Jorge Amaral: “FC Porto’s attack lacks firepower” | OneFootball

FC Porto wrapped up their run of pre-season friendlies on Sunday morning with a narrow win over São João de Ver in a behind-closed-doors match. With Francesco Farioli putting the finishing touches on preparations for the official start of the 2026/27 season, there has been one common thread in all the warm-up matches played: the inconsistency shown by the defence.

Unlike the previous season, when the defensive unit was crucial to the Dragons’ title win, pre-season has been marked by goals conceded in all six matches played. Even so, Jorge Amaral does not believe the situation is cause for alarm.

Speaking exclusively to Desporto ao Minuto, the former FC Porto player said he is more concerned about the team’s attacking output. In his view, some defensive flaws can be corrected as the season unfolds and as routines are built within a more settled starting eleven.

“Conceding a goal to a team like Aston Villa, and in the way it happened, is worth what it’s worth. For example, conceding a goal like the one they conceded against Gil Vicente... if that had happened with a normal FC Porto team, it would be a cause for concern because they are basic, childish mistakes. That would be worrying. They conceded against Gil Vicente in the final phase of the match, with no full-backs left and the whole team completely disjointed. I think it’s a bit irrelevant,” he said.

“The problem is if they are repeated mistakes caused by a specific flaw in one area, a lack of pressing, a lack of positioning. If that is the case, then the coaching staff following this pre-season has to be concerned. For us on the outside, I think what matters is that when things start to get serious, the team feels like it has a solid foundation, and it should have one because it is practically last year’s team, it should. Defensively, the first people to start pressing are the ones up front. Maybe there are details in that kind of pressing that are not happening. In this pre-season, I don’t think that’s too worrying because coaches want to see new things, they are trying out new situations. I think that’s irrelevant and not too concerning, but it’s something to keep an eye on,” he stressed.

Following the success achieved in 2025/26, Jorge Amaral admits that the blue-and-white squad may be playing with a certain degree of overconfidence, even if unintentionally.

“When it came together last season, this team had new players discovering a lot of new things, with a great ability to absorb everything they were being given and perhaps with much higher levels of concentration. It is very natural that, after a season like the one they had, there may be some relaxation that is not intentional. They see that things went well and that now, certainly, things will go well again,” he said firmly.

“The team is practically the same, there isn’t much that is new, they already know what needs to be done, and then the players sometimes forget that there has to be continuity from what happened last year. Now they have to maintain this modus operandi of a team that really cannot afford to fail,” he added.

The former footballer also praised FC Porto’s goalkeepers, although he acknowledged that the absence of Diogo Costa during preparations deprived the squad of an important leadership voice.

“Just changing the goalkeeper in practically every game is enough for that to happen, and that is not questioning Cláudio Ramos, João Costa, or whoever it may be. You just have to take out one piece who is a leader and who is part of the team’s diamond. It is very important for the team to know who they have behind them. The goals conceded have not had anything to do with the goalkeepers; they are more related to details, to lower levels of concentration at the moment of action in the game, when one player or another may make an individual mistake and the team may fail to function collectively,” Jorge Amaral pointed out.

With the transfer window still open for more than a month, the former player believes the Dragons’ attack needs to be strengthened with greater finishing ability.

“Even with the arrival of André Silva, I think one of the areas where FC Porto is having great difficulty, and they already had it last year from the moment Samu left, is the lack of firepower inside the box, of overwhelming teams and creating lots of goalscoring chances. For me, what’s missing is for the wingers to give more dimension to the team’s play on the ball than they do defensively. The wide players give that dimension to the game off the ball, but with the ball that dimension is not always there. They translate it into a lot of work rate and mutual support, but then, perhaps because they have such a great capacity for work and to fight for the ball, in that moment when everything has to be decided, when they have to think, things turn out differently,” the former Portugal international noted.

“I would like to see more of Gabri Veiga and Rodrigo Mora using their greater technical ability rather than always chasing the ball. FC Porto are missing fire, that attacking nastiness to bombard the opposition with lots of shots. If you ask me what I think is missing, that’s it. Do these players have the ability? I think they do, but that box predator — I hope André Silva, and I think he was an excellent signing, can bring that when the matches start to really matter and we begin to see different things,” he concluded.

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