Marcos Senesi by Jeroen
Feyenoord signed Marcos Senesi in the winter of 2019 for €7.000.000 from San Lorenzo, making him the most expensive signing in Feyenoord’s history. After struggling to adapt himself to European football in the first few months, he has now established himself as one of the best defenders in the Eredivisie and he is, together with Nehuén Pérez, Lisandro Martínez, Cristian Romero and Lucas Martinez Quarta the future of Argentina in central defence.
Playing style
The Argentine defender is a very positive defender. He likes to step up and he can often be found on the opposition half. Senesi combines this with tactical intelligence and even though he occasionally gets caught out of position, he is a smart defender. The central defender generally makes the right decisions in stepping up and this is something he has improved on a lot this season. Last season, he made some mistakes against the likes of PSV and Porto.
Something that is important to mention is that he plays next to Uros Spajic or Eric Botteghin. Both are not quick and are not at the required level of Feyenoord. Senesi’s mistakes in stepping up can not be recovered by Spajic or Botteghin. Something Senesi has improved on lately is his strength in the duels, which was shown against Sebastien Haller, where he won most duels against the strong Frenchman.
Marcos Senesi is really dominant in the 1v1 duels and suits a high defensive line perfectly. He is relatively quick, but Senesi struggles more often when playing in a deeper defensive block, where he needs to turn more often and operate in the tighter spaces. For example, against Ajax, he got dribbled past by Ryan Gravenberch in the tight spaces which led to the opening goal for Ajax.
The 23-year-old is very confident on the ball. He sporadically takes too many risks in the build-up play, but he generally is very good in the build-up play. He can find his teammates well between the lines and is really comfortable in dribbling it out from the back.
Future steps
Concluding, I would like to see Marcos Senesi move to the top 5 leagues this summer at a club where he can play in a high defensive line, next to an athletic defender who’s quick. It is a defender with a lot of potential and I have high hopes for him in the future.