Champions League Round of 16: Porto v Arsenal

[Diesel]

Ode Pepe bowl gonna be so obvious

 

[ThisFather]

Imagine we go out to Porto...

We end up 5th...

And we don't get champions league 5th extra place because we contributed to wrecking the coefficients for the league

Hope not

 

[Riou]

Imagine we go out to Porto...

We end up 5th...

And we don't get champions league 5th extra place because we contributed to wrecking the coefficients for the league

Hope not

Would be bad, but if that's what happens then Arteta has to pay the price.

We aren't United or Liverpool level either, so we aren't too big a club for the Europa...wouldn't mid trying to win that.

 

[Farzad Stoned]

As an FC Porto fan and considering the team's performance this season as well as the instability inside the club I cannot imagine a world where Arsenal doesn't confortably go through the next round. I prepared an analysis of the clubs's performance this season, its key players, strengths and weaknesses and the overall state of the club if anyone is interested in reading. It's a pretty big text, sorry in advance !

This year's performance:

Speaking solely about this season, Porto is playing what most consider to be the worst football from Sérgio Conceição's seven year tenure as the club's head coach and numberwise the team has some of the worst, if not the worst, goal scoring and goal conceding statistics from the last 20 years.

Porto lost every match against any team with a similar profile, having just recently lost 2-0 against Sporting in a game that could have easily ended 4-0 if not for some sketchy VAR decisions that ended up benefiting Porto. And before that Porto lost 2-0 against Benfica in the Supercup, in a game where Benfica showed supeiority most of the time and this Benfica team is not even remotely close to being as good as last year's team. Finally Porto also lost 1-0 at Estádio da Luz for the Portuguese League and that was the only game where Porto seemed capable of stealing some points.

Elsewhere Porto got knocked out of the Portuguese League Cup by a small team (Estoril) and this same team also defeated Porto in the Portuguese League. The team's performance has been better in the Champion's League, but winning against Antwerp and one of the weakest Shakhtar sides ever isn't much to brag about. Barcelona is having a middling season and was capable of winning both games against Porto.

Players to watch for:

It is getting progressively difficult to find talent in Porto's squad as the years go by, but I would say that some key players are:

- Diogo Costa: he has cemented himself as both Porto and Portugal's starter goalkeeper. Has saved Porto countless times from worse results both last season and this season. His only fault is ocasionally spacing out on a few games during a season and commiting a rough mistake that sometimes leads to the team conceding a goal, but he has been getting better each season as is still only 24 years old. Widely regarded as Porto's next big sale.

- Pepe: Nearly 41 year old Pepe is STILL Porto's best centre back and by far the most consistent player in the defence. Sure, this shows the lack of quality that the squad has in the back, but he's still a leader and whenever he is out injured Porto's defense struggles immensely and the difference that he makes when he is available is very noticeable.

- Alan Varela: a new signing for this season. The 22 year old defensive midfielder arrived from Boca Juniors and rapidly gained a spot in the main 11. He is extremely consistent and provides the team with some much needed stability in the midfield. He is also capable of starting plays and is technically gifted. A player to watch for in the future.

Weaknesses and strengths

Porto has a HUGE problem in the back. With Marcano, the centre back, injured for the rest of the season and Pepe not being able to help every game due to struggling with physical problems every 3 games or so, Conceição has experimented giving the substitutes Fábio Cardozo and David Carmo opportunities in the starting eleven, but both have failed tremendously at grabbing this opportunity, leading the Porto coach to try and find replacements in the youth team, without any success.

The full backs Zaidu, Wendel, João Mário and Sanchez are all sore spots for Porto fans. They all struggle in certain areas and show severe weaknesses either defending or attacking. I would say the best out of the 4 is Joáo Mário, as he is very competent in attack, but has extreme limitations while defending. A player like Cancelo completely demolished Joáo Mário when Porto played at Camp Nou.

I would say Porto's main strength is the competitiveness that the coach instills in the squad and demands from each and every player. The team usually overperforms in the Champions's League and the players usually give their all in these big games, covering some of the weaknesses of the squad with this spirit. Conceição is also an extremely tactically proficient manager and usually finds some weakness to be exploited in the opposition.

