Italian journalist Riccardo Trevisani believes Inter Milan captain Lautaro Martinez is yet to get over the penalty shootout against Atletico Madrid.
Speaking on Cronachie di Spogliatoio, via FCInterNews, Trevisani gave his thoughts on why the Nerazzurri captain has been out of form in front of goal in recent weeks.
Martinez has scored 23 goals in Serie A this season. And 26 goals across all competitions.
But the 26-year-old has not added to this total since the end of February.
The last time that Martinez got onto the scoresheet was in a 4-0 Serie A win over Atalanta.
Since then, the Argentine has played against Genoa, Napoli, Empoli, and Udinese without scoring. He was also rested in a match against Bologna.
Meanwhile, and much more importantly, Martinez was not able to score against Atletico Madrid.
That match saw Inter bomb out of the Champions League on penalties. It was in fact the club’s captain Martinez who missed the decisive spot kick in the shootout.
Trevisani: Lautaro Martinez Still Has His Head In Atletico Madrid Shootout
Martinez also got a suspension for an accumulation of yellow cards by going into the book towards the end of yesterday’s match against Udinese.
That means that the Inter captain also will not play against Cagliari next weekend.
Italian journalist Trevisani theorized that “Lautaro seems to have had his head somewhere else since that missed penalty against Atletico Madrid.”
“He hasn’t scored in over fifty days,” the journalist continued.
“Thuram’s injury in the first leg of that tie, and then Martinez’s missed penalty in the second, seems to have taken away their edge.”
“I don’t see the same brilliance and levity to their game.”
“Instead it looks like they’re coming out onto the pitch with heavy hearts to me,” Trevisani suggested.
“Then you see them feeling like they have to score goals. But then Okoye makes the save, they hit the post.”
Trevisani said of Martinez that “I think that penalty against Madrid is still weighing on him.”
