In the second leg of this season's Champions League round of 16 against Liverpool, Inter striker Lautaro Martinez scored a winning goal, but not enough to help his side qualify. And after breaking the embarrassing record of not scoring a goal in ten consecutive Champions League games since November 2020, the discussion around him has not stopped. Italian football star Cassano has always loved Lautaro Martinez. Perhaps he saw his younger side in the Argentina international: a talented, selflessly aggressive attacker. However, when Barcelona considered satisfying the €111 million termination clause in Lautaro's Inter contract in 2020, Cassano also believed the Nerazzurri should seize the opportunity.
"Lautaro is fine, but I will sell him," the Italian told the media, "you brought him for 20 million euros and can now sell him for 100 million euros." Lautaro will get better, but I will say to him: 'Thanks, it's an honor for me!' "Of course, the transfer to Catalonia, which has been discussed for a long time, has never materialized, which could bring relief to Camp Nou and pity Inter Milan. It may seem odd for a player who scored a hat-trick against Salernitana last week, but Lautaro's goal-scoring status remains a mystery. Is he really a player worth 100 million euros? After all, he has never scored a single goal in Serie A since last December against relegation side Salenitana.
In fact, the local media in Milan asked a simple but compelling question after the previous Milano match: "Lautaro, what happened?" "Their concerns about a player who is no longer recognised are understandable. Lautaro was indeed surprisingly "listless" in the first leg of the Coppa Italia semi-final against AC Milan, lacking his usual ferocity, but after a hat-trick against Salernitana, local media quickly cheered for his return. But is that really Lotaro? Or the kind of bottoming out that didn't score in eight games in the league?
Lautaro's ability to finish has been a topic of debate, inextricably linked to debates about tactics, traits and expectations. Basically it boils down to three questions: What kind of striker is Lautaro? How many goals should he score? How much is he worth? Messi, for example, liked Lautaro, who had previously described his fellow Argentines as an "all-round" striker, even comparing him to his former Barca teammate and great friend Luis Suarez. Lautaro scored an average of one goal in every two games in his national team tournament (19 of 38 shots), and he even revealed that Messi was trying to persuade him to move to Camp Nou in 2020. Barca's interest is justified. After all, at that time, Argentine star Crespo touted Lautaro as the "new Aguero" — another close friend of Messi' who had a long-standing interest in the summer giants.
"He's not so sharp with the ball, but he's more of a team player, like Aguero," the former Argentine ace told the Italian media, "Lautaro has always been associated with transfers, I think he can play as a pivot center, or play with a striker like Lukaku, or even form a trident." I really like his mentality. Conte did the same, Lautaro admitted, and working with the fiery former Inter manager brought his game to a completely different level. That partly explains why two years ago, when Bartomeu's Barcelona were busy looking for enough money to sign a replacement for Suarez, he felt compelled to stay in Meazza.
Since then, Lautaro has renewed his contract with Inter for five years until 2026. Yet he once again finds himself at the centre of transfer speculation – Arsenal are longtime admirers – and his true worth has become a bigger topic than it was two years ago. Crespo was undoubtedly right about Lautaro's connection with high-school strikers like Lukaku, who formed a formidable striker in two seasons at Meazza. He now works well with another high school, Dzuko. Still, Lautaro's idea of being able to stand alone as a single fulcrum is questionable. He has yet to prove that he has the assault or goal-scoring ability of Suarez or Aguero, nor does he have the ability to control the ball and pull out space for others to play giroud's role at his peak: a centre with a low goal rate, creating time, space and goals for others.
Still, Cassano is "crazy" about Lautaro and still believes he can score 35 goals in a season. However, while Lautaro currently has 14 league goals in the 2021-22 season, it is worth noting that he has never scored more than 17 goals in the league in any season of his career. Admittedly, his ability to press and work efficiently is impressive – he has regained the ball near opponents' penalties (25 times) more than any other player in Serie A this season – and he can certainly play well when he has plenty of room. Both he and Romelu Lukaku love playing under Conte because the Italian's style of football is all about vertical strikes and quick transitions.
For example, you can definitely see him get enough space in Liverpool's diligent and fluid striker line, or play in front of Arsenal's exciting attacking players Saka, Smith Rowe and Erdergao. However, when Inter dominate both possession and passing, against dense defence, Lautaro may be forced to play in tight spaces. He simply doesn't have Aguero's instinct to break the siege, nor does he have Suarez's ingenuity, so it has always been suspected that Lautaro is just a potential good deputy, not a dynamic male protagonist. As Cassano puts it, "He's very generous and the perfect partner for any type of centre-forward." ”
However, while there is praise for the effort, mobility and mobility of atypical No. 9 players such as Firmino in modern football, offensive players are judged by their shooting percentage, and Lautaro's goal rate still has a lot to fall for, especially at the highest level. In his first eight games in the Champions League, he scored five goals, but all of those goals were scored in four consecutive games and, before the match against Liverpool, he had not scored in his last 10 games. His shot conversion rate in Europe's top club competitions was only a minuscule 8.11, while he only caught a quarter (27.27) "great chances". That's not enough for a striker who is considered world-class – whether it's a pivot striker or something else. Obviously, he can't be compared to Haaland or Mbappe, at least not yet. Not only did he play different roles, he was also too unstable to compare to the best shooter in the game.
At the age of 24, Lautaro clearly still has time to improve on certain aspects of his game. His current goal numbers clearly don't meet the requirements, but perhaps some people need to change their perceptions and expectations of a talented but flawed striker. He is not Aguero, Suarez, Haaland or Mbappe. He is Lautaro: a hard-working attacker who can play alongside certain players in certain formations but still lacks killer instincts. For him, the only way to change that perception is to score regular goals, especially at the highest level of European competition. The goal against Liverpool will temporarily delay doubts about his importance to Inter Milan, but it will still not be enough to make him a top striker. Barcelona certainly won't be coming back with a blockbuster offer this summer, but if a strong Premier League club is interested, the Nerazzurri should seriously consider finally following Cassano's advice and say: "Thank you, Lautaro, it's a pleasant thing, don't be surprised." ”