After the disastrous game on Sunday against Sassuolo, pundits and fans are starting to question if Inter should sell Lautaro Martinez. The Neroazurri number 10 fall from grace is evident in the last couple of months, when he just scored once from a penalty in Supercoppa
Lautaro’s Recent Form
Il Toro recent form has been very bad for a striker. He hasn’t scored in Serie A since December 17th against Salernitana. Also he has no goals in Champions League and Coppa Italia until now. But his underperformance is not only about lack of goals (very important for a striker) but his pressing, playing without the ball and linking with his teammates has also been very poor in the last month or so. The epitome of this came last Sunday in the shameful defeat against Sassuolo for 0-2 at San Siro. He got the worst grade in sofascore with 6.1. He only had 2 shots (one on target), 32 touches, 1 successful dribble (of 3 attempts) and 71% of correct passes. Too poor for one of the best payed players in the squad and who supposed to be our main striker this season.
Comparing Lautaro Stats with other seasons
This Toro Martinez is not what Inter fans are used too. In his first three seasons he was phenomenal, especially when having Romelu Lukaku as a partner. In his first season, coming from the bench in Spaletti’s 4-2-3-1 he scored 9 goals and 1 assist in 35 appearances (1761 min). With Conte and Lukaku during 19/20 campaign he scored 21 goals and made 8 assists in 49 appearances (3.595 min). Finally in the season which Inter became champion again, Il Toro scored 19 goals and made 11 assists (3.255 min). On the other hand, until now this season he only has 12 goals and 2 assist (2.165)
Inter Sells but who is buying?
According to a report of Calciomercato released today Inter would be planning to sell Lautaro Martinez in summer for €90M with Liverpool, Atletico de Madrid and Borussia Dortmund being the favorites. In the same line, la Gazzetta dello sport published on Monday that Inter is planning to sell LM10 so they can buy Scamacca and Jonathan David from Lille. However, his recent downgrade makes this rumors unlikely because is hard to think that we can get that price if he cannot put in some decent to great performances in the rest of the season. But if that occurs Inter probably won’t be selling him. In fact, Lautaro Martinez has received recently the support from Inter CEO Beppe Marotta in a recent interview and also from la Curva Nord today.
Lautaro is still a quality player, we have seen it. But he must improve his game and his scoring abilities in the last 4 months of the season. He is still in time to put similar numbers of pasts seasons. For that Inzaghi should figure it out how to use him adequately and he has to break that mental blockade. If this can’t be achieved probably Inter will sell but for a much lesser price than expected.
