When asked earlier this week to select Spurs’ player of the season so far, James Maddison was the obvious, and correct, response to give.
But had there been a category for a player who has most exceeded expectations or is the most improved, Pedro Porro would surely be right up there.
Or perhaps improved is not quite the right word — even in the maelstrom that was the end of last season, his quality was obvious. Maybe his category would be player who has most benefited from proper coaching. Admittedly not the catchiest name for an award. And a nightmare for the engraver.
Advertisement
However you want to describe it, Porro has been outstanding this season and is a symbol of how much has changed from last season.
Remember, he arrived at the end of January, just as Tottenham’s season was about to go into a tailspin. His debut was a chastening 4-1 defeat at Leicester City, during which former Spurs manager Tim Sherwood called Porro “so bad it’s unbelievable” while covering the game for UK broadcaster Sky Sports.
Tottenham’s manager that day, Antonio Conte, left six weeks later, and then his replacement, Conte’s assistant Cristian Stellini, followed him through the exit four games later, meaning Porro had three different managers in his first three months at the club. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he looked lost at times, painfully under-coached and unsure of his positioning. The nadir of this was against Newcastle United, when he was asked to play in a back four for the first time for Spurs and was woeful in a humiliating 6-1 defeat.
Porro simply couldn’t play as a right-back in a back four was the common consensus at that time.
Guess what, though; with a bit of coaching, it turns out he can. A little over four months after Porro joined from Sporting Lisbon (on an initial loan before the obligation of a £40million — $49.5m at the current exchange rate — permanent deal this summer), he had a fourth manager to work with in north London, in Ange Postecoglou.
Porro has performed to a higher standard under Postecoglou (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)Many wondered whether Porro could make it work as an inverted full-back in Postecoglou’s system, especially as he has spent most of his career bombing up and down the flank as a right wing-back rather than spending much or any time in central areas. That Porro has been so good in the role is a testament to his adaptability — especially as the thinking that he wouldn’t suit the inverted role was part of the reason Manchester City, his first English club, were willing to let him go to Sporting in the first place.
Advertisement
Jose Chieira was the head of scouting at Sporting when Porro arrived from City — initially on a two-year loan deal — in the summer of 2020, a year after they had bought him from Spanish side Girona. He explains that part of the reason Sporting were able to sign Porro was because he wasn’t necessarily seen as a Pep Guardiola-style full-back.
“City didn’t know what they wanted to do with him,” Chieira says. “But we at Sporting identified a lot of good things in his game and decided to go for it.
“There’s also the fact Guardiola is manager there. He asks his full-backs to play in a way that didn’t fit Porro’s profile, at least at that moment.”
If City were sceptical about Porro’s ability to play as a Guardiola-style full-back, they weren’t the only ones. When Porro made his first start of this season against Manchester United, having been on the bench on the opening weekend against Brentford, Sky Sports commentator — and former full-back — Gary Neville was scathing about his suitability for the position.
“I’m not having it. Yeah, I’m definitely not having it,” Neville said, after Porro almost gave the ball away in a dangerous position for a second time in the first half. “Honestly, Porro thinks he’s Rodri.”
As The Athletic wrote at the time, Porro actually had a storming game that day and has started every Spurs Premier League match since, rarely producing anything other than a very accomplished performance. And having not been picked for the Spain squad for their November internationals, he now has a week or so to recharge.
How has he been able to go from being seen as a defensive liability to one of the league’s most consistent full-backs?
As a person, Porro is a big character. Described by those who know him well as someone who is “larger than life” and “always joking” when not playing or training, the 24-year-old is an important and vocal member of the Spurs dressing room.
Advertisement
And he feels a lot more settled now after the tumult of those early months at the club.
“I’m integrating as fast as I can,” he told UK newspaper The Guardian in March. “My English is not very good, the first weeks were a bit harder. Eric Dier speaks Portuguese and helped, Cuti (Cristian Romero), too. I knew (some) words, understood some things, but I had never been there. I’m trying to adapt as fast as I can.”
On the constant early criticism, he said: “I have taken lots of beatings.”
You don’t hear much criticism of Porro nowadays and the numbers underline why.
In an attacking sense, despite playing a less offensive role than both last season and in the majority of his pre-Spurs career, Porro remains a big threat in the attacking third.
His assist for Brennan Johnson’s goal against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday was a reminder of that. It was his second assist of the season, after 10 last season (seven for Sporting) alongside five goals (two for Sporting). All three of his Tottenham goals have been superb finishes and he is clearly a defender who relishes the offensive side of the game.
Twelve games into this season, Porro ranks extremely highly for several attacking metrics.
For expected assists (xA), which measures the expected goals value of the shot that is assisted, Porro’s 0.21 per 90 minutes puts him in the 91st percentile for full-backs, meaning less than 10 per cent of those in his position have been producing better goalscoring chances. Of Premier League full-backs, he is in the 93rd percentile for completed through balls (0.5 per 90), the 88th for shots (1.3 per 90), the 80th for progressive passes (5.2 per 90) and the 88th for combined non-penalty expected goals and xA.
Defensively, Porro has been very busy, too. No player in the division has won more tackles than his 27 and compared to other full-backs, Porro is in the 96th percentile for blocks per 90 (2.46) and the 83rd for clearances per 90 (3.19).
