"Dedos" López: The two-footed winger that México now BADLY lacks

The first of the numberless controversies between Juan Carlos Osorio and the Mexican press covering the national team revolved around Miguel Layún's best foot. A natural-born right footed player, Layún used to be placed along the left side of the pitch when at Porto FC in order to exploit his skill as an inverted winger.

In spite of Osorio's original preference for Layún's playing on the right (so the attacking zone could be enlarged across the channels), the latter ended up performing in several right or left spots as he improved his left foot through practice. Nonetheless, Villarreal CF's number 24 is already in his thirties and conversation of a possible replacement should begin sooner than later.

That shot with his left foot had struck Nahuel Guzmán's far post. The ball rebounded into the back of the Tigres goalkeeper and once again struck the same post and went out. It could have been a brilliant goal. A little bit later, however, Raúl López, aka "El Dedos" ("Fingers"), got his due by assisting Franco Jara's brace in the Copa MX.

The first of the two assists was made with his right boot; the second one, with the left. To round up his good performance, the Club Guadalajara youth ranks product put his penalty kick well past Nahuel Guzmán and helped Pachuca's going through.

Following his meteoric rise with Chivas (he even was called-up by Osorio for a friendly match against Senegal in Miami back in 2016), "El Dedos" somehow fell out with Matías Almeyda and some months later was included in the swap with Pachuca for Rodolfo Pizarro.

In retrospective, Chivas got the best of the deal as López's career has had its ups and downs in terms of defensive capabilities. Playing as a full-back in a four-men defensive line, he struggled a lot to become part of the starting eleven considering that Diego Alonso used to prefer the protection provided by a more defensive-minded player like Colombian Stefan Medina.

However, Pachuca's new boss, Pako Ayestarán, has been testing with a three-men defensive line which certainly suits better the qualities of López, who now enjoys bigger freedom as Jaine Barreiro covers his back from counterattacks. Pachuca's Liga MX loss to Toluca (with Barreiro on the bench) might prove that López excels when he has a solid centre-back behind.

"El Dedos", 25, can be now considered to be entering his prime as material for México's national team. No other young player delivers such accurate crosses to the box with both feet and, besides, that spot in El Tri desperately claims for an attacking-minded player (Carlos Salcedo and Edson Álvarez, both of them central defenders, played there during the Russia World Cup).

Far from the hype that normally surrounds Liga MX's big four, the evolution of López's career should not go unnoticed anymore. As Layún made us notice the importance of having two-footed players in the roster, it is now time to fill that roster with new feet.