Rodrigo Mora at FC Porto should be a must-have | OneFootball

On Sunday, at 3:30 PM (Portuguese mainland time), FC Porto will travel to the Estádio da Madeira to face Nacional in the 22nd round of the I Liga, where Francesco Farioli will inevitably have to 'improvise' due to a series of setbacks affecting the main squad.

Nehuén Pérez, Jakub Kiwior, Martim Fernandes, Luuk de Jong, Samu Aghehowa (all injured), Francisco Moura, and William Gomes (both suspended) are "out of the picture," so for Rui Quinta, former assistant coach of the Dragons during the 'Vítor Pereira era,' Rodrigo Mora should be a mandatory option.

"If there's a player at FC Porto capable of finding a way out for the team to succeed in the smallest space, that player is Rodrigo Mora," stated the current coach of South Korea's Chungbuk Cheongju, in an interview with the 'Bola Branca' program on Rádio Renascença.

"I'm not talking about players running, but players finding spaces, creating plays, seeing things that others can't see in fractions of a second, there aren't many. For me, it should be a constitutional requirement that players of this quality should always be in the game, in spaces that favor them," he added.

Rui Quinta admitted that the trip to Choupana could be "a good opportunity for Deniz Gul to calm down and better understand the moments, the 'timings,' and how to connect with what the game demands." Nevertheless, he did not rule out that the replacement for Samu Aghehowa might be the winter signing Terem Moffi.

"Sometimes, it's also in these moments that situations arise with players who aren't well-known, who aren't highly referenced, and they can cause some surprise. The appearance of an unknown player can also be a factor of some destabilization for the opposing team," he reflected.

"FC Porto knows perfectly well that as long as they win their games, there is no concern about who is behind"

To conclude, the 65-year-old coach pointed to FC Porto as the favorite for the national title, despite having lost five points in the last two rounds, allowing the second-placed Sporting to reduce the gap to four points from the top spot.

"For a team that wants to be champion, all games are high-risk, but we can also think that it's an opportunity to use the next game to show a sign of revolt, that we are hurt, that we want to demonstrate our quality and, at the same time, mark our position in the journey that has kept us in first place," he mentioned.

"FC Porto knows perfectly well that as long as they win their games, there is no concern about who is behind, so the problem is with us, and the resolution of the problem is always with us," concluded the coach from Minho, whose career includes stints at Penafiel, Paços de Ferreira, Paredes, Aliados Lordelo, Gil Vicente, Vizela, Sporting de Espinho, Lusitânia de Lourosa, Salgueiros, and Flamengo.

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