Mateo Retegui — Atalanta striker

Red Star One

Full Member
Joined
Jan 4, 2017
Messages
7,881
Location
Barcelona
25 year old Argentina-born Italian striker playing for Atalanta, we were vaguely linked with him at the beginning of 2023, when he was still in Argentina. Back then many on the Caf considered him too raw, but his numbers were already quite good. Summer 2023 he came to Serie A and went to Genoa, scored modest 9 goals in his first season in Italy but played well and was rated highly, earning himself a transfer to Atalanta in summer of 2024. This season he's banging them in for fun and by far the best scorer in Serie A - 12 goals and 3 assists so far in the first 13 league matches. He just scored his first Champions League goals minutes ago and might finish this match on a hat-trick.

How good is he? Not surprised he opted to play for Italy - the competition for a striker slot is much lower than in Argentina and he can be a real asset for the national team that really struggled in that position. I watch some Serie A and own Retegui in my Fanta team (what a beast :lol), he's looking immense this year - strong, great finishing, very good in link up play and fast passes, really solid in air, good off the ball. Serie A is certainly a slower league and made some very average strikers look great (that's not only a jab at Zirkzee, but also the likes of Piątek), but I think Retegui is class.
 
You play Fanta Calcio?

I think a lot of strikers would score for fun in Atalanta's set-up. How he fares with Italy will be the real litmus test of his ability. Thus far I am nonplussed by his technique
 
I think he's another one suited for Atalanta's system. This is an anomaly of a season so far. Always thought he looked average for Italy
 
Good striker, not exceptional. Reckon his ceiling is around Immobile's level

Way better than Scamacca though. Not nice to say but Atalanta were lucky with his injury, it forced them to go out and sign a better striker
 
Nani Nana said:
You play Fanta Calcio?
Click to expand...
I finally got convinced by my Italian friends to join their league and give it a try, it’s my first season. Some scoring system baffles me, but it’s great fun to draft with friends and I’m very proud I was able to grab Retegui and Dorgu my two only stars in otherwise shitty team :lol:
 
Enjoyed his second goal vs Young Boys last night. Fantastic first touch and technique behind the finish.
 
We (Boca) should have kept him, he did very good in a lesser team (Tigre) afterwards, he earned his way to Italy and now the Azurra (where he is performing), he knows his job, he plays with intent and the necessary quote of malice.

He is not as limited as its said here, it would have been in my eye a better bet than Hojlund, even just for his ambition and character.
Like Giorno said, he is not a born CRACK (Tevez, Aguero type) at all.

He reminds me of the typical 80's no nonsense strikers, even his looks.

I think he had enough quality to be called by the Argie NT, yet he acted a bit like a twat in his declarations (or better said in a very very silly way) and maybe the staff didn't want a possible disruption in the locker room given how well gelled the Argie NT is at the moment in terms of players relantionships between them and the coaching staff. More when two strikers options Scaloni already had look so down to earth and cooperative, being first team or not.
 
MyOnlySolskjaer said:
Sublime player, the player we should have got over Hjolund.

Click to expand...

I dunno man, he's 4 years older than Højlund and I'm pretty sure he was playing guy for Tigre in Argentina when we signed Højlund from Atalanta.

It's fine if you like him, but not really fair to beat Højlund with the fact he's doing well at Atalanta now. Højlund did well there too, so no guarantee Retegui wouldn't have the same struggles here as well.
 
Crimson King said:
I dunno man, he's 4 years older than Højlund and I'm pretty sure he was playing guy for Tigre in Argentina when we signed Højlund from Atalanta.

It's fine if you like him, but not really fair to beat Højlund with the fact he's doing well at Atalanta now. Højlund did well there too, so no guarantee Retegui wouldn't have the same struggles here as well.
Click to expand...

I struggle with strikers from Serie A these days.

We have had a couple in recent years and it's taken them a long time to adjust simply to the speed of English football.

That's not unique to us either. Players like Scamacca and Morata have good records in Italy, not in England.

This is not the era of Vialli and Ravanelli, where a Serie A striker was guaranteed to light up the Premier League.
 
I'm not the biggest fan. Atalanta have a style that'll score many goals. He only had 7 goals last season with Genoa.
 
Crimson King said:
I dunno man, he's 4 years older than Højlund and I'm pretty sure he was playing guy for Tigre in Argentina when we signed Højlund from Atalanta.

It's fine if you like him, but not really fair to beat Højlund with the fact he's doing well at Atalanta now. Højlund did well there too, so no guarantee Retegui wouldn't have the same struggles here as well.
Click to expand...

Was going to say pretty much exactly this. Yet another post about Hojlund made with the gift of hindsight and comparing him to a striker who's much older and therefore SHOULD be much further along in the his development.
 
#07 said:
I struggle with strikers from Serie A these days.

We have had a couple in recent years and it's taken them a long time to adjust simply to the speed of English football.

That's not unique to us either. Players like Scamacca and Morata have good records in Italy, not in England.

