abdomlahor

2 hours ago, il_serpente said:

Why do all English people say MARtinez instead of marTInez?   The accent is right there to tell you how to pronounce it.   They've always done it with Roberto also.

This winds me up as well

I think £15m is a fair fee personally 

5 minutes ago, david-avfc said:

Probably on what all the 13year olds who’ve never watched him are saying on Twitter 

I mean he literally hasn’t featured for the first team yet. Not even ten minutes at the end of a game. What do we have on him to suggest starting him today is a good idea?

I’m not saying he isn’t ready by the way, I just don’t know how people seem to be so sure.

Look at how Ramsey struggled to make an impact initially and he even had a loan under his belt playing men’s football.

13 hours ago, messi11 said:

He's ready. Give him a chance

Based on what?

what i don't understand is why he isn't taking free kicks. makes no sense at all to me considering how many bangers he scored in his career. i'm not even sure luiz has ever scored one

I can understand it. Realistically he can fight for his place all he wants but he isn’t gonna displace a £25m player who’s amongst the top 5 left back in the league is he?

If he did stay, never play and just pick up his wage every month then he’d be accused of leeching the club just like the likes of Gabby and Richards have been in the past.

The amount of cringe in this thread today is insane

8 minutes ago, Zero7 said:

Game is really slow paced, not sure he will get up to speed with the premiership, he looks like a decent squad player 

Good job he’s playing football and not rugby then

https://thefalse9.com/2021/10/rodrigo-bentancur-a-scouting-report.html
 

Quote

 

Profile

Rodrigo Betancur is a Uruguayan professional footballer who currently plays his club football for Juventus, predominantly as a deeper lying midfielder. Having started his professional career with Argentinian side Boca Juniors, he signed for Juventus in July 2017 after impressing in the Argentine Primera Division. He plays a pivotal role for both club and country for whom he has won 41 caps to date.

+ Excellent passing range

One of Bentancur’s best attributes is his excellent passing range. His long range pass completion stands at a brilliant 76.9% and this is a key weapon that Juventus use to their advantage in order to create chances. Against opposition who play an especially high line, Bentancur can use his passing range to play long balls over the top of the defensive line which the likes of Chiesa and Morata can exploit. He also averages 6.07 progressive passes and 6.18 passes into the final third which shows his medium and shorter range passing is also penetrative. Overall he averages 1.96 shot creating actions per 90 in live ball situations, which is exemplary for a deeper lying midfielder. Even when put under pressure, Bentancur completes around 10.09 under pressure passes per 90 which shows he is capable of playing out from the back under intense pressing. He does this often by using his ‘lanky’ frame in order to shield the ball from the opposition and lay it off onto his teammates. His ball shielding abilities are world class and it massively contributes to him playing well under intense pressing. 

+ Defensive contribution

With 2.8 pAdj tackles and 1.71 pAdj interceptions per 90, Bentancur is a very good player defensively and it is his hardwork and perseverance that allows this. He makes the majority of his tackles in the midfield and attacking third, which allows his team to quickly counter once they have regained the ball. With 41.8% of opposition dribbles being tackled by him, Bentancur is certainly an elite defensive midfielder.

As the situation in the above diagram shows, the incoming opposition wingback means that the Juventus fullback needs to step out of his defensive line to confront him. An opposition midfielder then identifies the space and tries to move into it, however Bentancur has the intelligence to spot the danger and snuff it out before any real harm is done. This once again highlights Bentancur’s intelligent defending.

+ Ability to exploit right half space and wing

As the above heatmap shows (from Bentancur’s 19/20 season under Sarri), Bentancur predominantly occupies a midfield position but he also tends to drift to the right wing at times in order to disrupt the opposition backline.  This is usually aided by the right winger moving to the right half space which then overloads the opposition’s left side. Overloading the opposition’s left side allows Juventus to attack and create chances via crosses. 

Moreover in certain situations, Juventus’s right winger stays wide which pins back the opposition defensive line and forces the opposing left back out of his position and as the above diagram shows, Bentancur can exploit the right half space left vacated by the full back. These types of run from midfield areas highlight Bentancur’s intelligence and they can be used as a weapon to unlock difficult low blocks.

– Poor ball carrying

As the above graph shows, Bentancur is a very average ball progressor especially when compared to the other elite midfielders in Serie A. He averages around 0.87 completed dribbles per 90 which is bad for a deeper lying midfielder and this results in him averaging a very poor 4.11 progressive passes per 90. Bentancur is very efficient at evading the opposition press but he doesn’t always possess the ability nor the intelligence to drive into the open spaces left behind. He rather prefers to lay off the ball to one of his teammates and this trait could be considered a hindrance to his progression as a deeper lying midfielder. 

