Frank Arnesen has in the program Good morning Eredivisie by ESPN looking back on the arrival of Lucas Pratto. The striker was rented by Feyenoord from River Plate during the winter break last season, but barely got a job in Rotterdam. Arnesen agrees that a mistake was made in bringing in Pratto, but at the same time stands up for him by stating that he hardly got any chances from trainer Dick Advocaat.
Pratto was preferred at Feyenoord over Ricky van Wolfswinkel, who was taken over from FC Basel by FC Twente transfer-free last summer. “We spoke internally and concluded that Pratto was a better option. He has flown in from Argentina and two days later has to play on artificial grass (against Sparta Rotterdam, ed.), which he had not played on for a hundred years. Against Sparta he hits the post, in the second half he still had a good chance. The next game (against PEC Zwolle, ed.) He had a good chance with a header, but he did not score. From that moment on, he stopped playing.”
?? In part 4 of #DatEneWord the first images of Lucas Pratto leave a good impression on the staff of Feyenoord.
“He is a strong player who can score a goal”
Episode 4 is now on Disney+! ??
— ESPN NL (@ESPNnl) September 22, 2021
Arnesen is confronted with images from the documentary that one word by Disney+, which shows that then-assistant Cor Pot watches images of Pratto. “I did it with the scouts and with Dick, I gave them three options. Cor Pot has also looked. I knew Pratto, two years earlier he scored in the final of the Copa Libertadores. I knew his character. Of course I knew he was 32, but we had to have a striker and we didn’t have much money. It was a mistake. To protect him: Dick didn’t really give him a chance either. In the first two games he could have scored twice, but that didn’t happen. After that he was nothing more.”
“It’s a lesson for all of us. I’m not in favor of doing anything in January anyway. Often there are players available who have not played or are not in shape. Before they are fit, we will be in April. They should only be emergency measures. Unless you can get someone for the future. Pratto was a plaster”, continues Arnesen. Hans Kraay junior wonders whether Pratto did fit into Dick Advocaat’s system, in which the striker has to bridge large distances.
“You also had games in which we found out, then you need someone who can get into the box. He ran very well in the sixteen. You have to see which strikers are available and which fits. We didn’t think Van Wolfswinkel was right,” Arnesen responds. “Dick didn’t give him the chance. Maybe he wouldn’t have scored five games either, you don’t know. But to defend the player a little bit.”
Arnesen says that Pratto came to him at a certain point with the request for a meeting with Lawyer. The technical director of Feyenoord speaks Spanish, because he has a past as a player at Valencia. “He asked me, ‘Frank, can you talk to the coach?’ He asked Dick what he could do to help. That’s how it went. ‘Tell me what I can do, because I’m not here for vacation. I really want to help. Whether I play or not,” Pratto said. That was his attitude. He was captain of one of the biggest clubs in Brazil (São Paulo, ed.), as an Argentine. He is not Mister Nobody. That deserves respect and he has not always received it.”