Becão’s image is no longer just linked to his goals for Milan.
It’s the 54th minute of Empoli-Udinese, 26th matchday of this Serie A. Sandi Lovric places the ball on the corner line, takes a deep breath and shoots towards the center of the penalty area. As the ball begins its descent, one of the yellow jerseys in the middle of the area begins its ascent, takes the lead in the third half and impacts the ball with his head. The trajectory bypasses the goalkeeper and the defender on the line and it’s a goal. It doesn’t matter that there was a decisive deviation from Luperto after the header, Rodrigo Becão scored, solving a Saturday that risked becoming quite difficult for Udinese.
However, Rodrigo Becão’s match was not only the goal that solved it, but it was also solidity and timing in the interventions, as well as some offensive projections. These are all specific characteristics of his game, which have made him an essential element of Sottil’s Udinese and one of the best defenders in the Italian league. His work often goes unnoticed, but Becão is always there. It’s a question of the head, not only for the fundamental that the Brazilian masters better, but also for how he manages the tempo of the tackles and the movements, both defensive and offensive.
All goals by Rodrigo Becao
For some reason, the general impression is that Rodrigo Becão has scored far more goals in Serie A than he actually has. The total, in fact, with that of last Saturday, is six goals in four seasons. Perhaps the only ones who have a correct perception of his goals are the Milan fans, team to which Becão scored half and which remained his only victim in the league for two and a half years. Six goals, in any case, for a centre-back are not few, but inexplicably Becão gives the idea of someone who scores every cornerof someone who clocks in regularly as a striker.
Of his six goals, five have come with headers, an athletic gesture in which he particularly excels. His first goal in Serie A arrived right from his head, scored on his debut – needless to say – against Milan. Becão breaks free in the center of the area, near the near post, overpowering Kessié and converting De Paul’s corner into a goal.
More than a year goes by and the season changes, but the result is the same. This time at the San Siro, but it’s him again at put in the door on an assist from De Paul, also taking advantage of a not exactly flawless intervention by Donnarumma.
At that point in his Udine adventure, Rodrigo Becão seemed destined to score only for Milan by jumping from a corner kick, an eternal Groundhog Day for the Rossoneri in which the Brazilian defender repeatedly cheered him in the face. But then, in the 5-1 win over Cagliari in April 2022, scores for the first time with his foot and for the first time against a team other than Milan.
It will then be repeated the following week against Venice, returning to the header. Between that goal and last Saturday’s, however, there is another one. Head to Milan. Groundhog Day, we said.
A constant presence
This is now Becão’s fourth season at Udinese. Indeed, the Brazilian landed in Friuli in the summer of 2019, when he was paid 1.6 million euros at the Bahia. However, many forget that in the season before his arrival in Italy, Rodrigo Becao was on loan at CSKA Moscow, where he won a Russian Super Cup and played in the Champions League. A wealth of remarkable experience. In the first two seasons he tends to be a starter – first with Tudor and then with Gotti – but in the last two he becomes essentially immovable. The minutes missed in the current season are all solely due to injury.
Since he joined Udinese, Becão has almost always covered the role of arm in arm in the three-man defence, refining it over the years thanks to the tactical stability of the Friulian team. Only occasionally has he been asked to take the field as a central pivot of the defense, a role in which some of his characteristics are somewhat sacrificed. Also in the season at CSKA Moscow Becao played arm in arm in a 3-5-2, curiously with his current defense partner Jaka Bijol deployed in the midfield. He played mainly on the left there, but the Brazilian is clearly more comfortable on the right.
Arm in arm Becão can exploit what is the most salient element of his style of play: the aggression. The Brazilian, both in terms of quantity and quality, is among the best centre-backs in Serie A in terms of i contrasts brought. Becão is a defender who likes to read the opponent’s play and choose the moment to intervene personally. He almost never waits for the attacker, but he attacks him, lo murder. Often and willingly he releases himself from the defense just to go and take the direct opponent up high.
His is a style of play that has evolved over the seasons, as shaped by the creed of the coaches who followed one another on the Udinese bench. While maintaining the same basic premises of his way of playing, over the years Rodrigo Becão has increased the height of his position and the level of aggression, especially in correspondence with Cioffi and Sottil, while the number of interceptions has greatly decreased in the last two seasons. The Brazilian has improved significantly in his defensive choices – starting from an already good level – and has refined his possession characteristics, a detail that has added a real plus to his game.
The present and the future
We were talking about the possession phase. Although the formation hasn’t changed over the seasons, with its last two coaches, Cioffi and Sottil, Udinese has changed its way of conceiving the 3-5-2 and in this revolution Rodrigo Becão was one of the fundamental elements. Having definitively taken root in the right-wing third of the defence, since last year the Brazilian has begun to interpret the role in a different way, or rather has evolved his style of play. Already playing high in the non-possession phase, he started to get up even in the possession phase, becoming one of the best defenders for progressive passes received in Serie A and further improving all his offensive stats.
In particular this year the combination on the right chain between Rodrigo Becão and Roberto Pereyra was one of the main weapons of Sottil’s overflowing Udinese in the first third of the championship. The tendency to concentrate tucumano it left room for Becão’s ascents, who often even found himself crossing or entering the box. The one between the Brazilian and that Udinese with its demon rhythms was a perfect marriage. High pressing and offensive projections, reasoned and studied movements but at the same time furious and overwhelming in execution.
Despite the physiological decline of the Friulian team, which occurred in the following months, and the tactical changes, forced or not, which normalized the situation on the right wing of the Friulians, Rodrigo Becão continued to express himself at high levels. If his tendency to seek duels already made him one of the defenders with the most tackles in Serie A, Udinese’s new tactical approach has also improved his statistics related to the possession phase. He stands out, for example, for completed crosses, touches in the final third and, of course, goals and assists.
<br>Against Monza he is the one to accompany the action up to the assist for Beto’s goal
Against Monza he accompanies the action up to offering the assist to Beto inside the area.
As we said, Rodrigo Becão has reached his fourth season in Udine. With a few exceptions, in recent years players on the launch pad leave Udine in two or three seasons, but the Brazilian defender still doesn’t seem to have that appeal, perhaps also because his great work on the pitch often goes unnoticed. There was no shortage of market rumors, to tell the truth, but no one made that extra move to take him away from Udine. During this season Inter’s interest has become very serious and the general feeling is that next summer will be the decisive one. All that remains is to see which path he will choose to definitively take flight.