Tottenham Hotspur loanee Souza is still waiting for his first competitive minutes at FC Porto.
The Brazilian has been getting some football behind the scenes. He even featured in a training match against Académica on Sunday morning.
For now, though, manager Francesco Farioli isn’t ready to throw him straight into the first team. But there’s a pretty good reason why adapting isn’t quite straightforward. Surely Souza may need more time to fully absorb the manager’s ideas, and we dug into that.
Farioli wants something different
Souza arrived at Porto as an attacking left-back who is naturally happiest going forward on the outside. But Farioli usually asks considerably more from his full-backs in possession.
At Porto, they regularly move into central areas during the build-up, positioning themselves around the holding midfielder. That allows the wingers to keep the width and gives Porto extra bodies in midfield.
From there, the full-back has to know when to stay inside, when to support the build-up and when to attack again. There’s also a big responsibility after possession is lost, with Porto’s full-backs involved in an aggressive and carefully coordinated press.
That’s quite a lot for Souza to take in. It also represents a change from most of what he has been asked to do in his young senior career.
That kind of inverted role wasn’t really part of his development at Santos. Nor was it a major feature of the Tottenham sides he encountered under Thomas Frank, Igor Tudor or Roberto De Zerbi.
Frank and Tudor’s Spurs were considerably more direct and possession-light. De Zerbi wants far more control with the ball, but traditionally asks his full-backs to provide width or make overlapping and underlapping runs instead of permanently joining midfield.
There is one Tottenham comparison which fits a bit better: Ange Postecoglou. The Aussie often deployed both Spurs full-backs inside during possession, with the wingers staying wide.
It is a demanding job because the player suddenly receives the ball in areas and body positions very different from those of a conventional full-back. Souza never got the chance to work under him, though.
Porto aren’t rushing him
That may explain why Porto are taking their time, even with Zaidu unavailable through injury. Francisco Moura remains an option, while Farioli has also been perfectly happy using natural right-back Martim Fernandes on the left.
Martim is expected to start there against Benfica on Sunday. He also played left-back against Manchester City in Porto’s Champions League opener.
For Souza, that is probably the clearest indication of where things stand. Porto haven’t decided he isn’t ready because he lacks the attacking qualities of a left-back. They’re trying to teach him a rather different version of the position first.
After barely playing for Tottenham, he went to Portugal looking for minutes. Those minutes haven’t arrived yet, but the current international break gives him a useful chance to get closer to what Farioli wants.
