Lautaro Martínez: “I didn’t do the World Cup I wanted”

By
Osvaldo Godoy
-
58

Lautaro Martínez spoke at a press conference in Italy prior to Inter’s match vs. Napoli on Wednesday. He commented on Argentina winning the World Cup and his performance in the
tournament.

When asked about the moment when Gonzalo Montiel scored the last penalty, giving Argentina the title, el Toro” expressed the following:

“It was truly unique. I didn’t think it could be so beautiful. It’s indescribable, a dream come true. Winning the title was always the goal.”

He mentioned that “the strength of a group is essential”, and that he will try to convey that to his clubmates.

Martínez also talked about his performance in the World Cup and did a harsh self-evaluation. In addition, he praised Julián Álvarez on how well he replaced him in the attack:

“I didn’t do the World Cup I wanted. I didn’t arrive as expected, I was playing with my ankle injected with painkillers. Then a colleague came in who did better than me and I’m very happy. I gave everything, even from the outside. It’s nice when you have a partner in attack who does things so well.”

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58 Comments

  1. You did your higuain, cost us 5 goals 2 in the final hopefully julian was there and the luck also. But we had the star and we forgive you next time don t shit with the albi please so much trouble to achieve this we should be with 4 stars if it wasn t your twin

    • Show a little respect. He was essential for the copa america and essential to get us into the world cup. It was bad timing the injuries, not just him, all the kids who showed up hurt (nico, locelso, etc). Lautaro was, is and will remain a monster.

  2. In oder the success to continue this must happen now
    Since the drought is over and pressure is off scaloni and co must play all attacking football not slow based possessions or direct this must happen following players must go and new blood must come in immediately
    Medina in pezzella out
    Perez in otamendi out
    Emi Buendía in papu gomez out
    Vera in Guido Rodriguez out
    New left back in acuna out I don’t have name for that but nico gonzalez can be option even though he become useless cuz of injuries

    • > Perez in otamendi out

      Several questions
      – Why was he passed around so much? 4 clubs in 4 years since 2018
      – How does his 1-distribution and 2-aerial skills compare to Ota?
      – Can he play both left and right CB?

      • – Don’t know why he’s been moving around so much.
        – Otamendi seems far better in both at the moment, although Perez is not a small dude, 185 cm/6’1 and he is pretty decent in the air, passing wise he’s pretty good too, also quite aggressive far from goal if he has to step out
        – I’ve seen him play RCB, LCB in both back 4 and back 3, RB, LB and DM so pretty versatile, although his best position is RCB.

        Overall, I think he’s a very decent defender who could be slowly incorporated into the team

        • Got it. He’s very decent but maybe now that he’s escaped out of Simeones web (see Mamouns response), he’ll thrive and pick up in quality and it always advantageous to any coach to have a versatile CB in their arsenal.

      • Why was Perez passed on from club to club? 2 words: Altetico / Simeone!
        Perez was bought by Altetico and loaned to Familiaco and he was so brilliant that Atletico recalled him but Simeone still didn’t want to give him a chance so they loaned him to…Celta I think? but they had no need for him so Atletico loaned him again to Udinese who did use him and Perez showed great promise and Udinese wanted to buy him but Atletico insisted on a buy back option, in other words Atletico didn’t intent on using Nehuen but had no intention of selling him either (because of his great potential) hence why Atletico insisted on a buy back option. Luckily Molina became a thing and Udinese demanded Perez and 15 mill for Molina and Atletico was forced to oblige.
        To cut an already long story short, Perez was the victim of his own potential, a potential that he’s realizing right now.
        I’ve been following him since the U20 days (when he paired up with Medina) and I can say that Nehuen is an excellent defender, good with the ball at his feet (not exceptional though), excellent man marker, strong in the air and versatile (played RWB once or twice with Udinese). He, along side Medina and the already established Licha and Cuti are the best CB crop Argentina has for the near future.

