Player Watch Player Watch: Pedro Porro

[Rout-Ledge]

He’s been a great signing. Totally justified his fee.

 

[SUIYHA]

Has been the best RB we’ve had since Walker and it’s not even close.

Royal, Doherty, Aurier, Walker-Peters.....not like the competition was particularly stiff! Trippier was the only half-decent one we had and his head wasn't really in the right place when he was here so he was pretty inconsistent.

 

[SpursSince1980]

Still looks suspect when defending. Incredible going forward but remains our weak link at the back.

I assume this is based on the Ayew goal? Or, the goal he saved in the last min of the game.

C’mon dude. You and @jonnyp. He has some on leaps and bounds since last season. His defending has been consistently very good all season. Every one of our defenders have had a ropey moment or two.

But I don’t see a consistent theme of him being suspect all season.

I responded, as I do not like to be one of the folks who either neg rep or disagree with someone. I will at least try to explain.

 

[ultimateloner]

He is very skilful for a RB. The evidence of this is his shooting and to turn in tight spaces. For this reason he is versatile because he has good fundamental ability on the ball. However he does get caught out of position and beaten more than a standard PL RB. I’m happy with this trade off because our style of play require FBs to play-make and make underlapping runs. I think he will get found out more against better teams who can sit deep and counter; e.g Man U with Rashford or against teams that circulate the ball well.

 

[jonnyp]

I assume this is based on the Ayew goal? Or, the goal he saved in the last min of the game.

C’mon dude. You and @jonnyp. He has some on leaps and bounds since last season. His defending has been consistently very good all season. Every one of our defenders have had a ropey moment or two.

But I don’t see a consistent theme of him being suspect all season.

I responded, as I do not like to be one of the folks who either neg rep or disagree with someone. I will at least try to explain.

Don't know why you tagged me and not other people, but if it's because of my ratings it's because I don't like it when people completely overreact to other posters simply for having a different opinion. People need to chill.

I agree, he is orders of magnitude better defensively than last season.

He's been for the most part very good this season and I'm very happy with his progress and performances overall, but I don't think he has been "rock solid" defensively. IMO, he still has a way to go defensively and is not exempt from criticism - just like any other player.

Don't think such an opinion warrants the kind of reaction Neville was getting.

 

[ultimateloner]

Porro/Royal are similar to Akanje/walker. The former players the better footballer whereas the latter is a better defender. We are not MC so we can’t rotate them depending on the opposition but that should be the direction we develop this position given both players are top-half PL quality.

 

[theShiznit]

Porro/Royal are similar to Akanje/walker. The former players the better footballer whereas the latter is a better defender. We are not MC so we can’t rotate them depending on the opposition but that should be the direction we develop this position given both players are top-half PL quality.

If Royal can become a viable option at LB as well he could become our Cancelo.
Obviously Udogie and Porro will be first choice but having that extra string to his bow means he could get quite a bit of playing time.

Good to have that flexibility, so more players can get game time in various positions and we are looking quite flexible across the pitch except in CD where beyond the first two it looks quite sparse.

 

[Shanks]

It’s pretty unfair to compare this year to last year, we sat back so much, invited attackers to just hammer our defence, no protection, no actual style, always going to make more mistakes.

he’s been solid this season, maybe better positioning for a header for palace goal, but even that wasn’t his fault - as in a defensive mistake leading to a goal.

goal shouldn’t have atood anyway

 

[DannyNZ]

I think this was actually a positive from Porro - he was left marking two players by himself, and had to rush out to the Palace player at the back post, and did so with his arms behind his back to prevent the risk of a penalty.

I do agree he overcommitted for the Ayew goal, but was more a lapse in judgement than lack of ability.

The truth of the Ayew goal was the quality of the cross even took Ayew by surprise and he only controlled it through the use of his arm. Porro I thought, besides that goal, was more than solid again.

