Barcelona have a new striker plan – but unsolved seven-year question should raise doubts over ‘key target’ | OneFootball

Barcelona have turned their attention to Inter Milan striker Lautaro Martinez, according to recent reports, in a move that would give him a chance to answer a doubt that’s hovered over him for the past seven years of his Serie A career. But would he be up to the task?

Finding a successor to Robert Lewandowski is a big topic for the Barcelona board at the moment. They know they have a world-class centre-forward, as his record of 109 goals from 163 games for the club attests to, but it won’t last forever. The Polish striker is 37 years old and while his goalscoring numbers this season remain strong, it almost feels like a ticking time bomb of how long he’ll be able to avoid a decline for.

To prepare themselves for that inevitable time, Barcelona are on the hunt for a striker about 10-15 years younger. One option they have been tipped as admirers of is Atletico Madrid’s Julian Alvarez, but any swoop for the Argentine is likely to be met with resistance by their LaLiga rivals.

Therefore, Barcelona are broadening their search and TEAMtalk contributor Rudy Galetti has revealed that another ‘key target’ is Inter’s Martinez.

At the age of 28 and with 163 goals from 352 Inter appearances – including 10 from 17 this season – Martinez has good pedigree, there’s no doubting that.

But if he becomes a more serious option for Barcelona, there’s something they’ll have to stop and consider before going full steam ahead.

Throughout his seven-and-a-half-year stay with Inter, Martinez has almost exclusively played in a formation that utilises a strike partnership.

It’s become quite a rarity in the modern game, but Inter have enjoyed success with a 3-5-2 shape under coaches like Antonio Conte and Simone Inzaghi.

However, if Martinez is to translate his success to a system relying on one centre-forward, the question is whether he has shown enough to be the main man.

Martinez’s Inter history should raise doubt

At first, he was a supporting striker to Mauro Icardi. Then, for the next couple of years, he played off Romelu Lukaku. After that, he combined with Edin Dzeko, and these days his strike partner is Marcus Thuram.

In every case, Martinez has been partnering a bigger striker who has acted as more of a focal point. Yes, sometimes he has outscored them – he was Inter’s top scorer for three seasons running between 2021 and 2024 – but would he have posted the same numbers without benefiting from having a target man next to him?

At Barcelona, plenty of chances would be created for him by wingers like Raphinha and Lamine Yamal. But on paper, he doesn’t have the same kind of skillset as Lewandowski.

That’s not to say he can’t play as a lone striker. He simply hasn’t had the opportunity to try to for Inter because of their effective tactics. For Argentina, he sometimes has, and has scored on some of those occasions, but doing so with regularity at club level might be another matter.

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Meanwhile, TEAMtalk revealed this week that Barcelona have made two formal approaches to Marc Guehi’s entourage in the past fortnight.

The Crystal Palace and England centre-back will be available on a free transfer at the end of the season after Liverpool came close to signing him in the summer.