        • Ah the cholo kiss of death strikes again. Given Cholo is an ex player, you would think Simeone would be more sensitive but here we are for the umpteenth time. Let’s hope Molina thrives and RDP lands a better deal elsewhere.

      • Choripan to start with otamendi will be 35 next month it’s inevitability that arg starting his replacement now another thing is if scaloni obtain to play attacking football he has to play high line defence Does otamendi has the legs and pace to play high line defence ,I’m sure you know the answer of that.
        -As perez he has been good since he moved udinese permanently hopefully he continues that way which will attract big clubs.
        -let’s say otamendi step aside and everyone assuming it will be licha and cuti as starting cb pairing I Don’t think that will be the case .
        Everyone here who reads or seen my comments knows I rate highly for licha but I think he must battle out with facunda medina at starting spot
        This guy is everything you need a morden centre back but I hoping scaloni use him as lb which will make our back line look solid and balance
        Look like this in the near future
        Molina—– cuti — — licha—- medina .

        • Theres nothing wrong with age
          Players should be judges in form and performance
          For example in my country in England they are fixated on young players but half of them disappear at 27-29

          Look at WC
          Giroud
          Messi
          Di Maria
          Pepe
          Etc etc

          We still have Copa and this team has lost 1 game in last 40
          No need to change

        • Yes let me clarify… the reason for the questions is due to something olive and I were commenting the other day. Scaloni was very fortunate to have LCB Licha – LCB Ota RCB – Romero RCB available in top form due to the formation flexibility (option to use 2ATB or 3ATB) or in case any of the 3 become injured, his 4 man defense wouldn’t degrade in quality since the combo of a 1-left and 2-right defender and a 3-defender who plays plays both. It was tactically perfect for us and we were lucky 🍀. The best replacement for Otamendi given Licha and Romero are starters, is someone like him in both quality and positional flexibility.

    • I watched some of the first half and the second half of Lens vs PSG yesterday. I got to get a glimpse into what the “high rates of progressive passing” look like and during the first half mostly I see that he is comfortable on the ball and likes to pass it forward quickly even when pressed, an oddly “attacking minded” center back. During not one but several occasions in the game he burst forward into attack and into PSG’s box while Lens attacked through PSG’s lines and once he even had a half chance that he fumbled. I remember Romero was known especially in Atalanta for his bursts into attack and this seemed even more exaggerated, Medina looks pacey as well. Also good in one on ones and overall defensively. Among Len’s players yesterday he was #1 in touches, #1 in completed passes, #1 in passes into the opponent’s half, #2 in clearances, and wasn’t dribbled past. Really unique center back and I still have to watch a few more games to give a more refined analysis because sometimes a single game (that I kind of half watched) doesn’t tell the whole story, but I can say for sure that he deserves a spot in the next qualifiers to kick start this new project

    • Godin, I think when Lo Celso is fit he will probably replace Papu, also don’t discount the return of Nico Dominguez, I still have hopes for him.

      • Enganche I mean in squad wise not starting 11 bro as we assume fit lo celso will be competing starting 11 with likes de Paul and MacAllister. I don’t rule out nico dominguez too but he needs to move bigger club than Bologna , he has been to link to la viola which is upgrade to his current club

      • Ya, players have to be constantly changed as their they go in and out of form but the idea that we have to radicaly change our tactics is schizo. Plus, it is not even accurate that we play “slow possession football” lol.

  3. 2026 WORLD CUP WINNER ODDS

    France +500
    Brazil +550
    England +750
    Argentina +950
    Germany +950
    Spain +950
    Portugal +1400
    USA +1900
    Netherlands +1900
    Italy +2400
    Belgium +3200
    Uruguay +3200
    Croatia +4900
    Mexico +4900
    Denmark +5500
    Morocco +5500
    Switzerland +5500
    Japan +7500
    Norway +7500
    Canada +10000

    Its starting again, Brazil would win every WC by bookies LOL like Manchester City in UCL.

