Article by Steve Graff
Juventus fans are right to be giddy about potential new signing Rodrigo Bentancur. Still only 19 and standing at 1.85 m (6’1” in English/US standard units), he is a central midfielder for Boca Juniors who is a good two-footed ball-winner and passer, who can perform both defensive recoveries and orchestrate the attack on the left and right hand side. He also has elite level dribbling ability in close spaces against several defenders closing him on him that could open up space close to goal for others inside the penalty area.
Bentancur possesses a good shot from distance as well. [The midfielder’s one goal came on a long-distance shot.] The midfielder, although from Nueva Helvecia, has never been capped by Uruguay at any level. Since making his professional debut in April 2015, Bentancur has made only 40 appearances for Boca Juniors’ first team in all competitions and eleven times so far in the 2016-17 season. At the beginning of the 2016-17 season, it looked like Bentancur would see his role diminish in the side with the emergence of Andres Cubas, Fernando Zuqui, and the arrival of Sebastian Perez from Atletico Nacional, and Wilmar Barrios from Deportes Tolima. However, Bentancur missed several games in April due to a knee injury and Schelotto had been searching for more depth after an underwhelming 2016 season.
When he has played for his senior team, Bentancur’s ability to play on either side of the central midfield made himquite useful to his manager, Guillermo Barros Schelotto, in his desires to play pressuring, possession football inside the opponents’ half. Schelotto had to switch his side’s overall tactical approach from a possession-based approach to one focused on limiting its opponents’ chances and initiating counterattacks. Although, by October 2016, that change in approach had helped Los Xeniexes to eighth in the 2016-17 Primera Division (up from the bottom half of the 2016 Primera Division), the side only had two victories in its first five league matches, where it scored seven of its nine goals at that point this season.
Bentancur’s one appearance until early October had been a start and full 90 minutes, came in his side’s 1-0 loss at Lanus on 29 August. But since then, with Bentancur returning to full fitness, Boca Juniors have climbed to the top of the 2016-17 Primera Division table not only winning seven out of their next nine league matches from October to December, but also increasing their season goal-scoring total to a league high 35 goals, and a goal differential of +22, a +12 goal difference better than the second-place Newell’s Old Boys (28 pts, +10 Goal Differential). Bentancur was a prominent orchestrator in Boca Junior’s midfield in eight of those nine matches.