– Lack of assists

Bentancur has mostly played as a central midfielder in his footballing career with 141 total appearances to date in that position. Despite all that, he has only achieved 20 total career assists in his professional club career, his goal record isn’t much better either with him getting a total of 4 goals for his club sides. This could be considered as a major flaw for a modern day midfielder and his end product has to improve, if he is to keep playing as a central midfielder.

Conclusion

See also  Man United's predicted formation against Norwich: Rangnick's thrilling 4-2-2-2 formation

Bentancur is an excellent deeper lying midfielder who is constantly improving his game. The diagram above shows the improvement in his game from when he was 21 to when he was 22 and this highlights the hard work he puts in to improve his footballing skills. His excellent passing range has only got better as he’s got older and his defensive numbers have greatly bettered over the years. However, he lacks real dynamism when ball carrying but he has shown improvement in this department, season by season. 

In my opinion, Bentancur operates best in a deeper regista role in the DM position rather than as a central midfielder as he lacks the end product that a top class central midfielder usually has. Furthermore, in a regista role his poor ball carrying abilities can be compensated for by his exemplary passing range, as that is a regista’s primary role.

 

Tl;dr: exactly what we seem to be looking for.

he was an extremely highly rated prospect when he was at boca. i'm not sure he's the type we're looking for to sit in front of the defence though, based on allegri's comments about him. 

27 minutes ago, YouUnastanFren said:

I didn't honestly sit here and say that. I've read criticism on here that he can't pass, is lazy, scared of a tackle and even that he has less tanacity than a 12 year old.

His performances at the start were inconsistent, with only small glimpses of his brilliance but those criticisms were all clearly drivel even at the time.

Now the more MOTM performances he puts in and the longer his highlight reel grows the funnier they become.

i think most people were rightly calling him out on poor/average performances especially considering the price tag. there's nothing wrong with that. those saying those things you claim were obviously over the top though.

19 minutes ago, YouUnastanFren said:

Makes the criticism of him seem funnier with every passing game

He’s been excellent recently but you can’t honestly sit there and say he didn’t have a poor start. 

Makes absolutely no sense at all

I love McGinn but if a big offer comes in I’d be tempted to sell and give Carney more gametime

great performance. he still misplaces one or two easy passes which is frustrating but overall he was excellent again.

1 minute ago, Zatman said:

If Mali get to the semi finals which is not impossible then he wont be back in the UK until after the transfer window is closed 

No way Mali are going to allow him return to England for medical etc during the tournament. Most international managers ban negotiations in tournaments

you don't have to have your medical in england though, coutinho had his in france i think.

i don't think there's much point in having the draft order based on the previous season considering we all start from scratch again anyways, but i'm not fussed either way really

How on earth can two teams have the option to buy a player at the end of a loan deal? Defeats the whole purpose of us negotiating a purchase option in the first place.

1 minute ago, villarule123 said:

Not really, Rodriguez hated playing in the PL whilst Coutinho had his longest, most successful spell in this league. 

not to mention the fact that this is a loan deal with an option to buy.

On 13/12/2021 at 10:23, Dante_Lockhart said:

'Quon Air can go swivel. Swear my oppos the last few weeks have had the best luck. Ah well.

Started well but receivers have let me down the 2nd half of the season. Metcalf, Thielen, you boys have disappointed me.

take the rough with the smooth. with the amount of injuries i've had to key players this season I think it's overdue.

that flick over the defender in the first half was filth

needs to give his head a wobble

On 07/08/2021 at 10:51, abdomlahor said:

i may be alone in this, but I keep on trying to justify this deal and I just can’t do it. I don’t doubt he’ll score goals for us in the short term, but I can’t help but think we were fine with wesley as back up to watkins who has earned that starting role up front. the money could have been invested better in other positions and on someone with more resale value.

unless we play 4-4-2 which I highly doubt will happen, the result seems to be a square peg in a round hole somewhere. should’ve signed someone to play in jack’s position who can also provide cover up front in case of injury.

I love the player, but that still doesn’t make it a logical signing.

put it this way…would you catch leicester signing a 29 year old for 30 million with one year left on his deal who has suffered niggling injuries throughout his career?

i stand by this. i never understood this signing.