21     Midfielder     Velez     Argentina

Skinny

Lucas Romero is the sort of midfielder that should he show up at your club, within six months he will have amassed a legion of fans that will swear blind he is the most important player in the team; regardless of form, fitness or the exploits of everyone else in the squad. They may not be necessarily wrong but they will insist that his positioning and self-restraint as the anchor in midfield are the reason everyone is able to play as well they do. He’s that sort of player – ‘the battery of the team’ to steal the phrase used by Claudio Ranieri to describe Claude Makelele.

2015 has been...

Romero is not such a particularly adventurous midfielder, nor is he the best passer of the ball but the way he operates as a shield in front of the defence should allow the more creatively gifted to get on with their jobs. Romero is much more than a midfield destroyer and even though 46 words ago we suggested he isn’t particularly adventurous; he is more than capable of setting attacks in motion with forays into the opposition half.

Of course, he is not the guy you want to be in possession of the football 30 yards from goal with a defence that needs unlocking lined up in front.

He is happy to sit and has the discipline to do so. Even at a young age he can be trusted to operate as the pivot in midfield and that has led to comparisons with both Diego Simeone and Javier Macherano being thrown in his direction.

He probably can go on to have an international career similar to both men; utilized with specific instructions to do the mopping up after the more creative, less hard-working players in front of him. A thankless task mostly.

What's next?

Six foot one and no push over, Romero is a competent defender with an engine that keeps him going for 90 minutes. He has been a regular for Velez over the last three years and if he hasn’t already gone past 100 games, it can’t be far away. That regular game time has helped him to mature as a player and should make the much talked about transfer to Europe easier than if he were still very raw.

Already a Torneo Inicial winner with Velez a couple of years ago, you should expect to see his name starting to appear in transfer stories as he is beginning to outgrow his current side. They didn’t have the strongest of Primera campaigns through 2015 and it will only get harder for them to keep him.

C     Ticking along nicely