“FC Porto’s vision is non-negotiable, we are a winning club” | OneFootball

FC Porto’s vision is non-negotiable. We are a winning club. At the entrance to our Training Centre there is a phrase that says, “we love those who hate losing!”, and that is the foundation of everything. More than 4-3-3 or 4-4-2, the values are non-negotiable. Without those values, you may have fantastic technique, but it will be difficult to survive in our academy, because the priorities are very clearly defined.” The statement was made by João Brandão, coach of FC Porto’s B team, in an interview with the newspaper AS.

The Spanish sports daily spoke to the 43-year-old coach as part of the feature “How is a Vitinha developed?”, a lengthy article that revisits the origins of the midfielder trained at Olival, and João Brandão began by making it clear: “There is only one Vitinha. There is only one Rodrigo Mora and there is only one Rúben Neves. We have to understand that uniqueness, and it is dangerous to want one kid to be a copy of another. That does not exist in football.”

Although they all have “a very similar profile, based on combination play, intelligence and the use of space, each one maintains his originality” and, “in a game that is becoming increasingly static, when each player manages to maximize what he does very well, that has incalculable value,” explains the coach, convinced that “the most important thing is to create the ideal context for each player.”

“If we talk about Vitinha or the next talents coming through FC Porto, like Rodrigo Mora or Mateus Mide, it is interesting that they all have something very similar, which is FC Porto’s values. They are very competitive, passionate about the game and about the Club,” adds João Brandão, for whom “the FC Porto environment is ideal for developing combination players, with lots of decisions and actions.”

“Understanding the game is important”; even so, the B-team coach stresses that young players “must not stop taking advantage of intuition.” “That is the main objective: to make use of intuition in moments that only the player on the pitch can see. If the team does not bring out players as good as Vitinha, like Mora or like Mide, then something is wrong,” details the coach, convinced that “diversity in the squad is necessary.”

Asked about the connection between FC Porto’s different teams, João Brandão was emphatic: “This season we had 27 juniors training with us and there were 19 juniors or B-team players who trained with the first-team squad. Even when they are prepared, they face difficulties because the level of the first team is very high. In elite football there is no time or patience.”

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.