Italian Media Ponder How Successful A Mauro Icardi – Lautaro Martinez Partnership Would Be

Italian media have pondered what a strike partnership between Lautaro Martinez and Mauro Icardi would have looked like at Inter Milan.

Gazzetta.it note that the pair rarely played together during their season together at the Nerazzurri. And this could be a perfect partnership that the team missed out on.

Martinez is now in his sixth season at Inter.

The Argentine has been the lone constant in attack across that time.

Since the start of the 2019-20 campaign, Martinez has been a key part of the Nerazzurri’s starting eleven.

But as the Gazzetta note, this has been as much about how well the 26-year-old seems to fit in with other strikers as it has to do with his individual quality.

In two seasons with Romelu Lukaku under Antonio Conte, Martinez was never really Inter’s main man. That honour went to the Belgian.

But the Argentine was key to getting the best out of Lukaku. And he raised his game individually as well by finding ways to play off of his teammate.

Then, it was the turn of Edin Dzeko.

Martinez had to modify his style of play to star alongside the Bosnian.

But eventually, the two strikers figured out how to form a functional duo. They started in each of Inter’s knockout matches in the Champions League last season.

And this time around, it’s Marcus Thuram who Martinez partners up front for Inter.

And once again, the Argentine has changed his game to suit a new striker. Now he is Inter’s main man, but his adaptability is as important in this sense as what he contributes individually.

What Would Lautaro Icardi Partnership Look Like At Inter?

Looking back to Martinez’s first season at Inter, there was another striker who was the regular starter.

Fellow Argentine Icardi was Inter’s top scorer that season. As he was in the four campaigns before it.

But it was a difficult campaign for Icardi. It saw the Argentine lose the captain’s armband and fall out with the Nerazzurri’s ultras.

Icardi left to join Paris Saint-Germain that summer.

This meant that it was Lukaku who replaced him as Inter’s talisman, and formed the front pairing with Martinez.

But the Gazzetta pose the question of how things would have gone had Icardi stayed.

After a season where Martinez was still feeling his way into life at Inter and European football in 2018-19, he proved under Conte that he was ready to regularly feature for the Nerazzurri.

And if Icardi had stayed, they could well have become the starting pair.

Icardi certainly has a different style of play than any of Lukaku, Dzeko, or Thuram.

But Martinez has been a constant in attack with those three, so the Gazzetta are of the view that he could well have gotten the best out of Icardi as well.