Llegó en calidad de goleador, procedente del San Lorenzo de Almagro, tras entregar varias campañas con un rendimiento notable. Él era la solución para el ataque celeste; el '9' que durante tanto tiempo el equipo estaba buscando.
As Abreu, Luciano Figueroa or Emanuel Villa once were, that's what the cement fans were expecting from the start of Martin Cauteruccio, the forward who at one point supported Luis Suarez in the Nacional de Montevideo. A predator in the area for La Maquina.
GRAN DECEPCIÓN
With good credentials, 'Caute' arrived to reinforce Cruz Azul for the Clausura 2017, a team that - at that time - had not qualified for the playoffs for five tournaments and had a marked problem of effectiveness, since the Azul, in almost three years, had only scored three or more goals in eight matches.
However, his impact was not as expected. Initially, Jémez gradually gave opportunities to the Uruguayan striker in the blue attack; however, this gradually faded away due to the forward's poor performance, as well as some injuries he suffered.
Since then, not much has changed, in addition to being overshadowed by the performances of Edgar Méndez and Felipe Mora. Although, at times, the few opportunities given to 'Caute' are criticized, the forward has performed better in other positions, acting more as a false '9', playing as a post and helping with the flow of the offensive game, as well as being an assist provider. He does everything, except being a pure forward.
A '9', an attacking midfielder, and as a '11'. Those have been, at least, the three positions in which Cauteruccio has performed at Cruz Azul. So far, in 15 months as a member of La Maquina, the Uruguayan has scored only three goals in the league; all of them have been penalty kicks. One against Pachuca and two against Querétaro.
LA COPA, UN RESPIRO
As a Cruz Azul player, Cauteruccio has scored nine goals. Six of them have been in the cup competition.
Indeed, the Uruguayan's presentation as an Azul scorer was precisely in this tournament, scoring against Querétaro, and later, in the Quarterfinals, he scored a hat-trick against Santos.
The remaining two goals were scored in the Apertura 2017 cup edition, one against Zacatepec (penalty kick) and one against Tigres.
BALANCE
As mentioned earlier, Cauteruccio has scored nine goals as a Cruz Azul player. Five of them have been from open play or crafted; the remaining four have been penalty kicks.
Likewise, the Uruguayan has had Querétaro and Santos as his main customers, scoring six goals combined; three against each team.
The trio of remaining goals is distributed among Pachuca, Zacatepec, and Tigres. One goal against each team.