UDINE. Di Natale has always maintained that, after Sanchez, he was his strongest team-mate at Udinese. Not bad as a compliment for Roberto Maximiliano Pereyra, the Udinese captain, revelation of these first seven days of the championship. In Friuli the “Tucu” has always had great admirers: the first, Gino Pozzo who brought it to Italy in the summer of 2011, pouring 2 million euros into the coffers of the River Plate.
Classed as a winger, Pereyra has rarely played that role in Italy: Guidolin moved him as a midfielder and there he also played at Juventus in the two seasons he stayed in Turin. It was a midfield, that of the Italian champions, which lined up people of the caliber of Marchisio and Pogba, yet Pereyra carved out an important space to demonstrate his value.
The feeling that it has not expressed its full potential is quite common. In England, at the end of the second Juventus season characterized by a few too many ailments, he ended up at Watford, with all due respect not a top-tier team. When he returned to Udine, the fans celebrated because Pereyra is a top player for a mid-level club like Juventus.
The numbers confirm this. In the first championship of his second Friulian version, the “Tucu” put together 34 appearances scoring 5 goals, a personal record that he had already collected in Juventus in the ’12 -’13 championship playing 37 games.
Last year he had a decline also conditioned by the collarbone injury that knocked him out in November with Genoa depriving Gotti, sacked at the beginning of December, of a fundamental pawn. In the end, there were 24 appearances, with the addition of three goals.
In the summer, also considering that he has a contract that expires in 2023, it was assumed that he could leave. In Argentina, it’s no mystery, River Plate wanted him, the team he grew up in. There was the temptation to return to Argentina, but unlike many other colleagues, the “Tucu” did not put his foot down also as a matter of gratitude, given that Udinese was his springboard in European football. In Friuli, then, he is fine, he feels the affection of the fans and the esteem of his teammates.
And with Sottil a special feeling was created, as demonstrated by the change of role. When the technician, the week before the Monza race, asked him for his willingness to move to the wing in a much more expensive role, Pereyra immediately replied to be present. And as if by magic his performance has grown slowly but steadily.
Always on the starting line, only with Inter was he replaced when there were more than twenty minutes to go, while with Fiorentina he came out in the 79th minute and with Roma in the 85th minute. He scored a goal (the 3-0 to Lupa) and provided four assists: to Masina against Milan, to Lovric with Roma, to Beto and Samardzic with Sassuolo. The punishment from which Inter player Skriniar’s own goal was born is not considered an assist. But there is another fact that impresses most of all: it is the player available to Sottil who travels the most kilometers on average per game: 10,600. Immediately behind Walace (10.251) and Deulofeu (10.018).
Understood? The two men of greater quality also put in a lot of quantity. This is also one of the secrets of Sottil’s Udinese.