Are Santi Gimenez’s Europa League Goals Enough For More Minutes At Feyenoord

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Santi Gimenez’s weekend was really bittersweet. His team, Feyenoord, pulled off an amazing comeback after going 2-0 down in the first few minutes of their Eredivisie game against Go Ahead Eagles. They came back to win the game 4-3 thanks to a Danilo brace. Although the team won Santiago stayed on the bench throughout the whole game, and Danilo, who is his main competition for Feyenoord’s number 9 spot, was the man of the match. Certainly a less than ideal situation for any striker coming into a new club. 

The roles were completely flipped, though, this Thursday in the team’s Europa League matchup against Lazio. Feyenoord again got down early, but Lazio seemed to be packing a much harder punch than Go Ahead Eagles. There’s no sugarcoating this, Lazio proved that their team is leaps and bounds ahead of Feyenoord. The Rome based team has players within their ranks like Luis Alberto, Matias Vecino, Felipe Andreson and Ciro Immobile that have not only been around the block, but have proven their talent virtually everywhere they’ve been. Feyenoord were outclassed, so much so that Santi Gimenez came on when his team was 4-0 down. 

With about ⅔ of the second half still to go Santi got to work. He was awarded a penalty after chasing his own bad control, which he converted to put the game 4-1. In the final minutes of the game he showed his awareness as a number 9 to poach in an impressive strike that deserved to go in on its own, but came off the line.  

How Meaningful Are These Garbage Time Goals?

We do run the risk of sounding a bit pessimistic about Santi’s situation, but the fact remains that it was not a great sign that he was left on the bench against Go Ahead Eagles. Really his chance in this Lazio game was truly mop-up duty. As we mentioned he entered the game with his team already down 4-0. When you’re put in that situation, and you come up with 2 goals for your squad you’re not hurting your chances of becoming a team regular by any stretch of the imagination.

One of the things that Santi got criticized for at Cruz Azul was that he didn’t have that killer instinct that you want from a number 9. Even that luck that you need to have to thrive in the position. Through the games that he played at Cruz Azul this season and the few minutes that he’s gotten at Feyenoord he’s proving that he’s truly becoming a true goal scoring machine. Even when he doesn’t play his best, (he still looked a bit slower than you’d hope for, and a bit out of sync), he’s able to find the back of the net! Any manager in the world would want to have that type of striker on his squad.        

Where Does Santi Stand In The Mexico National Team Depth Chart?

We talked a few days ago about Henry Martin’s chances of starting for the national team. They’ll keep getting slimmer if Giménez keeps scoring goals, that’s just a fact. Before he left for Feyenoord Santiago was ahead of Henry in Gerardo Martino’s national team depth chart. Even though Henry Martin is having a great season there are a couple of things that will play against him.   

For one, there’s no question that Santiago Giménez, and Raul Jimenez face tougher competition on a weekly basis. Finally, the icing on the cake is that Martino is keen on calling up a countryman of his to be Mexico’s striker. Santi, and Rogelio Funes Mori, were both born in Argentina. Their shared love of mate tea with coach Gerardo Martino seems to be one of the reasons they are ahead of Henry Martin on the depth chart.

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