Tottenham Hotspur

Tottenham Hotspur

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Pedro Porro: Comparing his 2022/23 league stats to current Tottenham right-backs

Tottenham's Emerson Royal and Matt Doherty alongside Sporting's Pedro Porro. TEAMtalk montage.

Tottenham Hotspur are trying to sign Sporting Lisbon right wing-back Pedro Porro – but would he improve Antonio Conte’s squad? We’ve had a look at his stats to find out.

Porro has already had one move to a Premier League side as he joined Manchester City in 2019, although he never made a first-team appearance for Pep Guardiola’s side.

After loan spells at Real Valladolid and Sporting, the Spain international joined the latter on a permanent deal in the summer of 2022.

His impressive performances in Portugal have caught Antonio Conte’s attention while Real Madrid and Chelsea have also been linked with the full-back.

Spurs’ initial offer of £32.5m (€37m) plus add-ons has been rebuffed by the Portuguese giants, who want the £39.6m (€45m) release clause to be triggered before letting him leave.

But Fabrizio Romano claims that Spurs are still confident they will be able to sign Porro before the January transfer window closes.

While Sporting are hoping they can still use Porro in the Portuguese League Cup final against Porto, that looks set to be his final appearance for the club.

Using data from WhoScored, we’ve taken a look at Porro’s Primeira Liga stats from the current campaign to see how he compares with Matt Doherty, Emerson Royal and Djed Spence.

Note: Spence is yet to start a Premier League game for Spurs so we’ve used his Championship stats from his loan spell at Nottingham Forest in 2021/22.

Goals and assists

Providing a goal threat is always a useful bonus for a right-back and Porro has been incredibly effective in the final third for Sporting Lisbon.

The 23-year-old has registered two goals and six assists in the Primeira Liga in 2022/23, averaging a direct goal contribution every 134.6 minutes.

In comparison, Doherty is yet to register an assist during 667 minutes of top-flight action this season but did find the back of the net in Spurs’ 4-0 win over Crystal Palace.

Emerson has one goal and one assist to his name and is currently averaging a direct goal contribution every 547 minutes. 

Spence chipped in with two goals and four assists for Forest in the Championship last season so his minutes per goal involvement ratio was 618.6 minutes.

Shots, dribbles, and fouls won

Porro loves to get into the opposing team’s penalty area and is currently averaging 3.0 shots per 90 minutes in the Portuguese top-flight.

Spurs’ right-backs have been slightly more hesitant in front of goal with Doherty averaging 1.3 shots per 90 minutes and Emerson averaging 1.0 in the Premier League.

Despite scoring two goals for Forest in the Championship during the 2021/22 season, Spence only averaged 0.6 shots per 90 minutes.

But Spence leads the way when it comes to dribbling after completing 1.8 successful dribbles per 90 minutes at a success rate of 43.9%. Porro follows closely behind with 1.3 successful dribbles per 90 minutes at a completion rate of 36.1%.

Emerson and Doherty are both averaging 0.7 successful dribbles per 90 minutes, although the Brazil international has a success rate of 50% while Doherty’s completion rate is 43.7%.

Porro wins a lot of free-kicks for Sporting Lisbon and he comes out on top for fouls drawn (2.0 per 90 minutes). That puts him ahead of Emerson (1.5), Spence (1.4) and Doherty (0.5).

Passing

Porro has also been the most creative right-back out of the quartet, averaging 2.8 key passes per 90 minutes in the Primeira Liga in 2022/23.

Spence comes second in this regard as he created 1.1 chances per 90 minutes last season, which is more than what Doherty (0.8) and Emerson (0.4) are currently averaging.

Doherty comes out on top for passing accuracy with a pass success rate of 82.4%, which is marginally higher than Emerson’s 82.4%.

Spence’s pass success rate of 76.1% puts him ahead of Porro (74.9%), although the Sporting Lisbon right-back is renowned for making a lot of ambitious forward passes.

Tottenham’s strikers would probably welcome the arrival of Porro, who loves to get the ball into the box and has been averaging 1.8 crosses per league game this season.

In comparison, Spence made 0.5 crosses per league game last season while Doherty is currently making 0.4 crosses per game and Emerson is on 0.3.

Djed Spence and Matt Doherty

Defensive contributions

While Antonio Conte likes his wing-backs to get forward and support the attacking players, he still needs them to be solid defensively.

Porro has been making 1.6 tackles per 90 minutes this season but Doherty (2.2) and Emerson (2.6) are posting higher averages. He’s then followed by Spence, who made 1.5 tackles per 90 minutes in the Championship last season.

Emerson also comes out on top for clearances per 90 minutes. His total of 2.9 betters Doherty’s 1.8, Spence’s 1.4 and Porro’s 1.1.

In terms of interceptions, Spence leads the way with 1.6 per 90 minutes. Doherty is second with 1.1 and he’s then followed by Emerson (0.8) and Porro (0.7).

READ MORE: Six top transfer targets for Tottenham manager Antonio Conte in the January transfer window