Player Focus: Telepathic Connection at Palermo Firing Vazquez into Dybala's Limelight

Think of him as a shrinking violet playing in pink. Palermo’s Franco Vazquez is the shy and retiring sort at least when off the field. He doesn’t say much. Never has done. “I was quiet as a kid too,” he told La Gazzetta dello Sport. “Even then everyone used to call me El Mudo - The Mute. My teammates at my first club in Villa Carlos Paz, the town where I grew up in Argentina, they started it.” Vazquez prefers instead to let his feet do the talking.

So spare a thought for his girlfriend Agostina. She doesn’t get much out of him while he’s watching TV or playing PlayStation. The odd one-word answer. That’s all. “If she asks me something I reply: ‘No. No or Yes. Yes.” And that’s if poor Agostina can persuade Vazquez to give her more attention than another of his hobbies: building Lego sets… “I’ve got five of them,” he explained. “A police station. A fire station. The leaning tower of Pisa. One of those articulated lorries that carries cars, and a motorboat. That’s the one I enjoyed most. There were hundreds of pieces.” Vazquez, in case you’re wondering, is 25.

A €3.5m signing from Belgrano de Cordoba, he has been in Sicily three years now. His initial experience was as sour as some of the island’s lemons. Sent out on loan to Rayo Vallecano the season before last, Vazquez returned to a club that had been relegated. Rino Gattuso, the coach, couldn’t have been a more contrasting personality. The Mute and Ringhio, a nickname he got for his growl. Left to sit in the stands at the Favorita, Vazquez seriously considered packing up his things.

“I’d decided to go back to Argentina where I had already shown what kind of player I can be and where I knew I would find more than one club willing to sign me. Then Beppe Iachini arrived and everything changed. At the end of the second day of training he said to me: ‘I don’t get why you haven’t been playing. You’re back in the squad’.” No coach had ever spoken to me like that before and from then on I knew my future was here.” Iachini also gave another player a chance.

Paulo Dybala, a club record €12m signing the previous season from Instituto, the other Cordoba club, had by now been written off as a flop. Giuseppe Sannino, Gian Piero Gasperini, Alberto Malesani and Gattuso all hadn’t been able to figure him out. La Joya was in the midst of a miserable 405-day goal drought. But Iachini had an intuition that was beyond his predecessors. He discovered the key to unlocking the vast potential within Dybala. The key was Vazquez and it has opened up a new dimension to Palermo.

Dybala ended his barren patch last March when his compatriot slipped him through to score against Bari. A week later they combined again. Dybala set up Vazquez upon Brescia’s visit to the Renzo Barbera and he returned the favour. It was the beginning, as they say, of a beautiful relationship. When Dybala’s name appeared on the scoresheet once more away to Latina, the pass through to him bore the same initials: FV. Vazquez then clinched promotion with a winner in Novara. The late flourish and promise of the pair persuaded Palermo to sell Abel Hernandez and Kyle Lafferty, their top scorers. They haven’t regretted it.

Vazquez and Dybala - a duo that has the ring of an Argentine detective drama to it - have picked up in A where they left off in B. So much has been made of Dybala that you could be forgiven for thinking Palermo are a one-man band, but it bears remembering Vazquez started the campaign the brighter. Dybala opened his account on the opening day against Samp but the headlines were being made by his partner. He humiliated Verona’s Emil Halfredsson in the Rosanero’s 2-1 defeat the following week, nutmegging the Iceland international in the build-up to his first goal of the season and then mugged off Nemanja Vidic, picking his pocket and scoring another one in the 1-1 draw with Inter. Vazquez made it three in-a-row when he got Palermo back level in a six-goal thriller against Napoli at the San Paolo.

When Dybala next found the net in Cesena the ball he swept past Leali was signed, sealed and delivered by his friend, il postino Vazquez. Make no mistake he is the hand behind the throne of the boy prince. True, after the triumph over Milan at San Siro, Dybala’s star really began to burst. His ascent was stratospheric as he scored five straight, including a delicious curler at Genoa - set up by you know who - and genial back-heel flick in Torino. He has shone so bright as to eclipse Vazquez. And yet his teammate hasn’t lost form.

His lob in Bergamo stunned Atalanta and meant he ended 2015 on a high. Vazquez got a brace that day and both followed exchanges with Dybala. They interchanged again to devastating effect when Serie A resumed in  the New Year. Poor Gianfranco Zola despaired as his first game in charge of Cagliari descended into a 5-0 defeat. Vazquez hit the woodwork before teeing up Dybala for his second of the game.

If there is a better more telepathic understanding between two players in Serie A this season I’ve yet to find it. Vazquez and Dybala have been directly involved in 30 of Palermos 34 league goals this season. That’s 88% of their total. Dybala has 11 goals and 6 assists. Vazquez has 6 and 7 which is kind of apt for if you ask his opponents they’ll tell you he leaves them at sixes and sevens too. “They compare us to Pastore and Cavani who became big names at Palermo but everyone has to follow their own path,” Vazquez said.

It might surprise you to learn that WhoScored’s performance rating has him second in Serie A (7.78) behind Paul Pogba (7.81) this season. Only Lazio’s Antonio Candreva (7) can match him in assists. He’s also the league’s most effective dribbler tied with another Argentine, the Genoa No.10 Diego Perotti. Both average 3.6 per game. You might say Vazquez is Dybala’s stylist. He makes him look even better. One wonders what the kid would do without him. Vazquez knows the runs he likes to make, the spaces he occupies and what he is thinking.

My advice would be if you are a club interested in buying Dybala this summer, you should really take a look at Vazquez too. That telepathic connection they have, the wavelength they operate on is a multiplier. Separate them and perhaps they each turn out to be worth less than the sum of their parts. Perhaps. Palermo have extended Vazquez’s contract until 2019. Prolonging Dybala’s beyond 2016 is becoming more difficult with each goal he scores. Italy coach Antonio Conte has made inquiries with both to see if they would consider wearing Azzurro at international level. The response he has got from Vazquez was more encouraging than the one he received from Dybala. “I’d have no problem with it at all,” he insisted. “It wouldn’t be a lack of respect towards Argentina. I feel half Italian. My mum is from Padova. Her surname was Bianconi.”

Everyone is talking about Dybala. But it’s time to speak up for Vazquez. And if El Mudo won’t, we will.

How do you rate Vazquez's performances? Let us know in the comments below