I watched NOS League a couple of times in connection with our renewed interest in Bruno, including the match with Benfica, and I was literally horrified at how bad the league actually was. In general, I probably suffer quite a lot from a "PL fan syndrome", but it was a jump of at least two levels down. Half of the chances in the match with Benfica came after the defenders just passed it directly to the opponent's feet. Bruno at that match made one or two excellent passes, but also kept the ball for too long many times and lost it because of that. Generally I have not seen any differences between the NOS league and the Czech League (my country), only Benfica was a pretty decent team (out of 6-7 I saw) and I actually liked their striker Vinícius - he was fast, strong, always looking forward and pretty decent with the ball.
Looking from distance, we brought Rojo, Dalot or Lindelof from this league and we cannot say that the players were nothing more than beyond average (Lindelof not even that), even though they looked good when they came. In summer, Joao Felix left Benfica for 126 million euros for Atletico Madrid after he scored 15 goals in 26 games and having also 9 assists. This year in Madrid he scored just two goals and has one assist for 17 matches. For example if you lookat the Players of the Season in the Portuguese league for the last few years, you cannot be so optimistic either.
Bruno, Pizzi, Jonas, Enzo Peres, Nemanja Matic, Hulk, David Luiz, Bruno Alves, Lisandro Lopes, Simao Sabrosa, Quaresma (this is already the 05/06 season). I actually never heard of the good half of those players and those I know did not have huge succes in top leagues anyway except Matič and Luiz (althoug I dont rate him as a defedner at all).
Most of the successful players who came from the Portuguese League spent only a small amount of time there and their way to the big club came after they showed their quality elsewhere ( f. e. Bernardo Silva, James Rodriguez and so on.). Diego Jota, who we all know, also had nice stats in Portugal, but Wolves bought him while they were in Championship and he is not some proven striker anyway (3 goals in 20 games this season while Wolves are playing for EL).
On the other hand, you can get a great player from Portugal who immediately stars at the highest level, such as di Mária, Falcao and when I mentioned Wolves, Raul Jimenez, who came from Braga. So we have to hope that Bruno is in the second category.
It is pretty clear that Bruno is by far the best Sporting player, but I will be careful with his assessment. He's a good football player, I guess there's no need to argue on this one and you can be only better than players you actually play with or against, but I think he'll need time to adapt and world class rating (I already saw that on the internet) is something he really needs to deserve in the future and it is too soon to even think about him as a world class. He is the most expensice transfer after Jooa Felix so he will need to work really hard to fullfill expectations which comes with the prize tag like this one (hello Pogba, Maguire, AWB and so on). Weird thing is that no one else was interested in him (no, Barcelona was not intersted for sure, Medes played us and I am glad he did), not even two years ago, when he tried to terminate his contract with Sporting after that attack from fans. And his cameo in Udinese and Sampdoria was nothing to talk about.
Anyway, I'm really happy that he is here, because he simply cannot be worse than Lingard is, but he will need a big amount of time for adaptation and he needs to do a big step to be considered as good as he was in Portugal while playing in Englad. I think his biggest impact this season might come in EL rather than in PL, because EL´s level is different and it could suit him perfectly.
And with god blessing, Poch will manage him from the start of the next season. :-)
Looking from distance, we brought Rojo, Dalot or Lindelof from this league and we cannot say that the players were nothing more than beyond average (Lindelof not even that), even though they looked good when they came. In summer, Joao Felix left Benfica for 126 million euros for Atletico Madrid after he scored 15 goals in 26 games and having also 9 assists. This year in Madrid he scored just two goals and has one assist for 17 matches. For example if you lookat the Players of the Season in the Portuguese league for the last few years, you cannot be so optimistic either.
Bruno, Pizzi, Jonas, Enzo Peres, Nemanja Matic, Hulk, David Luiz, Bruno Alves, Lisandro Lopes, Simao Sabrosa, Quaresma (this is already the 05/06 season). I actually never heard of the good half of those players and those I know did not have huge succes in top leagues anyway except Matič and Luiz (althoug I dont rate him as a defedner at all).
Most of the successful players who came from the Portuguese League spent only a small amount of time there and their way to the big club came after they showed their quality elsewhere ( f. e. Bernardo Silva, James Rodriguez and so on.). Diego Jota, who we all know, also had nice stats in Portugal, but Wolves bought him while they were in Championship and he is not some proven striker anyway (3 goals in 20 games this season while Wolves are playing for EL).
On the other hand, you can get a great player from Portugal who immediately stars at the highest level, such as di Mária, Falcao and when I mentioned Wolves, Raul Jimenez, who came from Braga. So we have to hope that Bruno is in the second category.
It is pretty clear that Bruno is by far the best Sporting player, but I will be careful with his assessment. He's a good football player, I guess there's no need to argue on this one and you can be only better than players you actually play with or against, but I think he'll need time to adapt and world class rating (I already saw that on the internet) is something he really needs to deserve in the future and it is too soon to even think about him as a world class. He is the most expensice transfer after Jooa Felix so he will need to work really hard to fullfill expectations which comes with the prize tag like this one (hello Pogba, Maguire, AWB and so on). Weird thing is that no one else was interested in him (no, Barcelona was not intersted for sure, Medes played us and I am glad he did), not even two years ago, when he tried to terminate his contract with Sporting after that attack from fans. And his cameo in Udinese and Sampdoria was nothing to talk about.
Anyway, I'm really happy that he is here, because he simply cannot be worse than Lingard is, but he will need a big amount of time for adaptation and he needs to do a big step to be considered as good as he was in Portugal while playing in Englad. I think his biggest impact this season might come in EL rather than in PL, because EL´s level is different and it could suit him perfectly.
And with god blessing, Poch will manage him from the start of the next season. :-)
