Stephen Eustaquio

[narduch]

Starting v Shaktar in Champions League. 

Game being played in Germany 

[InglewoodJack]

Starting against Shakhtar Donetsk

https://x.com/fcporto/status/1704195851352994238?s=46&t=spIaqlQfufAO3HreB1455Q

 

Good Tuesday afternoon for Canadian soccer 

[Corazon]

His FotMob & SofaScore ratings were okay by half.  SofaScore had him with the 3rd best rating on Porto.  He was 4th overall behind Shaktar's goalie and Porto's two goal scorers.  FotMob had 3 more Porto players ahead of him but his rating was still quite good.

Didn't catch any of the game but a solid result away from home.  Bonus that he played the full game as well.

[Unnamed Trialist]

8 hours ago, Corazon said:

His FotMob & SofaScore ratings were okay by half.  SofaScore had him with the 3rd best rating on Porto.  He was 4th overall behind Shaktar's goalie and Porto's two goal scorers.  FotMob had 3 more Porto players ahead of him but his rating was still quite good.

Didn't catch any of the game but a solid result away from home.  Bonus that he played the full game as well.

Didn't watch either. The game reports say Shakhtar playing in Germany was affected by circumstances and couldn't handle Porto, even with Pepe out for yellows from last season. They rolled over them then managed the game, and were never threatened seriously. A Bola doesn't mention Eustaquio in the game reports, but gives him a 6 rating along with 5 others, behind Galeno 8 and Diogo Costa, 7. They say he was tempted to go for goal a few times like other mids, unsuccessfully, and that during a stop in play Conceiçao called him over to correct the midfield play to stymie the Ukrainians and it worked for the rest of the match.

[Unnamed Trialist]

Seems he has a powerful shot from inside the box to the far post that the keeper stopped well, m. 53… haven't seen the highlights yet.

[Kadenge]

Watched the first half only. Staq with the #6 shirt. Think he wore #46 last season? Porto's CMs seem to alternate dropping back in front of the defenders when playing out of their zone, so  not playing the typical #6 role of protecting the back line. An incredible engine and was up and down. Had at least one shot at goal but off target.  Involved on both sides of the ball. Shakhtar had a good half and scored a great goal, but Porto were clinical with their chances. Staq was steady, worked hard, solid passing. He lacks pace though in defensive recovery and needs to be paired with mids that can compensate for it and this  would also apply to CMNT.

 

 

 

 

[Bigandy]

1 hour ago, Kadenge said:

Watched the first half only. Staq with the #6 shirt. Think he wore #46 last season? Porto's CMs seem to alternate dropping back in front of the defenders when playing out of their zone, so  not playing the typical #6 role of protecting the back line. An incredible engine and was up and down. Had at least one shot at goal but off target.  Involved on both sides of the ball. Shakhtar had a good half and scored a great goal, but Porto were clinical with their chances. Staq was steady, worked hard, solid passing. He lacks pace though in defensive recovery and needs to be paired with mids that can compensate for it and this  would also apply to CMNT.

 

 

 

 

Who could we pair with him to unlock his attacking potential but also have the required physicality to cover defensively. 
1. Kone - but then we lose out on kones attacking contributions.
2. Bombito - He may not be ready yet, but hes the only real stylistic match up to unlock kone and staq......... 

[Obinna]

Just now, Bigandy said:

Who could we pair with him to unlock his attacking potential but also have the required physicality to cover defensively. 
1. Kone - but then we lose out on kones attacking contributions.
2. Bombito - He may not be ready yet, but hes the only real stylistic match up to unlock kone and staq......... 

Maybe this is what Herdman/Biello see and thus used the GC to test out the theory

He would have done enough in training to give them confidence it would work and in some respects it did work. Bombito proved valuable as a defensive cover and won tackles and got around the field. He also showed the kind of inconsistency you'd expect from a 23 year old that doesn't play CM for his club. I have been harsh on him, but it's not his fault he was put in the position and I admit I was pleasently surprised at some of his contributions going forward from midfield too. My issue at the time was with the coaching staff for gambling like that in the group stage. Had we gone 3-0 I would have cared far less, but we squeeked into the knockouts which was not good enough even considering the weakened team we called up. 

[Obinna]

@Bigandy I would also say that Loturi seems to have the legs, mobility and ball playing abilities to be at least number 3 on your list, if not number 2, which is why it saddened me not to see him get more minutes. I would have loved to see half of Bombito's CM minutes go to Loturi, just to see what he can do. 

Ultimately though the coaching staff saw them both in training and went Bombito. Who am I to criticize that? Bombito does provide ball winning in the air that Loturi simply cannot. Maybe that was the deciding factor. Loturi never really got enough time to assess where he should fit in the pool, same as Zator. All we know about those Calgary boys is that both are playing regularly at decent levels in Europe. Below the MLS, but they are playing more than Bombito and playing in their respective positions. 

[sebdeserio]

25 minutes ago, Obinna said:

@Bigandy I would also say that Loturi seems to have the legs, mobility and ball playing abilities to be at least number 3 on your list, if not number 2, which is why it saddened me not to see him get more minutes. I would have loved to see half of Bombito's CM minutes go to Loturi, just to see what he can do. 

Ultimately though the coaching staff saw them both in training and went Bombito. Who am I to criticize that? Bombito does provide ball winning in the air that Loturi simply cannot. Maybe that was the deciding factor. Loturi never really got enough time to assess where he should fit in the pool, same as Zator. All we know about those Calgary boys is that both are playing regularly at decent levels in Europe. Below the MLS, but they are playing more than Bombito and playing in their respective positions. 