Financial problems and the weakening of the squad:

Porto's financial problems have started over 10 years ago and a long period of scrutiny under the UEFA Financial Fair-Play have resulted in heavy disinvestment on the squad. The club is in the brink of bankruptcy and every season struggles to fulfil its financial obligations and is heavily dependant on the sale of key players to be able to escape non-complicance with the UEFA Fair-play rules.

Porto has always been a club that depends on the sale of its best players, but in the past it was capable of renewing its ranks with players that showed high potential to be groomed into future big sales. This has not been the case anymore, the disinvestment coupled with the signing of many players that flopped have resulted in a squad that keeps getting weaker and more imbalanced every season. It is no exageration to say that some of the players that are currently playing on Porto's main eleven (looking at the defence mostly) would have no chance to slot in any Premier League team.

With the squad getting weaker every season and the challenge of getting results becoming more insurmountable most Porto fans agree that Sérgio Conceição is a non-issue at the club and has been performing miracles by reaching the round of 16 in the Champion's League almost every season and being capable of challenging a much more stable and financially capable Benfica side. Conceição has done this by instilling a spirit of extreme competitiveness in the squad and keeping a very disciplined group at his side, but there's only so much spirit and discpline can compensate for the lack of quality player.

Internal turmoil and chaos:

As you would expect, all the financial problems at the club have resulted in growing dissatisfaction amongst the Porto fans. To make things worse the club has let many quality players leave on a free transfer, showing time and time again inability to renew contracts and to make matters worse an even bigger inability to sell and recover some of the investment made on players that flopped.

The most recent example is David Carmo, a player Porto ended up spending 20M euros to sign and to give you a better perspective, for Porto spending 20M on a player is something super rare, it's like Arsenal spending over 100M on a signing. This player has been a complete flop over 2 seasons and has been recently demoted to the youth team on the basis of disciplinary reasons. Now, this signing was viewed as a recipe for disaster by most fans and time is proving them right.

Pinto da Costa has been Porto's president for nearly 40 years and the club has lived through a period of extreme success over these decades, but the president is now nearly 90 years old and most Porto fans believe it is time for a change. The belief is that Pinto da Costa doesn't seem to be in charge anymore and the people that took control of the reins in his stead don't have the club's success as the highest priority anymore and have their own agenda instead. These people have been greatly benefiting from commissions for the purchase of players that nobody understands and as they rot in the B team, it becomes apparent that they were only purchased to satisfy some kind of hidden agenda and to allow agents and people at the c
lub to get some kind of payment.

The 2024 elections

At the centre of next year's elections is André Villas-Boas who has heavily criticized the club's leadership and has already announced that he will compete with Pinto da Costa for next year's presidency. This announcement coupled with the state of the club's finances has increased the desire to see change amongst the Porto fans and this faction has been gaining ground as the problems pile up and become harder and harder to brush away.

The unrest and instability led to an episode of altercations between Porto Ultras, who benefit from Pinto da Costa staying at the club, and other members at a general assembly to discuss the approvement of the club's budget. This episode was followed by cases of vandalism at the main entrance of Villas-Boas's house and the assault of the condominium's caretaker.

It is safe to say that much rests on the results of the Porto team this year as big change could be coming to the club after 4 decades of Pinto da Costa's reign.

We got a congenital bottler in charge. He may play Havertz at left Wingback. Assuming your manager isn’t blithering idiot or blackout drunk; advantage Porto in that match up. You sound like you know football, stay tuned to the clown show Arteta’s cooking up for the rest of our season, we might beat you guys but this thing is coming apart fast. Mik is the first performance comic doing football management

 

[Batman]

Imagine we go out to Porto...

We end up 5th...

And we don't get champions league 5th extra place because we contributed to wrecking the coefficients for the league

Hope not

 

[DJ_Markstar]

Would be bad, but if that's what happens then Arteta has to pay the price.

We aren't United or Liverpool level either, so we aren't too big a club for the Europa...wouldn't mid trying to win that.

United have been ****ter than us for 2 years now bruh, gonna be a long time before they're on our level since they can't just outspend everyone anymore.

 

[Riou]

United have been ****ter than us for 2 years now bruh, gonna be a long time before they're on our level since they can't just outspend everyone anymore.

I meant historically, they are in tier A and we are tier B...we are better than United as a team right now though.

 

[DJ_Markstar]

I meant historically, they are in tier A and we are tier B...we are better than United as a team right now though.

