Ben Mattinson
Ben Mattinson

@Ben_Mattinson_

19 Tweets 19 reads Jun 11, 2024
Right now, Argentina have an exciting generation of CB’s coming through alongside the more established stars like Romero & Martínez🇦🇷⚔️
One of those next up is Tobías Palacio at Argentinos Juniors✨
The 17 year old has been so impressive this season💥
[THREAD]
✨Baller Review…
Tobías Palacio🇦🇷
Club: Argentinos Juniors
Nationality: Argentina
Position: CB
Preferred Foot: Right
Height: 6’1”/185cm
Age: 17
Strengths: pace, physicality, aggression, 1v1’s, passing, security, weak foot, decision making
Development Areas: awareness
Tobías Palacio has made the step up to senior football look effortless.
At just 17, he’s put in some mature performances showing leadership, bravery and technical ability.
Palacio will be a key player in Argentina’s future backline
🎥: Sudamerica Comps
Palacio plays mostly at LCB for Argentinos Jrs, but despite being right footed, he’s looked so comfortable there with no angle bias at all. Palacio isn’t ambipedal but he’s not far off.
Often he’ll play some excellent left footed passes.
🎥: @Santice_
Having this ability on both feet is invaluable and will make him ideal to play as a CCB.
As a CCB, ambipedal distribution, last man defending and duel dominance is crucial; all areas where Tobi Palacio excels.
In central areas, he’s so secure receiving the ball on either side.
One of his greatest strengths is his physical maturity.
Palacio has outstanding channelled aggression and physicality in both ground and aerial duels.
Majority of games he’ll win all/most his duels and exert his dominance on the striker he’s up against.
When shoulder to shoulder with defenders he’s aggressive in shrugging off the opponent.
Palacio is that ‘warrior’ type defender who will throw his body at shots to block them, he’ll put his life on the line to protect the goal.
That, at 17, is special.
Palacio is technically secure on the ball.
His composure allows him to keep calm and turn past players and make good decisions.
Palacio has ‘La Pausa’ to wait for spaces to open up prior to passing and the passing prowess to execute his smart pass selection.
Frequently when on the ball he’ll step up then slow as if he’s about to stop running as the attacker presses him, then he’ll take a big touch into space and carry the ball forward to give him more time on the ball to spray a diagonal.
The Argentinos Juniors CB has a good passing range.
One of his move common types of passes is a clipped pass over a defender to a player in a more advanced area (on either foot).
A little risky at times but he judges the weight so well consistently.
Palacio is a brilliant 1v1 defender.
An aggressive nature to get tight to attackers enables him to lock off any space and shut down any passing/shooting angles.
Palacio is such a mature defender, leader like warrior-mentality despite being so young. It’s very impressive.
Palacio’s aggressive nature does sometimes mean if he meets the attacker as they’re running with the ball, he’ll take them out cleanly with a strong slide tackle.
It’s this style which has seen him draw comparisons with previous Argentinian defender Walter Samuel.
Tobías Palacio’s pace is impressive too.
When a player runs in behind or is driving into space down the line, Palacio will come across with real authority to win the ball either by a well-timed slide tackle or by collecting the ball off the player and carrying it away.
An area for development is Palacio’s awareness.
On the ball he has good spatial awareness, but when defending sometimes he loses focus and can lose his marker or not see them making a run off him.
Other times, he gets so close he’s prone to coming out of position.
In the current crop of Argentine CB’s in the national team there’s the ageing Otamendi who’ll be phased out soon and then the next bunch including “Cuti” Romero, “Licha” Martínez, Leonardo Balerdi, Marcos Senesi, Facundo Medina, Nehuen Pérez, Zaid Romero.
After these guys, it’s all about the next generation in Argentina.
Palacio, Anselmino, Giménez, Moreno, Troilo, Avilés, Gómez, Tiago Palacios etc. (thread coming on this).
This next generation of CB’s is so exciting and Palacio is one of the best.
At youth level Tobías Palacio formed an excellent partnership in defence with Juan Giménez (Rosario Central).
Both so calm on the ball, both with 0 angle bias, channelled aggression and physical maturity. But such a complementary duo.
In the national team, Palacio is most like Cristian Romero.
Just like him, he’d be well suited to Serie A if he was to leave Argentina.
But it’s best, if he does leave, that he joins somewhere that he’ll play a lot and continue developing. Eg. Roma, Fiorentina, Torino, Udinese.
Watch out for Tobías Palacio. You’ll hear a lot more about him in the near future. Palacio is already a starter for Argentinos Juniors and the sky is the limit to how high he can play.
Thanks for reading. All the support is greatly appreciated🤝

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