Farioli keeps faith, but Deniz Gul loses ground to Moffi at Dragão | OneFootball

When Samu suffered a serious anterior cruciate ligament injury in his right knee in the league clássico against Sporting in February, alarm bells rang at the Dragão. FC Porto lost their top scorer for the rest of the season, leaving the attack dependent on Deniz Gul and also Moffi, a reinforcement loaned by Nice until June.

The Spanish striker saw his season interrupted for several months and was also ruled out of the summer World Cup, a competition for which he would, in principle, have been called up by Spain for the tournament to be played in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Francesco Farioli always tried to project calm around the issue, showing total confidence in Deniz Gul, who had more playing routines with the team than Moffi. Even so, reality ended up showing that the Turkish international has not brought the expected firepower to Porto’s attack since Samu’s unexpected exit from the starting XI.

The workhorse without goals

Since becoming a starter to make up for Samu’s injury, Deniz Gul has gone six straight league matches without scoring a single goal or even providing an assist. The burden of replacing a goalscorer like Samu is enormous, and his performances on the pitch have not lived up to it. In the league, he has not scored since October last year.

The 21-year-old Turkish international does not seem to be making the most of the opportunities given to him by Francesco Farioli, who sees in him a technically interesting striker, hard-working in the truest sense of the word, but the numbers are clear and show a centre-forward with little scoring efficiency.

At a club of FC Porto’s stature, you need to be more clinical in front of goal, and Deniz Gul has not managed to do that, although there is nothing to criticize about his commitment to the group. Quite the opposite. It is simply a less positive spell, but the Dragons need goals to meet the objectives set at the start of the season, and they are still fighting on three fronts: the league, the Portuguese Cup and the Europa League.

When he signed his six-month loan deal with FC Porto, Francesco Farioli already knew that Moffi would arrive at the Dragão without the ideal physical condition to establish himself immediately in the team, given the problems he faced at Nice, which forced him to stop and lose competitive rhythm.

But thanks to the demanding work carried out by the Dragons’ coaching staff, Moffi improved his fitness and has already shown his usefulness at this decisive stage of the season, with two goals: the first in the hard-fought win against Arouca, deep into stoppage time, and the other in the move that paved the way for the 2-1 victory over Stuttgart in the first leg of the Europa League round of 16. Whenever he comes off the bench, the Nigerian international, who was reunited with compatriot Zaidu in the Olival dressing room, has added a lot to the blue-and-whites’ attack.

In Braga, he brought dynamism and energy to FC Porto’s attack and even provided a killer pass for Fofana to make it 1-3. The striker is thus showing signs of returning to his best and is beginning to put serious pressure on Deniz Gul in the battle for a starting place. The break in the league helped him consolidate the team’s routines, and it cannot be ruled out that he may start against Famalicão, especially since Deniz Gul was away on Turkey national team duty…

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