FAST DOWNLOAD
The ‘Barclaysmen’ phenomenon that captured the imagination of so many football fans during the international break was not just a reflection of the usual frustration provoked by the interruption of the club season. It also pointed to a growing sense of dissatisfaction with the modern game.
Football has changed a lot over the past decade – and not always for the better. The traditional trequartista and fantasista are a thing of the past while we see fewer long-range goals these days – the group stage of Euro 2024 was a thrilling anomaly – and some football fans blame Pep Guardiola for the sad decline of the ‘screamer’.
Even though the Catalan’s Manchester City side are, statistically speaking, more adept than most at scoring from distance, Guardiola’s success with patient and repetitive possession football has unquestionably influenced the new generation of coaches, who stand accused of being obsessed with ‘walking the ball into the net’.
It’s also noteworthy that few sides these days play with two up top, meaning old-school strike partnerships, like Alan Shearer & Chris Sutton, Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp or Luis Suarez & Daniel Sturridge, have become a dying breed, with the few remaining orthodox No.9s (like Erling Haaland) now flanked by wingers or inside-forwards.
However, dynamic duos haven’t disappeared completely. Indeed, at the Etihad on Wednesday, City will host Inter, the one team in this season’s Champions League in possession of a genuinely world-class pairing in attack in Lautaro Martinez and Marcus Thuram.
-
InterLuLa broken up
Martinez’s partnership with Romelu Lukaku was one of the main reasons why Inter won the 2020-21 Serie A title, with the pair producing 41 goals between them in the league alone, and like all supercouples, they were given a nickname: Lula.
However, Lukaku was responsible for them breaking up twice – and the second time for good. Indeed, according to Martinez, they’ve not spoken since Lukaku refused to respond to his texts and calls amid reports that the Belgian was in talks over a transfer to Juventus at a time when he was supposed to rejoin Inter on a permanent basis from Chelsea.
Martinez – and everyone else at Inter – felt betrayed by Lukaku, with whom he had clicked on and off the field. However, Martinez has moved on and is now happier than ever playing up front for Inter alongside Thuram, the free transfer from Borussia Monchengladbach who was signed in the summer of 2023 to effectively replace Lukaku.
-
Getty‘With his movements, Marcus frees you’
“I did not expect to get along so well with Marcus,” the Argentine admitted to the Gazzetta dello Sport, “but we did right from pre-season. He always brings a smile to the dressing room. We are different, he tells me that I don’t laugh much whereas he laughs a lot, and then there’s the fact I would never dress like him: what courage he has!”
Martinez also appreciates Thuram’s daring and positive approach to the game, though, as the France forward is always looking to take on opponents and make full use of his lethal mix of pace and power. Thuram is also one of those rare selfless strikers who regularly drifts wide or into deeper positions in order to create openings for others.
“I did great things with Romelu, someone who can take away two men by himself, but with Marcus I have more possibilities, more choice, more space,” Lautaro told the Gazzetta. “With his movements, he frees you.”
-
Getty ImagesThuram’s derby delight
Lautaro has certainly benefited enormously from Thuram’s arrival in Milan, which saw the newly-appointed Inter skipper go from a support striker to the spearhead of Simone Inzaghi’s side. The slight change of a role was a spectacular success, with Martinez leading the Nerazzurri to a historic 20th Serie A title, which resulted in the addition of a second star above the club crest, with a career-high 24 league goals in 33 appearances.
However, while Martinez was the obvious choice for the Serie A’s MVP for 2023-24, Thuram was widely lauded as the signing of the season. He racked up 13 goals and seven assists in his debut season in Serie A, quickly made Interisti forget all about Lukaku, scoring a stunner in his fourth outing – which just happened to be the second goal in a sensational 5-1 rout of city rivals AC Milan.
Thuram repeated the feat in an even more monumental Derby della Madonnina in April, with his low drive from just outside the area proving decisive in a 2-1 victory that secured the Scudetto at San Siro.
Speaking after the game, Thuram thanked striking legend Thierry Henry, a former team-mate of his father Lilian at international level, for “all the advice he’s given me”. “He’s like my favourite uncle,” Thuram told CBS Sports. “He’s here to help me in good moments and bad moments. He always tells me the truth and if I’m here, it’s because of him too.”
However, Thuram repeatedly stated throughout the season that he was also indebted to his team-mates for helping him settle so quickly, and particularly Martinez, “who is always right there with me. He’s an extraordinary captain.”
-
Getty Images‘Next step is the Champions League’
The question now, of course, is whether Martinez and Thuram can succeed where LuLa failed – in the Champions League.
Martinez played his part in Inter reaching the 2023 final, most notably in the semi-final second-leg win over AC Milan, but he’s scored just 12 times in 44 appearances in Europe’s premier competition and was criticised for his perceived selfishness in Istanbul, where he shot from an acute angle rather than trying to pick out a team-mate after finding himself in some space in the Manchester City area. In the end, he was fortunate that his poor decision-making was completely overshadowed by Lukaku’s late misses.
Of course, both Inter and their captain have undoubtedly improved since then – but that’s why last season’s last-16 exit at the hands of Atletico Madrid hit so hard. The Nerazzurri had been 2-0 up on aggregate at one point in the second leg, thanks to Federico Dimarco’s goal at the Metropolitano, but they ended up going out on penalties, effectively punished for failing to make the most of their first-leg dominance.
“It’s the one game I’d like to replay,” Martinez told the Gazzetta. “So, while I don’t want to choose between objectives – I want to achieve them all – the next step is the Champions League.”
-
-
Getty Images Sport‘Makes me want to cry’
Martinez remains confident that Inter can right a few wrongs this season, though, and it’s easy to understand why.
On a mental level, he could not be in a better place right now. Not only has he finally signed a new contract with Inter that binds him to the club until 2029, he’s also coming off the back of a triumphant Copa America campaign with Argentina.
Martinez may have picked up a winners’ medal at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, after scoring the decisive spot-kick in the quarter-final win over the Netherlands, but he’s never hidden his devastation at losing his starting spot to Julian Alvarez as the tournament progressed. “Even if I think about it now, it makes me want to cry,” he confessed to the Gazzetta.
However, Martinez was Argentina’s hero at this year’s Copa, scoring a Golden Boot-winning five goals, including the extra-time winner in the final that played a key part in him being nominated for this year’s Ballon d’Or.
“Given the season I’ve had, I definitely deserve to be in the running,” he told TNT Sports. “I’ve worked really hard to get to this level. It’s the second time in a row that I’ve reached the final phase of the Ballon d’Or. I think I have what it takes to be there.”
-
Getty Images‘Strongest duo in Serie A’
Thuram did not make the cut, though, primarily because his summer was nowhere near as enjoyable, with the forward failing to score as a feeble France side stumbled their way into the semi-finals of Euro 2024 before being outclassed by Spain.
However, Thuram didn’t let his struggles in Germany get him down. On the contrary, it only made him more determined to hit the ground running for Inter this season – and that’s exactly what he’s done.
After returning early from holiday, Thuram has made a blistering start to the 2024-25 campaign, scoring four times in as many matches, which suggests that Inter’s front two could prove even more prolific this term.
“They’ll score a lot of goals again,” former Inter and Italy striker Christian Vieri stated last week, “because they’re really good and enjoy playing together. They’re the strongest duo in Serie A.”
At the Etihad, they’ve got an early opportunity to show that they’re the strongest duo in the Champions League, too.
-
-
-
-
