On January 31 (local time), AS Roma reported on the loan signing of Diego Llorente (29, former Leeds United) through the official website. 스포츠토토

Diego Llorente, who will play for Roma until June, is a 186cm tall centre-back. He has a career in 10 matches for the Spanish national team, but except for Portugal in 2020, the last time he played against top European teams was not active.

Starting his career with the age team at Real Madrid, he proved his mettle through loan spells at places like Rayo Valle Cano-Malaga. Showing remarkable skills in both offense and defense, he plays an active role as a full-fledged first-team main player immediately after his full transfer to Real Sociedad. At Real Sociedad, he played for 7351 minutes in 88 matches in three seasons, averaging 83 minutes of playing time. It is a story that most of the games that come out were full-time.

He wasn’t strictly good at Leeds. His scoring ability in set-piece situations was formidable, but as the season progressed, his defensive patterns of physically pressing opponents or aiming for forward cutting were read and struggled. In particular, in a game that is not resolved, he is not a defender who can entrust a stopper like Min-jae Kim, as he has revealed a clear problem in position selection for forward cutting.

In summary, we need a ‘cover’ player to look after us.

There are no perfect players. Clearly, he has excellent hardware and football intelligence, but can Llorente, who has a weakness in positioning, complement Roma’s defense? It seems that he needs the help of his colleagues and tactical support from coach Mourinho.