Arsenal a "Tier B" club? Are you serious? 3rd most English league titles and most FA Cups, that's definitely the top tier. We do need to add a CL to that list though.

Tier B is your big but not massive clubs like Sp**s, Everton, Aston Villa etc.

 

[Riou]

Arsenal a "Tier B" club? Are you serious? 3rd most English league titles and most FA Cups, that's definitely the top tier. We do need to add a CL to that list though.

Tier B is your big but not massive clubs like Sp**s, Everton, Aston Villa etc.

No, I meant Tier B when you include all European clubs... that's how I judge teams.

Tier A...Madrid, Barca, United, Liverpool, Bayern, Milan etc.

We are in with the likes of... Valencia, Atletico, Dortmund, etc.

 

[bergholt]

No, I meant Tier B when you include all European clubs... that's how I judge teams.

Tier A...Madrid, Barca, United, Liverpool, Bayern, Milan etc.

We are in with the likes of... Valencia, Atletico, Dortmund, etc.

Unfortunately true. Need to win a couple of CLs to bump ourselves up.

 

[Farzad Stoned]

Does anyone honestly believe we got a chance at league or CL regardless of whether we get by this favorable draw? I don’t get the feeling even the most optimistic fans think we can win anything this year. AM sounds already resigned to a 4th place battle and a trophyless season

 

[Rex Stone]

Please update this thread with the date.

I’m too lazy to check please and thanks.

Mod Edit: Wednesday February 21 and Tuesday March 12

 

[GDeep™]

Please update this thread with the date.

I’m too lazy to check please and thanks.

Feb, 21.

 

[Bucephalus]

Does anyone honestly believe we got a chance at league or CL regardless of whether we get by this favorable draw? I don’t get the feeling even the most optimistic fans think we can win anything this year. AM sounds already resigned to a 4th place battle and a trophyless season

Yes (and Porto isn't even that favorable a draw, though we should win). Real and City are the only two clubs I don't think we can't beat over two legs, and we've shown we can now beat City in a one-off. Sure, Bayern and Barca are historical demons for us, but they're the least scary they've been in years. I'm not saying it will happen, but if draws go right and we fade City/Real until the final, it could happen.

 

[GDeep™]

Yes (and Porto isn't even that favorable a draw, though we should win). Real and City are the only two clubs I don't think we can't beat over two legs, and we've shown we can now beat City in a one-off. Sure, Bayern and Barca are historical demons for us, but they're the least scary they've been in years. I'm not saying it will happen, but if draws go right and we fade City/Real until the final, it could happen.

City, Real, Bayern, Arsenal for me. Rest of Europe look too weak. Though anything can happen, luck etc.

 

[GDeep™]

I would say our previous Arsenal sides would make CL finals in the current climate.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

I don't think we can chat to Real, City, Bayern tbh. Get any one of them and I think it's very unlikely we get past them. PSG are a mess but holy **** I don't want to imagine White up against Mbappe all game.

Tho let's not count our chickens yet. We've lost to Oympiacos, Villarreal and Sporting in knockout competitions under Mik we shouldn't really be overlooking Porto at all, I'd assume Porto is at least equal to those sides.

 

[Rex Stone]

Think we’d need an incredibly jammy run to go all the way tbh.

Would need major upsets with say City and Real getting bounced early while we got Dortmund then say Inter in the semi finals before a final against someone manageable like Barca or Napoli.

 

[jones]

No, I meant Tier B when you include all European clubs... that's how I judge teams.

Tier A...Madrid, Barca, United, Liverpool, Bayern, Milan etc.

We are in with the likes of... Valencia, Atletico, Dortmund, etc.

United are firmly tier B at this point, their couple wins are as relevant as Ajax or Forest's titles at this point. Embarrassed and disgraced them too much last 10+ years to be rated top tier.

 

[Farzad Stoned]

Yes (and Porto isn't even that favorable a draw, though we should win). Real and City are the only two clubs I don't think we can't beat over two legs, and we've shown we can now beat City in a one-off. Sure, Bayern and Barca are historical demons for us, but they're the least scary they've been in years. I'm not saying it will happen, but if draws go right and we fade City/Real until the final, it could happen.

I think we can’t beat Bayern, Real, City or PSg. As someone else said our fullbacks are total garbage and want Mbappe nowhere near them.