need is confidence.
 

surripere

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Brilliant finishes, could've had more but couldn't ever forward; he was consistently popping up in the right place.
 
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I think we should still sell him. He’s a rubbish striker that is not capable of anything.

Only posters on here would come up with that kind of a “solution“ to our problems.

It is no coincidence that when we actually tried to play through the middle and change our game a little that we returned to semblance of our old form.

Barella is the heart of this team. If he is out of form then the whole team does not play well.

Aside from breaking our goal drought, the only thing that matters right now is that we got three points.
 
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Nero Indigo

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All I'll say is that I hope he keeps it up to the point that we hopefully get some value out of a future sale and are fortunate to find someone more reliable for this team.
 

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That was easily his best game this season, not just because of the hattrick, he was all over the pitch, reminds me of Icardi against Barcelona in Milano. Hopefully this isn't a one off.

THERE IS ONE PROBLEM THO - somehow Lautaro only keeps scoring penalties and goals from counterattacks, while when there is a set defence, he is almost useless and that is where Džeko is just better even if he has a shit game. We will always need a Lukaku/Džeko next to Lautaro.
 

uny_arturo

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THERE IS ONE PROBLEM THO - somehow Lautaro only keeps scoring penalties and goals from counterattacks, while when there is a set defence, he is almost useless and that is where Džeko is just better even if he has a shit game. We will always need a Lukaku/Džeko next to Lautaro.

Agree. The other issue is Lautaro plays as a false-9 and Dzeko plays as a winger. We have no body upfront.
 

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I think we should still sell him. He’s a rubbish striker that is not capable of anything.

Only posters on here would come up with that kind of a “solution“ to our problems.

It is no coincidence that when we actually tried to play through the middle and change our game a little that we returned to semblance of our old form.

Barella is the heart of this team. If he is out of form then the whole team does not play well.

Aside from breaking our goal drought, the only thing that matters right now is that we got three points.
You don't think its because who plays next to him? Lets speculate, wouldn't you think El Toro would look much better next to someone like Vlahovic?

These games become so dull when none of our strikers can beat the defender 1vs1. If Dzeko or Lautaro would have that capability I'd think the game against Liverpool would've gone much better.
 

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He finally played a whole game. He's been routinely subed out by both Conte and Inzaghi. This season alone he had just 2 full games out of 19 he played in. Maybe last night he was promised he'll stay on until the end. Or he really is nothing special and I'm just having hard time accepting it.
 

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He finally played a whole game. He's been routinely subed out by both Conte and Inzaghi. This season alone he had just 2 full games out of 19 he played in. Maybe last night he was promised he'll stay on until the end. Or he really is nothing special and I'm just having hard time accepting it.

When you type your argument and it isn't even convincing yourself... :yao:

I feel ya, mate. I wanted Martinez to become great so bad. But I fear he has hit his ceiling. This is his level.
 

Puma

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You don't think its because who plays next to him? Lets speculate, wouldn't you think El Toro would look much better next to someone like Vlahovic?

These games become so dull when none of our strikers can beat the defender 1vs1. If Dzeko or Lautaro would have that capability I'd think the game against Liverpool would've gone much better.
There are a number of factors.

Endlessly crossing balls into the box did not serve us against Genoa and Sassuolo. Attempting to play through the middle adds some variation to our play and we are less predictable. Of course, against top teams, we will not have the opportunities we had against Salernitana but the answer lies in finding some balance between trying to attack down the wings and through the midfield. That is why management need to address the lack of a creative midfield player in the summer.

We all know what Lautaro is capable of if he is teamed with the right strike partner. We saw that for the last two seasons when he was playing alongside Lukaku. Dzeko and Lautaro do not play well together and next season, if Dzeko remains, he needs to be given a bench role and Lautaro needs to be teamed up with someone else with Martinez being the second striker. Expecting him to lead the attack would be a mistake and a failure to acknowledge his weaknesses as a footballer.
 
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tonyclifton

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Good for his confidence. That's the Lautaro we wish to see more often, albeit it's only Salernitana.
 
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Adriano@10

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When you type your argument and it isn't even convincing yourself... :yao:

I feel ya, mate. I wanted Martinez to become great so bad. But I fear he has hit his ceiling. This is his level.
Meh I m one of his bigger cirtics on here but i dont think it s fair to say this is his ceiling /level.....Dude is 24 and still has ample time to improve, to me his biggest weakness is his decision making/ mental game, and it would not be unusual for that to improve as he gets older.
 

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Definitely MOTM with his first half performance alone. Don't care if it's Salerntiana. Strikers aren't midfielders. All they need is confidence.

Barella was MOTM for me. Created all 5 goals, and created a few more which should have been scored.

But yes, Martinez had a great game.
 

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There are a number of factors.

Endlessly crossing balls into the box did not serve us against Genoa and Sassuolo. Attempting to play through the middle adds some variation to our play and we are less predictable. Of course, against top teams, we will not have the opportunities we had against Salernitana but the answer lies in finding some balance between trying to attack down the wings and through the midfield. That is why management need to address the lack of a creative midfield player in the summer.

We all know what Lautaro is capable of if he is teamed with the right strike partner. We saw that for the last two seasons when he was playing alongside Lukaku. Dzeko and Lautaro do not play well together and next season, if Dzeko remains, he needs to be given a bench role and Lautaro needs to be teamed up with someone else with Martinez being the second striker. Expecting him to lead the attack would be a mistake and a failure to acknowledge his weaknesses as a footballer.
I don't understand the statement of him leading the attack. How can someone like him lead the attack if he is playing a supporting role to all those around him? You can't just expect him to have another role in attack (leading the attack) when he does the same tasks as when he was the second striker with Lukaku.

With all those expectations then we could just take out Dzeko and it'd be the same as if Dzeko is on.
 

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I can't ignore that this was literally the single easiest game of the season. Seriously, if you ranked all 38 league games in the season in order of most difficult to easiest, you would have Juve away as #1 hardest game while this game would be #38. Dead last.

Genuinely happy for Lautaro (and Barella) for finally having a great game after a long time and you bet those goals / assists brought a big smile to my face. That said, it still shits me immensely to see these guys play like this (against the single worst Serie A team in 20 years) after capitulating for an entire month. Oh, NOW you show up? It's further evidence that this team is mentally weak. Just a flat-track bully only capable of beating shitters while choking against stronger opponents - as if we needed more evidence of that. I'm still waiting for a big victory.

The progress, or recovery, was "encouraging".. and at a stretch I can convince myself that sometimes you need to take baby-steps. Bastoni claims "the win over Salernitana did not end the crisis because we were never in a crisis to begin with." ( :yao: )

I will judge the team based on the rest of the season. This nice win over Salernitana was much needed but only stays the executioners axe temporarily. The jury is still out on a lot of these bums IMO.
 
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