Player profile
- Nationality: Argentine
- Age: 22
- Date of birth: 10/5/1997
- Current Club: Feyenoord
- Career: San Lorenzo
- Position: central defender
- Preferred foot: left
Positioning
Marcos Senesi mostly plays as a left central defender in a 4-3-3 formation at Feyenoord. He likes to defend proactively and steps out of the defensive line often, especially when Feyenoord play a high defensive line. Also, he shows good awareness when he closes gaps on the left side of the pitch when Malacia or Haps is out of position.
Defensive abilities
As mentioned above, Marcos Senesi likes to defend proactively and to step out of the defensive line to recover possession early. He often anticipates well and manages to get the danger clear before the opponents get into a threatening area. However, this can be quite risky, especially when it does not go well. It does not help as well when your partner in defence is Eric Botteghin, who isn’t that quick.
Also, Tyrell Malacia, who played as a left-back in the matches I watched, leaves his position often to track his direct opponent which can get Feyenoord in trouble. When he leaves his position, a big gap is opened up on the left side of Feyenoord’s pitch. Both Malacia and Botteghin saddle Senesi with some problems at times.
However, at times, Senesi times his interception poorly or he does not anticipate well. Also, against PSV, he tried to push Sam Lammers off the ball, but Lammers managed to shield the ball off using his body, not allowing Senesi to get to the ball. This resulted in some threatening situations in front of Feyenoord’s goal.
Against Porto, Marcos Senesi made an error at the 3-2 in which he timed his interception wrongly. A pass was played into Marega and Senesi thought that he could intercept the pass to prevent Marega from being through on goal. However, he missed the interception as he was too late and Porto went on to score the 3-2.
As mentioned above, this has happened more often in other matches as well. Marcos Senesi likes to defend aggressively and is attacking-minded, but sometimes it is better to be more reserved and stay in position rather than trying to intercept the ball early and not being able to get to the ball because the opponent uses his body to shield off the ball well.
Moving on to his 1-on-1 defending, in which Marcos Senesi seems very confident and dominant in the 1-on-1 duels. Especially against lower table sides, Senesi is very dominant. There is one situation where Senesi is more vulnerable which is when the left-back is out of position.
In these situations, Senesi needs to use his acceleration and pace to keep up with his opponent, but he sometimes get outpaced by his opponent. I wouldn’t say that Senesi is slow, but he is not the quickest in the first meters and sometimes his opponent has the better off him. For the rest, Senesi is quite dominant in the 1-on-1 duels.
In the other defensive duels, Marcos Senesi shows dominance as well as he manages to win most of his aerial and ground duels with his opponent. He scans the pitch often and checks his shoulders to see whether he needs to step out of the defensive line or stay in position.
The Argentinian defender is not the quickest in the first meters and also not in long distance, but he certainly is not slow. He is strong in the defensive duels and his jumping is above average as well. Senesi is a mobile defender and even though he isn’t the quickest on the turn, it’s still above average.
Ability on the ball
Marcos Senesi is very confident on the ball and seems comfortable to play it out from the back. He likes to carry the ball towards the midfield third, break lines with his passes or to play a cross pass to Steven Berghuis. Senesi has okay technique and ball control.
Below, you can see an example of Marcos Senesi carrying the ball and playing a through pass to Sam Larsson. He stays very composed on the ball and does not panic when he is being put under pressure.
Conclusion
Marcos Senesi is a very promising central defender and he has possibly been the best central defender of the Eredivisie in the second half of the season, despite still having some minor weaknesses, which he needs to work on before he will be able to be a regular starter for an above midtable team in the top 5 leagues.
It certainly does not help that Botteghin and Senesi aren’t a well balanced defensive partnership, as Botteghin is not quick and can’t cover Senesi’s back. With Botteghin leaving this summer, I hope that Feyenoord will buy a quick defender who is able to cover Senesi’s back when he steps out of the defensive line.
If Feyenoord can do that, I’m sure that Senesi will be playing even better and that he will make a move to the top 5 leagues in no-time.
Rating: A2
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