This is not the era of Vialli and Ravanelli, where a Serie A striker was guaranteed to light up the Premier League.
Click to expand...
Scamacca is a good example. Looked very good in Italy and seemed like a bit of a coup for West Ham. Physically should have been fine in the EPL you'd have thought.

Just couldn't recreate it though. Part of that was probably playing for West Ham, but I think most of it was just playing in Italy made him look better than he actually was.
 
Crimson King said:
Scamacca is a good example. Looked very good in Italy and seemed like a bit of a coup for West Ham. Physically should have been fine in the EPL you'd have thought.

Just couldn't recreate it though. Part of that was probably playing for West Ham, but I think most of it was just playing in Italy made him look better than he actually was.
Click to expand...

He's another one who basically had one good season and was signed by West Ham. He was always going to be far too slow for the league. He was playing Serie B (8 goals only too) two seasons prior to his West Ham move.
 
Crimson King said:
I dunno man, he's 4 years older than Højlund and I'm pretty sure he was playing guy for Tigre in Argentina when we signed Højlund from Atalanta.

It's fine if you like him, but not really fair to beat Højlund with the fact he's doing well at Atalanta now. Højlund did well there too, so no guarantee Retegui wouldn't have the same struggles here as well.
Click to expand...

Retegui just has qualities that I don't see Hojlund ever excelling in, aerially, movement in the box, first touch and finishing it's just not even close.
 
There is not a forward or wingback out there that won't look amazing for Gasperini

Retegui is good, but that's about it
 
Yeah no thanks. He's decent, but at 25 he's not that much better than Højlund, imo. So no, we need a proper CF.

I watched Galatasaray and Osimhen play couple of days ago, he's a complete CF imo. Could've had 3-4 assists and 2 goals, not even exaggerating and he wasn't even trying 100% it seemed. That's a CF we should get, so good at holding up the ball and bringing teammates in on the attack and also always lurking to score(had 2 goals called off for offside).
 
MyOnlySolskjaer said:
Retegui just has qualities that I don't see Hojlund ever excelling in, aerially, movement in the box, first touch and finishing it's just not even close.
Click to expand...

He's done all those things at points both for United and Atalanta. Look at some of the goals he scored last year, the finishes in the Europa League this season.

It's easy to forget all this when he's in a run of bad form and pretend like we've never seen him have those games and moments.

And again, he's 21 not 25. The majority of strikers aren't fully developed and consistent goalscorers at this age. Clearly has areas of his game to improve on but also just low in confidence and playing in a shit team.
 
MyOnlySolskjaer said:
Retegui just has qualities that I don't see Hojlund ever excelling in, aerially, movement in the box, first touch and finishing it's just not even close.
Click to expand...

What’s your track record like for picking out greatness? You talk a lot about player ability but do you have the results to back up your eye for talent?
 
Malkovich said:
Decent player but not United level, come on..
Click to expand...

Whats our level?

He's top scorer for the 3rd placed team in Serie A at 25. We're 13th with the joint 5th worst goalscoring record in the league and with no striker having scored more than 4 premier league goals, and that one is frozen out of the team and most people seem to want him to leave
 
Ekeke said:
Why? He scored 9 goals in 20 starts and 12 subs the league for Atalanta.

Retegui has 14 in 15 starts and 4 subs

Lookman has 10 in 16 starts and 2 subs
Click to expand...
Hojlund was 20 in his first experience in Italy, it took him half a season to adapt. And that was a much worse version of Atalanta

if you're a forward for Gasperini, you're gonna score a lot
 
#07 said:
I struggle with strikers from Serie A these days.

We have had a couple in recent years and it's taken them a long time to adjust simply to the speed of English football.

That's not unique to us either. Players like Scamacca and Morata have good records in Italy, not in England.

This is not the era of Vialli and Ravanelli, where a Serie A striker was guaranteed to light up the Premier League.
Click to expand...
That was an era of having 2 up top creating space for each other and possibly having a mercurial winger or number 10. The good old days
 
Apologies it's not an actual update, but this guy has 21 league goals in 24 games for Atalanta, that's really good. Atalanta have milked us for fees but surely he'd be on the market in the summer? 25 sounds a perfect age too.
 
VP89 said:
Apologies it's not an actual update, but this guy has 21 league goals in 24 games for Atalanta, that's really good. Atalanta have milked us for fees but surely he'd be on the market in the summer? 25 sounds a perfect age too.
Click to expand...

No. Atalanta play a specific style that gets the best out of their attackers. They rarely succeed elsewhere. I don't think he's that good and this season is probably an anomaly. He scored 7 goals for Genoa last season.
 
Lay said:
No. Atalanta play a specific style that gets the best out of their attackers. They rarely succeed elsewhere. I don't think he's that good and this season is probably an anomaly. He scored 7 goals for Genoa last season.
Click to expand...
Shame, I wonder if Amorims style can suit him though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.