The Spaniard Pablo Marì, defender arrived from Arsenal
UDINE. It is not that Gabriele Cioffi finds himself in his hands the most classic of daisies to leaf through before Turin, but for sure in these hours he is thinking about which of the two “petals” to choose: Pablo Marì or Nehuen Perez for the defense to be erected for hold up to the outbursts of Ivan Juric’s Bull?
But let’s go step by step, to understand that this is actually one of the topics on the table that the Udinese coach has to face before Sunday to register the Juventus team who will have to give up “Geri” Deulofeu in attack.
With the departure of the Brazilian Samir, one of the cornerstones of the rearguard in the first round with Luca Gotti at the helm turned at Watford to record – without too much success so far – the battered last line of the Vicarage Road “Hornets”, Gino Pozzo has seen himself forced to intervene also on the Juventus defense, in the meantime inherited by Cioffi.
There were a couple of moves, three if we add also the one in perspective concerning the purchase of the 18-year-old James Abankwah, the Ghanaian with a Ghanaian passport who will only join the black and white troops that joined Marì and the Croatian class for this championship. 1997 Filip Benkovic who, although presenting himself in a decidedly less “competitive” physical form, at a numerical level takes the place of the other central player who was sold in January, the veteran Sebastien De Maio who ended up at Vicenza.
On paper, therefore, the Spaniard coming (on loan) from Arsenal, 28, is the pawn who should end up on the board to complete the three-man defense with Rodrigo Becao (right) and Bram Nuytinck (in the center). Marì should therefore play the role of left central, a place that, however, was reserved for Nehuen Perez in the last exit, at Marassi against Genoa, despite the defender on loan from Atletico Madrid preferring the other wing, that right, since that is the “strong foot”.
Technical player, Perez still manages to adapt, but to make Cioffi meditate on the ballot there is another detail: the call by the coach Lionel Scaloni who, in extremis, called for the two matches of Argentina against Chile and Colombia also the good Nehuen, together with his compatriot Nahuel Molina, the right winger of Udinese who is now a regular in the national team. In short, unlike Marì,
Perez did not carry out all his training sessions at Bruseschi in preparation for the match against Torino and will only be back today at the Florentine coach’s disposal after having witnessed the victory over Colombia from the bench (1-0 with goals from Lautario Martinez and cafeteros increasingly troubled in terms of World Cup qualification) together with Molina himself who, on the other hand, had participated as a starter in the victory over the Chileans. Moral of the story, beyond the famous jet lag linked to the many time zones jumped between Europe and South America,
Perez will not come back tired today at Bruseschi, where Cioffi’s staff will aim to “get him back on track” for a more tense training day, tomorrow, before a more relaxed finish, but it is clear that the commitment to the national team will be equally placed on the scales in the ballot with Marì.