Victor Fernandez not able to produce a good offensive playing style because of his late entry in the club ? The absence of offense from Maniche, Derlei, Carlos Alberto and Fabiano ? The Injuries ? Deco was Porto and without him...? Let's have hope my friends, we have Diego but still no striker to finish his work
This question is being asked almost weekly. I think Porto's problems this season have more than one origin: 1st- Bad planning of the season by PdC (the Del Neri incident) 2nd- Victor Fernandez doesn't know his players and he doesn't know his tactics. (Derlei playing far on the left, only one striker, not attitude...etc.) 3rd- Injuries (Nuno Valente and Luis Fabiano could help) 4th- Bad luck (penalty missed against Estoril, L Fabiano shot on the post against Nacional, ball hiting the bar in Guimarares)
The team is very different from last season: Out- Mourinho Carvalho, Deco, Ferreira, Mendes, and Alenichev In-inexperienced youth : Diego, Fabiano, Quaresma, Postiga Valente's time away with injury is a big reason for the poor start as well.
FCP's problems are as follows: they lost one of the best CD's in the world in Carvalho they lost one of the best mid's in the world in Deco they lost one of the best rb's in the world in Ferreira (Pedro Mendes is also a big loss, but they should'nt have let him go for such little money--about 3 million, I think) They also lost Mourinho, his tactics are what made FCP a great team. Though FCP have bought some great young talent, it's takes time to gel as a team. As the season progresses, you'll see, the team will play better. Watch out for them in the next couple years......when they get good again, they'll probably have to sell their good players, just to stay afloat in Europe. It's completely circular in Portugal, they are basically the minor leagues for bigger teams....they let they talent grow in Portugal, then they snap up some great players. With their poor run in the UCL, they'll probably be out of it soon.....so they'll be able to focus on the league title.
It really isn't that simple. I do agree those were all very important players but I would say the loss of Mourinho was more relevant. Porto bought enough talent to walk all over this year's championship. What's lacking is the tactical system and the mental attitude to make it all come together.
IMO the big problem in Porto this year is the lack of a solid defense. We need an experienced and mature CB to pair with Jorge Costa and the absence of Nuno Valente is a bad thing too, worse than many people expected. Most of the bad results we had came from stupid goals that a better defense wouldn´t conceed. Estoril, Leiria, Guimaraes, Chelsea, PSG, we lost or tied all these games because of defensive mistakes. If we still had Carvalho those things wouldn´t happen and nobody would be talking about crisis even though we´re not playing well.
well Porto need a centre back and time to their players adapt to european style and portuguese style too, don't forget that some palyers are in europe for the 1st time, and players like Seitaridis doesn't speak Portuguese, so he has some adapting problems and prefers to do all by himsfelf instead the teamwork
I agree with almost everything that was said in the previous posts, there are several situations that contributed to what is happening now, i am once again going to blame PdC on this, he knew that he was going to lost the coach and several key players, he knew that several of our players would be in the Euro and others would be on the olympics, so they would come late to the pre-season, he knew that the FC Porto supporters expectations would be high, he knew what kind of coach and what kind of players took us to success in the 2 previous seasons, while knowing all this, he managed to do everything against the FC Porto spirit of that time. Hiring foreign coaches, that doesn´t knew almost nothing about our reality and the Portuguese football reality, buying players like mad, mixing all this situations with the lack of good performances of crucial players like Maniche, Costinha, Derlei and the injury of Nuno Valente and we got a problem.
It cannot be understated just how many factors come into play here. So far everyone's response to this thread has been correct. I agree that the two biggest reasons for Porto's struggles so far this season (struggles compared to Porto's high-standards) are the departure of Mourinho and the wholesale changes to the team. With so many new faces, obviously it is not the same team as last year. With all these factors going against us, we are stil at the top with Setubal and Benfica. It could have actually gotten much worse. The talent on this team is the best in Portugal, and when it finally comes together we wont be having this conversation anymore.
fair to say it but this happens to all sports team one year your on top of the world and the next your in the bottom. its not that their playing bad its a given. bad luck has struck but quaresma is the bright spot and so is diego they have a bright future.