How’s it going on guys! Welcome back to the ABTFM Player Analysis. Today, we are going to look at the Argentinian defender – Cristian Romero. I signed him from Juventus for £25M in the second season. I was going to play him as my backup defender, but his performance was too good to be a rotation. Although Cristian Romero doesn’t appear much on the top wonderkid list in FM20, I would definitely recommend him to whoever is looking for a young and good centre back. Without further ado, let’s see how good a player he is.

Cristian Romero on the latest update.

Player Info

Name: Cristian Romero

Position: D(C)

Date of Birth: 27/04/1998

Value: £7.25M

Wages: £27.5K p/w

Height: 185cm

Weight: 79kg

Preferred Foot: Right

Season 2020/21

In my first season with Lyon, Romero is still on loan from Juventus, playing for FC Genoa. One fine day, at the end of the first season, my scout sent me a report about a foreign kid playing in Italy and mentioned that this kid has the potential of being the best defender in my current squad. I was shocked but amazed by the suggestion. I asked myself – Who the hell is this kid? My Lyon just won the title and French Cup. And now you are saying this kid could be better than our current defenders?

In fact, he is. He becomes the best defender of Lyon in Season 2020/21.

Let’s look at his attributes growth. In summary, there is no significant change in overall of Technical ability, Mental ability and Physical ability. However, some of the important attributes are slowly increasing, such as passing (12), anticipation (16) and stamina (15). Unfortunately, his determination is decreasing, and I have to make sure that it doesn’t affect his performance on the pitch.

Highest average rating among all defenders in my team.

Performance

Despite the poor result on his development, let’s look at the amazing part – his performance. Romero played 39 games under my management, started 38 games and subbed on for only 1 game. As a defender, he scored 6 goals in total and 5 of them were from the league. He only received 5 yellow cards in total throughout the whole season playing as the central defender. In the league itself, he had a 100% of tackle won ratio. He only made 8 fouls and won 127 headers in 26 games. In addition, his passing accuracy was 90% in average across all competition. He had an average match rating of 7.33, the highest among the defenders.

Contract Info

I would like to mention Romero’s contract just to give you a sense of how much would he cost you. At the start of the game, Romero is earning a £27,500 per week. It is a low but decent amount for a youngster who is not even a rotation for Juventus. Also, he is in such a high reputation team, so the wage amount doesn’t really matter. Here, in the second season, I think I definitely overspent a little bit on him. I offered him a 5 years contract with £105,000 per week and agreed on his playing time as a Regular Starter. His wage cost 7.1% of the club’s total wage bill. For a 21-year-old backup player, I have to admit that it was a bit too high. However, another reason was I needed a backup defender so badly and I thought he would be a nice candidate for the squad. There was also a £5.5M of loyalty bonus and a 10% sell on fee percentage. In total, he cost me more or less £30M, which I think it was a reasonable amount for Cristian Romero.

Coach Report

Romero’s coach report looks good. He is currently a leading player in Ligue 1 in Season 2020/21, but he could still improve in the future. His strengths are good in the air and high work rate. Romero enjoys big matches and he is a fairly consistent performer. It is kind of surprise to see he displays a fairly determined attitude since his determination is decreasing.

The cons aren’t bad. The coach mentions that he is not versatile enough, but I just want him to be my centre back. It also shows that he does not fit into the core social group, but that is fine by me as I only want him to focus in his game.

Injury History

Another thing that I would like to highlight is how strong Romero is. He has 15 natural fitness in my save and he barely pick up an injury. Throughout the season, he only has 5 injuries and the longest one is only last for 2 weeks. Injury is one of the most hated and important elements in FM20. I am sure most of you don’t want to invest in an injury prone. Romero is certainly not that type of player.

Role suggestion

Cristian Romero can only play in one position – central defender. Looking at his attributes, there are two roles that I would suggest – Ball Playing Defender on Defend and Central Defender on Defend.

Ball Playing Defender – Unlike standard central defenders, the Ball-Playing Defender is encouraged to launch defence splitting through balls from deep to generate counter-attacking opportunities. Football Manager 2020

Cristian Romero mostly plays as the Ball Playing Defender on Defend for me. Romero has great defending skill, decent passing, and great mental ability. The main objective here is to allow Romero to take risks and sends out long through balls from deep to the attackers. Some of the important attributes we are looking at here are first touch, passing, technique, and vision. Romero doesn’t have the best vision and technique, however his first touch and passing are great for the role. FM20 default player instructions for the Ball Playing Defender on Defend are hold position and take more risks and I don’t add any instruction for him. Romero’s mental attributes are key for the role. Aggression, anticipation, bravery, composure, concentration and decisions are very important for Ball Playing Defender and Romero has at least 14 on all the attributes.

Central Defender – Especially for more aggressive tactics, he must also possess the composure to be able to help the team maintain possession and lay off simple passes to more creative players. Football Manager 2020

Central Defender is the traditional centre back whose job is only defending and make simple passes. The most important skill for this role is the basic defending attributes – heading, marking, tackling, positioning, jumping reach and strength. Romero has 16 heading, 15 marking, 14 tackling, 15 positioning, 15 jumping reach and 15 strength in my save, which shows that he is absolutely suitable in this role. If you are playing a tactics with a traditional defensive system, I would definitely recommend using Romero as the central defender on defend.

I wouldn’t suggest using Romero as a No-Nonsense centre back. NCB is similar as BPD, but the way that an NCB will more likely to hoofs the ball away rather than taking his time and make a through ball. Romero has really good attributes for a BPD, so I wouldn’t waste his talent and play him as the NCB.

Conclusion

Overall, Cristian Romero is a young and talented defender who you would definitely like to have in your team. He has the potential and he is just a good player to have. Unless you are managing Genoa in the first season, or you wouldn’t be able to sign him into your team until the second season. However, his cost would be slightly higher compared to other young defender because he is from a high reputation team. Just add him into your shortlist and keep an eye on his development. That’s all for today and I hope you enjoyed the analysis of Cristian Romero. Take care!