How Marco Baroni Tactics Have Revitalised Valentín Castellanos At Lazio 2024/25

Following some excellent performances with Lazio both in Serie A and in the UEFA Champions League at the start of this season, Valentín Castellanos has shown a lot of development as a striker under the management of Marco Baroni, as well as a lot of maturity and precision in finishing and in movements inside and outside the box compared to previous seasons.

Castellanos has helped Lazio a lot in terms of goalscoring and playmaking.

He is capable of scoring on key occasions, such as in the games against Nice in the UEFA Europa League and Milan in Serie A.

His current form will not only upgrade his value as a striker but also drive Lazio to become much more powerful up front, as they actually have a concrete attacking reference to build on and work on improving for the future.

Therefore, it will be imperative to work around such a valuable forward and encourage him to perform even better, whether thats by making him become consistent in the roles he masters or by working with him and the rest of the attacking/midfield players to create more attacking situations per game and diversify Castellanos goalscoring solutions.

Before delving into the analysis, itll be necessary to present the 26-year-old striker who started his footballing career at the Universidad de Chile in 2017 before moving to Torque and playing in the Uruguayan Primera División. 

In 2018, he was loaned out to New York City FC and fully transferred to the MLS side until 2023.

Castellanos developed a lot during his time at New York City FC, which was his longest stay at a particular club.

Afterwards, he got the opportunity to join Girona on loan and play in one of the worlds most competitive leagues, La Liga.

During his season at Girona, he scored 13 goals in 35 games and achieved an unprecedented record: he scored four goals for Girona in their 4-2 victory against Real Madrid, making him the first player to score four goals against Real Madrid in a league match since December 1947.

In the summer of 2023, Castellanos moved to Italy, joining Roma’s rivals in Serie A and had a relatively positive first season with the Biancocelesti, even though they finished 7th in Serie A and had some managerial issues as they started the season under Maurizio Sarri and finished it with Igor Tudor.

In this tactical analysis and scout report, we will explore Castellanos’ new roles at Lazio this season and his importance to Marco Baroni’s tactics.

We will also delve into the players significant improvements compared to last season.

Valentín Castellanos Position At Lazio

Castellanos’ recent run of form has also earned him his first call-up to the Argentinian national team, which proves that he is becoming a key striker even for a nation like Argentina, which has numerous strikers playing at the highest level.

In fact, Valentín Castellanos style of play developed a lot in terms of movements without the ball, especially in terms of agility and physical strength, which made him more difficult to beat in duels and aerial duels.

Serie A teams are known for their tiring yet effective physical preparations.

Players who come to Italy often become much more influential in their second year, which has been the case for Castellanos.

The Argentinian striker has shown great progress this season, becoming more grounded and balanced.

This was mainly seen in some of the goals he scored this season, especially his third goal against OGC Nice, which highlights most of the Argentinians strengths.

His run without the ball and excellent timing to be ahead of the defenders made this action possible.

It shows that Castellanos is a striker who runs intelligently without the ball, and it is obvious that Baroni worked with Castellanos to improve this aspect, too.

Moreover, this players physical resistance and developed agility were remarkable in the following goal action, as he could dribble past a defender after accelerating with the ball before cutting inside and still have the fluidity needed to curve the ball with the required power between two defenders.

This goal encapsulates how efficient Castellanos has become and how, if he keeps this excellent run of form going, he can become even more crucial throughout this season.

In addition to becoming very agile yet more powerful in duels, Castellanos has become a more all-round striker as he has instructions from Baroni to lean on the wings and retreat to contribute to the playmaking more often, helping Loum Tchaouna, Pedro, Mattia Zaccagni and Gustav Isaksen by providing passing solutions more often and contributing with passing combinations as well.

Moreover, Castellanos provides a variety of attacking plans to Baroni.

He often uses him as a striker with an advance