Midfielders with most successful dribbles in Liga NOS 15/16

Source: GoalPoint / Opta

Also, he was converting 7.7% of his 1.3 shots p/90 (92% of them from outside the box). Renato is a good long shot taker but that would always be a tough ratio to maintain. Passing-wise he has always been quite average and, with a career high 0.8 key passes per 90′ at Benfica, the last pass was for sure not his preferred mean of chance creation.

Don’t believe the hype

So, you had a player who was performing quite impressively for a 18 year old, both for Benfica and for the National Team in a similar role (perhaps an even more favourable one since he would often come off the bench against tired opposition). Unfortunately, as it happens to many young talents, he was continuously hyped up by the media as flawless when he was very much a diamond in the rough.

The pressure on him was immense and his next career move would need to be carefully considered by him and everyone around him. His performances in the Champions League (player with highest average possession recoveries per 90′) and the Euro hinted to clubs that he was ready for a major league but if you think that turning the world of a 18 year old upside down won’t affect his performances, you’re crazy. Looking back many will say he should have stayed with Benfica for another season, but they just couldn’t pass up on such immense figures. The move to Bayern was quite a questionable call, though.

Many clubs came knocking and, while the Bayern choice was justified by him with it having a “similar club culture” to Benfica, playstyle-wise it wasn’t really a match. Transitioning from their Guardiola Era, Bayern were a team that kept a lot of the ball. A team to whose central players was demanded passing ability and a high level of positional awareness. Benfica had a large portion of the ball but were more direct when in possession, allowing Renato to take the risks that make him the player he is. Outside the pitch the culture shock between Portugal and Germany was large as well.

What about time on the pitch? Well, of his grand total of six league starts, none of them occurred in back-to-back games. While he did play off the bench semi-often, he was given 10 minutes or less in 7 of those occasions. For a team that won the Bundesliga by 15 points, they could have done more for the youngster. While the argument could be made about him learning in training, the recent criticism by Bayern players on Ancelotti’s sessions make that a questionable one as well.

In a period where he would be looking for minutes to help him regain his confidence, he signed a loan deal with Swansea. Paul Clement, now Swansea manager and previously connected to Bayern, was the main influencer in the transfer, promising Premier League playtime for the Portuguese. But reducing everything to playtime is too simplistic: at this time he needed stability more than anything.

Instead, he moved to yet another country, where he is adapting to another culture – as opposed being loaned to a club in Germany where he was or in a country with more similarities to his –, in a club under tremendous pressure to perform. In midst of the world’s most valuable relegation fight, there’s no such thing as easing a player into the team – he needs to perform and is expected to do so now. Not to mention that jumping from two teams that breeze through 90% of their league, to one that takes the least amount of shots per game of their league is quite an impact as well when it comes to playstyle.

The numbers that tell the story