Without Samu, FC Porto strikers' output drops alarmingly low | OneFootball

Frustration. It is the term that best sums up the mood revealed by Francesco Farioli in the aftermath of the match against Nottingham Forest, after FC Porto recorded their second straight draw at the Estádio do Dragão. The Italian coach was clearly disappointed, above all with the team’s poor attacking efficiency, recalling the “four or five chances” missed in the first half alone: “When we waste many chances, the killer instinct disappears.” Farioli avoided directly criticizing the forwards, but the reality is that the performances of Terem Moffi and Deniz Gül once again fell short of expectations.

Game after game, the crisis up front is becoming more evident, and it is getting harder and harder to hide the discontent coming from the stands. In this match, whistles were already heard for Moffi, who missed two good chances to score, while Gül also failed to do better with the only opportunity he had. And it is not just a matter of impression. The numbers clearly show what the dragons’ attacking sector was like before and after the injury to Samu. With the Spaniard on the pitch, the team’s attacking contribution percentage stood at 36.7%, with 25 goals scored out of the team’s total of 68. Samu scored 20 goals, Gül got four, and Luuk de Jong scored one.

Since Samu got injured, that figure has dropped sharply to 10.5%. In practical terms, the strikers have come to account for only a small share of the team’s overall output. Of the 19 goals scored by the dragons since then, only two were the responsibility of the men up front. Moffi scored against Arouca and in Stuttgart, while Deniz Gül has still not found the net again since Samu’s injury.

“We cannot deny the fact that we have been without Samu for more than a month and without Luuk [de Jong] for almost the entire season. If we look at our opponents and imagine Benfica or Sporting without their main forwards, Pavlidis or Suárez, of course they would feel the absence of something. We miss Samu,” Farioli recalled in the build-up to the home match against Famalicão.

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