By Niall McCusker

Following the departure of the under-producing Lucas Melano on loan back to Belgrano in Argentina, the Timbers have doubled down, bringing in another expensive Argentinian attacker in Sebastián Blanco. But this time instead of going with a 22-year-old who was supposed to be on the rise they have acquired a more known commodity in the 28-year-old Blanco. A diminutive (5’5″) attacking midfielder who can fill any of the positions across the middle, that may sound familiar to Timbers fans familiar with how Gaston Fernandez and Lucas Melano were marketed, though in this case his history does back it up. Blanco seems to have been a solid contributor in any team he has played for and having returned from several years in Europe, has most recently has been in very good form for San Lorenzo back home in Buenos Aires.

Let’s take a deep look into his history for an idea what to expect.

LANUS – A RISING STAR.

Sebastián Marcelo Blanco is from the Lomas de Zamora area of Buenos Aires, just a few miles South of where Diego Valeri hails from, and like Valeri he came through the ranks of local team Club Atlético Lanús. He came off the bench for them a few times in the 2006-07 season, before beginning to secure starts in the 2007-08 season in time to help Lanús to the ‘Apertura’ – their first ever top flight title.

A 19-year- old Blanco played in the final six games of that campaign alongside a 21-year-old Diego Valeri. The first game was against San Martín on the 20th of October 2007 – both scored in a 2-0 victory. Two weeks later they had a successful trip to Rosario, a 4-1 victory in which both again found the net and Valeri added 3 assists.

The Timbers will be hoping for similar instant chemistry when the two reunite almost 10 years later this March in MLS.

At the beginning of 2008 in the ‘Clausura’ section of the season Blanco added 11 more starts, but only one more goal. He also first tasted inter-continental action during that time starting all ten Lanús games in the Copa Libertadores (South America’s highest level club competition) and registering a goal and assist. The 2008-09 season could be regarded as Blanco’s break-out, as he started 31 games in both sections of the league, netting 5 goals and assisting on 11. He had 8 more starts in intercontinental club competitions that season but didn’t add to his goals and assists tally.

The young Blanco kept up the excellent work the following season, with another 31 league starts producing 7 goals and 11 assists. He was now a rising star in Argentinian football and offers from Europe would no doubt start rolling in. Halfway through the next season a deal was done (for a rumored $8 million) and at the beginning of 2011 Blanco headed for Ukraine to join Metalist Kharkiv. It may not like the most glamorous destination, but at that time Ukrainian clubs were spending a lot of money (some from allegedly interesting sources) on South American players and doing quite well in European competitions.

METALIST MOVE AND INJURY.

Blanco made two starts in February 2011 as Metalist were knocked out of Europa league in a qualifying round by Germany’s Bayer Leverkusen. But if that was a disappointing start to his time at Metalist, much worse was to follow, as by the time the Ukrainian league began in March he was on the sidelines with a ruptured ACL.

It was fall of 2011 before Blanco started making appearances again and he didn’t lock down a starting role in the league that year, with only 5 starts and 10 appearances off the bench, yielding 2 goals and an assist. It is worth noting that analysis of his appearances over the following years indicates that this is only significant injury set-back the player has faced.

He had more minutes (starting 7 games) in the Europa League than his domestic league that season, playing in a central attacking role (CAM) and also the right side of a 4231 formation. Metalist topped a group featuring Malmo, AZ Alkmaar and Austria Vienna, later eliminating Red Bull Salzburg and Olympiacos in knock-out stages before falling to Sporting Lisbon in the quarter-finals. Not quite the highest echelon of European football – but certainly very respectable company.

In the 2012-13 season Blanco started 9 league games (mainly at CAM with some on the left side of a 4231) and came off the bench in 17 games, notching just 2 goals and 2 assists. In the Europa league he had 4 starts and came off the bench four times – adding another goal to his season tally against Dinamo Bucharest.