  4. Guys, Copa America has a wave, clear tendencies since 1979.

    1979 Paraguay 1
    1983 Uruguay 2
    1987 Uruguay 2
    1989 Brazil 1
    1991 Argentina 2
    1993 Argentina 2
    1995 Uruguay 1
    1997 Brazil 2
    1999 Brazil 2
    2001 Columbia 1
    2004 Brazil 2 (Argentina)
    2007 Brazil 2 (Argentina)
    2011 Uruguay 1
    2015 Chile 2 (Argentina)
    2016 Chile 2 (Argentina)
    2019 Brazil 1
    2021 Argentina 2 (Brazil)
    2024 Argentina 2 (Brazil)

  5. I don’t like the idea of Enzo going to Chelsea.
    I don’t mind the price tag of Enzo. That’s good. I also like the idea of moving to big club. I just don’t like Chelsea at this point.

    Chelsea is a mess. They will not qualify for champions league. They will take a few years to put it all together and I don’t want one of our top getting into this mess.

    • Chelsea are not perfect. I also prefer Liverpool or MU but Chelsea are the only one at the moment who is willing to pay for Enzo’s fee. Liverpool bid for 100 million euro but was rejected. And the deal is almost DONE as Enzo already skipped 2 training sessions today. I would say today or tomorrow it is done.

      Chelsea won’t make it to the CL yes but I am sure next year they will. Chelsea will buy one more midfielder after Enzo to partner him. The rumor has it is Declan Rice or Caicedo of Brighton. MacAllister seems like a long shot.

    • 14m I believe plus a payment of 4 (2 and 2) for 10 and 25 games played and then this 30 million = 48 M and I could be missing something. Unfortunately I don’t know if we’ll get 30 million in clean cash for the 25% because of taxes and other situations. Still, considering how little they pay for Argentinians the formula from now on should be to sell talents for 10-20m and keep a 20-30% sell on clause as often as possible. The sell on clause would be the new method of getting properly paid since as soon as these players step foot on Europe their market worth magically quadruples. I like this negotiation because River knew he wasn’t going to stay at Benfica forever though I don’t know if they exactly expected his exorbitant price of 120m

    • Benfica will surely sign the Norwegian wonderkid to replace Enzo named Andreas Schjelderup who plays the similar position. Alcaraz is wanted too. Maybe they want to replace Enzo with 2 midfielders. The same way Madrid replaced the great Redondo with 2 players Makelele and Conceicao back then. Usually it takes 2 players to replace 1 great player.

    • From this World Cup alone, I am convinced that both Emi and Di Maria have made it to all time Argentina best 11 replacing Fillol and one attacker (maybe Batigol). No goalie has won as much as Emi for Argentina AND be the star of the tournament (be the goalie of the tournament in both Copa and WC AND won 2 PK shootout in each tournament). I don’t think Fillol had done that.

      Emi did not concede the least goals, but he always did well when it mattered the most: saving PK in shootouts, saving that last same from Kolo Mouni, saving the Australian last kick. That’s what define greatness: Doing good in crunch time.

  10. Lautaro will come back stronger in copa 2024. He should leave Serie A if there is opportunity. Serie A games are too static and lack of transition speed, so that Lautaro/Paredes won’t fit our scheme as good as Alvarez/Enzo.

    I used to be an EPL denier, but this WC has changed my mind. Alexis, Cuti and Alvarez showed their strengths and dynamism.

    • EPL is and seria A is good league but both play diffrent football. Even Cuti said that even if he at 85% fit. He can play in seria A but he can’t do in EPL. Its tough and fast.. More money let see will lautaro leave inter. Because if inter wana sign lukako they have to sell few.

      • SERIA A is slow league. Loris saves in WC from Lautro would be goal in SERIA A. C. Ronaldo scored more in SERIA A because of its slower pace.

  12. Reportedly Newcastle offered 18M for Alan Varela. I was going to post a list of top local league talents soon and he is one of the best

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