Neither is Neves from what I have read, that is why I was comparing them
Joao Neves
- Thread starter Zoo
- Start date
Such an interesting prospect, great engine, great technique. But he is such a young boy and is not physically mature at all atm. Just gets brushed aside and in the positions he takes up, losing duels could be pretty dangerous
Is there any point buying from Benfica - the price will be extortionate.
Only seen him with the Portugal u21s where he played a different role but for Benfica it seems like he’s playing like a DPL.
He’s got a decent to good amount of defensive actions p90, but he can’t be a single pivot in the premier league. With his stature he’d get slaughtered.
I could see how someone like him could compliment and be beneficial to us, but then we’ve already got Mainoo and Gore as prospects for that role.
I’d love a consistent, progressive passer in our midfield but at this point if we’re going to bring someone in from outside I’d look for someone experienced.
Techno midget that can run all day, everything our midfield lacks. Will be a fantastic player in the future and is already very good considering his age.
It's more the one where it's already in your basket but you keep dithering, and when you're ready to pay you find that the price has gone up.
I've only really seen him at whichever international youth tournament he featured in last summer and he really stood out and although he seemed slight, just looking at his aerial duels win rate on fbref and it's in the 71% percentile which isn't bad at all. His succesful tackling rates are really high too.
I didn't think the looked slight for his age, considering they had Dantas in their team, who is an absolute rake. I don't see him being any less physical than someone like Enzo Fernandez in the future.
Looks a good technical ball retainer who is happy to put their foot in and try to win the ball. He's 174 cm which is the same size as Antony as the smallest of our players, 1cm smaller than Mainoo who is also a similarish player with more phsyicality. I'm sure they could play together anyway
Took his goal well today
Seems like a perfect fit for our team than.
Don't we need a DM first and foremost? It looks like this kid was playing alongside Florentino Luis, an out and out single pivot type of player.
We need someone who could eventually take the reigns from Casemiro, not another 8. This kid may be talented, but if the last 10 years has taught us anything, it's that squad building is important. Our 8 options aren't great, but we do already have Mount, Erikson, and McTom.
I'd actually rather take Luis
We need someone who could eventually take the reigns from Casemiro, not another 8. This kid may be talented, but if the last 10 years has taught us anything, it's that squad building is important. Our 8 options aren't great, but we do already have Mount, Erikson, and McTom.
I'd actually rather take Luis
That Sporting's striker looks deadly.
12 goals and 4 assists in 14 games for him this season. 25 y.o.
So Sporting just bought Viktor Gyökeres last summer for 20m euro from Coventry. Hmm..
Last edited:
We need both. We need a defensive midfielder to replace Casemiro, and we need an actual no.8. A proper central midfielder. Fernandes, Mount, Eriksen, and McTominay may between them embody various traits but none of them are actually central midfielders and do their best work further up the field.
Agreed, but one is much higher priority than the other. A solid, single pivot DM would give ETH some flexibility in how he builds his midfield. Bruno and Mount, or Bruno and Erikson could work with the proper cover behind them.
Once that's solved, I would prioritise a CB and RW over another CM. Especially with how young and expensive this lad will be. Plus, Mainoo could fill this role if he kicks on.
This kid ran the show last night. He was superb stood out a mile. The other player of note last night was Diomande who’s the big CH for Sporting he was a rock at the back. Both players are young and would walk into our team and instantly improve. Neves will be a star Hes that good for once the hype is real. Luis is good at breaking up play but his passing was terrible. The Sporting Striker took his goal well to be fair but Neves stole the show. Diomande really impressed too in an area of need For us.
joao too short , only 1,74 meter , he can duel against rodri or john stones
daniel boloca form sassuolo is better
daniel boloca form sassuolo is better
I doubt we can afford Joao. But at his age he is a brilliant prospect. He would fit into the prem league no problem. He’s best staying where he is for the next couple of years and learn his trade. He has a Pep signing written all over him for sure as he makes so much sense.
Not heard of Boloca but from some YT highlights of his performance against Inter he looks tidy.
Unless there is a release clause in his contract I don’t see him going anywhere this season or next. Benfica know what they are doing with these kids and they’ll keep him until he’s a €100m player and cash in. They certainly won’t be cashing in this summer for €50m unless there is a clause, and if they were willing to let him go for that it would make me slightly concerned that they don’t rate him.
Looks a player though.
he was similiar like frenkie de jong but with more height and physicality
Reminds me of Ander Herrera from his YouTube clips. Good technically but not super elite in the Bernado Silva mode.
Watching a replay of the Benfica-Sporting game.
Can tell you this, Joao Neves is the type of player you really fall in love with and it wouldn’t surprise me if he was ETHs top pick of all non-mega stars out there.
Short, like 5’8, too big shorts, shirt tucked in, tree trunk legs, low center of gravity. He got deceptive speed. Really good technique and passing foot.
In this game he plays like a deep CDM, no doubt about that. He wins a lot of battles for the ball and is very effective playing a high defense due to his deceptive speed, someone wins a ball, looks up and see someone coming at him from afar, takes another touch and before he knows what have happened, Neves has poked the ball away.
He is a very physical player who get involved in a ton of battles. It’s like with Kanté, sure he is short, but he is like a magnet on the ball and players just tumbles over him left and right.
