29/03/2024

Tabárez mulling three centre halves to counter goal drought

Martes 23 de Junio del 2015

Tabárez mulling three centre halves to counter goal drought

In three games Uruguay have scored just twice at the Copa América in the absence of Luis Suárez.

In three games Uruguay have scored just twice at the Copa América in the absence of Luis Suárez.

The group phase at the Copa América served to corroborate what many people already thought before the tournament started: without Luis Suárez Uruguay can't score goals. The absence through suspension of the Barcelona forward has made Uruguay's attacking options look very thin on the ground: without Suárez the attack lacks opportunism, mobility and pressure on the opposition's defenders. In the three games Oscar Tabárez's side have played they have scored just twice, even if that was enough to secure four points and progression to the knock-out stage as one of the best third-placed teams in Chile. However, those two goals were from a defender, José Giménez, and winger Cebolla Rodríguez.

The reality is that Edinson Cavani is not comfortable playing through the middle, the role that Suárez filled until his bite on Italy's Giorgio Chiellini at the World Cup. The PSG forward has scored 27 goals in 75 games for Uruguay but he has yet to get off the mark at the Copa. Alongside Cavani, the young forward Diego Rolán has been playing well but he has not scored either, and is not so much an out-and-out goalscorer as a forward with movement across the lines.

Because of his problems up front Tabárez is mulling a solution he has used before to counter the free-scoring host nation in the quarter-finals: a back line of three central defenders (Diego Godín, Giménez and Sebástian Coates) with two wing-backs. Álvaro Pereira is suspended, but Cebolla could operate in that role.

Follow the Copa América timetable here.

And the day-to-day fixtures here.

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