The 2013-14 season was when Blanco finally locked down a regular place in the starting line-up at Metalist. He had 6 goals and 4 assists in 22 league starts, he also added a goal in Champions League qualifying and one in the Ukrainian Cup. Team-sheets show he mainly operated in the middle that year in either a 4231 or a 4141 with an occasional move to either wing. The Spring of 2014 was also when Ukraine descended into armed conflict and Blanco decided he wasn’t going to return.

So his adventures in Eastern Europe started with an ACL injury and ended with a civil war – as far as we know he was not responsible for either of these events. In between he gained some impressive experience in the Europa League and while he took a while to cement a starting place in the domestic league he was quite productive when he played. In fact his goals/90 mins stands at a pretty impressive 0.25 (a goal every 360 minutes).

WEST BROMICH ALBION MOVE.

Blanco’s brief sojourn in Birmingham, did not yield much in the way of playing statistics but it did make for some interesting quotes (at least more interesting than the ones that our spectacularly unsuccessful team of Ukrainian language researchers were able to find). West Brom may have thought they were getting a bargain in Blanco, supposedly paying only $2 million. Then boss Alan Irvine seemed enthusiastic, telling the Birmingham Mail:

“He’s a very talented player and a very two footed footballer. He can cross the ball well, shoot with both feet. You’ll also see him score with both feet – some terrific goals too – if you look at his clips. He’s got an understanding of the game. Sebastián isn’t an out-of-out winger but he’s somebody who plays out there and will sometimes drift in or stay there. He is capable of shifting the ball or crossing with either foot, but he’s probably more of a modern-day winger who is good playing on either side and good when he comes infield. He has good range of passing and is technically strong.”

This all sounds great, but when the action started Irvine didn’t give Blanco a single Premier league start, allowing him to sit on the bench 6 times and come off it 3 times for a total of 36 minutes of EPL action. He did see a couple of starts on the left of a 442 in the Capital One Cup. There are likely a lot of reasons why his time there was not successful, but when a team is struggling for points small, skillful players are normally the first to be sacrificed.

On the issue of small players Irvine had previously said:

“They’re not playing because they’re physical but playing because of their awareness, their intelligence, technical ability, understanding and because they are terrific. There is a place for that in the Premier League.”

Giovinco has certainly proved there is also a place for such players in MLS, but Timbers followers will note that Gaston Fernandez never seemed entirely comfortable with the physicality of the league. The good folks at whoscored.com make the unlikely sounding claim that one of Blanco strengths is ‘winning aerial duels’ and that he loves to tackle. We shall see, the player himself told the Birmingham Mail:

“When I found out about this chance, to be honest, I was a little nervous because it’s a physical style and that isn’t one of my strengths.”

West Brom sacked Alan Irvine at the end of 2014 and replaced him with Tony Pulis who showed no interest in giving Blanco a chance, promptly sending him back to Argentina in a loan/option deal with San Lorenzo.

RETURN TO ARGENTINA

After the longest break from regular playing time since his 2011 ACL injury Blanco will have been relieved to go straight into the San Lorenzo starting eleven. In 2015 he started 29 league games, 5 times in Copa Libertadores and twice in Recopa Sudamericana. Statistically that season was somewhat Nagbe-esque with only 4 goals and 2 assists to show for his endeavors. In terms of position it was a mixed season for Blanco, he had 10 starts in central attacking (Valeri) role in a 4231 and switched on to the left side of that formation 9 times. San Lorenzo sometimes ran a 442 with Blanco starting 7 times on the left of that system. The 442 starts are interesting as it suggests he might be able to operate as more of a traditional touchline winger if needed – with Valeri and Nagbe his likely companions in the Timbers attacking midfield another exclusively inverted style ‘wideman’ might make things a little crowded in the middle. (see Fernandez, Valeri and Nagbe at the beginning of 2014)

In the first half of 2016 Blanco remained a consistent feature of the San Lorenzo line-up, starting 10 of 16 league games. Again his production, at least in term of goals (2) and assists (1) was modest.