On the ball, he is very fluid. He often just floats away from pressure. He also got a superb passing foot, delivers perfect long range passes and crosses.Takes corners from the left for Benfica. A little Enzo/Felix vibe when he pass the ball.
Completely fearless. Plays on a team with Otamendi, Di Maria and many others good experienced players. But in added time when they were chasing a Sporting in the lead but with only 10 men, it’s often him they leave the build up to.
He isn’t as methodical/structural as say a Nigel de Jong in how he builds up the play. But he only just turned 19 y/o.
I am immensely impressed with him. Hard to see why he should be in a hurry to leave Benfica — but I would definitely not have anything against it if we paid Enzo type of money for this kid in January. Imagine a midfield with this kid and Mainoo in a few years…
Another positive is that Barca and Real probably aren’t in for paying big money to Benfica for a CDM. Neither is Chelsea. City has moved a bit in a different direction. Could be our chance to get a really special talent.
Lastly, just a caveat, this is just based on seeing him a little in the CL and then this game in Primiera Liga. Could of course have missed aspects that would have been apparent if I had seen more of him.
Can tell you this, Joao Neves is the type of player you really fall in love with and it wouldn’t surprise me if he was ETHs top pick of all non-mega stars out there.
Short, like 5’8, too big shorts, shirt tucked in, tree trunk legs, low center of gravity. He got deceptive speed. Really good technique and passing foot.
In this game he plays like a deep CDM, no doubt about that. He wins a lot of battles for the ball and is very effective playing a high defense due to his deceptive speed, someone wins a ball, looks up and see someone coming at him from afar, takes another touch and before he knows what have happened, Neves has poked the ball away.
He is a very physical player who get involved in a ton of battles. It’s like with Kanté, sure he is short, but he is like a magnet on the ball and players just tumbles over him left and right.
On the ball, he is very fluid. He often just floats away from pressure. He also got a superb passing foot, delivers perfect long range passes and crosses.Takes corners from the left for Benfica. A little Enzo/Felix vibe when he pass the ball.
Completely fearless. Plays on a team with Otamendi, Di Maria and many others good experienced players. But in added time when they were chasing a Sporting in the lead but with only 10 men, it’s often him they leave the build up to.
He isn’t as methodical/structural as say a Nigel de Jong in how he builds up the play. But he only just turned 19 y/o.
I am immensely impressed with him. Hard to see why he should be in a hurry to leave Benfica — but I would definitely not have anything against it if we paid Enzo type of money for this kid in January. Imagine a midfield with this kid and Mainoo in a few years…
Another positive is that Barca and Real probably aren’t in for paying big money to Benfica for a CDM. Neither is Chelsea. City has moved a bit in a different direction. Could be our chance to get a really special talent.
Lastly, just a caveat, this is just based on seeing him a little in the CL and then this game in Primiera Liga. Could of course have missed aspects that would have been apparent if I had seen more of him.
Granted I don't know much about him, but is he actually a Defensive Midfielder? I thought he played more further forward than that. Nowhere I can see seems to classify him as a CDM, which they usually do when you play that position specifically, more just Midfielder.
Gyokeres is an INSANE prospect. I’m a Porto fan and I can tell you that we’ve never had a striker with his size, speed and scoring ability growing up in our league.
Neves is pretty good. I’m not ready to fawn over him yet. And 174cm seems super generous
That’s high praise indeed, even more than Falcao? Gyokeres is 25, that’s more like a player entering his peak than a prospect to me.
no one hopes up players quite like Portuguese fans
I didn't know about or watched the guy, but just a quick google showed he's 25 and hasn't played for a Portuguese club before this, so the claim that he's 'growing up' in the league seems very odd. Anyhow, besides Falcao, the list of centre forwards coming from the Portuguese league is rather underwhelming, Nunez and Goncalo Ramos may change that in the future but you are talking Liedson, Cardozo and Jardel as players from the last 20 years who feature in their all time top scorers list.
The league seems more successful with developing attacking midfielders and wide forwards if anything, CR, Nani, Bruno, Bilva, Quaresma, Rafael Leao.
So he will go to replace Phillips at City than. Or Liverpool or Arsenal as Partey replacement.
Sure you were thinking of Nigel..?
He did perfected the method of kicking people out of matches with impunity.
True!
Played for Brighton before that, too. Highly rated.
Falcao was a monster inside the box and terrific finisher, but Gyokeres has that Haaland / Hojlund build with ability to beat players in a foot race.
Hulk was even more explosive but shorter.
And you are right when you say we didn’t have many outstanding strikers with that physical profile in our league. Cristiano was a winger for Sporting
Herrera was actually mostly deployed an the most attacking midfielder at Bilbao, and actually played as left winger a good number of games too. Dunno how he ended-up becoming a center midfielder. Sometimes a player's career takes mysterious paths.
A midfield of Odegaard, Neves, Rice would be fecking ace on paper. Liverpool would probably prefer a more physical defensive midfielder to partner with Macallister and Szoboszlai.
As talented as Neves is I still think we’d be reaching by going after another 19 year old midfielder, even though he really ticks alot of boxes for us.
I’d prefer us to save the money and invest our time and efforts on Mainoo and Gore instead, they might not be quite as talented but they won’t cost us 70m either.
I hope we focus on focus on bringing in a proper DM who can protect them. If there was a next Rodri/Tchouameni out there I’d make that the priority for the coming windows.