 

[DannyNZ]

He is very skilful for a RB. The evidence of this is his shooting and to turn in tight spaces. For this reason he is versatile because he has good fundamental ability on the ball. However he does get caught out of position and beaten more than a standard PL RB. I’m happy with this trade off because our style of play require FBs to play-make and make underlapping runs. I think he will get found out more against better teams who can sit deep and counter; e.g Man U with Rashford or against teams that circulate the ball well.

This feels like an overview of Porro under Conte. This season he has been rock solid in defence, didn’t have any major problems against Man Utd at the Stadium that I recall and Rashford played that day. I think he’s been solid defensively this season and that includes vs Utd, Arsenal and Liverpool.

 

[ultimateloner]

If Royal can become a viable option at LB as well he could become our Cancelo.
Obviously Udogie and Porro will be first choice but having that extra string to his bow means he could get quite a bit of playing time.

Good to have that flexibility, so more players can get game time in various positions and we are looking quite flexible across the pitch except in CD where beyond the first two it looks quite sparse.

I agree about the benefits of having more flexibility. However I disagree that Royal can become anything even remotely close to Cancelo.

If Cancelo had stayed in the PL he would still be a top-3 LB.
I dont think Royal will ever be top-5. If he gets to CL-level it would already have beaten the odds.
Let's not forget he was one of the worst RBs on the ball we've seen only last season.

 

[ultimateloner]

This feels like an overview of Porro under Conte. This season he has been rock solid in defence, didn’t have any major problems against Man Utd at the Stadium that I recall and Rashford played that day. I think he’s been solid defensively this season and that includes vs Utd, Arsenal and Liverpool.

We will find out soon enough. Got MC away early Dec.

 

[mil1lion]

He struggled in the 1st half against Utd trying to receive the ball facing towards his own goal coming infield. He got better as the half went on and seems to have adapted better to the role now.

 

[soflapaul]

I think this was actually a positive from Porro - he was left marking two players by himself, and had to rush out to the Palace player at the back post, and did so with his arms behind his back to prevent the risk of a penalty.

I do agree he overcommitted for the Ayew goal, but was more a lapse in judgement than lack of ability.

Exactly. We were very vulnerable on the far post in the pre season and much less so as of recent. Porro is still learning his craft and you would expect him to make the occasional mistake.

 

[hughy]

The way I look at it is would we be considerably worse off if we took him out of our team? Yes, we would.

He has his faults at times, every player does. But there is no way we're finding anyone better/as good as him for less than £70m-£80m.

 

[djhotspur]

I think this was actually a positive from Porro - he was left marking two players by himself, and had to rush out to the Palace player at the back post, and did so with his arms behind his back to prevent the risk of a penalty.

I do agree he overcommitted for the Ayew goal, but was more a lapse in judgement than lack of ability.

Yeah he just got beaten by a perfect cross it happens. He’s short and thought he could head the ball. It happens.

 

[Griff001]

He may have been slightly at fault for their goal, yes, but we also don't score our second without his part in it.

He's a fantastic player and we'd be far worse off without him.

 

[McFlash]

Because they’re idiots who never played football and don’t really understand what they’re watching.

Is there an agreed level that people should have played football to, for them to know what they're talking about?

I really hate this view of "well, you've never played the sport so you don't know what you're talking about", it's ignorant and arrogant bollocks.
I like boxing, mma and cricket too but I've never "played" any of them - Does that mean that I don't know what I'm talking about with regards to those sports?
I have played American Football though and I still don't understand anything about that sport.

You really don't need to have played a sport to be able to study and understand it and comments such as yours just come across as piffle to shut other people down that don't agree with you.

 

[McFlash]

Considering most of us had some pretty major concerns about his ability to play RB in a back 4, he's been superb and by the looks of things will only get better.
He's got the drive, determination and passion, not to mention the strength and technical ability required to learn and improve.

 

[Stamford]

I don't have much to add to the discussion regarding his ability that hasn't been said.

However I love his celebrations. He's so passionate