Emiliano Martínez: The Uruguayan conquering the number ‘6’ role at Midtjylland – scout report

After three fantastic seasons, FC Midtjylland decided to sell pivotal Raphael Onyedika, who was shining in the midfield, dominating possession stats and offering a key role defensively for them. Belgian Pro Leagues champions Club Brugge were the ones to sign the Nigerian 21-year-old player for a fee close to 10 million euros. Two days later, they announced Emiliano Martínez, a 23-year-old Uruguayan midfielder that hadnt been playing for RB Bragantino at Brazil since his arrival there in 2021.

Martínez shone in the Uruguayan League for Nacional, one of the biggest football clubs in the history of the country. Thanks to his talent and high-performances week by week, RB Bragantino paid up to 3 million to bring him to Brazilian League. However, he just played 564 minutes in the Serie A thanks to an Achilles tendon issue that made him lose 46 matches.

The big space left by Onyedika had to be filled, and Emiliano showed up as the best option for them. He signed for the Danish champions and he has started brightly, playing in the 6 role in the midfield.

Being one of the biggest young talents in his country, South America and now in Europe, we have decided to scout him and analyse how he has adapted to the Midtjylland first team with such ease. This tactical analysis piece will be a scout report of Martínez. It will be an analysis of the midfielders strengths and weaknesses, as well as looking at where he has fit into Capellas’s tactics thus far.

Player profile

Emiliano is the very definition of a number 6 but also of a typical Uruguayan player, thanks to his efforts on the pitch and his intensity off and on the ball. Listed at 184cm, the 23-year-old has the perfect height to play in this zone of the pitch but also possesses a strong build that helps him to beat players to win the ball back, as well as to shield it.

With few games played at the start of this campaign, we want to show where his actions have been distributed around the pitch. As we see in his heatmap, he likes to play mostly in his own third supporting his centre-backs to create numerical overloads or to make ball progression for his team between the lines. Lets deep-dive into these kind of aspects of his game.

Under pressure

The first thing that catches the eye from Emiliano Martínez is the way he can act under pressure, not only because of his athletic body which helps him a lot to shield the ball and hold his marker but also because of his technical quality and super quick footwork that can make him get out of suffocating situations where two or more players come to take him down.

Hes very brave and calculated in every acti