21     Midfielder     Sampdoria     Argentina

Skinny

It’s highly likely you’ll have seen two clips of Joaquin Correa in action even if you have never consciously watched a game from the Argentine or Italian leagues featuring the young man. The first is a stunning goal from his time at Estudiantes, thundered into the net from distance and the second is a howler - a miss of baffling proportions – from his so-far stop-start time with Sampdoria.

In theory, Correa is the sort of player that should be lighting up the Serie A but he simply hasn’t had a chance to get going with the Italian side that he joined around the turn of the year.

Fearless on the ball and always eager to be headed in the direction of the opposition goal, Correa’s pace and admirable trickery should be the cause of many headaches for the defenders of the Italian top flight. Instead he has spent much of the last 12 months sitting on the sidelines, no doubt twiddling his thumbs.

2015 has been…

This season did start with much promise. 14 minutes into his first Serie A appearance of this campaign he provided the assist for Roberto Soriano to make it 2-0 against Bologna. It should have been the confidence boost he needed to kick on and cement a place in the starting front line.

It hasn’t. Instead Joaquin has struggled and other than a muscle injury picked up earlier this month, we’ve not noticed any long periods on the treatment table. 14 league appearances, just five league starts and no appearances that have lasted over 70 minutes tell you everything you need to know about the year just gone.

Eder, Luis Muriel and Roberto Soriano are decent players but given the other teams supposedly interested in Correa included Chelsea; it’s not the longest of pecking orders to battle with.

What’s next?

We did like what we saw at Estudiantes before things stalled in Italy. Completely a confidence player – and this is most likely where the current problems lie – Joaquin is a tall, skillful and pacey player with good balance and decent feet. Suited to playing on the wing with a licence to drive inside at defenders, it appears for all the world that his Argentine club have cashed in at just the right time.

Eight million Euros, on the face of it, looks like really good business for the selling club right about now.

For Joaquin he must be surely hoping a chance is forced upon him soon – an injury or suspension to a team-mate, possibly even a change of coach. Something that forces him to be named in the starting line-up for six, seven or eight games in a row. If that doesn’t work then maybe it just never will but he needs to get a real opportunity.

There is a player in there; somewhere. He just needs the confidence of knowing that there is another game following this one and every touch of the ball isn’t going to directly affect where he starts the next game – on the pitch or the bench.

D     Not good enough