Advertisement
Porro has been converted from essentially a winger at Sporting, where the vast majority of their Portuguese top flight opponents sat back and he didn’t have to worry about defending, to now performing a much more complicated role.
His touch maps from that home game against United in August and the same fixture last season — in late April with Ryan Mason as interim manager after Stellini’s dismissal — show how much more he is picking the ball up in central areas.
And touches like the outrageous one he produced against Sheffield United in September that left Jack Robinson on his backside show how much more comfortable he is becoming at receiving the ball away from the touchline.
“Pedro Porro, what a turn!” 😮💨
🚘 @cinchuk pic.twitter.com/e4V7CralGT
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) September 17, 2023
His mentality and willingness to learn are big reasons for the transformation.
“You could see he had the right character,” says Chieira. “We thought he was someone who would be able to interpret (Sporting head coach) Ruben’s (Amorim) instructions. He was mentally solid, the kind of player you need if you’re aiming to win every game. Everything made sense.
“A player who could attack space – both out wide and sometimes inside – and play with intensity and fluidity, as well as technical quality. Porro is powerful; he plays with a forcefulness that is hard to find.”
Porro’s attitude was quickly evident after he arrived at Spurs. Even when on the bench in some of his early matches, he could be seen on the sidelines cajoling and supporting his team-mates. At Sporting, it was clear that the club had so quickly gotten under his skin that he was seen by supporters as more committed than even a lot of the home-grown players.
You don’t imagine it’ll take long before he’s held in similar regard by the Tottenham fans — if indeed that hasn’t happened already. “The most important thing for me with Pedro is he has a great attitude,” Mason said in May. “He wants to learn, wants to improve and I am sure we will see him become a better player in the coming years.”
Advertisement
Porro certainly doesn’t lack belief, and said himself in March: “Let me loose in a prison and I’ll end up owning the place.”
Of the Sherwood criticism, he added: “He won’t be the first who then had to shut his mouth.”
As well as his mental toughness and strong attitude, Porro’s adaptability and varied skill set have helped him adjust to his new role this season.
“He was really well trained by Ruben Amorim in his Sporting years and he also played as a right-winger in his youth,” explains Chieira. “So he acquired lots of experience in attacking positions – positioning, movement et cetera – from an early age in Spain.”
The versatility Porro has displayed over the past four months was foreshadowed by an otherwise entirely forgettable game at the back-end of last season.
In a 1-0 home win against Crystal Palace in early May, Mason recognised Porro’s adaptability by asking him to play as a right-winger in a 4-4-2 when Spurs were out of possession and as a wing-back in a 3-4-3 when they had the ball. Mason also added a sixth player to their press for the game, which was Porro, to allow them to play more on the front foot.
Porro celebrates his assist against Palace in May (Craig Mercer/MB Media/Getty Images)Porro impressed in the game, setting up the goal for Harry Kane and earning praise from Mason afterwards. “He’s affected the game today with and without the ball,” Mason said. “That was the job and the task that we set him. I’m very pleased with his performance for the team, because we saw a desire to help his team-mates from a defensive point of view but also not losing that attacking threat that we wanted him to give us.”
The Athletic broke this performance down in a piece at the time, titled: “Pedro Porro has obvious strengths and weaknesses – the right system can unlock his potential.”
The right system duly arrived a few weeks later as Postecoglou took over and set about implementing a 4-3-3 with two inverted full-backs.
Advertisement
Externally, there were plenty of doubts as to whether Porro could perform one of the full-back roles, especially as he was caught out by crosses at the back post (his Achilles’ heel) in Postecoglou’s first two pre-season friendlies against West Ham United and Singapore’s Lion City Sailors.
In between those two games, though, Postecoglou was asked whether he’d be comfortable playing both Destiny Udogie and Porro as his full-backs. His response was so emphatic it is remembered by everyone who was in the room in Singapore when he said it. “If you’re asking me if those two can play at full-back, yeah absolutely,” Postecoglou said “I would love them to play full-back.”
Postecoglou and his coaches, especially Matt Wells, who looks after the defensive side of things, have since done an excellent job in helping Porro learn the role.
This supports Chieira’s view that the defensive rather than offensive side of playing as a full-back or wing-back is easier to teach. “This (Porro’s experience in playing attacking positions) was also a factor when we brought him to Sporting: the attacking quality of the full-back or wing-back is much more important than defensive ability, which can be improved more easily through coaching,” he says. “Certainly in the big five leagues, the market values this (attacking) type of profile more highly.”
And hearing Chieira speak, there are echoes now from his time at Sporting: “Pedro had a combination of characteristics that made us believe he could be a top player,” Chieira says. “He just needed a coach who understood the potential and knew how to bring it out.”
Porro brings with him other skills, such as excellent set-piece delivery that gives the team another dimension, and overall, he’s resolving a position that’s been a problem since Kieran Trippier moved to Atletico Madrid in the summer of 2019.
Serge Aurier, Matt Doherty and Emerson Royal have all tried but failed to nail it down.
Advertisement
Porro is doing just that and with so many availability issues at Spurs right now, it is especially valuable.
(Top photo: John Walton/PA Images via Getty Images)
ncG1vNJzZmismJqutbTLnquim16YvK57lGltb2lgbXxzfJFsZmppX2aEcLzEnamoZaCkv7O7jK2mrayVo7WiuYyfpqulXw%3D%3D