SOCCER

Mexico’s Gerardo Martino struggling to get the offense going

The Argentine head coach took over the Mexican national team managerial job in 2019, his strikers have only scored 53% of their goals under his tenure.

KAMIL KRZACZYNSKIAFP

Gerardo Martino has been on the hot seat for the past year-and-a-half and his future as the head coach of the Mexico national team is on the line just five months away from the start of the FIFA World Cup. The Mexican national team started the international break of June with a 3-0 defeat against Uruguay and a scoreless draw against Ecuador last week.

The Argentine head coach has been clear that Raúl Jiménez would be his starting striker during his tenure if he remains healthy but the Wolverhampton striker has not been efficient since recovering from his fractured skull injury last year. Jiménez’ last three goals with Mexico have been from the penalty spot and he missed clear opportunities against Ecuador over the weekend.

Mexico struggles to find the back of the net

Since Martino took over the managerial job in 2019, only 53.94 percent of the goals scored across all competitions have been from different strikers. The rest have been scored by midfielders or defenders and the head coach of the Mexico national team is struggling to find the answer on offense.

Mexico has only scored 102 goals in 54 games since 23 February 2019, the day Martino was appointed as head coach, and 31 different players have found the back of the net. During Martino’s tenure, 53 goals have been scored by strikers (52.94%), 35 by midfielders (34.31%), 12 by defenders (11.76%) and two have been own goals (1.96%).

Raúl Jiménez has been Mexico’s top scorer under Gerardo Martino with 14 goals, followed by Uriel Antuna and Hirving Lozano, both with 7 goals. The head coach of the Mexico national team needs to find the answer sooner rather than later if he wants to travel with the team to the World Cup in November.

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