Anyone who witnessed the poise and precision with which Sebastian Coates defended during this summer’s Copa America could have been forgiven for thinking they were watching a seasoned professional well on his way to 30. In fact, they were watching a 20-year-old. For such a young player, especially a defender, to perform so impressively was an incredible feat, but one that was not wholly surprising to those who had followed Coates’ career from its genesis.
Coates joined the academy of Nacional – along with Penarol, one of Uruguay’s big two – at the age of 11 and quickly established himself as one of the club’s brightest prospects alongside his contemporaries Nicolas Lodeiro and Santiago Garcia. A natural leader, by example rather than vocal expression, he captained the side at various youth levels, including the team that won the national title for their age group in 2007. Coates’ promise was such that in 2008, a Brazilian investment group purchased 30% of his economic rights before he had even kicked a ball for Nacional’s first-team.
His opportunity to do that came soon enough. Taken under the wing of Uruguay’s Under-20 coach Diego Aguirre, Coates was magnificent at the 2009 South American Under-20 championship and upon his return to Nacional went straight into the first team under the tutelage of Gerardo Pelusso.
Awarded the man of the match award by El Pais newspaper on his debut against Bella Vista, Coates scored in a 1-1 draw against Liverpool the following weekend and then received another man of the match accolade, this time handed out by Fox Sports, on his debut in the Copa Libertadores – South America’s Champions League. Continued impressive performances eventually saw the starlet captain Nacional to victory over Defensor Sporting in the 2008/09 Uruguayan league title decider.
Coates continued to develop and was again a key component in the Nacional team that won the 2010/11 title with a miserly defence that had the second-best record in the league over the course of the campaign. He left the Nacional fans with something to remember him by when he embarked on a long, loping run out of defence before slotting a ball through for Garcia to score the only goal against their great rivals Penarol in May 2011.
With only a substitute appearance against Estonia previously to his name, Coates was named in Oscar Washington Tabarez’ Uruguay squad for the Copa America and grasped the opportunity with both hands when given his chance against Chile following injuries to Diego Godin and Mauricio Victorino. Having won his place, he never relinquished it – his suspension for the quarter-final with Argentina notwithstanding – and was named young player of the tournament as Uruguay won their 15th Copa America crown.
Playing alongside the more aggressive Diego Lugano, Coates was able to play his natural game, combining a fine reading of the game with excellent positional sense to sweep up behind his captain. He was assured throughout, seldom ruffled, and tried to play the ball short out of defence whenever possible. At 196cm tall, the defender was also an attacking threat from set-pieces, and would have scored in the final against Paraguay were it not for an unpunished handball on the line.
His career has certainly been highly impressive thus far, but there are elements of his game that require improvement if he is to be successful in the English game with Liverpool.
Various European club scouts have taken a look at Coates in the last two years, but many have expressed doubts over his mobility. Nacional and Uruguay both play with fairly deep defensive lines, and Coates often drops even deeper to sweep up, disguising his lack of pace. With the speed at which the English game is played there are less opportunities to do this and with a higher defensive line it is more likely his lack of pace will be exposed.
In addition, Coates works best alongside a dominant defender such as Lugano who attacks headers, steps forward into tackles and generally takes a highly proactive approach to winning possession. This will be fine if Liverpool intend to play him alongside Martin Skrtel, but may cause problems alongside someone like Daniel Agger, whose characteristics are more similar to his own.
Overall, however, Liverpool have snapped up an incredibly promising defender, who for £7M represents a good piece of business in an often inflated marketplace. There are hurdles the defender will need to overcome in order to be a success in England, but judging from the way he has dealt seemingly effortlessly with all the challenges placed in front of him in his short career to date there is little reason to suggest Coates will not, once more, come out on top.
