When Argentina faced Chile in their Copa América debut last Monday, there was a big surprise on their starting eleven.
The 23-year-old winger Nico González, who plays for Stuttgart in the Bundesliga, started ahead of players as important as the new FC Barcelona signing Sergio Agüero or PSG’s star Ángel Di María.
But with the game ending 1-1 and Argentina failing to score apart from Messi’s fantastic free-kick despite having 15 shots and 2.3 xG, all eyes have turned to the players who failed to score from the good chances created and Nico González was one of them.
Nico González started as the left winger in Argentina’s 4-3-3 but his movements weren’t limited to the left-wing as he can offer a lot more to the team.
He has pace, work rate, and an eye for goals, and Scaloni thinks he can contribute to the team.
As we’ll see in this scout report, Nico González has a lot of variety in his movements, and he can’t be limited to a left-winger when speaking about him.
If we look at his heatmap from this match below, we can see how he gets more central as the attacks advance, providing width when his team builds up and trying to get into scoring positions when they advance.
In this tactical analysis, we’ll analyze Nico González’s movements and what they create for him and his teammates, focusing on his importance for Argentina’s tactics.
Nicolás González Creating space
When Argentina is building its attacks, Nico González focuses on providing width and depth so his teammates have space to play in.
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