André Silva ( F.C Porto)

Name: André Miguel Valente Silva

Nationality: Portugal
Age: 1995-11-06 (17 years old)
Position: Winger / Striker
Foot preference: Right
Height: 182 cm
Weight: 70 kg

Stats:

Porto:
U-19: 2012/2013 with 31 games and 28 goals

National Team:

Portugal U-17: 2011/2012 with 5 games (391 minutes) and 1 goal
Portugal U-19: 2012/2013 with 3 games (99 minutes)

My opinion:

Coming out of Porto’s youth teams, a lot of good prospects are expected to do great things as they already show an enormous amount of talent. Names as Gonçalo Paciencia, Belinha, Rafa, Fréderic Maciel, Ivo Rodrigues and obviously, the player that I am about to present, André Silva, are players that any Porto fan is anxious to see with the white and blue jersey on.

This team is mostly constituted by 18 year old players, which are playing in the Portuguese U-19 championship and can still win the title.

About this player now,
André Silva was a central forward during all his youth career, but now he arrived at the U-19 squad where Gonçalo Panciência is the holder of this position and because of this, the coach decided to make a winger out of André. And this way creating one of the most deadly combos, strength, speed and scoring.

André Silva, is a beast, incredibly fast and strong, probably not the most evolved player, technically (he is not that great of a dribbler) but his speed make him a player that can unbalance a team at any time of the game.

A strong example of this is the number of goals he scores at the last 10 minutes of the game, always present and available to score one more goal or to help his team get the 3 points at the final push. Never gives up, looks like a great kid and a talented one.

But, it’s not all roses… He had to adapt at a new position on the pitch, and even if he made a great season and showed his capacities, there are still so many things that he has to do better. Unlike other wingers that I already talked about, his biggest issue is to know “when to do what”. Most of the times he holds on to the ball too much, pass it when he should go for the goal, run when he should pass and so on… But, personally, my biggest “problem” with him is that he likes to dribble everybody before taking a shot at the goal, and as he is not the best dribbler, he loses the ball many times this way.

I am really looking forward to see more from him at Porto, as you will, after watching the video I will post.

I can see him develop in a strong winger or a second striker. The” game” nowadays demands speed and physical abilities; he has both, and just has to keep growing. And he has a “Hulkish” kind of way to play, that all people that like former Porto player, Hulk enjoy seeing. Attention, I am not saying he is like the Brazilian player, or that he is the next Hulk, I will never say something like that, they just share some type of movements and competences.