The Timbers already have one of their attacking midfield slots booked for Darlington Nagbe – the master of playing a lot of good games without appearing on the stat sheet. So Blanco will undoubtedly be expected to lift some of the scoring burden from Valeri and Adi. Here are some Blanco goals – amazingly set to delightful classical music as opposed to the usual terrible techno.

Fortunately the second half of the 2016 league saw Blanco post some very respectable numbers in the league, another 10 starts yielding 3 goals and 5 assists. As an assist man he was second only to Boca’s Carlos Tevez during those months. Overall for 2016 he had a goal and an assist every 4 league starts – the Timbers would certainly take those kind of numbers. Blanco also added a couple of goals in four Argentine cup games.

He did have a further 8 starts in San Lorenzo’s run to the semi-finals of the Copa Sudamericana without adding to his statistics. San Lorenzo lost over two legs to the ill-fated Brazilian team Chapecoense whose plane crashed on the way to the final in Colombia.

WHAT ROLE FOR THE TIMBERS – MANAGING EXPECTATIONS.

When Lucas Melano arrived for a rumored $5-million it was around the 6th most expensive transfer fee in MLS history. Since then Seattle have added Nicolás Lodeiro and this season Miguel Almirón will be joining Atlanta United for a league record transfer in the region of $8-million. But with Blanco’s fee estimated to be in the $4-5 million area he will still be in the top ten highest transfers MLS has seen to date. Others like Kaka, Pirlo and Giovinco may command higher salaries – but were available on free transfers.

However you look at the numbers, the expectation surrounding Blanco will be sky high and the Timbers cannot afford another failure like Melano. Portland’s decision to spend so much money on ‘potential’ was a novel concept for MLS, but the bold move, in the end, did not work out well for either party. In Blanco the Timbers have gone a different direction, while not a widely known name outside of Argentina, Kharkiv and West Bromich – he has a lengthly track-record. Diego Valeri had similar pedigree and has worked out very nicely indeed in a Timbers uniform, posting scoring numbers far in excess of his previous career statistics.

POSITION IN THE TEAM

Caleb Porter has told MLS that he will play Darlington Nagbe on the left this season and that he expects “his production come back to 2013”. Some might argue that a possession based game-plan which allowed Nagbe to operate closer to goal may have had more to do with his ten goals that season. Others might point to the fact that he scored 7 of those 10 goals when he started on the right.

But anyway, this looks to put Blanco on the right side of Portland’s line-up. Looking through the various statistics websites such as soccerway and transfermarkt we do see that Blanco has some history playing on the right, perhaps about 3-4 games a season. But the vast majority of his games are on the left or central, so it does it make sense for the Timbers to post their new big signing in a less familiar role in order to accommodate a dubious scoring expectation from a player who has scored 3 goals from open play in his last 80 games as a supposed wide-attacker? Perhaps it will make more sense to allow Nagbe to keep his deeper lying role and allow Blanco the chance to join Valeri and Adi on the score-sheet.

The Timbers may be able to return to a more possession based game with three technical players (Valeri, Nagbe and Blanco) in the middle, but handling a tendency for all three to occupy similar roles and areas could take some working out. They don’t want to get into that early 2014 traffic jam with three players in central areas – after one such game, Jeff Laurentowitz of the opposing Chicago side, while enjoying a post match libation, wondered why they (Portland) had so many play-makers. It was indeed a fair question, but that experience might allow the Timbers to figure out appropriate roles more quickly this season.

So the best case scenario is that the Timbers have found a player to add 5-10 goals to their tally and similar numbers of assists while boasting the technical pedigree to work very nicely with Valeri and Nagbe in order produce the prettiest season-long team football seen since 2013. A worst case scenario could be a player, who, by his own admission, is not suited to physical football, operating in a role that isn’t very clearly defined and taking a long while to figure the whole thing out. The end result will probably be somewhere between those two extremes.

But for those of a certain age there is something about the mere mention of a 5’5″ Argentine player that makes them think of shiny, gold trophies being hoisted into the sky.