William Gomes pushes Borja Sainz for starting spot | OneFootball

He arrived, made his mark, and secured a spot in the starting eleven. After just three games, Borja Sainz already had two goals and an assist. Present in 13 official matches for FC Porto—12 of them as a starter—the 24-year-old Spanish winger is seeing a drop in performance, especially in finishing: in the last 10 matches, he has only registered one assist. During this period, William Gomes’s good form is putting his starting place at risk.

Also in terms of goal involvement, whether scoring or assisting, the 19-year-old Brazilian has been gaining ground. In 10 matches this season—none played in full and only three as a starter—the former São Paulo player has scored four goals and provided one assist.

In the match against Moreirense, Francesco Farioli substituted him at halftime. Although the Spaniard was hampered by a yellow card that leaves him at risk of suspension, the introduction of William Gomes and moving Pepê to the left wing brought more dynamism to the team, which ended up turning the result around.

Borja Sainz also has defensive qualities, but his offensive numbers have not been encouraging—something surprising considering that, last season with Norwich, he was the second top scorer in the Championship. He is the FC Porto player with the most shots in Liga Portugal Betclic (23), but his conversion rate of 8.7% places him only 11th in that ranking.

Another weapon of the Spaniard is dribbling, but his success rate is the lowest among the most-used attacking trio: 46.43% for Borja, 55% for Pepê, and 53.85% for Samu.

According to Opta data for the league, excluding blocked shots, Borja has 52.9% of his shots on target, while William Gomes rises to 55.56%. In this aspect, both are well ahead of Pepê (37.5%).

The data is out there and, as usual, Francesco Farioli will have the final say.

Even though he has started in only three of the ten matches he has played this season, William Gomes is the under-20 Brazilian with the most goals among clubs in the top 10 European leagues. With four goals in 2025/26, the former São Paulo player surpasses, for example, Estêvão of Chelsea, who has scored three goals in 13 matches. This is a notable statistic that William aims to improve.

Borja Sainz was the first Porto player to reach four yellow cards in the league, thus being at risk of suspension. In the editorial of Dragões magazine, André Villas‑Boas criticized the inconsistency in penalty decisions, comparing what was not given for Gül against Benfica with what was awarded in Moreira de Cónegos for Froholdt. According to Record, there is another concern within the club’s football structure: the relationship between fouls committed and yellow cards. The Dragons already have 25 yellows (5th place) and only 124 fouls committed (12th place). In the next round, FC Porto faces Sp. Braga, the team with the fewest fouls and yellow cards.

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