Loturi looks to have lost his starting role recently starting the first 3 league games then coming off the bench for a 4th and not seeing the pitch for the 5th.

[Bigandy]

41 minutes ago, Obinna said:

@Bigandy I would also say that Loturi seems to have the legs, mobility and ball playing abilities to be at least number 3 on your list, if not number 2, which is why it saddened me not to see him get more minutes. I would have loved to see half of Bombito's CM minutes go to Loturi, just to see what he can do. 

Ultimately though the coaching staff saw them both in training and went Bombito. Who am I to criticize that? Bombito does provide ball winning in the air that Loturi simply cannot. Maybe that was the deciding factor. Loturi never really got enough time to assess where he should fit in the pool, same as Zator. All we know about those Calgary boys is that both are playing regularly at decent levels in Europe. Below the MLS, but they are playing more than Bombito and playing in their respective positions. 

I'm not 100% sure that loturi is stylistically compatible... Positionally speaking he is. However, he feels very similar to a poor mans staq with maybe less attacking upside or even comparable to piette. I dont think he has the speed to recover/slow down counters. He feels more quick than a guy who can run channels, where as bombito feels the opposite.  

[Obinna]

3 minutes ago, Bigandy said:

I'm not 100% sure that loturi is stylistically compatible... Positionally speaking he is. However, he feels very similar to a poor mans staq with maybe less attacking upside or even comparable to piette. I dont think he has the speed to recover/slow down counters. He feels more quick than a guy who can run channels, where as bombito feels the opposite.  

For sure. Loturi seems to be more like a Piette replacement or a poor-man's Eustaquio than Bombito. I also agree Bombito has the physical profile to slow down counters relative to someone like Loturi. If you just want someone with legs who is defensive minded but can actually play forward I think Loturi could be an option. Having another guy in there with legs can compensate for Eustaquio to a degree, but it is worrying that he's lost his spot at Ross County. 

[Bigandy]

11 minutes ago, Obinna said:

For sure. Loturi seems to be more like a Piette replacement or a poor-man's Eustaquio than Bombito. I also agree Bombito has the physical profile to slow down counters relative to someone like Loturi. If you just want someone with legs who is defensive minded but can actually play forward I think Loturi could be an option. Having another guy in there with legs can compensate for Eustaquio to a degree, but it is worrying that he's lost his spot at Ross County. 

I agree. Loturi is another option in our midfield but I think both choiniere and kone cover more ground than loturi. All 3 seem to be options to help staq in a double pivot, but I love the idea of having a rodri/casemiro type player that frees up staq and kone to do whatever they want. 

[DeRo_Is_King]

Starts for Porto vs Gil Vicente. 

[PegCityCam]

Winner in extra time.

 

 

[Corazon]

Two weeks ago, this forum is panicking over him resting for a start.  He comes back with a full 90 minute performance on a huge road win in Champions League and then follows it up with a man of the match performance and game winner in extra time a few days later.

I had checked my phone app around 70 minutes when it was 1-1 and he already had a very high rating at that point.  FotMob gave him a final rating of 8.6.  Only Ivan Jaime and Wendell had above 8.0 on the app for the game.  On SofaScore, he was also the highest rated at 8.5.  Ivan Jaime was 8.3 and Wendell was 7.9 and no one else on the field aside the Vicente keeper had a score above 7.3 rating.

[DeRo_Is_King]

Happy for Stacks. Does so well to get a head to it. 

[narduch]

Starting v Benfica

[Unnamed Trialist]

He played 90…they took a dumb red around m.20 and tried to hold in, but Di María scored mid 2nd half, 1-0. 

They'll be nervous after that.

Sporting, that crappy club most here think Lucas Días is wasting his time at, can go top if they win this weekend.

[Shway]

I don't think anyone said the club is crappy but that he's wasting his time because he's going up and down. But if UT says it, then it must be true.

[Unnamed Trialist]

30 minutes ago, Shway said:

I don't think anyone said the club is crappy but that he's wasting his time because he's going up and down. But if UT says it, then it must be true.

I'm glad I blocked you, you're a net zero contributor to the board.

[Shway]

1 hour ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

I'm glad I blocked you, you're a net zero contributor to the board.

The irony in so many ways....

I'm still trying to find where "the most here" said Sporting is a "crappy" or bad club...

But again if you say it, it must be factual truth that everyone should adhere too. 

[Obinna]

3 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

He played 90…they took a dumb red around m.20 and tried to hold in, but Di María scored mid 2nd half, 1-0. 

They'll be nervous after that.

Sporting, that crappy club most here think Lucas Días is wasting his time at, can go top if they win this weekend.

Sporting are a great club, which is why it's too bad Dias is not getting a first team chance there.

[Unnamed Trialist]

27 minutes ago, Obinna said:

Sporting are a great club, which is why it's too bad Dias is not getting a first team chance there.

The level is too high, the jump up is too large for most younger players. It is just a touch under Porto: do folks think we have u-20 prospects who should be playing with Eustaquio?

But the fact that they still think he is worthy to be in their system, that is all the vote of confidence I need. 

[Obinna]

5 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

The level is too high, the jump up is too large for most younger players. It is just a touch under Porto: do folks think we have u-20 prospects who should be playing with Eustaquio?

But the fact that they still think he is worthy to be in their system, that is all the vote of confidence I need. 

Yeah they think he is still worthy to be in their system....for now.