Former Italy striker Luca Toni has praised Lautaro Martinez for his performances during Inter’s preseason friendlies and believes the Argentine could form a successful partnership with Mauro Icardi this year.
Martinez scored four goals in the Nerazzurri’s seven matches during the summer and has already generated a huge amount of enthusiasm amongst fans, with many impressed by the understanding he has already struck up with last season’s top scorer in Serie A.
Toni, who played for Juventus, Fiorentina and Bayern Munich amongst others during his career, is confident the pair will complement each other and believes Icardi could out-score Cristiano Ronaldo this year.
“Lautaro has impressed me in flashes during preseason,” he told Gazzetta dello Sport on Saturday. “He’ll give Icardi a nice hand this season.
“I don’t think Spalletti will play with two strikers every week but it’s an option for him. The important thing is that they don’t occupy the same space: nobody plays with two strikers close to each other anymore. Lautaro will find some interesting space to exploit moving between the lines.
“Who’s going to be top scorer in Serie A this season? Everyone’s saying Ronaldo, I say watch out for Icardi and Higuain. They were both born to score goals.
“One thing is for certain: Ronaldo’s only rival in Spain was Messi. Here in Italy he’ll have a couple more.”
Toni also offered his thoughts on another of Inter’s summer signings, Keita Balde, whom he believes needs to become more ruthless in front of goal.
“Keita’s challenge this season will be to become someone who scores more goals, discovering that killer instinct in front of goal. At the moment I see him more as an assist man than someone who scores himself.”
